Belmont Hills Civic Association Talks City Avenue, Trash Cleanup

At the Belmont Hills Civic Association's monthly meeting Monday night, topics of discussion included:

• Vice President Karen Toole-Ebbert has stepped down, effective immediately, President Barb Carlin said. Carlin, too, is looking to be replaced, and she stressed that since she herself was elected president at the first civic meeting she attended, experience is not a must.
• Library liaison Richard Welsh said $6,656 in donations have come in this year and letters have gone out around the neighborhood.
• As members debated whether to get more involved in the City Avenue rezoning saga, Carlin said, "We haven't heard complaints from anyone in Belmont Hills. Unless it's physically in their backyard ... City Avenue is not close enough for them to feel the effects."
  Greg Strickland, the civic's delegate to the local federation of civic associations, observed that "a lot of people feel that things (with City Avenue) are a done deal."
• The Lower Merion Board of Commissioners is awaiting a response from prospective developers of a CVS at Rock Hill Road and Belmont Avenue after the two groups met, Commissioner Paul McElhaney told residents.
• Members discussed whether more people would attend meetings if some were held at the fire house, which is a few blocks uphill from the community center.
• Carlin said Lower Merion School District Superintendent Chris McGinley could attend a meeting soon to address Belmont Hills parents.
• Residents were urged to participate in the Free Spring Cleanup weekend April 21-22, during which trash can be dropped off at the public works complex at no cost. The association collected and dropped off about 20 to 30 bags of litter on the same weekend last year, Carlin said.