Limerick Saves Money, Gets Money, New Police Dog

Photos and video by Evan Brandt

State Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist., holds two checks worth $100,000 for the Linfield Fire Company and $50,000 for the Limerick Fire Company, whose members surround him, which he delivered during Tuesday's Limerick Supervisor's Meeting. 

It's the time of year when Harrisburg politicians return to their district's bearing gifts.

Right on cue, state Sen. John Rafferty, R-44th Dist., was at Tuesday's Limerick supervisors meeting to deliver two checks, one for $100,000 that went to Linfield Fire Company, the other for $50,000 that went to Limerick Fire Company.

He said he "discovered" the money in the state budget and claimed it for Limerick.

Several other items of interest also cropped up Tuesday.

Limerick Center Snag?

The proposal to build a 450-unit combination development with senior housing, townhouses and a retail strip on 30 acres at the intersection of Ridge and Swamp pikes nearly hit an unexpected snag Tuesday night.

An early version of plans for "Limerick Town Center."

With Supervisor Thomas Neafcy absent, a looming 2-2 vote threatened to put the brakes on a development which has moved steadily through the development process since last month when a portion of the project received preliminary site plan approval last month from the supervisors.

Because the township requires that road improvements accompany the first phase of construction but Supervisor Ken Sperring, who has objected repeatedly to the traffic circle required by Montgomery County Planning Commission, said he refuses "on principle, to vote for anything involving the circle.

Joining him was Supervisor Patrick Morroney who first said he is concerned about buffering issues and later said he is opposed to the entire project.

In the end, after much explaining about the need for applying the permits, and re-assurances that there would be other opportunities to raise concerns, Sperring changed his vote "under protest" and allowed the measure to move forward.

Saving Money on Building Project

Township Manager Dan Kerr had some good news for the supervisors about the new township building in which their meeting was being held.

Of the four major contracts that comprised the $11 million township building project, three came in under budget.

The new Limerick Township Building on Ridge Pike.

The general contract, mechanical contract and electrical contract all came in under-budget, while the plumbing contract came in nearly $11,000 over-budget.

The "soft costs" also came in more than $112,000 over-budget, largely because the cost of new furniture was more than expected.

Nevertheless, the final tally is $10,106,597, between $800,000 to $900,000 under budget. And the $438,585 contingency budget "was not even touched," said Kerr.

The supervisors thanked the staff and project manager for excellent work.

"I really hope the public comes to the ribbon cutting and sees that there are no frills here," said Supervisor Kara Shuler. "there is no wasted space and it is designed so that there is still room to expand."

The ribbon-cutting will be on Oct. 27 at 9 a.m.

Low-Income Housing Aid Program Dies

In June, Kerr outlined for the supervisors how federal bureaucracy surrounding a Community Development Block program Limerick has used for decades to help low-income home rehabilitation was making the program unsustainable.

In July, the supevisors reluctantly decided to keep the program going for another year, despite the added costs.

Last night, they reversed that decision.

Kerr said because the arc of the program is so slow, the township still has about $240,000 remaining in the account that can be used to help rehabilitate low-income homes until it runs out.

Even doing that will require the spending of between $20,000 to $30,000 of township programs.

The money once allocated to Limerick, between $190,000 to $200,000 per year, will instead go to Montgomery County, although there is no saying how much of it will be put into a similar low-income housing program.

In the future, Limerick properties can still apply for the program, but they will be competing against applicants from throughout the county.

Kerr explained that the rules had become so burdensome that, for example, where once the township could go in and use the program to replace a heater that failed in the middle of winter, the rules now require that the entire building be brought up to code.

"It's a real shame," said Supervisor Chairwoman Elaine DeWan. "We used to help a lot of people with this program."

Rambo with handler Chris Wienczek

Meet Rambo the Police Dog

As the meeting wound up, Police Chief Brian Skelton askewd permission to bring in the department's newest canine officer -- A dog obtained fromt he FBI name Rambo.

"We got lucky," said Skelton. the FBI is always looking for the best dogs."

According to his handler, Chris Wienczek, Rambo did just fine in all training until he came to the requirement that he jump out of a helicopter.

"He's supposed to do that strapped to a handler, but he didn't like that and kept punching them in the face, and the FBI didn't like that, so we got him," said Weinczek.

"I figured Limerick Township is not buying a helicopter any time soon," joked Skelton. "So I sent Chris to Virginia and we grabbed him quick."

Skelton said they even beat the state police to the punch, who were also interested in acquiring Rambo.

"You have to give credit to these officers. This is a 24/7 responsibility and those dogs home with them when the shift is over," said Skelton.

Here's some video of Wiecznek introducing Rambo.



The department has one other canine officer named Flynn.

"Flynn will let me pet him. I can't do that with Rambo yet," Skelton said.

And with that, here are the Tweets from last night's meeting:


Dollars for Firefighters, Roundabout, Project Savings, New Police Dog

Limerick Residents Oppose Plan for Truck Facility

Slightly fuzzy photos by Evan Brandt

Most of the people who turned out for Tuesday night's Limerick Supervisors meeting were drawn there out of concern for a proposal to develop 181 Limerick Center Road.

Facing a group of angry residents concerned about a proposal by Tom Perkins to develop 10 acres of land at 181 Limerick Center Road into a truck servicing business similar to the one he runs on Ridge Pike, township supervisors punted on making a decision Tuesday night.

The design for the 10-acre parcel that was presented to Supervisors.

Instead they voted on a confusing motion to consider the facts and opinions brought out during the nearly three-hour meeting and decide at the next meeting, in two weeks, whether to move the proposal forward.

The property, and proposals for it, have a complicated history. For many years, the township's zoning map indicated the parcel was split, with one part residential and the other office and light industrial.

But as it turns out, the map was wrong because township officials could find no record of a vote by an elected body that change part of the parcel over to residential.

Tom Perkins listens to neighbors of his property voice their
concerns about his plans at Tuesday night's meeting. He had little to
say during the meeting.

Tom Perkins, owner of TP Trailers and Truck Equipment, owns the parcel with his sister and has variously tried to develop it with 50 townhomes, which was rejected by the township, as well as a business exactly like the one on Ridge Pike, which was also rejected, according to Supervisor Ken Sperring Jr.

The reason for the second rejection was that Limerick Center Road is not certified for enough traffic to accommodate sales of vehicles, explained Mark Kaplin, the lawyer representing Perkins.

This latest proposal is identical to the first, except that vehicle sales are no longer proposed, thus removing the snag that sank the last one.

But his proposal, to build a 35,000 square-foot office/warehouse/five-bay shop will still generate more heavy truck traffic than Limerick Center Road can handle, said the nine speakers whose homes border on the property.

Samuel Barilla speaks during Tuesday's Limerick Supervisors meeting.

Samuel F. Barilla, who emphasized that he was speaking as a resident and not a member of the township's planning commission, said the increased truck traffic just blocks from Limerick Elementary School, will create a safety hazard for children.

He also was the first of several to raise concerns about the potential for stacking of shipping containers, as high as 30 feet, on the portion of the property which borders the residential area.

Another speaker, Darren Thompson, said he was concerned about air quality with so many large trucks running and being worked on at the site.

Bella Rosa Court resident Amy Walker said when she and her husband bought their house, they were

Amy Walker speaks to the Limerick supervisors Tuesday.

assured the neighboring property was zoned for residential use.

Given that the shop will be doing truck inspections increases the likelihood of trucks with bad brakes driving past Limerick Elementary School, said Walker. She warned the supervisors that if they approve the project, she and her neighbors will take legal action.

Kaplin said repeatedly that his clients had done everything the township had asked and that the business, when open, will follow whatever rules and ordinances apply.

He also announced that Perkins has agreed to fence the entire property to address concerns raised about safety.

Supervisors Chairwoman Elaine DeWan told the crowd several times that if a proposal meets the rules and regulations of zoning and land use, the supervisors have very little ground to deny a proposal simply of the grounds of objections by the neighbors.

"If we reject an 'as-of-right' plan, they can come after our personal assets," Sperring told the crowd.

The plan has already been cleared by the zoning board and has gone through the first round with the planning commission and was before the board seeking preliminary site plan approval.

Instead, the board delayed taking the next step, which would be to authorize Solicitor John Iannozzi to draft a resolution granting preliminary site plan approval, with whatever conditions the supervisors choose to attach.

Consideration of that step will come at the next meeting, scheduled for July 17. Should that action be taken, the board would vote at the first meeting in August. Presuming preliminary site plan approval was granted, Perkins and his plan would go back to the planning commission in pursuit of final site plan approval, which would also need to be granted by the board of supervisors.

The Master Plan for Limerick Community Park.

In other news of import, the supervisors granted final approval to the $13 million master plan for the development of Limerick Community Park.

The concept is for the development of the park to proceed in five phases, said Township Manager Dan Kerr.

Also, the board decided to bear the costs of a federally-funded program to rehabilitate homes in the township, meaning it voted to accept $200,000 in community Development Block Grant funding for that purpose.

(Read more about that by clicking here.)

With State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-6th Dist., in the audience, DeWan took the opportunity to put him on the spot and outline the ways the red tape is killing a program that has benefited many Limerick residents over the years -- things like requiring prevailing wage for small projects and rules which require an entire home be brought up to code rather than just fix the problem.

He promised to look into it.

The program is a hold over from many years ago and had the supervisors declined to take the money, it would have effectively ended the program, said Kerr. Escalating administrative costs are causing the township to spend its own money to meet the demands of the red tape.

He told the supervisors that it was staff's recommendation to withdraw from the program and township residents could participate in a similar program operated by Montgomery County.

"Let's give it another year and take a look at it again," said Sperring, which became a motion that was unanimously approved by the supervisors.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

In their Back Yard