Still Without a Chairman, Municipal Authority Discusses Township's Act 537 Plan

NEWTOWN SQUARE– held its first meeting without former Chairman Bob Jackson and with a newly appointed member Joseph Sweeney on Aug. 1.

Within a few days of each other, the to the Municipal Authority on June 27 and on June 29. That currently still leaves the board with two vacant seats.

Despite the new changes on the board, residents didn't skip a beat and demanded answers and direction from the remaining members Mark Caldwell and Jack Lear as well as newly appointed member Sweeney in regards to the Act 537 Plan and an update on the Florida Park and Echo Valley special studies.

Although he was please to have Sweeney on the board, Municipal Authority Solicitor Michael Sheridan addressed Jackson's resignation and the dedication and energy he had provided to push for the sewage planning modules to be completed.

"I just want to acknowledge Bob Jackson’s service to this board. He devoted a great deal of time and energy and thoughts and efforts, and so I think that needs to be acknowledged from any citizen in our township," shared Sheridan. "I know Bob supports the [Act] 537 Plan going forward and that he’s indicated to me that we could call him anytime for his thoughts or advice, and that he would make himself available. He will be missed."

According to Sheridan, Kevin Matson, Municipal Authority engineer, will be moving forward to assisting developer Claude de Botton in their sewage planning module. 

Patti Wilson, a resident of Echo Valley, asked what the current status of the Act 537 Plan was in which Mike Trio, township manager, responded that the latest draft of the 537 Plan was received that day before the meeting on Monday evening.

"It's the intent of the Board [of Supervisors] to move forward with that plan and do it in-house. We’re looking at it for a possible peer review. Because of all the discussions that have taken place over the past few years, it might be to our advantage to have a third-party set to take a look at it. We’re determining how to pay for that," updated Trio.

Trio gave a general timeline and said he hoped to get the peer review done within next 30 days. After that's completed, the plan would be available for public comment for another 30-45 days and then hopefully sent to DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), proposed Trio.

Wilson asked if this will mean the special study plans for Florida Park and Echo Valley would be abandoned during this process.

Trio responded, "I wouldn’t say they're being abandoned. I would say they're in suspended animation right now. They're not going to be moved on until what we know we're going to do with 537 plan, so we've been asked to put them on hold. We’re not going to withdraw them, we're not going to move them forward. They're going to stay where they are."

Sheridan said the Act 537 Plan going forward is "no different than the plan that Bob [Jackson] had proposed." The plan moving forward would hopefully be the final draft, said Sheridan. "This is it."

In addition, Sheridan said the the Central Delaware County Authority (CDCA) will be looking at the distributions of flow allocations for both Newtown and Upper Providence townships. Sheridan said the plan was approved by him and is currently waiting for approval from Upper Providence.

Lear, who holds the treasurer's hat on the Authority, also proposed an approval to conduct an annual forensics audit for 2010 on Monday evening which was unanimously approved.

Lear revealed the Authority has a bank loan out from TD Bank of $491,000 and $150,000 in engineering fees to Kelly & Close Engineers among other fees that they owe.

The next Municipal Authority meeting will be held on Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m.