Well over a hundred community members jammed into the Chestnut Hill Library’s Community Meeting Hall on Monday, Nov. 7 for an emergency meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association. They filled every chair, leaned against walls, sat on the floor, perched on stools, and even occupied a bench dragged in from the foyer. Former board members, current board members, past and present staff, and numerous people from the association’s general membership, old and young, were drawn to the meeting, called by three members of the board under Article IV of the CHCA bylaws, in response to the furor surrounding the Local after the resigning of its editor, associate editor, and the firing and resignations of several staff members.
Arlene Bennett, MD, a former CHCA board member, and Howard Coale, director of the Wissahickon East Project of East Mt. Airy, moderated the meeting. They set up a highly structured format intended, Coale said, to keep the meeting civil and productive, while engendering open discussion leading to the creation of a list of resolutions to be acted on in future meetings.
NOTE: These recommendations are unedited from those proposed at the meeting, or submitted soon after. If there are mistakes, or omissions, we apologize, but we have done the best we can with the time we've had -- 24 hours -- to compile and check these with the necessary parties.
by VIJAY S. KOTHARE Taxpayers of Springfield Township have begun asking questions about the township-owned Flourtown Country Club (FCC), whose existence was a mystery to many residents.
Who owns the club? Who is enjoying the benefits, residents or club members, derived from club’s profits? Why are the residents kept in the dark about the club’s revenue stream? Why was a survey conducted in 2002 with club members and not residents for a capital improvement campaign? Is the golf course the best use for the property? How does a golf course serve residents who are not golfers?
