The board of commissioners held their usual legislative meeting this week. The video is available online as is the agenda. The audio was unfortunately very poor, the mics didn’t seem to be working, but I tried to do my best to follow along.

Opening

The board approved the previous meeting minutes.

The board appointed Maureen Reilly as the vacancy board member. In the case of a board member leaving and the other six unable to agree on a replacement, the vacancy board member casts the deciding vote. This is very rare.

Lisa Jacobs was reappointed to the Shade Tree Commission.

I couldn’t understand the engineer’s report, but I caught a mention of the low volume road program.

Government Relations

The township is continuing discussions with PECO. There is still no start date for tree work, and there continue to be licensing or permitting issues it seems.

Parks and Open Space

There is a meeting scheduled for mid-February to discuss plans for a field in Gouley Park, discussions are still underway and options are being explored.

Finance & Administration

The usual bills were paid, including new benches at Smedley to support NPAA baseball and various truck-related equipment.

The board re-appointed its auditor to conduct the 2022 audit.

The board approved rental of a truck from Upper Providence for training (or testing?) purposes for commercial driving licenses.

Subject to solicitor review, the board approved a contract with Munilogic to provide GiS software used for property management.

The board approved selling a 2016 Charger and Cub Cadet Mower.

Public Safety

There was a brief discussion about electric cars for the police, but it doesn’t appear anyone in DelCo is using electric vehicles for this purpose yet (Swarthmore and Radnor have hybrids I think).

The township continues to collect feedback from residents about putting speed bumps on Vernon. So far the response seems positive.

The board approved the new stop signs at Bickmore/Scott and Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Madison.

The board discussed progress made on safety issues along Rose Valley Rd. The police have done a traffic study, and there is some speeding along W Rose Valley, the average speed was 37.9 mph and the road is heavily traveled. The board discussed installing cheaper, LED-lit, solar panel charged pedestrian signs to warn cars. This are significantly cheaper than the crossings in Swarthmore along Yale ($800 each vs. tens of thousands). Commissioner Knapp noted that Rose Valley borough also has safety issues along Rose Valley, so maybe the two municipalities could work together. The township also continues to communicate with Rep. Krueger about what PENNDOT could do.

Infrastructure and Public Works

The board passed the long discussed Public Right of Way Access for Utilities Ordinance designed to require more communication from utilities like PECO when working in the township.

The board approved sending out to bid the 2023 road resurfacing work. They got this out earlier than ever I think in hopes of getting lower prices for the work. There is a lot more work getting done this year with $1.1 million budgeted for – $475k of it from the loan the board took out and another $411k from Aqua to repair roads they dug up with the rest coming mostly from state and county sources. There was some discussion of roads that won’t get done because Aqua is planning to dig them up soon.

The board passed a motion to advertise for bids for the public works garage to replace the one that’s falling down.

Public works truck #7 needs repairs, but its being replaced later this year. Public works instead recommended fitting another existing truck with a salt box so it can be used in case of snow. This leaves the township down a truck until the new one arrives, but money spent repairing truck #7 would likely not be recovered when its sold and even if repaired, it would likely not be in service before the end of the snow season.

Commissioner Garson asked the township to post the list of roads in the resurfacing bid to the website for transparency. That list has been posted here already, so you can see if the roads around you are on the list. Parts of Maple and Pine in Garden City are both on this list.

Building and Zoning

The board passed the small wireless facilities design standards ordinance.

Manager Report

Christmas tree collection ends at the end of January.

The county’s first household hazardous waste event is in April in Sharon Hills, registration is required and registrations open 60 days before the event.

The township still has some tickets from the county for the DelCo River Rink. There is a limit of 5 per household and they can be used until Feb 26th.

The township is holding an e-waste and shredding event at Gouley Park on March 11th. Donations to Goodwill can also be dropped off.