Solebury police request radar for traffic control

The Solebury Police Department wants to have radar guns and the township supervisors all support the idea.
However, Pennsylvania allows only the state police to use radar, said Supervisor Noel Barrett at Tuesday’s meeting, noting, the state’s “afraid municipalities will use it as some kind of cash cow.”
But since the state Senate recently passed a radar gun bill by a 49-1 vote and sent the bill to the General Assembly, the supervisors unanimously passed a resolution urging the Assembly “to adopt HB 606 or SB 419 to allow municipal police in all municipalities to use the same speed-timing devices that are provided” to the state police.
The resolution will be sent to state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, state Rep. Wendi Thomas and Gov. Tom Wolf.
“This board constantly gets complaints about excessive speeding in their neighborhoods,” said Chair Mark Baum Baicker. “I know where I live that Carversville Road is like a race track, and speeding is common on Aquetong Road.’’
He said Police Chief Dominick Bellizzie told him he gets more resident complaints about speeding than anything else and that without radar guns they are very limited in their ability to issue speeding tickets.
“The chief mentioned that many complaints come from River Road, 202, Mechanicsville Road, Street Road and 263, in addition to Carversville Road – in short, from all over the township,” Baum Baicker said.
As for the “cash cow” argument, he said his understanding was that the Senate bill limits municipalities from keeping traffic ticket fines that constitute more than 10% of their budget.
Among the reasons for the measure cited in the township resolution is that the state has “one of the worst records for speeding-related fatalities based on statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2018. Additionally Pennsylvania had the third highest number of speeding-related fatalities and the third highest number of speeding-related fatalities on local roadways in the country.”
In other business, the board gave conditional use approval to Todd E. Molgat for the operation of an Airbnb, two-story, short-term, bed and breakfast at 2775 River Road.

The vote was 3-2 with Kevin Morrissey and Robert McEwan voting against it.
“At his time, I view this application with no good solution,” Morrissey said. “... I believe there should be additional adjustments. When I combine this with the feedback I have received from the community concerning a wish for there to be additional regulation of B&Bs, I cannot agree with this application going forward.” River Road resident Helen Tai spoke against the application because it is in a residential area, noting that the owner testified he is an airline pilot and his wife lives part-time in Florida, the house will be more of a business than a residence.
The approval limits the number of guests to 16 and requires that only guests be on the property and that a registration list be kept. Approval is conditioned on the applicant getting a variance from the zoning hearing board since the lot is only 2.6 acres and 3 acres are required.
The board also heard from Christina Bergman of 2478 River Road and Robert Wall of 2472 River Road, victims of the recent flooding along River Road.
Bergman called for a flood mitigation plan because “flooding in this area of River Road prevents emergency egress from the north end of the town. She said there was 7 feet of water and five submerged vehicles in her area, that police could not reach. She said her property was surrounded by high water and she was forced to shelter in place.
Wall said there is suitable space in the area for a retention pond and asked what leverage that township has to get that done.
Morrissey said he would bring up the issue with the county planning commission.
Supervisor John Francis, who also serves on the Primrose Creek Watershed Association board, asked the supervisors for permission to erect Primrose Creek signs in the township to designate the creek and the watershed.
The vote, from which Francis recused himself, was 3-1 in favor, with McEwan voting no. He said there were already too many signs in the township.

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