Saturday, March 31, 2012

Canal Clean Up Info

Clean up Day for canal is here

Posted: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:53 pm | Updated: 9:00 pm, Fri Mar 30, 2012.

By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | 0 comments

The flowers are starting to blossom and that means it's spring cleaning time.So the Friends of the Delaware Canal is having a cleanup April 14 along the Morrisville and Bristol stretch of the Delaware Canal State Park.

"(The Friends) sponsors this annual event to encourage volunteers to clear trash, debris and brush from the historic waterway and towpath that runs from Easton to Bristol," said Susan Taylor, executive director.
Volunteers are needed to tackle the nine-mile stretch from Ferry Road in Morrisville to Riverfront Park in Bristol.
The cleanup will begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon.
Participants will need to choose from 10 locations and contact the coordinator for that cleanup spot for details of the day's activities.
Gloves, long-handled rakes, boots and branch snippers are useful tools to bring. Trash bags will be provided.
The Friends of the Delaware Canal is an independent, nonprofit organization working to restore, preserve and improve the canal and its surroundings. Its primary goals are to ensure that the canal is fully watered from Easton to Bristol and that the towpath trail is usable over its entire length.
Currently the canal is watered to Morrisville but is dry further south pending construction of a pedestrian tunnel beneath Route 13 in Tullytown and other improvements.

For more information about CleanUp Day or other Friends activities, call 215-862-2021, e-mail friends@fodc.org, or visit www.fodc.org.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Bucks County Head Starts Sues Morrisville School District

MORRISVILLE SCHOOLSDistrict sued for non-payment of work

Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2012 6:11 pm | Updated: 7:25 pm, Thu Mar 29, 2012.

By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | 0 comments

Bucks County Head Start is suing the Morrisville School District for $308,849 for improvements completed at a building it had used and partial reimbursement of rent paid before the district cut short its lease in 2010, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday morning in Bucks County Court. The newspaper was unsuccessful in reaching school district officials Thursday afternoon.

Head Start, a nonprofit group that provides comprehensive social services and early childhood education to needy families and children, had a 20-year lease contract with the district for the use of the former Manor Park School building on Penn Avenue.

That lease was supposed to run from May 1, 1999, to Dec. 31, 2018. For unknown reasons, the district ended the lease on March 29, 2010.

According to the lawsuit, which names former and current school board members, the lease agreement states that if the school district terminated the lease before 2018, it had to pay Head Start the actual costs, minus depreciation, for any building improvements, the lawsuit states. In addition, the district had to pay 40 percent of the amount Head Start has paid the district in rent.

According to court papers, Head Start spent $20,438 for parking lot repairs, $23,358 for boiler gas conversion, another $162,925.60 for the roof replacement, and $55,029.43 for heating and air conditioning repairs and replacement. That totaled $261,751.

Of that, Head Start says the district owes the agency $167,281.71.

Head Start paid $353,952 to the district in rent since 1999; the agency is asking that Morrisville pay 40 percent of that, which totals $141,580, according to the suit.

Head Start demanded payment in a letter to the district dated March 29, 2011. The agency claims the district has refused to fulfill its payment, according to court papers.

In addition to the $308,849, Head Starts wants the district to pay $15,000 in lawyer fees and court costs.

New Set up for Grandview Most Likely to Come Next School Year

New set up for Grandview most likely to come next school year

Posted: Thursday, March 29, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 6:45 am, Thu Mar 29, 2012.

By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer | 1 comment

MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS — The Morrisville school board decided against renewing a contract that would have extended the use of modular classrooms for Grandview Elementary School students this fall.

Instead, the administration will have to figure out a new setup for students who were displaced and sent to Grandview after a 2008 explosion at M.R. Reiter Elementary School left the building unusable.

School board directors Ronald Stout and Jack Buckman were the only two, out of nine school board members present at Wednesday's meeting, who voted to continue the contract.

The one-year renewal would have cost $76,000, which would have been covered by the insurance money from the blast. The ending of the contract will allow the board to put the $76,000 toward the $84,000 cost of removing the modular classrooms.

The administration is left with the task of coming up with a plan to relocate classes, including the possibility of moving third-grade classes to the high school.

Board members and administration agreed that if that's the route they take, safety measures will have to be taken for the third-graders.

School board officials on Wednesday briefly spoke about the future of kindergarten — whether the school district will provide full or half day.

Parents will have the opportunity to voice their opinions on the issue at next month's superintendent advisory meeting and agenda work session.