Bridgeville’s planning commission was downsized earlier this month when council voted unanimously to eliminate two seats, once again making the commission a five-member group.
After expanding to seven seats in 2016, the commission spent the past six months operating with one unfilled vacancy. Another vacant seat opened in January 2021. Despite operating short-handed, the planning commission had a remarkably productive year, which included laying the groundwork to create a new comprehensive plan.
Although going back to a five-member model potentially reduces the breadth of member input and viewpoints, it also streamlines proceedings and make it easier for the commission to gather a quorum–something that might be of importance when the world opens back up and attending a meeting is no longer as easy as logging on to Zoom.
The current planning commission lineup is: Justine Cimarolli, Dale Livingston, Tim Nath, Mike Tolmer, and Larry Lennon Sr.
In other council news:
- Thanks to a steady stream of winter storms, the borough has exceeded its snow removal budget for this point in the year. The winter weather has cost Bridgeville about $10,000 in additional overtime and road salt costs, according to councilman Nino Petrocelli Sr.
- As part of a program designed to help attract and retain volunteer firefighters, the borough issued local earned income tax credits to 13 members of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department at a total cost of $3,900.
- On Feb. 21, Bridgeville police Sgt. Bill Young made a traffic stop that led to the largest heroin bust in borough history. Police seized nearly 400 individual bags of heroin—an unusually large amount outside of a major city, said police chief Chad King.