School will not mix in bus garage issue

WESTFALL - Delaware Valley is not going to get involved in the business affairs of a school contractor. “Krise is a private contractor and they will run their business as they see fit,” District Board of Education President Sue Casey said last week. Casey was responding to Herb Myerson, a Pocono Water Forest resident, who addressed the board at their Feb. 16 meeting. Krise wants to locate an 80-bus garage in the area near the Dingman-Delaware complex on a tract adjoining the Water Forest. By failing to meet with neighbors to explain the project and threatening legal action to force planning commission approvals, Krise was “running roughshod” over the community, Myerson charged. “It’s time for the board to get involved,” he said. Myerson suggested that the district purchase one of several available properties near Interstate Highway 84 in areas where homes are not threatened. The land could be leased back to the bus company, he said. “This should be a district responsibility,” Myerson said. Casey said the district has attempted to help. “We’ve tried to locate them economically,” she said. That was not what Myerson wanted to hear. “And to hell with the people,” he fired back. “We’re talking about 80-some buses behind people’s homes.... How many more buses are there going to be in two years or ten years?” School attorney Michael Weinstein noted that Krise purchased existing parking facilities from a former contractor and that a new contract is coming up in 2009. “Krise may not get (the new contract). It’s their risk. We want to facilitate, but we can’t get involved,” he said. Delaware Township is the place where Myerson should complain, Board Member Frankie Colletta advised. “It’s up to the township whether they want a business in their town. We can’t overrule them.” Superintendent Candis Finan agreed. “It’s not in our control.” Myerson said township officials are “not planning. They’re just pushing it through. Would you want to be sued?” he asked. “You’re asking the wrong people,” Casey replied. “We have been sued.”