November 9th East Vincent BoS Meeting

Last night’s East Vincent Board of Supervisors monthly meeting was full of twists, turns and surprises.  Immediately, the audience noted Supervisor Christine McNeil’s absence, for which no reason was offered.

The evening proceeded as usual with the examination of financial information and department reports. Noteworthy was the issuing a 10-year service award to Officer Joe Gannon, and a meritorious service award to Officer Jim Bilotta for his diligence, heroism and actions in apprehending a serial burglar within East Vincent.  The criminal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison as a result of Officer Bilotta’s actions.

There is some concern that tax and other revenues may not achieve the budgeted numbers, but strong expense management and the delay of certain roadwork due to the abnormal weather will stave off a net shortfall.  These are critical issues that are to be addressed in the budget meetings for calendar 2012.

Proceedings continued normally with some housekeeping resolutions until a draft version of the Natural Features proposed ordinance was discussed by the Supervisors.  Outgoing Chairman John Funk described certain parts of that draft as being inappropriate for a landowner such as himself, who owns more than two acres of woodland.  Mr. Funk asked the audience if any seated were like him, possessing tracts of undeveloped forest, and only one in the audience owned such property.

Mr. Funk then went on to discuss the proposed rules for cutting down trees, among other new rules, and opined that no one should be able to tell him what trees he can and cannot cut down, nor the manner in which they are removed. His distaste for this proposed ordinance was evident by his talking to preferring oak trees to ash trees, encouraging the growth of the former and the eradication of the
latter.  Personally, I was struck by Mr. Funk’s rant, for he is now a NIMBY victim and doesn’t like it one bit.

Supervisor Mark Dunphy raised the prudent issue of enforcement, and the matter was tabled for future discussion.

The fifth agenda item was a resubmission by Pennhurst Acquisitions of its petition for a zoning change of the Pennhurst property.  This matter is complex and a focal point for me personally, and I will examine it in a separate blog.

Speaking to the Pennhurst zoning change, a representative from the Preservation Alliance of Philadelphia addressed the historic nature of the buildings on the Pennhurst grounds and asked the Board to not exclude the possibility of their repurposing for residential use with any final zoning change.  Mr. Funk noted he had no difficulty with that and indicated that the Planning Commission was also in agreement.  Mr. Dunphy raised his concern on not increasing the number of dwellings from our current plan.

The Township Manager, Ms. Mary Flagg, spoke to tax relief for the Camp Hill School, and the remaining agenda items were minor and the majority of public comment was centered on the Pennhurst petition.

One resident did raise the Northern Federation situation, asking for an update, and was advised by the Board that nothing of consequence has changed.  There was a review of the heated discussion from last month’s BoS meeting, and the resident asked for affirmation of the threat by Supervisor McNeil to sue the Township if it broke the 2009 contract it executed, which he received.

Lastly, the manhole problems at Pennhurst & Brown have been repaired, and the Barton Meadows sewage package plant repairs are proceeding without incident.