> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.delcorising.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Leaf Collection, a New Stop Sign, and a First Look at the 2027 Budget - URL: https://www.delcorising.com/news/leaf-collection-a-new-stop-sign-and-a-first-look-at-the-2027-budget/ - Published: 2026-10-13T01:03:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T01:04:49.000Z - Description: What Marple’s commissioners handled Monday night — plus the dates worth putting on your calendar between now and December. - Author: Gregory Weber - Tags: Marple, News BROOMALL — Marple Township’s commissioners moved through several smaller agenda items Monday night and laid out key community dates for the rest of the year. Let’s get into it. ### Dates to know - **Oct. 17-18, 24-25 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1** — the last three weekends of yard waste drop-off, 9 a.m. to noon. Drop-off is at the old school building behind the firehouse. Brush only (no grass, leaves, etc.) and proof of residency is required. - **Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m.** — Zoning Hearing Board. - **Thursday, Oct. 22, 7 p.m.** — Planning Commission. - **Monday, Oct. 26** — leaf collection begins, running eight weeks through **Friday, Dec. 18**. - **Saturday, Oct. 31, 11 a.m.** — the Marple Tree Commission’s annual fall lecture at the Marple Public Library will cover storm water management. - **Monday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.** — the proposed 2027 township budget is presented, with public comment. This is also when the rescheduled hearing on the 0 Cedar Grove Road development will be heard, for conditional use on a steep slopes disturbance, delayed from September. - **Nov. 20 through Dec. 24** — the Christmas tree lot returns to 2024 Sproul Road, the vacant lot between the Wawa and the bank. - **Saturday, Dec. 5** — township tree lighting. - **Dec. 31** — 2026 refuse and sewer bills are due. Unpaid balances of $500 or more go to the township’s collection agency. ### Leaves, brush and storm pipe Leaf collection runs by ward on a two-week rotation. Wards 1 through 4 on the first week, wards 5 through 7 on the second. This will repeat four times through Dec. 18\. The schedule is posted on the township website. Public works also reported two completed jobs: five new street lights at an intersection in one of the township’s residential developments, which the department said resolves known safety concerns there, and 560 feet of replaced storm sewer where the original corrugated steel pipe had rusted through and was collapsing. The new pipe is high-density plastic, which doesn’t corrode. One thing worth knowing year-round, which the public works director repeated to the board: **sewer problems don’t require waiting for business hours.** “You can call 911 anytime. We’ll get someone out there right away.” ### A stop sign is coming to Portland Drive The board voted to advertise an ordinance adding a stop sign on Portland Drive at Lyndhurst Drive, recommended by the township manager and the police chief and endorsed by the public safety committee. It won’t appear immediately. Adoption is expected at the November meeting, with the sign installed 15 to 20 days after that. Because it’s a new sign, the township will move one of its portable blinking stop beacons to the intersection first, and won’t enforce the sign for 30 days. ### Police: September calls up, and an air rifle at Walmart Marple officers handled 1,630 calls for service last month, up 16 percent from August. Recorded crimes totaled 53, up 29 percent from August and 23 percent from a year earlier. Theft was the biggest issue, accounting for 38 percent of incidents, and more than half of those were retail thefts. Officers charged 28 suspects on 63 counts. Crimes have now risen two months running; August saw 1,418 calls and 41 crimes. The chief also described a Sept. 30 incident at the local Walmart, when officers responded to reports of a man with a gun. It turned out to be an air rifle that had been left out of its package on a shelf rather than secured behind the counter, and a 20-year-old from Philadelphia had picked it up and begun shouldering it down the aisles. Staff and customers evacuated calmly, and before officers arrived a store manager walked up and told the man to put it down. He did, and apologized, saying he hadn’t thought it was a big deal. He was charged with terroristic threats and simple assault. “Kudos once again to the management — the gutsy manager who just approached him,” the chief said. “She wasn’t gonna have it in her store, and she took care of business.” The board approved three police vehicles totaling about $121,400: a Can-Am Defender utility vehicle for $25,351.53, paid for out of the department’s forfeiture account, and two 2027 Ford Police Interceptor SUVs from Pacifico Marple Ford on state COSTARS contracts, at $47,632.65 and $48,423, to be funded with 2027 capital money. ### Money The township acknowledged two state aid payments and divided them up. **$804,765.58** in Act 205 pension aid goes to the police pension plan ($379,482.96) and the municipal employees pension plan ($425,282.62). **$221,905.68** in fire relief aid goes to the Broomall Fire Company ($166,429.26) and the Marple Township Ambulance Corps ($55,476.42). Commissioners also cleared the ambulance corps to apply for a state grant of up to $350,000 toward a new ambulance. September disbursements came to $3.2 million: $2.1 million to trade vendors, $938,000 in payroll, and $137,000 in wires and ACH payments. The board approved a tax appeal settlement on an office complex at 2000 Sproul Road, lowering its assessment for 2026 and 2027\. Delaware County and Marple Newtown School District had both already agreed to the terms. The vote was briefly held up by an error on the agenda, which listed the wrong company name and address; the solicitor confirmed the mistake and the motion was reread correctly before passing. ### Parks and development A second payment of $134,775 went toward Phase 3 trail work at Veterans Memorial Park, following a first payment of $34,875 in September. The township engineer — at her first official meeting — said the trail has been graded and should be paved within about two weeks, with a basin retrofit still underway. The existing trail isn’t being repaved; the work covers the new segment and its connections. Commissioners also closed out the Gibson Court subdivision, approving a final escrow release of $111,576.04 and accepting the road by deed of dedication. The township will work to add it to its PennDOT liquid fuels list. The board authorized an RFP for renovations to the Marple Public Library, funded by a state Keystone grant, and granted a Highland Avenue homeowner a waiver to widen a driveway apron to 25 feet, conditioned on the engineer approving a stormwater plan. ### From the public **Diana**, of Catherine Lane, a Marple Tree Commission volunteer, announced the commission’s annual fall lecture with the Marple Public Library on **Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to noon in the library auditorium.** The speaker coordinates Penn State Extension’s Master Watershed Stewards program for Chester and Delaware counties, and the talk — “Too Much, Too Fast: Stormwater Challenges Where You Live” — covers rain gardens, rain barrels, stream plantings “and trees that soak up the rain where it falls.” It’s free and open to everyone. She also described a project with Marple Civic Youth called “Passing on the Spirit Forward,” which handed out free saplings to children entering kindergarten this year. Families plant the tree at home and photograph the child beside it each September, in their Marple spirit shirts, as both grow up through the district. **Fred**, of Sproul Road, asked about the sidewalk on Cedar Grove Road between Sproul Road and Mary Lane, which he said hadn’t changed in months. The codes director said the township cited the property owner and took him to district court, where he was fined and found guilty, and that a judge has given him 30 more days to comply or return to court. *The board met in executive session before the regular meeting to discuss litigation and staffing.*