Newtown Township has joined a growing list of municipalities in Pennsylvania banning certain single-use plastic.
In a 4 to 1 vote on Wednesday night, the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that will ban restaurants and businesses in the township from providing single-use carry out plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers to their customers except when required for food safety. The ordinance would also prohibit restaurants and businesses from providing single-use plastic straws and utensils except by request from the customer. The ordinance is scheduled to take effect on April 9, 2024.
Snyder joined fellow Democrats on the board Dennis Fisher, John Mack and Phil Calabro in voting in favor of the motion. Republican Supervisor Kyle Davis voted against the motion.
“The waste reason is a good reason to be concerned," said Davis. "I just don’t like the government's interference in everyone’s lives. I don’t like government intrusion.”
His sentiments were echoed by several residents from Newtown Grant who attended the sparsely attended meeting. Both public commenters said the issue should be left to the business community and their customers.
“The environmental thing, it is a problem,” admitted resident John D’Aprile. “But let someone higher than Newtown Township take care of this. It’s kind of ridiculous to be doing this in a small township. In a large city, okay. If you look who’s doing this, it’s the Democrat cities. Stop pushing your agenda on little Newtown,” he told the supervisors.
Snyder disagreed with D’Aprile’s characterization of the ordinance as a single party effort.
“This is not a Democrat thing. This is a bi-partisan thing. If you go to every business in the township, no matter what affiliation they have, they are for helping the environment,” said Snyder. “Ninety-five percent of our businesses have done this already and the other five percent are willing to comply.
“This is not just little Newtown doing this. This is a grassroots effort that has been, by and large, successful,” said Snyder. “We’re doing the serious work to let our governor and our legislators know how serious we are about this.”
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On Monday, September 11, 2023, Newtown Township Police were dispatched to Autumn Drive around 8 PM for a report of an armed robbery. A resident reported he was approached by two black males both armed with black semi-automatic handguns and forced to turn over his wristwatch. The males were described as medium build, approximately 5'10", wearing black clothing, gloves, and ski masks. They possibly fled in a dark-colored sedan with no license plate attached. The vehicle was last seen on the Newtown Bypass towards I-295. Officers from Newtown Township, Newtown Borough, Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield, and a K9 from Central Bucks Regional assisted with searching for the subjects. The resident was not injured.
Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®: https://bucks.crimewatchpa.com/newtowntwppd/34824/cases/armed-robbery
According to the victim, who works in jewelry in center city Philadelphia, the watch is valued at $150,000. The NTPD Chief told me that he was staked out by the criminals in Philly while accomplices waited for him at his home. Not your typical criminal motus operandi.
According to the most recent NTPD police statistics, up until this incident, there were NO AGGRAVATED CRIMES (ROBBERY) against a person in Newtown Twp or Wrightstown Twp. Also NO such crimes in ALL of 2022. Yes, with this one aggravated robbery, the crime rate has increased 100% if you care to make a point that does not prove much in terms of increased danger to residents of Newtown.