Five percent increase still leaves Jenkintown with a $400,000 deficit Last month, Jenkintown Borough Council voted to raise our taxes by five percent, exceeding the rate of inflation by sixty-two percent. Council Vice President and Social Media Bully Rick Bunker dismissed any concern by reminding Jenkintonians that our government spared us any increases for the past three years. In other words, be grateful that our government didn’t take more from […]
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Jenkintown Public Works committee plunges into sewer issue
Jenkintown Borough rarely sends out emails about its committee meetings. This month’s public works committee meeting was the exception, because of a particular challenge facing our town — where to send what we flush down our toilets. Currently, Jenkintown sends all of its sewage through Cheltenham which then sends most of its sewage to Philadlephia. According to the engineers, Cheltenham has not kept up with maintenance, and now races to […]
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A Jenkintown Christmas letter
Wondering what’s going on in Jenkintown? Glad you asked. Thanks to six seasons of “The Goldbergs”, Bradley Cooper, and a glowing piece on the National Geographic website, Jenkintown often finds itself in the national spotlight. On paper, it sure looks like the type of town fit for a George Bailey and his savings and loan. Except that the deeper you dig, the more it looks like Pottersville. Let’s take a […]
Commentary
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Escape from Jenkintown
One now-former resident tells his story and why he waited to get out before telling it. The hype that surrounds Jenkintown often describes it as a “A Big-Hearted, All-American Town“, and if you remove the politics or the insidious machinations of our public officials, and maybe it is. We settled here in 2002 and in 2015 made the mistake of looking under the municipal rocks. It wasn’t pretty. This reporter […]
Borough Council / Legal Issues
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Jenkintown’s motion to dismiss, strike one
Jenkintown’s attorney fails with first attempt to dismiss civil rights lawsuit but tries again The Times-Chronicle recently reported that the Borough’s attempt to have the civil rights suit against it dismissed failed — and failed rather quickly. Three days later, the Borough and its co-defendants, Deborra Sines-Pancoe, Rick Bunker, George Locke, and Sean Kilkenny updated the motion and refiled it yesterday. To update yesterday’s post about the court’s rejection of […]
2019 Election
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A simple request for Jenkintown’s next government
Dear fellow Jenkintown residents: Consider this a modest request. In a town as small and as charming as Jenkintown, you wouldn’t think we’d have to remind ourselves about how its government should treat us. Events of the past three or more years have proven otherwise. We have an election coming up next year. Nearly half the members of Council will face reelection, and if past years provide any insight, those […]
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Jenkintown and its leadership hit with civil rights lawsuit
Dave and Peggy Downs have served the Borough of Jenkintown and its four de facto leaders with a Federal civil rights lawsuit. The suit filed in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District Court, names the borough along with Council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe, Council Vice-President Rick Bunker, Borough Manager George Locke, and Borough Solicitor and Montgomery County Sheriff Sean Kilkenny. The suit alleges that these four were responsible for prosecuting the Downs family for […]
Legal Issues
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The costs of Jenkintown’s political vendetta
Even in little Jenkintown, it costs big money to carry out a political vendetta by weaponizing your zoning code, especially if your victim has the nerve to fight back. Jenkintown’s ongoing political drama turned circus turned fiasco has hopefully come to a close. On July 12, the Zoning Hearing Board unanimously dismissed the notice of violation the Borough served against the Downses. I think I assumed like most in this […]
Borough Council / Legal Issues
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Jenkintown Borough leadership considered appeal of Downs ZHB decision
[Update: The Borough had 30 days to appeal, and the window has closed. Nonetheless, it is our opinion that the Borough should have shut down this this matter well before the first hearing.] Apparently a unanimous vote against them failed to convince the Borough to stand down after all. According to documents we’ve received today via a Right-to-Know request, Jenkintown Borough is or was considering an appeal of the ZHB vote […]
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Jenkintown 2035: Not thinking big enough
Jenkintown adopts a long-range plan that tip-toes around issues it needs to address head on. Last week, after five years of discussion, Jenkintown Borough Council formally adopted the Jenkintown 2035 plan. After a half a decade of notes, presentations, debates, and fact finding, the fact that no one involved with the plan — except for someone from the county — witnessed the vote came as quite the anti-climax. The plan […]
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Cedar Street Redux?
Council President Deborra Sines-Pancoe motion to exercise an option to purchase of the Church of Our Savior almost slipped right under our noses last June 20 at the special Council meeting. If Borough Solicitor Patrick Hitchens hadn’t corrected the wording of her motion, we might never have known of the Borough’s designs on the property as a possible location for a new Borough Hall. In the motion passed by a […]
Council Notes / Policy
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George Locke’s Sidewalk Shuffle
Jenkintown Borough Manager George Locke updated Council this week on the borough’s ongoing paving program and its accompanying sidewalk inspection and rehabilitation efforts. The eleven-page Powerpoint presentation gave council members a somewhat stilted view of what Mr. Locke has so far accomplished, perhaps hoping that council members don’t walk around town much. The presentation contradicted a few of our experiences and observations. Ownership: Mr. Locke correctly pointed to the state […]
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