Meeting Room

The wooden stairway in the West Conshohocken Borough Hall leads to a dark basement where the first sign of the Police Department is a small wooden bench with handcuffs. Inside Chief Joseph Clayborne's office, the uniforms are kept and records stored. In the back of the headquarters is an old vault, another piece of hard evidence that this building was not designed to suit the needs of a police department. Signs of crowding are visible throughout the former bank that has been the borough hall since 1936.

What do you get when you put more than 350 anxious Bensalem residents, council members and a controversial new township zoning map all together in a cramped meeting room? For awhile, it was "bedlam," as one resident put it. Scores of citizens rumbled around the map, pushing and shoving each other in an effort to catch a glimpse. But then, something atypical of Bensalem government gatherings happened Monday night: Most of the residents became calm when they were reassured by council vice president David Costello.

Buckingham Township this week will dedicate its new municipal building, a structure built of wood, stucco and stone, just like many Bucks County barns. "We wanted to reflect the rural look of Bucks County," said George Collie, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. "We also wanted durability and room for expansion in the next eight to 12 years. And we didn't want to kill the taxpayer with the cost of the new building," he said. Dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremonies are scheduled Saturday at the new $1.8 million building on Hughesian Drive.

Haverford Township's newest member of the Planning Commission stormed out of a work session this week and said that he was resigning his post. Before a Planning Commission session Wednesday night, the new member, Don Richter, had been quarreling with Charles Held. Held, the township code- enforcement officer, is the liaison between the Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners. Richter, who joined the commission in January, said in a telephone interview Thursday that he was angered because Held had ignored a question he asked him about why the commission was meeting in a back room instead of the usual public room.

If you subscribe to the feelings of Bill Swahl Sr., justice was served at Wednesday night's Eastern High School Hockey League (EHSHL) meeting at the Skatium in Havertown. A principal matter at the league's monthly meeting was to determine what would become of Monsignor Bonner's coach, Ted Dolan. Dolan, 27, came under league scrutiny for using suspended players during an end-of-season hockey tournament last March. A league rule states, "If a coach knowingly and willingly allows suspended players to participate in a game, he faces a mimimum suspension of 30 days to a maximum suspension of 360 days.

The plans were simple and so well-intentioned that Boys Club officials couldn't imagine why anyone would oppose them. So instead of consulting residents, Boys Club president Al Marcone said, he simply drew up the blueprints to build a clubhouse in the middle of Gillespie Park in Upper Darby. The sketches called for a 13- by 26-foot concrete block building complete with a snack area. "Evidently, they didn't do their homework," said Upper Darby Councilman Nick Micozzie.

They're back. Two years ago, officials of the William Jeanes Library on Joshua Road launched a campaign to raise $265,000 to repair the roof and install a new heating and air-conditioning system. Now library officials have started a new drive, this time to raise $350,000 for a 2,500-square-foot children's wing to be built on the back of the 24- year-old building. The need for space is compelling, said Diana V. Smartt, the library's director. There aren't enough tables, she said - just five for adults and five more for children.

The Chesilhurst Planning Board has given final approval to plans for the construction of a $300,000 community center in the borough. The six-member board voted unanimously Thursday to build the 6,052-square- foot center on a quarter acre adjacent to the Chesilhurst Elementary School at Sixth and Edwards Avenues. The center will house an all-purpose room/gym, a reading room with a variety of books, a meeting room, an office and an audio visual aid room and will be available for use by civic groups, senior citizens and other community groups.

Lisa Boucher, 12, had one question for the Board of Supervisors last night: Why did the township tear down the batting cage she and about 700 other girls from the Newtown Square Petticoat League have used for two years to practice their swing? "They took it down and didn't even ask first," Lisa said as she squeezed into the crowded meeting room. "It wasn't very fair. " Holding signs that read "Why us?" and "Please put our batting cage back," more than 250 residents joined Lisa to find out who gave permission for the cage to be torn down March 12. Speaking for the board last night, Chairwoman Sherry L. Smyth said, "We do not want to cast blame tonight.

When the Montgomery County commissioners last week were forced to reveal their plan to build themselves a new meeting room, they gave disgruntled department heads a long-desired chance to label them hypocrites. "What a joke!" Maryanne Rickenbach, the recorder of deeds, said of the plan. "We can't give people raises, but we can spend a million dollars on a new commissioners' room?" "They're setting a very bad example," said Prothonotary William E. Donnelly, "by asking (other)