Borough Council Approves Dining Hall Plan, Encourages Alert System Registration

Approval of Swarthmore College’s land development plan for building a new dining hall and reconfiguring the existing Sharples Dining Hall as a student activity building passed unopposed at Monday evening’s Swarthmore Borough Council Meeting. The council also declared an Indigenous People’s Day to be celebrated on the third or fourth Friday of September, whichever falls closer to the Harvest Moon. Council member Sarah Graden noted that the proposal had been made by students in a fifth grade class, after consultation with a representative of the Nanticoke and Lenapi tribes. This year, the holiday will fall on September 25.

Other routine business included approval of a PECO energy saving program for borough facilities and a report on finances. With its operating funds in money market accounts, the borough is unaffected by recent sharp downturns in U.S. markets.

The meeting opened with public comment from Eric Iversen, a resident of Cornell Avenue, who thanked the Public Safety Committee “for the very full discussion we had at the last committee meeting.” Noting that a stop bar — a white line intended to help motorists stop in the right place to avoid potential collisions — had been painted at the corner of Yale and Cornell, Iversen said, “I would observe that Thursday there was another accident there.”

Many Minutes Spent on Minutes

The Council then quickly became mired in procedural uncertainty about how to make edits to minutes from meetings on February 10 and March 2. Council member Betsy Larsen felt that street tree acquisition that was referred to in the minutes as funded by a “grant” was in fact referring to an outright purchase. She wanted to see the minutes changed to reflect the correct terminology. She also said that mention wasn’t made of an email she had read into the record and that the group subsequently had discussed. 

Council President Mary Walk said that, given that the motion presented was simply to approve the minutes as they stood, some change in the wording of the motion would need to be made to include any edits. “We have to have a mechanism in the meeting to add to these or subtract,” Walk said. “I’m just trying to do it according to some sort of procedure.”

Ten minutes of further discussion ensued, at which point there was general agreement that the motion to approve the minutes would be withdrawn and the process would be sorted out before the next meeting. After the motion was withdrawn, a motion to table that withdrawn motion was made, seconded, and approved. 

Renewable Energy Credits

Lauren McKinney, chair of the Environment Committee, made a motion to buy only one year of renewable energy credits (RECs) rather than the usual two years. 

Larsen said, “I would like to again bring up the idea of purchasing the locally/regionally sourced RECs.”

“I want to interrupt you there,” President Walk said, “because ... what the committee has recommended is that we vote on what’s before us tonight so that we can have more time over the course of the year to consider the very thing that you’re bringing up tonight.” 

Larsen then proposed an amendment to the motion, which was not adopted. The subsequent vote was in favor, with dissenting votes from council members Larsen, Graden, and Jill Gaiesky.

COVID-19

The council discussed preparedness for a local outbreak of COVID-19. Several council members had participated in a conference call with Delaware County officials earlier in the day. Recapping the call’s content, Graden said that “one of the main things was if anyone is concerned that they could have the virus, county officials are saying to not go to the ER, but instead call 1-877-PA-HEALTH.” Discussion of continuation of borough services even in case of quarantine was discussed. Swarthmore has mutual-aid agreements with other area municipalities for both fire and police services. 

Borough Manager Jane Billings said that a key takeaway from the call was that “people who have not signed up for the Delco Alert service should sign up now.” Sign ups are at swat.ink/delco-alerts. Alerts regarding any outbreak will be sent by text and email to anyone who registers for the free service.