Tinicum Township restores police force to four officers

Following extensive review of police staffing needs, Tinicum Township has restored its force to four officers, including Chief Nicole Madden. Staffing was reduced to three officers last year, when former Chief Matt Phelan left for a similar job with Bedminster Township, and Madden was promoted to replace him.
The action was taken through the hiring of new Officer John Barrington, and with his oath of office administered by District Magistrate Gary Gambardella at the township’s Oct. 5 public board of supervisors meeting. Gambardella also swore in new Delaware Valley Volunteer Fire Police Officer Cory Ingram.
At the Aug. 17 meeting, Supervisor Rich Rosamilia had noted that supervisors had asked Chief Madden to report on staffing needs, adding that they were awaiting her response to further questions they asked after she presented her report.
“Officer Barrington comes to the Tinicum Township Police Department with three years of law enforcement experience,” Madden reported after the Oct. 5 meeting. “He is excited to get started, and will be a good fit for the community.”

Also on the agenda for the Oct. 5 meeting was an announcement of an appeal to the township’s zoning hearing board, scheduled for Oct. 7, by a neighbor of a proposed new wedding and event venue on Creamery Road, regarding the proposal’s status as a conforming use.
Solicitor Stephen Harris explained later that the neighbor was presenting a right to appeal the conforming use decision long after it was made, on the grounds that he only first heard of the proposal at the supervisors’ meeting Aug. 17. Other neighborhood residents have previously expressed a variety of concerns about the proposal, related to what they saw as a challenge to the “essential character” of their neighborhood.
At the outset of the Sept. 21 public meeting, noting that the township had received queries relating to events that had apparently already been scheduled for the proposed new venue, Supervisor Chair John Blanchard stated that “there is no zoning approval for the Tretton Wedding Venue to operate; there are outstanding court decisions; land development has not been submitted, reviewed, or approved; and there is no application for commercial use and occupancy of the structure under the International Building Code.”

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