Hatboro Hopes to Pave Wachovia Lot by Summer

Motorists who park in the municipal lot behind the former Wachovia Bank in Hatboro could have a smoother transit soon enough, officials said.

The Hatboro Borough Council during last week's meeting approved making a request of the Hatboro Borough Authority at its February meeting to fund the repaving of the 150-space lot.

If the Borough Authority - the entity tasked with overseeing the $5 million generated from the sale of the borough’s water company - is amenable, Councilman Bill Tompkins said work could begin in late spring and conclude by mid-summer.

Tompkins said the governing body did not determine a dollar amount for its request.

"Obviously it will depend on the bids and how much extra storm water improvement we end up doing," Tompkins said of the anticipated cost, which Borough Manager Fred Zollers estimated at $405,000.

Officials said previously that the repaving will coordinate with the $155,000 rebuiding of Bank Street. Timing would be based on "optimum sequencing for both," Tompkins said.

Also at Monday night's meeting, the council voted to return $400,000 that it had borrowed from the Authority for the 2009 purchase of the shuttered Wachovia Bank property on York Road and adjacent lot.

to Hatboro Federal Savings in late 2011. The borough maintained ownership of the lot.

Unlike the Authority's loan in 2009, Tompkins said if it opted to cover the repaving that money would not be repaid.

"That is what they normally do," he said."The repayment situation was unusual as the bank building itself was not what the borough was seeking but the owner at the time was unwilling to split the property."

Tompkins said curbing, storm water, lighting and landscaping work was done last year on the borough-owned lot. Since then, Aqua dug up a water main across part of it and down Bank Street, so the road was patched, according to Tompkins.