The New Britain Civic Association is hosting its annual Duck Derby at Covered Bridge Park on Saturday, September 29 from 11 AM – 3 PM. Come enjoy food, prizes, vendors, raffles, entertainment, and special activities for kids.
And don’t forget to buy a duck! Ducks will be raced in the creek, and winners can earn up to $500. The proceeds from this event benefit the New Britain Civic Association and another local community non-profit. For more info, please visit http://www.newbritaincivic.org/
The Positively Aging Bucks County (PABC) volunteer program is seeking volunteers to help with it’s school based tutor programs for the September 2018 – June 2019 school year.
Develop confidence and motivate positive results for learning in the life of a young child! PABC partners with several local school districts to supply volunteers that support emergent readers and help build character in the lives of young children right in our community. The relationship built between a child and a tutor is often a significant part of a child’s learning experience.
Volunteer opportunities are available throughout Bucks County with commitments as little as a few hours a week. The primary focus is reading, however, classroom aides and tutors in math and science are also needed. Enroll in the PABC volunteer program today and help us supply the demand for support in our classrooms for the 2018-2019 school year.
To become a volunteer or to learn more, please contact Lorraine Horvath at 267-880-5725 or llhorvath@buckscounty.org, or visit the PABC webpage.
Rendering of 2018 Pop Up Park at Town Center
New Britain Borough will be hosting its second annual Pop-Up Park event the weekend of September 21 – 23!
Pop-Up Park is part of Park(ing) Day, which is a global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to transform parking spaces into temporary public places. This year’s event will include a native plant sale, garden arbor auction, kids games, face painting, crafts, zumba and yoga events, performances by Theatre Arts Center and Action Karate, and Bird and Nature Discussion. Evening activities will include live music, table service from surrounding town center restaurants and BYOB from 7 PM – 11 PM.
For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/nbbpopuppark
Photo credit: PA Department of Agriculture
The Spotted Lanternfly continues to threaten our ecosystem. The invasive pest attacks grapes, fruit trees, pines, and others. Their feeding damage can kill these plants, especially when coupled with drought, disease and other pests. Bucks County is one of many counties in Pennsylvania that have been identified as a quarantine zone in an effort to stop the movement of this pest to new areas.
The College of Agricultural Sciences from Penn State University has released a guide that reviews the identification, life cycle, current distribution, and techniques for managing spotted lanternflies on your property. This guide can be reviewed at https://extension.psu.edu/spotted-lanternfly-management-for-homeowners.
You can also follow these simple steps to reduce the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly.
Photo credit: PA Department of Agriculture
Step 1: Search on tree trunks, stone surfaces, vehicles, lawn furniture, and any smooth surface for egg masses. Masses will have a gray putty-like covering on top of them. Tree of heaven is the preferred egg laying site.
Step 2: Scrape masses from the surface. Be sure to remove all seed-like black/brown eggs from under the wax coating.
Step 3: Double bag and trash, burn, or submerge the eggs in alcohol or hand sanitizer.
Based on feedback from our 2017 Town Hall survey, one of the Borough’s priorities is to provide appropriate and aesthetically pleasing lighting. Lights should properly illuminate sidewalks to ensure safe pedestrian use. They should not shine directly into windows, streets, and driveways as this could interfere with a driver’s vision or become a nuisance to property owners and residents.
As existing street lights burn out, we’re replacing them with stronger and less expensive LED lights that follow these guidelines. New development in the borough also encourages the use of aesthetically pleasing lighting. The borough is actively looking into grants that would allow us to make these changes sooner and turn us into the destination town that our residents want us to be!
If you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call the Borough Administration Office at (215) 348-5953 . To learn more about our lighting ordinance, visit https://www.ecode360.com/15490976.
The Nature Preserve Committee has announced it’s upcoming Fall Work Day Schedule!
We’re looking for volunteers to help us with this important conservation work at the Wilma Quinlan Nature Preserve. If you’re able to attend, please bring work gloves and tools for planting, mulching, and removing invasive plants. Suggested tools include shovels, garden rakes, pitchforks, cutting tools and wheelbarrows.
Our work schedule falls on the following Saturdays from 9:00 AM until Noon. We’ll be meeting at the Matthew’s Avenue entrance (accessible via S Sand Rd).
Please direct any questions to Tom Price at pricet@newbritainboro.com.
(Chicago, Illinois)– Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) is pleased to announce that New Britain Borough, Pennsylvania, has received GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its budget.
The award represents a significant achievement by the entity. It reflects the commitment of the governing body and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the budget award, the entity had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. These guidelines are designed to assess how well an entity’s budget serves as: (1) a policy document, (2) a financial plan, (3) an operations guide, and (4) a communications device. Budget documents must be rated “proficient” in all four categories, and in the fourteen mandatory criteria within those categories, to receive the award.
When a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award is granted to an entity, a Certificate of Recognition for Budget Presentation is also presented to the individual(s) or department designated as being primarily responsible for having achieved the award. This has been presented to Sam Bryant, Borough Manager / Treasurer.
There are over 1,600 participants in the Budget Awards Program. The most recent Budget Award recipients, along with their corresponding budget documents, are posted quarterly on GFOA’s website. Award recipients have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and provide an excellent example for other governments throughout North America.
Government Finance Officers Association is a major professional association servicing the needs of more than 19,000 appointed and elected local, state, and provincial-level government officials and other finance practitioners. It provides top quality publications, training programs, services, and products designed to enhance the skills and performance of those responsible for government finance policy and management. The association is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with office in Washington D.C..
You can find more information about the award at http://www.gfoa.org/budgetaward
You can find our award winning 2018 budget at https://newbritainboro.com/information/budget/
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve held its 18th Annual Land Ethics Symposium at Delaware Valley University on March 15, 2018. This symposium is an event dedicated to the sharing of best practices and new ideas to conserve our native landscape. The highlight of this event is the presentation of the Land Ethics Award, which honors the creative use of native plants in the landscape and ethical land management practices. Individuals, non-profit organizations, government agencies, community groups, and business professionals may be nominated for this prestigious award. According to Kelly Joslin, Bowman Hill’s Educational Coordinator, “the Preserve received an overwhelming number of submissions in 2018.”
This year, the judges selected the Wilma Quinlan Nature Preserve Committee of New Britain Borough as the 2018 recipient of the Land Ethics Award. This all-volunteer Borough committee is responsible for the management and stewardship of the Borough’s 30-acre Nature Preserve located on Mathews Ave.
According to the press announcement released by Bowman’s, the committee’s work in the Wilma Quinlan Nature Preserve “exemplifies what the Land Ethics Award seeks to celebrate” by demonstrating, “the creative use of native plantings to create a sustainable habitat for wildlife and a place for the public to learn about and enjoy nature.” The press release goes on to say that, “the combination of the use of native plants, volunteer involvement, the educational component as well as documented public and ecological impacts earned this project the top honor.”
The Nature Preserve Committee won this award based on the habitat restoration work it has carried out in the Nature Preserve over the past three years. In 2015, the Nature Preserve Committee wrote a Strategic Plan outlining the Committee’s stewardship goals and priorities for the Preserve, which can be found on their webpage.
Highlights of the Committee’s work over this three-year span include the following:
While the planning and much of the physical labor that lies behind the above achievements has been carried out by the eleven members of the Nature Preserve Committee, it should be noted that the Committee has also had the help of many other community and student volunteers on the six work days that it now holds each year. Community volunteers have included Borough residents and local Scouts. Student volunteers have come from the National Honor Societies of C.B. West and C. B. South High Schools, and the Key Club of C.B. West. Without the help of these enthusiastic volunteers, the Nature Preserve Committee couldn’t have reached these achievements and would not have won this award.
As of our July 2018 council meeting, New Britain Borough has created a new committee titled the Friends of New Britain Parks. This committee will serve to help with the administration of receiving and distributing any donations given to the borough to benefit our parks, nature preserve, and other recreational facilities.
If you’d like to join this committee, please reach out to our office at sam@newbritainboro.com for more information.
Did you know that New Britain Borough has recently adopted a ‘Do Not Knock’ list? If you would like to curb solicitors from knocking on your door, you can fill out the form using the link below. You can also optionally download and print an official ‘No Solicitation’ sign to display in your window. For more information, use the link below to review the full ordinance.
45 Keeley Avenue, New Britain, PA 18901
© Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved