Royersford Borough Council Discusses Bridge Closing

The Royersford Borough Council briefly discussed the Royersford-Spring City Bridge closing on Tuesday night, during a meeting consisting of mostly routine business.

Borough Manager Michael Leonard and council member Thomas Weikel both attended on the bridge closure. Leonard said council was only informed of the bridge closure last Thursday or Friday.

"People in town knew before I did," he said.

The bridge will beginning July 18 in order for PennDOT to complete repairs.

Leonard said that council is concerned for people without cars who walk across the bridge to work at the Spring Company. He also said that he has been getting "a lot of calls" about the closure.

Councilman Bruce Burns mentioned during a later committee report that he is concerned about the fire department’s ability to respond to calls with the bridge closed. Humane Fire Company chief Gary Wezel said that calls for backup would be routed to Linfield Fire Company instead of companies on the other side of the river.

There was some discussion on the Riverfront Trail Project. The borough is applying for a grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission that will provide $390,000 to finish the trail and landscape the area. Montgomery County will be providing $81,500 to help.

In other news, the council scheduled two public hearings on subdivision and land development issues.

The developers of the project at 400 Green St. (originally two homes, now planned to be a duplex) will get a public hearing on amended plans on July 26 at the second monthly council meeting. Previously, requested by the developers, which resulted in litigation. Borough Solicitor Alan Boroff said that the new plans will settle the outstanding litigation between the parties.

The second public hearing would be at the first September council meeting, and will be held to discuss the development plans for the 900 block of Main Street.

Like the rest of Montgomery County, Royersford Borough is also upgrading its police radios. The plans are currently in discussion at the county level.

The council also passed two new ordinances. One, Ordinance 844, amends the borough code and makes it unlawful to discharge a weapon within the borough except in cases of justifiable use. The ordinance brings borough code in line with a recent Supreme Court decision stating that municipalities cannot prohibit residents from carrying a firearm if they are licensed to do so, but they can make it unlawful to discharge a weapon.

The second ordinance establishes a new “tapping fee”, or fee for connecting to public water and sewer lines, of $4,300.