Upper Darby council members approved an $83 million five-year capital-project plan that includes nearly $24 million for 2026.<\/p>\n
Chief Administrative Officer Crandall Jones said the major investment would be on core external infrastructure and facilities and council will have a chance to decide each year on the overall plans.<\/p>\n
Jones said major needs include police vehicles, two firetrucks and trash trucks as well as other vehicles, some of which are over 30 years old.<\/p>\n
Two firetrucks must be ordered in 2026 but won\u2019t be delivered until 2029 when they would be paid for.<\/p>\n
The police department is beginning to receive 11 leased police cruisers, which have undergone specialty upgrades.<\/p>\n
The department has also purchased four additional vehicles. That department is also looking to purchase additional and updated tools and protective gear, including tasers, helmets and pole mounted surveillance cameras.<\/p>\n
The township building will see improved HVAC and elevator work as well as strengthened Wi-Fi and public accessibility.<\/p>\n
Jones said planning for the proposed $11 million 14,000-square-foot community center project included looks at 10 sites, with the top being a location along Marshall Road.<\/p>\n
He said the second most popular choice was the old Delaware County Memorial Hospital on Lansdowne Avenue, which is owned by the school district, however that 220,000-square-foot building would not be cost effective as it has a number of issues.<\/p>\n
Jones said there is $8.9 million on hand for that project, including grants and capital funds but at some point if the township doesn\u2019t move, they risk losing certain state funding.<\/p>\n
Improvements at Observatory Field, including the skate park, which has received grants, are underway.<\/p>\n
Funding for the $1.2 million Darby Creek bridge, which includes $750,000 in grants is part of the budget, as are streambank stabilization at Naylors Run Park, which is receiving $7.2 million in grants.<\/p>\n
Township funding satisfies obligations for clean water compliance.<\/p>\n
Officials said the emergency work for the Collenbrook Creek gabion wall is also included. That project is expected to be completed in June. There are also other sewer projects lined up ready to go.<\/p>\n
Apartment complex<\/p>\n
The township solicitor reported the township was able to obtain a contempt order after prior court orders were ignored at a township apartment complex.<\/p>\n
The owner and property maintenance company at Grand Court apartments, 7250 Walnut St., was found in contempt for various health, safety and welfare concerns.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Fire Marshal\u2019s Office and License & Inspections had been working for months on the issue.<\/p>\n
The township was authorized to enter the premises and install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in each unit, and install fire extinguishers in each kitchen, investigate absence of heat or hot water and electricity, remediate and hazards the township deems life safety issues, and to place a lien against the property for $250,000 and legal fees of $18,700, the solicitor said.<\/p>\n
During public comments, Council President Marion Minick reminded speakers that all public comment must be related to topics that are or may be related to Upper Darby township.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper Darby council members approved an $83 million five-year capital-project plan that includes nearly $24 million for 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[212,182,139,28,210,147,149,148,150],"class_list":{"0":"post-158398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upper-darby","8":"tag-delaware-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-top-stories-dtd","13":"tag-upper-darby","14":"tag-upper-darby-headlines","15":"tag-upper-darby-news","16":"tag-upper-darby-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}