EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this post misstated the amount of an open space contribution by $1,000. The correct amount is reported below.
Add a residential subdivision on Hockle Road to the list of Limerick Township developments under investigation by the FBI.
What’s the 422 has obtained a clean copy of invoices submitted by special counsel Robert Welsh, Limerick’s attorney. A previous copy provided by the township under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law had portions blacked out.
North Pointe Church and the “Vento project” were topics of a teleconference between Welsh and Township Manager Dan Kerr, according to the invoice.
Federal agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service subpoenaed records from the Limerick and Skippack township buildings in April 2008.
Philip Vento and Patricia Stimeling-Dudas received approval from the Limerick Board of Supervisors in September 2007 for a three-lot subdivision at Mine Run and Hockle roads. A single-family home was built for Vento’s daughter – Shonna Schulz – at 42 Hockle Road, according to Vento.
The supervisors waived several requirements, including road widening, tree planting and other street improvements. Vento and Dudas contributed $500 to both the Limerick and Linfield volunteer fire companies, according to township records. The property owners also contributed $2,000 to Limerick’s open space fund.
Kerr declined to comment on why federal agents are interested in the Vento subdivision. He and several other township officials have acknowledged being interviewed by agents.
Reached for comment Sunday, Vento said he did not know what federal agents are looking for.
“I asked. They said it wouldn’t be in their best interest” (to reveal it),” Vento said. “We gave them what we knew.”
One fact confirmed by several sources close to the investigation is that former Supervisor David Kane is a focal point of the federal investigation. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is sealed under a court order. Kane was the only Limerick supervisor not copied on a memo when Limerick hired special counsel Robert Welsh to work on the federal investigation in July 2008.
“I never dealt with David Kane. If I walked into him, I wouldn’t recognize David Kane,” Vento said.
“Any money we put up was legitimate,” he continued.
Vento, a resident of Limerick, says John Anthony Contracting LLC built the home for his daughter. Mark Marino, chairman of the Skippack Board of Supervisors, was directly involved with the Hockle Road subdivision, according to Limerick land development records.
“I knew Mark for years … He was the orchestrator and got all these people together,” Vento said.
In 2002, Kane and Marino formed Kane Core Inc., a development company based in Skippack.
Marino, who has declined several recent requests for an interview, received a “small sum” in the end for his work, Vento said. A current phone number for Kane could not be located.
Marino has ties to at least two other developments of interest to the FBI, What’s the 422 has learned.
White Paws, a Skippack-based partnership, sold ground in Limerick to North Pointe Community Church, according to Limerick records. Church officials have proposed a new worship center on 13 acres at Game Farm and Metka roads. Marino lists White Paws as a source of income in his 2008 filings with the State Ethics Commission.
Additionally, Marino told a reporter in May that his role with an 18-lot subdivision next to Blessed Teresa Calcutta is “managing the job for approvals.”
Hirschorn Builders Inc., with a listed mailing address of Schwenksville, is the builder. However, both North Pointe and this subdivision have yet to break ground.
Unlike North Pointe, Blessed Teresa and Hirschorn, the Vento subdivision was not planned for public sewer and public water.
Vento’s biggest frustration is that the project at Hockle Road took two years.
“It was a frustrating time. It should not have taken two years,” he said.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Keep it up Hays.
You’ll get to it eventually.
Good work.
September 21st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
So many comments taken out of context only contribute to gossip. I have no clue who you are, Mr. Hays, but please get your facts complete and straight before publishing them. This is an insult to our integrity. I do not participate in gossip, and I resent gossip insinuated about my family. Thank you, Patricia Vento
September 21st, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Ms. Vento, with which portions of this article do you take issue? Mike Hays is an experienced reporter and I think he’s laid out the information here as best he can, given the information he has available.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Mr Powell,
As I said before, I do not take part in gossip sessions. Mr Hayes started the entire article on a slanted note regarding our subdivision. According to the FBI that spoke directly to me, at no time were we being “investigated”. There are no records in our possession where the Hockle Rd subdivision was required or even requested to do anything about “road widening, tree planting, or other street improvements!” You don’t think our acreage has enough trees? Have you ever driven by? As far as the “$500.00 contributions to both Limerick and Linfield Firehouses,” not that we had a problem with “contributing” to the fire companies in our area, but we were sent a bill by the Township STATING that we HAD to pay that amount as a first time situation to BOTH fire companies. We, Pat and Phil Vento, believing in open space, voluntarly, donated $200.00 to Limerick’s Open Space Fund, NOT $3,000! Now, for an experienced reporter I find this to be disgraceful. Nothing more than rock-throwing gossip column. I do believe Mr Hayes and this whatever it is entitled, “What’s the 422″, owe my family and I a formal apology and retraction of untrue statements. If each of us would look for the good in this world, it may become a better world. Sincerely, Patricia Shappell Dudas Vento
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Mrs. Vento,
This is Mike Hays. All of my source material is available at the township building for your review. Pennoni Associates recommended the road widening and other public improvements before the supervisors waived them. That’s part of the record.
Limerick’s attorney, Robert Welsh, who was hired to protect the township against the FBI investigation, requested information about your subdivision. That is not public record, but I obtained a copy of it. The bill states “Vento subdivision.”
I will verify the open space contribution amounts with Dan Kerr and immediately correct them if there was an error.
You are always welcome to submit a letter/article – for publication – that elaborates on your position with regards to this story and the events surrounding the subdivision. We would publish it in its entirety.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
As Mike Hays says, if you’d like to respond to this article, we’d be happy to publish a letter in its own post on the site.
I would add that the article does not claim, as you suggest, that you’re under investigation by the FBI. Nor does it express the opinion that the property doesn’t have enough trees.
According to Mike, the contributions figures were obtained from township records. Mike is verifying that information in response to your concerns. If it turns out that they were incorrect, we’ll be glad to publish a correction to that effect.