Mayor's Message 12/14/22

Good evening. 

I have some exciting news to share tonight. Upper Darby has officially been approved for a grant through the Federal ARPA funds and the PCCD process  towards police record management systems, unmanned aerial system programs, additional police upgrades, and more in the amount of $2.2 million. This is a great opportunity for improvements that can enhance our police force. I’m very thankful to Senator Kearney for helping us secure this grant. 

Also, on the grant front, we received news that the county has awarded us $100,000 towards the construction of the Cardington-Newtown Trail and $250,000 towards the rehabilitation of Observatory Hill Playground on West Chester Pike.

There are also many events going on this week I would like to provide details for:

The Upper Darby Township & Sellers Memorial Free Public Library is hosting an after hours concert this Friday December 16! The trio of string musicians are all Temple University Graduate Students in Music Performance, and will play a selection of classical favorites. The concert is free and open to all. Please note that the library will be closed to regular service, and doors will open at 5:45 pm for seating in the adult area of the library. Concert begins promptly at 6:00 pm. Please contact Jennifer Stock, Director of Libraries, at 610-789-4440 for more information or questions.

The deadline for the Upper Darby Arts and Education Foundation's Toy Drive for local children is also this Friday, December 16th. There is a drop box for any new toys (still in packaging) inside the township building. Residents can drop donations off during our business hours 9-4:30pm tomorrow and Friday.

There will be multiple Santa runs occurring this weekend by our various Upper Darby fire companies. The Garrettford- Drexel Hill Fire Company will be escorting Santa with candy canes through some sections of Drexel Hill on Saturday, December 17th. In addition Co. 74 will be running a Santa detail in the Penn Pines Neighborhood on December 17th and the Westbrook Park Neighborhood on December 18th. 

As an additional reminder, the township building will close early tomorrow, December 15th at 3:30pm. 

As part of my message I’d like to invite our acting finance director, Donna Stilwell, to address a series of questions that were sent in an email late last night sent by Councilor Wentz representing the finance committee. For the past week my administration has worked hard to address requests made by the finance committee to make over $1 million in cuts to the 2023 budget - requests which were made less than 24 hours before the prior meeting. It seems now that the goal post has been moved again with more demands, so I would like to give Donna an opportunity to address those questions for Council before the public. Additionally, I asked the township labor attorney, John McLaughlin, to meet with council tonight prior to this meeting to answer questions councilors may have about arbitration related to the police contract.

*PAUSE FOR DONNA*

That concludes my message. Thank you.