3 November 2025 Meet Mack Monday Summary

On November 3, 2025, I hosted a Meet Mack Monday Zoom session to walk residents through some of the biggest issues facing Newtown Township: the 2026 draft budget, the road paving program, the ongoing fire services non-agreement with the Borough, public concerns about Fountain Farm Lane parking enforcement, and more.

View the video of the Powerpoint Presentation and Listen to the Q&A Session that followed.

2026 Draft Budget: Structural Deficit & Tax Increase

The 2026 draft Newtown Township budget was authorized for advertisement at the October 22, 2025 Board of Supervisors meeting and appeared in the October 26, 2025 Bucks County Courier Times. By law, it must be advertised for at least 20 days before final adoption, which is expected at the December 10, 2025 BOS meeting.

• Revenues: $13,625,200
• Expenses: $16,856,596
• Projected structural deficit: $3,231,396
• Planned deficit coverage: Use of year-end fund balance, not a general tax increase

The township is projecting a fund balance of $5.2 million, but after covering the 2026 deficit, that drops to about $2 million or 12.2% of total expenses. While this still meets the township’s 10% minimum policy, it is well below best-practice guidance of a 25% reserve and highlights a growing structural deficit problem.

Why a 4-Mill Property Tax Increase?

The budget proposes a total 4-mill property tax increase, targeted specifically to emergency services: three mills for fire protection and one mill for ambulance services. For a home with the average assessed value of $39,283, this equals about $157 per year, or roughly $13 per month.

One of the most eye-opening facts from the presentation: of every dollar you pay in property taxes, only nine cents goes to Newtown Township itself to fund local services like police, fire, and public works. The vast majority goes to other entities, primarily the school district.

Staffing & Capital Highlights

• New hires included: Full-time IT Director and part-time HR Director (bringing the total to 82.5 employees).
• Key capital purchases: Ford F-750 dump truck ($205,000) and four new police vehicles ($340,000).
• Requests not funded: additional police officers, firefighters, public works staff, a Zoning & Code Enforcement Director, and a full-time HR Director.

Listen to this “Deep Dive” podcast for more insights about the budget:

2026 Road Paving Program: Falling Behind

Newtown has about 71.3 miles of township roads. With an average lifespan of 20 years, we should be paving roughly 3.56 miles per year just to stay even. The 2026 budget, however, funds only about 1.85 miles (1.54 miles in the base bid list and 0.31 miles in the alternate bid list) — far short of what’s needed.

• Paving budget: $850,000 (Highway Aid + General Fund)
• Base bid estimate: $698,000 for 1.54 miles (township estimate)
• Alternate bid estimate: $237,000 for 0.31 miles

Recent township programs have paved at an average of about $360,000 per mile (2024–2025), and other area townships are in the $350K–$400K per mile range. By comparison, the 2026 budget assumes costs that average over $590,000 per mile, which is at the high end of PennDOT’s range.

If actual bids come in closer to $400K per mile, $850K could potentially cover around 2.4 miles of paving instead of just 1.85 miles. I raised the question: if the bids are favorable, can we add more roads to the list to get closer to the target mileage and avoid falling further behind on basic infrastructure maintenance?

Fountain Farm Lane Parking Problem

A major portion of the meeting focused on the controversy over parking enforcement on Fountain Farm Lane near Newtown Gate. After 35–40 years of residents and guests parking along the road, the police department recently began issuing tickets for cars parked over the fog line without any prior notification to the homeowners’ associations.

Resident Concerns

• Cars parked over the fog line protrude into the travel lane, forcing drivers over the double-yellow line into oncoming traffic.
• Speeding and heavy cut-through traffic create additional safety hazards.
• Drivers often fail to stop for pedestrians at crosswalks; ramps lack proper markings.
• Bicyclists are pushed into traffic lanes, especially on curves.

Residents argue that enforcement suddenly changed after decades of tolerance and that there was no clear communication or transition plan. Some also corrected public statements suggesting that parking is available in the private “Quarters” condo lot — it is not; that lot is reserved for residents and their guests only.

Police & Township Response

Police Chief Heran confirmed that parking over the fog line is a violation and said officers have been instructed to “monitor and enforce parking violations when warranted.” He also noted that the department regularly deploys speed boards and decoy cars to address speeding on the road.

Possible Solutions Discussed

• A “stop-gap” parking plan from HOA member John Lagomarsino, designating limited legal parking areas.
• A walk-through of Newtown Gate by Supervisor Dennis Fisher and HOA leader Chet Zaremba to identify potential new parking areas, including some grassy spaces (though these may be costly to convert and may raise zoning issues).
• Ideas such as negotiating temporary holiday parking arrangements between HOAs, exploring shared parking options, and considering some form of holiday leniency on ticketing.
• My suggestion: hold a special Zoom meeting with Newtown Gate residents to vet both short-term and long-term solutions before any long-range policy is set.

This issue was discussed at a special Zoom meeting I hosted for Newtown Gate residents. At that meeting several long-term solutions were discussed. See the following table:

Other 22 October 2025 BOS Highlights

• 2026 Budget & Millage Increase: BOS voted to advertise the draft budget and proposed tax increase.
• Road Paving Program: 2026 plan and mileage shortfall were discussed.
• Public comments:
  • Frustration over the sudden change in Fountain Farm Lane parking enforcement.
  • Strong criticism of the Newtown, Bucks County, Joint Municipal Authority (NBCJMA) over the sewer plant project, including lack of transparency, land condemnation, and a 47% rate increase linked to a land purchase that grew from $9.5 million to $11.5 million after a Board of View decision.
• Planning Commission report: A storage facility applicant later withdrew a variance request for an apartment.
• Fire Services Agreement with Newtown Borough: Still missing in action (no finalized agreement).

My Plans After BOS & Privilege of the Floor

After December 31, 2025, I will no longer be a Newtown Township Supervisor. At that time I will have served 8 years, which is long enough! I spoke briefly about my plans after my term on the Board of Supervisors is up:

Afterward, I opened up “Privilege of the Floor” so residents could raise whatever issues were on their minds. The Q&A covered a range of follow-up questions on the budget, roads, public safety, and township transparency.

You can listen to the full Q&A session here:
https://rebrand.ly/MMM-3Nov25-QandA

NOTE: The HTML code for this post – without graphics – was created by ChatGPT based upon the PPT notes of the meeting.