Mayor's Message 7/20/22

Good Evening Everyone,

I’d like to begin with a reminder that National Night Out is coming up on Tuesday August 2nd. This is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie. The event will take place at the 69th Street Recreation Area from 6-8pm with free food, activities, and giveaways! Come check out the helicopter landing at 6 along with Upper Darby's K-9 unit, and our bike and car seat safety demonstrations between 7-8. 

Yesterday, we hosted a town hall meeting concerning the ARPA funding which remains unallocated by Council. The atmosphere fostered by our amazing community speakers and our panel of administration leadership, as well as all our resident attendees was one of positivity and inspiration. It was incredible to see such a display of what makes our Upper Darby community the amazing place that it is. And how much it deserves this ARPA money. Council received on Thursday 6 narrowly tailored ordinances for each of the allocations of the funds. 

These include:

Flood Mitigation & Sewer Upgrades: $5,000,000.00

Police & Fire: $5,500,000.00

Upper Darby Community Center: $3,000,000.00

COVID Relief & Negative Economic Impacts: $5,786,245.00

Parks & Public Spaces: $4,500,000.00

Additional Lost Revenue 2020: $1,776,294.00

Lost Revenue 2021: $9,999,400.00

Total: $35,561,939

As Jack Reagan from UHY discussed last night, we are on a tight timeline. The federal government considers the funds allocated not just when the funds are released through the ordinances but when we have contracted out with vendors to spend these funds. We need time for bids and contracts to be finalized. These funds need to be contracted by December 2024 and need to be spent in full by December 2026. Jack Reagan serves as our ARPA Administrator and Compliance Agent and clearly articulated the timeline.  We are working against the clock. I urge Council to immediately put these on the agenda for introduction and advertisement.

July is Parks and Recreation Month. Throughout my administration, we’ve really seen our Parks Division staff come together to pull off some incredibly successful projects. I want to take a moment to thank them and recognize them for all the work that they’ve done. Some of the projects include sprucing up the Sellers Library and Park grounds, working with the Tree Tenders to build the Clyde and Gisela Hunt Tree Nursery in Naylors Run Park, planting and watering over 300 trees and shrubs in Gillespie Park and most recently, clearing the township’s property at the Nickel Plate House along the Darby Creek Trail. All in all, we appreciate all the hard work our various crews do in all sorts of weather conditions.

Thank you.