President Thomas E. Stinnett called the regular meeting
of the Riegelsville Borough Council to order at 7:00 p.m. Following the Pledge of Allegiance roll call
was taken. PRESENT: Edward Bartosiewicz, Thomas Stinnett,
E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve
the minutes of the August 8, 2007 Council Meeting. K. Weiss seconded. Unanimous.
CORRESPONDENCE
A letter was read from Beth Weaver
to Borough Council in reference to the Delaware River Basin Commission. Beth has asked the Council to send a letter
to Governor Rendell regarding the management of the NYC Reservoir. Beth has put together a letter and Council have
agreed to have Sherry put it on Borough letterhead and T. Stinnett will sign it
and then send it off to Governor Rendell.
A letter was read from Bill Dudeck
Borough Solicitor that he hand delivered the Borough Ordinance #212 to the
Bucks County Law Library.
A letter was read from Solicitor
John A. Vanluvanee in reference to an Appeal of J. David Xander and Barbara
Xander from the Decision of the Riegelsville Borough Zoning Hearing Board.
A letter was read from Carl Dicker
Borough Engineer to Bill Dudeck Borough Solicitor in reference to the easement
and legal description for Richard and Renee Billings and Charles and Dolores
Patton.
A letter was read from Gorecon, Inc
Proposal for the
A letter was read from Richard
McClellan Assistant Director of Community Affairs for the Delaware River Joint
Toll Bridge Commission as a follow up to his introduction visit. He looks forward to working with the elected
officials of Riegelsville.
REPORTS
Mayor – Absent
President-
T. Stinnett wanted to let everyone know that a Borough Newsletter is at the
printer and will go out next week.
Beth Weaver asked Council if we received
permission from DCNR to do the footbridge yet.
T.Stinnett stated that Carl Dicker Borough engineer has received from DCNR
the descriptions of the other bridges that are similar to what will be
constructed here. We are waiting for
DCNR in
Bob Rainey a member of the
Riegelsville Enhancement Committee discussed at the Streets and Properties
committee last week about getting signs to put up in the cross-walks by the
Post Office so people will slow down. K.
Weiss said they have them in Quakertown too to SLOW DOWN. T. Stinnett did mention that Penn Dot said
they will put up some speed tables when they replace the
Community Affairs- Citizen’s comments: None Expressed.
Daniel Cook Borough Resident
presented a plan to Council to extend the Commercial District past his
residence at
The next Downtown Revitalization meeting is
scheduled for August 22th at 7 pm.
The owner of the Riegelsville Inn Jeff Ryan
asked Carl Dicker the Borough Engineer to add his side porch to the Pedestrian
Plans.
Douglas Platz Deputy District Director to
Congressmen Patrick Murphy asked for some information on the Borough’s Flooding
for the Army Corps Study.
Beth Weaver asked if a member of the Delaware
River Conservancy could come to our next Community Affairs meeting on September
19th to do a presentation to Council. Council said that would be fine. Sherry will contact Beth.
The Borough office received a donation
request from the Friends of the
Recreation Board News: DEP asked if they
could use the
Sherry received a letter from Carole Janssens
in reference to the CDBG project for the Park Paving. Carole needs 2 more quotes from different
contactors before she will forward it onto HUD.
Council would like Sherry to take care of this and hopefully it will get
accepted.
No
Library news at this time.
Utilities
-
Comments from the citizens: None expressed.
Rocky Gencarelli
from RCN’s Direct Sales Force called the office and asked if they need to get a
Solicitation Permit to canvas the Borough with Literature. T. Stinnett said we do have permits that
should be filled out.
The next step is to
meet with a PennDot representative to see how many Water Supply signs are needed
and where they need to be posted. An
annual update needs to be completed to obtain approval. Remarks:
Matt Genshur from PA Rural Water met with Tammy, S. Lance and T. Stinnett on
September 12.
Benchmark Analytics
has dropped off bottles to get water samples to test for Lead and Copper. This test is done every three years. Tammy gathered a list of Borough residents to
participate from different location in the Borough. Matt will pick them up on Monday August 20,
2007 if they are unable to drop them off at the Borough Office.
T. Stinnett asked
how the grants are going for the Open Space.
Sherry stated that since the Borough does not have the money in the
budget to pay for the engineering so we will have to get a grant for that too. K. Weiss told Sherry to contact Quinn’s
office for assistant. Remarks: Sherry received an e-mail from
Marguerite Quinn to let me know that Jennifer will call me about grants for our
Open Space.
T.
Stinnett suggested Sherry also contact Senator Wonderling’s Office.
Streets and Properties
Comments from the citizens: None
expressed
Rich from A.B.E.
has put
In
order to move on with the CDBG grant for the Borough Park Paving Sherry needs
to get 2 additional bids. Sherry
contacted 3 different Paving Companies and no responses yet. Remarks:
Sherry received a Bid from Gorecon.
Sherry will contact Carol Janssens with all the information.
The
Borough Office received a letter from the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge
Commission in reference to the recent bridge disaster in
Bob
Rainey asked if the Borough could put some type of pedestrian cones in the
cross walks on
K.
Weiss said the Welcome to Riegelsville signs at either ends of town need to be
repainted.
Finance
~ Comments from the citizens: None expressed.
Spotts, Stevens and
McCoy have submitted a proposal to provide DCNR grant preparation services to
the Borough for the Open Space. The fee
is $3000.00. For the purpose of the
grant application SSM are estimating the work of the surveying and the master
site plan as $39,500.00. 50% of that
would be matching funds from the Borough. Tammy suggested that the Borough doesn’t have
$20,000.00 out of the budget for that.
Tammy stated as Treasurer that the Borough needs to carry money over to
make next years budget. Tammy suggested
we just let the land sit for a few years since it is not costing us anything.
Council all agreed to let it sit. Borough Resident Bob Rainey suggested maybe
through the Recreation Board fundraisers could be done to benefit the Open
Space. Sherry said as a rec. board
member that the current fundraisers cover the expenses for the baseball program
and the maintenance for the year. Maybe
we could send letters to the local Kiwanis, Legion, and Prosperity Lodge for
donations. The Rec Board has 5 members
but only 3 show up for meetings so they are always looking for volunteers.
R. Strawn stated the Kiwanis gave the land to
the Borough in the 60’s. When you live
in a small Borough it is hard to get residents to get involved and
volunteer. It is usually the same few
residents that help. Tonight there was
one resident at this meeting.
Sherry
and Tammy feel the Borough Office needs to have updated Copy of the
Pennsylvania Municipality Planning Code Book.
The cost is $8.91 per copy, we would need 16. Council agreed.
Tammy
suggested we have a minimum review charge for zoning permits that are reviewed
by Bob and then not picked up. There are
plans for Gartner sitting in the office since July and Bob had to review it
twice.
Prime
Properties have not paid the overdue escrow for the Poplar subdivision yet.
Adoption of Resolution R-08-07 for DCNR grant application
“Riegelsville Comprehensive Recreation, Park and Open Space Plan & site
Master Plan”. S. Lance. motioned to
adopt. E. Bartosiewicz seconded.
Unanimous
T. Stinnett said to advertise
$700.00 for the minimum bid on the Spreader.
R. Strawn said we still need Wayne
Nicholas to put a pipe in on wayside way and the Post Office. Sherry will contact him.
NEW BUSINESS
E. Bartosiewicz
sent a letter of intent to join the Riegelsville Recreation Board. S.
Lance motioned to appoint E. Bartosiewicz to the Recreation Board. R. Strawn seconded. E. Bartosiewicz abstained.
Borough Resident David Masteller sent a letter
of intent to join the Zoning Hearing Board as an Alternate. E. Bartosiewicz
motioned to appoint D. Masteller as an Alternate to the Zoning Hearing
Board. R. Strawn seconded. Unanimous
Approval
of check to
Approval
of check to Northern Nursery for $720.00 for Playground Mulch. The finish the FEMA money. S. Lance motioned to approve. K. Weiss seconded. Unanimous
APPROVAL
OF BILLS
E. Bartosiewicz motioned to approve payment
of the bills as listed. S. Lance seconded. Unanimous.
Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm. Next Meeting October 10, 2007
Sherry Masteller,
Secretary
President
Thomas E. Stinnett called the Special Meeting of the Riegelsville Borough
Council to order at 7:05 p.m. Members present T. Stinnett,
Dan
Cook introduced himself and his son Brian Cook, and also his Solicitor Brian
Monahan and Engineer Mark Bahnick. Dan
is asking the Borough Council to extend the Commercial District to include the
rest of his property. He owns approximately 9 acres and an option to buy another
3 acres that he had previously sold to The Gardner Group. Dan plans to put in a Community Center that
will consist of 300 parking spaces and 1~ 25,000 sq.ft. building that will be a
replica off his historic barn in the back of his residence. He also plans to put in another 25,000 sq.
ft. building in the future. Architect
Michael Graeff talked to Dan about making the structure look like his barn and
the elevator could be a silo for multi-story buildings. The parking area will be broken up and consist
of blacktop with trees and walkways. Dan
feels that the Borough has no real Commercial District. Dan feels that there are a lot of drawbacks
to the Downtown Commercial District for example flooding, not enough parking,
and septic issues. Dan said the Bucks
County Health Department makes it very difficult to meet their required
standards. The entrance and exit to the
center will be from 611. Dan would like
to put a path to the center from
T.
Macaluso read a letter from Susan Matthias, the Branch Manager of the First
Savings Bank in Riegelsville. Susan
stated that she was raised in this small community with a lot of history and
pride not found in many communities.
Susan writes that Riegelsville is one of the most beautiful and “undeveloped”
areas Upper Bucks has to offer, a primary reason families move into a bedroom
community to raise their children. Not
everyone is drawn to strip mall areas.
She thinks Dan needs to look at what is best for the community.
Another
Borough resident said the lighting will be very bright and who is going to
patrol the center. Dan said the lights
could be on timers and the State Police will patrol the Center. Resident said can the water table handle the
25,000 square feet project. A resident
said you are coming across very demanding and forceful with the Curative
amendment towards this Borough. Another
resident said Emergency volunteers will have to do more work to take care of
this new retail stores. Dan stated that
they will need to donate to these entities just like everyone does now. Dan said this will give the Borough millions
of dollars. T. Macaluso said the
property tax is 6.25mils per thousand, so that would be $6,000. Per
million. T. Macaluso later checked and the 2007 tax rate is in fact 7.75mils. Dan stated the average store will be 12 to
1800 square feet. A resident said what
will this do to the real estate values in this Borough. Borough?
Homeowner Patrick Johnson’s property is right next to Dan Cook’s
property. Patrick stated that he would
have never purchased his new home if he knew this project was in the
works. Patrick also said if the Borough
changes Dan’s lots to Commercial then he will want his property to be
Commercial too. Patrick said that maybe
all of 611 should be Commercial.
Another Borough resident asked if Dan Cook was going to sell the
property if it gets passed Commercial. A
Borough resident stated that flood management has recommended staying away from
building in the flood zone. Dan stated
that he will do what ever it takes to prove that it can be built on. Dan stated he has already sent his
application and fee to the Bucks County Planning Commission.
Council
President T. Stinnett stated we will end this public meeting and Council will
proceed once the Bucks County Planning Commission opinion is received.
Meeting adjourned at 8:25 pm.
Sherry Masteller,
Secretary