School is land shopping along the three-lane again

WESTFALL n With a 5-3 vote, the Delaware Valley School District Board of Education last Thursday began new negotiations to purchase property for new school construction in the Milford area. The tract of some 40 acres includes four acres of road frontage, right of ways and the larger 35-acre area set back from U.S. 6/209. The property is located opposite Altec-Lansing and behind the Honesdale Gas office. Neither the seller’s name nor an asking price was revealed in Long Range Planning Committee Chair Sue Casey’s introduction, but survey maps displayed the name “Biondo,” as the owner Ed Silverstone argued against a $4.8 million purchase. A prior offer on the Santos Farm was lost due to archaeological concerns. Casey said that the already completed survey work revealed no remains or artifacts. The bulk of the land, she said, is on a shelf, out of the river’s main flood path. Board members Deborah DuCharme, Bob Goldsack and Silverstone opposed the proposal. DuCharme said the board had failed to do “due diligence,” by not providing an alternative on the existing Westfall campus. Goldsack and Silverstone agreed. Silverstone said that the new board, which will be seated in four months, may not have the same consensus and that buying now would be speculating with taxpayer money in a weak real estate market. Casey rebutted DuCharme’s charge saying that a proposal for the existing campus was only to come into play if no other feasible alternative was found. “Many boards have said, ‘Why buy?’ and then been caught short. The scenario for 2022 is too crowded here with the best scenario, “ she said. Board member Pamela Lutfy said it would be “unconscionable” to put another child on the Westfall campus. The property would likely be the location for a new elementary school, replacing the oldest of the Westfall campus buildings. Delaware Valley Elementary School Principal Sonya Cole said adding a new school would be “absolutely terrible ... there are too many people. Where would you put the playground? There is no space left. “Our school is being held together with duct tape and plaster of paris. It’s time to catch up. You have a building that just doesn’t make it,” she concluded.