Newtown Borough Approves 6-Month Lease Extension On Police Station Property

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Newtown Borough will have the next six months to negotiate a new lease with the Newtown Fire Association for its police station at 22 Liberty Street or to pursue eminent domain proceedings against the property.

On Wednesday, the council unanimously to approve a six month lease extension for use of the property, which it has leased from the fire company for the past 25 years.

Under the terms of the lease, the borough will pay the NFA $3,200, which the borough solicitor said is within the borough’s value range for the property based on an appraisal done by the borough.

The borough’s current lease was set to expire on August 13.

The extension gives the borough the continued use of the property as the town’s police station through Feb. 14, 2026. It also gives the borough and the fire association more time to negotiate a longer term lease agreement.

Negotiations broke down between the borough and the fire association earlier this year when they were unable to work out a monthly rental fee.

After years of renting the property to the borough at a rate below market value, the fire association had asked to bring the lease payment in line with the current market.

The borough, however, said what the NFA was proposing was above the appraised market value of the property and it was unable to agree to the figure.

After negotiations broke down and with the end of the lease approaching, at its July meeting the borough council voted to pass a resolution to pursue eminent domain proceedings against the property over the strenuous objections of the fire company, which said it was only trying to bring the rental fee in line with the marketplace.

Councilor Julia Woldorf asked on Wednesday whether the resolution would remain in effect if talks again break down. “Can we come back to that,” she asked.

“The resolution remains in full force,” said solicitor Greg Heleniak. “It doesn’t obligate us to act. You don’t have to move to the next step of the eminent domain process. Should this get to the point where we are back in the same position we were a few weeks ago we can begin the process of acquiring the property.”

During Wednesday’s meeting, a Liberty Street resident asked if the borough would be doing anything differently, like changing its negotiation team as it reenters talks.

Council President Emily Heinz said the negotiating team would remain the same. Heinz, however, expressed optimism that actions being taken by the NFA, including hiring legal counsel, will assist with the negotiations.

In addition, Heleniak said the NFA will be conducting its own appraisal of the property “so when we meet, we can compare apples to apples and hopefully we can come to some sort of conclusion.”