Council Report, April 2025

3800 words for one property, no police report again, and the JPD bids a happy retirement for Jaws

Council kept last month’s meeting to less than an hour, and it included a ceremony to honor the retirement of Officer Frank “Jaws” Jaworski, and a public hearing that considered a new short-term rental ordinance aimed at AirBNBs.

The posted agenda had only two attachments — the draft of the new ordinance and the contract for this year’s Night Market. It had no police report. This was the skimpiest agenda posting since we called out the Borough for this last summer.

Short Term Rentals

If you own a property listed on AirBNB, VRBO, or just publicly offer your empty home or apartment in town for a weekend, the new short term rental ordinance has some new rules just for you. Not that Jenkintown drives much AirBNB business. A quick check on their site currently shows exactly one property available for the last weekend in June. 

Like any other rental, the prospective AirBNB host must file floor plans, parking diagrams, pay business privilege taxes, and annual fees on top of AirBNB’s pound of flesh. 

Just so you know, one of the rules states “All short term rentals shall have aluminum or metal exhausts from dryers.”

Why the sudden need for an 11-page, 3800-word ordinance for something that barely happens in this town? One might want to ask such a question during a council meeting if council only allowed it. Either no one really cares or that somebody obviously does.

But why did no one show up to comment on the ordinance? Once again, the Borough only advertised it in the Intelligencer’s legal notices, not its Facebook page, it’s website, or its email list.

Seems like the Borough directed a lot of time, effort, and legal fees on a solution in search of a problem.

Other Business

• As mentioned, Chief Scott did not submit a the monthly police report for public viewing and did not discuss its contents in the meeting. We have provided it for you here.
• There were six motions on the agenda. All were approved unanimously. None of these ordinances addressed business district revitalization or the traffic on Old York Road.
• And another hit to transparency. While this meeting did not discuss the controversial parking ordinance, according to a Ward 1 resident, the Borough has planned a meeting with hand-picked residents only.
• With the retirement of Officer Jaworski, the Jenkintown Police Department now safeguards our community with only seven officers and a chief that is on record of supporting the complete dissolution of his entire force. Only in Jenkintown?

---

We archive all our content on our YouTube channel here.