Narberth Borough Council Approves Highway and Police Vehicles

The Narberth Borough Council unanimously approved the purchase of a pickup truck with a plow for the borough Highway Department and a police cruiser for the Narberth Borough Police Department at its Monday night council meeting.

The council voted to authorize the purchase of a 2011 Dodge Ram 4X4 pickup truck for the purchase price of $29,286.50. It will cost another $4,000 to add a plow to the truck, said Borough Manager Bill Martin.

In a separate vote, the council authorized the purchase of a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser for the purchase price of $22,603.22.

Martin said it may cost an additional $7,000 to $8,000 to add electronics and possible a cage to the cruiser.

While looking at his laptop computer, Councilor Sam Quinn, who serves on the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he had a quote for decommissioning an old cruiser and upgrading a new one and the price was $7,390.30.

The prices which Narberth will pay for the pickup truck with the plow, and the police cruiser are “considerably lower than market value” because they are being made through a state cooperative purchase program, Martin told a Patch reporter in an interview after the meeting.

With the purchase of the pickup and plow, Narberth is saving about $6,000 on the truck and $3,000 on the plow, Martin told Patch.

The cruiser alone would typically cost $29,000, plus an additional $7,000 in upgrades, but Narberth will pay a total of about $29,000 for the cruiser and the upgrades.

The truck and plow will be financed with truck highway aid money from the state and the borough’s line item funding, while the cruiser will be paid for with money drawn from the borough’s capital fund.

With both purchases, the borough has enough money set aside so that it can borrow from its internal accounts and repay the interest to itself, Martin told Patch.

In other matters, the Borough Council voted unanimously in favor of joining Mayor Tom Grady in support of his intention to join the organization Mayors for Peace.

Mayors for Peace is an international organization of 4,500 mayors who are working for the global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020. A representative for the organization spoke about the group’s mission at the Borough Council’s March 14 meeting.

In a report on the Property Committee’s work, Councilwoman Heidi Boise said Narberth resident Jim Speer was interested in installing six birdhouses around the playground at Sabine Park.

Boise said another resident had previously questioned whether the birdhouses were safe to have around children, so Speer solicited the advice of the Lower Merion Conservatory and the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

Boise said she had a letter from the Schuylkill Center which said the bird houses were fine. 

The letter stated the bird houses “would not be a health or safety risk” and went on to explain that songbirds with babies will carry their droppings far away so that they will not be detected by predators. The letter said that the only territorial songbird was the Blue Jay and Blue Jays could be deterred by making the holes in the birdhouses too small for Blue Jays to enter.

Boise said the bird houses would be made of cedar and would be painted. She said that the houses would probably be hung in the trees, and they would encourage the nesting of small birds, such as the Titmouse and the Wren.

In another report, on the Narberth Community Library, a library representative asked residents to note that the date of its annual book sale had changed. In the past, the sale was held on July 4, but this year it will be held on April 23 as part of NarbEarth Day, from noon to 4 p.m. in front of the library.