Full moon sets tone
of Bustleton Civic meeting

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

You didn’t have to go outside to guess that there was a full moon in Bustleton last week.
At a meeting of the Greater Bustleton Civic League, Officer Rich Simon, the 7th Police District’s community relations officer, told the standing-room-only crowd that he had never locked up someone at a civic meeting.
"I’m not going to start tonight. If you’re going to yell and scream, I’m going to ask you to leave," he said.
Simon’s statement asking for dignity and decorum at the meeting came about halfway through a 90-minute discussion of an application for a zoning variance for 250 Geiger Road.
Aida Aloian and her attorney Joseph Beller appeared before the civic league to seek its support for a variance allowing the industrially zoned property to be used as a child care facility. They are expanding from the currently used property at 250 Geiger Road into 248 Geiger Road. If approved, they will offer adult day care at 250 Geiger with childcare being offered next door at 248.
Neighbors whose homes back up to the property are concerned about several issues involving the Geiger Road properties, including construction awakening them at 7 o’clock on a Saturday morning. Other issues include noise, the number of clients, pool hours, lighting and drainage.
The annual ice cream social/meeting did nothing to cool the tempers of neighbors. One irate neighbor started yelling at Aloian, and an indignant supporter of the applicant yelled back. They were both asked to leave the meeting.
The irate neighbor slammed the door in the face of Vicki Zagranichy, Aloian’s supporter who later translated for the group of Russian senior citizens that were bused into the meeting.
Zagranichy’s attempts to translate also met with opposition for some who called for English to be spoken, while some others questioned whether the folks that didn’t understand English knew what was actually being said in order to cast an informed vote.
GBCL corresponding secretary Maureen Greene scolded those who made the remarks, saying that the GBCL has always had immigrant members and as long as they put up seven bucks for membership they could vote. There were 36 new memberships signed before the meeting began at 7:30 p.m.
The membership voted to enter into negotiations to discuss the matter further.
"Let me get this straight — we’ve been talking about this for ninety minutes to decide whether to negotiate," said GBCL vice president John McKeever.
While last week’s meeting was slated to be the last until September, another meeting will be scheduled at the American Heritage Federal Credit Union, 2060 Red Lion Road, before the July 16 zoning hearing. The GBCL’s executive committee was to meet with Aloian and her attorney on Tuesday to draft possible provisos on which the membership will vote. Anyone who hasn’t already joined the civic can vote on the issue if they join before the meeting gets started.
In other business, the membership voted to support a zoning variance request for Excel Physical Therapy, which wants to move from its location inside the Northeast Racquet Club to a store in the nearby Krewstown Shopping Center, 9307 Krewstown Road.
The GBCL also voted to donate $250 to the 9/11 Memorial co-hosted by Temple Beth Ami and Maternity BVM. ••
For more information about the organization, visit www.gbcleague.com
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com