Cops, Courts & Fire -Bristol Township
Encampment Site in Bristol Twp Cleaned Up
Officials said, a homeless encampment site was cleaned up Thursday and Friday in a combined effort. The site was in Bristol Township, on Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission property, and also took over a resident’s shed on their property.
Community tipsters in the spring started to report the existence of the encampment amid growing fears as more people started to settle in on the state-owned property. Reports of gunshots heard reportedly coming from the 5700 block of Beaver Dam Road only yards away from the make-shift shelter.
In the early hours of June 7 Bristol Township Police were dispatched to the area for a shots fired report. On-scene witnesses said responding officers set up lighting on Beaver Dam Road, performing grid search collection techniques for at least one hour, and spoke with a number of individuals. Police officials at the time would only say an active investigation was in effect, declining to confirm or deny bullet casings were collected.
Township Manager Randee Mazur on Friday at the clean-up site said the situation was worse than anyone knew because of countermeasures taken by the street camp.
We had a homeless encampment on the turnpike commission’s property, and they were also living in the shed of an 89-year-old resident who didn’t know because they had boarded up the one side facing the house and they we’re coming in and out of the other side, Mazur said. Adding there was a lot of drugs and other suspicious behaviors happening.
Credit: Joe Nelson Lower Bucks Source
Prior to disassembling the unauthorized camp site, a property owner “tore down” a shed of their own making because the homeless were tunneling in and sleeping there, sources told Lower Bucks Source. The public safety hazards that developed and existed in the wooded area off Beaver Dam Rd and on the privately owned properties is being cleaned up by the commission and township work crews, officials said.
“This morning (Thursday) the township police, state police, turnpike and township people all showed up. Following a brief foot chase, the cops made at least two arrests. Then they began destroying the encampment and tore it all down. They had dumpsters ready and have been filling them all day long as well as clearing brush and debris to make it more visible from both the turnpike itself and the road here,” said a community observer.
Bristol Township has been encountering this issue for probably a decade now with it becoming more pronounced and often visible post COVID, officials said. The Bucks County Co Responder team who work with Bristol Township, Bristol Borough and Tullytown police were “hopefully” going to ease the homeless encampment problem as one of their targeted goals. One member of the team resigned recently, and the second member is currently on leave, multiple sources told LBS. It’s not clear currently if co-responder staff working in and with police in surrounding Lower Bucks municipalities are covering the two positions assigned and working out of Bristol Twp.
Some relief for the homeless issue is coming soon with Family Services Association of Bucks County planning a complete overhaul of the emergency shelter it operates in Levittown. Bucks County recently released data of its Point In Time Count which showed a 27 percent rise in homelessness in comparison to the year before.
Over the last two years in background conversations with township officials, the search for a multi-pronged nuanced response has been fleeting. Council President Craig Bowen has spent a great deal of time along with the rest of council trying to address the challenges of individuals living outdoors on private, state, or locally owned properties. Then he discovered something new on Friday he could not wrap his head around.
We just talked with the police officer and there’s actually a fellow was back there who owns a home and doesn’t want to be there. He was in the back of the camp site, said Bowen.
“He’d rather be outside and that’s hard too hard to rectify that when somebody wants to live out in the woods then in their home.”
Credit: Joanne Ames Lower Bucks Source
Credit: Joanne Ames,. Lower Bucks Source
Bristol Borough Fire Chief Herb Slack on Tuesday morning released the following statement on last nights Dorrance Street Fire.
It’s only been edited for style:
Credit: Submitted
Credit: Joe Nelson
Cops, Courts & Fire -Bristol Township
Bristol Twp Police Reports: Levittown Man Arrested on Aggravated Assault Charges, License Plate Stolen in Farmbrook and More !
Cops, Courts & Fire -Bristol Township
Bristol Twp. School District Clothing Drive Does More Than Provide Attire, It Provides Stability for Students in Need
It is one thing to see a teenage student on their way to school wearing a “hoodie” on a cold winter day.
It is an entirely different image to see a child heading to school on that same cold winter day, not wearing a winter jacket. This is the very image Bristol Township School District and Police Department officials recently joined forces to fight with a significant financial contribution from philanthropist Gene Epstein
The school district said recently it has about 130 students experiencing serious stable housing challenges.
Dr. Meredith Leach School District Social Worker said, holding the drive and providing the needed clothing for students experiencing a period of housing displacement can and does offer not only clothing, but a sense of stability students need to thrive in class.
It’s no secret, Leach said, that a sense of stability leads to achievement. By providing basic needs, such as clothing, they (school district and police department) are trying to put their students in the best possible position to succeed and thrive, despite the housing challenges their families are facing.
Leach said families experiencing housing challenges and alike usually self-identify to the school district and fellow counselors and social workers system wide to coordinate resource support.
“The school district also offers school supplies, hygiene items and if we don’t have it in stock at our offices we order it online.”
“Sometimes something so minor to an outsider, like organizers for clothing drawers, for a student means the world because it gives them a sense of control over some of the life circumstances they’re experiencing.”
“We’re lucky enough to live in a county and state where services for students experiencing this kind of life challenge there are an array of services and resources available,” Leach said.
So lucky that neighboring businesses, such as Five Below in Tullytown, donated to the cause once the clothing drive was announced.
Credit: Joanne Ames – Lower Bucks Source
The Clothing Drive
Leach said the clothing drive idea came to fruition once she and her staff reviewed the numbers and realized about 130 students were in need.
In the human services field (i.e. social work) a measure of your professional success and community connection is always having that one yet-to-be used resource in your back pocket that social workers place on the table when faced with a potentially troubling situation, experts agree.
I saw a social media post from Neshaminy School District that said “we are filling our closets.”
Leach pulled out her “Ace Card” in the form of the Bristol Twp. Police Dept. Officer John Dobbs who in turn reached out to Epstein because they worked well together in the past.
The Epsteins donated to the cause as well as Walmart making a $500 contribution to the effort, Sgt. Jason Mancuso said.
We basically filled everything the school district needed for those 125 to 130 students, Mancuso said.
The Bristol Township Police Union (PBA) contributed a number of gift cards to the effort as well.
Leach in a moment of levity said of the clothing drive spending spree paid for by Epstein, “when do you ever get carte blanche to buy what you want as a social worker? Never!” She admitted to being a bit timid at first when selecting clothing items to purchase.
“Mancuso and Dobbs changed that for me. They grabbed boxes where I was grabbing packets,” she said, in joyous laughter.
The spacious school district office where the clothes are kept and distributed to school district social workers is filled with supplies for students now, thanks to Epstein giving Mancuso his credit card allowing Leach to spend thousands on students in need.
How could I not do it and live in good conscience, Epstein said.
“Those students were in immediate need,” he said “and it would take way too much time to set up a fundraising drive. Here’s my credit card and I don’t care what you spend. Get the kids what they need.”
Credit: Joanne Ames – Lower Bucks Source
“Whatever our students need we’re going to do everything we can to help them. We don’t want any of our students walking around with needs we can help them meet. I like to think we can help our students, and their families to be build a scaffold that they in turn can build upon.”
The response to the need by the Bristol Twp Police, the PBA and the Epsteins was amazing, Leach said.
The student-focused clothing drive officially launched February 2 and remains ongoing until the need no longer exists.
Any clean clothes, even if previously worn, can be dropped off at the Bristol Twp Police records department hallway or at the Bristol Township School Admin Building on Green Lane.
Opus Outreach Foundation joined the clothing drive shortly after it was announced. Items can be dropped off at Opus Elite Real Estate 119 Trenton Road, Fairless Hills. If you want to arrange a clothing drive donation you can call Christy Becker at 267 338-7518.
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