One of the issues facing the Bridgeville Planning Commission lately has been getting its members to show up for planning commision meetings.
So, immediately after appointing Nino Petrocelli Sr. to fill a planning commission vacancy, borough council voted 5-0 to begin the process of expanding the planning commission from five members to seven, which would open up more seats.
“The planning commission attendance is spotty sometimes,” said council president Michael Tolmer.
Council vice-president Bruce Ghelarducci said that this move has been months in the making.
“[With] of the stuff we have coming up in terms of improvements, we need the planning commission to work with us,” he said.
As far as filling the immediate vacancy, there wasn’t a lot of interest among Bridgeville residents, but what lacked in quantity was made up in quality.
The options on Monday night came down to two people who are as familiar as anybody with the issues facing the borough:
-Petrocelli, who served several decades on council before losing a re-election bid last year.
-Eric Schmidt, a resident who may have have the best public meeting attendance record for any non-elected official in Bridgeville.
Council voted 4-1 to appoint Petrocelli.
Neil Lyons cast the dissenting vote. William Henderson and Joseph Verduci were not present.
Prior to the vote, council president Tolmer—who nominated Petrocelli for the planing commission—said that “I am going to make sure that Eric Schmidt gets on the planning commission.”
Lyons wanted to know why, if Tolmer felt that strongly about Schmidt, he didn’t support appointing him now.
“Just like we don’t want to lose Eric,” Tolmer said, “I have the same feeling about Nino.”