1 1 ASTON TOWNSHIP BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 2 ZOOM MEETING January 20 2021 3 4 5 6 7 Transcript of the ASTON TOWNSHIP BOARD OF 8 COMMISSIONERS ZOOM MEETING, taken before Lorraine 9 Evans, Court Reporter-Notary Public, via on-line live 10 Zoom meeting, on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 11 commencing approximately at 7:00 p.m. 12 13 BOARD MEMBERS 14 JAMES M. STIGALE, PRESIDENT MICHAEL J. HIGGINS, VICE-PRESIDENT 15 JOHN DOUGHERTY FREDERICK PRENDERGAST 16 LESTER F. BERRY, JR. NANCY E. BOWDEN 17 18 19 JOSEPH DeVUONO, Township Manager ELIZABETH NAUGHTON-BECK, ESQUIRE, Solicitor 20 JOSEPH VISCUSO, Engineer 21 22 LORRAINE EVANS COURT REPORTER-NOTARY PUBLIC 23 530 Paxon Hollow Road Broomall, Pennsylvania 19008 24 (610)203-7715 7evanslorraine@comcast.net 2 1 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Good evening, 2 everybody. I would like to call this Aston 3 Township Board of Commissioners meeting for 4 Wednesday, January 20, 2021 to order. Please 5 rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 6 (Pledge of Allegiance) 7 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Before we get started, 8 I would like to make some announcements. First 9 one is very hard for us to mention, but it is 10 with great sadness and heavy heart that the 11 Aston Township Board of Commissioners regrets 12 to inform our residents of the sudden passing 13 of Second Ward Commissioner Carol Graham. 14 Carol was active in local and state 15 government serving as Aston Township Second 16 Ward Commissioner for 11 years, Aston Township 17 Police Chair, Aston Township Parks and 18 Recreation Chair where her involvement included 19 the Township's annual Easter Egg Hunt and Bunny 20 Brunch, Christmas Tree Lighting and Winter Fun 21 Festival, Summer Movie Nights as well as our 22 Hometown Concert Series. Most recently and one 23 of her biggest accomplishments was the 24 completion of the all-inclusive playground LORRAINE EVANS 3 1 located at the Community Center, a project that 2 was near and dear to her heart. 3 Carol had also served as the liaison for 4 the Fire Committee where she was a huge 5 supporter of the Aston Township Fire Department 6 and was very instrumental in the consolidation 7 of the two Aston Township companies, Aston 8 Beechwood 72 and Green Ridge 63. 9 She will be missed by many, especially the 10 Board of Commissioners and Township Staff. We 11 ask that you keep Carol's family in your 12 thoughts as they go through this difficult 13 time. 14 I would like to give a moment of silence 15 in memory of Carol Graham. 16 (Moment of Silence) 17 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. Just to 18 let everybody know, by state law, we will be 19 advertising a replacement to fulfill her term. 20 Resumes may be submitted to our township 21 manager Joseph DeVuono by February 1st. 22 Interviews will be conducted and a replacement 23 appointed in a special meeting on February 10 24 at 1:30 in the township building. LORRAINE EVANS 4 1 Also, for those residents that have seen 2 activity at the Community Center, right now 3 Delaware County is hosting vaccinations for the 4 Covid. There is a list and a couple of steps 5 that you have to follow in order to be 6 qualified to be set up to go in on the -- for 7 the vaccination. You cannot just walk up to 8 the Community Center and ask for that. We ask 9 you to go to the Delaware County website, 10 Delco, D-e-l-c-o-P-A dot gov. Follow the Covid 11 link on there and you'll take a survey which 12 will give you what category you're in for the 13 vaccination. And this is all based on the 14 amount of vaccines that the County receives. 15 And you'll be notified to set up an appointment 16 for the vaccination. So, it's not the township 17 doing this. It's Delaware County, so go to 18 Delco PA dot gov for more information. 19 With that, I need a motion to review and 20 approve the minutes of the regular meeting of 21 December 16, 2021. 22 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Make a motion. 23 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second. 24 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? LORRAINE EVANS 5 1 Opposed? All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" 2 have it. 3 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 4 present vote "aye.") 5 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Review of the minutes 6 of the Special Meeting I'm going to table. We 7 weren't able to see them yet. We will move on 8 to Committee Reports. I'll start with 9 Commissioner Bowden. Do you have anything? 10 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: I do. I have a fire 11 report first. This is the report for December 12 from Aston Township Fire Department, December 13 2020. Fire calls 60, year to date 696, EMS 14 calls 157, year to date, 1,484, total calls 15 217, year to date, 2,180, monthly drills zero, 16 year to date 24. That's all I have on the fire 17 report. 18 And I also have a police report, which I 19 am going to read. For the month of January, 20 2021, incidents handled 527, accident 21 investigations 27, criminal investigations 24, 22 citations issued 54. That's all I have at this 23 point. 24 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, LORRAINE EVANS 6 1 Commissioner Bowden. I'll jump to Commissioner 2 Dougherty please. 3 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: I have before me 4 the Aston Township treasurer's report for 5 December 2020. Total cash in the general fund 6 as of December 31st, 2020, $1,644,116.56. 7 Other funds include the TD Bank Bond Fund 8 Checking account with a balance of 9 $8,667,653.47, TD Bank Escrow checking account, 10 with a balance of $265,965.90, TD Bank Capital 11 Checking with a balance of $723,580.00, and the 12 TD Bank liquid fuels checking account with a 13 balance of $132,257.64. Total cash balance of 14 the Township as of December 31st, 2020 is 15 $11,570,477.43. That concludes my report. 16 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, 17 Commissioner Dougherty. Commissioner Berry. 18 COMMISSIONER BERRY: I don't have a 19 Committee Report. I would like to say a little 20 bit about Aston Township feels that an 21 amphitheater located at the Community Center 22 would be a great asset to the residents. This 23 project will take approximately a year to 24 develop. In the future we will make it LORRAINE EVANS 7 1 available to have sponsors which will help 2 support this project. Overall, the Community 3 Center is becoming a place we are able to share 4 with the public that will make many 5 entertainment options available. More 6 information to follow. Thank you. 7 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, 8 Commissioner Berry. Commissioner Prendergast. 9 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Public Works 10 Road Foreman's Activity Report. Repaired and 11 serviced small engine tools and equipment, 12 emptied 30 yard containers using roll-off 13 truck, provided curb side branch pick-up for 14 all township residents, serviced and inspected, 15 where applicable, all Public Works Trucks, 16 prepared Community Center and Five Points for 17 Holiday season. Thank you, Commissioner 18 Stigale. 19 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner Higgins. 20 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Thank you. I have 21 one report tonight, Permits and Licenses Report 22 for the month of December, dated January 11, 23 2021. Beginning balance, $492,420.00, total 24 income from building permits and general LORRAINE EVANS 8 1 contractor licenses, $10,129.00, total 2 electrical permits and licenses, $2,201.00, 3 total plumbing and heating, $2,200.00. Income 4 from Board of Health licenses, $350.00, no 5 income from Peddlers or Vendors permits, 6 nothing for Commercial Maintenance Inspections, 7 income from Certificates of Occupancy, 8 $2,700.00, income from rental licenses, 9 $150.00, total revenue collected for the month, 10 $17,730.00. Total for 2020, $510,150.00, 11 compared to December year end 2019 of 12 $309,290.00. This is a difference of 13 $200,860.00. This is a good thing that this 14 revenue is coming in and shows that companies 15 and individuals are spending money for 16 improvements. We hope this will continue. 17 Thank you. 18 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, 19 Commissioner Higgins. All right, I need a 20 motion to approve the treasurer's report. 21 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Make a motion. 22 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Second. 23 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? 24 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. LORRAINE EVANS 9 1 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 2 present vote "aye.") 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: I need a motion to 4 approve the bills and payroll. 5 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Make a motion. 6 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Second. 7 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? 8 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. 9 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 10 present vote "aye.") 11 PRESIDENT STIGALE: I would like to call 12 on Mr. DeVuono for anyone that has any 13 questions on the agenda items. 14 MR. DeVUONO: There are some folks on 15 line. I would ask them if they have any 16 questions or comments please speak up. 17 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Okay, seeing none, 18 I'll move on. They have an opportunity to 19 speak at the end of the meeting. So I would 20 like to move onto New Business. We are going 21 to officially announce the Second Ward 22 replacement. Commissioner Higgins. 23 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Thank you. Aston 24 Township will be accepting resumes for the LORRAINE EVANS 10 1 vacant position of Second Ward Commissioner. 2 All applicants must be a registered voter and a 3 resident of the Second Ward in Aston Township 4 for at least one year. 5 Interested applicants should send their 6 resume to township manager, Joseph E. DeVuono 7 at the Aston Township Municipal Building 8 located at 5021 Pennell Road, Aston, PA 19014 9 or through his e-mail at JEDEVUONO at 10 astontwp.net. Again, JEDEVUONO at 11 astontwp.net. 12 Reminder, they are due by February 1, 13 2021. Thank you. 14 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, 15 Commissioner Higgins. Line item B, announce 16 Notice of Intent to amend Chapters 1234 and 17 1292. Commissioner Berry. 18 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Thank you. I would 19 like to announce the Notice of Intent to amend 20 Chapters 1234.10A5 and 1292.08C to revise 21 waiver procedures. 22 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Can I ask what they 24 are, please? I don't know what the numbers LORRAINE EVANS 11 1 are, Jim. Revised waiver procedures. Is that 2 like when people apply for a waiver, we are 3 revising that? 4 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: I believe the first 5 two, 1200 section that Commissioner Berry just 6 announced, those are both part of the zoning 7 code, and they are for curbs and sidewalk 8 waiver requests, which is 1234.10A5. And 9 1292.08C is for fence height, a waiver request 10 for the height of fence would be changed. 11 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Okay, thank you. 12 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Line item C, announce 13 notice of intent to amend Chapters 1420 and 14 1445. Commissioner Berry. 15 COMMISSIONER BERRY: I would like to 16 announce the notice of intent to amend Chapters 17 1420.18 and 1445 to revise procedures for the 18 licensing of contractors. 19 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. Announce 20 notice of intent to amend Chapters 1420.03E and 21 1460. Commissioner Berry. 22 COMMISSIONER BERRY: I would like to 23 announce the notice of intent to amend Chapters 24 1420.03E and 1460.04A3 and C3 to revise waiver LORRAINE EVANS 12 1 procedures. 2 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: Do you want me to jump 3 in and explain what those are? 4 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Please. 5 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: 1420.03E is the curbs 6 and sidewalks but that's in the Building Code 7 Section of the ordinance, and 1460.04A, that 8 one is waiver requests for water service tie 9 in, and sub paragraph C is for sewer service 10 tie in. 11 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: C is for sewer 12 service tie in? 13 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: Thank you. 15 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Line item E, consider 16 a motion to approve a refund. Commissioner 17 Dougherty. 18 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: I make a motion 19 to approve the refund of $110.00 to J&P Fence 20 of Secane, PA for a permit pulled in error for 21 a senior citizen, form of a motion. 22 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Second. 23 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? 24 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. LORRAINE EVANS 13 1 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 2 present vote "aye.") 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Line item F, consider 4 a motion to approve a refund. Commissioner 5 Dougherty. 6 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: I make a motion 7 to approve the refund of $136.50 to Karla 8 Westenberger, 205 Grace Lane, Aston, PA 19014 9 for a plumbing permit, form of a motion. 10 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Second. 11 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? 12 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. 13 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 14 present vote "aye.") 15 PRESIDENT STIGALE: I would like to move 16 onto escrow releases. Commissioner Higgins, 17 please. 18 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Thank you. The 19 following amount is for engineering fees to be 20 paid to Pennoni Associates for the month of 21 January, summary total of $1,703.50, form of a 22 motion. 23 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Second. 24 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Questions or comments? LORRAINE EVANS 14 1 All in favor? Opposed? The "ayes" have it. 2 (Whereupon, all Commissioners 3 present vote "aye.") 4 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: That's it. 5 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you, 6 Commissioner Higgins. Mr. DeVuono, I would 7 like to open up the floor to the public. 8 MR. DeVUONO: There's people on line. If 9 they would like to speak, speak up. I hear 10 nothing. 11 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Okay, all right. 12 Moving on, other business. Commissioner 13 Bowden, anything? 14 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: First of all, I want 15 to thank Delaware County for using our township 16 to making it convenient for residents, and 17 hopefully all of our residents are going to 18 apply on line to the website that you 19 suggested, Commissioner Stigale, and maybe we 20 can beat this virus and get back to our real 21 lives again. 22 The other thing, I want to express my 23 deepest sympathy to the Graham and Spayd 24 families in the loss of their matriarch, to all LORRAINE EVANS 15 1 of us that will be missing her and hopefully we 2 can move forward. That's all I have. 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. 4 Commissioner Prendergast. 5 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Yeah, Jim, I 6 want to, like Nancy said, I want to reiterate 7 the statement of all Commissioners, missing 8 Carol Graham, which I think we all will. All 9 the citizens of the Second Ward and Aston, we 10 lost a real good Commissioner, fighter and 11 friend. She was a mentor to me when I first 12 got on, and I want to wish her family well in 13 trying to get over this. They were all great 14 friends to me and my family. We will really 15 miss her smiling face and her family's great 16 contributions to Aston Township. 17 Please everybody, stay safe and healthy 18 and we'll get through this pandemic. I want to 19 thank Delaware County Covid Operations, what 20 they did today and for the rest of the week. 21 That's all I have. 22 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. 23 Commissioner Berry. 24 COMMISSIONER BERRY: Again, I would just LORRAINE EVANS 16 1 like to offer condolences to the Graham and 2 Spayd family. Thank you. 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner 4 Dougherty. 5 COMMISSIONER DOUGHERTY: Like everyone 6 else, I want to wish the best to the Graham 7 family and recognize Carol leaves behind big 8 shoes to fill. That's it. 9 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Commissioner Higgins. 10 COMMISSIONER HIGGINS: Thank you. Not to 11 be redundant, I would like to give my 12 condolences to the Grahams and the Spayds. 13 We'll miss Carol being here and God bless all 14 of you. Thank you. 15 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Ms. Naughton-Beck. 16 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: Yes, first I would 17 like to wish Joe Viscuso a happy birthday. 18 Today is the actual day. 19 MR. VISCUSO: Jim McGinn used to always 20 give me problems when it fell on my birthday. 21 MS. NAUGHTON-BECK: I saw on Facebook, 22 knew it had to be true. 23 Secondly, I want to echo everyone else 24 with respect to the loss to the township and to LORRAINE EVANS 17 1 the Graham/Spayd family of Carol. When she 2 first joined the Board, she was the first other 3 woman during the meetings with me and it was 4 really nice having another woman on the Board. 5 And shortly after she started she decided that 6 we should have theme colors during the 7 meetings. So it started off originally with 8 just Lorraine, Carol and I and over time it 9 spread to the other Commissioners and staff, 10 and it was fun. I will never forget the first 11 time she decided on yellow. If you know me, I 12 don't do color, so I ran out, got a yellow 13 blouse, put it on, running out the door and my 14 husband stops me and says who are you, and what 15 have you done with my wife with yellow. And I 16 said listen, Carol said yellow. I think it's 17 Jimmy's favorite color. I got to wear yellow. 18 It's a dumb story, but I wanted to share it. 19 What I can say is she was a staunch 20 advocate for her residents. As a solicitor, 21 she and I got into some heated discussions 22 because she didn't like being told no. But she 23 also never gave up, and as I think Commissioner 24 Dougherty said, she has big shoes to fill. I LORRAINE EVANS 18 1 do want to convey my heartfelt condolences to 2 the Graham/Spayd family. 3 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Thank you. Mr. 4 Viscuso. 5 MR. VISCUSO: When somebody leaves 6 unexpectedly it's very difficult to deal with 7 looking at that candle where her picture would 8 have -- or where she would have been, is very 9 difficult. I have known her for a long long 10 time and I guess my stories, we all know what 11 she went through with the DCIU development and 12 the round about. There were days I talked to 13 her five times a day and some of those 14 conversations were never two minute calls, but 15 they were half hour calls. Like Beth said, she 16 was a fighter, absolutely a fighter. 17 Relentless when she got her teeth into 18 something. She will be missed. 19 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Mr. DeVuono. 20 MR. DeVUONO: Like everybody else has 21 said, my condolences to the Graham and the 22 Spayd family. I will miss Carol a lot. We had 23 a love hate relationship you would call it. We 24 would fight back and forth, but the good thing LORRAINE EVANS 19 1 about it all, we always stayed friends. 2 Business was business, friendship was 3 friendship. Like you said, Joe, she would get 4 up and down, jump up and down to get her way 5 and fight for it. Ninety percent of the time 6 she won. She kept coming back. You'd tell her 7 no, she'll come back three or four times until 8 she gets the answer yes. We will miss her. 9 One other thing is we are losing a person 10 on our board meetings, that's Lorraine, our 11 court stenographer, is retiring and we wish her 12 well. 13 PRESIDENT STIGALE: Not allowed. 14 MR. DeVUONO: She's been with us for a 15 long time. I have only known her for a year 16 but from what I understand, she has always been 17 great in her reports and getting them done 18 quickly, so the township can move forward. 19 Lorraine, good luck. 20 PRESIDENT STIGALE: I also want to extend 21 my condolences to the Graham and Spayd family. 22 I had mentioned something to Kit about a poem 23 that I thought would give her some comfort, 24 called The Dash. You probably heard of it. LORRAINE EVANS 20 1 When you look at a tombstone, you have the year 2 you were born, a dash and the year you died, 3 and the most important thing is what happened 4 in that dashed time. What did you do in your 5 life to help others or do something. 6 And as I read earlier today, Carol had a 7 list of things that she accomplished and made 8 the Aston Township a better place. So I just 9 want to say thank you for sharing her with us 10 and I really -- my sympathy for Jim. He was 11 always with her. Don't be a stranger. We'll 12 always think of you. I wish you comfort at 13 this time. With that I need a motion to 14 adjourn. 15 COMMISSIONER BOWDEN: So move. 16 COMMISSIONER PRENDERGAST: Second. 17 (Whereupon, the hearing is 18 concluded at 7:26 p.m.) 19 20 21 22 23 24 LORRAINE EVANS 21 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATION 2 I HEREBY CERTIFY that I was present upon the 3 on-line live Zoom hearing of the above-entitled 4 matter, and there reported stenographically the 5 proceedings had and the testimony produced; and I 6 further certify that the foregoing is a true and 7 correct transcript of my said stenographic notes. 8 9 _______________________ Lorraine Evans 10 Reporter-Notary Public My Commission Expires 11 October 25, 2022 12 13 14 15 16 (The foregoing certification of this transcript does 17 not apply to any reproduction of the same by any 18 means, unless under the direct control and/or 19 supervision of the certifying reporter.) 20 21 22 23 24 LORRAINE EVANS