Yardley Borough council okays budget, hikes chief’s salary

Yardley Borough’s council adopted a no-tax-increase final 2022 budget and unanimously approved a new four-year contract for Police Chief Joseph D. Kelly III at the Dec. 7 meeting.
The $2 million budget leaves property tax millage at 30, meaning a resident with a property assessed at the borough average of $27,644 will continue to pay $829 a year in municipal property taxes. Real estate owners in Yardley also pay property taxes, in much larger amounts, to Bucks County and the Pennsbury School District.
Property taxes are the main source of local revenue for the borough which, unlike many Bucks County municipalities, does not have an earned income tax.
Borough Manager Paula Johnson presented council members with two final budget options, one that assumed getting a grant to replace the Mary Yardley walking bridge over the Delaware Canal and one that didn’t.
A majority of council members chose the option that didn’t assume the grant as a safeguard in case it doesn’t come through early enough in 2022. The adopted budget proposes to use $80,000 from the capital projects fund and $13,000 from the capital reserves fund for the bridge replacement.

Kelly’s new contract will succeed his current three-year deal, kicking in Jan. 1 and extending through Dec. 31, 2025.
It hikes his annual salary by $4,316, from the current $86,339 to $90,655 in the first year of the new deal, and also gives him $700 for an education incentive. The new contract also includes additional 5 percent salary increases in years two, three and four.
Kelly is back at work after recovering from gunshot wounds to an ear and hand allegedly caused from shots fired by Colin Frank Petroziello during an Aug. 18 incident at Yardley Commons Condominiums in the borough where Petroziello lived. He is facing attempted murder and related charges in Bucks County Court.
Kelly became Yardley Borough’s police chief in 2015 after 23 years with the New Jersey Transit Police, where he retired as a deputy chief.

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