County Council - Regular Meeting

Oh wow. Oh, Great. All right, everybody. It's 6:02 p.m. I'd like to call the voting session to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. A moment of silence. Reporting in progress. 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. We can please remain standing for a moment of silence for all the men and women of our armed forces who uh gave the ultimate sacrifice that we remember on Memorial Day. Thank you.

Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence, Mr. Hos, here. Miss Krishnowski, here. Mr. Luscavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Willovich here. Mr. Lombardo here. All present. All right. Thank you. Attorney Sk, could you please announce our executive session? Yes. Prior to the meeting today, we had an executive session to discuss litigation and real estate matters. Okay. I forgot the proclamation in the council chambers. So, we'll move we'll move on to the uh the voting session. Uh uh are there any deletions from the voting session agenda? Uh hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the uh energy matter removed. Um, I asked that that be removed. I will double check. I believe that Miss Lawrence removed it. Okay, thank you. Um, she's coming back in the room right now. Hold on. Miss Lawrence, did you remove the uh energy provider? Okay. Okay. I'll just read the proclamation and then we'll we'll move on. Okay. All right. This proclamation is for child welfare professionals appreciation week. Whereas every day in Luzern County, hundreds of children and families receive services from children child welfare service providers as a result of their involvement with county child welfare agencies. And whereas Luzern County recognizes the risks and need to intervene to protect the children and families and provide services for the betterment of their lives. And whereas these workers fulfill crucial services that help to protect children, strengthen families, and prevent future abuse and neglect. And whereas child welfare services provide work with children who have experienced

trauma and have been victimized by physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and other forms of malreatment. And whereas child welfare services uh providers bring culturally relevant and trauma-informed expertise to their work in family preservation, foster and other out ofome care, counseling, behavioral health treatment, independent living skills, and other challenging areas. And whereas child welfare services providers must develop and maintain substantial knowledge and skills surrounding the needs and rights of families, laws, and regulations surrounding child welfare and the intricacies of working with county child welfare agencies. And whereas child welfare service providers exhibit tremendous dedication to the endeavor of protecting Luzern County's children and families, often with uncertain financial security and the inevitability the inevitably challenging work of serving traumatized individuals. And whereas child welfare service providers continue to face significant challenges related to the recruitment and retention of staff at a time when children's and families needs have significantly increased. And whereas child welfare agencies in the entirety of Pennsylvania child welfare system benefit greatly from the commitment, dedication, and perseverance of the child welfare service providers. And whereas many of children and families have benefited greatly from the efforts of child welfare service providers. Now therefore, we lo county council do hereby proclaim June 9th to the 13th, 2025 as child welfare service providers appreciation week and special recognition of the efforts of the child welfare service providers in supporting the children and families of Lzern County. Thank you very much. [Applause] Uh to say a couple of words, okay? Uh the mic, make sure it's on. Sorry.

There we go. Good thing I'm not in charge of it. Good evening, council, county manager, and chief solicitor. I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for recognizing my staff. I have with me tonight um supervisors Jackie and Jeremy, and a case worker, Richard, and one of my managers, Tanal. And I just want to say what an extraordinary staff we have at Children, Youth, and Families Protecting the Children of Lzern County. and I really appreciate appreciate the opportunity of you recognizing them. Thank you. Thank you. Somebody want to come up and take the proclamation. [Applause] You're welcome. Thank you. Okay. Take two. Any deletions from the voting session agenda? I move that we adopt the agenda. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I I opposed. Agenda is adopted. We'll now have public comment on voting session agenda items. I have several slips and I have an email. I am going to read the email first so I don't forget it. This is from Walter Griffith and it says, "Agenda item four, motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the county manager to execute an agreement of sale between Luzern County and Market Square. The county controller strongly recommends that county council postpone this purchase until the new county council is in place or vote no to purchase this facility. The property that the county council is considering purchasing for $615,000 was purchased by the county many years ago for $5.8 million. The property was then sold to George Albert for around $1.5 million, resulting in a loss to the taxpayers of around $4 million. And then a lease agreement was made in advance to facilitate the renovation of the train station, which would guarantee revenue to Mr. Albert of $3,000 per month or $36,000 annually for the next 5 years or $180,000. Currently, there is nothing

the county is responsible uh for except for the rent, no insurance costs, no utilities, no MS4 fees, and the property is providing real estate taxes to the county, municipal, and school district. The resolution that is on the agenda does not specify where the funding will be provided to make this purchase, and the people of Luzar County need to have transparency regarding this purchase. The real estate committee meeting on February 24th, where there was testimony by Alan Stout, stated they need to move to the train station, was due to the former site not having sufficient room and for the visual optics of having an attraction and space to provide literature for the visitors of the facility. The county controller spoke with Mr. Stout a few days ago and asked what records are maintained to determine the number of visitors that the train station and was informed they have no requirements that visitors sign a register, therefore no ability to determine the number of visitors. The county council should have this information first to determine the need for this purchase. The county council is has very little documentation that this facility is needed by the county visitors bureau. Yet, they're being asked to spend $615,000 to purchase it. There are several reasons the county council should not authorize the purchase of this structure. The train station on the agenda is listed on the historic register and as such will require the county to get approval or anything it tries to perform with this building which causes added expense to the taxpayer. This doesn't uh seem to have been a cost analysis of the additional expenses that will be incurred by the taxpayers as a result of this p purchase. Cost of utilities, electric and water and sewer fees along with the MS4. We will now be responsible for cost of maintenance for lawn care and snow removal. The county administration uh reason for the purchase is to eliminate the lease payments and prevent the visitors bureau from relocating to another location if the property is purchased by somebody else. The county has 16 district magistrate judges and they're all leasing facilities at an annual budget cost of the taxpayers of half a million dollars. Yet, we are not looking to purchase any structures to eliminate this cost. Why is the train station any different? The county council should be prioritizing the items that the administration is requesting based on the needs that tax the benefit the taxpayers. A $615,000 purchase of this structure is not needed and cannot be the best use of taxpayer funding when

it comes to the general fund or office of community development. Luzar County has many roads and bridges that are currently closed or in emergency repair status and we are thinking of purchasing a structure that could cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is not being good fiduciary stewards stewards of the taxpayer dollars. Lazern County also has a property in Hazelton, the Broad Street Exchange that we currently own and cannot maintain. And this property needs extensive repairs. Yet, we want to purchase more property that we will be responsible to maintain and repair when we can't take care of the ones we already own with lots of exclamation points. The loser and county controller feels this is a purchase that is not needed and will waste taxpayers money and urges county council to vote no on this resolution. Okay. Uh next up we have uh Bob Cad Labosski. Your your time is running but okay. Don't hit me. Bob Calabosski, Luzern County Taxpayers and also live action reporter. I don't Is this the time that I should talk about this Luzern County redevelopment authority? Yes, this is on the voting session agenda, sir. Okay. And I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but uh Mr. Crokom. Is that how you say your name? Croc. Crocamo. Uh, I called you a few weeks ago and let a message and you never got back to me. I know you're busy. I also wrote a letter to the district attorney about the situation with the redevelopment authority. What's been going on by the Yuber Breaker site? There's 65 acres, I believe, that has been held up, I believe, for five years. Five years. And the stinking part about it is there was a board member who got

off the board a year later purchase gets a sales purchase agreement for the property and it's been held up for five years. Something stinks with this situation. There's a businessman who wants who will buy it tomorrow and work with the state to remediate that site. The people in the in the car's patch section of Ashley do not want this former board member of the redevelopment authority building a massive warehouse. They don't want it. The I guess the head of the redevelopment authority was at a meeting in Ashley and I brought up to her that there was somebody there that wanted to pay a lot more money and she said, "Who has deep pockets that'll buy it?" And my friend, his name is John Halliday stood up. He says, "I'll buy it. This should be investigated. How could you hold up every dime that comes in for the loan county taxpayers is something that could be used towards fixing the bridges, doing some kind of other project? We have to do something about this redevelopment authority." And I know Mr. Ski, I don't know if you can answer this. How do we get rid of this board? Do does this council have the right to get rid of the board? And let me let me finish. You can answer, but does this county Does the county have the right to get rid of this board? This pro this property out there has been has a sales agreement from what I'm told for over five years. Five years. And you have a businessman from Ashley who wants to develop it and try to bring there's businesses that are going to be displaced because of the expansion of Route 81 and wants to help try to get them to relocate down there. The people don't want another million square foot

warehouse and car's patch. But you you see my point. How could somebody get off the board and a year later sir? I'm not finished. Your time your time is up. You have had three minutes, but I'm not finished, sir. That's that's part of our rules of decorum. Yeah, you have three minutes. Yeah, please. Yeah, you can have three minutes at the end of the meeting as well and on the work session. This the first time I see you with your fire food firefighter suit on. Oh, okay. All right. All right. I can talk again. You can talk again at the end of the meeting and at the at the work session as well. How long will that take till the It might take a little bit. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Calabosi. Thank you, Mr. Lombardo. Okay. Next up, Mr. Rabbo. Mark Rabbo Hazelton, former member of the county redevelopment authority. I'm here to talk about item number four, uh, the train station. Now, I have the unique experience that I was on the board when the train station was being talked about being sold and eventually was sold. And then I was at the council meeting when it was sold and also uh purchased by Mr. Albert and uh now the county wants to buy it back. And at the time I was on the board and also as a citizen, you know, it was I I asked the question, why are you guys selling it if you possibly are going to use it in the future for a county county offices or county use? And I was told there was no way to find the proceeds and the funds to maintain it because the capital funds were dwindling. So then the county goes ahead and sells it. Uh the redevelopment authority praised that $1.2 million. It was sold to Mr. Albert

who is now going to be the beneficiary of uh the sale uh or you know like you guys are going to sell it or buy it back off of him for 615,000. I'm wondering first of all why aren't you asking him about what he owes to the county currently? Because if memory serves, isn't he wasn't he a participant of the Jenkins Township TIFF, the original TIFF? He's not no longer the property owner now, but he sold out, how should we say, controversy when the a former county commissioner uh kind of got in a sidebar agreement with a contractor and the FBI busted him and the former director of the redevelopment authority. Yeah, that one. So, I think uh what the council needs to do is ask where that money is before you guys, you know, give your blessing or approval to buying the train station. And as far as the uh rail line, I just want you all to know that the rail line also pays for the staff and the director of the redevelopment authority um because they're also work for the rail corporation. So I'm kind of wondering, you know, I never received a notice of delinquent delinquents when I was on the board. And also, come to think of it, why didn't you know, why now? Why? Why all of a sudden now for all of this this uh you know and by the way um madame manager Mr. Chair something you need to consider the rail line is being maintained has been maintained so you need to think about pendot funds Mr. Chair 30 seconds the the pen the pendot funds and federal dot funds that are

being used because they're entangled in that rail line just so you're aware thank you Mr. Lindy, I shouldn't even take all three. Uh, Scott Lindy, I'm a a member of the uh uh Lazar County Redevelopment Authority and the Lazar County Rail Corporation, but both my attorneys have made sure that I inform you that I'm only speaking as one one of those members today, not not in uh in that capacity. Uh we received uh from the Lzern County Redevelopment Authority a a letter on uh May Uh I'm have trouble with my one eye. I'm sorry. Uh May 15th, I think on uh based on our meeting of uh 5125, it was determined that subject to council's authorization, Lzern County would take possession of Lzern County uh rail corporation and plans to sell it uh and use the proceeds to repay the debt for Lazern County and Lazernne County uh community development. I just want to let you know that both of those uh uh authorities and and corporations look forward to working with you on those goals once we learn what they are. It would be extremely confusing now to try to uh uh turn this over with all the ongoing litigation and and everything. So, just to let you know that we're looking forward to uh meeting with you and learning what your goals are and to work with you to accomplish them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lindy. Anybody else for public comment in the audience tonight on the voting session? Anybody on the Zoom? Okay, hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the May 13th, 2025 voting session? So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Minutes are approved. Agenda item number one. Motion

to adopt the resolution approving the allocation of opioid settlement proceeds to the Willow Foundation. Motion and a second. Roll call on the question, Mr. Chair. Go ahead. Who are the principles of the Willow Foundation exactly? Um, do we have that information in the are there any representatives from the from the organization? I think it's in the agenda submitt. Yeah. Um if is anybody because we have had question about this before when we gave them ARPA funding I think. Okay. Um I mean I saw that that right I read the narrative that they're they're the only um entity in South County that is capable of doing something like this. I get this and I also want to be very clear. I I I really value the members of of the committee that are tasked with with allocating these resources. But uh again for public edification, my peace of mind, who the uh do they do they have a board or the chief executive officer uh and uh vice president is Kristen Topolski and that's the person who was dealing with the opioid application. Okay. Is is there a board as well I'm guessing? What what does that that exactly look like from this organization? Yeah, it's a um I think it's I believe it's a nonprofit uh organization. Mr. Chair, if I may, it is a great organization. I've toured the facility. They provide a lot of day services for the homeless in South County in the Hazelton area. I saw that. Um they they have an amazing service there that it there's nothing in Hazelton that rivals it at this point or even gets close to it. And they do a really great job of making sure that people have meals, they have clean clothes, they have uh

internet access, you know. So this would be something that I would support. In all fair Thanks, Mr. Sabat. In all fairness, I'm going to have the same question for the Dress of Success one. And thanks to um Councilwoman Stevenson for bringing this up. We need more information. I appreciate reading the narrative in the packet. Yeah. But I just want to make sure that the the money actually goes to what it's tasked with. You know, so many times government allocates money and resource to to areas and it doesn't really resolve the problem. This is such a so a critical problem. No, just to answer your question, similar to the ARPA funding um that was received by entities, we are tasked with tracking this funding and I'm I'm fairly certain that it's going to be a very similar tracking process, if not identical to the ARPA funding, um just because it it works so well with with that. Um so, we will be able to determine if funds are actually being allocated to the items that they're being requested for. Um and and specifically as it relates to the Willow Foundation, again this is for the facility in Hazelton. So um that all of that will be completed that those those you know checks and balances are there in this whole process. So so there is a board of directors uh if you go on the website uh it lists the board of directors. Uh and just so everybody is reminded again the opioid money comes from a court settlement. It's not a grant. It's a court settlement and there's a trust that was created and we have to be very meticulous when we report to the trust and uh they we will have to make sure that the money is being used uh for the intended purposes of the applicants otherwise we will lose that money and uh myself uh and and Megan Gan

Stone uh and and Jim Rose uh were at a CCAP uh conference and uh there was someone uh who does the overview for the trust who spoke and uh she uh was very clear that we have to uh make the reporting requirements and we have to review that the money is being used for the intended purpose. It's a court order. We don't do it right. the court will refuse to give us more money. That simple. Miss Smith, did you have a comment? Yes. Thank you, chair. Um I just wanted to know I would reiterate what um county manager just said. If you look on page 16, it does say center director. So that implies that it would be a board with with an executive director. Um However, I also wanted to address the fact that this is in South County, and we've done a really good job of beginning to offer more and more services in South County. And I'm very proud to be a part of the opening of the South County office with our services. And I I think this is a very good move, especially because it is such a large gap between this county seat and South County. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. There's a motion and a second. Gap geographically. Just saying. Right. There's a motion and a second. Uh, roll call. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Kushnowski. Yes. Mr. Lascavage. Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. unanimous. Number two,

motion to adopt the resolution approving the allocation of opioid settlement proceeds to dress for success. So move second. All right, you got that? Not the second. Okay, who was the second? There was three at all. Uh, Miss Stevenson. Okay, motion a second. Roll call. Miss Kishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lcgavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes, Mr. Wovit. Yes, Mr. Hos. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number three. Motion to adopt the resolution approving the allocation of opioid settlement proceeds to the Greater Pittton Regional Ambulance. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Lcgavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Willin? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes, Miss Krishnowski. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. I abstain due to prior employment relationship. 10 to zero with one abstension. It passes. Thank you. Number four. Motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the county manager to execute an agreement of sale between Lousern County and Market Square Properties Development LLC for real property identified by PIN number. I'm not going to read the number. Located within the city of Wilsberry. Second. There's a motion and a second. Roll call on the question, Mr. here. Um I just appreciate management because I I spoke with um the manager and our budget and finance director. I'm still concerned with where the money is expressly expressly um originating from. We talked about miscellaneous funds and for something like this, I believe in this project very very much. I was on the council that voted to make sure this was rehabbed and I I'm very pleased with the result, but I don't think it's

necessarily a bad question to ask that if we if we invest in this project, some other project elsewhere is not going to benefit because we've got a lot of roads and bridges around town like we talked about personally and um and I'll speak to the road and bridge issue. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. you brought up the Hanover Industrial uh park and I received an email t today from a resident in the back mountain about Harris uh Hill Bridge. Uh the Hanover Industrial Park will cost about $6 million to redo all those roads. We intend to do all those roads. we uh have to plan it because it's $6 million. Historically, we've been doing roads peace meal and that is not effective. For example, lower demands. We do patches of it and it really isn't the most efficient and effective way to rebuild our roads. That's number one. the Harris Hill Road. We do have money earmarked for that. That's coming from ARPA interest. I believe we said it last week and we'll say it again. The money is coming from interest from the community development fund. Mary and and please explain why we are purchasing the property outright rather than financing it. And that'll address uh the controllers's issue uh who is pennywise and dollar foolish. Sure. Um as we spoke on Friday um Councilman Hos uh we did go through that the money to purchase the train station is coming from miscellaneous revenue accounts that exist at community development. The majority of the money that are in those accounts have been earned. It's interest that's been earned for many many years.

I mean it it goes back many many years. um the $615,000 will come out of again that miscellaneous revenue account. If we were to get a mortgage on the property as some people have have questioned that also we would be paying at least 6.5% interest on the banks that we've called. Um the interest income that we're earning from the accounts is about 2% and I think it's like 2.17% to be exact at community development. So, it makes sense to purchase the building as opposed to, you know, again, taking on more debt for just just pure financial reason, just just the money. Um, in addition to that, we don't want to increase our debt because we want to maintain and improve our credit rating. So, we're not in a position where we want to increase the amount of debt that the county holds at all for any reason, and we don't need to. It makes sense from an interest rate perspective, and we don't want to increase our debt. And just to be clear, the the original sale years ago that was referenced by the uh controller, this is a a a different parcel that we're buying. And there is something to say about the fact that we are the stewards of Luzern County's history. And that train station is a symbol of that. And we, the administration and the council, we have to be stewards for your grandchildren. my and nephews and this is just the beginning. Mr. Hos, what makes it so difficult for me is that history is my vocation and you have no bigger fan on this council regarding historic historical things than myself and the the very difficult thing is there are a lot of projects all

around the county and if if we can keep that viable by renting it, I'm all for it. If we can keep it by owning, I'm all for it. But there's a lot of struggles with our county roads and bridges all over the county. And you all hear about it just as much as I do. And so, um, I I have a really hard time knowing that there's been money out there that we're not allocating in other areas. We are spending $20 million this spring. We are going to do projects for our roads and our bridges. A burden that we did not assume that our predecessors assume. There's no reason. There's no logical reason why Luther County owns roads um in industrial uh areas. There's no reason. There's no logical reason for it. We are going to keep our promise. We are going to do those roads. We are spending $20 million on projects this spring. I mean, I I think I'm in the minority on this one, but my only other issue is to the controller perhaps things, which I I disagree with most of what he said. There's there's no reason to wait for a new council to take action on this. Absolutely not. But I I it it did also move the question if we're only having a a parcel of this original property. And the goal is to have viable train service here in downtown Wilsberry through this. I don't believe the rail lines are part of this new parcel. Am I mistaken in that? Because and and and it is not. But we have to think about we have to think about the future and we have to plan and we have to have a global plan. Northeastern Pennsylvania and Lutheran County is way behind the eightball when it comes to infrastructure and we're either even

further behind the eightball when it comes to rail service. That doesn't mean we have to give up on it. What it means is that we have a plan and we will have a plan. We will have a strategic plan going forward when it comes to infrastructure. And it not just isn't just the rail lines. It's our roads or our bridges. It's our trails. It's our airports. Because the core of economic development, the fundamental of economic development is is infrastructure. The other core is attracting people to Luzern County. We want people to visit Luern County. We want people to visit Luern County and spend money in Lutheran County. We want people to visit Luern County, spend money loss county and say, why don't we move to Lern County? We want people to appreciate the value of Lzern County. And part of that is starting with preserving its history. And I'm not in opposition to any of that whatsoever, but the devil's in the details. I'm I'm going to call the question on myself in just a second here. But are we going to also be tasked with making a decision on the remainder part of the property down the road? Is that going to be part of it? Is this going to be part of the strategic vision or are we not part of our plan? That is not part of our plan. All right. Other council members have some comments that they'd like to make. Mr. Thornton. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. here. Um I I want to echo the comments that the county manager made over here. Um what's striking to me is I I heard a lot of comments against the purchase of this property tonight. Some

of them are valid. Uh however, all of them missed the big global picture. And I've said this three and a half years I'm sitting on this council. Council tends to not see the big picture. does not see what could be, what can be in this county. You know, we go fix that road, fix that road. All the roads need to be fixed. We have $20 million earmarked for road improvement this year. Road and bridge improvement. It's a lot of money. A lot of money and an operating budget of budget of roughly 167 million. 20 million is a lot of money. But what I'm I'm looking at and I I hope others could see it. Wols bear city is the seat of Lutheran County. We all need to take a more collective pride in in how we look at Wolsair City because the county has a responsibility to uh put Wols on the map and and as Miss Crocomo said, we're way behind. We have very poor vision of the future. What I see happening, I go to Jim Thorp. Some of us go to Jim Thorp. That's his one town. You see how many people flood into that town every weekend, just thousands by the thousands by train. Many of them from Pittston City, but many of them from spoke routes all around Jim Thorp out and below south of it. Why can't that be Wolsair? Why can't you have a gem historical building like that train station which was built in the 1800s? The county takes it under our ownership. Therefore, it will always be preserved the proper way and will will sit as the hallmark of progress because what I see happening is passenger rail service coming to that train station,

coming from Allentown, coming from areas, maybe the Poconos, maybe point out west, I don't know. And then from there, we have over 11 million dollars being pumped into that Iron Building a couple of blocks from here. That's going to be a gorgeous venue. That that that big building, that theater used to house or have the shows of the Rat Pack years ago. Frank Sinatra, all those guys, Dean Martin, national acts won't come here now because we don't have the venue. The Kirby Center is a specific venue for certain types of national acts. We toured it. We toured it and they explained what acts come there, but a lot of national acts won't come when the Iron Building is up and running in its beautiful, ornate, gorgeous interior. You should see it. We toured that, too. Um, I could see passenger trains bringing people here in the morning, eating at very nice restaurants around Wilsville. We have a couple already near the square and off the square. And we developed public square with a vision. Okay. Not Dollar General, not some of these other things that we have on Ware Public Square. You know what's wrong with having uh wine tasting, little winery, micro brewery, arts and craft shops. You know, things you see in these nice quaint towns around Pennsylvania which bring thousands of people to come see them. And then maybe people will like it so much, like manager Crocko said, maybe they move here and we improve our tax base and everything else. That's what I see it as, not just, oh, we're buying another, it's not a square little building or something like that. It's a gem. And I just think we need to all have bigger forward vision. Thank you, Mr. Sabatino. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Mr. Roselle, could you speak to um

Controller Griffith actually mentioned the maintenance of the building going forward. Would that all be taken care of through the hotel tax? Um the majority of it can be taken care of through the hotel tax. Yes. And can this interest money be used for anything else? Um or is it it can be Yes, it can be used for other projects also. Okay. And we're looking at that. We're looking at the best use of funds across every department and every, you know, every fund that exists in the county. And and buying this, it frees up money in the hotel tax budget, correct? For us to pay for other things out of Okay. $2,700 a month. Thank you. Uh, Miss Stevenson. Yes. My question is similar to Councilman Sabatino's. Um, is there a rough estimate to the expenses and maintenance costs for the current market square property? Um I I don't have that with me. I'm sorry, but I can send it to everyone. Okay. And what is the current um estimate of the interest funds in the development comm um community development fund in total? Yes. About $7 million. Thank you. I just one more thing like a couple other council members have. I I just wanted to make a comment really quick. I did when this first came into conversation uh I had some concerns about the actual physical condition of the building as it is now being that it is so old. It was renovated and it looks beautiful as it is. I've tooured the building. I've been there several times. So, it is a beautiful, amazing building and I think um it would be a great asset to the county in general. Um but I did have some concerns. I not to get into specifics, but I had a conversation with somebody who had some more intimate knowledge of um some of the renovations that were done on the building, and I did um speak to manager Crocomo about that. And uh we had all of our people go out and investigate that. Anything that was deficient was actually repaired by the by the the owner of the building. And um you know I I was totally satisfied by all of that. There was an issue uh we had them they uh it was the

roof uh they did the work on the roof uh and uh Alan Stout is here uh and we do not uh call the landlord to fix uh the building uh on a regular basis. The other thing I want to point out is we have a lot of road and bridges and we have a lot of buildings and our buildings uh and this building this gorgeous gorgeous building it's architectural gem that we're in that we're privileged to work in uh is one of them. I can tell you this, just as we have to maintain our roads and bridges and we have to have plans in place, which we do to re to maintain our road and bridges, not just let them deteriorate to the point where we have to replace them in their entirety. It's the same thing with our buildings. And I can say that the train station is in in really beautiful uh uh condition. There's issues in this building that keep me up at night, but uh um and I work in a building uh that keeps me up at night. uh but uh contrary to the uh impression that the controller gave we will maintain our assets going forward but this particular building the train station is in in very good shape. Okay. Uh Mr. Wovich and then Mr. Hos. Yes. I was born and raised in the city of Wilks. Very proud of that. This building has gone through many changes over the years. Most of my childhood, I've known it as a building that was falling apart, a building that housed homeless and uh people in tough situations. We've come a long way. We're not buying this building in dilapidated state. We're buying this building in in

great condition. I was there when we were there cleaning out the building a few years ago before everything started getting renovated. And you know, there's other buildings in this county that have had huge historical aspects and historical stories that they went by the wayside. They fell apart. They were destroyed because people didn't take care of them. And I think the best thing we can do is take it over as the county. I mean, it's a small building. It's a huge historical significance and I think it would show that Lzern County cares about our history. We have a huge history in Lern County. Carbon County builds off of it every day. We need to follow their lead. We need to make sure we're preserving what we have. We can use it to our advantage. We need to make sure we're caring about Luzern County. Our history is a huge part of what we have and we need to build upon it. We can't let some other or somebody else buy this train station again and fall in disrepair. It's happened so many times over and over again. We are good stewards. We will take care of the building. We'll do what we have to do and we need to make sure that we're taking care of our assets and we will do that. I'm hugely in favor of this. Mr. Hos. Yeah. U Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm hugely in favor as well. Again, the devil's in the details. To summarize, I voted to along with the majority of council to rehab that building a few years ago. some of you members were on at that point. And I also voted to move this courthouse, this very bill at the top of the capital brewment list many years ago and we're in this beautiful rehabbed courthouse that we all can enjoy today. But again, if we say goodbye to the the current situation where we are we are paying rent, we cannot use we're currently using the hotel tax to fund that cost. This pot of money can be used for other things. And I get the financial, we talked this, Miss Rosselle. You know, you make very logical point and I trust the leadership. I really do. It's just that there's so many other things out there too that are very urgent. They're they're in need all over the county, not just in downtown Wilsberry. And um I it pains

me, but I think my vote for this one is a no. But I just wish we could have we could have made this work a little better finance-wise. All right. There's a motion in a second. Is there Okay, Miss Smith. I think this is such an important part of Lutheran County and I agree with uh Councilman Wovich that we have allowed other people to be stewards of it in the past and it has gone into disrepair and the last thing I would want to see is this wonderful historically significant building go into repair again. I would also note that I believe this is a reasonable price. Uh, Councilwoman McDerman, if you could speak to that at all as to whether or not this is a very reasonable price, this building being the head of the real estate committee, but I believe that it is. And I also don't think we're ever going to get a chance again to purchase this building at such a I know it's a lot, but it is a building at this kind of a price. All right. Anything any other comments? Call a question. All right. There's a motion in a second. Roll call. Miss McDermott, yes. Mr. Perry, Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Willow, yes. Mr. Hos, no. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. 10 to one. It passes. All right. Thank you. Number five. Motion to adopt the resolution approving student sponsorship agreements for classes and programs at Luzernne County Community College LCCCC employee programs. So moved. Second. All right. There's a motion and a second. Roll call. I'm sorry on the question, Mr. Chair. Yep. Go ahead. I apologize. I'm being a blabbermouth. That's okay. Um the last one. I appreciate the change in the in the um resolution here. It says at the very end, we're on page 48, everybody. Be it further resolved. Administration will create a financial policy pay scholarship program. Thank

you for that. But if in in more in line with this Lutheran County Council initiated resolution, I'll feel more comfortable if it if it said like I originally said be it further resolved. Loser and county council directs administration to create a financial policy plan which is what I said at the last work session. I don't know if um majority be want to support that. Again, it's in line with everything else. This is council driven. Just uh we do have a plan. We do have a financial plan because we have arrangements uh with uh particular Marywood uh university, University of Pit Pittsburgh uh particularly for our uh human services uh employees uh that get credits master's degrees and if they don't complete uh we we get the money back. So we do have a plan. So I have I certainly have no objection if it's in the resolution because we're doing it already and I know you do too. There's no reflection on you whatsoever. You know, I just want to be clear about that. But again, Mr. Chair, are you are you are you making that amendment? Move that. Yeah. Again, so the amendment would be to be further resolved. Lar County Council directs administration instead of will to create. I'll second it. Thank you. All right. That's in which um the very last section be further resolved. Be further. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Two additions, two word additions and one change. Directs administration to create a financial policy. Okay. We had a motion in a second. All right. There's a there's a motion and a second. Uh on is there a question, Miss Smith? On the question. Yeah. Um I mean I'm everybody knows I'm an attorney. I mince words for a living. It's a nightmare sometimes. Uh if you're old enough, you can even remember when we questioned what the word is meant. Depends on what your definition of the word is.

Is what to you, Councilman Hos, is the difference between administration will create a financial policy or the Lutheran County Council directs administ administration to create? I mean, they're both saying the administration is supposed to create a policy. So, what is your difference? between those two a very minor difference but every other whereas says Lern County Council and this is council. So you are trying to make sure that it is in line with the um practice of the other resolution. No with this with this resolution itself if you look at everywhere as is losing county council every single other yeah that's all. Okay. It's a minor detail. I don't want to blavorver the point but okay. All right. There's I support either way. All right. There's a motion in a second. Roll call. My pleasure. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you Are you sure? Okay. All right. Roll call. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavich? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous. Okay. Thank you. The amendments passed. Uh, is everyone who made the first and second okay with their first and second still with the amended uh, resolution? All right, roll call. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, emphatic. Yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, absolutely. Mr. Willow, yes. Mr. Hos, well done. LCC and county administration. Yes. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Lcavage. Yes. Miss McDerman, yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Number six, motion to adopt the resolution approving a memorandum of understanding between Luzern County Children, Youth, and

Families, and Nanakoke UAW Housing Company. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Haw? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes, Miss McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Sabatino. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number seven, motion to introduce ordinance amending the LER County zoning map to re Oh, I'm sorry. Um, manager Cromo, is this is this automatic? Oh, this is two. I will introduce introduce this ordinance uh to amend the LER County zoning map to reszone one parcel of property uh totaling.49 49 acres in Newport Township from ND non-developable district zone to R2 two family residence district zone. Thank you on the Mr. Sche do we have to introduce that as a council. Okay. Any other questions like council members? All right. Moving on. Number eight. Motion to adopt the resolution approving the initiation of litigation against the delinquent creditor. Second motion and a second. Roll call on the question. Mr. Chair, go ahead. I'm like the old honeymooners. Ralph K the blabbermouth. I'm blabbermouth tonight. Um I don't understand the litigation component. Um, I'm a big dialoguer and I wish we could dialogue instead of taking uh or at least threatening to take the redevelopment authority to court. Is there any way we can have a dialogue instead of take the step? We will we'll need to go into executive session. All right. I was I I did miss that part.

Yes, I did. There you go. Okay. Any other questions? Miss Smith, if any other of our ABCs would be sued, who would pay the legal fees? It comes from the office of law. So, the county? Yes. So, does that mean that we will be paying if we initiate this litigation, we will be paying both the legal fees for the county and for the county redevelopment authority? No, not necessarily. No. What does that mean? Well, let's go into executive session and we and I I realize that I also missed part a portion of it, but that was not discussed in executive session. It was in the previous executive session. I'll be glad we'll be glad to discuss that with you, but we're not going to discuss it in public. Okay. So, do we move to go into executive session again? Somebody would like to make that motion. We don't have to, but we may have to, but hold on just one second. So, it's possible, let's just speak in hypothetical terms for a second. So, it's possible that we may end up using taxpayer money to pay both ends, the legal fees on both ends. It's not possible at all. No, not by the nature of the litigation that we'll be filing. Okay, Mr. Chair, I move to go back into executive session. All right. There's a motion. Second. All in favor? Opposed? All right. Oh, okay. Hold on. Roll call. Roll call. Well, then I'm not I'm not finished then. If we're going to This is just This is just This is just a motion to go into executive session at

this point. A motion and a second has been made. I understand. I apologize. And I don't think we we should be discussing much about this in public anyway. So, there's a motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Since all of these questions that were just raised were discussed at length at the previous executive session, I vote no. No. Mr. Yes. Miss Kishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lisgavage? No. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? No. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? My largest problem here is that we are using taxpayer money for a lot of things. Miss, yes or no? Yes, I am answering and I am allowed to comment just like every other person makes comments before their votes. What What was the answer? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Mr. Lombardo, no. Six yes. Five no. Okay. We shall return. [Applause] I was right here. I'll bring snacks because

All right. I said We're not doing

[Music] It's freezing. It's freezing. Oh my god. All right, council members. Is there a motion to reconvene the meeting? Some move. Second. Okay, there's a motion in a second. All in favor? I opposed. All right, the meeting has been restarted. Attorney Scheme, can you please announce our second executive session? Yes, we just stepped away for a second executive session to discuss questions that uh some council members had relating to the conversation we had prior. All right, Miss Lawrence, what was the first and who was the first and second on the Mr. Lavage and Mr. Sabatino? Okay, are you still okay with your first and second? Okay, roll call. Oh, could you read the motion again? Yep. Yep. Yep. Motion to adopt the resolution approving initiation of litigation against a delinquent creditor. There's a motion and a second. Roll call.

Mr. Thornton. Yes. Mr. Willow. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith at this point. No. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. One, it passes. Thank you. Number nine, introduction of ordinance amending the 2025 fiscal year budget to utilize 56,875 from reserve fund for the strategic plan and 5-year financial plan. Manager Cromwell, I'm introducing uh the ordinance uh to the 2025 fiscal year budget to utilize $5 56,875,000 from the reserve fund for the strategic plan and five-year financial plan. That's what I noted earlier. Uh it's our contribution to the stamp uh grant that we received uh from the Commonwealth. And uh when we're finished uh we will not only have a strategic plan uh and a five-year financial plan, but we will have an asset review as well. All right. Thank you. Any questions on that? All right. Number 10. Motion to adopt an amended resolution entering into a lease with Hazwald Farms LLC for a portion of Luzern County owned agricultural farmland in Butler Township. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Wovich, yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Miss Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Loscavage, yes. Miss McDermott, yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number 11. Motion to adopt an amended resolution entering into a lease with Long Hollow Cattle Company for a portion of Luzar County owned agricultural farmland in Butler Township. Some move. Second.

Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Kishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovitz? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous. Number 12. Motion to adopt the resolution declaring a vacancy on the Luzar County Convention Center Authority due to death of a member. Second on the question. Go ahead. I would just like to thank Mr. Woods for his many many years of service on the arena board. You know, he was a valued member of his community. He was a very good friend and I appreciate everything he did there. I concur. Here. Here. All right. Motion in a second. Roll call. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Yes, Mr. Hos. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number 13. Motion to adopt resolution declaring a vacancy on the Luzern County Transportation Authority due to resignation of a member. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number 14. Motion to adopt a resolution appointing a county council member as a county commissioners association of Pennsylvania delegate. And uh please state the name of the person you would like to nominate. Open. Oh. Uh motion to open. Yeah. Motion to Okay. Motion open nomination. Second. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Nominations are open. Mr. Chair, I'd like to nominate U. Mr. Harry Hos. I'll second that. Okay. Um, there's

a nomination for Mr. Hos. Any other nominations? I'd like to nominate Britney Stevenson. Okay. There's a nomination for Miss Stevenson. I'll second all. Uh, I would say we'll do them separately since they're different resolutions. Do nomination. Okay. Motion to close. Yeah. What? you do all the nominations and then if we have five just do each individual. Okay. All right. That's fine. My motion. Okay. All right. Is there any other nominations? Nominate Jimmy. Second. Three. Three. And there's four or five. Yeah. Five. Sorry. Like to I'd like to nominate Greg Bolovich. Second. Who is it? Greg. Greg. All right. That's four. Second it. All right. I'd like to nominate Miss Kushnowski. Second. Anybody else? Any other nominations? Motion to close nominations. Motion to close nominations. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Nominations are closed. We have five nominations for five spots. So, we'll just go through the list as they've been nominated. Uh motion to adopt the resolution appointing Harry Hos uh as a county council member of the county commissioners association of Pennsylvania. Motion. Motion and second. Roll call. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Thornton. Yes. Mr. Wovitz. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous number 15. Okay. Motion to adopt the resolution approing Britney Stevenson as a county council member as county commissioners association of Pennsylvania voting

delegate. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Will? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Mr. Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lcgavage? Yes. McDermott. Yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number 16. Motion to adopt the resolution appointing Jimmy Sabatino, a county council member, as a CCAP uh voting delegate. First, okay. Motion second by Miss Krisnowski. Roll call. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovic? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Kushnowski? Yes, Mr. Luscavage. Yes, Mr. McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number 17. Motion to adopt the resolution approving Greg Wovich as a county council member of CCAP. So moved. Second. Motion in the second. Roll call. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovage? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. M. McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number 18. Motion to adopt the resolution appointing Patty Krishnowski as a county council member of CCAP supporting delegate. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Thornton. Yes. Mr. Wovich. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Kushnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascgavage? Yes. M. McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Savatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous. All right. Thank you. We'll now have public comment. I have several slips. I have Brenda Rizzoid.

I think it's on. Oh, maybe may not need this. I've had children. I'll just talk. I've had kids before and we have farm animals, so I'm used to yelling at everybody. I understand we need artificial intelligence. We need data processing centers. We need to keep up with the other the other countries of the world, but unfortunately we live in a fortunately we live in a beautiful area, the Sugarloaf Valley. I don't know if you're familiar with it, Black Creek Township, Sugarloaf Valley. It's like Eden. Anybody that comes to visit is taking pictures, taking videos. It's so pretty. PPNL is proposing two 500 kilowatt lines to go through our valley. I don't know if you know how big they are, 240 foot high with lights on top for the airplanes. They're taking five acres of my farm. They're taking three homes over in the Sugarloaf line, homes of people that are elderly and are taking care of an elderly brother who is mentally challenged. They have to find a new home, them and their animals. PPNL has options. If it's a data center, you can put it up in Humble. You can put the power plant there. You can put a power plant in Frackville where mine is supposedly supposed to go. I asked where it's going and they won't tell me. But this is where they're taking my property. If you look on the bottom and you use the magnifying glass, you will see a map of where it's going. That's it. That's the only information I have. our property values will be cut in half. We're going to see if we look over the sunset these they're like rusty and they're huge with the blinking lights for the rest of our lives. They can build the power plants like I said in Frackville. They can build them in Humboldt where they already have the

manufacturing plants. Why not build them there? Because PPNL only makes money on transferring the energy, not on giving the energy to the different manufacturing, right? The distribution. So they do they want to put they want to take all these people out of their homes. They want to take our farm fields um whatever they can. They don't care because all they want is the money. We have asked questions. I have gone to the u the man that's in charge of the rightway, Nick Swigert. I have sent him I don't know how many emails, phone calls. Where is it going? Is it going to manufacturing plants? One plant, a couple plants. They won't tell me, but I've had 11 phone calls from the guy from Texas, Robert Bell, that is in charge of PPL going around and getting the rightways. He wants me to sign off. 11 phone calls three times to the house and I've had the surveyors there already which I this little lady sent them off the property. Okay. Please come down and take a look at the Sugarloaf Valley. Thank you. See what it's like. Thank you. Next up we have Annie Venitary. Hi. Good evening. Nice to be back. Thanks for all your work in the tedious fine points of county work. Um, so I have a couple questions tonight. Um, I'd like to circle back to what Councilman Hos had brought um a connection to, uh, regarding this transmission line that will be extending 12 miles from the Burwick Talon Power Plant next to the Amazon Web Services data center there and then through the valley on up into uh, the Sugarloaf Valley, not the Wyoming Valley. Um, on up to um, Humbult Industrial Park. So, I have a couple

questions regarding Lerta. Um I think maybe some of these I I saw them on the other part of the agenda. Um or I think part of the manager's agenda. Um but uh we have a lot of concerns. Uh my first question to council would be uh why did you grant something that would give away um a lot of tax revenue for the county? This is not standard operating procedure in almost any other state in the union when it comes to um granting or well when it comes to data center proliferation. Can anyone answer that? Uh the only thing I'll say is we did not give away any taxpayer money. that the person who is purchasing the land and creating whatever facility in every Lura that we grant is always paying the same property taxes on the land that they would begin pay that they'd be paying if the land wasn't developed which is the main reason for the Lerta law is to develop to develop land that is not developable because of mine scarring and other things like that. Okay. So maybe I should rephrase I I understand what you're saying. um projected tax revenue. That's tremendous projected tax revenue that would be denied with the granting of LIA deferred but sure. Well, it's not deferred because they can they can just the the place could be vacant after 10 years. Is that correct? There's no guarantee or bond on them staying there. Is that right? In some cases, that's correct. Yeah. Okay. Um why um why has there not been a requirement for local contractors to work there? do believe I don't know if it was I believe it was Miss Stevenson had possibly talked about um local workers there oh I'm sorry Miss Smith um thank you and what was what was the reasoning for that do you have any uh go ahead Mr. I just so you know, you only have like 30 seconds left to speak, so I

don't know if you want to. We do. You would you yield time since you uh we can't really like do that, but we can talk after the meeting. Sure. I'll explain that to you. We can also talk after the meeting. Sure. I'm happy to talk to to anyone. Um yeah, so since I only have 30 seconds left, I would just say um this is part of the larger governor's agenda for for the state. It's called Project Hazelnut. If you're not familiar with it, I encourage you to look it up on the PA um pa.gov site. I think you'll find it very informative. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Mr. Sabatino, did you want to respond to the uh the local worker? Sure. Miss Smith, rightfully so, uh proposed that. Uh we at the infrastructure committee meeting a couple weeks ago worked out some language that is needs to be submitted through office of law to make sure it's legal and we will be proposing that in our next work session as a resolution. I know you we had mentioned before like maybe talk to be able to talk with your infrastructure committee. It was infrastructure committee and that's a meeting in June. In June. Okay. And you'll be in touch with me about that. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Uh, next up we have Mr. Rabel. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, as far as with the redevelopment authority goes, I hope the council and the county manager and the administration understands that the county redevelopment authority over the years and this before I came on it was a mess obviously, but um, we inherited a mess and we made something of it and we actually found we actually got the money that

uh in most cases was owed to the county. I spearheaded some of them and uh the county got its money and I understand the county still wants the project the money from the projects from the past and I don't blame the county manager for wanting that money. But I just want to caution the council and the manager and the administration, please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater because if you do that, you talk about infrastructure, the infrastructure of the county, not only presently but going into the future, will suffer the consequences. It's not a threat, Mr. Chair. It's a fact because under state law, if you look at the preamble of the redevelopment law, it says that the county's redevelopment authorities are tasked with improving preserving the quality of life in the municipalities that they serve. So, Mr. Chair, if you and the members of council and the county manager want to gut out the redevelopment authority and leave it for dead on the vine, dying on the vine, that's something you guys have to live with on your collective consciousness. I'm just hoping that this is not going to be something that you live to regret. Please consider that. And as far as what goes on with the Sugarloaf Township, uh I think those high power lines should be uh placed underneath the ground, deep underneath the ground, just as they do in the Great Lakes in the in the Midwest. I think that should be an area of consideration. I know this because I got certified out in the Midwest in Wisconsin and they've done a

bangup job. They've they don't have any high-powered lines over their heads. So I think uh as far as what manager Crocomo said about moving forward, I think that's something that PPNL should consider instead of seizing people's land and also uh putting high powered lines which does correlate. Mr. Chair, I don't know if you know this, but uh if you look at I think it was back in the uh late 80s early 90s New England Journal of Medicine which surgeons and doctor most prominent doctors use causes brain cancer. Thank you Mr. I think that should be uh considered. Mr. Chair, thank you Mr. Can I comment on that? Mr. Thornton, just real quick, uh no one here on this council is looking to gut the redevelopment authority. I haven't talked to anybody here in council that has even entertained that. Uh I believe the redevelopment authority received roughly $3 million a year from LSA money and they also sitting on 55 million. We're not looking to gut the RDA. Thank you. All right. Um, anybody else in the audience? Mr. Stout. Thank you, Mr. Lombardo. I was going to get up uh for the public comment at the start of the meeting, but considering I work at Visit Lutheran County, I wasn't sure if that would be appropriate. And if the vote went the other way, I probably just would have left by now. So, um, I want to, uh, I just wanted to take a minute to, um, to really to thank, um, to thank Luzon County Management, Remilda, and Mary, Harry, and everybody on on the management side that that took a look at purchasing the train station. And I really wanted to thank council tonight for approving that sale. I worked at um the bureau before we moved over on public square and there is no different

there there's no comparison to the difference that we see uh with people when they come into our office. Our old office was rather pedestrian. It kind of looked like you were going to see the dentist. Our new office is built in 1868. It's the historic Central Railroad of New Jersey. We did not have room in our old office to properly show the pride of Luzern County. Today, if you walk into our office, you will see a big seven foot replica of a waterfall at Ricketts Glenn. You will see framed photographs, posterized photographs of the FM Kirby Center, the Casino, Ekley Miners Village, Rock in the River, the Wyoming Monument, um all these things that we're so proud of here and that we celebrate here in Luzern County and that we market in Lzern County as a place to visit and to come to live. the the folks that had some opposition tonight, you know, um we understand those questions and we respect those questions that had to be asked and you know that that's something that that we expected tonight. Um but I just want to again thank you. If you ever wondered why, and I didn't realize this till I was much older because it was all before my time. Why is there a bridge over the middle of Wilsberry when there's no water? The South Street Bridge. What? What? What? Why? and never even bothered to question why it was there until a couple of years ago. It's because everything basically from what is now um what you would call Wuksar Boulevard over to Pennsylvania Boulevard was rail yards. The Lehi, a beautiful train station on the corner of what is now the Janettes parking lot gone. The Laurel line where the Times leader building now is gone. The Central Railroad New Jersey building is the last standing railroad in the city that serves as a testament to the great railroad history of the city. And it could there could not be a better place for a visitors bureau. Um I tell people

all the time on our staff, we are in the business of promoting attractions. What better place for us to work than in an attraction? People come just to see us. They come into our building. We have people outside taking pictures, not only the 104 year old railroad history of the building, but as a lot of us in this room probably know, the 25 year history of the nightclub and restaurant. We have people that come into our office and they literally say, "I met my wife right there. I met my husband right there." And so, you know, for us to sort of be the keepers of the flame now and know that that building is going to be properly reserved and it's going to be the home of the visitors bureau for generations to come, long after we're all gone, is something I wanted to be here tonight to thank you for very much. Thank you, Mr. Stout. Anybody else in the audience? Public comment. Can I make public comment now? Yes, you can. Mr. Cavalowski. Okay, this is your live action reporter and loan county taxpayer. Even though I'm behind on my taxes, I am catching up. But I think this gentleman here said something about the redevelopment authority said how they're here to help improve and make things better. Well, the situation that I brought to your attention, Mrs. Croakamo gave me her number. I'm going to talk to her and also I'd like to talk to the district attorney to find out for five years this project out there in Ashley, this this property has been held up. Five years. And the thing that really stinks is a lady gets off the board and all of a sudden she ends up wanting to buy this property for five years. I don't know if it's criminal. I don't know if it's ethical. I don't know if it's right. But out right now, from what he just said, it hasn't been fair

to the taxpayers of lo county that this lady has been lolly gagging around with this property out there when another person wants to buy it, pay more money for it, and yet here we are. It's still going on and on and on. He said it, the redevelopment is supposed to make it better. But you have a person the the citizens in Car's Patch in Ashley don't want another million square foot warehouse in their area. Some of those people who have lived there generation after generation and all of a sudden they're going to put this warehouse in. And there's something going on with this rail line where this is very important for her to get this rail line from what I'm told. I'm going to talk to Mrs. Promo and I want to sit down with the district attorney to take a look at this. Something's wrong. Why would you hold this up for 5 years? It's ridiculous. And maybe they have the perfect excuse. Uh Mr. Lindy said I could come to the next redevelopment authority meeting and I will. And if Mr. Halliday uh he couldn't make it tonight or he would be here talking too. He made his piece at a public meeting when Mrs. Kite, I guess her her name is, or Carol Kite, made her her speech to the people, and the people soundly told her, "We don't want a warehouse in our town of Ashley." And I'm just I don't know what you could do to help me. I don't know what you could do to the to the redevelopment authority. Is there a way to get rid of the redevelopment authority, Mr. Sche? Is that your name? Or do something about this? Because it's just for five years they've held this. This thing has been held up. Mr. Mr. Sche is right there. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were Mr. That's Mr. Sabatino. His name tag is there. I'm sorry. Why are you insulting Jim Sabatino? I'm sorry, Jim. I'm sorry, but uh I think we got to take

a look at this and something has to be done. It's ter It's time to keep Ashley the way Ashley wants to be. And they don't want another million square foot warehouse being put up by some millionaire who's going to make all kind of money on her what they're going to do. But Mrs. Croakcomo said I can meet with her and I'd like to meet with the district attorney and to look into this. Is it a criminal thing? Is it an ethical thing? I know. And another just quick real quick. No, no, you're okay. But it's really unfair that people only get three minutes to talk to here. That's how you lose your freedoms in in the United States. One little piece at a time. And I know you got you got other people want to talk, but three minutes is an insult to the taxpayers of this county. You can only talk for three minutes. You got another three minutes later. That's nine. Yeah. I understand, but not all at once. No. Nine minutes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Cavalos. I wish I was still towing. I'd like to tow you in, spend some time with you. Okay. Anybody else in the audience? I think there was for public comment. Anybody? All right. We have one hand up on the Zoom. It's a phone number. Please uh state your name and your municipality once you've been unmuted. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hey, this is Brian Kenny Jr. calling from Ross Township. What's your last name, sir? Kenny. K I N E Y. Thank you, Junior. Okay, we we can hear you. Go ahead. Cool. Yeah, I was just calling about the um it's known as the bike lane out here. Um, I think the formal name is the Broadway Road CR65 Safety and Connectivity Project. I could be wrong. And I just like to voice an opinion. Um, it seems like a lot of the locals out here, I got blindsided by it.

My wife and I have only been here for 2 years. We've been in the area, you know, me for, you know, 36 years. And this bike lane, this proposed bike lane is going to go over about a a onem stretch of road that encompasses something known as Ledge Hill. And out here, if you've been, you know, in this general area for any length of time, Ledgeill is known as a dangerous spot. It's where if you're a kid, your parents say, "Don't go. Don't take Leedill till you're ready to drive on it. Be safe. Don't ride your bikes on it." Literally um this is a place that's it's very dangerous. It has literal cliff face on one side and a drop off on the other. A lot of storm water issues here flowing off as you would imagine off of a rock face. And this bike lane uh appears to to to begin at this place known as Ledge Hill. Now this is imagine uh propane trucks, heavy equipment, people pulling, you know, stuff. There's tractors, old vintage tractors like Ford 8N's carrying hay going down this. And on a good day, they're having to split lanes to make the turns. And the turns are three blind turns in quick succession. So imagine like a racetrack that has an S. It's blind turn, then blind turn, then blind hill turn all baked into one section. and we're going to put a bike lane through that. That is the most highly suspect approach I think I've heard. And uh I just I'm I'm afraid of what would happen inevitably on that stretch of road. Nobody's looking for bikes. I don't see bikes. I'm here every day. Uh it's wild. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Manager Cromo, did you want to maybe

explain that a little bit and and why the bike lanes are being placed on that road? But I know we've had questions about it before. Correct. Uh first of all, uh it was a multimodal grant uh which we actually received uh the entirety of the grant uh which is very unusual. Uh and uh we we do put uh on our work sessions and on our voting sessions approval for uh from council. Uh there's public discussion. It's public when we apply for these grants. It was publicized. number one. So, um if people follow uh county council business and I uh really encourage people to do that, they would see uh that that information is public. Number one. Number two, bikes can use that road right now. People walk on that road right now. And uh we're doing this project with PennDOT and Nick will uh give you more details, but uh we had the engineer from PennDOT. We met with uh Ross Township. We were there uh for a kind of impromptu town hall meeting on this very issue. Uh there were people who were vocally against it, but there were also people who uh are thanking us for putting in a bike lane because the bike lane makes drivers aware that there could be bikes and there could be pedestrians walking on that road. Uh so uh this has all been vetted. It's been done by engineers engineers from PendOt uh and it actually will increase the safety uh on that road. Nick Yeah, to totally agree. Uh the gentleman is right. That stretch of roadway is very dangerous um given that it's so tight, but with the bike bike

lanes going in, you're going to get an extra five to six feet um to get by there and there's a lot of trucks going past there. Um this is a big safety improvement for this road. It's very tight, windy. Um and again, there's not going to be uh tour to France here. If people wanted to use the bike lanes, it's there. If you don't want to use them, there's more room for safety on the roadway. All right. Thank you, Mr. V. We put similar uh bike lanes uh on our county roads, uh West County, the West County Road. Uh and that has uh really uh improved that roadway. So, uh, the bike lanes are actually improving the roadway and that road needs to be fixed and we got a multimotal grant and I'm not inclined to send any money back to Harrisburg because we will lose that money. We cannot repurpose that money. I actually just have one thing to ask a clarification question. Is is the bike lane a a provision of the multimodal grant that we need that we need the bike lanes in them? Okay. All right. That's Yes, I know I've heard that before, but we don't put the bike lane in. The money goes back to Harrisburg. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Um, we have one more public comment. Uh, Mr. Walsh, how you do? How you doing, Mr. Chairman? Good, Mr. Walsh. I just just wanted to call in. Um I'm getting a lot of phone calls uh this week regarding Main Road Sweet Valley and uh I wasn't going to say anything tonight, but I saw Nick was there. Um Nick, uh do you know when Main Road Sweet Valley when that p if we can number one, we need some patching and done out here? It's it's really bad and I know the countyy's behind because of the miserable weather we've had the last few weeks. Um, but the potholes out here on Main Road are terrible. So, I told

people I would check into when we could get some some uh maintenance done out here and then second when the uh main road Sweet Valley project is going to to start out here. The second reason I'm calling in, um, council, you've had a few people, uh, speak tonight regarding the Sugarloaf Township area, um, the Cunningham Valley area. We need all hands on deck. We've got pretty much all elected officials from the state level. We've got federal uh, elected officials involved. And um our urgency right now with council is due to the fact that once this project is submitted to the PUC in its current form, it's going to be a lot more difficult and that's coming up real soon. Um and I would I would hope that maybe anyone that lives near the Cunningham Valley could uh come out and and see the project and where it's going and really fully understand it. because there is an alternate route that PPL can take that would be very less disruptive to the community, disruptive to the individual property owners, and it's it's a viable solution. It's a win-win solution, and there's nothing wrong with economic development, but when when you're going to destroy 50 properties over a 12 mile stretch, um it's it's very invasive. And uh I've been involved with this since the beginning of March. And I would love for anyone from council that would like to come out and um take a little tour. We could schedule it on a Saturday morning or in the evening since it's late later. And uh let's get it on the schedule here as soon as possible, please, because we need all hands on deck to ask PPL to to

take the alternate route. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Uh Mr. Sabatino, and then Mr. Vulg if you want to respond to his first question. Uh Representative Walsh, this is uh Jimmy Savatino, uh one of your constituents. I would love to take you up on your offer to tour this this area. Uh I would also like to ask you to have somebody from the PUC come and meet with uh the folks from Sugarloaf in person. Uh and anything that you would need from me to help facilitate that, I'd be glad to help you out with that. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Vogue. if you want to respond to his first question. Yep. Uh we've been getting a lot of complaints. We're taking them down, going down the list as they're coming in. Main road is on the list, Mr. Walsh. Uh probably later this week or early next we'll be getting to that. We're just finishing up Lower Deuns. So we're going to go from Lower Deuns down to Main Road in Sweet Valley, back up to Back Mountain, and then back over to the Crestwood. So, uh getting a lot of complaints. We're trying to we're getting to them. All I ask is for a little bit of patience. um we will get to them. And then Main Road, uh that project's ready to go. We're just waiting on the HUD requirements package. We just uh finished our environmental clearance through HUD. And then once that's complete, we'll be bidding that out hopefully this summer. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Vog. All right. Uh go ahead, Miss Smith. Thank you. Uh, Representative Walsh, this is uh Councilwoman Smith speaking and I echo Councilman Sabatino's words. I feel like we gave them an opportunity in good faith and they're acting in not so good faith. So I also if you need anything, please contact me. I'd be happy to help. Okay. All right. Any other public comment? Motion second. Oh, could we motion to

adjurnn in memory of Tom Woods? Absolutely. A lot of older residents remember him on WM radio um before my time. I remember WM, but I don't remember Tommy being on the um on there personally. But if you knew if you knew Tom Woods, he was just such an incredibly decent man. He was such a a great um member of the community and husband and father, too. So, hats off to Tom Woods. Uh we need more like him. All right. All in favor? I All right. Meetings adjourned. We will return at 8 o'clock 7:52. We don't have a summer anymore. Where you going? Where you going? back over there. I haven't since I left home this afternoon. You better go. Yeah.

Nice to see you guys. But we have had lots of office from users. We've got Senator Oh, Senator that's Nate is his representative. Who do you have? James uh Jamie Wolf, uh Dane Wo, um we've had uh two representatives from North Point Development at my house. We kind of start at my house. We give them a tour then of all types of problems. Uh so I tell you Senator Culver came out too. Linda came out. So we all met individually and so now we're hoping that they form kind of a union to kind of pressure. We're asking them to take, and I won't bore you with all this tonight, but we're asking them to take an alternate line, an alternate,

and it makes perfect sense. We proved it to them. What in the world can we do about them? I mean, this is creating an electrical. So, Sugarloaf Valley has one. That's pretty bad. That's ruthless. 30 kilow parallel that 500 kines which they do all countries and plus they have an alternative and they're just you know I mean I don't know much about well I don't know that's what they're saying it's better than this it's probably So that's that's kind of the is it building is it building by the the plant they're putting up like Jimmy I don't know Greg what's the alternative people you know Make it happen. I

can one of in my entire class. But you could read it, right? I can read it once in a very very very I can read it. Yeah. So, uh I'll talk I'll talk to you and I don't know if you could talk to some of the others. Maybe if they want to come up, they're welcome to come up. actually rather absolutely feel it. Council members, at 7:59, please take your seats so we can get started here. work. Right. top guys who were

here. Now the people of Sugar, we need your help. We're not asking to stop. We're just asking to relocate. Thank you very much. All

right, everybody, please take your seats so we can uh get the work session started. All right, everybody. I'd like to call the uh work session to order. We've had the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence. Mr. Hos, here. Miss Krishnowski, here. Mr. Luscavage, here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Miss Stevenson. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Wovich here. Mr. Lombardo here. Right now you have 10 of 11, but Miss Stevenson is here. She's she's out there. Yeah. All right. Any additions or deletions from the work session agenda? If I could, Mr. Chair. Yes. One change in one addition. If I may, could we move the number 10 and put that before number seven? I think it's germaine to the what number seven is. It's the alert requests from coming out of the um infrastructure committee. Okay. And then if we could also add number 11 CCAP registrations for the summer conference which everybody's been receiving emails. That's that'll take literally a minute. And that's all I have. All right. Cap registrations for summer conference. Yeah. Uh Harry made the motion for those

two changes. I'll second. All in favor? I opposed. Changes are made. Is there uh you guys still look uh number 10 is moved to number spot number uh it would be seven. Um and then everything is No, that's not combined because they're two different discussions. And then everything else is moved down. And then adding number 11, CCAP registration for summer conference. Is everybody okay with their first and second on the All right. All in favor? I opposed. Agenda is adopted. All right. First, we have uh budget reports. Hi, good evening. Um I'm presenting the budget uh reports for the month of April which are included in your packet. Your first report is the revenue report. Our revenue earned is at 42% of the budget or 70,379,770. Our current year tax collections at the end of April are at 59.9 million which represents 49% of the current year tax revenue budget. Our expenses are at 36,135022 or 23% of the budget. Next is your listing of the budget transfers followed by the accounts payable detail report. The last report is the treasurer's report showing a cash balance of 167,628790 at the end of April. The cash balance at the end of March was 125768558. Our interest earned for the month is 342,534. Of that ARPA accounts for 184,438. Our year-to- date interest through April is

1,458450. The ARPA cash balance sits at 41,97787. The ARPA interest earned year-to- date is 782,745 and the ARPA interest earned in total since inception is at $ 8.5 million. Um, one additional item that I want to mention, um, was the government study commission. Since there were several emails circulating over the last week or so, the budget requests that were submitted by the treasurer of the government study commission were $75,000 for 2024 and then $185,000 for 2025. So, these amounts were added in total to the respective county budgets. for 2025. The original, as I said, was $185,000. Um, in that amount, there was a miscellaneous line item of 39,600 included, which was described by the treasurer as being requested for overages for the solicitor and consultant and other unforeseen expenses, which was basically a cushion that was included um in the budget at that to at that time. Over the past few weeks, there were emails circulated that there was a potential increase that was going to be requested. The government study chair, Mr. Ritzik, and I reviewed the budget and year-to- date spending, and at this point do not believe any budget increase is needed. The year-to- date spending is at 68,16245 of the total $185,000 budget. So, that leaves a remaining budget balance of 116,83755. So there may need to be a budget transfer at some point that will move money between line items within the budget, but um if Mr. Ritz Mr. Ritzik um based on what he's projecting for the rest of the year, we neither one of us believe that there is a budget amendment that's going to be needed. So does anyone have any questions about that or any of the monthly reports? Any questions from council members?

Mr. Hos, I just want to comment just thanks RA for bringing our attention to that. I really appreciate that. got that email too and Miselle for dialoguing with chairman Ritzik Britzik. Um I I will say and I I really appreciate you putting the budget transfers. I know we asked that last year and I I looked that over. It's a great quick way to to see where we're going. I'm noticing everybody page 66 addition costs. Looks like we're we're way ahead and we're only halfway through the year. So it's a question for the DA and um but he's not here tonight. So just some something to be concerned about. Just the budget transfer sheet, page 66. That's all. Yeah. I'm sure if anyone has any questions about the budget transfers, you could also email the respect me or the respective departments and we'd be happy to answer those questions for you. Absolutely. Yep. Thank you. I I want to thank uh Mary Rosel for working with the government study commission uh to figure out their budgeting. I also want to state unequivocally that I do not allow staff members to cushion the budget. Thank you, manager Crocomo. Any other questions for M. Rosal on that topic? Okay. Next, we have the budget and finance 2025 first quarter report. Okay. Okay. It is going to move through the slides as we go through the presentation. Okay. Thank you. In accordance with section 8.04 of the Lzern County Code, I'm presenting the 2024 Luzern County first quarter budget and finance report. Next slide.

Next. Okay, this slide is the budget by account classification report. This slide shows the major revenue and expense components. As of March 31st, the general fund revenues are at 13% and expenses are at 18%. Total revenue is at 22,23,571. The largest revenue component is the tax revenue of $16.2 $.2 million followed by the transfers of 3 million and the fees of 1.5. The tax revenue is $8 million lower than at the end of March in 2024 which is due to timing. In the month of April, collections were $46.3 million in tax revenues. So for a total of 59.9 million, which is 49% of the budget. So we already have half of our our budgeted revenues collected. Transfers and reimbursements are reimbursements to the general fund for expenses relating to other funding sources. So for example, health care, insurance, retirement bills build to human service agencies 911 and other non-general fund um sources. Total expenditures are 27,655734. The largest component being personnel costs followed by non-personnel costs such as prisoner health care, other contractual services which are mainly in operations and insurance expense. Transfers out are for county match requirements for the human service agencies as well as our LCC quarterly um aortionment and LCTA. Next, this slide compares revenue totals from 2024 and 2025. At this point, last year revenue was 28,984174 and again 2024 revenue to date is approximately 5 million below last year due to timing of the real estate tax collections. Next, this slide is a graph that shows the revenue components other than taxes. I discussed several of these um items already, but we'll expand on a few others. So, we talked about the

transfers already um which is the last the last the last three lines on that graph like the the highest revenue portion there. grants are a little bit lower than 24 due to some grant opportunities that we realized in 24 for a scap grant um at the prison which we do not have in 2025. Rent revenue decreased slightly in 25 due to the loss of representative cartrights office space at pen place and and there's some timing issues there too. Fines and fees from judicial services increased overall and interest is lower due to lower cash balances because we did not take a TR this year. So we saved money on the interest expense side but we also lost on the interest revenue side but overall we saved money. Next. Okay. Next. This slide highlights a few more points regarding our revenue numbers. So tax revenue for 2025 is budgeted at 131,413. So, it's approximately $2 million lower than what we budgeted for 2024. That's mainly driven by the large decline in tax revenue from the Wyoming Valley Mall and a few other, you know, large properties. We lost 56.1 million in the assessed value just from the mall alone. From a collection standpoint, collections do fluctuate. So, this year we had a really big April. Last year, we had a bigger March. So, again, we're still at 50%, almost at 50% at this point. Our 2025 taxes were mailed out on February 19th. So we print approximately 34,000 34,000 tax bills. Our discount ended on 418. Um no inerson payments were actually accepted in the treasurer's office through that Monday at 418 because or I'm sorry 4 yeah 421 because 418 was actually a holiday. In addition to the taxes being collected by tax collector collect I'm sorry tax collectors and in person by the treasurer's office. We also do online

payments and so the online payments this year so far totaled 1,348641 which is slightly higher than last year. We also collect taxes now in our Hazelton office. So for the first quarter we collected 969 tax bills totaling 537,397. Um a tran or a tax revenue anticipation note as I said was not needed in 2025. So that saved the county approximately $300,000 in interest. Next. Okay. This slide compares our expense totals from 2024 and 2025. As of 331, our expenses were at 27,655794. At this point last year, expenses total 24,598192. This is higher than last year at this time due to um some personnel costs. There's some timing with uniform allowances for the prison. Um transfers out al um actually also increased by 2.3 million due to just timing of payments like the LCC payment. It was paid in um April last year. We paid it in March this year. So there's just just some timing differences there. Next um the American Rescue Plan funds the or the ARPA funds. The county received 112,890,152. During the first quarter of this year, $5.7 million were spent and in the first quarter of last year was 6.9 million. Since inception, we have earned $8.5 million in ARB interest and 598,307 was earned in the first quarter of 2025. Um, we also are tracking our opioid settlement funds. So our settlement payments received so far as of March 31st total 11 million74799613. Our total funds that we have obligated as of 331 are

3,2432774 and our actual dispersements so far are 1,204945. We've to date, as of March 31st, have earned interest um in the o on the opioid settlement funds of 364,82398. To summarize, we're we're in a good place financially. We're on track with respect to our 2025 budget and monitoring the expenses, you know, each and every day. Um does anyone have any questions about the presentation or any other financial questions? Um, quick question about the opioid settlement fund interest. Sure. Is that like the ARPA where it has to be spent by a certain time or can it be spent on anything? Does it have to be spent on like opioid specific? It does not. It can be spent on anything and we do not have a date that it has to be spent by. Perfect. Thank you. Just reminding you it's it's a settlement. It's not a grant. So that there's not that deadline like the ARPA grant. Any other questions for council members? I have a quick question. Uh Mr. Thornton, then Mr. Lavish, you have something. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. Regarding the ARP of fund interest, I I know here it's 598,307 uh earned of interest in the first quarter of this year. Uh earlier you said it was 700 and some,000 to date, year to date, right? Because those reports were as of the first set of reports I talked to you about were as of April. Correct. This this is as of March because it's for the first quarter. So, and I see the total interest from the very beginning, 8.5 million. With this new interest added to whatever existing interest we had left prior to 2025, how much interest is there now sitting there that we can still expend or that we have not allocated to anything? Is that what you're saying? Right. That's not earmarked. About a million dollars. Okay. Thanks.

Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Roselle. Okay. Next up, discussion regarding resolution enacting a veteran real estate tax exemption for non-wartime veterans and surviving spouses. I know some council members had more questions about this. Um, so we decided to put it back on the work session agenda. is I don't Mr. Mr. Clocker is not here. He's not here. But uh Mary, you sent the uh the the tally. We got the the number of uh prospective veterans. That might be Do we send that out? Okay. You want to Sorry to call you back up here. She wants to get her steps in. going to be sick of hearing from Did I not turn? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So, we asked Mr. Clocker to give us a list of those people that would be affected and we actually looked up the taxes, the county taxes on those individuals as of, you know, that day. Now, this ch it's a a changing number, right? It changes every day because what he said is that he couldn't guarantee how many people were actually eligible just how many people had called him and you know he he knew about you know that would be eligible. So the total of the county taxes at face value assuming they pay face value is 14,660 and 13 and the number of

people are like 19 people. So I can send you the actual list. I mean, it does have everyone's name and address and the personal number and all of that on it if anyone's interested interested in seeing that, but we just asked him for that so we could quantify it a little more. I I personally think just the number and the actual the actual budget number is what's most important. Okay. Um, so what was it? 14,000 14, 66013. Okay. All right. Again, as of like last week, I mean, that number is probably different today if someone called and asked about the program. I mean, it all depends, right? Go ahead, Miss Smith. Of course, it changes every day, but it's not We're not talking huge changes, right? I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't think so, but I I don't know. I'm not, you know, that's really I I did ask that question when uh Mr. Clocker gave me the information, but he said the same thing, too. He has no control over how many people call about the program. So, Sure. I didn't get, you know, any more information than that. And I mean, okay. out of I think we have what 336,000 people in Larern County 19 is not a large number and um what percentage of the budget is 14,6 oh it's it's it's like I look at you and I see that like I mean it's 0 my point yeah it's in the book okay thank you very much Mr. Mr. Yeah, this probably more appropriate maybe for M Mr. Clocker. He's not here. Uh but if anybody knows the answer to this question or these questions, uh I sent them out in an email last week. Um first of all, let me state unequivocally I'm 100% in favor of waving the taxes for 100% disabled veterans. I'm in favor of that. It's great program. I have no concern whatsoever on the front end. My concerns

all revolve around the back end, meaning 10, 15, 20 years from now, 30 years from now. You know, we're including uh spouses, married spouses, uh which is great. The veteran passes away. Let's say it was a male. Uh the wife continues to receive the benefit. Um that's great. She gets remarried. She um passes away. the children, adult children or adult child lives in the house chooses never to notify our offices here. It just stays on as tax waiver for indefinitely. I I don't and and that's one example. Another example is uh the veteran remaries, has an ex-wife. Uh maybe the house deed was in both their names and it could get like kind of sticky. I'm just looking at years down the road not initially giving the tax waiver. I'm in favor of that. Uh I'm not sure if the federal agencies from Washington or the state agencies out of Harrisburg automatically no notify someone in this county or some agency of all these occurrences when these deaths occur and and other people are taking over the property. I I'm just worried about what happens 10 20 years from now with those those things and how how is that communicated to the departments across our county offices. That's that's my concern. I don't maybe he was given an updated list. So where does he get that? Yeah. So where does he get that list from? He said it goes from us to the state to the feds back to the state back like okay

it's double checked in all three places. Okay. So that that'll never happen in any kind of any kind of fraud or anything like that. Okay. All right. I mean there's always people I guess who figure out loopholes but he was very he to me he was very clear that there are multiple checks multiple times. I can tag on to what you were asking about Brian and maybe if I could Mr. Chair is all right. So, I'm looking to hear several actually five Pennsylvania counties extend the veterans exemption beyond the state program. I'm sure Mr. Clocker knows that, but if if if he listens to the recording, Potter County, he's on Mr. Clocker. Yeah. Um Potter County, Pike County, Montgomery, Bucks, and Lebanon. So, it's that's a very diverse group. So, you've got Montgomery and and Bucks or Philadelphia, extremely high populated counties. Potter is one of the least populated counties in the northern tier. Pike is the biggest growing county in the east. We know where that's one of our neighbors there in Lebanon County. Kind of rural and I think uh a lot of a place where a lot of veterans probably call home right there. You've got the Ford Indian Town Gap facility down there too. So um I think it's something we should do. Other people are doing it and um we're one of the trailblazers. So hats off to us for considering it. Agreed. Takabana County also. Sorry. But yeah, they they also Well, you know, I'm biased. I'm pro county. So, good job. Any other uh any other questions regarding this when they pay for their Okay. Thank you. All right. Next up, uh, number four, discussion regarding resolution requesting a multimotal transport transportation fund grant from Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority.

So, we're putting in a multimodal grant transportation from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority for Orange Road in Franklin Township. Uh, 2.3 miles, which is the duration and length of Orange Road. It's the full length. Um, we'll be doing full depth rec reclamation, uh, drainage work, and, uh, putting in the bike lanes. Um, we're asking for $2.7 million with the county match being $300,000 from our liquid fuels account. Any questions? Excellent. And again, the bike lane is same thing as the uh, as the previous road we discussed. That's a that's mandated with the multimotal grant. Got it. Okay. Any questions for council members regarding that? All right. Thank you very much. Number five, discussion regarding ordinance authorizing Secretary of Transportation to acquire rights of ways necessary for the Water Street Bridge project. Oh, hello again. Um, we're just getting to the right of way section of the project for the Water Street Bridge in Pittsen. And in order for us to do that, we have to approve this ordinance giving Pendot the right of the rights to our rightway of that bridge. Any questions? Miss Smith, what longterm? Um, what long-term can't think of the word. I'm sorry. I'm tired. Yes. Thank you very much, Greg. Ramifications. Perfect. I don't know why that was hard. What's the long-term ramifications? Uh, would be seen from giving them the right away that uh once the project's over, it comes back. They revert. And just so that you're aware, we we turned over the bridge because of the bundle project. We turned over the bridge to Pendot. So this is Can we not take it back? Oh, I mean, you have to talk to them. Believe me, I I try to convince them uh about that. So, for all intents and purposes, it's their bridge at this

moment in time. Okay. Yeah, that's good to know. And and we did that because they're paying for almost the whole project. Yes. Do we still pay for the lights on the bridge? Yes. The power I I mean the the the physical street lights that are on that night. The street lights. Yes. Okay. But well when we re re when the the bridge is finished, it will be actually a very beautiful bridge and uh we will take care of it. Fantastic. As long as we have a good maintenance plan, we will. All right. Any other questions? Um, Miss Smith, I I'm not sure if you have any idea about this, Nick, but at the presentation a little while ago, probably last last spring, maybe even, the people who were running the bridge gave a presentation and they indicated that the reason that this is taking so long is because of permits. Do you have any idea what state those permits are in? You might not. Not off the top of my head, but there are a lot of surveys, inspections, and stuff that makes this a delayed, prolonged process. People are asking, "Why is it taking so long?" Yeah, I mean, I can get you an answer for sure, if you wouldn't mind. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you very much. Next up, discussion regarding resolution authorizing the submission of a Growing Greener Plus grants program application to the Department of Environmental Protection. Oh, nope. Turned off. Now it is. There we go. Yeah. The uh planning department's seeking a grant from D in order to update the act 167 storm water plan. Uh it hasn't been updated since 2010. So, uh, the first steps to that is to go for a phase one, a grant to perform the phase one, uh, process,

which is the scope of the storm water plan. Um, we're asking for a $50,000 grant from D. There is a 25% match, but that can be done with inind services from county staff. Any questions? in kind in it's it's a local match, but we could do it with inind services. Yep. What would this um what would the storm water plan consist of exactly? I'm not I mean generally understand, but just if you can rattle off a couple things. So, um I'm relatively new to the storm water planning uh realm, but so essentially what it is, it's part of the 1978, an act from 1978 that requires storm water storm water planning for wersheds and then it expanded municipalities and counties as a whole. Right. Um it's to minimize pollutants basically going into Yeah. Okay. But this particular uh plan that we that we haven't had since what 2011 2010 it was 20 but it was an unfunded mandate and order this has to do this will have help with the flooding in the back mountain. Yes. So, uh, uh, I was, uh, at, uh, a meeting, uh, which was, uh, really run by, uh, Senator Baker and Representative Pew, uh, and municipality leaders were there and our EMA, uh, was there as well. So this plan that we need to do will prevent flooding in the black back mountain and it may actually extend throughout uh flood flood zones in Lzern County. All right. Any other questions? You know, Mr. H. If I could, Mr. Chair,

that's just a comment too. I think the average citizen doesn't realize that they can do mitigation efforts on their own in their own backyard and it can reduce the amount of that storm water tax as well. Well, I don't think there's enough PR out there about that. You know, putting things like rain barrels at the end of your gutters or emptying your your drainage into your yard as opposed to your driveway or the curb. So, um Yeah. Yeah. And I I just wish there were more of a forum to get that out to the regular average citizen out there. I don't know if WBSA or their entities are are doing so much that part, but it's it's kind of what we're doing at the county level. Just bigger yards, bigger barrels. I do know that I to actually took one of their pamphlets regarding the rain barrels a couple months ago when I was at some event that they were at and uh and I I looked into it. I think they'll actually I want to say they may they may just give them to you. Oh, I'm sure they do. And that's not my call, but you know when they get the yearly bill might be a good place to do it. Sure. Just a comment. Okay. All right. Thanks. Anything else? Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Okay. Oh dear. Okay. There we go. All right. Next up, discussion regarding resolution establishing a standardized fee for abatement schedule for future lurer requests. All right, Mr. Sabatino, since this came from your committee, um, at our last infrastructure committee meeting, we passed this. There is one change that I didn't make. Um, under number two, manufacturing and techbased development. It should be read as zero in year 10, not year 11. Um, the reason why we've talked about this as a council many, many times is to put a fee schedule out to the world so that they know where we're coming from and what we're expecting from developers. Um, this schedule was debated by us pretty hotly for a couple minutes there. I think that meeting ran uh what about an hour where

we talked about this along with certain language that we'd like to to include in lera resolutions um which will be coming at a later work session. I'm happy to answer any questions any council members may have. Mr. Wovich. Yes. I think it'd be a good idea to have some clearer definitions of warehousing, logistics, development, manufacturing, and techbased so that way we know exactly what we're talking about. Okay. We could work on that at the next infrastructure meeting. Mr. Luscavage, the only thing I say with this is I think you still have to do it individually on an individual basis. There may be projects that you're dying to get into this county. There's other things that you really don't care if they come here, but if they're willing to pay more, then so be it. But I don't think you can have a cookie cutter number because I think it's going to be tough with different scopes of projects, you Well, we discussed this at council that we should publicize a peace schedule, you know, many times and and I tried to keep it general and that's why there's no greater definitions in there. Warehousing and logistics are is not something that the committee felt like we should be out there trying to use the Lerta as a tool to bring development in for in the future. So, that's why we gave them a a different schedule than than other types of development. But we also discussed potentially a schedule for housing, but we we eventually decided that that was a per case basis. So there are things out there that we agree need to be done on a perase basis, but these are the development uh uh projects that have been coming forward to us and that's why we address them specifically. And I I I mean I'm willing to put myself on the record saying that I'll never vote for another warehousing lura again. So if anybody out there in the world is listening, I

will never vote for another warehousing lura again. But there might be other council members who would want that development here. And that's why we didn't just say, you know, we're not doing warehousing alertas. So I I this is why we brought this here so we can get the full council's opinion. We could send it back to take your opinions, send it back to committee and work on another, you know, resolution and bring it back again. I just think go ahead. Go ahead. Mr. You know, expand on what you're saying that you'll never vote for another Alerta. If a fantastic one got a warehousing, but if it was a fantastic one with highpaying jobs, why would you turn that away from this county? Well, it have to be really highpaying jobs and there have to be a really tight guarantee for highpaying jobs in that lura. I'm just saying though, I don't think we could ever have that language. Never. Generally speaking, yeah, you know, if there is a really great developer out there, they'd have to really come through with some substantial money to help fix roads and bridges in these industrial parks because, as you heard, we're spending we're projecting to spend $6 million in handover. And we gave Yeah. Right. So, we're trying to mitigate that by asking them for a development fee on top of it because they're coming in, they're getting 10 years or five under this tax-free. So, we're asking them for $5,000 an acre to help fix those sins of the past and prevent them from happening again in the future. So, Miss Smith, excuse me. Um, I just wanted to address what um, Council Muscavage said about having a fee schedule that you just stick to. I don't think I don't think simply because we are advertising the ballpark we want to live in means that we have to live in it at every at every turn, right? I think this is a great idea to at least give them an idea of where we're coming from, but I don't

think that it was your intention to say this is the only schedule that we'll ever approve, right? No. and and the council as a whole would have to approve it. So if this is this is a starting point for negotiation, then you know they know that we're not looking for warehousing development and they may not find it's it's in their best interest to come and pay a lawyer to come to council and ask us for it. But they could still go to the school district and the other local municipality and get the other two legs of the LERA. They don't necessarily have to come to us for the third leg. Mr. Thorne. Yeah. Initially I was concerned about having a a lock rock solid schedule, but I do see which makes me happy the clause be it further resolved that the schedule shall be used as guidance for negotiating where the agreements going forward. I like that that clause because it's not but that doesn't mean the schedule's etched in stone. Uh the other the one question I have though for the committee I guess Mr. Sabatino when you come up with these uh these schedules and the per acre development fee of say 5,000 for warehousing or 2500 for the other type. Was was any of that compared to our county to the north or the county to the south to see what their fees are? I just want to make sure we're we're competitive with them. That's all. They don't have the development fees for acreage normally. Okay. That's something that we have been approving recently as a council. So, we felt as a committee to include that into the the the negotiating scheme. Yeah. And and like I mentioned earlier and county manager KrookO said earlier, we're going to spend $6 million to do the roads in the Hanover Industrial Park. we could even if we took a portion of this development

fee and put it towards that, we would mitigate the cost. So, no, I'm not saying I'm against the fee. I'm just wondering if it would knock us right out of the box with competition with the north or south. Well, as as Councilman Hos is fond of saying, they're going to come here anyway, so we may as well get as much as we can out of it. Well, we'll see. That's Mr. Hos's opinion. I mean, I certainly have a different opinion, Mr. Hos, but always Right. The guidance, right? Okay. Starting starting point. Okay. Yep. Good. Thank you, Go ahead, Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry, can you turn your mic on so that they can for putting a lot of work into this and it's always a a touchy subject when we deal with luris. Um, so so thanks for for putting this together. Uh I I'm I'm kind of like with Mr. Lavage. I don't know if I can narrow it down to this. Uh although we do have the option here, but are we going to turn some people [Music] away? I mean, that's what we want to do. That may happen. That may happen. And let's hope it doesn't happen too much, you know, because that we can't draw a line. We don't know. um uh where it's going to lead us. Do do you know Jim um Mr. Fal came in and I don't have the figures off top of my head. What was the what was his develop? His development fee was $3,500 an acre and the learner that we just approved for North Point for the data center was $2,500 an acre. So So we're in the ballpark. We're in the ballpark. We didn't go we didn't go crazy but we wanted to make warehousing a little bit more a little a little bit more difficult so we can prioritize you know

manufacturing and some tech development. Okay. So um I just if I can make a comment really quick and if anybody other other council members have um comments they can make them. So I I generally agree with what Mr. Lcavage said. I think that these need to be done on a case-byase basis more than on um you know having a fee schedule. Uh you know it's something that we've been doing and I I'm not a big fan of using the term using the phrase we've always done it that way so let's keep doing it that way. But I think that we have had the ability to negotiate some of these alertas as we've been talking about them. Um, and you know, we have yet to, but we're about to realize a lot of the profits from some of those some of those agreements that we have made. Um, so I I don't necessarily agree with this and I do think that it's going to hamper us when it comes to development. I don't want to be turning away any economic development in Larern County um, at this moment in time. So, I think that, you know, we have we do have people that are coming into this county. We have uh residents that need homes. I think that that should definitely be a priority for us. And if we can entice a developer in that way, that would be amazing. I I think that should be that should be the hallmark of of anything that we do. If we're talking about tax abatements, I actually also think that we should be using the Lerta law um for revitalization of of older structures if we possibly can. I'm not sure if that's a possibility how we can expand on that, but I think that would be something we can look into. Um but I have said on several occasions to other council members that I I'm confused as to why these learners are going through the infrastructure committee itself um and not through a committee like strategic initiatives or or the review committee. So this particular schedule coming through the infrastructure committee while it's obviously I appreciate that you all are doing the work. It's it's great. And I know that other committees maybe aren't meeting right now. And that might be part of the reason, but um this like it it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me why a tax abatement will be going through a committee where we're supposed to be talking about roads, bridges, and our buildings.

Well, like you mentioned, some of the other committees aren't meeting as regularly as the infrastructure committee, and we do have a good cross-section with Miss McDermott and C and Mr. Hos and Miss Kushnowski of the council as a whole. But uh I mean beyond roads and bridges, anything any development that comes to the county is infrastructure. Whether it be, you know, railroads, that's infrastructure, or buildings, that's infrastructure. So having a say in it and having a committee that's actually going to take on the the burden and responsibility of doing those those letters. I I mean what what other committee is meeting as regularly besides maybe real estate? What other committee meets as regularly as infrastructure? No, I I totally agree with that. I just I maybe I have a different definition of what infrastructure is, I suppose. Yeah. Well, I've I've I was given the chair of to be asked to be the chair of this committee and I've broadened the definition a little bit more than what you initially gave to me. But anything any that happens in the county should is should be the purview of the county infrastructure committee. And if the council wants to change like if the council wants to give me new directions, I'm happy to as the chair to take them. But until then, I'm just doing what I can to get work done around here. Okay. Any comments? If I could, Mr. Chair, you know, President Kenny said we should not negotiate out of fear, but we shouldn't fear to negotiate either. And essentially, all these are negotiations, but it's just that as a council as a whole, what what this does, this is non-binding. For for some of my colleagues out there said, look, I don't want to be um handicapped by this, you know, should it should be a case by case. We get that and that's why it says there at the very end at the conclusion. It's it's a it's a guideline. What we've seen in recent times, Connie Vll's um

lura that he proposed down there at the 309 project was almost a carbon copy of what the data center used. So we we have other developers using the developers of the past to develop. And that's exactly what this aims to resolve and move us forward in a in a very structured way, but not not not in a way that's going to bind us to anything whatsoever. So now when a developer comes here and saying, "Oh, okay. Well, I can expect this. Maybe I can try to negotiate a little more in this direction," which I don't begrudge anybody for wanting more of a profit anywhere. That's what I strive to do for our taxpayers, right? Which everybody here on this side of the table does. So this is I think it it really also drives us the kind of development we want. I don't think anybody here is excited about warehousing over manufacturing because when coal was king, coal was the primary um economic driver here and all those other the services that came out of that were based on coal. If we can bring manufacturing here, everything else hinges upon that and warehouses will obviously come here whether they have a learner or not because they're going to need that. So, um, I I support this wholeheartedly, wherever it came from. Jimmy, hats off to you for doing it, for taking the leadership on this one, Patty, for working with you. And, um, again, I don't see how this is a lose at all. I think this is just moving us in the right direction. Mr. Lovich, again, I have to agree. I think this is a great idea. I think as council, we should have more of a a guiding light on what we expect to come to Luzern County. I mean, are we just going to be all warehouses? You just want to build them everywhere? I mean, I think it's good to have more definition of what we're looking for because they have to come to us for approval. I think that we should have the final say and I think I mean like like I said carbon copy we don't want everything to be the same and there is room for negotiation and I don't think that you know we would hold it against them if they present a good offer we're going to accept it and I think that's how we need to look at it uh Mr. And then you can have and it's something that I mentioned in our infrastructure committee meeting the lurer we could use it to be proactive as a tool to bring the type of development

that we want here. So if there's another category that you guys are interested in like putting out there into the world so developers can say okay we don't want to bring X here but we want to bring Y and Z. So let's see what we have project wise and Y and Z that would fit this you know uh like area. So I mean this is a tool that we could use to be proactive for future development and not re wait for somebody to come and ask us for something. Go ahead Mr. Lavage. I think we the biggest point here too this is all minecar land. This isn't desirable land that we're giving these things out to. So with that being said the purpose is going to be pretty minimum on what you can do with this land. And a lot of these developers have done a great job in my opinion. You know, hats off to Miracle. You drive through that development up in Pittston, some of them buildings are beautiful, but you wouldn't even know some of them are a warehouse from the outside. But what I'm saying is that they they took that area up there that used to be an old coal company right by the Volvo dealer, and it's gorgeous now. And it's pumping a lot of dollars into this county. I don't know probably any of us sitting here know how many is enough warehouses. Do we know? I don't think so. But I do know one thing. Costs are going to keep going up. bills will keep escalating. This county, we better have an answer for it because you just can't keep raising the taxes. And a prime example of that, look at Pittston area high school. Hasn't raised taxes in how many years? John touched on it. How about Wyoming area? 8% three years in a row. And they compound that. Where do you think they're going? Nowhere fast. And it's because they have no growth and it's going to catch up to them because you just can't keep putting on the people. I don't disagree with you, Councilman. I I I you know I I but at this point we can ask Lehigh Valley uh Lehigh County, we can ask Northampton County how much is too much because they're they're going in the opposite direction now. They're trying to curb that that we're

housing development. So there are other counties out there that we could and this is a starting point. This is the whole point of this is to have the debate between us and get good guidance down so we can attract the right type of development to the the county. Nobody around this table is against development. We just want to use the delter as a tool to bring the right development. Uh Miss Smith, may I offer an observational suggestion to perhaps ease some of the council members concerns. Instead of calling it a establishing a standardized fee agree fee and abatement schedule, can we say establishing a suggested standardized fee and abatement schedule? I'm okay with that. If anybody's like if developer is looking at this and maybe might be deterred by, oh, I see a standardized schedule and doesn't read all the way to say that it's guidance. We just put it right in the title. Maybe that will allay some of the concerns. I'm okay with that. Was the rest of the committee okay with that? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think at this point the committee has done its job. I I think I I would move that we move this to the voting session because we have Alerta coming right up on on the next item here. And I don't I think I think three of you suggested, you look, we don't want to be bound by anything, but this clearly doesn't do that. Councilwoman Smith's um suggestion changes the wordage a little bit, makes a little more palatable. Um, I know Greg, you you talked about defining warehousing and logistics. Can we what can we do with that? Warehousing, it's a warehouse, you know, house. What were you what were you thinking is that is that like building or is that some different things to be? Is it is it a data center? What's that? Yes, the intention was like the data center. I know the intention, but I mean the words we basically non-warehouse as far as I

would say. I mean we you warehouse and you've got like manufacturing tech. It's just guidance, right? So if we hear it, it's kind of like the Supreme Court's definition of pornography. Harry, Ramilda, anybody? I don't I can't define it, but I know it when I see it, right? I I think it's a little like this. We don't necessarily have to define those things. We may find something that on the surface looks like tech, but once we actually talk to the Velvro, it's not tech. I think that's also important about the fact that it's a suggestion and a guidance. it doesn't marry us to anything. I personally I'll just just to respond to that. I just feel that at the end of the day, everything that we do here is about optics and how we how we try to um you know, I think maintain good optics as far as development is concerned in the county. And if it appears that we are trying to put our knee on the development of a certain type of um property, then I I don't see how that would be a positive thing. And I think that no matter what we do, if we say the word suggested or guidance or whatever other happy word we can think of, it may not necessarily be um enough like let's say not to not to suggest that the newspapers will report this incorrectly, but they may say in their headline county develops fee schedule for Alertas and passes it whatever. But maybe that devil is in the details of what the clarification is in the article. But the first thing the developer sees is we developed a se a fee schedule. So I just think that at the end of the day having this and not doing it individually will be a detriment to development in general. Mr. Hos, I think if any developments developer sees a profit, they're going to come. They're going to have the conversation. And I think if if anything

we we already put our finger on the scales and we just give away alertas that have been used before without really negotiating. And this puts the ball in our court. It it lets council represent the taxpayer proactively and not reactively. We've been doing reactive lures before my second time on council here and it it doesn't serve the taxpayer well. You know, we approved alert and that it was a little disingenuous. Now we're going to have power lines going through people's homes and it looks that way. So if the discussion if it were more in our court we could have it would have been a little more forthcoming and I don't remember by the way for the record I don't remember that discussion ever coming up that power lines were in that equation but nonetheless I I digress. We asked numerous the ultimate thing is here that this is the council driving it driving the bus. That's how I see it. But does anybody really have any problems with this to that would prevent us from moving this forward? I mean, now is the time really to talk about this and air out the dirty laundry and let's let's move forward. Yeah. Is there I respectfully what I just had coming. Sure. I understand what you're saying, Mr. I do have an issue with it because we say it's going to put us in the driver's seat and we're going to control kind of development happens here. The developers that bypass Luther County when they see a schedule, I'm not even going to negotiate with those guys. I'll just go up to Scranton, you know, Musk, just anything north of us or I'll just go just south of us. We won't know the impact of this until years down the road when we don't get the develop. We don't know what we don't know. We we don't get the development here or go somewhere else. No one's going to tap us on the shoulder and say, "Oh, by the way, that developer that just built in Musk and we're going to build right here in Loser County." Like, we don't know that. So, I I do have an issue with it even though it's negotiable. Um, that that's all I got to say. Thank you. You know, I like having these discussions now in this format rather than with the developers sitting out in the crowd. Yeah. You know, going looking at us that way. And I I I will

say the quality up here is so wonderful. We are we are so blessed here in this county compared to almost anywhere else in the country. That's why I came back here. And there's a lot of development in Lacawana County. They're they're they're almost there there there's almost no vacancy sign up there because along their highways it is developed. And if you look at the counties south of us in Lehigh Valley, Northampton and Lehi and even Burks County, they don't want these. Almost categorically, they're against these at this point because there's a no vacancy sign. And now the traffic down there is a mess to get to anywhere because they've they've got all these warehouses down there. And I'm being very general, but that's if you talk to fellow commissioners, they're they're not fans of it. But I got my two cents. I we're always going to disagree with these major things like that. I don't have a problem with that. I like having a discussion here. Miss Krishnowski, you just make sure you have your mic on. Just a quick question. What's the longevity on on those uh warehouses? I mean, that that's always my concern that they come, they build, and then they say vacant. So, what what is the general consensus on there? It seems to me like a lot of them are vacant and they're not being utilized. And I guess that's where I come in where I would not rather have them, you know, and I think some of these we should really even be putting in here that they should build housing too along with them because that's where we're in dire straits of this housing really or people to live and then having a business is one thing, but where do you put these people to live? I think it if I could, Mr. Chair, I think DCD is sitting on that answer. Patty, if you want to look at different warehouses in different parts of the state, you know who hangs on. I think from what I remember our discussion years ago, about 80% stay in Lutheran County. So that's why when I when I when I have these debates about this, I'm not saying a lot of them bolt. Some definitely do, but there was one here in in Wilksberry years ago. If you remember the KO days, it was Commas was up in Dallas. They came down here for 10 years. When their abatement ran out, they they took off. And we don't want that kind of development. But I don't think that happens as often as as they stay. I think they they generally do tend to

stay and that's why I'm not categor categorically against these things myself, but I just want us to be in charge because that's what the taxpayers want from us. Mr. Santino, and the committee did discuss putting in, you know, housing requirement, but we we didn't want to restrict the developers that much. We wanted to leave it open for negotiation. We wanted them to be partners with us and come and ask us, you know, for our input into how we want the learners to be formed. You know, that's why we didn't we didn't make it a $15,000 per acre fee or, you know, uh, a three-year abatement. We wanted to keep it relatively neutral for the developers. Miss Smith, and then I'm going to ask if we could please move on. I understand your point about not doing a housing schedule, but do you think that you might be willing to discuss a schedule for housing that is a very good schedule for them because we are in dire need of housing? I'm open to it. I'm always open to housing, but I would actually Councilwoman Stevenson is the one working on that with County Manager Crocomo. That's something that they've discussed and at this moment I don't want to put my finger into what they're working on. So I would uh I mean you said that anything that well we also we also we also had a housing lurer come up from Hazelton that we didn't take on you know because of the type of housing that they wanted to build at the price point if a if an appropriate developer comes with appropriate uh housing that would match the need of the county in a in a certain range which is hard to do these days. I understand that you're I I I see your eyes over there. It's hard to do these days, but you know, like we're not against it, but I'd rather leave that open for complete negotiation, you know, because we can

work with the develop housing developers a lot and and it is a need and uh you know, the it flips to the other end of the spectrum where we're in the driver's seat with warehousing maybe and and and tech development. We're not as much in the driver's seat with housing at this point. So that opens my next question. Um perhaps I would have to word smith it or or like really go through it. If we added a clause somewhere that says that something about while we have included these particular schedules, we are not they're not all inclusive. We're not excluding any other. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We could work on that. Not limited to Yeah. These schedules are are not the only develop like alerters that can be applied for. Right. Right. Um and if we find what Councilman Thornton is or Vice Chair Thornton is so concerned about, if we are finding that our development slows really really to a bad place, I there's no there's a way we can repeal this. I mean, it's not like we can't take it back. And finally, Councilman Muscavage and Vice Chair Thornton, you both have just been expressing concerns that you haven't really given an answer for. So, would any change in this make you happy? Like, frankly, what kind of change would make you happy with this or make you amenal to this? Yeah. the door. So it's telling me nothing will will change it for you. Right. Right. Okay. That's fair. That's totally fair. I go

down the street and I say, "Geez, you know what? Why do we need I know doesn't matter what I think, but you know what it is? free enterprise competition and the weak world has smashed. Right. Right. But none of them have asked for Alerta and and saying that nothing will change your mind. That's fine. That's totally fair. I'm I'm just honestly asking. Yeah. The thing that uh I'd like to see and I don't have any of the figures here is the competitive numbers. I'd like to see what Lacawana County charges for their alert and I'd also like to see South the counties that Mr. Hos said. I'd like to see what their schedules are compared to ours. That's what I'd like to see. Um, it is my understanding after having spoken to the Lacawana County Commissioners that they give out quite a few and it's pretty it looks more like Okay, Miss Stevenson had a comment that she's been waiting to make and uh then we'll we'll move on. So, that's okay. Trust me, I don't plan to be long-winded. Um, Councilman Thornton, I think you make a valid point, wanting to know what surrounding C counties have going on. Um, I think that's a valid contribution to this discussion. And I think it's really important to recognize that this council is so specific and so different from past councils that we are really able to sit here and be innovative about the way that we decide to move forward and make our votes about the projects that are coming across this table. I think Councilman Sabantino being able to create a schedule to even introduce and discuss is a huge step forward to finding new ways to develop the county and to support the county and to find new just new ways to move forward and innovative ideas that are going to continue to contribute. And I I would hope that all of you kind of take a take a little small note out of that book because yes, we are here to wa be the watchd dogs of the wallet, but also we're here to be able to create and create the opportunities for these things to come into the county. So that

door open is extremely important. Period. All right, we uh ready to move on? Okay, thank you very much. All right, next up, speaking of learners, we'll have a lurer presentation by Mr. Raldi. Oh, can you just hit the hit the button on the mic and should be Can everybody hear me now? Yep. Thank you. Uh, good evening everyone. My name is attorney Raymond uh Raldi. I represent Hazelton Creek Commerce Center Holdings, a project based in uh the city of Hazelton. Uh, the first thing I want to dispel, uh, I appreciate your comments, Mr. House, but I'm not here for looking for a new alert. I'm not looking uh for anything other than clarification uh for alert resolution that was passed and adopted by um four taxing bodies that being the Luzernne County Council um Hazel Area School District the city of Hazelton and the project overlaps into Hazel Town. Uh for those of you who may not be familiar with the Hazelton Creek Commerce Project, it's on a former um site that was deep mind surface min uh was a location of two of the city of Hazelton's landfills. Uh my client, the developer, took on that project to redevelop it, reclaim it at no cost uh to the taxpayers um for the state of Pennsylvania or uh the municipalities and school district. um considerable expense to uh remediate that that site and that property. Um the environmental remediation alone uh the city of Hazelton um would have been responsible for the cleanup of that site um and the cost for remediating remediating that site uh once again was uh taken on my by my client the developer. Um the reason

I'm here tonight I'm saying I'm not here for a new lera. This is just a point of clarifications. We are at the cusp now of actual development going vertical on um two of the buildings. One of the um developers of the particular lot in question has raised a question with regards to language that was in the lur resolution from 2021 and they look for clarification regarding um if I'll just use the example we have five lots in development. If I sell lot five and I'm building on lot one, if lot five for some reason after it's transferred does not pay the real estate taxes, they don't want that to be a burden on lot one and they ask for clarification to say that lot one would still be exempt from the lupa provisions but lot five you have recourse if they didn't pay their real estate taxes to seek recourse against that particular lot five. So, I'm asking for introduction of an amendment to that 2021 resolution clarifying that point. I'm not looking for anything greater, but also nothing less than what we currently have, which is a uh alert exemption for um this particular project. So, if there's any other questions, I'm I'd be happy to address them or address any concerns. I have one question and I'll go over anybody else. Was this I don't subdivision might not be the right word but was this division of the lots part of the original Lerta uh request in 2021? So in 2021 uh my client uh had an uh consolidation of approximately 3 to 400 acres located uh within the city of Hazelton but then spilling over into Hazel Township. No. Um, one of the buildings that was proposed was is so large that it extended into um, Hazel

Township. So, uh, they got land development approval for these five lots. That's been recorded. It was approved by Luzern County Planning Commission, City of Hazelton, and, uh, Hazel Township. U,, those plans have been submitted, approved, recorded, uh, and now we're at the point of selling those lots, uh, or developing them ourselves. One building is going to be under spec uh developed by my client, but we have a a purchaser looking to buy one of the particular lots, developing that site and bringing, you know, uh a great benefit for the city of Hazelton and for Luzar County for that matter. Okay, Mr. Lcgavage. So, I think the question is, were you given the lerta for one parcel and not a subdivision? That's number one. Number two, you mentioned that they put a lot of money in straightening out that land. Yes. If I'm not mistaken, didn't they bring dirt and sludge in from Jersey and New York and bring it into that area? They brought in materials approved by Did they charge for that? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. So, they did. They made money on that land already. So to to stand there and say that they put money into this to develop that land, that's kind of not fair. That's misleading. Just saying. So if I recall this conversation from a little little while back, this was Alert giving a one piece of property, one parcel. You're coming back and changing the rules. And I remember saying then you should go back for a new alert. Well, I I wasn't here in the first presentation. Let me be clear on that. Uh the first part is it was presented as a five building development project with five separate lots. It did comprise of approximately 3 to 400 acres. That is not one parcel of property. It is um right now five different taxing numbers um and lot

lines traversing the property. When it was presented to council and all the municipal taxing bodies, we presented a copy of our land development plan. It wasn't approved at the time, but it was presented as here's our development. We have five buildings. It's going to be comprised of five lots, actually six lots because I heard the concerns before about roads. All the internal roads are going to be maintained and retained by my client. Our our entryways will touch on State Route 309, which is a state road. Um, and there's provisions in there for the um highway occupancy permit and what uh my client has to do to develop that site for the entryway exit way. So it was presented as at the time in 2021 as a five lot, six lot subdivision and that was presented and attached to that original resolution. Any other Mr. Santino? It said that you had a handout, but we've never received it. Did you have any information to present to us? Uh I was here to present for myself. I don't know why. I don't know why maps or or anything. I do have copies of the old resolutions which I'd be happy to share but um I just thought that yeah if if I thought they were already in your packets. No, we we've received material. Yeah, we were expecting something to that effect. Not necessarily saying you didn't deliver them to us, but that that's why it it did say like if we don't get them by the time that the agenda is supposed to be released. I just told Miss Lawrence to just put it as a hand out. I understand that. I didn't know if there was like a something that he did have for us. No, I I I've just relied on the fact that you had your prior resolution and the copy of that was attached to the exhibit which was the map. Um if those of you who are not familiar with the site, um it's the largest familiar it's the largest piece of vacant land left in the

city of Hazelton for development. Mr. Thornton, I just want to add um I look around the table of the 11 council people here in 2021, um nine of us were not here. So you only have two people sitting here that are a little bit familiar with what you're saying in 2021. And that's why I'm I'm hoping to address any questions. Mr. Hos was here, right? Mr. Hos, Miss McDermott, and Mr. Perry. I think we were I think Mr. Hos, we were on co cameras at the time. I think during the presentation. So, okay. The original resolution. Sure. We we and we can pull up a copy of this for the next time that it appears on an agenda. So it has more. Yeah, that's okay. That's fine. Yeah, attorney Rob, you don't have We can get We can get the resolution. Yeah, we can get the original from there and and go from there. It was resolution number 421. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? If you could, Mr. Chair, ask Miss Lawrence to just email that to us. Yeah. Yeah, Miss Lawrence. Do that when you know when you have a moment. What was the number of the resolution? It was number four. In 21. Four of 21. Oh, four of 21. We didn't have 421 resolution. Sorry if I wasn't clear. That'd be a lot of work. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody any other questions from any other council members? All right. Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have discussion regarding resolution authorizing county manager to execute an agreement between Luzern County and JDP Realy Incorporated for office space for Luzernne County domestic relations. Mr. Heinar. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, we're still on. Uh I'm pleased tonight to be here uh be before uh this body and uh uh the executive branch to talk about a uh lease for domestic relations. I'm equally as pleased to have one of my colleagues uh Lisa Parade, the director

of domestic relations services. Uh yes, I'm here to talk about a proposed lease for domestic relations, but it's far greater than just a lease. We have a vision for the future of Luzernne County and for the families and specifically the children of Luzernne County. And we refuse to continue to let everyone put our children last. I'd like to begin by explaining how we got here and why we are here asking you to approve this lease. Every day families become involved in the court system for different reasons. Whether it's for custody, divorce, child support, dependency, delinquency, protection from abuse, adoptions, they're forced to get involved in a process that is extremely emotional, stressful, and worldchanging. A process that could literally cause lifelong trauma on a child if not handled appropriately. And it's our responsibility to prioritize the needs and best interests of the children to ensure they feel loved, supported, equipped for a healthy future. To accomplish this, the legal system needs to operate efficiently and effectively as the impact of court intervention intervention on families and children's is significant. Now, let me walk you through what families face in Lzern County. As of today, family court is conducted in numerous places. We're going to begin by discussing the Binsky building. In the Binsky building, family court proceedings begin, which include delinquency court, dependency court, custody, divorce, support, and adoptions. There are three floors in this building. Two designated for domestic relations, and only one floor for all other family court proceedings. The domestic relations floors based on state requirements do not permit anyone

other than domestic relations employees to use that space. On the last remaining floor, President Judge Salivantis, Judge Rogers, and hearing officers Joerger, Lazar, Waters, and Mesa hold all their family court hearings. All cases begin at the Binsky building through motions and then families are sent to the proper location where their case will be heard. With many families complaining about the chaos and confusion of the system, I think it is important to emphasize one floor holds most of the family court cases. Then we have the courthouse. Judge Tuhill conducts family court in the main courthouse. Once the case begins at the Berminsky building, the appropriate cases are then sent to Judge Tuhill. These are all cases with minor children, causing families to be waiting in the hallways on the second floor for custody proceedings. These children are then forced to watch criminal matters, including the transport of prisoners into the courthouse, which further compounds the trauma that they are already experiencing, which is frowned upon by experts in the family court field. Additionally, hearing officer Coner conducts dependency and delinquency review hearings in the courthouse due to a lack of space at the Berminsky building. She too has families and minor children, children and youth case workers, juvenile probation officers, delinquent juveniles, all mixed in the hallways of the main courthouse on a daily basis. Lastly, the PFA office is located in the main courthouse on the ground floor. Each day, our citizens come to file protection from abuse orders. These parties often bring their families or support members with them to fill out the required paperwork. At times, there are more than 25 people filling out paperwork and waiting for an exparte hearing in the hallways of the basement

of the courthouse. This includes adults and children. Babies, carriages, crying babies heard throughout the entire courthouse. In 2023, Luzern County was ranked sixth in the state for the highest PFA filings. We fall just behind Philadelphia, Alagany, Delaware, Burks, and Montgomery counties. In 2024, family court judges heard 1,673 protection from abuse cases at the main courthouse. In 2025, our average number of hearings per week is 53, with our highest week being 70, adding on average 12 contempts per week, with our highest in 2025 at 20 contempt hearings. It's also important to note that with family court being sprawled out throughout the county campus, security has become a leading issue. Working with AOPC, uh we went through the statistics and family court has the highest statistics for violence with Luzernne County reporting 41% of our overall reports uh being incidents directly related to family court. Our goal after a year of planning and searching is to bring a family court to one building. A building that provides a safe and calm environment for our families and children of Luzernne County, but will also provide additional space for the 11th judge taking the bench in January of 26. The way to accomplish this is to maximize court space and create a family court building at Berminsky building. But in order to accomplish this, we have to move domestic relations to another location. The domestic relations office

currently employs 45 staff, 37 in Wsbury and eight in our Hazelton location. This agency covers child support, spousal support, alimony, and paternity issues. We're going to leave behind this evening a booklet outlining uh what domestic relations does, and they'll be here. Uh I believe we've got copies for everyone. In 2024, the domestic relations staff carried a case load of 6,865 cases and collected support payments totaling $ 32,643,000 for children and families of Luzern County. To find a suitable place for the tremendous work that our domestic relations staff does for the benefit of all our families, we have viewed dozens of places, including locations recommended by the county even as recently as a few weeks ago. We narrowed our search down the only place that accommodates the needs of the domestic relations office required by the Commonwealth, but that also requires no funds paid for by the county. The state will cover the entire monthly lease. Now, let's talk about the lease. The proposed lease of a location at 310 Market Street in Kingston encompasses 11,900 square ft. It will house all of domestic relations employees from the second and third floors. It is a singlestory building with no need for an elevator, and it has parking for employees and the public. The lease is a 15-year lease. We have been in negotiations for months. It has been revisited multiple times. Uh also consulting with the county solicitor and manager. It has been amended to include the following. After 36 months, there is an

opt- out provision if the state, federal or local or local funding for domestic relations is reduced or ceases. We have been assured and the due diligence has done by Miss Parott uh that by the state that no funding cuts have been implemented or insinuated regarding domestic relations. We've also been able to include a right of first refusal if the property is listed for sale. The monthly lease payment would be $25,783 which includes the renovations needed based upon the state requirements. Again, the state will pay the lease payment. There is no cost to the county. I'm here today because time is of the essence. We have an 11th judge being sworn in in January of 2026. We do not have a permanent plan as to where the judge and the courtroom will be. Additionally, Luzernne County Family Court is growing every day and it's our responsibility to put our families and children of Lzern County first. We need to provide them with a safe, supportive, and caring environment so that they feel comfortable fighting for the well-being of their children as well as their essential needs. As it stands today, our system is chaotic and quite frankly embarrassing. to make an informed decision. I suggest that you need to come and see how family court operates to see the space in which we operate. Myself as well as other members

of my staff as well as as Miss Paratt invite you to come and view the space in which we operate on a daily basis. Please do just not listen to the limited facts being presented to you. Please do not make this decision lightly because this decision will have a lasting impact on the families of Luzernne County if not moving forward with this lease. What are we prepared to do? Thank you, Mr. Yep. Uh, council members, questions? Mr. Thornton? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Heimar. Great presentation. And I appreciate you listening. I don't think there's a councilman around the table, council woman or man that would doubt that we are in dire need of additional space for domestic relations as you stated. Um, and you do yman's work over there. I I absolutely believe they do. I applaud the staff. It is difficult work, but they do. Everybody knows, everybody agrees, you definitely need the extra building, the extra space. The only issue I have is this particular building. I mean, we're sitting here now. I'm not prepared to tie the hands of future council members for 15 years. That's an awful long lease. U I don't That's the part I have a problem with. Um, well, is is the part that you have a problem with that particular building or the term of the lease? I both that particular building and and the the cost even though right now it's being born outside the cost of the taxpayers, we can't predict five years from now what that's going to look like. Have have you you you may not even be aware of this. Five years from

now, our county council that's sitting here, whoever that is, is going to have an extra $26 million a year that we don't have now because all of our loan and debt's going to be paid off. I would love to see us take that one year of 26 mill and by the way the year after that 26 additional million and every year after that I would love to see us use that money to to have our own great terrific fantastic huge domestic relations building. I know it's five years away but I have a problem going out 15 years with these costs especially with no guarantee that the funding is always going to be there for 15 years. But that's the only issue I have. a question I have for you. Um, and that's just my issue and I know a couple other councilmen expressed the same thing to me. Um, how many properties have you looked at in doing your search? Uh, we looked at nine in total. Okay. So before before the end of the week, maybe could you please uh email Miss Lawrence a listing of those nine properties and addresses because I'd like to just go around and look at them myself because this is an awful big obligation by council. Thank you. Okay, council members. Oh, go ahead. No, no, go ahead, Mr. Yeah, go ahead. Some of the the vice chair's questions. Yep. Yep. I mean, honestly, we're going to sit here tonight and say we're not prepared to address the solution for five years. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying when we obligate for 15 years out, when probably none of us here will be sitting here, that's an awfully big burden to put on the future of the county. Now, granted, absolutely need this additional space. I said that initially. Um, but I would rather see a lease for 5 years or maybe seven years, but not 15. That's my

only concern. Okay. And then you brought up specifically that property. Is there something about that property that causes you significant concern? I just think the cost is too much, the the price. One question I do have and maybe someone else could answer. I don't or maybe you know. Um, it says in your uh the rate will be increased 4% per term. When I read the language, the initial term is 15 years. So that means for the first 15 years, it's not going to be increased at all per term. Yes. It's not per not per year or anything like that. Right. Because it doesn't I'm going to I'm going to honestly I'll go back councilman and look and I'll email you. I was just reading it here uh before we came out here. Um it says 4% per term and it defines the first term as 15 years. So, I'm imagining, can somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, that doesn't mean 4% annually, it means 4% after the first 15 years. I really don't understand that what that mean. I am I am more than happy to get you clarification. And then it says the next two additional five-year terms. Again, that would be I guess 20 and 25 years out if we council that's sitting here chose to do that. Um, I don't know what the 4% per term actually means. that that's the issue I have. Thank you. So, it might be significant to note that our domestic relations office in uh the southern portion of Luzern County, I don't know what's the proper term that we southern Southern County. Uh we've been in that location since we've been in that location for over 20 years. been in the current location at 701 Church Street since 2000 terms the last one coming up at the end of this year to renew

it for a slight increase. Prior to that we were down on Church Street with an additional what I think you also need to understand is that the state is paying the cost of the lease. I understand. And also the state reimbures the county 66% for anything we spend. So 66% of that 25,000 change is going to come back to the county as do all of our sub. We in fairness though to the state budget, we've all experienced this here where new legislators at the state change that allocation from time to time. They've changed it many years. We're supposed to receive uh a lot of funding from the state every year for the courts. Mr. Himar could speak to this. We don't get it. We're frustrated. We don't get it. We're supposed to get it. We don't. So, that that's concern I have when you have a whole new bunch of state legislators sitting there four or five years from now. We don't know what they're going to pass or not pass. That's that's a concern I have. There's nothing in writing they're going to guarantee this for 15 years. Well, there is right now. cooperative agreement that we go under. I've been there 13 years and still been 66%. Yeah. Okay. Miss Patty, if if you just want to go up to the microphone when you're making just good. It's for the It's for the members of the public that are on the Zoom. I apologize. That's okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Go ahead. Any other questions? I'm good. Go ahead. Mr. Lcavage, do we on that property in Church Street, do we pay the taxes on that property like these people are asking us to do? because I I don't think I ever recall somebody renting a property and they want us to pay the property taxes for the year on that. That's kind of crazy to me. I even What What's really irritating, there's even a paragraph in there asking for $3,600 toward the removal of an ATM machine. If you're going to fit a

building for a tenant, I think that's your responsibility. I mean, you have to get the last $3,600 out of us. Are you kidding me? That I find that really annoying. Just saying. Any other questions? Miss Smith, your mic, please. Sorry, Mr. H. Yes. First of all, um, when was the last time we didn't get the 66% reimbursement from the state? I have been in my current position since 2013 and and we've gotten the 66%. Would it be fair to say that domestic relations is one of the offices in the state that is given the largest budget and is given the most attention and highest priority. I do not think support is going away anytime soon. Right. And I don't believe it's a partisan issue. With the onset of the new administration, we were alerted by the governor's office. One of the issues with regard to DHS etc. We were we had a director's meeting which we do quarterly. They carried they had an emergency meeting which assured us all directors across the state domestic relations that we were not going to be in jeopardy of any funding. We have not felt any burn at all. Mhm. Our monthly incentive, our incentive monies continue to come and we we operate based on reimbursement. Anything we spend, we are reimbursed 66%. In addition, on a quarterly basis, if we maintain an 80% collection rate, which we do on average, we are given four quarterly incentive payments. Last year, Loser County received

five. Those monies go into a fund that can only be spent on child support endeavors. So you're clear that it it goes to domestic relations. I don't want anybody to be confused that it goes into the general fund. It does not go into the general fund. Incentive incentive monies go into what we call the 490 account. The uh reimbursement monies go into the 495 account. No, they are not general fund monies. They can only be spent for to further the child support mission. And just to be clear, if the funding does go down, there is a clause that we can get out in three years. Is that correct? Correct. That is correct. And we have a right of first refusal for what? Uh should the building go up for sale? Right. Okay. Um, and I just would like to put on the record that I practice family law here and I know how confusing it is. It is and I'm an attorney who practices here and once in a while I still am going where am I going today? It is very very it's labyrinthian frankly. Uh, and I'm amazed that families are able to navigate it and just so many are going on. You mentioned that family rate family ga had such a high rate of uh violence specifically domestic violence. Um I myself have seen violent things happen in the third floor of the Binsky building. But is it true that regardless of all that family court is the largest and most quickly growing section of the courts? Uh it's it's it's right up there with criminal.

Um and would it be possible for the council to be able to visit the site that you're looking at to see it so we can I would I would implore you to take the time not only to see how family court operates, but if you would like to see the site, I am more than willing to to set that up. I'm making myself available and my staff, Miss Baratt, for us to not only see the outside of it, like a drive by, but to also see the outside of it. What I think would be best if you want my opinion to Burinsky first. I mean, I love Burinsky. I' I've been there. You But you haven't seen domestic relations. You're not allowed in unless you have a hearing. Okay? So, you've been in. So, you you need to see how we have staff has decreased significantly. When I first started, there were 16 secretaries. I now have three and I do not need three. I have a minimal amount of staff as compared to what we previously had. So yes, we're we're acknowledging that we need to get out and it's time for us to go to a smaller location so that this building can be used for what it needs to be used for. However, I think you need to see that first. You need to see how the space that we are not using can be better used. Then come and see the building on Market Street. What we like about it is that it's one floor. There's extensive parking. It's on a main drag. People can see it. They're going to find it. some of the other locations that we've looked at we that we're not as accessible. We are customer service based. If you can see from the documents we provided you, we pull in a lot of money and we want that to continue and the state rewards us for that. Yeah, we want that to continue. We need to be seen. We need to have people coming in out fast, make payments, make it real simple for them. We don't need them to say, "Where are we going now?" The other thing is we need to be close to the courthouse. Every

other Wednesday we have contempt court. We need to be accessible because contempt court is going to be with the contempt judge. Right now it's with Judge Salivantis. We're on the third floor. Who it's going to be next year, we don't know. Okay. So that's another consideration that we need to be close to the courthouse. Also, when you have motions hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a lot of times you have domestic relations motions that are filed. You need to have people be able to come over to Market Street, which is 08 miles. We clocked it to be able to docket those documents, not have to go across town or, you know, into a location where they don't know where they're going. Their stuff's not docketed. It's not going to be reportable. I mean, those are concerns that need to be addressed. I agree. And right now, domestic relations pays approximately the same amount in the lease for the space they use in the Brinsky building. Is that correct? Right now, we pay 20,66825. I call it rent. It's not rent. It's cost of ownership based on the county's cost allocation plan based on space. We pay to the county, right? So, we pay to the county. We get reimbursed 66% of that, right? So if you paid it to someone else, we would still be reimbured 66 and you would not be pay county would not be paying it. We'd be paying it. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. Uh Miss McDermott and then Mr. 170. All right. Thank you. Um we Kevin I think brought up the question about the taxes. You said Hazelton it's not in Okay. So in any of those other leases that you were looking at, did they have um that cost of taxes in there? Well, we never got to it. We looked at buildings. We never got to the extent of negotiating a lease. Am I correct? That is correct. Okay. And then I was going to ask you questions about the other properties. I know you just went over a couple of them. So all of the other ones, the locations were not good.

Parking wasn't good or too far from the courthouse. Correct. Uh location, some locations were not good. Uh some properties were not willing to make the required renovations to bring us into state compliance. uh you know, we not only have to answer to to us, but we have to answer to the state. They are their IT department comes in, says yes or no. So, you know, we're up against that wall, too. And then how did the uh cost of rent compare on the other properties? I don't know if they were the same square footage or not. Um but were they comparable? I guess if you break it down per square foot, it should be like rental per square foot. Correct. Right. Some of them were for lease, some of them were for sale. Required us to make the should say the county to make the necessary renovations at an additional cost. Okay. Yes. So, they weren't all they weren't all rentals. They were they were not all Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Sabatino. Well, to dovtail off of what Miss McDerm said, could you uh differentiate between which were leased and which were for sale when you sent us the property list? And is any of this money going towards a potential buyout in the future for this property? Uh, as the lease is structured right now, no. Okay. Well, I have a concern with that. If if we're going to ask them to invest the money and we're going to pay for the renovations through our rent, you know, which is an extra $5,000. That's one of the reasons why the the term is so long, so that the the payment the the monthly rental payment would be in an allowable window in which the state would approve the lease. We'd love to buy it, but they won't sell it right now. Okay. But why can't we work with them to negotiate back end of 10 years? You know, like have Well, that's certain certainly something we can discuss and that's really the point of us presenting the lease to you to answer any questions

and and and the money that that can be that is kind of like secured for child support purposes, can that be used to renovate this building? No. No. Okay. That money can't be used any money for capital improvements or expenditures. Okay. It's only toward the child support mission which is extremely exclusive. I can send my staff on trainings can buy them t-shirts. I mean you can't give them a nice office to work in. Right. Unfortunately no. All right. Thank you, M. Krishnowski. Oh, okay. Uh, anybody else have questions? Miss Smith. One more thing. I have heard through the grape vine that you are still working on bringing them down on some terms in this lease. Is that right? Well, I mean, we're always willing to go back and and uh try to negotiate harder. I mean, we're all respectful of of of funding. I think I've proven that over the years. The money that you've allocated to to the courts and the court's endeavors has been spent appropriately and and Okay. Thank you. All right, Mr. Wovich. Yeah, I just wanted to clarify more about the property taxes. Now, that's only if there's an increase in property taxes over 5%. Correct. I believe that's the way it's written in English. It says that that the tenant would be responsible. Is the tenant Luzernne County or would that come from the state as well? That would come from the state. Okay. Any other questions, council members? All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Heinart, Miss Par. If I may one question. Absolutely. Sure, Jar. I know the hour is late. No, that's okay. Uh, just a little late. Uh, might as well stay here and go to work tomorrow. Uh, but that being said, if not this,

what it is June is upon us. There is a judge that's going to be taking the oath and seated in January of 2026. We currently have no location for that judge or a courtroom. There was just the judicial needs assessment uh which indicates that based on the current lo workload uh that we should perhaps be allocated up to 14 judges. So, I don't want to be shortsighted here either and just say we're going to fix this for this 11th judge and not have any consideration because I think we do need to look to the future. Uh it's a very strong possibility that we would get a 12th judge and then what I can't stand here today before you and say I know the county will be in in better financial shape in five years. We can't wait. The families of Luzern County deserve the best. I think we all agree on that. I don't think there's anyone that would disagree on that. I think what we've proposed to you this evening is a very very viable option to achieve the goal of a family court building to provide the best for children and families of Luzernne County. Uh and I can't encourage you enough to truly understand these words could only show you so much. I think you need to come and see the Burminsky building. I need I think I you need to see Family Court in operation. We would love to take you to the proposed property. I' I'd drive you

around to all the other properties we've looked at as well, but we have to do something. Doing nothing is not an option. Thank you. I appreciate your time. if you would like to take a tour or get more information. Thank you. Everybody knows where I'm at. Thank you. Thank you. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you. Okay. Next up, discussion regarding resolution rescending resolution 202423, thereby deobligating funds previously allocated to H&N Investments LLC related to redevelopment of the former Hotel Sterling site. Anybody have any discussion on this? Seems pretty cut and dry. Seems like something I don't think we need to talk about at 9:45. It's just taking the money. Yeah. Just deobligating it from the hotel star website. Yeah. Yeah. $3 million. Okay. All right. Excellent. Great. Finally, CCAP registration for summer conference. Thank you. Remember you said one minute. One minute. I think I think 30 seconds. Ke 30 seconds. Oh, wait. You're already 10 seconds into this. So, um, summer conference starts August 17th, ends on August 20th. The early bird expires in June 30th. So, I thought if any council members wanted to go this year, um it's $470. I believe we allocated 2,000 last year out of the budget for this for this express purpose. I always found value when I went. I know a couple members went last time. So, um I want to make sure we got on the voting session next week if anybody was interested. I don't know if I can make it personally. I still talk to Mrs. Oz. See how that goes. But, um Okay. You know, just put it out there for the council. All right. I'd be very very interested in going. I haven't been able to go to one yet. It's out in Seven Springs, by the way, out the Pittsburgh

area. A little bit of a trip, but always valuable. All right. Thank you very much. Public comment. What do we have here? Motion to anybody public comment. No, no, he left. All right. No one here. Motion. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Meetings adjourned. Thank you very much.