It seems only yesterday that more than 500 locals packed into Pennsbury High School’s Keller Hall to voice their opinion on Elcon – the Israel-based recycling center that planned to open a wastewater treatment facility in Falls Township. While some supported the project, stating it would bring jobs to the area, the vast majority believed the hazardous waste would bring “death and destruction” to town.
While the board of supervisors voted “no” on the project in April 2019, the township still faced a year-long battle in court as Elcon appealed the rejection of its plan.
But the fight is finally over.
On Friday, July 24, Elcon Recycling Services officially withdrew its application with the state Department of Environmental Protection to build the large facility in Falls, and DEP said it will discontinue review of the application. The withdraw also means Elcon will abandon the longstanding court appeal.
“On behalf of the Falls Township board of supervisors, I am pleased with Elcon’s decision to withdraw its application,” said supervisors chairman Jeff Dence. “This plan was not a good fit for our community, which is why our board unanimously rejected the application last year.”
Elcon stated in its letter to the DEP that “the current business climate, including impacts of COVID-19” was the reason for not continuing its pursuit of expansion into the U.S. via the Falls Township site.
In other Falls news, the police department’s incoming police chief, Lt. Nelson Whitney, shared during a recent virtual supervisors meeting how local officers are trained to prevent the mistreatment and racial profiling of individuals. This comes on the heels of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd due to excessive police force.
According to Whitney, Falls Township officers are trained in cultural diversity, sexual harassment and excited delirium. The latter is common with suspects on methamphetamine, bath salts, synthetic marijuana or PCP. They also undergo defensive tactics and firearms training three times a year.
“It’s important that officers be comfortable with the de-escalation techniques that we have,” Whitney said. “When you watch some of these that have occurred nationwide, you say to yourself as an experienced officer, ‘Why did that officer even have their gun out?’ ”
The police department has a policy in place on bias-based policing. Every year, it conducts a review of arrests made to examine the ethnicity of people arrested as compared to the demographics in the township. Falls’ population is 82.4 percent white, according to census data. Whitney said this data matches “quite nicely” with the demographics, and indicates no sign of bias-based policing.
Neck restraining has been banned in the department for decades, and Whitney, who has been on the local force since 1988, said it was never in place during his 32-year career.
“That is not anything our officers are trained to do here or permitted to do by policy,” he said.
Instead, they have restraint belts and leg restraints in every patrol unit and cell block. These allow people to be handcuffed up front instead of behind their back. Additionally, rather than use deadly force, officers (when necessary) utilize less lethal options, including pepper spray, tasers and batons.
“If we can de-escalate, officers frequently do,” Whitney said. “There’s a high value placed on human life. They don’t resort to higher levels of force just because they can.”
He added that although there have been several instances where police would have been justified in shooting, they instead tackled the gun-wielding suspect to the ground to remove the weapon.
Also during the virtual board meeting, the supervisors took action to acquire funding for improvements to the hockey rink at Falls Township Community Park, authorizing the submission of a Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority. If awarded, the grant is expected to cover $138,988.60 of the total $163,516 project, with the township contributing the remaining amount.
“We were going to budget and spend the money,” said Dence. “It’s a pretty good deal since we were just going to [pay for] the whole thing.”
Upgrades would include resurfacing the rink, replacing the dasher board, restoring the fencing, painting, marking the surface and sealing cracks.
Parks and Recreation director Brian Andrews said the project requires a two-part bid. He hopes to have the resurfacing done this year, with remaining work to follow.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
