Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the July 6th council meeting to order. Everybody please stand for a moment of silence. I'll let you remember all of those who passed away during the month. Please salute the flag and congratulations to the flag of the United States of America.

Hi Sally. Hello.

Mr. Klayman do a roll call please. Mr. Pezzet. Here. Ms. Cullen. Ms. Rodriguez.

Here.

Mr. Cousins. Here. Ms. Figueroa.

Here.

Mr. Johnson. Here. Mr. Quattrochi. Mr. DiGiuseppe.

Here. So Mr. Quattrochi is on vacation and Mrs. Cullen is still recovering from surgery. Public participation. Anybody on this side want to speak on anything? Anybody on this side want to speak on anything?

Good evening. Bill Pez, the President, raising the bar. I hope you had a nice Fourth of July. I was thinking, just getting out of the car tonight, it occurred to me this tremendous heat we had for the last few days. The Founding Fathers gathered in the Pennsylvania State House when they were writing the Declaration of Independence and a couple of John Adams and John Dickinson debate. So we got a break. We got to relive that even though we got rained out and heated out of some of the things we wanted to do. I'm here very briefly just to say that we've been working on this legacy book called Voices of the Borough and it's going great. We have over 120 applicants or 120 submissions already. We have about 50 other submissions in the pipeline. That's people telling us, I'm doing it. We're going to do it. So I just want to remind everyone, the deadline is July 15, because we have to start putting it together. to send to the printer. We want to have that. I'd love to have it by Labor Day. I don't know if we will, but it's going to be really good. We're calling it one book, but over 100 authors. So again, if you want to, you can purchase two pages in the book. Those pages belong to you. You can Use them any way you want. You can write a story of your family, your business, a fond memory of the borough, whatever you may have. There are people that are sending in humorous things, serious things, poignant things, sporting events. When we won the state basketball championship, when we won the state softball championship, So there's no limit to what you can do, other than in good taste, no limit to what you can do with your two pages. So anyone out there listening that hasn't gotten into the pipeline yet, they can message me or Antonia Huckwriter, and we'll help you along. And it's not easy to do for some people, so we'll help you. That's what we're here for.

Okay? Questions? Any questions for both? Thank you very much. Have a good night.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Bless you.

Good evening, all. Tim Sorman, 254 Madison Street. Just wanted to bring up a topic. I know it's been over Facebook for the past day or so about the fireworks in the borough and everything. I'm not here to be the fun police, but I do worry a lot because our houses are tight. Old houses, people lighting up fireworks. I saw them off on the back of my house hitting some of the trees. It does concern me a bit. Again, I like fireworks. I enjoy them. but i think if we're able to figure out a way for everybody to enjoy the fireworks keep it safe i mean i'm all for it i also to advocate to for veterans as well too that suffer with ptsd i have a younger brother who was a marine veteran served a lot of time in afghanistan and if anybody saw what he is like during times of fireworks i think everybody in here would be extremely emotional Just what he goes through. Not all veterans go through it. Not all of them endure it. Some worse than others. Some can go through it. And I saw people also commenting, why doesn't the borough do fireworks? We have a great wharf area. Why can't we participate in some community fireworks and do it? What I would like to suggest is... Maybe if we can put together an area, whether it's the ball field, the wharf, everybody in New Barrow can bring their fireworks. They can have a time slot where they can set off their fireworks. A controlled area. We have our public authorities here, too, that can help keep an eye on everything just in case there's anything that goes. can judge who they like. I mean, the fireworks make it fun for everyone. The borough doesn't have to put out the money for it. And everybody can compete against each other in the borough. They can bring them down, be safe for area, and then we'd have a certain time frame where it would be done. And then if we do something like that, we can restrict setting them off after a certain amount of time. Again, this leads back to the veterans as well, too. They may be able to prepare themselves for 8 p.m. to maybe a midnight time frame where they endure that, maybe have the music up in their house, but at 2 o'clock in the morning, 3 o'clock in the morning, when there's fireworks going off, if you see what they look like, you would be devastated yourself. You'd be very emotional and heart-stricken if you saw what they go through. Again, I'm not here to be the fun police. I don't want to kill everybody's fun with the fireworks on the 4th of July or New Year, but I think we can take care of two situations in one. Everybody brings their fireworks in. We can have a sign-up sheet, their time slots. Everybody can put theirs out. We can control it with our fire department. They can be there in case something happens. People can come out with their blankets, their lawn chairs, and sit down, and we can all watch it and all enjoy it together as a community. So I hope maybe that's something we can consider. We have a little under a year to plan for it, but I'd be more than happy to participate and do whatever I can to help out, and hopefully it will be considered by everyone.

Good evening, everybody. My name is Stephen Holland. I've lived in Bristol for about five, six years. At this point in time, I live on Hayes Street. The reason that I'm here before you all today is because I wanted to bring to your attention a serious problem that's been happening, not just in Bristol Borough, but the lower Bucks County, nationwide, ultimately. A lot of these vape shops, smoke shops, gas stations, of nitrous oxide. Have any of y'all ever seen something that looks like that before? This is becoming very popular amongst the youth, young adults. That, along with the Kratom products that they're using, they're selling in pill form. That stuff is pretty much like pill form heroin from my understanding. It's killing our communities, taking people from their families, becoming increasingly popular amongst the youth. Just recently, I've been going into stores. I've lived to tell the story. So that being said, I've gone into some of the stores and asked the clerks if they can take these products off the shelf. Doing that face-to-face, you can get mixed results. I had one man chase me out of a store running towards my vehicle, chasing me towards my vehicle because I was asking him to stop selling the stuff. I started a change.org petition trying to get it local government, as many people as possible, ultimately. If any of you would be interested in signing my petition to try to get this recognized and corrected in the future, please let me know. In the meantime, I have a few printouts here. If anybody would like to take one with them, I'd be glad to speak more about this. But for time's sake, that's all that I have for now. Thank you for letting me speak, and everybody have a good rest of your night. Thank you.

Yes, I have a couple things. So mask would be put a couple pictures on the screen for me so that at home audience can see. Two weeks ago Bristol Borough Emergency Management took delivery of a UTV that was funded through the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority and Parks Casino. We wanted to thank them and specifically Ralph DiGiuseppe for pushing the project through. It's a terrific asset to have in Bristol Borough. It's already been out on seven event standbys. We've put one fire out with it and we've had a medical emergency in the cold air until the ambulance could be on scene at one of the events. It is stationed at Google Hose Fire Company, station 52, that's where I'm housing it. I've cross-trained all the EMA members to drive it. I'm also cross-training our drivers at Google Who's to drive it as well. This way if we have a call they can use it, bring it to the scene. Last month was a busy month for us. We had seven events that we went through throughout the month. Four weather emergencies, whether it was the heat or thunderstorms or that. I'm sending out alerts almost daily at this point with all And three times in the last four storms, Greenland has flooded, so the sooner the better we can get the floodgates installed. I've been coordinating resources for that to block the road, but they're not always available. And the police are doing a great job, but we're taking them off of the street, making them babysit a flooded roadway where they could be utilized. emergency for that. For the members of council and the mayor, anybody else that wants to see it, the UTV is downstairs. I'll have it unlocked and all for everyone to see after the meeting. Thank you.

I appreciate the recognition, but I have four other board members that agreed with me. And thank yous do go a long way. So, you know, I will mention to the board at our next meeting grateful you are and that it already helped save some money. Any questions for AJ?

I just figured I might as well do what I was going to ask Kurt about to remind him anyway with what AJ brought up and that is

Sure. I just got an update from Amanda. She apologizes. She couldn't be here this evening, but she informed me that next week our traffic engineer is going to meet with the contractor out there to physically locate where these are going to be installed, and then shortly thereafter, the contractor will install them. As you know from last month's update, we physically have the gates now, so we're getting close.

Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions?

Chief? I just have a couple things. There's two items on the agenda tonight, motion number two and motion number three, to accept the retirement letters of Sergeant Faith and Sergeant Ribera, who retired effective July 1st last week. So I wanted to congratulate both of them again for such great careers here in Bristol Borough. Both spent nearly 30 years here. As police officers, so congratulations to both of them and their families, and we wish you all well moving forward in your retirement. Prior to accepting these motions tonight, I also sent a couple of letters to Council. the manager, one on June 11th. I sent a recommendation letter to appoint acting sergeants in their places because they were both sergeants. And I wanted to be consistent with what we've done over the last 20 years and elevate the next two full-time officers and seniority to acting sergeants, which we did, with your permission. And the other letter that I sent to the manager and council was a recommendation to initiate the civil service testing process for the position of sergeant here in Bristol Borough again. Um, and I would like to have that completed. I would like to work with civil service in the first list and have that list completed and delivered to council on and before December 1st of this year. So thank you for your attention to that letter also. And finally, I just want to thank everybody in town over the past few days of this heat wave. We received a lot of well-being checks. on neighbors on seniors on kids and even pets and we went out and it was good not that i enjoy the heat but it was nice to see that our community stepping up and keeping an eye on everybody out there and and taking the time to call us and let us go out and just check and make sure everybody's okay so hopefully we can keep doing that the rest of the summer because i'm sure it's not over with um now we're going to get a little bit of cooler cooler weather in the next week or so so Thank you.

So Joe, just to go back to Peter and Carlos, I attended both events that you had for them. Very nice luncheons for both. Presented them with a plaque and everything. And you had mentioned maybe bringing them up here in September when summer's over to give them a prop. So we'll follow your lead on this whole thing, whatever you want to do. And as far as appointing the two acting sergeants, we agreed with you on that. So I don't think there's anything else. As far as civil service, you I'll put you in touch with them and figure out. I think Sally, Sally, you get the test and everything, right? So Sally will do all that. She knows who to contact for the test and everything. I think council's fully supportive of what you're doing.

Thank you.

Any questions for the chief? All right. Do you have anything?

Just want to reiterate about the recommended them for hiring back when they were hired back in the 90s. And it's kind of like a dying breed to have officers who grew up in Bristol, live in Bristol, actually serving on the police department. I think that lends a lot to the community to see that happen. And I look forward to them enjoying their retirement. I know Carlos will spend a lot of time in the mountains, and he'll be out hitting the links, so. Congratulations on great careers for both of them.

And they came home safe, that was the main thing. Okay, I just want to mention a couple things real quick. One, I don't know if anybody saw this article in Bucks County today regarding the borough. There was an outstanding article that they wrote about Bristol, how it had been revitalized. And you know, 25 years ago, I got involved because of the direction the town was going in. And I had a vision for what I thought this town should be. And everybody knew what we can do, you just had to do it. And you know, the waterfront, the businesses on Mill Street, the housing stock, everything that we thought was possible came to fruition. and i'm glad to be part of that i know betty's been with me from day one almost we've been sitting here 25 years and 23 years but the vision we had for this town and i i worked with multiple councils but i never lost track of what i thought this town should be you know we never wanted to change it into a new hope or something else we wanted to be bristol because And it has its own character, and it has everything that we could ask for. But we just had to expose it. You know, the stores, Mill Street was dead. Businesses were dying. I mean, right now, you walk, you come downtown, it's booming. People walking all over. You know, our housing stock. We didn't want to try to build massive ripped streets down, things like that. But we brought our housing stock up. I build a couple of houses in town and they say you'll never get that price for me. It was only like 100,000 dollars that 25 years ago. And we got homes on side streets selling for 3400,000. So the housing stock is is booming in town. People want to come to Bristol. That's a testament of everybody, every council I worked with, but I never lost track no matter whatever the naysayer said, I had a vision to make this town what it is today. It's only the beginning. We're not going to stop. We're going to keep moving this town forward. We have a lot of plans. Council's been meeting. All of us are in agreement with a lot of things that are on the books between now and next year that you're going to see a lot of things happening in town, but on the front page, and Matt's also going to put it up on our TV tonight, and there'll be a link that goes to it. But just read it. If you're really from town and you really love this town the way we do and I do, you're going to be very impressed with this article. Very impressed. I think it's a great article. If you didn't read it, take time and read it. And that's about all I have. Greg, you have anything?

I just did. who are on Facebook with ideas and are looking for places to get involved, I just know that civically there's always been a lot of energy here too. And sometimes that can go in a positive direction and sometimes that can go in a negative direction. And I think if civically as a community we agree to disagree on That means it's been here for 25 years. That's a long time, right? And that means that there are a lot of people who are in their 70s and 80s that have been really plugging away hard to get this town to where it's come. And the younger generation really has to continue down that path. So that's all I want to say. Don't get complacent as we continue to move in the right direction. Get involved.

Well, that's why I said it's not only a beginning. We have a lot that we want to accomplish. But I know like civic groups and all these other things. But when I sat here 25 years ago with a vision, there was nothing. You got to put the rig in before you get oil. Once the oil is coming out, everybody can start feeding off of it. So we were here to put the rig in.

Yes, we are.

And I can't do it without everybody. We need everybody's involvement, but our vision has never changed. This town is a great town. We choose to live here. We can move anywhere we want. I don't have to live in Bristol. I can go buy a home anywhere. But my family lives here. My grandkids are here. My kids are here. So I love this town, and I'm going to keep moving it. As long as I'm alive and I'm sitting here, this town's going to move forward.

I just want to thank Mr. Dillon and the borough guys for getting out and cleaning up the area on Plum and Ray Street. I drove by it the other day and it looked really nice.

Thank you. I just want to remind everyone that everyone that has complained and has concerns of how the train station uh, lux and all those areas, uh, course and kind, uh, race street. Um, I hear your complaints and I have been working with Amtrak to get those areas maintained, um, and cleaned up. Um, right now, I am dealing with a new contact person, so things are a little rocky, but I do have, Ray Martin is also on board, which he is our inspector. And these, just to let everyone know, this, what I have here in my hands are pictures of all the locations, Bath, Race, Spruce, Pine, Corson, Jefferson, Beaver Garden, all along the train station, Prospect. So these are all pictures that Ray and I, took the time and we've taken these pictures. And these pictures have been sent to Amtrak. So I just want everyone to know that I hear you. I am working on it. And it's just going to take time. And I just ask everyone to be patient because it's a lot of overgrowth that needs to be addressed. And it's just going to take time. And again, we're dealing with new contact people from Amtrak. So it's a little struggle. But we hear you. So that's basically it. I just wanted to let everybody know that it is being taken care of.

I'm on it.

I'm on it. And their voices are being heard.

I know you're out there trying. I saw you out there the other day.

In the heat. It's tough.

It's tough because it's frustrating when you want to get something

of the town going forward conversations Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. So back to what I said earlier about being complacent. There's a lot of people out there who want to see this train keep rolling. So I don't think we're going to have a problem with complacency. Also, I saw this morning, because the rain came down so fast, so hard, there was a young lady on Bass Street outside helping to clear the sewer to get the water running down. Clara Bannon. You saw it?

She's always out there.

That's what I'm talking about.

Clara Bannon.

In terms of getting involved and taking care of it.

Our crossing guard. She goes over there and she cleans it up. And when it snows, she cleans it up. And she's always over there cleaning it up.

So I want to say thank you for that. And thank you for allowing me to serve. That's all.

Yes. With Maria, what she's saying is true. We're all trying to stay on top of what's going on with Amtrak. But I would advise you that if you have an issue, call the borough or your council person with concerns and complaints instead of posting it on Facebook. It makes it look like we're not really doing anything, but if you don't come to us, we can't help you. And if you can't get in touch with us, you can always get in touch with Mr. Dillon, and you can always get in touch with me. I don't care what ward you live in. I'm here to help everyone. I also want to say, a couple weeks ago, I went down But now that the Lions Club is doing this little show once a month on a Wednesday, that brings a lot of other people into town. It's really nice. People are eating. The place is jumping. And it's nice. I thank Shirley Brady for doing what she's doing. I know she's with the Lions Club and it's not just Shirley. But it's nice to see these concerts and stuff in the middle of the week once a month with people coming into town to see it. The theater has a tribute to Selena. Some of you may not know who Selena is, but I do. But anyway, they're offering a 25% discount. It's for August's show from August 5th to the 9th. It's a good show. We need to help the theater stay afloat and, you know, keep going because we're trying our best to bring people into town. The Puerto Rican Day Festival is July 25th. and it's really going to be a great festival it always has been but this year you're going to see tito puente and we met him uh me maria met him at the theater and he's pretty cool he's following his dad's footsteps but it's something that you really want to come and see um and on that note i also would like to give my condolences to the toledo family who their daughter azia toledo It was her and her friend Henrietta Carter that lost control of the car. There was another passenger. She made it. But the Lito family has been in Bristol since I was a kid. And it's just hard to see someone's young child pass away in a car accident like this. So let's keep that family in our hearts and our prayers. And that's it.

One more thing, spring hoops. This was our first year doing it and I just want to say thank you to Greg for putting it together and running it. It was amazing, like seeing the kids play and seeing them all like have fun and enjoy themselves. Like we went outside, we did five on five, inside three on three to actually learn basketball, learn moves. I think it was a great thing for them.

Thank you.

I have one quick question. A lot of people heard that the mill run did their inspection and passed them. So they automatically think that it's open for business. Is that the case or it's not the case? No. No, right?

So I met with him the other day, me and Jim up here. And I know a lot of people are calling to get in. A lot of people are calling for jobs. There's going to be a website, what did he say, the 15th? I think the middle of July, there's going to be a website to go on, and that's how you're going to apply for a job. So instead of calling counsel, instead of calling the manager, we have no saying who gets hired and who don't get hired. But you go on this website, I guess you fill out your qualifications or whatever it is, and I'm sure they're going to put together, he has his own team there. But like I said before, the place is... gorgeous. But I think it'll take at least six to eight months before they open up because they have to get licensed in Pennsylvania. He wants to make sure the place is 100% ready to pass. But we're done with it. I mean, we passed all our

If they're hiring, I hope they're hiring people from Bristol Borough. And I'm certainly willing to facilitate a connection in any way. But to Mr. Dugis' point, we're still many months out. I just don't think they're really there yet. So, you know, I think we'll try to make a connection with the borough and with Mill Run when they're really ready to make a big hiring push. I just don't think they're there yet.

Can you ask them to do a walkthrough with us before they answer the choice? I want to go see it.

He has, everybody just thinks that there's a job. There's a certain criteria you have to meet for this facility. And I think he already knows he has been in this field for so long that I don't think there's going to be that many local jobs, I'll be honest. So go online, apply for whatever's in there and see what happens.

trying to figure it out.

I think it's a not like an assisted living where they'll make sure you get your treat meals, your medicine, your you can spend a quarter of a million dollars for a room and then you pay an astronomical amount every month to live there and they make sure like you get all the services you need I don't know I think it's going to be something like that it's not going to be like a nursing home or something like that it's going to be more of an assisted living but they have dialysis they have a pharmacy they have a drugstore barbershops think of, but again, I'll foresee it opening before the end of the year. If it does, be great, but I don't foresee that happening.

Working in the medical field, I hear that it's much needed in this area. Oh, yeah.

Well, Silver Lake, don't forget.

Yeah, we lost that.

This is totally different than a nursing home. I think, anyway. Before we get into our agenda, let's remember one thing. Go USA. Let's win this game tonight. Jeff, go ahead. I'm sorry.

I want to make a note that the council has an executive session for approximately 30 minutes prior to this meeting to discuss a real estate matter and some personnel issues. One of the real estate matters is number four on your agenda.

Okay. So number two on the agenda.

President, I'd like to make a motion to accept Sergeant Peter Faith's letter dated June 15th, 2026, confirming his retirement from the Bristol Borough Police Department, effective at the close of business on July 1st, 2026. Second by Mr. Rodriguez, questions or comments?

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Number three.

Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to accept Sergeant Carlos Rivera's letter dated June 23rd, 2026, confirming his retirement. the virtual borough police department effective at the close of business on july 1st 2026. second by mr cousin questions or comments i have a comment i just want to tell well i don't think i have to tell people but i know peter fate and carlos for a long time they've been one of the top police authors that we've had and the fact that they are retiring and are healthy and they get to enjoy life. I think it's amazing. I got to go to Carlos. I didn't get to go to Pete's, but I did go to Carlos. And just very touching and overwhelming. And I think what killed me the most was that last call. I've never been to anything like that. And when he got in his truck and they did the last call, that was very touching.

Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Number four.

Mr. President, I'd like to approve a resolution for the condemnation of the certain tract of vacant land for municipal purposes identified as portion of tax parcel 04-024-036 owned by 1201 Wilson Acquisition LLC consisting of 0.748 acres or $32,581.65 a square foot.

Okay, before we adjourn, don't forget that AJ's, what do you call it? UTV.

UTV is out front if anybody wants to look at it. One more thing. I'm sorry, Mr. President. I just wanted to, again, bounce off of what Councilwoman Betty was saying. But the next session of Wednesdays on the Water is going to be on July 15th, and it's Yacht Rock. So, you know, it's a pretty popular... One more thing.

I just want to thank Peter and Carlos personally. I coached Peter in baseball when he was 10 years old, 10, 11, and 12. He was okay. He was a very good ball player. And he's truly going to be missed, and so is Carlos. I never knew Carlos. His name was Charlie.

Somebody said Charlie.

I said, who else Charlie? I never knew we had a cop named Charlie. But anyway, I wished him well. All in favor? Aye.

Meeting adjourned.