Newtown Township Board of Supervisors' Meeting Update - April 22nd Meeting

The Newtown Township Board of Supervisors met for their regularly scheduled public meeting on April 22, 2013.  A number of the issues that I had posted previously about the Board of Supervisors April 8, 2013 meeting were on the agenda.  I am posting the list again with an explanation of the updates provided at the meeting.  For those items that did not make it back to the agenda, I have noted that also. In addition, I have added some new items to the list.  .

• The cats at the Newtown Square Grille Barn and the Barn itself.  Are the cats gone? What is the Barn's status?   Although this was not completely clear, it would seem from Mr. Trio’s management report that Casale(Newtown Grille) may or may not be operating.  However, he indicated that Casale was and has been cited and is accruing fines levied by the township.  What was unclear from this report is whether the township would be able to collect this or other outstanding tax and municipal authority bills owed by this property.  My take from Mr. Trio’s report is that the cats and the barn are still an issue and other than the citations, the township has not taken any action.

• The Walking Trail at Springhouse.  Why haven’t the Supervisors required the developer to finish this development?  There was to be a walking trail.  Like many other issues in this township, this seems to me to be selective enforcement.  Not a word was said about this issue. 

• The outstanding issues of hundreds of thousands of dollars that Kelly and Close Engineers have invoiced the township, but the township and/or the Municipal Authority have not paid.  They know that they have been invoiced, but are not mentioned as payables in either the Township Budget or Financial Statements. Why is that? This topic was on the agenda and was the subject of a long explanation by Chairman Catania.  He indicated that as Kelly and Close was ready to file a legal action against the township for these unpaid invoices, the township decided to enter into settlement discussions with Kelly and Close.  The end result is that the township determined to pay an additional $95,000 to Kelly and Close.  These invoices were for sewage facilities planning work that was ultimately not used.  This work, or better said waste of taxpayer money, was authorized by the Municipal Authority with the full knowledge of their actions by the Board of Supervisors..   This $95,000 was in addition to approximately $750,000 that was previously paid to Kelly and Close for various planning scenarios and useless design/engineering that were ultimately discarded. So, almost a million dollars of taxpayer money wasted.

 I commented to Mr. Catania that I held the Board of Supervisors responsible as they had been notified repeatedly about the spending and did nothing. When challenged by Mr. Catania, I offered to provide the emails that notified the Supervisors about this spending. He said that it would not be necessary to provide the emails.  I also hold the Municipal Authority responsible  since those members and the Municipal Authority’s solicitor, Mike Sheridan sat by as the previous Municipal Authority Chair authorized this work and said and did nothing. 

 • The left arrow for the Traffic Light at Terrazza and Rte. 252. The township could make that turn easier especially since the Gradyville Road Bridge is now not proposed to reopen until at least February 2014.  They have approval from PennDot for the turn arrow.  It was on the agenda.  Why hasn’t this traffic arrow been put in place?  This item was approved at the meeting at a cost to install of approximately $14,000.  Let’s hope it gets installed soon.  I’ll post when the arrow is operational.

• The Commercial/Residential (CR) zoning ordinance amendment.  The Supervisors authorized advertisement of the hearing for this issue.  That was about a month ago (now almost two months ago).  The public notice of the hearing has still not been advertised.  Why is that?  Not a word about this issue.  Not even another end of the meeting question by Mr. Partridge. 

• Supervisors asking the taxpayers to spend about $80,000 for their medical benefits.   Why is this still an issue?  Not a word and the taxpayers continue to pay.  Year-to-date expenditure as posted on the Newtown Township website for this item is $23,164.98.

 • Televising township meetings--why have Supervisors not made this a priority? Not a word.

• What is the status of the new ambulance collections services contract which was approved on January 28?  Apparently, as reported to Regi Siberski by Chairman Catania, the township has still not retained the new company.  Why is that?  No word at the Board of Supervisors meeting on this item.  But, Regi tracked down the information that the new contract will start on June 1, 2013.  Let’s hope the “slippage” that Mr. Trio referred to previously in the revenue collections for ambulance service are being monitored and dealt with currently. 

New additions to the list:

• Commenter Gary would like to know whether the township has a plan for bike lanes.  I would like to know if the township ever intends to put together a long term plan for open space and trails. 
• Township Roadmaster Sharretts gave a report of the road program and said it would be on the township website. The BOS also authorized advertising the streets that would be repaired in 2013.  This notice and list of streets has not yet been posted.

In addition to the above items, the Board of Supervisors voted to approve another hire in the Township Administration Building.  This would appear to be a new position—not a replacement or retirement.  Although the employee hired, Jean Furst, had been approved in June, 2012 to work temporarily for 60 days, she continued to work in the township building beyond that time even though there never seemed to be another approval of her hire. 

At the meeting, Jean was hired at a rate of $13.50 per hour.  Although it was stated that this position was in the budget, I can’t find that this was the case.  This position was also never advertised to other applicants.

If you have any other items, you would like to add to the list for the Board of Supervisors, just comment to this post.