Media, PA News: Everybody's Home Page

Media Borough Working Meeting Summary October 7th, 2010

Oct 07

Media Borough Working Meeting Summary October 7th, 2010

Here’s the things which matter to Media Residents discussed at the Media Borough Council working meeting October 7th, 2010:

Property

  • While nothing was said explicitly, apparently there is a buyer for 1 West State Street (formerly Brodeur’s, a.k.a. Old Borough Hall)
  • Bob Linn of Linn Architects, as a visitor, proposed a minor change in the “New View Gifts” building addition at 311 Baltimore Pike, increasing the building square footage by about 1100 square feet.
  • Cocco’s Pizza ignored requests from the Planning Commission to improve the appearance of the the dumpster which would sit on Borough property. The Planning Commission plans on meeting with Cocco’s representatives again next week.
  • Plan on approving replacement of sidewalks at 337 – 345 West 2nd Street which was damaged by the trees.
  • Pete Alyanakian said that the Environmental Advisory Council has installed “Rain Gardens” by the library “Stone Cottage” and hopes to put a demonstration site on Balitmore Pike if a business is willing

Events

  • Saturday, October 16th the Media Police will be doing drills and “play acting” as part of a Homeland Security exercise in and around the Media Courthouse. Such exercises prepare local law enforcement for real-world emergency scenarios. The exercises start at 7:00 AM.

Laws

  • Lengthy discussion about adding ordinances regarding snow removal, proposed by Jeff Smith on behalf of “Ralph” (DeRosa?) with two parts:
    • Creating an ordinance preventing plow operators from pushing snow onto roadways
    • Adding two additions to the snow emergency routes at:
      • 300 block of South Plum Street
      • 400 block of West Jefferson Street

Business

  • The MBA plans on creating a “super calendar” to have all Media, PA events in a single place from multiple organizations
  • The MBA also has created a partnership with the Brandywine Conference and Visitor center for co-marketing opportunities with other Media organizations.
  • The MBA is considering adding additional signage on Baltimore Pike to draw traffic to State Street.

Borough Council, post “coup”

  • A comment made by Monica Simpson when asking for details from Monika Rehoric on conversations with Media Theatre: “Communication’s been bad since July…”
  • Councilman Eric Stein, who teaches entrepreneurship, suggested creating a program to help small businesses in Media get started to avoid failing (like Benjamins’s Family Market), as well as working with new business to improve feedback about the permitting process with the borough; Dawn Roe referenced the September legislative meeting and his offer to look at the Front Street Fountain business owner’s business plan: “I found it insulting…”
  • A heated discussion from Councilman Jim Cunningham to spend $44,000 to fix the crosswalk on the north side of Jackson and State Streets. (Currently, the bricks dip and create a speed bump…)
    • Peter Williamson suggested that we postpone the repairs until next year and not spend an additional $30,000 on a non-priority project.
    • Cunningham raised his voice and blamed borough Engineer Walton for taking so long to get the estimate and changing it from its original amount of $23,000.
    • Cunningham also indicated that there is more revenue this year from the Earned Income Tax, and complained that the role of government is to fix the streets, and that the Media Theatre expense of $10,500 was unimportant.
    • Monica Simpson expressed concern for spending outside of the budget.
    • Pete Alyanakian said he agreed with the expense, saying it would only get worse with the next winter storm.
    • Borough Council President Pete Alyanakian stated that Media is on the county’s schedule to get a grant of $75,000 for the “design costs pickup.” Borough Manager Jeff Smith indicated that the county may put stipulations on the grant, implying it may not be used to fill the gap in the road repaving budget.
    • They decided to take it to the legislative vote with the final comment from Cunningham, “What a cheap bunch.”

Stay tuned for details about the larger discussions …

2 comments

  1. Jane Valdes-Dapena /

    Thanks for this reporting, Kent, filling in those of us who could not be there. Keep up the great work. As for the Jackson Street/State Street intersection, which I travel all the time, isn’t something that helps to slow down car traffic in the borough a good thing?

  2. Chickadee D. /

    I would agree with Jane that the Jackson/State defect is an effective “speed bump”. I sometimes wish we had more of them in town.

    Also, it is no surprise that there is a deterioration in communication and cooperation with council, given the way that the “changes in leadership” were handled. If certain elected officials can’t think far enough ahead just in terms of council functioning smoothly, how can they make good decisions for the long term functioning of Media? This is our new Borough leadership!? Ai.