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Chatham wants representation in Route 41 roundabout debate

As Chatham residents await the announcement of the time and place for a new forum to discuss the future of Route 41, there is still some disagreement over whether the community is receiving sufficient input throughout the process.

Originally, a small group of residents including London Grove Township Historian Linda Saunders and Tax Collector Charlotte Nicotera asked for a separate Pennsylvania Department of Transportation forum for Chatham residents. Some believe the Township representative to the Route 41 Executive Committee, Supervisors' Chairman Tom Houghton, does not represent West residents of Chatham Village who desire a bypass.

Houghton is a member of Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment (SAVE), an advocacy group that has promoted roundabouts and two-lane roadways as better alternatives to solving Route 41 congestion and safety issues than traditional intersections and large four-lane bypasses. He said that he is compelled to advocate those positions that were supported by the majority of the Township based on voter mandates in the last two general elections.

"In a Township with a three-to-one Republican majority, two Democrats were elected by a 20 percent margin," said Houghton, referring to the 2001 election when he and Tim Nelson were added to the Board. "Less than half the people don't like our positions. The majority like the positions we take, and it showed in 2003," Houghton said referring to when Ed Bordas defeated Mark Forbes on a platform promoting SAVE's alternative for Route 41.

Houghton said he represents the people in Chatham village and has favored the village's entry into the national historic register, even though it could make the condemnation of land to build a roundabout more difficult and possibly increase the likelihood of a bypass.

London Grove Township's Board of Supervisors voted four to one to appoint Houghton as the representative to the Route 41 Executive Committee and selected Bordas as his alternate. Both reside in the southern end of the Township.

"I am vehemently opposed to bypasses, and we have a mandate to fight bypasses," said Houghton. "Unfortunately it upsets some people who live in Chatham.

"I envision sidewalks and smaller roundabouts. You cannot build your way out of congestion, just look at Exton and Media."

SAVE Director Dee Durham, who represents her agency on the executive committee, said the ratio of officials on either side of the roundabout issue is at least so-so.

"There are probably some other traffic designs that can be used to make it safer and slower intersection," said Durham. "The executive committee should be listening to the broader community.

"We [SAVE] don't think the other options would work as well to slow down traffic as a roundabout."

Interestingly, there may be some historic precedent for both a roundabout and a bypass on Route 41 and Chatham.

Portions of Route 41 extending from Cochranville to Chatham were realigned in the 1950s, when engineers rerouted the state route due to lack of space within the West Fallowfield Township village of Cochranville.

Charles Null, a 75-year-old Cochranville resident, helped construct the realigned road that moved 41 from the current Cochran Street to a two-lane road that cut right through a farm that was owned by his family.

He said he didn't consider that project a bypass by modern standards because it wasn't a four-lane highway and it wasn't divided. That road was created, he said, because the old route brought more traffic into the town than Cochran Street could handle.

According to maps of Chatham dating back to the 19th century, there was a raised-bed flower garden created near the five-point intersection of East London Grove Road and Routes 41 and 841.

The circular garden located at the triangle intersection was installed to replace an agriculture scale that was used to weigh grain and produce being transported along Gap-Newport Pike between 1874 and 1884.

"Yes, it was round in shape, but it was never used as a traffic circle or round-about – it was simply a decorative island," Saunders said. "And it was quite small."