A federal judge on Friday tossed a lawsuit over natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin as a political issue — not a legal one.
U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Paul S. Diamond dismissed a lawsuit filed at the beginning of the year challenging a de facto fracking ban by the Delaware River Basin Commission for over a decade. That ban became official in February.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP >> Two new replacement police cars will be hitting the streets of the township before the end of the summer thanks to a grant secured by State Senator Steve Santarsiero.
The Bucks County senator delivered the good news on June 4 to Police Chief John Hearn and Newtown Township Supervisors David Oxley and Dennis Fisher in the form of a check for $131,900.
The state grant will fund the purchase of two Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicles outfitted with emergency equipment, new computer systems, a new in car video system, printers for the issuance of e-tickets designed to get the officer back in service as quickly as possible and emergency lighting, equipment and other safety features.
A project expanding the Trenton-Mercer Airport terminal has support from elected officials, but dozens of the New Jersey airport’s neighbors on both sides of the Delaware River say the project needs more review.
Over 100 participants logged onto the three-hour environmental assessment public hearing online Tuesday night, with many residents using their 3-minute speaking time decrying the review process.
BUCKS COUNTY >> An $8.7 million capital improvement project is officially underway at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Upper Makefield and Solebury townships.
And when it’s complete, more than a dozen buildings and structures in and around the village will be restored with new windows, doors, roofs, plumbing and electrical systems, masonry work and interior and exterior renovations.
Bucks and Montgomery counties have joined Sen. Steve Santarsiero and his colleagues in their effort to preserve the authority of the Delaware River Basin Commission to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin.
Santarsiero (D-10) held a virtual press conference April 15, along with Bucks County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie, Bucks County Solicitor Joe Khan, and Steve Miano, counsel representing the Democratic senators in Yaw v. DRBC.
BUCKS COUNTY >> State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) and State Representative Perry Warren (D-31) have announced the award of Multimodal Transportation Fund Grants to Lower Makefield Township and Newtown Township.
Lower Makefield Township will receive $353,000, Newtown Township will receive $227,000 and Yardley Borough will receive $95,000 in funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).
College graduates purchasing a new home in Pennsylvania could get up to $50,000 in student loan debt paid if a new state Senate bill were enacted.
The Put Down Roots in PA Act introduced this week would cover student loans for tuition at two- or four-year colleges and universities, as well as vocational training programs.
The bill is designed as an incentive for young, college-educated adults to move to the commonwealth, Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, of Lower Makefield said Friday.
A state senator that represents part of Lower Bucks County is introducing legislation to allow counties to pre-canvass mail-in ballots and provide a minimum of one drop box for every 20,000 residents.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat from Lower Makefield Township, recently announced the two planned pieces of legislation to expand access to voting.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The state senator representing most of Bucks County has introduced a bill that would expand access to ballot drop boxes in future elections.
Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat, has filed what he’s calling The Safe Drop Act. The bill would require Pennsylvania counties to provide at least one ballot drop box for every 20,000 residents.
In a local story with national implications, Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate are waging legal war over a regional reguiatory agency’s decision to impose a de facto moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin.
A total of $98,000 in funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) that will help local religious schools and houses of worship make security improvements has been awarded through the commission’s Non-Profit Security Grant Program.
The following local nonprofits receiving funding are: St. Mark A.M.E. Zion in Newtown, $24,995; Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley, $24,975; Temple Judea of Bucks County in Furlong, $21,847; St. Andrew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Perkasie, $13,346; and Jewish Center of Eastern Bucks/Chabad Lubavitch of Yardley: $12,838.
The first round in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the Delaware River Basin Commission’s authority to ban fracking in its jurisdictional waters has gone to the State Democratic Caucus.
A knockout blow could be landing as soon as April.
“About two weeks ago in New Hope, we announced the filing of our initial motion” to be added to the case as interveners, said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-12 of Lower Makefield, during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “The court has granted that motion and entered that order last Friday.
HARRISBURG >> New legislation introduced by Senators Katie Muth (D–Montgomery/Chester/Berks), Steve Santarsiero (D–Bucks) and Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia) will ensure Pennsylvanians are able to stay safely housed for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis and economically secure throughout the recovery period that follows.
The Housing Security Act (Senate Bill 466) creates a framework for mortgage deferment and rent forgiveness, benefitting property owners and renters alike.
While there is growing discontent in the Philadelphia suburbs over vaccine distribution, Gov. Tom Wolf visited Bucks County Friday to announce vaccination efforts for school staff was going well.
Earlier this month, Wolf’s administration and the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force designated that Pennsylvania’s initial batch of 94,600 single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines would be administered to school staff. The state received another 13,000 doses, bringing the total to 107,600 doses.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10) was joined by Democratic colleagues Friday in New Hope to announce their action to protect clean drinking water from environmental hazards of fracking.
Their action was in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican senators against the Delaware River Basin Commission to allow natural gas drilling in the basin in Pennsylvania.
SOLEBURY TOWNSHIP, PA — Solesbury Township is getting money from the state to help buy body cameras for its police officers.
The township will receive $16,155 through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, state Sen. Steve Santarsiero announced. He said the funds will go toward the purchase of body-worn camera systems.
Racism, land acquisition costs and health care are just a few of the grave issues facing farmers in Bucks County, with several county farmers airing their concerns during state Sen. Steve Santarsiero’s recent virtual agriculture roundtable.
The roundtable, co-hosted by Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, also touched on the ever-changing industry and how to best market Pennsylvania’s status as the country’s top producer of organic goods.
NEW HOPE BOROUGH >> Standing on the banks of the glistening Delaware River Friday afternoon, State Senator Steve Santarsiero and the Senate Democratic Caucus fired back against a federal lawsuit filed by their Republican counterparts seeking to overturn a fracking ban imposed by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC).
The fracking debate took center stage Friday, when the state Senate Democratic Caucus, led by Sen. Steve Santarsiero, filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to stem Republican attempts to again open up the Delaware River basin to fracking.
Hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as “fracking,” is the process of drilling into host formations such as shales and tight sandstones, and injecting fluids and sand under pressures great enough to fracture the rock formations to allow the extraction of oil and gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
BUCKS COUNTY >> The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has announced $98,000 in local funding that will help local houses of worship make security improvements through its Non-Profit Security Grant Program.
The following religious institutions in Bucks County will be receiving grants:
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on Thursday renewed calls to permanently ban mining at a controversial quarry in East Rockhill where naturally occurring asbestos was discovered over two years ago.
The Republican lawmaker from Middletown urged the newly confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael Regan, to review recent geological tests and order permanent closure of Rockhill Quarry.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-10) highlighted the historic Pennsbury Manor in Falls Township, hosting a Community Conversation video discussion about the site, the many educational offerings and how it has stayed active through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ahead of Charter Day on March 8, Santarsiero sat down with Historic Site Director Doug Miller, to talk about William Penn’s estate and its legacy in Bucks County and Pennsylvania.
Residents of the 10th Senatorial District in Bucks County who need help signing up for the coronavirus vaccine can call the offices of State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, in Doylestown and Newtown townships from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m Thursday to receive assistance.
Santarsiero sent out a recorded phone message Tuesday to residents eligible in the 1A category for the vaccine to urge them to call or stop in either of the offices if they need help registering for the Bucks County vaccine distribution plan or don’t have a computer to register online. These include people age 65 and older and those with some pre-existing medical conditions.
HARRISBURG — The future of a state park system that has seen record visits during the past year but faces a backlog of infrastructure work was a key topic Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing.
A proposed $427 million budget will help the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources continue to meet the higher visitor demand at the state parks, said agency Secretary Cindy Dunn.
Paul Witte, 94, of New Hope, a creative industrial and product design engineer, local philanthropist, and cofounder of the 30-year-old Hepatitis B Foundation, died Saturday, Feb. 13, of complications from dementia at Buckingham Valley Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Newtown.
Mr. Witte ran his own design business, Originetics, Inc., out of his home until 2000 and focused for two decades on designing orthopedic knee and hip implants. In 1991, he and his wife, Jan Witte, joined Tim and Joan Block to start the Hepatitis B Foundation, now the nation’s leading nonprofit research and disease advocacy organization for hepatitis B.
