Zoning Board Rules Penndel Service Station Can Stay Open Later

According to Penndel Council President Sean Weckerly, the crowd that came out in support of Sunoco’s owner Mike Kowalchik Wednesday night at borough hall was a “disrespectful, vulgar mob of people.”

Kowalchik, the owner of the gas and service station at 652 Bellevue Avenue, was heard before the zoning hearing board in an effort to get relief from the hours of operation previously set by the board. Kowalchik’s hours prevented him from servicing cars past 7 p.m.

The board sided with the residents when they approved Kowalchik’s request – allowing him to service cars and pump gas at his business in the borough until 10 p.m., but not everyone left the meeting happy.

While dozens of local Penndel residents came out and spoke in support of Kowalchik, calling him a “great guy and a great neighbor,” Weckerly aggressively disagreed.

Weckerly’s home sits diagonally to the service station and he wasn’ t thrilled that Kowalchik was seeking to work even later.

While Weckerly noted in his testimony he was not speaking on behalf of council, various residents said that they felt his opinion of the service station held more weight than the other residents because of his appointed position. Some even spoke of an alleged “personal vendetta” that’s existed for years between Weckerly and the various owners of the Sunoco station.

According to Penndel residents, Weckerly has been responsible for a roughly $10,000 bill appointed to the borough for purposes of investigating Kowalchik’s working hours – and that Weckerly has even installed three cameras, one in a yellow car parked in front of the service station and two on the outside of his home, for purposes of tracking Kowalchik and his businesses operating times.

While Weckerly blamed the bill on Kowalchik, citing the cause as his numerous violations, he could not be reached for comment Thursday regarding allegations of cameras.

“I don’t want to be out there till 11, we don’t do that now. There has been one family that’s complained over how long and no has complained at all about working outside or working after hours. I don’t want that and the people know I don’t want that,” Kowalchik said during his testimony Wednesday night. “If a customer needs their car the next day there shouldn’t be any reason why I cant work on their car. I just want to stop being harassed.”

One local resident told LevittownNow.com the board was going to have more issues than they bargained for if they sided with Wecklerly over the matter.

“We need to support our community businesses, I try and support businesses that are local to me,” one resident said. “We cannot afford to put obstacles in the way of our community, we need to build up our community and support our community businesses, if we don’t change this zoning law, if we continue to throw up road blocks, our community will fail.”

Weckelry could not be reached for comment regarding if he will take further action against the case.

Get Our Daily Newsletter

Our daily newsletter features the top stories of the day sent to your inbox every evening.