Amity park repair costs to be borne by taxpayers 03/20/2006 The runoff problem at Amity Community Park will cost the township about $200,000, and many consider it money down the drain. The park sustained water damage last fall due to design flaws, according to township officials. Unfortunately, the township will not be able to recover damages from the contractor who designed the park because he’s in federal prison. Vitillo Corp. was the design engineer for the park and the adjacent Daniel Boone Middle School. Company owner John Vitillo, a resident of Amity, is serving three years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of theft and conspiracy charges involving a scheme to steal from a program receiving federal funds. Vitillo signed a contract in 1998 with the Reading Regional Airport Authority that made Vitillo Engineering the construction manager of the airport’s expansion project. Vitillo was charged with conspiring to falsify invoices and billing records submitted to the airport authority to inflate the number of hours worked on the expansion project. He was sentenced last September to five years probation and ordered to pay $317,760 in restitution to the federal government. The runoff problems at Amity are not the first to occur at a Vitello municipal project. In 1999, Vitillo was hired to excavate the baseball fields at Exeter’s 35-acre Pineland Park. The baseball fields were unusable until 2002 because of "serious drainage problems." Exeter regraded and repaired the fields. The current supervisors in Amity were not in office at the time Vitillo was hired, but they bear the brunt of handling the expense for repairs. The former supervisors bear the blame. There is no excuse for a township to hire a design firm when a neighboring township has had problems with drainage at a park and complaints about the grading and work done there. The board apparently did not do its homework. Now, the showpiece township park built as part of a complex that includes the new Daniel Boone Middle School is damaged before it even officially opens. Someone will have to pay. Unfortunately, it won’t be those who are responsible for the damage. ©The Mercury 2006 --------------------------------------------------------- Repairs at new park to cost $200,000 Sharon Spohn, sspohn@pottsmerc.com03/16/2006 AMITY --Design flaws at Amity Community Park will cost the township about $200,000 for repairs that officials hope to have finished before the official opening in May. A 350-foot-long bank adjacent to the tennis courts will have to be regraded and the slope has to be changed, which will require 2,200 cubic yards of fill. In addition, a drainage pipe that runs under Route 662 may have to be replaced with a larger pipe to handle stormwater runoff. "If we hadn’t had 12 inches of rain, we might still have a bank over there," Township Manager Charles Lyon said. An October rainstorm caused the bank to wash out. As a result, the township received a notice of violation from the Berks County Conservancy because the slope was too steep. Lyon said the total cost of the park is still expected to be close to the estimated $3 million. The 44-acre park is being funded through a state grant of $160,000 and recreation fees that developers must pay. "The entire park is being funded by developer fees," Lyon said. Once the work starts on the bank, regrading it will take approximately two weeks. "As soon as that’s finished, we can get right in there and finish those tennis courts," Lyon said. The tennis courts will be resurfaced since water from the storm washed underneath the macadam. The township learned there were design flaws after some areas of the park didn’t drain properly. Vitillo Corp. was the design engineer for the park and the adjacent Daniel Boone Middle School. Amity resident John Vitillo, owner of Vitillo Corp., is serving three years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of theft and conspiracy charges involving a scheme to steal from a program receiving federal funds. Vitillo signed a contract in 1998 with the Reading Regional Airport Authority that made Vitillo Engineering the construction manager of the airport’s expansion project. Vitillo was charged with conspiring to falsify invoices and billing records submitted to the airport authority to inflate the number of hours worked on the expansion project. He was sentenced last September to five years probation and ordered to pay $317,760 in restitution to the federal government. In 1999, Vitillo was hired to excavate the baseball fields at Exeter’s 35-acre Pineland Park. The baseball fields were unusable until 2002 because of "serious drainage problems." Exeter regraded and repaired the fields. Amity Supervisor Kim McGrath said the township has no recourse against Vitillo and will have to fix the drainage problems. "If it was designed poorly, you can’t go back to the contractor, you have to go back to the person who designed it," McGrath said. She said Vitillo inspected the work on the bank and said it was within the degree needed for the slope. It wasn’t. Supervisor Richard Gokey said the problem goes right back to the initial design of the park. "I’m disappointed in some of these issues," Gokey said. "I think the park could have been redesigned from the start, and we could have eliminated the problems." Lyon and the current Board of Supervisors were not in office when the decision was made to hire Vitillo to design the park. Two other areas of concern for drainage are the entrance of the middle school, where water lays when it rains, and a natural spring that was located under the children’s playground and produces water that comes out onto the parking lot. Originally, the park was going to be completed in six phases. The board later decided to complete it in one because the school district was completing its land development plan for the middle school at the same time and was using the same firm. After the October storm, the township hired Arrow Engineering to review the design of the park to check for any other drainage issues, which is currently being done. The township plans to hold the grand opening ceremony for Amity Community Park at 2 p.m. May 7.