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Media Borough Council Working Meeting Notes, December 1st, 2011: Free parking, 3rd Street Dam Citizens Advisory Group

Dec 01

Media Borough Council met at 7:35 PM on December 1st at the borough complex for the regularly scheduled working meeting. All members were present.

Free Parking in Borough Garage in December

Media Borough Council tentatively chose to allow free parking in the Media Borough garage at Baltimore Pike and Olive Street for the December holidays shopping season, from Black Friday (November 25th) through New Years Day.

3rd Street Dam Citizens Committee Discussed

Monika Rehoric, as a member of the 3rd Street Dam Committee, spoke briefly about a recent meeting with State Representative Dominic Pileggi in which they discussed whether the 20% matching funds would be affected if Media Borough decided to choose an alternative design for the 3rd Street Dam project. According to Ms. Rehoric, Mr. Pileggi stated that the funds were not dependent on the design.

Ms. Rehoric  expressed her desire to set the “ground rules” for the 3rd Street Dam Citizens Committee to allow the new borough council to start off “running” in January and appointing the members of the committee. She outlined her recommendations for the committee to be formed:

  • Either 5 or 7 members of the public
  • A respresentative from each of: Planning Commisssion, Friends of Glen Providence, a neighborhood resident (near the construction), a non-neighborhood resident (from another part of town), a member of the Media Business Authority, a representative from Broomall’s Lake Country Club, and a member from Delaware County

In addition, she recommended involvement of members from Emergency ServicesDr. Eric Stein voiced his opinion that the group should contain citizens, and not representatives from Broomall’s Lake Country Club or the County, and instead residents of the community. He also stated that Council as a group would have to decide the direction for the committee to investigate:

  • 2-lane roadway and dam
  • a greenway, or
  • breaching the dam

Jim Cunningham made the point that the committee should not be legislative, and would simply advise council and make recommendations.

There was some discussion regarding expediting the decision process from fear of losing funds, and that the committee should have a lifetime which expires in April 2011 to continue to move the project along. Pete Alyanakian stated that the 80% money from PennDOT was not allocated yet; but discussion regarding that point concluded that as long as the project continues to move forward the money should remain available.

Peter Williamson concluded the discussion by stating that his desire would be the makeup of the committee should not be weighed in any group’s favor, and his concern with involving members from Broomall’s Lake Country Club (BLCC) and Delaware County may be that any individual from those groups may be unyielding in their opinion of what must be done. The consensus among council was that any change to the existing design would require approval from BLCC and Delaware County representatives.

By the end of the discussion, the consensus was that the citizens advisory committee would be 7 members, with a deadline of April 11th, 2011. The 3rd Street Dam Committee plans on meeting prior to the legislative meeting on December 15th in order to come up with the structure for the citizens committee.

The borough has received only 7 resumés of interest for the citizens advisory committee: 3 from Friends of Glen Providence, 1 from the Planning Commission, and 3 other residents.

Media Showcase nets $2,156 in profit, sort of

Dawn Roe divulged the net income results from the Media Showcase event in November, stating a net proceed of $9,156 which will be divided evenly among the 12 non-profits who participated in the three-day events.

Media Borough contributed $7,000 to cover costs for booking talent and advertising expenses for the event, in addition to $12,000 contributed by the borough for renting the theatre for four nights. Depending on how you choose to count the money contributed to the event, it could be $9,156 in profit, $2,156 in profit, or ($9,844.00) in losses.

The $12,000 for renting the theater was part of a larger sum of money ($20,000) given to the Media Theatre to receive a Community Development Block Grant for restoration of the building, and was paid back to the borough with four nights to be used at the Borough’s discretion.

The money given to the Media Theatre went to raise more than $200,000 in grants for restoration work, which would ultimately increase both the value and attractiveness of the Borough’s property.

Items of interest to residents

  • The Media Police, the Fire Department, and the Public Safety Committee will be meeting in order to address concerns from the Police Department regarding Santa’s arrival which was a crowded and successful event on November 25th, 2011.
  • The Media Police will appeal to the Media Business Authority to advertise the new dog ordinance at state street events.
  • Discussion regarding improvements along Monroe and 6th street traffic, with borough engineer Bob Johnston investigating and making recommendations to improve that part of town.
  • Borough Engineer Bob Johnston is having difficulty getting dates of completion for CMAQ and improvements to Five Points lights. The CMAQ project requires the installation of coils which sense vehicles in order to be completed. Because the project is funded 100% by PennDOT, the borough has very little control over the schedule.

3 comments

  1. I’d like to be on the 3rd Street Dam committee, since I could represent the residents at 6th and Monroe Streets and beyond. So far we have not been
    represented–or even asked our opinion. We are residents, too.

    • Paul Indorf /

      I was at this meeting, and find this article to be an excellent and accurate account of it. While I was delighted that The Dam(n)Committee presented a report, I found it a bit odd (at best) if not disingenuous (“sneaky”) that there was no indication in the agenda that Dam matters would be taken up. And while it’s nice to have the appearance of moving forward, I have concern that the committee’s all-of-a-sudden, hurry-up last gasp is an attempt to ‘color’ the committee and limit it in scope and duration. (The nerve of them!!) Bear in mind here that the existing Committee has taken five months to do little more than obfuscate and frustrate this whole issue; I would have hoped that this year’s election might have had some meaning to them. The door could not whack them on the ass soon enough! The currently seated Borough Council should do nothing further on this matter; they have screwed up this project so severely, and seem hell-bent on continuing to do so.

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