#NewtownPA Resident Claims Arcadia/Mayfield Violates Land Development Contract with Township As Well As JMZO's Building Height Code

In case you’ve been away for the last couple of months, you may not have heard that the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority (NBCJMA, aka Newtown Sewer Authority) plans to build a local sewage treatment plant (aka Waste Water Treatment Plant, WWTP) in the Office Research (OR) district just down the road from the Wawa site that is under construction on Lower Silver Lake Road (see map).

An increase in rates is just one concern of the nearly 180 Newtown and Middletown residents who have responded to my survey.

Potential odor, location close to homes and businesses and environmental concerns were equally important to respondents.

Download the PDF version here to learn more about this and how you can get involved.

The purpose of this Request for Qualifications (“RFQ”) is to solicit competitive proposals from qualified firms to provide a full suite of traffic engineering and consulting services. 

Township seeks a consulting engineering firm that is experienced and equipped to provide the following services, including but not limited to:

• Advise the Board and Manager or his/her designee on all matters pertaining to traffic engineering.
• Serve as traffic engineer on Township construction and maintenance projects.
• Review subdivision, highway and traffic proposals, and for highway occupancy.
• Provide Site inspections, Construction Observation, and Construction Management for municipal projects, and process developer escrow release requests as related to traffic improvements.
• Provide grant writing and grant administration services for traffic related projects.
• Serve as Township liaison to PennDOT and other regulatory agencies as assigned by the Township.

ALL PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE 4:00PM ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2025.

More details...

This is my personal summary of the January 22, 2025, meeting of the #NewtownPA Township Board of Supervisors (BOS). This is not a complete nor an official summary.

Agenda Items, Discussions, Decisions, and More

• Public Comment
  • Barbara Simmons Makes Mural Project Request
  • Resolution of Appreciation for Dr. Kevin L. Antoine
  • Ray Post Comments on Nitrogen & Phosphorus in Effluent from WWTP
  • Gloria Post Comments on PFAS in Effluent from WWTP
  • Jim Walsh Comments on Rates for WWTP vs BCSWA
• Engineer’s Report: Newtown Bypass and Summit Trace Road Pedestrian Crossing
• Other Items of Interest
  • Official Video

The following is an edited version of the transcript of Middletown resident Jim Walsh’s comments made before the Newtown Board of Supervisors on 22 January 2025. You can listen to all his comments by viewing the video of the meeting.

“Good evening my name is Jim Walsh a resident of Swan Point formerly a resident of Hampton bridge. I lived nearly my entire life along the Middletown/Newtown border and I've loved every minute of it….

“What I'm here to talk to you about is something that's been purported to be facts unsupported by sound data and wholly insufficient and that is the cost benefits analysis that the Authority is using to convince this board, Middletown Township, citizens of Newtown Borough and Newtown Township that this is a great economic decision.,” said Mr. Walsh.

“And it's not! - it is a horrible economic decision and it could be completely disastrous for every single one of the 9,000 rate payers who incidentally are entirely or almost entirely this board's constituents.

“The engineer who was presenting in Middletown Township presented the [following] chart and I know that this board has seen [this] chart before. I don't carry this chart because it is not worth the paper [it’s] written on,” said Walsh.

Read Mr. Walsh's analysis of the economics and view his version of the chart here...

The Township intends to award the contract for banking services to the banking institution that submits the highest quality proposal, including technical support for computerized cash management reporting and services. In determining the highest quality proposal, the Township will evaluate the following criteria:

1. Cost and flexibility of proposal
2. Interest earnings for Newtown Township
3. Banking services
4. Banking reporting to the Township
5. Banking institution’s creditworthiness
6. References of other municipal clients
7. Location of banking institution’s banking branches in relation to the Township’s offices

Get the details here...

At the 14 January 2025 Newtown Sewer Authority public meeting, residents from Middletown and Newtown had several questions regarding the proposed Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP, aka Sewerage Treatment Plant) on Lower Silver Lake Road abutting Middletown.

One important question had to do with ACT 537, which currently provides:

"The Township’s continued use and expansion of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority’s (BCWSA) conveyance system that includes the Neshaminy Interceptor for sewage conveyance to the City of Philadelphia’s Northeast Water Pollution Control Facility."

This act would have to be modified by BOTH Newtown Township AND Newtown Borough to allow the use of a local sewage treatment plant that would send its effluent to Lake Luxembourg. 

We are a grassroots organization of citizens from both Middletown and Newtown… Donna Salvucci needs your support for HELP US TO STOP THE NEWTOWN SEWER PLANT!

LINK: https://gofund.me/7a5d5921

At the January 22, 2025, Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, Middletown resident Ray Post - a professional engineer with 49 years of experience in water treatment - commented on the amount of Phosphorus and Nitrogen that the proposed #NewtownPA Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) will release into the already environmentally "impaired" Lake Luxembourg.

Mr. Post used numbers from the Wolcott WWTP to calculate his estimates for the Newtown plant that will be patterned after the Wolcott plant.

Read the Patch article "Water Treatment Expert Comments on Proposed Newtown WWTP" for more details.

Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that a bipartisan coalition of states and other parties have reached a $7.4 billion settlement, in principle, with members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma, Inc., for their role in fueling an opioid crisis that continues to devastate families and communities across Pennsylvania.

The settlement is subject to court approval, and preliminary figures indicate Pennsylvania will receive up to $212 million from the settlement, with payouts happening over the next 15 years.

“No dollar amount could ever replace what has been lost due to the opioid epidemic, but this settlement will go a long way in bolstering treatment resources and helping Pennsylvanians achieve recovery,” Attorney General Sunday said. “This epidemic, no doubt, was fueled by Purdue Pharma’s manufacturing and deceptive marketing of OxyContin, a highly potent and addictive drug. Dependency on the drug ruined countless lives, while the Sackler family and Purdue made more than $35 billion from its distribution, profiting off of the suffering of others.”

If approved, the settlement will deliver funds to the participating states, local governments - including Newtown Township - affected individuals, and other parties who have previously sued the Sacklers or Purdue.

A significant amount of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, with the Sacklers paying $1.5 billion and Purdue paying nearly $900 million in the first payment, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.

More details...

At the January 22, 2025, Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, Middletown resident Gloria Post commented on the potential for releasing PFAS "forever" chemicals into Lake Luxembourg via the effluent of the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) proposed by the Newtown Sewer Authority.

I mentioned this at aSewer Authority meeting as well as at the Newtown Environmental Advisory Council (EAC). At the Sewer Authority meeting it was suggested since PFAs will be removed from Newtown drinking water (read "#NewtownPA Artesian Water Wins Zoning Variances to Build PFAS Filtration Facility"; https://sco.lt/7nmpd2) and thus not be present in Waste Water processed by the WWTP. Ms. Post pooh poohed this notion, pointing out sources of PFAs other than drinking water that end up in waste water sent to the plant and then onward to Lake Luxembourg in the effluent.

Newtown Township looking at improving pedestrian safety along the Newtown Bypass, with a focus on the Summit Shopping Center crosswalk.

The township engineer is preparing pedestrian safety information for PennDOT to review.

“We’re going through PennDOT’s checklist of items. Once we provide them with this information, they can analyze it and make recommendations,” Dominic Cundari, the township engineer, explained.

The safety review comes after a Middletown Township resident raised concerns about the crosswalk and right-hand turns from Summit Shopping Center onto the bypass, which is the border for Newtown and Middletown townships.

Supervisor John Mack stressed the need for teamwork between Newtown and Middletown townships. “Middletown expects us to take the lead, but I’m not sure that’s the right approach. We need to work together on this,” he said.

This presentation was made at the special 20 January 2025 Meet Mack Monday Zoom meeting that was attended by 18 people (14 from Middletown Twp and 4 from Newtown Twp).

This SPECIAL Meet Mack Monday Zoom meeting focused on a review of a citizen’s group's planned actions to oppose the proposed Newtown Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). This sewage treatment plant would be located off the Bypass adjacent to the Wawa now being constructed on the corner of the Bypass and Lower Silver Lake Road.

As you may know, the Newtown Joint Municipal Authority is engaged in an ongoing project to build their own wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in a location that is immediately adjacent to Middletown Township.

At the 13 January 2025 Middletown Township Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, the township's Solicitor and Engineer reviewed plans for how the township can make sure it is involved in the approval process and make their feelings known, especially with regard to the environmental impact.

Calling itself "Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant," the group sent out a flier announcing plans to organize against the project (see image above).

“It is our hope that creating this network will help us to spread accurate and crucial information regarding the sewer plant project to the residents of our neighborhoods,” said the flier.

More...

[Published in Bucks County Courier Times on Sept 15, 2013]

A seeming tidal wave of resident opposition swayed the Newtown Township supervisors to unanimously give a thumbs down to a proposed sewage treatment plant in the township. 

The plant had been proposed by the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority for a spot on the south side of the Newtown Bypass between Routes 413 and 532. The NBCJMA serves more than 8,600 sewer customers in Newtown Township and Newtown Borough.

At Wednesday night’s [Sept 11, 2013] standing-room-only meeting, after almost two hours of public comment almost all against the plant, the Newtown Township supervisors voted 5-0 to not include the treatment plant in the township’s upcoming 537 plan update that will outline how officials plan to handle sewage in the future. 

[For more on that read "

Also, the supervisors directed township Manager Kurt Ferguson to send a letter to the Newtown authority asking it to “cease any further exploration” of the treatment plant proposal.

More...

This is my personal summary of the January 6, 2025, meeting of the #NewtownPA Township Board of Supervisors (BOS). This is not a complete nor an official summary.

Agenda Items, Discussions, Decisions, and More

• Reorganization Notes
• Public Comment
  • St. Mary's Chief of Surgery Regarding Proposed WWTP
• Engineer’s Report
• Other Items of Interest
  • Official Video

What Residents are Saying about Proposed Sewage Treatment Plant, Year 2024 in Images, Middletown & Newtown Need to Collaborate to Improve Pedestrian Safety Crossing the Bypass!, more...

At the 6 January 2025 Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) public meeting, David Hardeski, Chief of Surgery at the St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown, expressed concern about the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) proposed by the Newtown Sewer Authority. For more on that, read "Residents Have Concerns Regarding Proposed Sewage Treatment Plant"; https://rebrand.ly/WWTPsvy_PatchArticle

"This 'smell radius' may extend into the property currently occupied by St. Mary's Medical Center and I worry about the impact on this institution," said Dr. Hardeski.

At the 16 October 2024, Newtown Sewer Authority Board meeting, Mr. Mark Friend, who lives at 15 Stoopville Rd in Newtown, questioned the high increase in his sewer bill. Mr. Friend has well water. His sewer rate increased from $90 per quarter at the end of 1992. In 2023 the rate went up to $125. Now (2025) the rate is $183 per quarter. A 100% increase over 2 years. Hear what the sewer authority told him.

The Newtown Sewer Authority presented details of its plan to build a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) on Lower Silver Lake Rd at the December 11, 2024, Newtown Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting where several local area residents spoke up against the plan.

I was interested in what other residents had to say about this plan. So, I created a Sewage Treatment Plant Survey. I asked respondents what, if any, were their concerns and questions. To date (1/3/25) 171 responses have been collected.

I summarize the results, including comments, in this Patch article...