An article “Brickyard cleanup complete. DEP will explain process and take comments at meeting Tuesday evening” states “Franklin & Marshall College is paying to have the work done so it can use the current rail yard property to expand its campus.”
Since this was clearly incorrect based on previous articles, NewsLanc reached out to CAARRT attorney Bill Cluck for an explanation of how much of the funding is actually coming from the tax payers.
According to Cluck:
“That article is incorrect. Once again, LNP misreports the facts to its readers and does a disservice to the community.
“F&M, or should I say, its conduit, EDC Finance, received $1.5M from DEP in a Growing Greener II grant for the remediation of the site. LCSWMA received reportedly $3M in tipping fees to accept its own waste from the site.
“The total project, according to F&M is $46M of which F&M contributed $6M, LGH $6M, and Norfolk Southern $2M. However, they have never broken down the cost of the cleanup and which source of funds paid for it.
“The pending $10M from Rendell is supposed to be a reimbursement grant. F&M attempted to get reimbursed for the $3M in LCSWMA tipping fees only to be rejected by Rendell’s Office of Budget. So, F&M is counting those tipping fees as the local match for the state funding
“I know this is confusing, that’s what F&M wants you to think.”
It is difficult for NewsLanc to tell whether such an inaccuracy by the Intelligencer Journal New Era was simply sloppiness on the part of the reporter and editor or a purposeful slant… or perhaps a bit of both? The four Lancaster oligarchs – F&M, High Group, LGH and the LNP hang together…or they should! (Just kidding.)
