Borough Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone.

It's Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. It's 7 p.m. It's the regular meeting agenda of the government body of the federal government. Please rise and solicit a flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Here.

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of January 9th, 2026. Copies were provided to the local news media and posted continuously in the municipal building. The copy of this notice is available to the public and on file in the office of the municipal clerk.

As first aid fired to him, I am required to report that there are two emergency exits in this council chamber. The main entrance which you entered through and the secondary exits left to where I am seated.

If there is an emergency, walk forward into the door, down the stairs, and out the building. If there's any questions, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we do not have any non-agenda items tonight.

I'd like to open up for early public comment. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any motion to speak, please come up. Seeing no one, a motion to close.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Before we get this done, just one item, a reminder, on October 10th, we have the movie night in Sloan Park, the movie on Main Street. I want to thank Bree, IOTPW, and the police. All very quickly responded to this, to help substitute this with a different event that we had after the scavenger hunt. We're going to be sending out flyers. We have them already starting to be posted on social media. They should be for popcorn for attendees. We'll also have at least one We're on the Smeets food truck there. We're deserting things. I'm just encouraging any families that are going to come down, shop local, get some food, some dinner, and come and watch the movies. Bring your own chair. Yes, bring your own chair, blanket, whatever you like. And we start gathering around 6. The movie should start at 6.30. That's about sundown.

And probably the last until about 8.30 or so. What was actually the grand opening we did on it over the weekend? Yeah, sure, sure. So we also hosted a grand opening for the Nitty Kitty.

Several folks from the governing body were here. Ray, Dave, Jack, Mayor, Mike was there as well. Very well attended.

It's over in Ward's Plaza. Very unique business.

They actually have cats in there to spend some time with. I think they also do some crafts. And they have other different types of events that they have going on.

So a very good business, I think, to have.

Louisville resident-owned business as well, family business. It's a nice thing to see on our main street. So thank you everybody for attending. I think it was a nice welcome and a nice opening for the new store.

And there's a really nice plumber shop right next door. If you want to grab a quick coffee and get in there, you can.

It's really nice. Yeah, absolutely. Very nice over there. Comment? I don't know if you're important, sir. Greg?

No, you can see me. Dave? No, you can see me.

Zach?

I'm starting with the 9-11 walk. I know we mentioned it last week. It's starting at 6 p.m. in Butler and ending at 4 p.m. I know the Mayor mentioned that it has an earlier start due to the coronavirus outbreak in town that day. 9-26 is of course their celebration day, 11-4 p.m. It's combined with, of course, always the Bob Hatchett walk, and I'm combining the works for Parker. Sign-ups are available online. The library isn't happening in the new pre-court. Just please always come to their website because they have some great programs going on for kids and adults. Board of Health, screenings every Tuesday of the month from 2.30 to 4.00 p.m. located in Student Center, 2.30 to 4.00 p.m. located in Council Chambers. They also have posted about the non-patient children's wellness clinics. Please go on to our website to look for all the locations and information. Also, this is free hearing and eyesight screenings located in TotalWeb. And also on the website we posted a flyer for users to complete the tips. Pretty good. Mike?

We have a pretty big major water break that we just all found out about. The project started with storm water. The grand dam broke there. It should be done in the next two weeks or so. Weather permitting.

And it just reminds me of school back in session tomorrow. Can you just mention the sewer problem?

How long is it?

Yeah, tonight the main street is closed.

They're putting in a new sewer line over here. They're running into some issues.

They're going to work all night. Back up.

Just for me, I'll give a couple things. First of all, Jen mentioned the celebration day, and of course we do the firefighter podcast on the same day, which kicks off celebration day. And just, we added parts of a hard run there, and we encouraged the public

come over and support Parker Lusky, who was a young child who had a tragic accident earlier in the year. So we're there to support her, not only her, but her family with that through the 5K and get our community to participate in this. And so for people knowing, you go to Firefighter Bob Koska and you can sign up for one or the other or even both.

go in there, and there's a drop-down screen with Bob Koska, 5K, and also from Hearts of the Heartland. So we're supporting the Lusky family with this. So please come out. If you can't make it that day, you can go and make a donation, or make a donation to the race, because we're looking for order, group, things of that nature that we don't do every year, but I think we're going to have a bigger turnout this year. So we appreciate whatever anybody can do or participate with that.

The second thing I have, and I'm going to just talk about a second here. At our last meeting, it was mentioned from the public that back in January, we purchased a net speed 50 pickup for the BBW, which was incorrect.

Last meeting I didn't have the answer for it, but after the next day when I went to speak to our CMO and finance and everybody up there, I asked a question about it. That payment in January was for two police cars. It was the first payment that we purchased back in September of 2025 to support our police department, their needs for equipment. And it hit two vehicles with that. So that was an incorrect statement, but we did purchase two police cars, and the first payment was in January, which was back there, and I believe on that bill, so it was back then. The second thing I want to talk about, last month, last meeting, we authorized the purchase of two DPW vehicles. And the reason behind that is they're replacement vehicles for the existing fleet. The two vehicles that were replaced was, I believe, a 2008 and a 2005 pickup trucks that we were using for swallowing. Chris, can you put this up on the screen, please? Either one first. I believe that's the 2000... That is a 2005. I believe that's a Ford pickup truck with that. And it had over 100,000 miles on it, and that truck is no longer with us.

We

put it on and we auctioned that truck off. So that truck was 21 years old. So some people say that we have brand new vehicles for everybody. That is 100% not true. We get the most out of our vehicles for our employees and for our departments.

This could be the other one, please.

That one was the undercarriage. That's the one right there. This one here was a 2018 pickup truck that we used for salting last year.

Councilman Rutgers and myself stopped down at DPW after a major snowstorm last year and this truck was in the garage.

Our employee got in this truck and stepped on the running board and his foot went right to the ground.

This truck was immediately taken out of service because there's safety issues with those vehicles.

We do not want our employees in vehicles like this out there doing a job and taking a chance of an unsafe environment. So that was the other truck that we replaced. And those trucks, I believe, are on their way.

That was the only thing. Under those mats, there was a piece of metal that was made there because it's open to underneath. That whole story. Had a piece of metal welded to the roof, but it was leaking through the light. Right.

I just think it's important for the public to know, and whoever's paying attention to this, is we try to get every annals of use out of all our vehicles. It gets to a point where they're no longer safe for reuse in the borough.

So both those vehicles are gone.

We will not put our employees in unsafe conditions. Thank you. Okay. all right item number eight resolution 2026 9.1 the consent agenda um there's a motion on the consent agenda any questions on this we are removing from the agenda that people will notice there's not enough information regarding this resolution so at this time we're going to take it off the So it's A, B, C, D, and A, and G that were passed. Roll call, please.

Proctor?

Yes.

Catalano?

Yes.

Graziano?

Yes.

Agen? Yes. Yassi? Yes.

Okay. Item number nine. This is kind of important. Mike and myself and a few other council people have been looking at tax maps and looking at borrowed home property. So the work that Mike dug into, and you all have a schematic of this, of the part of the attachment. So what we're looking for, or I should say Mike's looking for, is is it okay to start researching the sale of all these products? Mike did have, he didn't want the GDP, right? for one of the pieces of property to see what is actually available to sell and what can be done. So that we have a plan.

We're currently looking at three other parcels right now that have wetlands. This one is not. So we're looking to bring this one in front of the government body and talk to our attorney. What's the process? What do we need to do? We will subdivide this into two lots. We talked about doing that at one point. and we accept the price of the land, or is it just an open bid? I was going to ask that question again.

Well, in order to sell borough-owned land, you would have to adopt a resolution establishing that it's no longer needed for public property. And it either has to go out to an open public bid, or it can be negotiated with a continuous owner. However, I'm looking at this, and there are a lot of continuous owners, so it would have to be a public bid process, and anyone who is a continuous owner would be given preference in the bidding process. You can establish a minimum bid. Ordinarily, when you're doing something like this, the minimum bid is usually developed with the input of the tax assessor and you can set conditions on the use. All of that would have to be in the resolution authorizing the sale of this piece of property. I think we did this a few years ago and it wound up that the contract fell through because that piece of property really wasn't suitable for anything. So doing due diligence beforehand just so you know what can and can't be done and you can put conditions or any kind of restrictions of any kind into the resolution would be good.

My question would be that I know it's a very long process. Would we get the value of that property or are we allowed to go to a land realtor and have them evaluate the worth of the property and have it start to bid somewhere around there where it doesn't have to be done through the tax office?

No, it does not have to be through the tax office.

Ordinarily, when you're putting something that you own down to bid, you don't want to expend the extra money of going and getting a formal appraisal. or assessment of the property.

You can do that and establish a minimum, you know, that would establish the minimum bid.

Any questions for anyone else?

Yeah, John has a question.

Think about where the road actually is. Is this a road that connects to a restaurant or a right-of-way? What's the road?

Right now, it's a right-of-way that comes off of where it says Farm and Town Road. Would you love all that? There's a right-of-way that goes back and then banks to the right if you're coming up that right way a little bit. And it feeds that lot 37. That's like a landlocked lot back there.

So if there is access to this property through there and that would extend down, obviously you see these continuous lines that are going to continue toward that wooded area.

Any sale would be subject to any utility these vans already established.

So that would just be an understanding. That would be for the purchaser to do diligence to ensure they know exactly what is involved. And like we did with the prior property, you can include as a condition of this purchase improvement of this right-of-way to an actual road.

Because that was, you know, he was doing that with that other property. And lot 39 currently is owned by lot 14 on Woodward Avenue. So he has that little strip, that first rectangle strip on Woodward. And it leads into lot 39. Lot 39 expands the backyard, then he owns lot 39 from the LMI.

Is he from Aspen? Anything back there?

It's his property.

Does lot 32 sewer run

So the right of the way we were talking about, is that essentially a driveway?

It's access to get into lot 37 and it would be the access to get into lot 38.

And if you subdivide that into two lots, it would be access to 38 and 38A.

If you are going to subdivide it prior to the sale, obviously that has to be done for the things that would delay the process. And also, are there any improvements on this lot at this point in time?

This is R1? R10. R10, sorry. So R10, though. Yeah. Yeah, a minimum lot is $10,000.

You could justify that to a lot. It would probably be about $12,000 each. So you can conceive of it at two purchases.

Exactly. Do we have a question from the microphone?

So, do we need a motion to pursue this? Or do we just need, might be okay with that?

Well, it depends on the way you want to proceed. If you really want to proceed with an outside real estate appraiser or assessor, then you would need a motion to authorize that expenditure. Otherwise, you just do a motion to allow that to be pursued. to investigate the feasibility of not only selling but also subdividing.

I can get numbers. Obviously the attorney can be involved with this. The surveyor can be involved with this as well. Get those numbers with the cost and then what the cost does to subdivide it. It has to be a little bit more cost. And then go back. If you want to subdivide it, here's the cost. If you want to sell it, that's going to be a lot. Here's the cost. So I think I can just deal with what...

Pretty much, I want you guys to put a little shit in a second and do a little unfair for Mike to continue to research on the sale of this piece of property.

Yeah, I think research is okay. But for it to understand, I feel like, one, with the cost-benefit, it's cost-intentioning. What would we be getting out of it? And then also to think about all these properties that are really budding for this. What's that going to do? How's that going to impact their properties? That'd be good to understand. Since there's a right-of-way, I'm assuming we as the borough can access that property from that? Yes. So we can go and take a look at it too, right?

That would be useful. You can, like I said, you can come down that 15-foot-wide right-of-way, and make a right on the 20-foot-wide right-of-way, and that's the guy's driveway, and it goes like 20, 30 feet, and that stops. Then you walk into it, which is our property at that point.

Yeah, I think it's more getting a sense of where the other people's houses are, what they're currently looking at, what it might look like, and what it's going to look like.

Yep. Second motion? So moved.

Second. All in favor? I second the motion.

The motion is to evaluate and report on the feasibility and cost-benefit analysis. If you go and take a look at Lot 37, that's kind of what the house would look like. be where we're situated on the lot, that's where the house, the next one down, will be the same type of situation. Yeah, to be able to see what it's like, the other people on foot, what their back door looks like, that house on 37, and what the other lot, 35, on the front map, what they look like based on that type of look.

Yeah, that's a good compromise.

And then, let's go ahead and say, if we did decide to do it, do all these people have a right to be in emergency? Now, they could all get together and fight a little thing, and

It would have to actually be an option. And whoever showed up, anyone who's continuous, would be given first choice.

But if they're not the highest, then obviously no.

Because the borough can actually choose to accept the highest or reject all if it's not needed minimum or minimum. There's quite a bit of leeway we need to deal with in the public bidding process.

Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Very good. Okay. This is Lake Lubbock County. All in favor? Aye. Anyone wish to come up? Seeing no one, a motion to close. All in favor? Aye. We do have an executive session tonight under contract negotiations. The decision will be made. Do we have a motion to do it with the executive? So moved. Now a motion to adjourn.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.