Local News

Quakertown Borough is putting the lid on open containers. At its work session on June 28, council discussed an open container ordinance that will come up for a vote in August.

If passed, drinking alcoholic beverages on borough streets and sidewalks would be prohibited. The borough presently has no regulations in place.

Resident complaints brought awareness of the lack of restrictions to the borough’s attention. While not a problem at the moment, councilperson Edward Scholl said they didn‘t want it to become an issue.

“We don’t want to be a reactionary council; we want to be a proactive council,” he said.

While the issue was raised by residents, Scholl said no controls also meant a wide open field for any restaurants coming into the borough. This ordinance would place restrictions on any establishments serving alcohol as well.

“We’re more or less making sure things are in place to control things,” Scholl said.

There would be an exception for special events. A permit would be required and can be applied for free of charge. The proposed ordinance will be voted on at the Aug. 4 council meeting.

In other business, borough Manager and Police Chief Scott McElree discussed the borough’s streetscape project and the additional estimated $7,000 to $10,000 to get the project to the construction phase. The approximately $1 million project, eight years in development, includes a redesign of the borough triangle to add a waterfall and information kiosk, among other changes, new sidewalk lights and implementing textured sidewalks.

At hand is the need to hire a third-party project inspector, a PennDOT requirement. The funds to do that are part of the original amount budgeted for the project, which was just under the $1 million mark. The borough, working in partnership with Quakertown Alive, received a grant from the DVRPC to cover the costs of the project.

The engineering firm originally hired for the project, CMX, is no longer in business, which means it can’t follow the project through to construction. The borough is planning to use a key person from the company to get through the rest of the plan reviews, revisions and back and forth with PennDOT. It’s estimated it will cost $7,000 - $10,000 to do that and it’s unknown if that can be covered through grant funding.

McElree said construction could begin in 2010-11. The vote on the project inspector will come up at the next borough council meeting, July 7.

In another attempt to open regional police force dialogue, the members of the Upper Perkiomen Police Commission agreed to invite neighboring municipalities to the next meeting for a discussion on the issue.

Back in February, when the topic of a regional police study by the state police on the need for and feasibility of regional police coverage for the Upper Perkiomen Valley was discussed at the police commission meeting, the group decided that they were not ready to launch such a study but were willing to publicly meet with other officials to discuss it. 

In March, the commission ended regional police discussions because officials from Red Hill borough were the only attendees at a meeting called to, among other things, gauge interest in the subject.

                At the April 26 meeting of the Upper Perk Police Commission Chairman Ryan Sloyer was quoted as saying, “We did meet once in March, but due to lack of interest from municipalities around us, those meetings have ceased.”

Now, apparently, they’ll try again.

In other business, the police commission took no official action the issue of an animal control officer, but they did vote to send the selection of a new animal control officer to Pennsburg and East Greenville boroughs to make a decision before next month’s police commission.

                And in other business, the commission agreed to invite neighboring municipalities to the next meeting for a discussion of regional police.

                Chief’s Report:  Sixty crimes were reported to the Upper Perk Police in May, an increase of just one crime over April.  Twenty-eight of those crimes occurred in Pennsburg, versus 32 crimes in East Greenville.

                Those crimes included six thefts, one forgery/fraud/identity theft. 17 instances of assault/harassment/stalking, three cases of vandalism/criminal mischief, two burglaries, two sex offenses, nine DUI’s, one motor vehicle theft, ten incidences of public drunkenness/disorderly conduct, six narcotic or drug violations, and one case of a suspect fleeing/eluding police.

                Arrests were made for nine narcotics/drug offenses, six cases of assault/harassment/stalking/domestic, one attempted homicide, 12 cases of public drunkenness/disorderly conduct, four DUI’s, three burglary/criminal defiant trespass/prowling, two thefts and one forgery.

                There were two curfew warnings and nine parking tickets issued in May. 

                The Upper Perk Police responded to 2,846 incidents or calls for service in May.