NE School Board Agrees to Amend Heard Park Restrictive Covenant at Borough Request

Monday’s special meeting of the North East School Board was, by far, the most interesting in recent memory. The discussion was spirited, sometimes contentious, but definitely informative. The topic centered around an amendment requested by North East Borough to a restrictive covenant on the borough property that makes up Heard Park.

The covenant was originally put in place in the year 2000 as part of the sale of the property from the school district to the borough. The covenant prohibited the sale of alcohol on the property and was requested at that time by the Hirtzel Foundation. The parties to the covenant were the foundation, the borough and the school district.

The change requested by the borough is brief:

… the sale, dispensing or consumption of alcoholic beverages at the Premises shall be and hereby is prohibited except at special events for which the Borough of North East has issued a permit

Several members of the school board took strong exception to opening Heard Park to the sale of alcohol, however, as noted above, this is not permission to do so at any time, but only at special events and when the event organizers have requested and obtained a permit from the borough to do so. Anyone buying or consuming alcohol would need to be at least 21 years of age. All of the normal restrictions would still be in place and enforced.

The alternative of Gravel Pit Park was suggested for these events, but it was explained at length how the presence of events such as WineFest brings many visitors to the downtown area, promoting much walk in store traffic and exposes visitors to other attractions and amenities our town offers which may bring them back for further exploration. Having the event at Gravel Pit Park also adds to the expenses involved for transportation and security plus the many more volunteers required to run the event.

The question was raised about why the school board was even involved in this amendment process since they no longer owned the property and it is because they were one of the parties to the original covenant which requires all parties be in agreement for it to be amended.

At the request of the Foundation, the parties have agreed to amend the Covenants to remove the Foundation from and to add the Borough to the enforcement provisions of the Covenants.

With the foundation removed, the original covenant has been changed and going forward, the school district will no longer be involved in decisions about Heard Park, which makes sense because the borough owns and is responsible for and liable for those decisions.

In the end, the vote was 5-4 in favor of the amendment.

North-East-Borough-Ordinance-933-Heard-Park
Amendment of Restrictive Covenant