Narberth Council Approves Bridge Agreement

The Narberth Borough Council unanimously approved an agreement on Monday night between the borough and Amtrak, concerning safety and environmental issues pertaining to the reconstruction of the Narberth Avenue Bridge.

The vote was held during the Narberth Borough Council’s monthly meeting.  All of the council members were present at the meeting except for Council President Mary Jo Daley, who was away on vacation.

The borough has been working with architects and an engineer on plans to demolish the Narberth Avenue Bridge and construct a new overpass bridge for pedestrians and traffic.  The bridge runs over train tracks which are owned by Amtrak.

The agreement that the borough council approved on Monday night outlines and describes the relationship between the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, which is otherwise known as, and later referred to in the agreement, as Amtrak, concerning the replacement of the Narberth Avenue bridge, Borough Manager Bill Martin explained after the meeting.

The relationship which is outlined states that there will be cooperation between the railroad and the borough on safety issues and traffic on the rail system itself, Martin said.  Amtrak will have flagmen on the tracks while the removal of the old bridge and the construction of the new one are underway, Martin said.

The agreement also outlines the exposure that both parties would have regarding any environmental items that might be unearthed during construction, Martin said.

The agreement was something that was expected and required under federal guidelines for the new bridge because 80 percent of the funds for the bridge replacement will be from federal dollars, Martin said.  Narberth will pay for 5 percent of the project and the state will pay for 15 percent of it, he said.

In a related matter, Heidi Boise, a council member who chairs the Narberth Ad Hoc Bridge Committee, told the council that the Ad Hoc Bridge Committee’s next meeting is Wednesday, March 16 at 8 p.m.

The committee will be meeting with architects to look at the updated plans the architects have made to the preliminary bridge designs, which the committee viewed last month, Boise said.

Boise asked if there were any updates regarding the project to demolish the Rockland Avenue Bridge, an overpass which was built by the now-defunct Pennsylvania Railroad.  Martin said there was no new news about the bridge.

The Council also voted unanimously to authorize the Civil Service Commission to prepare for the potential for vacancies on the Narberth Police Department.

Martin said there may be two potential vacancies in the future, a lieutenant vacancy in December 2011 and an officer possibly leaving in December 2012.

Council member Nancy Lotz, who is on the council’s Public Safety Committee, recommended that the Public Safety Committee discuss the matter in committee.

Martin said it is a six-month process for the Civil Service Commission to conduct a search to fill police vacancies and although it may seem early, the borough would be better served if they did not wait to activate the Civil Service Commission.

Narberth Mayor Tom Grady said he thought that Martin was being optimistic when he said it would take six months to fill the potential vacancies and he estimated that it could take as long as 10 months.

Aaron Muderick, the council vice president who led Monday’s meeting in Daley’s absence, said that it does cost money for the borough to activate the commission.  Martin said the money is already in the budget.

In other matters, during his borough manager report, Martin told the council that the borough will hold a meeting on March 29 at 7:30 p.m. in order to give residents the opportunity to ask borough officials questions about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) expansion of the borough’s only flood plain.

FEMA has added an area of Narberth, which is adjacent to the area on FEMA’s original flood plain, to its revised flood plain.  The new addition to the flood plain is comprised of 7 to 10 houses, including homes in the 100 block of Windsor Avenue, Elmwood Avenue and Narbrook Park, Martin said.

There are a total of 75 houses in the entire flood plain, including the ones which have been added, Martin said.

Council member Surge Ghosh said that information about the flood plain is available on the FEMA Web site but the flood plain map was difficult to find.

Martin said the borough had its own flood plain map and it would be up on Narberth’s Web site within the next couple of days.

The council began and ended its meeting with a discussion about an organization known as Mayors for Peace, which is an international organization of 4,500 mayors who are working for the global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020.

At the start of the meeting, Grady introduced Harvey Zendt, one of the North American coordinators for Mayors for Peace.  Zendt was accompanied by Hank Holmes, a Narberth resident who told a Patch reporter that he was a financial supporter of Mayors for Peace and a friend of Zendt.  Holmes was the only resident in attendance at the meeting.

“It is my intent to sign onto that organization,” Grady said of Mayors for Peace.  “It speaks for what we do in the borough.”

Citizens of Hiroshima was formed in 1945, right after the dropping of the A-bomb, and in 1982, the mayor of Hiroshima decided to expand the organization and formed Mayors for Peace, Zendt said.

Zendt said that the United Nations and the U.S. Conference of mayors have endorsed the resolutions of Mayors for Peace.

“We’re simply asking you to join our organization. … There’s no financial commitment,” Zendt said.

Council member Sam Quinn said to Grady that he wanted to make sure that the public could be heard before Grady signed on as a member of Mayors for Peace.

At the end of the meeting, the discussion turned to the matter again when Ghosh said that he thought that the mayor would be strengthened with support from the council on Mayors for Peace.

Ghosh suggested that the council vote on the matter at the next council meeting.