By Richard L. Gaw

Staff Writer

The New Garden Township Supervisors gave their approval at their July 18 meeting to have the township pay for the materials needed to make repairs on a widening sinkhole that has closed a portion of Buttonwood Road in the Somerset Lake development.

The township will spend $19,900 for the purchase of two 6-foot by 16-foot steel plates – each one-and-a-half inches thick -- that will be placed over the sinkhole and then paved over with asphalt, at a cost of $3,700.

The Somerset Lake Service Corporation will agree to pay for the purchase of flowable fill that will be used to fill in the sinkhole. Somerset Lake resident Don McConathy, who gave a presentation about the sinkhole at the board’s July 5 meeting, said that he has received a cost estimate from a contractor, and recommended that the township conduct an inspection of the project.

The repair of the sinkhole will serve as a temporary solution only, in order to re-open the area between Lake Shore Lane and North Shore Lane. The Corporation has sent three engineering concepts to the Department of Environmental Protection for review that would provide long-term stability of the road and the nearby basin.

The projected re-opening of the area is subject to the arrival of materials and contracting schedules.

In other township news, Lieutenant Jason Ward of the Southern Chester County Regional Police Department said that the department will host National Night Out activities in Avondale and the West Grove Borough on Aug. 2 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Avondale event will take place near Earl’s Sub Shop and the West Grove event will take place at 117 Rosehill Avenue.

In a training and preventive response to school shootings that continue to occur around the country, Ward said that the department is planning active threat response training for its officers in partnership with the Kennett Consolidated School District. It is a scenario-based training that utilizes a school building and trains officers to respond appropriately to an active shooter, using volunteer “actors” who portray victims and shooters.

“It gives the officer the idea that these are some of the things you might encounter when you get the terrible call that you have to find a mass shooter and neutralize the threat,” Ward said.

The department will soon advertise for its Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events, which will provide training to civilians on how to respond to an active shooter in a public setting such as a school, a church, a business or a shopping center.

Following an appeal by Mushroom Festival board member Randy Lieberman, the supervisors gave approval for the township to be a sponsor of this year’s festival in the amount of $2,500.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].