2008 News
August 14, 2008
“Middletown Grange Fair: Greener than Ever At 60"
Commissioners Commemorate Event’s 60th Anniversary with a Full Slate of Business, Including Preservation of Five Properties Totaling 322 Acres
For the last 60 years, the Middletown Grange No. 684 has hosted the Bucks annual equivalent of the “county fair.” Since 1967, the Grange Fair has been held at its current location, on Penns Park Rd. in Wrightstown, adhering to its mission to “unite its members in a bond of fraternity, for prosperous agriculture, practical education and better community life.”
Each August, the Board of Bucks County Commissioners receives the honor of opening the Grange Fair with a ceremonial procession and conducting one of its bi-monthly meetings inside the entertainment tent. This year’s event was augmented by the dedication of a 4H Memorial Garden near the Grange Fair flagpole. A memorial plaque that was discovered on the fairgrounds’ perimeter last year and relocated for fairgoers to enjoy commemorates former 4H leader and Vietnam War casualty, Marine 2nd Lt. William Stanley “Butch” Geary.
Following the ceremony, Commissioners James F. Cawley, Esq., chairman, Charles H. Martin and Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, LCSW, conducted a “green-themed” meeting featuring the approval of resolutions for 21 departments. Those resolutions included the preservation of three farms totaling 176 acres and two open space acquisitions consisting of 146 acres. The 68-acre Alyce Stick farm in Springfield and Durham townships, the 57.6-acre Joseph Reedman farm in Plumstead Twp. and the 49.9-acre Judith Siegfried farm in Durham Twp. lift the county’s agricultural preservation total to 119 farms comprised of 10,490 acres.
In each of the three Agricultural Preservation Program acquisitions, the county paid five percent or less of the conservation easement price, with the remainder of the cost provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, according to county Agricultural Preservation Program Administrator Richard Harvey, the Stick farm was ranked first of 61 farm properties on the county’s 2007 application list, and the Siegfried farm was ranked third of 61.
The two open-space acquisitions were the approval of Natural Areas Program Grants to acquire a 96-acre easement on Kintner Rd. in Durham and Nockamixon townships and the 50-acre Janhke property on Stony Garden Rd. in Haycock Twp.
The commissioners approved a contract with Tullytown Borough to hire Bucks County Planning Commission staff to produce a comprehensive plan for the borough. According to Chairman Cawley, the agreement simply underscores the excellence of Planning Commission Executive Director Lynn Bush and her staff.
Recently, the Planning Commission has completed comprehensive plans for Morrisville Borough, the Newtown Area Jointure and Bedminster Twp., to name just a few.
Another highlight of the packed agenda was the pass-through funding approval of an $80,000 compressed natural gas bus for the Bucks County TMA, Inc. The bus will provide fuel and environmental benefits as it becomes fully operative on county routes.
Ellis-Marseglia registered “no” votes on three Children and Youth contracts as well as one Public Works contract, agenda items 4 a, c and e, as well as 19a. Martin voted “nay” on a Horizon House contract under the auspices of Mental Health/Mental Retardation, item 15g.
During his chief operating officer’s report, David Sanko touched on several themes, including the more than one ton of aluminum and plastic recycling items that have been collected over the last three months through the courthouse recycling initiative, the recent County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania convention in Valley Forge (which featured presentations by Bucks Employees’ Green Initiative – BEGIN – Committee Co-Chair Michael Bannon and Marge Hanna of the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission), and the recently approved Pennsylvania state budget.
Sanko noted that the approved budget includes no increase in funding for services for senior citizens, but shifts $300 million from the senior-dedicated lottery fund to the commonwealth’s general fund. “We’ve got very serious concerns (about this budget),” Sanko told the commissioners, inviting them to draft a letter urging Gov. Edward Rendell to reconsider senior funding allocation.
“I continue to be amazed by the prioritization coming out of Harrisburg,” Chairman Cawley observed, calling the situation “unconscionable” for senior citizens across Pennsylvania – more than 105,000 of whom reside in Bucks County.
The meeting also included a proclamation commemorating the Grange Fair’s 60th anniversary, the crowning of this year’s Grange Fair queen, Gabrielle Ochoco, and the presentation of farm baskets to the commissioners by Mike Fournier of the Penn St. Cooperative Extension and Scott Yerkes of None Such Farm in Buckingham Twp.
For a full audio account of the August 13 meeting, please go to www.BucksCounty.org and click on the link on the commissioners’ meeting page.