Mayor's Message 4/7/2021

Mayor’s Message
April 7, 2021

Good evening everyone,

I have a couple of updates to share: 

Last week, I was pleased to swear in nine new officers for the Upper Darby Police Department: Elijah Brown, Joseph Girardi, Kevin Joby, Nicholas Moriconi, Daniel Mullarkey III, Maura O’Connell, Inderbir Randhawa, Matthew Terry, and Adam Wheatley. These officers come from the most qualified and diverse class in Township history, and they will be a great addition to the Department.  I’m delighted and honored to welcome them into our Upper Darby team.  And I would also like to acknowledge the Civil Service Commission which played an important, and behind the scenes part, into making this a reality.

We are currently working on several grants for Upper Darby, including a Keystone Facade Grant. We are applying for funding from DCED that we would offer to small businesses for street-facing exterior improvements, such as painting, repointing, facade repair or restoration, and signage. This grant is for $50,000, with an equal match from the Township. Due to limited funding, we would focus this program on the unit block of Garrett Road, work on the kinks, learn the system and expand the program to our other neighborhood business districts. I have personally visited many of the businesses in the area, and there is a lot of interest in and support for this initiative. 

We are also working on a community project funding request to Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon's Office for the new Upper Darby Community Center.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Upper Darby High School and Beverly Hills Middle School as part of the Biden Administration’s efforts to support states, schools, students, parents, and educators as they navigate the return to in-person learning.  We talked about how the township and the school district have forged a strong working relationship over the past year and a few months to advance the district’s capital plans for improvements including the Aronimink Elementary expansion as well as understanding and streamlining our shared services.

We had some more good news this week: after fielding questions from S&P concerning some of the audit findings as well as revenue forecasts in the COVID ERA, I am pleased to announce that the end-effect is that S&P has granted us an A+ stable rating.  It was an elongated process and credit goes to CAO Vincent Rongione and Finance Director Gary Meron for their diligent work on this.

The Darby Creek Valley Association’s annual clean-up will take place this Saturday, April 10, from 9 am to 12 pm. There are eleven sites that need help in our Township, please visit dcva.org/watershed-cleanups to register for a specific site. I will be a site captain, and it’s a great way to get involved. 

The Upper Darby Environmental Advisory Committee and the Friends of Upper Darby Trails will hold a Learn and Hike event on Saturday, April 24, in honor of Earth Day. There will be three separate hikes throughout the day: one along the Recreation Area Trail beginning at 9 a.m, one at the Underground Railroad Trail Spur beginning at 1 p.m., and one at Naylor’s Run Park Trail beginning at 6 p.m.  More details can be found on the Environmental Advisory’s Facebook page.

Our new weekly yard waste collection service started this week and will continue until Friday, November 19. Yard Waste will be collected weekly on residents’ regularly scheduled recycling pick up day. Yard waste is defined as leaves, garden residues, shrubbery and tree trimmings, and similar material. Please note that grass clippings are NOT considered yard waste. Please do not use plastic bags to collect your yard waste. Instead, place it in biodegradable paper bags which are available at local hardware stores, including Burhill on Burmont Road and the TruValue on Marshall Road, as well as Home Depot and Lowes, or place the yard waste loosely in trash cans without bags.

Finally, Upper Darby was selected as one of twenty municipalities in Pennsylvania to participate in the Department of Environmental Protections’ 2021 Local Climate Action Program which matches local governments with college students to develop greenhouse gas inventories and climate action plans. I am pleased to introduce Melissa Morales and Janniry (Juh-nair-e) Belen from Moravian College who have been working with us this semester.

(They Present)

Thank you and have a great evening.