Watch the Jenkintown Borough Council Meeting, May 22, 2017

This month’s meeting includes some interesting public comment, and more arrogant, tone-deaf responses from our representatives.

Don’t miss hearing Rick Bunker’s fuzzy math as he falsely describes how the new park on Cedar Street will not result in a tax increase for residents. The only thing missing from his assertion was a “Ready my lips.” Sadly, he does not speak for the School District, which is vehemently against this park and will take the biggest hit from this folly.

Mr. Bunker’s claims omit the loss of tax revenue not just for the Borough for years to come, but the potential loss of revenue from a properly developed parcel. His part in this false narrative also omit upkeep, insurance, and more. Just the development of this parcel will cost ten percent of the current budget, or about $700,000.

Might we suggest to the Council that they launch a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for this park, and see its supporters bother to donate enough money to cover the ceremonial ground-breaking shovel.

Jenkintown Borough Council, Recorded April 24, 2017

We have annotated this video so that you may fast forward to agenda items if you wish. You may download the agenda in PDF format here.

Highlights from this meeting include:

  • A statement from Council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe expressing sentiments regarding civil discourse, the Council’s volunteerism, the ballooning cost of right-to-know-request filings, and a pledge to conduct business in the most open manner possible.
  • An auditor’s report that seemed to make everyone on the board very happy
  • An inserted public hearing to discuss zoning for a marijuana dispensary
  • An all-too-short discussion regarding the Borough’s big announcement posted on their website
  • And a hearty round of “attaboys” for Borough Manager George Locke.

Regarding the RFI, we can report that a developer has hounded the Borough for several years now to do something with their properties, and as yet, the Borough has made no decisions about anything. Consider this an exploratory move by Council to increase tax revenues and bring more people and therefore more commerce to downtown.

As far as where Borough offices might go, everything there remains open to suggestion as well.

 

Jenkintown Public Works/Public Safety Committee Meetings

As usual, Chief DiValentino provides the most interesting content in these meetings. During an extended discussion about the traffic on Walnut at Rodman, the Chief revealed that 29,000 cars pass by on a five-day basis. Despite the potential hazard at that intersection, most of the accidents along that stretch of Walnut take place at the four-way stop at Walnut and Hillside due to people running the signs.

Speeds on that stretch run as high as 47 MPH with the median at 26 MPH. Make sure you look both ways before crossing!

Also, we can all look forward to a year of ripped up roads and construction thanks to PECO, Aqua, and the Borough’s ongoing paving juggernaught.

Public Works Agenda

Public Safety Agenda

 

Jenkintown Borough Council Meeting, 2-27-2017

This month’s Council meeting discussed among other things:

  • An upcoming hike in our trash disposal fee due to the awarding of a new contract with BFI
  • The outcome and further plans for the proposed Cedar Street park
  • The application for a matching grant ($20,000) for the gateway project.

Council is treating this park as a fait accompli. While we understand that there is a great deal of opposition to this idea, and one that we consider highly dubious and underhandedly administered, it didn’t show up at this meeting. Please show up at the committee hearings and make your voice heard.

Also, we know that the sound quality of these videos aren’t the best. If anyone can assist with this and perhaps donate a good directional microphone that works with an iPhone 7, that would be enormously helpful. We’re sure the community will thank you for it.

Jenkintown EAC Meeting to discuss a pocket park on Cedar Street

Last night’s meeting of Jenkintown’s Environmental Affairs Committee was described as a “visioning meeting,” which in simpler terms means brainstorming session. We’ve discussed these exercises in the past, specifically with regards to the Jenkintown 2035 project. We regard them as well-meaning, but largely ineffectual, feel-good events designed to apply a veneer of public input to something that will ultimately be decided by people who may or may not know better than us.

We apologize for the poor audio for the first fifteen minutes of this video, but during this process the facilitators established ground rules for the meeting, one of which precluded any discussion of cost.

Attendees then viewed examples on slides of other pocket parks. We should note at this point that except for two parks in Abington, every other example came from either Manhattan or Philadelphia — places that otherwise have very little greenspace. The areas around those parks had few if any residential back yarks or easy access to a very large school yard.

Also, the Borough continues to push a false narrative about the process of acquisition and the hit to the tax base this park will render. They keep saying $9,000, when in fact, it will be a minimum of $12,000 per year for just the first few years. The $9,000 number does not take into account the loss of tax revenue to the Borough, only the School District. This is a number that will only rise as time goes on (when was the last time your taxes went down?) This cost is only the start.

They also claimed that a developer that originally approached the owner planned to build five units of “dense” housing. We just want to point out something else here: The Borough’s continued pejorative use of the term “dense.” Like it or not, we live in a densely developed community, and in fact, that density contributes to the charm that we proudly cite when we describe our town.

Secondly, don’t assume that the Borough would rubber stamp the permits for such a development. We have planning boards for exactly this reason. If the developer did build five units, then that brings maybe another 15 people close to the commercial district. The Borough overlooks the number one priority of the Jenkintown 2035 plan: Our commercial district, which does not succeed without people, and the best method to ensure a viable commercial district is to treat it like a neighborhood.

The discussion did bring up a number of excellent points, however. For instance, lighting. In our previous post about this, we did not consider the cost of lighting and security for this park. Will this park have a fence and a secure gate to keep people out after dark? Who will take responsibility for locking things up? For maintaining the landscaping? Emptying the trash?

We can tell you from experience and observation that a park that no one uses will get used by people you rather didn’t. You follow? Parks and property not properly maintained quickly becomes a haven for those with bad intentions.

This video ends as the gathering broke off into smaller groups to decide by committee what will work best for our community. As we want to see these properties sold off and the profits distributed back to the tax base, we thought it best to leave.