City Council - Regular Meeting

I now call to order this July 28th meeting of Lancaster City Council. A few reminders before we begin. This meeting and its participants are being recorded. Please take a moment to silence your phones and devices if you haven't done so already. Tonight is a general meeting of council. There's a general public comment period on our agenda. First, we will hear comments from residents who have registered in advance, and then we'll open up to anyone else wishing to make comments about items that are not on tonight's agenda. All speakers must begin with their name and block of residence for the meeting record, and comments are limited to three minutes. To keep time, we will use this light. It will turn green when the speaker begins, yellow when there is one minute remaining, and red when three minutes have been exhausted. Thank you to everyone in advance for ensuring equal time. And now all those who are willing and able, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Harris, will you please call the roll of members?

Yes, Mr. Vice President. Ms. Gastineau. Ms. Holland-Jones?

Here.

Mr. Hirsch?

Here.

Ms. Majan?

Here.

Mr. Miller?

Here.

Mr. Stausfus?

Here. And President Emmed.

Council President Emmed and Councilor Gastineau are excused from this evening's meeting. Council, I'll now hear a motion for approval of the minutes of the meeting of council held on July 14th, 2026.

Motion to approve. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Are there any council comments on the meeting minutes? Hearing none, Mr. Harris? Ms. Allen-Jones?

Aye.

Mr. Hirsch? Aye. Ms. Mijon? Aye. Mr. Miller? Aye. Mr. Stosswitz? Aye.

Thank you. That brings us to proclamations honors awards and resolutions of recognition confirming we do not have any of those this evening Mr. Harris. We do not Mr. Vice President.

Thank you.

We'll now go to our public comment period. Mr. Harris do we have any pre registered public comments this evening. We do not Mr. Vice President.

Thank you.

We will now open it up to public comment to residents wishing to address counsel on items that are not on our agenda. and step up to the mic here. You might have to flip the switch there to turn that on.

Sounds good. So I'm Perry Hazeltine and I live in the 200 block of North Shippen Street. I'm an advocate for unsheltered homeless neighbors and I have experience as a street outreach worker in the city. I'm also a volunteer on the Lancaster Stands Up housing team. I, for those of you who remember from last time, I came in late, didn't know it was three minutes, and I had noted a lot of your accomplishments. So I'm going to get the second half of that in tonight. So as an advocate, I see the current status as homelessness in the county and that it can be summarized by four key points. Homelessness has risen by a third in the last three years. Current federal HUD policy shifts away from street outreach and makes it harder to place people. low barrier shelter in the county are all full, and there has been skyrocketing inflation in the housing market for much of the post COVID era. I see the strengths of the city and its commitment to constructing affordable housing, yet we cannot build ourselves out of housing quickly enough. This means we need to prioritize the housing most accessible to the homeless with little income. It is an emergency and we need to respond to it as such by declaring zoning and permitting reform an emergency on roommate rentals and on ADU permitting reform. I also want to just really emphasize something that's very important to me is that unsheltered homelessness is here. It is a reality. It is increasing for the foreseeable future. While it makes sense to prioritize that we are finding solutions, we also need to deal with people where they are right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hazeltine. Are there any other public comments or anyone else wishing to make public comment in this period? Hearing none, I will close the public comment period. That brings us to reports requested by Council. I believe we have one this evening, Mr. Harris. We do, Mr. Vice President.

We have a public hearing regarding an application for transfer of a liquor license to Ghost Brewing Lancaster LLC for use at 398 Harrisburg Avenue, Suite 700.

Thank you, Mr. Harris. I'll call this hearing to order and ask the applicants to come forward and introduce themselves.

Good evening my name is Shauna Bocece and I'm attorney of record for Ghostboring Lancaster LLC.

My name is Connor Smith. I'm the general manager for Rubber Soul Brewing Company.

Thank you. If you all want you can actually sit at these microphones up here. Those will just be like a push button. And I would ask that all of the witnesses or anyone that will be testifying before counsel affirm to be sworn in by our court reporter.

Yes. My name is Shauna Bosacy, B-O-S-C-A-C-C-Y. I'm attorney for record for Ghost Brewing Lancaster LLC. They operate under trade name Rubber Soul Brewing Company. They currently are operating a restaurant in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, and have been since 2020. They have leased a space at 398 Harrisburg Avenue and after due diligence we tried to find a liquor license within the confines of the city and we were unable to find a viable license for transfer at this time. So we are seeking approval to transfer that license into the city of Lancaster for use at that location. We're happy to answer questions about our hours or any other concerns from the public or city council about our operations.

Wonderful thank you. So I would just introduce into the record the application for inter-municipal transfer of Ghost Brewing Lancaster LLC proof of publication from Lancaster newspaper of the public hearing report and recommendation of the mayor of the city of Lancaster and report and recommendation of the chief of police. I would ask the council of the applicant to confirm that the property was posted with notice of a hearing.

Yes it was.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about what you have planned for the for the space or anything else you'd like to tell us in this hearing.

We can let Connor talk a little bit about what the space will look like and their intentions for the space.

Wonderful. We are a full service. I'm sorry my name is Connor Smith. I'm the general manager for Rubber Soul Brewing Company. We're a brewery craft brewery and a full service restaurant. And we are going to kind of bring what we have in Hummelstown to Lancaster in a new market keeping lots of the historical parts of the building that we're moving into but kind of putting our our flair on it.

Wonderful, so I believe I've touched on all of the documentation that's required for this. I'll now ask council members if they have any questions of the applicant or the applicant's witnesses.

Thank you, Council Vice President. I'm just curious, this is your second location and is it your second location for the brewery? Or do you have more locations?

So this would be the second full service restaurant. However, they currently are operating in the beer garden, which is adjacent to. Oh, yes. Great. Yeah. We have been in Lancaster since Memorial Day. Right. Yes. April. And I think we've had some great success and introducing our solely just the beer at this point. But we're looking forward to, you know, obviously operating our full menu and full service restaurant as well.

Yeah, I was curious about why you chose Lancaster, but maybe that's the reason with the beer garden connection there.

It was a good opportunity. The space is, again, very cool with the beer garden, so we were hoping to kind of maximize on that as well.

Excellent. Thank you, Councilor Stoltz. Are there any other questions or comments from members of council for the applicants?

Yeah, Councilor Hirsch. Councilor Miller. Thank you all for being here tonight. I'm just curious, I'm not familiar with Hummelstown that much and I'm wondering what sorts of populations you serve there and versus here, you're gonna have a heavy student population. Are you prepared to kind of manage that if it's gonna be different from your other operations and I'm curious what thought you've put into that.

So obviously we adhere to all of the rules and regulations that the LC and the PLCB provide. One thing that we implemented a few years ago is we scan all IDs and that will obviously remain here, especially with the larger student population. We take that one pretty seriously. So I think, and also, you know, depending on the population crowd, there were conversations about if bouncers will be necessary or not, but I don't think we need to get to that point yet. That'll mostly be crowd control if necessary.

Thank you I appreciate that.

Thank you Councillor Miller.

Are there any other council questions or comments of the applicants. At this time I'll invite members of the public if they have any comment on the application to please come forward and give give that.

Yes. My name is Janilza Rodriguez Molina. I just have a question because how many more alcohol do we need in Lancaster P.A.? How many more citizens do have to get poisoned by alcohol? That's just my question. Why are we continue doing this in Lancaster P.A.? Do we really need another place that consumes alcohol and poison the young generation and continue alcoholism? I generally don't think so. That was only my question. Food for thought in the sense of it's tiring. There's so much alcohol going around consuming. Why? It's not needed. Spiritually. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other comments from members of the public. Hearing none, I will close this hearing. Councillors, this will appear on our agenda later this evening as resolution number 71. Thank you both. This brings us to our interim reports of committees of council. I don't believe we have any of those this evening, Mr. Harris.

We do not, Mr. Vice President. Thank you.

That now brings us to our legislative agenda. We will start with ordinances for final passage, administration bill number 10. Mr. Harris, will you please read it into the record? Yes, Mr. Vice President.

An ordinance increasing the indebtedness of the city of Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, by the issue of a guaranteed water revenue note in the maximum principal amount of $36,380,000 for construction of various structures and facilities to improve the city's water system, fixing the form, dates, interest, and maturity thereof, making for a covenant for the payment of the debt service on the note, providing for the filing of the required documentation with the Department of Community and Economic Development to incur and exclude additional debt of the governmental unit, providing for the appointment of a sinking fund depository for the note, providing for the authorized signatories, and authorizing execution, sale, and delivery thereof.

Councilors, I'll hear a motion.

Motion to approve.

Second. Thank you, Councillors. We have a motion for approval and a second. Councillors, as you will recall, we had our first read of this bill at our meeting on July 14th, and the Penvest Board met on July 15th. At their meeting, our amended loan amount was approved, and with that, the finalized terms of the loan. So before we discuss the motion further, to incorporate those finalized details, I would like to make a motion to amend bill number 10 as follows. bond council has provided each of us with an updated version of the ordinance authorizing and directing the issuance of penvest guaranteed water revenue bond series of 2026 in an original principal amount not to exceed 63 million 380 000 such ordinance was introduced as administrative bill number 10 before this council on july 14th i hereby move to amend the ordinance labeled administration bill number 10-2026 to include exhibits on such updated version of the ordinance which will be reworded with the minutes of this meeting and which can be summarized as follows. On exhibit A, attaching the form of the note. On exhibit B, attaching the amortization schedule. On exhibit C, attaching the annual debt service payment schedule. And exhibit D, attaching the funding offer from Penvest. Second. Thank you, councillors. Chief of Staff Amanda Baker is here to present more details on what those finalized terms are.

Good evening, councillors. I am very pleased to be here this evening and report to you that on July 15, the day after your first reading of this ordinance, the Penn Best Ward met and voted to approve our financing for this crucial infrastructure project. Council Hersh's amendment is to add now the final approval documents as exhibits to this ordinance. Mr. Harris has provided each of you with a copy of both the motion and the updated version of the ordinance with your meeting materials last week for your review. Typically, when we come seeking final passage of this type of ordinance, I would be joined by a representative from Concord Public Finance. However, Darrell Peck is out of town, so you are stuck with me this evening. I've provided each of you with a final plan of finance that we'll review now. Page one. After the cover page begins with an overview of the financing, which you have now seen a few times, the estimated cost of the project based on actual bids received is approximately $67.1 million. This budget includes $3.2 million in grant funds the city has secured, and a total Penvest funding now approved of $63.38 million. This, along with approximately $500,000 of city funds already available for this project, will provide sufficient permanent financing for this project. You will see the term and the rate of the financing at the bottom of page one. They are as previously described, 1.743% during the interest-only period and five years of the repayment period, and 2.179% during years six through 20 of the repayment. As a reminder, Penvest provides the lowest interest rates available for infrastructure capital projects like this one. Turning to page two is the schedule that you've now seen as well. The official closing of the financing is scheduled for later in August. Page 3 is considered a, excuse me, is a condensed summary of the annual debt service of the PENVEST loan. Debt service for the project is phased in over the first several years based on the lower rate at the beginning of the loan. It increases starting in 2029 with the final full annual debt service of about $3.8 million starting in 2033 through 2048. On page four, there's a graphical representation of this same summary. You can see the existing debt service and the water fund in red and the resulting net water fund debt service after the Penvest financing is shown in blue. It reflects that phased in schedule that we just saw. Pages 5 through 8 are the full not to exceed debt service which provides a breakdown of principle and interest for each payment and includes milestones like estimated project completion, end of interest only period, etc. These pages are one of the exhibits that we are proposing to add to the ordinance. Finally, I want to give my appreciation for city staff for their work with Penvest to ensure we stay on time with this critical water project. Council Vice President, I'm happy to take any council comments or questions at this time.

Thank you, Amanda. And I would echo your comments. You know, I'm just thinking off the top of my head, I think we've had three or four resolutions and multiple ordinances come through just this year on this. And that is not even the limit of it. I don't think so. This is a huge deal and it's great to see this come to the finish line. Um, great that we got pen vest to approve the amended amount. Um, so I'm very excited to see this through, um, members of council. Uh, are there any questions or comments? on the ordinance. Councilor Stoltzfus.

Thank you, Council Vice President. Yeah, I just want to echo Councilor Hirsch's comments. I think this is a big lift by city staff. We've had a couple of chances to look at this. I know there are some hiccups with the additional cost, but I'm really glad this is moving forward. And I know it was a lot of work to get here. So thank you and your staff.

Thanks. For every one of these meetings, I have learned there's probably eight to 10 meetings happening behind the scenes on the project. And that's not counting construction. That's just financing.

Thank you, Councilor Stoltz. Are there any other questions or comments from members of council? Are there any comments from members of the public? Hearing none, Mr. Harris?

Yes, Mr. Vice President, a motion to amend. Ms. Holland-Johans? Aye. Mr. Hirsch? Aye. Ms. Majan?

Aye.

Mr. Miller? Aye. And Mr. Stoltzfus? Aye.

Thank you, yes, councilors, I should have maybe had that clarification in that that was on the motion to amend. We now have the initial motion, which was the motion to approve the ordinance. Members of council, I'll again ask if any of you have any comments, questions or comments on the ordinance. Are there any comments from members of the public on bill number 10-2026? Hearing none, Mr. Harris.

Mr. Jones aye Mr. Hirsch aye Mr. Mijon aye Mr. Miller aye Mr. Salsfus aye.

Thank you. That brings us to resolutions which we have council one one of those this evening council resolution number 71 Mr. Harris.

a resolution of the City Council of the City of Lancaster, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, approving the transfer of a restaurant liquor license number R17509 into the City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Motion to approve.

Second. Councillors, we have a motion and a second on Resolution 71. Members of Council, are there any questions or comments? Are there any comments from members of the public on the resolution. Yes. That's OK.

How many more liquor do we need in Lancaster, especially in downtown Lancaster? There's so many places that are selling alcohol right now at this very moment. I worked at Lancaster General Hospital in the emergency department, and the amount of people that I took care of that came there because of alcohol poisoning or just crying out loud for help because they wanted to get rid of alcohol in their system and they wanted help to go to rehab was... Heartbreaking. How many more do we need? There's wine and spirits everywhere. There's alcohol in gas stations now. There's alcohol everywhere. How much more are you guys going to allow to get the people to poison us so that continuous of money continue? How much more? How much longer are we going to continue poisoning each other to continue making money? There's so many places that consume alcohol right now. And the younger generations are the ones paying for it because the older generations accepted this. So now we have to pay for it because we're drained, we're depressed, we're stressed because we have to go to work and we need something to escape from it. So what do we do? We go to alcohol. Why? If you guys care for the people, why were you allowed to continue poisoning us? For the people, by the people. But you're agreeing to continue poisoning us so other people can continue making money. I get it we all need money but there's other things that we can do in order to get money. It's heartbreaking sickening how society has become from back in the days to now. Thank you.

I had comments from the public on Resolution 71. Hearing none, Mr. Harris. Ms. Holland-Jones?

Aye. Mr. Hirsch? Aye. Ms. Majone?

Aye.

Mr. Miller? Aye. Mr. Stosswes? Aye.

Thank you, members of council. That concludes our legislative agenda, our resolutions. We will now have a report of the mayor, Mayor Arroyo.

Thank you, Council Vice President. As I'm sure you've all heard me speak about before, my administration's three strategic priorities are an economy that works, government that delivers, and a city built for everyone. Tonight, I'd like to share a few updates on how we're working to put these priorities into action. First, an economy that works. This week is Indy Retail Week, Lancaster City's annual celebration of small businesses that keep our local economy strong, provide good-paying jobs for our neighbors, and attract visitors from across the globe. We have nearly 40 small businesses participating this year, and I hope you'll join me in showing them a little love this week. Next is a government that delivers. I'm happy to share that we're taking another step toward expanding and modernizing services for our residents. Starting next week residents will be able to see park pavilion availability and pay to reserve pavilions online. Gone are the days of filling out a paper application and visiting the operations center outside the city to reserve a pavilion for a family gathering. And lastly strong public safety is a key part of building a city built for everyone. Our police bureau recently opened its next round of recruitment for police officers. I'm excited to share that we will also begin accepting applications for our cadet program on Saturday. This program is a paid part time apprenticeship for young adults aged 18 to 20 who aspire to become sworn police officers with the Lancaster City Police Bureau. Anyone interested in learning more about becoming a police officer, joining our cadet program, or civilian positions with the Bureau can visit lcbpcareers.com. That concludes my report, Council Vice President.

Thank you, Mayor Arroyo. The next item on our agenda is report of the President of Council. Council President Ahmed has been excused from this evening's meeting. So with that, we will move to Council comments. Are there any comments from members of Council this evening? Councilor Mijan.

I would like to invite the whole community to a free event that is going to be a community cookout. It's going to be this coming Saturday, August 1st on Garden Court Apartments on the 100 block south end parking lot. Excuse me. It's going to be sponsored. It's going to be people there from the Lancaster City Police, from Lancaster City, the Vision Zero program, specifically the Speed One. So please join us. There's going to be free food and drinks for all.

Thank you Councillor Mejian and can you just remind folks what time that is on Saturday.

It's going to be this coming Saturday August 1st from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Garden Court Apartments South End Street.

Wonderful. Thank you Councillor Mejian. Are there any other comments from members of council this evening. Hearing none that brings us to the end of our agenda. I will hear a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

This meeting is adjourned.