Forks Amphitheater Plan Gets Approval

Despite objections from several residents and two supervisors, a contract for work has been awarded for a proposed amphitheater in Forks Township.

Last night, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in favor of hiring New York-based Fourmen Construction Inc. to perform the work. The $251,794 amphitheater construction is set to go up next to the municipal building on Sullivan Trail.

Voting in favor of the proposal were Supervisors Lilly Gioia, David Billings and C. David Howell. Casting "no" votes were Supervisors Erik Chuss and Robert Egolf.

Although the amphitheater's design concepts had been tabled several weeks ago, the matter was put back on the agenda for last night’s meeting after Billings, Gioia and Howell approved a motion to revisit the matter at the July 21 board meeting. Bids for the construction were set to expire July 31 but had been extended until the end of this month. Chuss and Egolf were not present at that meeting.

Chuss and Egolf, at last night's meeting, expressed their disapproval of the amphitheater plans.

“I don’t know what’s changed since our last vote,” said Chuss. “My major concern is the lack of a recreation plan and this [the amphitheater] is going to take a big chunk out of the recreation fund.”

Last month supervisors approved a proposal from township Parks and Recreation Director Rachel Sulzbach to revise the department’s five-year plan. The new plan will run from 2012-2017.

“I don’t want to go to bed dreaming about if we’re ever going to have one [amphitheater],” Howell said. “I don’t think phase four of our community park [proposed at Newlins and Richmond roads] is anytime soon. I have a feeling that if we don’t build an amphitheater in our community park then it will just lay vacant.” 

Plans for a second amphitheater at the proposed 52-acre park are included in the park design concepts.

“Our amphitheater is not that much different that those amphitheaters being built in the Lehigh Valley,” said Howell.

But several residents who have attended supervisors meetings in opposition to the Kimmel-Bogrette design concept have referred to the design as an “amphi-tent,” saying the lack of covering and shape lends the concept to less than an actual amphitheater.

Former supervisor and resident Bonnie Nicholas presented a plan of her own at last night's meeting.

Her design is of a monolithic dome bandshell, a design done by a New York-based company that would cost between $138,000 and $142,000 to build. According to Nicholas, the design would be a fully covered structure that has a single-piece door that rolls open and is acoustically sound.

Under Nicholas' proposal, the township would only be responsible for constructing a concrete slab. But her proposal was never formally presented to the board.