Arcadia is nice too!

Montgomery County has 62 municipalities, and they all do things a little differently from each other. We encourage the municipalities that hold virtual meetings to:
Have 'cameras on' for the municipal officials attending the meeting
Indicate at the beginning of the meeting and frequently throughout the meeting that participants (officials and the general public) making comment should begin by identifying themselves. For example, "This is Sue Smith, I'd like to say..."
For security purposes and for the public record, the person running the meeting should take time at the start of the meeting to request that participants with cameras off and who are identified by a phone number should state their name, so that the rest of the people at the meeting know who are there.

Our meetings have not been as well attended, it requires more forethought to attend because you have to request the link ahead of time to receive the email.
Of course, it is difficult to ascertain who is at the meetings because none of the guests are shown unless they speak or at another meeting there was no gallery view of those in attendance...so one didn't even know which leaders were present unless they said something.
If you are late to think of this, or late to a meeting, it is a process. I think this can discourage people from attending. I wish there was more priority on getting people to attend meetings than doing the minimum necessary.

In our municipality, our in person meetings allowed for public comments after each committee providing valuable public participation at a point when a topic was being discussed. This has been moved to the very end of the meeting negating any impact one can have before the Committee Report is filed. I recognize this as a work in progress and am hopeful the municipal leaders will reconsider this decision. What have your experiences been with public participation?

I've looked at many municipal websites and its difficult to tell if their meetings are being held virtually or in person. The meeting notice itself on the website should contain this information, along with instructions on how to connect, if the meeting is being held virtually

Great idea!

One thing my family and I have been doing is picking a local college campus to explore for evening walks as a way to avoid the more popular trails and parks. We really enjoyed Swarthmore and Temple Ambler - both of these campuses are beautiful and have arboretums too. Haverford and Ursinus are next on our list - any other good spots in the area to explore?

Recently came across this great video produced by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy about the importance of the outdoors during the pandemic--including what we can do to initiate change locally (https://youtu.be/rVMJDbxZ22A). Includes a petition to urge local officials to close select streets to car traffic--to promote physical activity and active transportation while protecting important transportation routes for essential workers, emergency crews, and residential traffic.

Are there any local examples of closing streets to car traffic?

As mentioned in our Planning Paper on municipal strategies, Lansdale Borough uses this strategy. They created four spaces/zones and signage for food pickup in their business district:
https://www.montcopa.org/DocumentCenter/View/28281/Gov-Reg-and-Zoning---Municipal-Strategies

Elsewhere, 15-minute loading limits have been created.

Yes, Montgomery County does have boat storage at Green Lane Park at 1051 Walt Rd., Pennsburg (near the high school). This is the only county boat storage location in MontCo, and all told, there are about 500 total available spaces there. This past year, the county added about 30 new spaces. Plans for other boat storage locations on county property are undetermined at this point.

Hoy Park is a Lower Providence Township facility, so we would encourage you to contact the township regarding the idea of boat storage at that location.

As far as access points, PWC is continually working to develop new ones based on the recommendations in their 2018 feasibility study for the Perkiomen Water Trail, and the county is actively engaged with PWC in this effort when appropriate.

Thank you for your comments!