Council paves way for Dow Chemical to sell 439 acres
Sale of land to Ecosystem Invesment awaits approval from Bristol Township.
Advance correspondent
BRISTOL BOROUGH - The Borough council helped pave the way for Dow Chemical to sell 439 acres of its land near Maple Beach. The vote was only half the battle for the firm because Bristol Township also has to approve the request.
Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe and other council members, including Robyn Trunell, Gregg Pezza, Tony Devine, Lorraine Cullen and Betty Rodriguez voted to approve the subdivision; Pat Sabatini voted against it at Monday night’s regular council meeting.
Dow already has an agreement to sell the 400-plus acres to Ecosystem Investment Partners. The area in question is scenic, sitting on the banks the Delaware River, where part of the Rohm and Haas company had been located, and where several now-abandoned houses stand deteriorating.
In other business, the council unanimously approved the purchase of 12 emergency radios for the borough, at a cost of just over A3,000. The borough needs the radios to replace the outdated hand-held equipment that serves as an inter-borough form of communication. The system, which is not connected to the county communications network, is used by officials and volunteers emergencies and during he many festivals put on by the town.
The council also authorized the borough engineer to prepare specifications and get quotes for equipment and labor for field improvements and renovations planned for the borough’s Little League field, and approved imposing a A360-perunit assessment for trash collection for borough residents and businesses.
The meeting began with its annual Christmas program that included Christmas carols sung by Rosemarie MignoniSzczucki. Another borough luminary, Christopher Gattelli, was honored after the holiday show. Gattelli, a 1991 graduate of Bristol High School, was recognized by the council as a hometown boy who won the 2012 Tony Award for choreographing the hit Broadway muscical, “Newsies.!
Gattelli is an alumni of the Bristol Riverside Theatre, where he choreographed “Altar Boyz” in 2007. He was nominated for a Tony the following year for his choreography work for the revival of the musical, “South Pacific.”