Borough Council

Sharon Hill Borough Legislative Meeting Minutes Thursday, May 15, 2025 Quote of the Meeting Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” – Warren Wiersbe • Call To Order at 7:00 p.m. • Pledge of Allegiance • Roll Call – President Tanya Allen (P) Vice President Edward Booker (P) Councilor Sharon Booker (P) Councilor William Felder (P) Councilor Rodney Hill (P) Councilor Sandra Holcombe (P) Councilor James Patrick III (P) Mayor Hykeem Green (P) Borough Solicitor Kyle Miller (E) Borough Engineer Susan Lynch (P) Police Chief Richard Herron (P) Code Building Official Anthony Tartaglia (P) Borough Treasurer Will Morgan (P) Borough Manager Ieasa Nichols (P) Public Comments (Resuming from May 1, 2025 Caucus Meeting that could not go forward and was adjourned.) • Motion to support the Academy Park 2025 After Prom donation of $500.00. Moved S.H. Seconded E.B. Motion Passed • Resolution 2025-12 – Motion to adopt Vision Zero Resolution. Moved S.H. Seconded E.B. Motion Passed Committee Updates: President Tanya Allen: Library, CPCIP o Library Report: Mr. Ashby o Reported current library statistics. o Working on the Juneteenth Celebration. o We have reached out to collaborate with the Penn State Extension and 4H Club to bring programming to the library at no cost to us. o The Museum passes are back up and running. All Delco Libraries are sharing their museum passes and they can be downloaded from your computer at home. Page | 1 o CPCIP: President Allen o The Executive Director has been asked to update the accomplishments to date made by the CPCIP team. Next month the meeting will be held in Sharon Hill on Thursday, June 12, 11:00 a.m. The meeting is open to the public. o President Allen is a member of the Delaware County Workforce Development Board, and she wanted residents to know that she has been posting information on our website and that the County is supporting impacted employees from the Prospect Park Holdings bankruptcy. Also, if you are a SHB resident and you do not have access to the website and would like to get information, please reach out to me and I will be happy to send information to you directly. o The grant application will be submitted today in preparation of SHB participating in the 2026 “America 250” celebrations. More specifics to come. Also, if anyone would like to partner with us to participate in the celebrations, please let me know. o We will once again be having the fireworks event for 4th of July. It will be on June 28th. We will be coordinating with the Recreation Board and, if anyone has contacts for people who would like to join us, please let us know. o Happy belated Mothers’ Day to all of SHB mothers. o President Allen acknowledged it is National Police Week. She recognized Chief Herron and thanked him and the department for the work they are doing. o The Ordinance regarding bikes was brought up by Councilor Felder. President Allen said we will review the ordinance and upgrade, if necessary, to be sure the language is clear and there are no conflicts. o Two weeks ago, Councilor Felder and I attended the Delaware County Transportation Management Authority Annual Conference and Trade Show. We interacted with PennDOT authorities as well as the secretary of transportation and received useful information to bring back to the borough. Vice President Edward Booker: Public Safety/DCJA o The monthly Fire Chief Report was read and submitted. o On May 19, the Borough Manager and I met with the DCJA and some of its members to discuss our current contract. We do not have any specifics at this time, but we are continuing to collaborate with them. o On Monday May 26, 2025, from 11-1:00p.m. we will be honoring our veterans in Memorial Park. Please join us, if possible, to give honor to those who have served. Junior Council Report – No report Councilor Sharon Booker: SHACC o SHACC is celebrating 10 years of excellence in the community, bringing art and culture programs to the borough this year. All events are free of charge to residents. o We will have our monthly Flea Market in Memorial Park from 9:00-2:00p.m., June 7, 2025. o We will be having our doll making event in June. All info will be posted on the website. Page | 2 o We had our Make and Take event for the young people for Mother’s Day, but we decided we are not going to continue doing this for the children due to the dwindling number of children participating. In addition, we will not be having the event for this upcoming Father’s Day in June. Going forward we will be focusing on the adult activities. o We would like to make a couple of corrections to April 17, 2025, Legislative minutes. Corrections are: The flea market should read monthly not weekly and SHACC is not a committee but a commission. Councilor William Felder: Public Works o The Code reports were read and submitted. Councilor Rodney Hill: Recreation o Starting on July 20 we will begin our basketball skills and drills camp at our Academy Park gym which will continue until August 23. At the end of the camp, we will have the Jalen Duren Day celebration. We will be sending a mailout on Friday and registration has already started. o Regarding the 4th of July event, we will be including our Family Fun Day inside the event. In addition to the Family Fun Day activities, we are calling for anyone young or old who has a bike to join us in the 4th of July parade. All bikes should be decorated, and we will be choosing a “best decorated” bike. More to come. Councilor Sandra Holcombe: Public Health o This is National Women’s Health Week and one of the main things you can do right now if you experience any problems getting your medical records due to the Crozer Health System closures, is to call your health insurance to get help. They have been very helpful during this difficult time. Councilor James Patrick, III: Personnel – No report. • Officials’ Updates: Mayor, Hykeem Green - The Police report statistics were read and submitted. - Mayor Green announced that the Ramblers have started their Spring workouts and will run from April-June. Borough Solicitor, Kyle Miller, Kilkenny Law – Alex Baumler substituting. - Alex mentioned the Solicitor, Kyle Miller, is not here this evening but he is aware that he has been working on a couple of things with the Borough Manager; however, he does not have any updates to report at this time. Page | 3 Borough Engineer, Susan Lynch, Lighthouse Engineering - The Engineer met with Delcora along with the Borough Manager. Delcora has begun a mitigation project throughout the borough which is being fully funded by Delcora. They are currently evaluating areas. They received a grant and will begin doing sewer work on Elmwood Ave. this week. For residents that will be impacted, Delcora will reach out to them directly. This program benefits Delcora as well as the residents. - The Engineer reported that she is working with the Auditor for the DCED bus shelter and alleyway grants and any flags should get removed from the system soon. Building Code Official, Anthony Tartaglia - There was a stop-work order for 242 Garvin Blvd. The Code Official is awaiting details and has not been given enough information to be able to review a permit application. - Councilor Hill mentioned 738 Poplar. There is trash that has been there for quite some time. - Councilor Hill asked about the house on Bartlett with the scaffolding and the lot next to it. The Code Official commented that we have approached the owner and have put tickets and warnings on the house. He mentioned he has been to the property 3-4 times. Regarding scaffolding, he believes there is a possible avenue to resolve. Regarding the lot next to it, the Code Official said we had talked about the approval for an abatement. He reviewed an abatement process that Council could adopt, or Council could adopt another program similar to it. He advised that he could send the proposal to Council to review. President Allen wrapped up the discussion and said that all of the different discussions and possible solutions on both matters will be taken into consideration and that we will need the Solicitor and others at the table for decisions to be made. - At the last meeting there was a young lady who came in about raccoons. The Code Official advised that we have been in contact with the management company to get them to come back to unseal the opening with the racoons and to get it done as soon as possible. - Work for Starbucks has begun. Tomorrow Commonwealth will be doing the inspections, and they will begin pouring the foundation for the new development. The Official will be meeting the owner at the site tomorrow to see how far along they are with their contract. Councilor Hill asked if we could find out how long the lease is and if it is a franchise, a private owner, or both. The Code Official did not know but will ask the owner when he sees them tomorrow. Councilor Hill asked if the company will definitely be baiting since there will be demolition/excavation being done at the site. The Official advised that they will be baiting when they start and again if they have to go into the street. Police Chief, Richard Herron – No report. Treasurer, Will Morgan - The Treasurers Report for April 2025 was read and submitted. Items from the April 18-May 14, 2025, Bills and Applied Payments reports were reviewed and all but 1 question was answered. V.P. Booker asked about a Verizon bill line in the report and the treasurer said he would look into it and respond via email. Borough Manager, Ieasa A. Nichols - Advised council we have a street sweeper and will begin street cleaning next week. However, we will not be issuing any violations as a courtesy for the first 2 weeks. Information has been placed on our website. Page | 4  - From the last meeting we discussed the purchase of 3 police vehicles. We have financing from KS Statebank to purchase the vehicles. The lease term includes the purchase of the vehicles with a 4-year lease term. We also will need Council to approve a motion for the old vehicles to off-set some of the cost. There is a resolution to authorize the sale of vehicles for vote tonight. - We are currently having a 5-year pension audit. There are 3 outstanding items that we must submit to the auditor general for final review. Also, as reported at Caucus, there were findings from the 2019 audit which will need to be addressed in our next round of negotiations for the FOP contract. They were all minor findings. - The 2022 general audit was finally completed and uploaded to DCED which should remove the flags from our grants and allow us to move forward. - Yesterday we had our Precon meeting with our awarded contractor and the project engineer for phase 2 of the Weiderwax Park Project. Permits are being applied for with Code, and we are hoping to have the project started in the next 2 weeks. - Senator Williams’ office provided us with information regarding the fire commission grant as it relates to capital improvement; and, if we qualify, it will help the fire department to update their structures and to get additional apparatus. I spoke with our fire chief, and he informed me that because we are a volunteer company and not a fire department, this might impact us. We did go back to Senator Williams to see if there was something they could do to help us advocate for local fire companies to qualify for grant funding. Public Comment – Thomas Walls, Denise Ellis, Donna Hunter, Bishop Frankie - Thomas Watson \- Problem with neighbor’s dog barking for long periods of time. Resident has tried various avenues to resolve without any result and do not want to take any further. Council President asked the acting Solicitor if he could give any direction. He mentioned that there should be something in the noise ordinance for continuous barking. Council President said the Solicitor and Borough Manager should address how to enforce the ordinance. - Ms. Nicky 655 Poplar St. – Concerned about animals as well as 3 vacant properties. - The properties are all empty and the trees and the grass need to be cut. - How to get the animals registered to individual properties because of a large number of strays. If the person moves out and leaves the animal behind, the county needs to find the individual or have whatever agency find a new home for the animal. - How to address neighbors letting their animals loose and enforce the owners picking up after the animals. - Asked about having a dog park in Sharon Hill. - President Allen addressed the dog park concern saying that we do have an ordinance which does not allow dogs in the parks. Regarding the dog park, the Borough Manager shared that one of the reasons Sharon Hill does not have a dog park is the additional costs for insurance are beyond what we can afford. Regarding the issues with residents, we will follow up regarding finding the property owners and reviewing the dog ordinances. We will continue conversations with Chief Herron regarding registering the dogs and he agreed to review and have suggestions if there is anything we can do. Regarding the animal poop, we did have bags at one time to give to residents, but those bags are no longer available. They came from the storm water authority, and we will inquire to see what we can find out or we will need to order some bags. Page | 5  - Donna Hunter, 1026 Coates – Concerned with children on the electric bikes and the bigger dirt bikes, going too fast on sidewalks. - The car wash at Chester Pike and Clifton have not picked up their trash for months or cut the grass. - The property at 1028 Coates Street when they are emptying the dumpster they are not picking anything up. - Inquired about the June 12th meeting at 11:00 a.m. - There is a lot of fighting going on in the parks. Will there be security for the after prom? - The bus shelters, the one they are not stopping at. There are people sitting waiting for a bus, but it is no longer a stop. We need a shelter. - Regarding Electric scooters and jeeps, President Allen asked Chief Herron if he knows anything about this and he said he has not seen any problems. She also mentioned that Bike the Pike promotes safety and they will be coming to the borough to discuss the importance of safety. We need to reach out to the school to see if they have any issues regarding this. President Allen asked Code to follow up with the car wash. Regarding 1028 Coates we will have to find out when they are picking up the trash and contact the management company. The meeting on June 12 is the CPCIP meeting and it is open to the public. Regarding the after prom, Chief Herron was asked if they are offering any support and he said they will be involved. There is no bus stop on Clifton and Sharon right in front of the car wash. President Allen did ask Public Works to go there and see what is happening and to clean it up. - Bishop Frankie 1408 Melrose Ave - What is the update on the bridge work on Folcroft. The Engineer said the last she heard they were working on the overhead wiring and waiting on fabrication of the steel. The lead-time for the fabrication of the steel is approximately 4-6 months. There is no plan right now to make a pedestrian crosswalk. President Alllen said it is worth looking into when the time comes. New Business • Motion to approve the Treasurers Report General Fund Balance of $1,752,238.90 as of 04/30/25. Moved S.B. Seconded E.B. Motion Passed • Motion to approve Bills and Invoices Report totaling $138,386.12. Moved W.F. Seconded E.B. Motion Passed • Motion to Approve Resolution 2025-13 – Authorization to Advertise Used Vehicles for Sale Page | 6  Moved S.H. Seconded R.H. Motion Passed • Motion to Ratify Lease Agreement for Police Vehicles with KS Statement Bank. Moved S.B. Seconded S.H. Motion Passed • Motion to Approve the April 17, 2025 Legislative Minutes with corrections. Moved E.B. Seconded W.F. Motion Passed Old Business - Councilor Felder is reminding everyone about the blood drive on Thursday, June 5, 2025, from 12-5 p.m. at the Folcroft building. - Councilor Felder announced he had lunch with a group called Self Inc. and they are trying to get us to listen to their platform which deals with homelessness and the youth. I would like to ask Council for a time when they could do a 15-minute presentation on what they are about and what they offer. Councilor Felder will get back with Council and advise on the best way to present in June Caucus. - Councilor Hill asked when we will be reviewing the need for more speed bumps. The Borough Manager advised that the signs are being put up now. We are tracking the speed and people are adhering to the speed sign and it is working. We are hoping to get another sign in within the next 6 weeks. Signs can be moved to other areas if needed. - Councilor Hill mentioned that while canvassing the borough he noticed there are streets without names. The Borough Manager said you should report them to the office, and we will give them to the highway department. Adjournment – 9:15 p.m. Upcoming Meeting: Caucus, Thursday, June 5, 2025 “Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” – Warren Wiersbe Page | 7