Mayor's Message 4/20/22

Mayor’s Message 

April 20, 2022

Good Evening.

This Saturday, April 23, I hosting a Pet Expo event from 10am-12pm at Kent Dog Park. Upper Darby Township has provided funding for up to 100 free rabies vaccinations. Residents can call 610-734-7626 to register their pets for the vaccination. Bywood Animal Hospital will be administering shots and there will be vendors as well. The forecast for this weekend looks good so far and I hope to see you at this or other events. 

In celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day there are multiple events this weekend. On Saturday, Pete Leahy from the Marine Corps League is heading a creek clean-up at Naylors Run Park starting at 9 am. At 2pm, also at Naylors Run Park, there will be a dedication of the Native Tree Nursery.  The tree nursery is a collaborative project between the Shade Tree Commission, the UD Tree Tenders and the Parks Division of the township administration.

On Sunday, members of the Shade Tree Commission, the Tree Tenders and the township are getting together again to plant trees along the newly constructed Darby Creek Trail. Planting will begin at 1:30 and participants will meet at Bloomfield and Rosemont Avenues. We could use some extra hands. The link to sign up is on the township website homepage.

There will be an Identity Theft Protection event held at Beverly Hills Middle School on Wednesday, April 27th from 5-7:30pm. Each Upper Darby resident is allowed two boxes or bags of papers to be shredded on site. Acceptable materials include legal documents, bank & credit card statements, check books, as well as tax and medical records. A Drug Take Back Van from the Delaware County DA’s Office will also be on site.

A quick update on some of our above-ground projects: the bids for improvements to the 2nd Ward Playground will be in early next week and the scope of that project includes new playground equipment, a pavilion, a walking path, new lighting and security cameras. And today, we met with NV5, the firm that will design the upgrades to Observatory Field; those include a multi-purpose field, a walking path, new playground equipment, pickleball courts, a skatepark and storm water improvements.  

The 2nd Ward Playground project is funded through Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds and the Observatory Field project is funded through a DCNR grant with a match from our capital improvement budget.  CDBG, DCNR grants, and capital improvement funds all belong to the community, they’re all taxpayer-funded monies.  And so is American Rescue Plan money. All this is to say that even though the ARPA funds are being tied up by a slim majority of Council, my administration is still working to get above-ground projects completed and reinvest in our parks and open spaces. 

This evening, we will have a presentation on the township’s state of financial affairs by Donna Stilwell, from Brinker-Simpson, the firm now serving as Interim Finance Department Director, and from Vijay Kapoor, a financial consultant who worked with us last year and presented in executive session.  We plan to do a quarterly financial report going forward.

First, we’ll hear from Donna Stilwell.  

**Donna and Vijay present**

Click here to view Vijay Kapoor's presentation. 

Thank you for your time Donna and Vijay. That concludes my message tonight. 

Thank you.