Birmingham cuts committee sizes

There was some friction between
supervisors and a member of the Birmingham Township Planning Commission when
supervisors announced they want to cut the size of the commission.

Getting into the dispute with
supervisors was Planning Commission member Debbie Hineman who took issue with
the board’s decision to reduce the commission’s number from seven to five
members.

Supervisors’ Chairman John
Conklin said he based his opinion to cut the size of the Planning Commission
and Recreation, Parks and Open Space Committee because there’s has been a lack
of activity over the late few years. He cited the fact that the Planning
Commission only met six times during 2011, calling it a “significant reduction
in activity from 2010 and 2011.”

He is not removing people from
the various volunteer committees, but is rather reducing them in size by
attrition, not replacing people when they resign or their terms expire.

Hineman — one of the people who
will not be reappointed to the Planning Commission when her term expires then
of this year —challenged the idea, saying that the supervisors are always
looking for volunteers but, by reducing committee sizes, they are turning away
volunteers. She also said Supervisor Al Bush had told her commission that it
would remain at seven.

The other person who will not
be reappointed to the commission is Scott Boorse, said Township Secretary Quina Nelling.

Conklin responded by saying the
board can always add more people to the various committees if the other people
are again needed, and that Bush was aware that the proposal would be to reduce
the size of the Planning
Commission to five.

Conklin proposed no
replacements for Planning Commission term expirations in 2011 and not replace
the two resignations for terms expiring in 2012 and 2014 in RPOS.

He said reducing the committee
sizes from seven to five would make it easier for those bodies to reach a
quorum.

Despite Hineman’s arguments,
Conklin and fellow Supervisor Bill Kirkpatrick vote for the proposal. Bush was
absent.

Other business

• Kirkpatrick said there have
been changes to the proposed upgrade of the Route 926 Bridge over the
Brandywine between Birmingham and Pocopson Townships. Improvements needed
because of roadway flooding have been on the books since at least 2003 and they
have changed once again.

The current plans are to raise
the bridge two feet and the approaches by four feet. Thee will also be
pedestrian and bicycle pathways four feet wide on either side of the new
bridge.

Kirkpatrick said construction
wouldn’t begin before 2012 or 2015.

• Police Chief Thomas Nelling,
in his monthly police report, said his department responded to 950 incidents in
November. There were nine criminal arrests and two residential burglaries. There
are three open cases.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

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