Residents press council on traffic, recycling and sidewalks as recreation board leadership resigns

Several residents used the public-comment periods at the January 2026 Brookhaven Borough Council meeting to raise neighborhood safety and service concerns while the recreation board reported a busy year and its president resigned.

Elizabeth Hess, representing Cambridge Square in Victoria Woods, asked whether a traffic study is planned for the Whiteley/Edgemont intersection and the adjacent Lowe's parking lot, saying the crossing is "very dangerous for the 300 residents that use that as egress." She also raised the inconvenience of the holiday-week recycling suspension, noting residents must store recycling for two weeks.

John (a Hilltop resident) asked about borough ordinances requiring sidewalk clearing after storms and pointed to a leaning tree and repeated fallen trees on Hilltop Drive. "The last snowstorm we had there, none of those sidewalks were ever clear," he said, urging council to inspect and help clean the area.

Tom Dykes, speaking as recreation-board president, gave the board's 2025 year-in-review (dances, concerts, an Easter egg hunt that used about 10,000 eggs and a family day attended by roughly 2,000 residents). He said those events are largely self-funded by ticket sales and community fundraising, and asked for more volunteers. Midway through his presentation, Dykes said he was stepping down: "I am stepping down. And I we did my last night, and I will not be here." Another council member then said they were resigning as well and referenced taking further steps outside council.

Council members acknowledged the service of Dykes and other volunteers and said staff and council would follow up on the neighborhood safety and recycling concerns. Several items raised in public comment were directed to the appropriate staff or committees for follow-up; specific timelines for action were not specified in the meeting transcript.

The council did not take formal votes on the public-comment items at the meeting; multiple items were referred to staff or committees for later action.