North Wales starts new year with call for volunteers

 If your New Year’s resolution is to get more involved in your community and you live in North Wales, you’re in luck.

Council members kept up an annual tradition to start January with an update of their list of vacancies in need of volunteers.

“Anyone who’s interested in volunteering or getting involved, look at our website,” said borough Manager Christine Hart.

“That indicates what these boards and commissions are, how often they meet, and what their mission statement is, to help the borough,” she said.

Each year council members and staff review their lists of empty seats on the various committees, commissions and volunteer boards, and Hart told council that she and staff have started reaching out to those whose terms expired at the end of 2024 to ask who’s interested in being reappointed. Those responses will be compiled ahead of the Jan. 28 council meeting with several reappointments likely ready for council votes that night, and an updated list of open seats ready to be publicized after, the manager said.

“All of the members who are currently serving have received emails twice now, and we will follow up again after this meeting. If we haven’t heard that way, we will try to contact them verbally,” she said.

That list will include one new addition: council voted to accept the resignation of Ruth Black from the town’s historic commission, after reading a letter in which the resident thanked the group for the chance to serve.

“I’m hesitant to accept that, because she has been such a remarkable individual. Please send our thanks to her, and we appreciate all the service she has given,” said council President Sal Amato, as the group unanimously accepted the resignation.

Another longtime volunteer was formally honored by Mayor Neil McDevitt, who read a proclamation recognizing resident Herb Kavash for his decades of volunteer efforts around the town prior to his passing at age 99 in December.

“Herb met (wife) Molly after he finished his time in the military, and they basically became the heart and soul of North Wales,” McDevitt said, including many years with the North Penn Volunteer Fire Company and on the North Wales Water Authority.

One group of volunteers has already kicked off 2025: councilman Mark Tarlecki reported that the town’s planning commission met on Jan. 8 to continue their review of the town’s subdivision and land development ordinance, with two specific topics in mind.

“One was the idea of establishing standards for mobile home park designs. I know that sounds strange from North Wales, but our gentleman from MCPC said that most municipalities, regardless of whether they have one, have those rules set up,” Tarlecki said.

Planning commission members are working with their Montgomery County Planning Commission liaison to develop rules and regulations to spell out how such prefabricated houses would be located, designs that could be allowed, and sites that could qualify for that use — with the land that once housed a borough sewer treatment plant the site they have in mind.

“It’s not that we expect this to happen, but we thought the site along Elm Street may be a possibility, if that ever came to fruition,” he said.

The second topic discussed in the SALDO update has to do with external lighting standards, and ways to require light fixtures that create as little light pollution as possible, the councilman said.

“The borough has done a phenomenal job with the street lights, making them LEDs that all project downward. Going forward, any new development that occurs in the borough, we’re going to require ‘dark sky’ standards for any external lighting,” Tarlecki said.

Resident Andrew Berenson asked if those regulations would apply to resident or commercial buildings, and Tarlecki said the early consensus from the commission is to apply those standards to all buildings in town. Those talks will continue at the planning commission until a formal draft is ready for approval by that body, then to full council, which could happen by late spring or early summer, he said.

That group is also digesting feedback from residents who volunteered their thoughts, in a recent resident survey meant to steer an update to the town’s comprehensive plan adopted in 2018.

“Some of the results were surprising. one of the things that wasn’t so high was, encouragement of creating a vibrant downtown: we did not see a big huge response on doing more to create a vibrant downtown. It was there, but wasn’t high on the list,” Tarlecki said.

Those survey results will be discussed more in future meetings, he added, and staff and the planning commission will look into ways to gather more input on the comprehensive plan update. Councilwoman Wendy McClure asked if the code update would address or include provisions for electric vehicle parking spaces, and Tarlecki said that’s among the topics the commission will discuss.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

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