YARDLEY BOROUGH, PA — The borough has received a $350,000 grant to restore Yardley Borough Hall.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10) — along with State Rep. Perry Warren — recently announced that they secured the state funding for the borough.
Yardley Borough is receiving funds for the restoration of the borough hall building, which was built in 1916.
NEWTOWN, PA — The Council Rock Newtown 9-to-11-year-old Little League team was recognized on Monday by State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren at the State Capitol in Harrisburg.
The team had an incredible season, capturing the District 30, Section 8, Pennsylvania State, and Mid-Atlantic championships before advancing to the Eastern Regional Tournament in Massachusetts, where they finished as East Region runners-up, including a dramatic walk-off victory over New York.
A new rescue engine for the Midway Volunteer Fire Company is on its way, thanks to recent state funding, Buckingham Township officials announced Friday.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Representative Tim Brennan secured $900,000 in state funding for the township to purchase a new rescue engine for the Midway Volunteer Fire Company.
Midway’s current fire engines are 19 and 29 years old, exceeding their accepted service lives and requiring significant repairs and downtime, according to township officials. The funding will allow the company to replace both aging engines with one modern, fully compliant rescue engine featuring a six-person cab, 1,000-gallon water tank, 2,000-gallon-per-minute pump, foam system, multiple attack lines, and space for rescue equipment, township officials said.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA – State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) will introduce legislation establishing an Office of Manufactured Housing Ombudsman to help Pennsylvania manufactured home residents understand their rights and resolve disputes with community owners.
Sen. Santarsiero’s legislation, Senate Bill 1446, will serve as a Senate companion to House Bill 2098, sponsored by Rep. Joe Ciresi (D-146) and co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Brennan (D-29), which would establish an Office of Manufactured Home Ombudsman and a Manufactured Home Hearing Board.
Pennsbury Manor in Falls Township has secured $50,000 in state funding to install a public Wi-Fi network across the historical site.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Jim Prokopiak, both Democrats, announced the grant award earlier this month.
Two area lawmakers are calling on federal regulators to halt consideration of a proposed $85 billion transcontinental rail merger until environmental and safety evaluations can be completed.
PLUMSTEAD TOWNSHIP, PA — Two projects in Plumstead Township will benefit from the latest round of state funding grants coming out of Harrisburg.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Sheby Labs on Tuesday announced that $350,000 would be coming to the township to pay for new basketball courts and to purchase new radios for the fire company.
The Central Bucks Athletic Association will be receiving $150,000 to replace three basketball courts located in the township. The courts have become severely worn over time and are currently crumbling, making them unsafe for play.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA— After years of planning and overcoming challenges, construction of a new pedestrian bridge between Newtown Borough and Newtown Township is a go.
On Wednesday, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted a bid from Road Con, Inc. of West Chester to build the Newtown Creek Pedestrian Bridge linking Frost Lane in Newtown Borough with North Sycamore Street (behind Penn Community Bank) in Newtown Township.
DOYLESTOWN, PA — Nine projects and community agencies and institutions in the Doylestown area will benefit from the latest round of state grants coming out of Harrisburg.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Tim Brennan have announced the following Local Share Account grants for public safety, infrastructure, and community improvement projects:
$900,000 for the Midway Volunteer Fire Company in Buckingham Township for a new fire engine
Two prominent Bucks County institutions are among the winners of a $2,887,209 state grant package supporting 13 projects in the Doylestown and New Hope area, according to a BioBuzz article by Kizzle Lopez.
The Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center will receive $433,092 to renovate and expand roughly 3,000 square feet of conference space, turning existing meeting rooms, an outdated kitchenette, and underused offices into a flexible, multipurpose hub.
Millions of dollars in state funding are headed to local municipalities and organizations after the state’s Local Share Account program announced its awards recently.
Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County and the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority will receive $1 million to acquire, remediate, and redevelop seven to 12 vacant or blighted properties in Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Morrisville Borough, and Warminster Township to create permanently affordable homes through the Habitat Bucks Land Trust model.
NEWTOWN, PA — Two projects in Newtown and neighboring Lower Makefield will benefit from the latest round of state grants coming out of Harrisburg.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren on Tuesday announced nearly $1.1 million in state Local Share Account funding, including $200,000 for Lower Makefield Township for a renewal project at the 9/11 Garden of Reflection and $940,000 toward the purchase of a ladder truck for the Newtown Fire Rescue.
NEW HOPE, PA — Four projects in New Hope Borough and Solebury Township will benefit from the latest round of state grants coming out of Harrisburg.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Tim Brennan on Tuesday announced the following Local Share Account grants for public safety, infrastructure, and community improvement projects:
This year, we mark the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days in our history: September 11, 2001. It is a day that touched each of us who were alive at that time.
In my case, after witnessing the events of that terrible morning from my office window in Newark, New Jersey, I chose to leave my law practice to become a history teacher as a way of serving our community. I went to graduate school at night, earning my Masters in Education and teaching certification, and eventually landed a job at Bensalem High School.
At a meeting Wednesday night, Sunoco LP and parent company Energy Transfer presented its cleanup plan for the estimated 6,500 gallons of jet fuel leak from its pipeline that contaminated well water in Bucks County’s Upper Makefield Township.
The company submitted its Remedial Action Plan to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in June. The document, prepared by Verdantas LLC, outlines how Sunoco LP will meet the agency’s Act II remediation cleanup standard.
This June, Pennsylvania Senator Cris Dush, R-25, introduced SB599 to the Pennsylvania Senate State Government committee, where he serves as majority chair and I serve as minority chair. Senate Bill 599 would prohibit the use of county satellite offices and drop boxes for returning mail-in ballots, in response to alleged “rampant voter fraud.”
At the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and in the midst of the 2020 general election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that, in addition to using the postal service, mail-in ballots could be returned by dropping them off at any location that the county board of elections designated, including an election office, or at a satellite location such as a drop box.
For the fifth consecutive year, Pennsylvania lawmakers have missed a constitutionally-imposed budget adoption deadline.
After failing to reach a spending plan before the mandated June 30 deadline, Republicans allegedly left Harrisburg Tuesday to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, or 250th birthday.
According to a press release sent by the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), the state House had submitted its recommended budget more than two months ago to the Senate, where it remained untouched until earlier this week.
This June, Pennsylvania Senator Cris Dush, R-25, introduced SB599 to the Pennsylvania Senate State Government committee, where he serves as majority chair and I serve as minority chair. Senate Bill 599 would prohibit the use of county satellite offices and drop boxes for returning mail-in ballots, in response to alleged “rampant voter fraud.”
At the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and in the midst of the 2020 general election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that, in addition to using the postal service, mail-in ballots could be returned by dropping them off at any location that the county board of elections designated, including an election office, or at a satellite location such as a drop box.
Although we are no longer in the throes of a global pandemic, ballot drop boxes remain an important tool to make voting easier for Pennsylvanians. Drop boxes ensure voting is convenient and accessible, especially for those who work unusual hours, experience mobility issues, or cannot easily drive all the way to Doylestown, the county seat, in our case here in Bucks County. Regrettably, ballot drop boxes are not available in every county; that is why I have offered legislation to require their use everywhere in our state. Here in Bucks County, they are a critical part of our voting infrastructure and offer a safe and secure way to return your ballot.
During the debate on SB599, Senator Dush claimed that “ever since we have been casting ballots in this country, there has been voter fraud.” But the claim that there is widespread voter fraud in Pennsylvania or anywhere else in the United States is simply untrue. Time and again, independent reviews of elections — including the 2020 presidential election, which, to be clear, Donald Trump lost — have concluded that they were administered fairly, and that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
The real problem we face in Pennsylvania and elsewhere is not voter fraud, but rather that too few people vote. We lag behind other democratic nations in the percentage of our population that participates in elections. In the 2020 election — when we saw our largest voter turnout in decades — only 62.8% of voting-aged people voted in the presidential election. That number has fallen in subsequent elections. But even at 62.8% voter turnout, we ranked 31st among other democracies in voter participation.
Rather than protect against nonexistent fraud, SB599 would exacerbate that problem by making it harder for people to vote. It is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Rather than prohibiting drop boxes, we should mandate them, as I have proposed. After all, voting is the bedrock on which our democracy rests. When more eligible voters vote, no matter for whom they cast their ballots, our democracy is made stronger.
My Republican colleagues passed SB599 out of committee on a party-line vote. If it makes it out of the Senate, it is unlikely that it will ever be taken up in the Democratic House, let alone signed by Governor Shapiro. Nevertheless, we should not dismiss the threat that measures like this pose.
The truth is that SB599, like Donald Trump’s so-called Save America Act currently pending in Congress, reflects a renewed push by MAGA Republicans at both the state and federal levels to restrict voting to forestall a likely Democratic landslide in November. At the end of the day, I believe that those efforts will fail, provided we continue to speak out, so that people on all sides see the dangers that they pose to our most fundamental freedoms as Americans.
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, a society that would give up essential liberties for (perceived) temporary security deserves neither and will lose both. We cannot afford to become such a society.
A local state senator is planning to introduce a bill that will put Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) framework for data center projects into state law.
State Sens. Steve Santarsiero, of the 10th Senatorial District, and John Kane, who represents parts of Chester and Delaware counties, are partnering on the upcoming Senate bill. The two lawmakers are Democrats.
Santarsiero and Kane’s proposal mirrors a parallel push in the House.
Pennsylvania State Senator Steve Santarsiero and Bucks County State Representatives Tina Davis and Jim Prokopiak announced that Bucks County has been awarded almost $45,000 in environmental education grants from the PA Department of Environmental Education.
The Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, unveiled a site-specific, permanent work from artist Roberto Lugo on Thursday night to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
To the sound of cheers, music and fanfare from the Pennsbury High School cheerleaders, band and chorus, work formally began on “the future of Pennsbury” with the groundbreaking for the new $270 million high school in Falls Township.
The repairs focused on sections of the Delaware Canal Towpath damaged by Tropical Storm Ida.
Two important infrastructure projects at Delaware Canal State Park have been completed after more than $6 million in combined investments to improve long-term climate resiliency and expanding safe outdoor recreation.
DOYLESTOWN, PA—Plans for Doylestown’s old Almshouse Building got another boost last week in the form of a $2 million grant to fund a pilot program for a mixed-use development that includes housing.
The complex that contains the Almshouse Building, which is located near the corner of Almshouse Road and Easton Road, has been the topic of meetings and discussions by Bucks County officials for years. While no formal plans have been announced for the property, county officials have been talking about how to revitalize the property for years.
Local state lawmakers gathered Thursday announce legislation that would require high-risk facilities to coordinate emergency preparedness plans with nearby emergency crews.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Tina Davis, both Democrats, announced the “Preparedness Requirements for High Risk Facilities” bill in the wake of the Dec. 23, 2025, fatal blast at the Bristol Health and Rehab Center in Bristol Township.
