The owner of the clubhouse in Penn Township’s Blackthorne Estates community made an effort to resolve a dispute with the Golf course owner, according to amended court documents.

An update to a lawsuit filed by the township in May indicates that the clubhouse owner, Jeannine Schemm, was “willing to allow the golf course to utilize the clubhouse without rent for the entirety of 2023.”

The golf course owner — Blackthorne resident and developer Bob Vucelich — “has never acknowledged or countered said offer,” states the lawsuit, which was updated on Aug. 22.

The clubhouse for the community’s unfinished 18-hole golf course — The Club at Blackthorne — has been closed to the community since November 2022.

The township filed the lawsuit against the clubhouse, golf course, Blackthorne Investors and Bedrock Developers after the township’s “attempts to mediate the matter failed,” the Lawsuit States.

The clubhouse — which was used to house a pro shop, restrooms and social gathering space for golfers — has been run as a “private event and wedding venue facility” since November 2022, the lawsuit states.

The township commissioners voted 4-1 against construction of a new golf operations facility in the Blackthorne Community on Aug. 16.

David Fuchs, lawyer for the owner of the Club at Blackthorne, said Schemm “has made tremendous efforts to attempt to solve (the dispute) with the golf course to no avail.”

“We’ve extended several different alternatives. Each one has been rejected without a counter,” Fuchs said. “At this point, we’re just stuck with a piece of litigation that the parties are going to have to figure out how to handle.”

Patrick Noonan, lawyer for the owner of the golf course, said via email “multiple efforts have been attempted by both sides to reach mutually acceptable terms,” but none have come to fruition.

“Any suggestion otherwise is simply inaccurate,” Noonan said.

“My client Bob Vucelich, a lifelong resident of Penn Township and now the Blackthorne community, has poured his heart, labor and resources into reviving this golf course,” Noonan said. “He has incurred great loss this season and the township, for inexplicable reasons, has elected to file suit against the golf course. The matter will have to be addressed by the courts.”