The Cheltenham Township Board of Commissioners voted on Tuesday, October 6 to terminate the controversial Ground Lease Agreement between Cheltenham Township and Melrose Pool, LLC.

Commissioner Emily Cheramie Walz stated in a post that the decision to terminate was motivated by a delay in the project’s timeline due to ongoing litigation, which could take “another 12 to 18 months to resolve”.

“As Commissioners, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. That means we have to look at the circumstances in front of us and make decisions based on the reality we face today—not simply continue with an existing arrangement when the circumstances surrounding it have fundamentally changed,” Cheramie Walz wrote. “Terminating this ground lease does not mean we are walking away from Melrose or abandoning the vision for a new pool. It means we are stepping back from the current structure and looking for an alternative way to make that vision happen—one that can move forward on a more realistic and timely schedule and that protects the Township and its taxpayers.”

“The future of Conklin will be part of our upcoming budget discussions, and we will have to consider that decision alongside the Township’s other financial obligations and priorities,” the post concluded.

In April, the township announced its plans for a “brand new, state-of-the-art public pool at the Melrose Country Club redevelopment, which will ultimately replace Conklin Pool.” Discussions began to take off in July after the board signed a contract that committed the township to closing the existing Conklin Pool and building a new one at the Enclave at Melrose Park (formerly the Melrose Country Club) site at 7600 Tookany Creek Parkway. The contract committed the township to buying the pool for $4.5 million and was structured as a ground lease which does not require competitive public bidding.

Sam Thacker, a resident of Cheltenham Township, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, July 22, through the Montgomery County Civil Court system which argued that the contract violates the Separation Act and competitive bidding requirements for large projects. That evening, assistant township manager Alyson Elliot published a list of responses to Frequently Asked Questions regarding the project.

The township provided updated responses to Frequently Asked Questions in August. A week prior, the township and the developer released a legal memo in response to the lawsuit. Later that month, Thacker’s requests for preliminary injunction were denied by the Montgomery County Court of Common of Pleas.

Thacker responded in early September by launching a GoFundMe to cover legal fees and court filings pertaining to an ongoing dispute between residents and township officials.

He provided Glenside Local with the following statement regarding the contract’s termination:

I applaud the Cheltenham Commissioners’ decision this evening to terminate the illegal no-bid Melrose Pool contract. Hundreds of residents over the past few months have put a lot of time, energy, and hard-earned money into demanding accountability and transparency from our elected officials, and it’s a major victory to have stopped the no-bid deal.

They blamed legal delays for their decision, but the lawsuit was in no way delaying the project. There was no injunction in place. If they truly believed that the no-bid “ground lease” was legal, I have no doubt that they would have moved forward full-steam ahead. The only risk to the project was that a court would declare it illegal.

The Commissioners, in backing out of the illegal contract, reaffirmed their commitment to finding a way to build a new pool at Melrose. Why? The decision to close Conklin Pool was made out of public sight. In 2024, the Board adopted Hybrid Facilities Plan E, which involved rebuilding at Conklin. This plan was the product of a year of public deliberation and over $100k in taxpayer dollars to cover consultants’ costs. Why would we throw that plan in the trash, when it was clearly an expression of Township residents’ will? There is no way that rebuilding at Conklin should be out of consideration.

We reached out to the township for a statement on plans for a new way forward. We will update this article when a response is received.

Lastly, Cheltenham resident Ivan Zivanovic recently published a petition titled “Close Conklin Pool: Stop Spending $426,000 a Year on a Pool That Leaks Into the Ground”. It has 24 signatures at the time of this writing.

For more on the project, you can read Glenside Local’s previous coverage here.

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