Dec 11, 2012 3 min read

A public hearing regarding an amendment to Peters Township’s zoning ordinance regulating crematories as a conditional use in the light industrial district is set for Jan. 21.

“We have been over this in excruciating detail,” Councilman David Ball said of the crematory issue. He said he saw no purpose to “rehash this thing from the beginning” and proposed the hearing be limited to one hour. He encouraged only those with new information or new opinions to speak at the hearing.

Council reached a consensus that the meeting, which will start at 7:30 p.m., will end no later than 9 p.m. and that residents wishing to speak must register prior to the meeting.

The ordinance has been discussed for several months, and in October a capacity crowd attended a hearing on the amendment that would stipulate conditions for crematories in area zoned light industrial.

In other business, after hearing testimony from representatives of the township’s parks and recreation board and the school district’s cross country team, council decided to go with the parks and recreation board’s recommendation that no metal spikes be used on the artificial turf on Field 5 in Peterswood Park.

Barbara Wenn, president of the high school’s cross country boosters, said that not being allowed to use the 3/8-inch spikes that the team uses would be like having a football player play without a helmet. She brought a letter from the field’s manufacturer saying that using spikes would not void the warranty on the turf.

Wenn added that the field was billed as a multi-use field and it should be used for that purpose.

Parks and recreation board member Jeff Crummie said that in a meeting held with the board as well as council member James Berquist, the manufacturing representative in attendance said that using spikes on the field would shorten the life of the field, although it would not void the warranty. Crummie added that golf courses no longer allow metal spikes.

“No one ever said that cross country couldn’t use the field, but they have to abide by the rules,” Crummie said. He added that only the “elite” runners use spikes and that not all cross country team members use them.

Council President Robert Lewis said that the council was not put in place to make parks and recreation decisions, which is why the parks and recreation board was created.

Ball added that he would go with the parks and recreation board’s recommendation, but said, “I still have a hard time imagining what a 3/8-inch spike would do.”

“We have no intent to override the decision of the parks and recreation board” to ban metal spikes from the artificial turf field, Lewis said.