Hi, Neighbors. Back before the holidays set in on us, we had our last Aleppo Legislative Meeting of the year and I wanted to let you know what we discussed.
It was a long meeting with many year-end formalities to address and ongoing conversation about the proposed Masonic Village Children’s Home. If you want to watch the meeting from the beginning, click here. Otherwise, feel free to click the links below to jump to the portions of the meeting that are of particular interest to you.
Here’s what happened:
- I delivered a President’s message in the form of an Annual Report. If you want to know what’s going on in your township, I tried to sum it all up here. I covered good things that happened in the municipality in 2017 and some issues of concern, too. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our police chief told us what calls his department responded to during the month and we discussed the posibility of using a communications app called Savvy Citizen. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our Emergency Management Coordinator updated us about our progress of preparing the municipality for an emergency. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our manager told us what the public works crews have been up to. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- I read several email addressed to the board: three from residents expressing concern about the proposed Masonic Village Children’s Home and one from the Superintendent of the Quaker Valley School District taking the position that she has no concerns about the prospect of a Children’s Home in the communities served by the QVSD. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our Treasurer told us how much money we collected in November and how much money we have in the bank. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We voted (4-0) to pay our bills. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We heard more details about the problems with the sewer pump station and the alleged Culligan discharge. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We discussed the Quaker Valley Council of Governments holiday party. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our Ambulance Authority representative told us that they raised $21,980 through the fund-raising drive and updated us on the Treat-No-Transport proposal. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- Our manager reminded us not to throw trash into storm sewer catch basins, not to wash your car over a catch basin, and to clean leaves off catch basins if the public works crews haven’t gotten there yet. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We discussed several motions concerning the proposed Masonic Children’s Home. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting and click here for clarification about the difference between a main motion and a subsidiary motion.)
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- We voted on a subsidiary motion to remove Main Motion #1 from the table and bring it up for vote in 30 days. By way of reminder, Main Motion #1 was to “Refer a proposed amendment of the text of the Aleppo Township Zoning Ordinance to the township Planning Commission and county, which adds a definition for a Children’s Home and amends the definitions of a Continuing Care Retirement Community and Life Care Facility/Senior Living Community as specified in the letter dated 19 October 2017.” The subsidiary motion to remove Main Motion #1 from the table and bring it up for a vote in 30 days failed (2-2). (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
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- A new main motion (Main Motion #3) was proposed: “To refer a proposed amendment of the text of the Aleppo Township Zoning Ordinance to the Township’s Planning Commission and County, which changes the zoning for Masonic specific to its existing use and adds a definition for a Children’s Home within that use and removes Life Care Facility from a conditional use in the R-2 district.” We voted (4-0) to defer Main Motion #3 for 30 days, so it will be voted on at the January Legislative Meeting. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
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- Main Motion #2 was withdrawn. By way of reminder, Main Motion #2 was to “Extend the time period to review the second option.” (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We voted (4-0) to adopt an ordinance setting the 2018 real estate tax rate at 3.5 mills. Our real estate tax rate has remained at 3.5 mills for at least four years now and it is the second lowest tax rate in the Quaker Valley School District. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We voted (4-0) to adopt an ordinance approving the 2018 budget as advertised. This is a balanced, on-time budget that does not include a tax increase. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We voted (4-0) to prohibit the location of a mini-casino in Aleppo. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We voted (4-0) to make Aleppo township email addresses for commissioners and post them to the website. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We reminded residents that if they put their Christmas trees at their curb on January 8, 2018, we will pick them up and deliver them to North Park to be recycled. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting and click here for full details about this program.)
- We again asked residents not to park their cars on the street during snow events … cars parked on the get in the way of the snow plow, make it difficult to fully clear the street, and create an unsafe condition for our road crews. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- A citizen expressed confusion about the motions concerning the proposed Masonic Village Children’s Home. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- We discussed which roads the township plows in the Manor. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- A resident questioned the progress of the lawsuit concerning the pump station. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- A citizen requested clarification of the newly proposed Main Motion #3. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting and click here to see the diagrams we looked at during this portion of the meeting.)
- The Executive Director of Masonic Village talked about proposals to reduce traffic on School Street and re-route GPS systems. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- A resident asked questions about the lawsuit against Aleppo brought by Masonic Village arising out of the sewer project and the township’s potential financial exposure. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
- A citizen raised questions about zoning plans with respect to the proposed Masonic Village Children’s Home. (Click here to watch this portion of the meeting.)
Our next Workshop meeting will be on Monday, January 8, 2018 at 7:00 PM. If any of these issues are important to you, please feel free to join us. If you cannot attend the meeting in person, please feel free to share your thoughts with me by email and I will be sure to convey your feelings to the other commissioners.
Thanks for a great year in 2017 in Aleppo. Here’s to another good one in 2018!
Best wishes,
Matthew Doebler
Aleppo Township Commissioner