Residents Complain Core Creek Park Is Becoming ‘Eyesore’

Some residents think something needs to be done about the many cat colonies at Core Creek Park in Middletown.

“My problem is Core Creek Park … it’s an eyesore and no one is doing anything about it,” Middletown Joe Definis recently said before the Bucks County Commissioners.

He wasn’t alone.

A Wycombe resident who formerly lived in Middletown also spoke before the commissioners and voiced similar comments. He told the county’s top leaders that he drove through the 1,200-acre recently for the first time in 20 years and couldn’t believe all the cat shelters. He added he felt the county should clean up the various cat shelters.

“These feral cats need to be taken care of in whatever way,” the Wycombe resident said.

Definis, who adopted a cat dropped near the park 16 years ago, said it was nice people have stepped to feed the cats, but they weren’t helping mitigate the problem. He suggested getting rid of the Tupperware cat shelters that fill the park.

“Here’s what the real problem is – and this is one of the things I’m not exactly sure how to deal with – what’s wrong with these people who just drop their cats off like that?” Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said in response to Definis.

The park already features signs warning people that dumping kittens and cats is punishable by a fine, but catching violators in the act proves to be a challenge given the size of the park and other responsibilities Bucks County Rangers are tasked with. Bill Mitchell, director of the Bucks County Parks and Recreation, said many of the cats are dumped late at night and that Bucks County Rangers do their best to keep an eye out for those who leave animals behind at the park.

County officials have said they are looking at their options for the estimated 100 or so cats that fill the park.

For the past 21 years Joe Adrian of Bristol Township has been coming to the park every day to make sure the cats are fed. He recently told LevittownNow.com that he thinks something needs to be done, but he doesn’t want to see the cats injured on exterminated.

“I think they could trap them,” Adrian said while preparing canned food and water for several cats near the park’s playground.

Adrian and a few others have fed the cats at Core Creek Park and helped build shelters from wood, plastic boxes, tarp and other materials over the year. The various cat shelters throughout the park have attracted dozens of felines.

The cats have been blamed in the past for causing parts of the park to smell like urine and feces. In November, there was controversy when park workers put down hydrated lime to get rid of the smell. The lime did not blend into the soil and could have caused harmed to animals.

The park’s cat population has been a complaint for years and has only grown in the past decade.

Adrian, who has always liked animals, said the cats were there before he started his daily ritual 21 years ago and will likely be at the park for the foreseeable future.