Council - Regular Meeting

I like to call this June 1st regular council work session and council meeting to order. Let's remember all those who passed away during the month and also let's remember Councilwoman Cullen who went under open heart surgery today to replace a valve and they were able to replace one valve and repair one and work on an aneurysm also. So right before our meeting, we found out that she's off of the respirator and moving to recovery, but she's been through a lot today. Started at 5 30 this morning and let's keep her in our prayers. Please salute the flag. Mr. Dilling, will you do roll call, please? Mr. Pezza? Here.

Ms. Cohen?

Ms. Rodriguez?

Here.

Mr. Cousins? Here.

Ms. Figueroa?

Here.

Mr. Johnson?

Here. Mr. Petrucci? Here. Mr. Peterson?

Here. So we have a presentation we want to start with tonight with the Academic Oversight Committee, and we'll bring up Amy. Who wants to come up? You? Thank you. Everybody, come on up. Come on down. Council Member Catroche will do the presentation.

Okay. I would like to present this check for $10,000 to the AOC for their summer program. and for the great job they've done for the borough for many, many years. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilman Cotrucci. Thank you, Council President Giuseppe and Mr. Dillon and everyone else on the council for your collaboration and partnership with the Academic Oversight Committee. This contribution, donation, supports an important program that happens in the summer, the summer camp that begins, I believe, on June 29th and runs through the first week of August. We partner with other assets in the community, the Bristol Riverside Theater, but this donation makes it possible. It helps run the programs, provide programming like Patrick Mulhern's paddle boarding, which is really an important project. Since we live on a river town, kids have to understand the tides, the currents, and what that all means. We couldn't do it without the collaboration and support of the council, so we're greatly appreciative. And again, it's all about the children and the families and the community that benefit from the camp.

So like Mrs. McElvain spoke about, the 21st Century Afterschool and Summer Program is a great opportunity for the kids here in the Barrow. Especially these summer trips, getting the kids outside the Barrow, experiencing different things like Tyler State Park. It's a beautiful park here in our county. that a lot of students here don't get to experience. We have the pleasure of working with Bristol, the Drift Water Adventures, like Ms. Amy McElwain talked about, teaching the kids about rip currents and being close and safe next to the water, being on the Delaware, why it's so important. But this is also an opportunity for kids to have fun during the summer. Yes, our summer camp is all about academic enrichment. But how do you get those kids in the door? Promising them that they're going to have a great summer. They're going to have great opportunities. So that's why things like these are really important for these kids here in the Barrow. So thank you guys again for all your ongoing support. We couldn't do this without everybody here in town. We graciously appreciate all of you. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I'm going to open up public participation, so anybody on this side of the room want to speak on anything? Anybody on this side of the room want to speak on anything?

Patrick Ballhern, 719 Radcliffe Street. I'm here to give a long overdue update on the 56, John Mundy, Mill Street Run. Mr. Mundy wanted to be here, but he had a prior engagement tonight. He couldn't make it, so he asked me to come. Last year was our biggest Mill Street Run to date. with 26 high schools coming um the year prior was eight eight less so we had 18 high schools last year and that was our biggest year um so it's it's quite an increase in uh an exposure for the borough um sharing this beautiful town sharing this amazing event 56 years uh god bless john mundy We had 250 open runners in the open race. We had 56 participants in a one mile fun run, a relatively new event that we started for Everybody from we have toddlers running with their parents. They may not do the one mile fun run, but they run and they get excited. We had a total of 755 athletes in five separate races. For many, you may not realize that this run is free for kids. So all those high school kids, all the kids in the open race, all the kids from the borough that come and they run in the open race, they're all free. This doesn't happen by accident. This is because of our amazing sponsors and also the fees that we generate from the open race. So any opportunity you have to promote and encourage people to do the open race, it really does come out to dollars and cents to make these programs possible. This is really a life sport. So it's not like football or basketball. This is something an early age, these kids are learning how to manage stress, weight, and just overall health. So getting them into it, showing them that if they put together a good plan, They're dedicated. They'll get that accomplishment. They'll get that accolade. It's 3.1 mile run. It's nothing to sniff at for a young kid to do. And it should be a rite of passage in the borough. That is my hope. Being in life and fitness my whole life, I'm 100% behind that. Some of our sponsors, Penn Community Bank, Bristol Borough Raising the Bar, King George Inn, CBM of Bristol, Caesars Restaurant, Mark Burton, Bruce Beaton Insurance, First Fidelity Bank, Neshaminy Valley First Financial, Drift on Mill Street, Giovanni's Cafe, first year here and he was all in. The Mundy, Mignone, McCluskey, Mulhern, Wheeler, and Scandlin family. Special thanks to Bristol Borough Police, Borough Administrators, Emergency Services Manager, AJ, Bucks County Rescue Squad. It's truly a community event put on by the community as a whole. We shined that day. We also made a $1,000 donation to Bucks County Rescue Squad. Last year, Mill Street Run organized team teamed up with Bristol Borough Schools, and we hosted our first preparatory Mill Street Run summer program for fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. Special thanks to our coaches, Nick Cramp and Desiree Bunda. We had 15 students train, finish their very first Mill Street run, and really learn what it takes to accomplish a goal. And they did something productive over the summer that was healthy. They were outside. They're training two days a week, so it's something consistent and they're up early to train. Mill Street Run is the first Saturday after Labor Day and is assured to be sunny and beautiful as per Mr. Mundy. This year is our 57th Mill Street Run. It will be September 12th. Kids Run, Fun Run kicks off at 7.45 a.m. You can register at runsignup.com under Mill Street Run. Mill Street Run is known for being fast, flat, and family friendly. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I have a quick question. You said it was on September 12th. Did you say the time?

7.45 it starts.

And then there's different ages?

There are five different races through that. There's boys and girls, JV, high school, and the open race and the fun run.

And then I would just say... Because I certainly would love to donate to you.

No, I know you would. I know you would. And I would love to accept that donation.

There's a lot of us that probably would donate, but we're never asked.

Yeah. And we really are relying on the open runners, the more open runners that we have. I know you guys get asked for a thousand different things. It's a pile this big. So we take that under consideration. Send a text right to the source. Yes, for sure.

Anybody else have any questions? Thanks, Bob.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

That ends public participation. Chief, you have anything? Nothing tonight. Herbie? AJ?

with a full-scale drill of Clark to evaluate the training. The training and the drill were outstanding at KJ. That's a really big undertaking to be able to do that. And the last thing was that fire on Barfield Street involving multiple younglings on the road on a Friday morning.

Harvey, not to interrupt, is your mic muted?

I don't have to go through that from the beginning, do I?

No.

We had a fire on Garfield Street involving multiple dwellings in the row on a Friday morning. That kind of construction in Bristol Borough provides a significant challenge to the fire service. And on that day, it provided a significant challenge to the Borough Fire Service and all of our mutual aid resources. Basically, holding it to the 3 dwellings that were involved when you 1st got here and the investigation on that part remains open.

I just, I know I was copied on these emails, but I think it showed a lot of class on your part. Thank. Personal township and Kevin double lead on that for. Coming in and responding to the help out with the bar, which it shows. It shows a great cooperation that you guys have relationships with everybody. So I was very happy to see that.

Thank you for the email. Can I ask a question about that fire? You don't have a mic, right?

Oh, that's right. I'll just use mine.

Is there a status on the properties themselves? Like, will they be condemned? Do you know? Will they? Do you have any idea of that?

All right, thank you.

AJ, do you have anything? You're good? All right, so Greg, since your mic's flying around, let's start with you.

Let's go. Just a couple of things. First of all, I just wanted to compliment Melissa. I believe it's Moeller. I think that's how you say her last name. She's a teacher at Snyder Jurati. She put together a scavenger hunt with other teachers. There were plenty of other teachers out entrepreneurial spirit. Really cool to see. It was a beautiful day. The kids were really excited to be out and about. I thought that was a really neat thing for her to do. It was fun because I got to see the two kids that played us in the Wax Museum earlier in the year. They were really excited to be there. It was fun. three-on-three summer-spring basketball program, which is going great. I mean, it's just a lot of fun. The kids are really enjoying it. It's not super intense. It's not super serious, but it's a good way to get them to continue to play. They're getting better, and this little three-on-three league that we have has been a lot of fun for them, and we spread out the teams well, and we're excited about that. I wanted to thank Fields Printware. They're located right here in the old Bell Bridal. to be getting tomorrow night and we really appreciate that. They do a really nice job over there. And then my last thing is just a request for Mr. Dillon. Our program goes on until June 30th and on a night like tonight we would love the optionality of being able to move um no i don't have anything um but i would like to extend my condolences to um

She passed away.

I got you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of people might not have known her, but a lot of us did. She passed away. She was an LPN. She did a lot of funding for Gilda's Way. She was a big supporter of the Puerto Rican Cultural Association from Bucks County. She was the past president. And she was an organizer of annual scholarships for kids. They raised money, and every year they gave scholarships for the kids. Unfortunately, She passed away this past week. And anybody who knew her, her name is Narada McCauley Brewster. She didn't live in Bristol, but her whole family is from Bristol and they're Bristolians. So we'd like to express our condolences to everyone and know that we're thinking of them in these hard times and just know that she will be missed dearly.

and her sister Esther and I went to school together. We graduated at 67, and they lived in the borough for quite a while.

And she would surely be missed.

I know I always worked with her with the getting ready for the parades and things like that, with the Puerto Rican Association. On a lighter note, I wanted to mention that Father Mooney from St. Mark's Church was honored at a retirement party on Sunday, and over 500 people were there to celebrate his retirement. He's done a terrific job in town with St. Mark's and Other areas, even people that were non-Catholic were there to wish him well because he's worked together with so many people. And we even made the ABC News that night with the event. So it was nice to see that happen. That's it for me.

Yeah, I'm not going to be long.

anybody that's sitting in this sitting here and watching you know if you can feel the sense of love and community something's wrong with you this town is something very special very special from the residents to governing officials everybody's pulling in the same direction we've best for the town and when you're in positions of you know recreation or your positions of food it's not always easy because you can't please everybody you can't and i have an 80 20 policy my 80 20 policy 80 of people you're going to please but there's 20 you're not but i feel that we're in a better position where i believe we really have a 90 10 situation going on which if you're operating in the 90-10, even 95-5, you're really doing a nice job. And I feel that we're in that 95-5 position. And listening to the comments made tonight, listening to what's going on around town, it's always sounded like great problems to have. Great problems. We're talking about veteran courts for kids to play basketball. We're talking about flag football. We're talking about loving our citizens. For me, that's the reason why I choose to be here.

Amen.

That's the reason why I choose to be here. I don't want to go anywhere else. My boys, they are benefiting from what this town has to offer. And it's a lot of people that are not from this town that move into this town because they recognize what this town has to offer. And for those that are lucky, that are blessed, Blessed to be residents here in this town. That's exactly how you should feel. You are blessed to be here because you have a community that has your back. You have a community that's looking to do the right thing for anybody and who's anybody. It doesn't matter where you come from, no matter where you come from. So I'm just going to say, personally, I love it here. I love it. I love it. I'm a Bristol Township guy. I'm originally from Alabama, Roll Tide. But I grew up in the township and then moved here in the borough, and I've been here ever since. But that's the reason why I choose to be here is because of that reason. It's a sense of community that you can't find anywhere else. So I'm just... I'm just happy to hear all the positive things that are happening in town, things that are going on, things that are upcoming. It's awesome. So I'm done.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just have a couple things. One, what we like to do is... Next week's agenda. We'll have the date. That'll always be in our history book. This day will be father moving day forever. So, council can put that on next week's agenda. The other thing is, I want to bring up an executive session. We discussed a possibility of filing some personal lawsuits against a few people in town. So that's something that will be discussed, but it's an executive session. Item, but it's very possible that council's prepared to file. Some lawsuits against a couple of individuals and our solicitor. The prior solicitor will speak on another matter to clear something up.

If I may, first of all, as chair, as the president said, we were in executive session to discuss some legal matters as well as some labor relations matters. But I do want to call Bristol Borough residents' attention to a article that was printed back on May 6 when a person named Joshua Prince, a lawyer, from the Civil Rights Defense PC said the following, secured a major victory in obtaining an emergency ex parte preliminary injunction precluding enforcement of Bristol Borough's warrantless and suspiciousness searches of clients, buildings, and apartments in the case of Blank versus Bristol Borough. He also says he got the injunction because he's likely to prevail in his claims. Well, let me say, first of all, the Borough Council and the Borough itself wants to make sure that tenants live in homes and apartments that have smoke alarms, that are fit for habitation. But more importantly, and I think the public should know, that on May 28th of last month, upon the petition for the injunction filed by Mr. Prince, and after a hearing was held on May 8th, 2026, a legal memorandum was submitted by our office and Mr. Prince, the judge denied the injunction and said that the emergency injunction entered pursuant to the court's order dated May 6th, 2026 is vacated. And furthermore, he said the following, Herstel Borough may file a motion for hearing on damages and all financial security shall remain held until further order of the court. So for all that luster, the judge agreed with the borough and denied the injunction and said borough filed an application for expenses. So it just goes to show that the borough's ordinances are, in fact, defensible and appropriate.

So just to jump on what Jeff said, when I got elected 25 years ago, my campaign, I ran a campaign on protecting the rights of people that were renting. We started a rental program 25 years ago. And this, Prince defiled this campaign. against the borough for an injunction, didn't want us to inspect his properties. So he's from Quaker Town. I don't know where he's from. But like Jeff said, if we don't get in these properties, there's a lot of people in town that landlords take advantage of. And the landlords aren't even from Bristol. And I mean, whether you're from Bristol or not, We need to protect the people that live in these homes. I used to have people call me crying on a phone because if they complained, the landlord would throw them out or the landlord would raise their rent. And they just, it was a nightmare. But we finally got it under control. It took many years to do and a lot of pain. But we're going to fight these decisions. Anybody wants to come in town and own a property, they're going to maintain their property. that no matter who it is, I own property. You can come and inspect any one of my properties without notice. Anybody wants to look at him. But we all need to be held to a higher standard. And I'm glad we won this case. And if he wants to appeal, that's his decision. But we're not going to have people tell us that we can't come and maintain, check their property for, to maintain a good property in this town. Right, Mara? And Mara handles it, so. Okay, anything else, Jeff? Patrick, I guess we're fine, and we have nothing to report. We discussed everything in executive session.

Yes, sir, that's correct.

All right.

Yes.

Jim? I know Amanda has a couple of words.

She'd like to talk about the State Department MS4 that's being discussed.

Go ahead. What was her name?

just a few quick words i'll be brief um i just wanted to give our annual update on the borough's ms4 permit ms4 stands for municipal separate storm sewer system which means all the inlets and piping in the borough it's mandatory to hold a permit with the state dep for our storm system and it requires us to be proactive about keeping our waterways clean I know all of you are aware, but for the benefit of the public, all of our storm inlets in the street drain directly to the river. Part of the requirements for our permit are to help educate our residents that only storm water should enter our inlets. Education and public involvement are accomplished via meetings like this, such as tonight, as well as our cleanup day that was just held and is organized by Ms. Figueroa. Pollution in our storm drains and therefore in our creeks and in the river can come from multiple sources like pesticides, pet waste, industrial facilities, leaks and spills from vehicles, and sediment or dirt from construction projects or any areas with exposed soil. To help reduce the sediment in the river, we, along with our surrounding communities, are required to construct a stormwater project to help filter out sediment before it enters the waterway. I'm sure you've heard me discuss it in the past, but our project that we have proposed will be a vegetated swale in the area between Howe and Green Streets. We've partnered with PECO in order to construct our swale alongside their active remediation project. We're currently working through permitting with the state and with PICO's consultant and we plan to have the swale completed in late fall or early spring. PICO has agreed to cover the construction costs associated with the project so there will be no out-of-pocket costs for construction by the borough. So hopefully my update next year will include some before and after photos of our completed swale project and we can check the box for our MS4 permit that we're in compliance. Thank you. Is there any questions about this wonderful topic? I'd be happy to take them.

I would just like to make a comment. How much work is being done back there? I mean, I've been back there with PECO and just to see the work done and the slurry that they're pouring in to stabilize the ground around that. And I think it was good for the, the timing was good for the borough. Because PECO had to do a lot of work for their cleanup of the old gas manufacturing site. So it worked well for us. And PECO's really been doing a good job. I know your people have been there examining it all the time. So thank you and the Gilmore people for all that hard work. And thanks to PECO and ESOP, AECOM.

Yeah, no, it really did work out timing wise that we had, I mean, we had proposed this project location years ago. And so when Pico was, you know, explaining the next phase of their remediation project to us and it happened to overlap, they agreed to partner with us. That was great.

Thank you. Any questions for Amanda? So we have one more thing that I forgot, but I'm going to let Greg discuss it, but we wish Lorraine,

make this announcement for the last few years but greg i'll let you make it yeah it's never too late to fulfill a campaign promise even if that campaign promises 14 years old but uh no run passed all of its inspections today um you know again it's it is very exciting um we will you know we're still waiting for those doors to open and people to go through so we wonder we're not gonna sell the and the neighbors would totally understand that, but I do think it's a testament to the fact that we've stuck to it, they've stuck to it, and yeah, some projects take a lot longer than we wanted to, but if you remember what Bill Run looks like 11, 12, 13 years ago, compare it to what it looks like now. It's a major property in Bristol Borough that was virtually abandoned and run down, and now it's ready to open its doors pretty soon, so we're happy about that, we're proud of it, Certainly, you know, the big guns like the council president had to get involved many a time to talk through construction things and things that we don't all necessarily know the way that he does, but it's been a collaborative effort. I know Lorraine and I and the rest of the council are really excited.

And it's much needed.

When she wakes up, they're saying by Wednesday she should be able to work. That's the first thing.

Yep.

We're going to let her know. She's going to go right to the front door and go to that. But just so the public knows, I was in this building several times over the last month, and I have never been in a building. This building is just unbelievable. There's marble everywhere. The building is absolutely gorgeous inside. They have a dialysis center. A hair salon they got. I mean, it's just, it's mind-boggling how beautiful this place is. They got waterfalls coming down and flat-screen TVs. It looks like you're walking into a five-star hotel. That's how beautiful this place is.

If I could say one more thing, and this is not at all about... rehashing political arguments. But I would like to say, though, that when we talk about government at work, I think a lot of people might forget there was a controversial topic back in the day about Alerta that we decided to give to them to help them really kind of get their feet under that alert. We were basically at some tax relief as they get to a place where they can improve the project, improve the building. And the whole goal of that was to give them some wiggle room to improve the building so that the value of that building would eventually probably see those tax dollars on the back end anyway. And I think that's an example of a successful decision that we made a long time ago. And there were some people that didn't want it, totally understood their argument then. And maybe eight years in, I started to think maybe they were right, but now that

Well, the guy that owns it, man, he's stuck with this project. And let me tell you, he put – when I tell you millions, he invested millions of dollars in this project. You've got to give him credit. He could have walked away any time he wanted and just filed bankrupt or whatever. And he just kept putting money and money and money into this place. But the alerted – It never affected Bristol Borough tax base. We always collected the same taxes that we always would have collected on this property. What it did, it deferred the additional tax on the renovation part. And that goes 20% a year, I think, over five years or something. Amanda, something like that. So if it was another, let's say, $100,000, if they were paying $100,000 additional to repay on it, So we never lost tax dollars. That was our argument before. But put all that aside, this building is just, when people see it and say, he's going to do some kind of an open house, it's going to blow you away. I can tell you that. The rooms are granite countertops. Kitchens are like, it's beautiful. It really is. Okay, so anybody have anything else before we get to our regular meeting? So, all in participation, anybody have anything they want to discuss? Chief, anybody?

No.

No? All right. So, number two on the agenda.

Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to award the low bid the amount of $77,999 In May of 2026.

Second by Ms. Rodriguez. Questions or comments?

Yeah.

So all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Just before we go to the next thing, there's two air conditioned units on the roof that we just had checked out that were in the 60s or something. 1964. 1964. I sent a contractor there to evaluate them. to save them okay so both units are going to be taken off the roof they're going to fill in the the roof that was the hold up while we tabled last month to put on it this month and they're using window units now so they'll just continue to use window units if they come into any kind of financial uh situation they can put units back on the roof that's going to be up to them we would put a roof on the building we are so that's where we are at this point okay number three on the agenda mr president i'd like to make a motion to approve hiring joshua catino for part-time police officer second by mr cousin question or comments

First of all, I want to thank the council for your unwavering support of myself and the police department. We're all on the same page and we're here to run an efficient and effective police department. And I can tell you tonight that we are. Secondly, I'd just like to announce that Sergeant Peter Fate and Sergeant Carlos Rivera will be retiring after 25 plus some years of service here. in bristol borough on july 1st so i'm going to wish them the best of luck and we will have a little something on the days that they are leaving so i'll send an email to email out to all of you to let you know to come that day while they do their final walkout okay thank you thank you thank you okay all those in favor aye opposed uh i guess we have nothing else