Chadds Ford passes budget

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on December 20, 2023

Supervisor Noelle Barbone, left, with a bouquet from fellow Supervisor Samantha Reiner. This was Barbone’s final meeting after eight years on the board.

It took three meetings, but Chadds Ford Township now has a budget for 2024. As Supervisors’ Chairman Samantha Reiner said, “The third time is the charm.” But the third time also became the last time for one supervisor to sit at the big table.

There was no opposition to the budget proposal during the Dec. 19 work session despite including a fire tax to help fund the Concordville Fire and Protective Assn. As previously reported, that tax had been the sticking point during the previous attempts to pass the budget. Several residents challenged the need for the tax, but none of them attended the Dec. 19 meeting.

Chadds Ford used to have a dedicated fire tax, but that was moved into the general fund in 2012 so it wouldn’t be a separate line item.

The newly reinstituted fire tax is 0.0650 mils and will provide $60,000 for the fire company. Concordville will also get another $40,000 from the LST, or Local Services Tax for a total of $100,000, Reiner said. Chadds Ford had been giving the fire company $65,000.

(A mil is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)

The millage rate for the township general fund is 0.3195 mils. Other than the fire tax, there is 0.0072 mils for Rachel Kohl Library and 0.1660 for the Open Space Fund. There is also a fire hydrant tax of 0.0670 mils for properties within Fire Hydrant Districts. (Supervisors have said over the years that the extra millage for being in a hydrant district is offset by lowered insurance rates.)

Supervisors passed the budget 2-0 during the Dec. 19 session, which also happened to be the last meeting for Noelle Barbone as a supervisor.

Barbone has served on the Board of Supervisors for eight years. She was appointed in 2016 and ran for a full six-year term in 2017. Before becoming a supervisor, Barbone served on the HARB.

“I chose not to run again,” she said. “I thought it was time to give someone else a chance.”

That someone else is Timotha Trigg who ran unopposed in the Republican Party primary and faced no opponent in the general election either. She’ll take her seat on the board after she is sworn in as part of the annual reorganization meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 2. The regular January meeting will follow the reorg.

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.