900-acre project revived

By TOM KANE

DAMASCUS, PA — The owner of Farmstead Village, a 900-acre development that was first planned 20 years ago, is reviving his plan and seeking investors.

Township resident Robert Wagner told township board members at their meeting on January 20 that he got the news from a Honesdale real estate agent.

Fred Frankel of Boca Raton, Florida, put in roads and laid out plots in an original plan that never materialized.

Board chairman Larry Newport directed township zoning officer Ed Lagarene to investigate in township and county records whether the roads and plots conform to the present zoning requirements of the township.

Dick Barrett, a Damascus entrepreneur, confirmed that Frankel was reviving his plan and that he will be working with Frankel as the project develops.

“My interest is in the development of a continuing education and conference center that will train workers and attract upscale business to the county and northeast Pennsylvania,” Barrett said.

“Any successful community must attract businesses to help lower the tax burden on its citizens and must educate its youth for jobs and thereby keep them from fleeing the area.”

There is financing and zoning involved, Barrett said. “Frankel intends to work with the township so the project conforms to its requirements.”

In other township business, a group of Damascus residents lead by Mary Rose Knothe, who is circulating a petition for Cellular One, gave copies of the petition to township supervisors and others at the township board meeting.

“By signing the petition, you aren’t automatically signing up with Cellular One,” Knothe said. “The company just wants to know how many people are interested before they agree to build a tower.”

Two years ago, Princeton Tower of Pennsylvania wanted to build a tower on township property but pulled out when it learned that the location of the tower fell in the Delaware River corridor. A township ordinance forbade building towers in the corridor.

Township supervisors said they were certain that there was a spot on the township property that did not fall within the corridor where a tower could be built.