The board held its regular legislative meeting this week. The video is available on Youtube. See the infrastructure item for an action item. The board started by recognizing Eagle Scout Ben Crawford and presenting him with a certificate signed by the board. The board also passed a resolution appointing members to the Zoning Hearing Board and appointing an adhoc member to the Shade Tree Commission.

Public Safety

Residents have been contacted about changing Penn and Markham to one-way roads, the board is waiting for responses.

Parks and Open Space

The DCNR grant round for 2022 is open, with a 50% match for improvements to parks and open space. There was some discussion about possibly proposing the Leiper-Smedley extension through the first ward to connect up with other walking areas.

The Parks Commission is looking at playground options for the Gouley Park DCNR grant. Commissioner Cooper mentions a park in Haverford and discusses the possibility of asking community members and sponsors to contribute additional funds to expand the playground further.

The board passed a resolution accepting $148k acquired by Rep. Krueger for improvements to Hepford Park, possibly including a new playground, improved snack bar and new fencing.

The board approved a change order request for $2500 for the 1012 Glenn Rd. project – the project that just won’t end. The demolition contractor damaged a sewer line, through no fault of their own (the line was mismarked). The board discussed feedback to Rep. Scanlon’s office about how difficult it has been to work with FEMA for this grant.

Building and Zoning

The board will advertise a public hearing at its Feb 24th meeting for the marijuana sales zoning change, which would restrict marijuana sales only to industrially zoned areas.

The board is also proposing changes to the R5b zoning which currently does not allow townhouses despite many townhouses already existing in R5b zoned areas. The solicitor will draft a change to correct this oversight.

Finance and Administration

The board approved Bee Bergvall as its auditor for 2021.

The board approved transferring around $7k to the drug forfeiture fund to cover the costs of police accreditation this year. There was discussion about whether the township will be reimbursed once more drug forfeiture funds come in, but the issue wasn’t settled. The board seemed willing to cover the costs of accreditation but wanted to be able to budget for it rather than relying solely on drug forfeiture funding, which is unstable.

The board approved the usual bills.

Community Enhancement

DVRPC’s transportation alternative program is also coming up. After conversations with DVRPC, the Providence Rd. sidewalk would likely not qualify so the board discussed applying for the Furness Trail extension to connect up more of the township to Wallingford Train station through the park. There was discussion of existing grant funding the township has for this project that needs to be spend within 2 years, but is not sufficient to complete the project.

Public Works

The first round of road resurfacing to repair the worst streets and the ones Aqua dug up has gone out to bid. Near Garden City this includes Moore Rd. between Pennsylvania and Putnam, half of Atlanta Court and a section of Pine between Blakeley and Harvey. I’ve asked about including Beech between Media and Hastings, but it wasn’t clear from the document if that made the list or not.

Commissioner O’Connor continues to communicate with the condo associations along Putnam about proposed speed mitigation measures along that road.

Infrastructure

The board approved a bid for engineering work for the Providence sidewalk project between Rose Valley and Copples.

There was a lengthy discussion about approving the Delcora 537 plan for wastewater treatment. The board felt the information available to it was insufficient to make an informed decision but since the only alternative is for the township to manage its own wastewater, they have little choice but to approve the plan. However, Commissioners Cooper and Molloy felt that the board should submit a letter to the county expressing concerns about the unanswered questions. These questions fell in two areas – the first are issues concerning the quality of life in Chester. The project proposed by Delcora involves digging a tunnel through Chester, which will be disruptive. It also possibly involves burning more sludge at the incinerator, which would further worsen air quality in the area. The second questions, which a majority of the board don’t seem to currently support, are concerns that after county residents pay hundreds of millions for construction of this new wastewater system it will be transferred to Aqua as part of the Delcora sale currently stuck in court. If you have concerns about the sale of public assets to Aqua, contact your commissioner now and tell them to support Commissioners Cooper and Molloy.

Bids for the Rose Valley Rd. sidewalk project are due Feb 9th.

There was an overview of this week’s EAC meeting. Mention was made of a potential waste committee with the EAC providing supporting data and collecting practices from neighboring municipalities.

Manager Report

• The county continues to offer vaccination and testing opportunities on their website.
• Sen. Kane is holding a community health town hall from 6-8 pm on Feb 3rd. Register at https://bit.ly/community-health-town-hall
• Senior citizens can travel for free or reduced prices on SEPTA services, but need a new Septa key photo ID, the old cards are no longer valid (I’m told that old cards from ’20, ’21 or ’22 expiration dates will be good until their month of expiration in 2023). Rep. Krueger and Sen. Kane’s offices can help for those that need an ID.
• There is a township shredding and e-recycling event on Feb. 12th at Gouley Park. More information is available on the township’s website. There are fees for some items.
• Citizens Against Trash is holding another cleanup starting from under the blue route bridge at the Leiper-Smedley trail entrance on Avondale, assuming that weather allows and there isn’t snow everywhere.
• A newsletter and new township map will be available soon.