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Cumberland County freeholders seek to cut cost of planned cemetery chapel
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HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP - Cumberland County freeholders hope to slice some dollars off a nearly $1 million price tag on a proposal to build a chapel at the county's veterans cemetery in Hopewell Township.
Freeholders plan to speak with stakeholders in the project, such as veterans groups who support it, before formally rejecting bids that have come in just under $1 million for the project.
Freeholder Director Lou Magazzu said Thursday that county officials want their input before revising plans for the chapel, for which bids came in pricier than expected. Freeholders tabled the vote to reject the bids at Thursday's meeting.
The plan for the chapel itself has drawn vocal support from local veterans organizations, who like the idea of having a building in which to gather when rain dampens funerals and other ceremonies at the veterans cemetery.
But it also has some people scratching their heads, wondering why the government is building a house of worship in a nation with reams of pages of constitutional law establishing the separation between church and state.
"Why are we building a chapel?" said Eileen Clark, an Upper Deerfield Township resident and wife and daughter of veterans who sells cemetery stones for a living. "We don't need a chapel. What we need are veterans services for the soldiers coming home from war."
Magazzu said the county has obtained legal advice indicating that constructing the chapel does not violate the separation of church and state tenet because the chapel would be nondenominational. When the cemetery was dedicated nearly 10 years ago, the ceremony included a priest, rabbi, imam and leaders of other religions, according to County Administrator Ken Mecouch.
"The veterans support this," Magazzu said, adding that the freeholder board does as well.
The plan first arose last year in a different form. At the time, KBA Architects of Millville was looking to develop adjacent land for housing and needed a land swap near the cemetery in order to make their plan work. As part of that land swap, the idea of building a chapel was floated, with architects Scott Burnley and John Torpey outlining the concept for freeholders during a public meeting in September 2008.
"The architects were going to build the chapel for the county and give it to us," said Jane Christy, a freeholder at the time and now an independent candidate for freeholder.
After county attorneys determined the land swap could not be done, county officials decided to move ahead with the idea of the county building it.
Like Christy, Republican freeholder candidate and Lawrence Township Mayor Tom Sheppard said he is not necessarily opposed to a chapel at the cemetery but at least wants the price tag to be lower.
"I don't know of many cemeteries with million-dollar chapels in it," Sheppard said.
Contact Daniel Walsh:
856-649-2074
Posted in Cumberland on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:30 pm
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