County Council - Regular Meeting

Jo. All right, council members. It's 5:56 p.m. I'd like to call the uh uh uh public recording public hearing to order. Uh please stand for the moment a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty andice for all. Thank you. Okay. All right. 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. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Love it here. Mr. Lombardo here. 10 of 11. All right. Thank you. We'll now have public comment on the proposed ordinance amending the 2025 fiscal year budget for Luzern County. This is going to be uh to change the line item for Luzern County Council's advertising budget to uh $2,000. Is there any public comment? Anybody on the Zoom? Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Meetings adjourned. We'll restart at 601. Thank you. Recording stopped.

All right, council members, it's 6:01 p.m. I'd like to call the morning session to order. We already 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, Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Wovich here. Mr. Lombardo here. All present. Thank you. Attorney, could you please announce the executive session? Prior to this meeting, we had an executive session concerning an employment matter with the prison. Thank you, Attorney Scheme. Are there any uh deletions from the voting session agenda? Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Agenda is adopted. We'll now have public comment on voting session agenda items only. I do have one public comment slip from Mr. Griffith. Uh public comment is on number five, the memo of understanding for the collective for the Luna contract. I would like to know if there is a Luna contract because I haven't seen one yet. Uh as a controller, I've requested a copy of that document and they I understand is still in progress. Yet, council has adopted that uh contract probably many many months ago. So, I don't know if there is an actual contract somewhere that you guys are going to uh change or not, but I would like to see the actual contract the council adopted back in February or whatever it was because there is none. I've asked HR, I've asked the manager, and I haven't gotten a copy. So, if we could get a copy of the the actual document, that would be great. I know I there's some punctuality and some different things that they're working in the contract, which I thought was kind of different. when council

adopts a document, I would thought that it would be finished, but unfortunately, I guess it's not. So, if I could get a copy of that, I I would appreciate it. Uh, and number six is the motion to change the residency requirement. I think the provision that you put in there is a great provision that says it's a 5-year window. I think that's a great safety net for that. And I also think that the ability for us to get more qu better, not better qualified people, but certainly open up the pool bigger so we can interview candidates would be great. So I think that's a step in the right direction. I know back in 2014 or whenever they passed that ordinance, there was a lot of discussion about that and what was the downfall of not having the ability to interview people from outside the county. And I know it uh it it passed by a very nar narrow margin. So, I think council is doing a good thing by changing the provision to at least put the 5-year window in it. So, um hopefully that'll get some more discussion and um and and get that on the agenda and and discuss and get it approved. Right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Griffith. Attorney Sche, you wanted to answer one of Mr. Griffith's questions. Yes, Walter. The contract is under red line. The provisions of the contract relating to the financial um components of the agreement have not changed at all. That's what council had voted on. It's just some minor provisions of the contract that they were still working on. But that is that is it wasn't renegotiated. It was just the original contract. We hadn't had the whole thing in full. We had the summary. So nothing's changing from the summary that council got to say. That should be Thank you. It should be done in the next uh two weeks. I've seen the red line version. All right. Thank you, Attorney Scheme. Okay. Any other public comment? Um, I don't see your slip, ma'am, but you can certainly uh go up to the uh up to

the podium. State your name and municipality. It may still be out there. Okay. It's possible. And I'm only here to talk about um working with ICE as am I in order for tonight's meeting. Okay. That is not on the uh voting session agenda. Um so can you you'd have to come back up at the uh at the end of the meeting at the next uh at the next public comment opportunity. All right. Yep. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment on agenda items only? Anybody on the Zoom? Okay. All right. Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the June 2020 20 June 24th, 2025 voting session? So moved. Second. Motion in a second. All in favor? I. Opposed. Minutes are adopted. Move on to the agenda. Number one. Motion to adopt the ordinance amending the 2025 fiscal year budget for Luzon County. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Haw. Yes. Miss Kushnowski, yes. Mr. Lisgavage, 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 designating the Commission on Economic Opportunity as the lead agency for the Pennsylvania State Food Purchase Program. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Wovic, yes. Mr. Haw, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number three, motion to adopt the resolution to renew the lease with the Cresani LLC for Magisterial District Court 11304. So move. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Luscavage. Yes. Miss McDermott.

Yes. Mr. Perry. Mr. Sabatino. Yes, Miss Smith. Yes, Miss Stevenson. Yes, Mr. Thornton. Yes, Mr. Wovich. Yes, Mr. Hos. Yes, Miss Kishnowski. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number four, a motion to adopt the resolution to renew the lease with UFCW Community Federal Credit Union for Magisterial District Court 11203. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Mr. Savatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes, M. Stevenson. Yes, Mr. Thornton. Yes, Mr. Wovich. Yes, Mr. Haw. Yes, Mr. Krishnowski. Yes, Mr. Luscavage. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number five, motion to adopt the resolution approving a memorandum of understanding to the collective bargaining agreement between Luzern County and Lyuna Public Service Employees Union Local 1300. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. On the question, go ahead. I'd like to uh amend uh to correct the typo. Uh the union is the local 1310. So I'd like to make a motion to amend it to say Leuno local 1310 instead of 1300. All right, I'll second it. Twice. Mo, yeah, it'll be in two places. Okay. All right. Motion. There's a motion in a second. Roll call on the amendment. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Savatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Will, yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Mr. Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Lcavage, yes. Miss McDermott, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. All right. Thank you. There's a motion in a second on the uh original resolution. Is everybody okay with that? Is there the amended version? All right. Roll call on the amended resolution. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Mr. Wavage. Yes. Mr. Hos.

Yes. Mr. Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Escavage. Yes. M. McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number six. Motion to introduce ordinance amending the Luzern County personnel code regarding residency requirements for division heads in certain management positions. So move. Second. Motion and a second. On the question, Mr. Chair. Uh, okay. Go ahead. Could I propose an amendment for the very last whereas just to delete the very last segment where it says we're on page 47 members. So uh after the employees obtain five years of continuing employment with the county. So this is just a uh a motion to introduce the ordinance. Correct. So uh would we be able to do that amendment at the next meeting where we where we actually have the ordinances introduced? I I guess we could, but my part of my reasoning is when when this and there's a public comment, Mr. Chair, if I may. May I? Sure. Sure. Absolutely. It was it was actually a pretty spirited debate that we had many many years ago about this, believe it or not. And um I I believe it was a 65 vote. The the big issue was that we wanted to make sure that our our high levels of management knew the the county, they knew the people, they they had the wherewithal. You can imagine how that that side went. And there was a significant minority of us who said, "Look, we just want the best people." And sometimes the best person might happen to live in Bowmont or might happen to live in Old Forge or Beaver Meadows or somewhere just over the line. But there is much loser counties as any of us that live in within the limits because it's a metro area. So I think if we could put this out there with that thing deleted, I think you might see a lot more publicist support than you realize. And because this is why we introduce things, right? We want to make sure we get fe feedback from the public. Hey, my my two cents everybody. Attorney Scheme. Yeah, we can't amend now. At the introduction. Then I withdraw my motion. If we legally

can't do that, that's all right. But certainly can do that at the at the next meeting. That's I'll say the same piece again. I won't. Yeah. And that's I don't I don't think that necessarily will be an issue at all. Miss Smith, thank you. All we need is four votes to introduce it. Can't we amend it after we introduce it? I think we just have to have the vote to introduce it, right? That's the the Yeah, we're mo we're gonna have a motion to introduce. We'll introduce and then we have the discussion at the next meeting. Okay. Yes. Okay. Question, Mr. Chair. Okay. Motion in a second. Roll call. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Will? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes, Mr. Lascavage. Yes, Mr. McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Sabatino. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. All right. We'll now have public comment on non-aggenda items. Ma'am, if you if you'd like to get up. Yeah, we'll we'll have you go first. My name is Andrea Glaude. I live in Wilsair, Pennsylvania. And I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak. I just would like to start with some facts. The 14th amendment of the constitution states and I quote, "No one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the process of law." Due process ensures one, a neutral and unbiased tribunal. Two, the notice by government intended of intended action and asserted grounds for it. and three, the opportunity for the individual to prevent reasons why the government should not move forward. Violation of due process occurs when the state enforces a judgment against a party

without giving an opportunity for for the party to be heard before final judgment is entered. The district attorney ensures justice is served by bringing criminal charges to trial and seeking appropriate sentences. In some jurisdictions, the district attorney investigates allegations of criminal misconduct by law enforcement officers. Criminal misconduct includes use of excessive force, false arrest, and violation of constitutional rights. Viol violation of constitutional rights includes one, unlawful seizures and racial profiling. In fact, the police have the duty to intervene when they witness misconduct by another officer. Most people who are not currently comeomaos have witnessed both the violation of the constitution of constitutional rights by ICE agents and their abhorrent criminal behavior. for this council to be considering aiding and embedding the criminal activity being perpetrated by ICE agents in the name of justice andor respect for the risk for the rule of law is an affront to all citizens of the United States. Let me remind you, you solemnly declare your allegiance to this country and everything it stands for at the beginning of every one of your meetings when you pledge justice for all. We're about to find out if you really mean justice for some, an aberration of everything the pledge stands for. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Glad. [Applause] Anybody else? Public comment. Mr. Griffith, are you are you had a slip?

Uh, yeah. I just mine's real. Okay. Um, sorry. Um, under public comment, I just want to as an ACE commission chairman, I just wanted to thank the chairman of council and the chairman of the code committee for coming yesterday to our meeting to address the shortcomings of the ACE code of which the commission is trying to fix. And it's been like three or four years that we've been wrestling with that whole issue of the ACE code. So, it's a step in a in a in in a positive direction to have people from this council show up to hear the concerns of the commission so that you guys this council can fix those issues because it's a the ACE commission is really very very important to this county. Ethics commission is very important to this county and it's the reason why it was put in as the cornerstone of our charter back in 2012 when we passed the charter. That was the cornerstone. That was the selling issue for our home rule charter back in 2012 when we passed that uh home rule charter. That was the selling issue. Uh people wanted accountability and they wanted an ethics code that was accountable. So, thank you to those members that showed up and uh heard our concerns and looking forward to making that correction work so people have a venue to uh come to file their complaints and get them addressed. Thanks so much. Thank you, Mr. Griffith. Miss Harrison, my slip is off. I think you have a couple off. Okay, that's all right. So, hello. Thank you for having me here. My name is Clancy Harrison. I'm the res I'm a resident of 44 and the founder of the food dignity movement and I'm here just to say thank you. Um, thank you for supporting food dign food dignity for the ARPA funding. The ARPA funds allowed us to invest in local agriculture and deliver fresh locally grown food to nonprofits serving most our most vulnerable populations. These nonprofits serve people who are battling substance use disorder, women fleeing from domestic violence and children living in poverty plus many more. The

ARPA funding significantly strengthened our capacity and able enabled us to apply for USDA grant which is the resilient infrastructure supply RFSI and we got it. We would not have been able to get that funding unless you gave us the ARPA funding. And I want to be here to show you how it keeps building and building and building. We were able to apply for the RFSI grant on behalf of five farmers. Three of them are in Luzern County, one's in Wyoming County, and one is in Lacawana County. We're pass through operation for them. They would not have been able to apply for a complex grant because they're small farms. And they're building their capacity so we can actually serve more people. they can grow more food and we can serve more people within our county. So, I just again I'm here to thank you because we wouldn't be here without you. So, thank you very much, Miss Harrison, and we really appreciate the work that you've done. That was your project was very impressive when we came and tour the facility uh and what you do is just we we think it's amazing. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment in the audience? Go ahead, ma'am. State your name and municipality. My name is Laura Panero from Durier. I'm here to talk about the 287G program. It's deeply problematic for several critical reasons. It encourages ICE and law enforcement agencies to operate in ways that often skirt constitutional protections while also forcing local police into roles that alienate them from the communities they are supposed to serve. Implementing this program would significantly erode public trust in law enforcement and create unnecessary confusion, fear, and instability within within our communities. This cannot be allowed to move forward. immigrants, many of whom already face systematic disadvantages,

would be placed in an even more vulnerable position, unable to defend themselves against ISIS's unchecked authority. The county simply does not have the legal resources, particularly in immigration and civil rights law, enough to offer meaningful support to those affected. County Council should strongly encourage the DA to pursue alternative strategies that prioritize due process, community safety, and respect for human rights. And I'm part of a bigger coalition that is going to push back on this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Panero. Anybody else with public comment in the audience? Anybody on the Zoom? All right. There's motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Meetings adjourned at 6:19. Uh do we want to keep going or Okay. All right. Okay. We'll keep going. We'll start right up with the uh with the work session. All right. Like to call the work session to order. We already had the pledge of allegiance. A moment of silence. Roll call. Mr. Hos. And I forgot to read it public here. Miss Krishnowski here. Mr. Lcgavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Wova here. Mr. Lombardo here. All present. All right. Thank you. Are there any additions or deletions from the work session agenda? Hearing none. Is there a motion to adopt? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Agenda is adopted. Thank you. First, we have division reports for May 2025. Okay. Um I'm introducing the division reports for they're actually for June of 2025. Apologize the package that's there. There should be a typo there. Um if

anyone has any questions on any information that's in the reports or you need any additional clarification, please email me and I'd be happy to get that for you. Any questions for Miss Roselle? Okay. Number two, discussion regarding the renewal of Department of Labor lease for JobCore property. Is there uh attorney scheme? Go ahead. Yes. We pre excuse me we previously announced from administration that the job core was going to be closing but it was put on pause. So we were surprised that the federal government uh wanted to renew their lease. It's not really something council want council has to vote on because it's an automatic provision in the lease that they could renew it. And uh we just thought that was odd. So I contacted the federal government, Department of Labor, and discussed it with them. And the good thing is um it costs about a million dollars a year to maintain that property. So it's good that they want to renew it because then they'll be responsible responsible for uh upkeep of the property. And then I questioned them to make sure that they understood they're only paying $1,000 a month because in our original contract, which is over 20 years old, they were going to be improving the property, which they did. They recently finished a $5 million building. And uh I let them know that if they wanted to use it for any other purpose outside of JobCore that we'd have to raise the rent because that would be outside of what we normally charge. They assured me they have no interest in doing that, that there was an injunction and that as far as they know um for now JobCore is moving forward. So I just wanted to bring that to council to let them know. But again, it's an automatic provision. If we didn't want to renew it, then we would had to give them notice earlier. All right. Thank you, Attorney Sche. Any

discussion? Any questions for attorney on the on the job core lease? All right. Moving along. Discussion regarding resolution authorizing the county manager to execute a contract with McCarthy Tire Service Company for fleet service truck and equipment maintenance and repairs of county-owned vehicles. Uh, Miss Bar. Hi. Um, this would be a two-year contract with McCarthy Tires and it would be to fix the larger vehicles, the dump trucks, the back hose, um, you know, equipment that wouldn't be in our normal scope of duties at the county garage. I don't know if anybody has any questions. Do we have I do we have a le um a contract currently with any other organization? No, this was put out through the purchasing department. Understood. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Thor. And that was my question. There was RFP put out and was there other respondents? Um there was um there was just one other and it was actually put out for bid. So just to clarify, it wasn't an RFP, it was a bid, but only two two individual companies responded. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? All right. Number four, discussing uh discussion regarding resolution authorizing the county manager to jointly apply with Carbon County for a multimmodal transportation grant. This is for the Tannery Bridge. Yes, it's for the Tannery Bridge. Um Commissioner Arner is here from Carbon County. Um Carbon County will be the applicant. Lousern County would partner. We jointly own that bridge. I think it's county bridge 18. Um we would be applying for uh just a little over 1.4 4 million from the multimodal and each county would be kicking in $72,500. Okay. All right. Any any questions? Any questions for Commissioner Arner? Thank you for attending, by the way. Thank you for making the drive up. I'm on the bundling but it's working with other

counties and I think what we have to do all the counties is trying to fun and we always look at the inter but the majority of our people that go to work on Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner. Any Mr. Thornton? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I I'm not familiar with that bridge. Could you just in the tense read or digest version? Commissioner, would you be able to go up to the microphone when you when you speak just because the people on the Zoom won't be able to hear you? Yeah. My question is, is it full replacement? Is it a rehabilitation? What what exactly? I have the it's well it's probably going to be a rehabilitation. The one side needs like some peer work done and the embutment is dropping a little bit. So until we get the engineering facts back, we won't know. And I want to say one thing like I mean I think Michelle does a phenomenal job for you guys. And we have a a person that uh since I've been on the no for the last year and a half, uh we've gotten a grant for $800,000 for our largest bridge that's 365t long. We got another one uh that we applied for that we're probably going to get $1.6 million and that's the one that actually Senator McCormack is pushing forward for us. and we're and we're going to continue to try to get grants and even if it's going to be this that it's going to be shared between both counties. I mean, you'd be the applicant for, you know, right along with us. So, we're in this as a partner and I and I can't really tell you what the cost is going to be until they actually the engineers look at it. Okay. So, it's a rehab. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, I speak a lot. No, no, that's right. I give a lot of information. No, we appreciate it. that that's very helpful, especially for those of us who aren't familiar with that particular

bridge. Well, and and that Yeah, I want to she reminded me too of that. It's good thing you're here. Um, but the Route 80 bridge is the one that's like everybody's working on and there's routes going around it and it's not it's not really a detour route, but we've had our our Route 40 443 that was a a multi-million dollar project that was going through there and some of the bridges get ruined because the local people use it. They they you know, they make their own detour and that's good for them. I mean, and that's why I said like I think it's good to provide them the bridges that they normally go over to get to work because like if if this thing and even like the weather area, if this bridge would be closed, I think it would be devastating just to the weather area alone itself, you know, not the even the ones that are a little bit north because you have the state park right there and, you know, there's different canoeing and hiking and biking. So, it it's like a small bridge, but it's used a lot. All right. Any other questions? So, did I sell it to you or not? I think you I think you might have sold it to us. No. And and if I could just add, we did have a call with DCED last week. We'd also have to uh sign anou if we were awarded funds um from DCED. We'd have to sign anou with Carbon County. Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Sparitch. Thank you, commissioner. And thank you again for for making the drive up here. Okay. Finally, we have a presentation on the Civil Air Patrol with Major Shan Stanford. Major Stanford. It should they should be able to get it up in a second here. All right. Well, first, uh, let me start. I am Sean Stanford. I am, uh, the one of the deputy commanders at the local civil air patrol squadron. Um, and I am a resident of West Pittston. Um, and before I get started, I'd like to I think I have enough for everybody. Give

everybody a copy of our squadron patch and my card. That's okay. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Um, so as I said, I am Sean Stanford. I am a deputy commander at the civil air patrol squadron here uh in Luzern County uh at we are at the Wyoming airport currently. Um uh next slide please ma'am or do I control that? I control you say next. That's great. So u so basically uh civil air patrol not a lot of people have heard about it although we've been around for a long time. Um it is a national organization is congressionally chartered and funded. It is a 501c3 charitable organization. We are the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force and um we have almost 70,000 volunteers both cadetses uh teenagers and adults across the United States uh Alaska uh Hawaii uh Puerto Rico and even some overseas squadrons at military posts overseas. Uh next please. So in 2025 we had about 70,000 members which is a nice bump from the the days of COVID where we lost a lot of our membership. Uh and we had the largest fleet of singleengineed aircraft in the

world. We have over 500 uh aircraft that are deployed across the United States including Alaska and Hawaii. Uh and as you can see we flew over a 100,000 hours on those aircraft last year which is several hundred hours per aircraft. and the value of the volunteer hours that Civil Air Patrol members provide in support of uh the various missions for federal, state, county, and local organizations is uh over $280 million by our calculation. And uh you can see it's a $4 return for every dollar invested. Our budget from Congress is about $70 million a year, most of which goes to play pay for aircraft. Uh next slide, please. So, uh, Civil Air Patrol was founded just prior to World War II. Uh, at the time, um, it was pretty obvious that there was going to be a war. So, private pilots who people who, uh, would not qualify for military service for various reasons decided that they wanted to help out and that they wanted to keep flying. And obviously during a war, private aviation is heavily curtailed. So they formed an organization called Civil Air Patrol to help out where they could and to keep flying. During the war, they actually did submarine patrols off the coasts. They did uh various border patrols. I did uh patrols, air patrols to help protect facilities such as um factories on the west coast and even um uh fire patrols uh in the portions of the country that have large forests because all these things were war resources at the time. Next slide please. Uh after the war, Civil Air Patrol was incorporated as a private corporation and then uh when the air force was founded in 1948, Civil Air Patrol was uh made the official auxiliary of the air

force. Uh through the cold war, uh it continued to perform missions. A lot of that was heavily civil defense back in those days. And there was a lot of air search and rescue. That was one of the primary missions of Civil Air Patrol at the time was if somebody goes out in their small aircraft and they don't make it to where they're going to get, Civil Air Patrol was called out to to help find them. Uh subsequent to the Cold War, uh Civil Air Patrol was uh the only non-governmental organization that was flying after 911. And the first aerial surveys of the uh ground zero site were done by civil air patrol aircraft. And um we uh had a uh tremendous amount of missions supporting the various um governmental um relief of during the covid um during the covid pandemic. Uh next slide please. So Civil Air Patrol as I said is a national organization is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama at uh the Air Force base there and as you can see from the picture on the lefth hand side uh that is the old base hospital from the 50s. Uh but that is now Civil Air Patrol headquarters building. We have eight regions across the United States and Pennsylvania is part of the northeast region and uh the northeast region is comprised of the New England states plus New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Here in Pennsylvania, we have um doesn't say here, but we'll get to that in the next slide. Next slide, please. Here in Pennsylvania, I have about 50 squadrons. Uh part of the over,400 squadrons we have across the country. Um and we have about 1,700 members between adults, uh senior members like myself, and cadets, the teenagers. Uh we have 11

aircraft and a bunch of vehicles and a whole bunch of radios. Um we get about $100,000 a year in state funding and that's been the number for a long time. And that primarily goes to support the the functions of the wing uh the state headquarters uh to support the 50 squadrons and the aircraft and the buildings uh excuse me and the vehicles. And the the calculation is that we return $6 and a half million dollars worth of value to the Commonwealth for the $100,000 that we get from the Commonwealth. Uh, next slide, please. So, told you about Civil Air Patrol. It is a volunteer nonprofit organization. There are no paid members of Civil Air Patrol. We are all volunteers and um, we are from all walks of life. I myself am a computer programmer and a retired soldier. Um, my squad commander is a former Air Force uh enlisted uh enlisted man airman and a he's a truck driver. Um, uh, one of the other deputy commanders, one of our chief pilots at the local squadron here in Wyoming, he is a retired police officer. Uh and um uh the other deputy commander is um he actually works at a church down in Hazelton. So we come from all walks of life and we're all very passionate about this organization. Um so the organization has three missions. The first of which is aerospace education. Aerospace education is primarily intended for uh two things. One is to provide internal aerospace education to our cadetses. We are an air organization. We are an air force auxiliary. So uh our cadets are exposed to uh many different aspects of aerospace um technology and aerospace industry and aerospace power as well as STEM and cyber are a new big thing in the last few years under that whole

aerospace education. However, uh we also have an outgoing an out outward facing mission. The Air Force provides tens of thousands of STEM kits that cover the gamut from again aviation to cyber to robotics so on and so forth. Uh that civil air patrol provides into middle schools at no cost to the school. It's all provided by the air force. So that's aerospace education mission. Uh next slide please. So the cadet program uh the cad program is my thing. I have been I started as a cadet in civil air patrol in 1977 and uh as uh I have been involved with cadets ever since. If there was no cadet program in civil air patrol I would not be with the organization because that's why I'm here. I love training cadetses. uh civil air patrol cadetses range in age from 12 to 20 uh and with the bololis being 14, 15, 16 right in that area and they have a program that covers um leadership, character development, fitness and of course aerospace education. Now, on its face, the cadet program has some resemblance to other programs of its type for teenagers like scouting or JRTC, but it's very different in some very powerful ways. Uh, JROTC is a military style program, but it is school-based, not community- based like civil air patrol. And there are significant hurdles to jump if you want to get a JRTC program going in your school. Uh, scouting is a great program, but it is uh and it but it and it is community- based, but um one of the things that Civil Air Patrol brings to the table, and I think it's one of the most powerful things about civil air patrol is that in order to progress as a cadet, you're required to step into leadership roles, take charge, and make things happen. Uh that is, as good as scouting is, that is not a requirement. You can move all the way

through scouting and you'll never really have to be in charge of things. uh it's just a different program but civil air patrol these guys promote through uh their various cadet grades and eventually they are placed in charge and it's it's not an option they are they are given responsibilities and authority to make things happen within the within the scope of their responsibilities so it's an excellent program as I said I did it myself and uh I am thrilled to be doing it now uh with my cadetses Uh, next slide please. So, emergency services mission. Now, as I mentioned, um, originally and early on, emergency services had a lot to do with finding downed aircraft. Thankfully, with modern technology, that's not so common anymore, and that's a good thing. Um, but now we're more focused on support for emergency services, emergency management agencies. We support FEMA. We support the various state emergency management agencies. We support county emergency management agencies um to perform missions based on um air force allocation um of our forces of our of our strength. Um and as I said uh civil aircraft were the only aircraft flying in the days immediately following uh 911. and uh civil air patrols air uh civil air patrol aircraft took the first aerial survey of ground zero. Uh the aircraft on the left there is that aircraft and it is in the air force museum in Dayton, Ohio at this time. Uh it has been retired from service and uh go a place of honor in the Air Force Museum. U and all of this all of this is actually is at no cost to taxpayers. Uh obviously there's that initial funding from the government, from Congress, but that pays for the aircraft. After we get the

aircraft, the maintenance, the gas, all that. Uh all the hours that we provide for assistance are volunteer. We don't get paid at all and we're very happy to do it actually. Uh next slide, please. So onto the meat of it. So as I said, I was a cadet in 1977. when I was uh lived in Connecticut and um I had a great time as a cadet and since over those subsequent going on 50 years now uh other than my brief um breaks in service for my military career uh I've been a civil air patrol uh constantly since then and I've seen firsthand in my own life and in the lives of some of the people some of the cadets I've worked with some of the senior members I've worked with the impacts civil air patrol can have. Uh, one of my cadetses from gez 20 years ago now, she's about to retire as a lieutenant colonel in the army. Um, and as you saw on one of the earlier slides, you may have noticed about 10% of the entering class of the Air Force Academy is civil air patrol cadets, and they tend to do well. Uh, as I said, I was a civil air patrol cadet. I went in the Marine Corps. I didn't go into the Air Force, but um, and that's not unusual. Uh, a lot of cadets go into other branches other than the Air Force. Um just civil air patrol is a really good exposure to those basic personality and uh discipline and um uh achievement traits that that really help in the military. A lot of what I needed to get me through Paris Island, I knew from Civil Air Patrol. I knew I could do the things I set my mind to doing and and it was correct. Um, but the squadron I joined is in Straford, Connecticut, and it's a Stratford Eagles composite squadron. And the building that was that I was a cadet in is still

there on the airport in Stratford to this day. And that's what I want to talk about. One of the most powerful and important things that any Civil Air Patrol unit can have is a stable location. And there's a number of reasons for that, but one of which is and probably the most powerful is is that over time people know you're there and they know where you are. If my grandson was living near Straford, Connecticut, he doesn't. He lives in Lansdale. I would know where to go to take him and introduce him to this great thing that I did when I was his age. Um and uh it also gives us the opportunity to be a lasting and ongoing presence in the community and do the great things we do for the community and for the people of the community um uh going forward hopefully into the far future. So what I'm asking for at this point is we are right now uh in the pilot club at the airport. Um Mr. Scrabbola is very graciously letting us use that space. The problem with it is it's too small. We are out of room. I have 20 cadets showing up uh on a typical night and that leaves about two emptied chairs in the entire uh classroom. We also don't have any storage. We have a small closet that they let us use. That's all that's in there and they're letting us use that, but we don't have anything else. Um there's uniforms and uh aerospace education equipment and radios uh in people's garages. mine for instance. Um, so what I'm looking for is some space, some land, uh, enough to put up a small building that I can outfit as a classroom, uh, an some office space, uh, some workspace, a lockable supply area, and a radio room, uh, and and, uh, a a

restroom. Um and in addition to the uh enabling us to do the things we do now, the kind of the uh the the offerer uh is that this would be something that the county could take advantage of if they if the county needed some uh uh like a command post or emergency operations center there at the airport. Um I would also say that add that as an airport tenant uh if we can get this permanent space I am I can't guarantee it but I I know that we will have an airplane here uh based here pretty much as as long as we as long as we have this space which is obviously that's uh revenue into the airport right there. Um because we are the northernmost easternmost squadron of a decent size in in Pennsylvania. There's a very small squadron in Scranton and a small squadron in Mount Pocono, but we have like a dozen pilots or more. So we are well fixed to take advantage of having an aircraft. We have an aircraft now, but if something were to go south and the squadron had to fold, then that aircraft would leave. Um so that's what I'm looking for. Uh, and um, I'm looking for I'll just lay it out there. I'm looking for a nominal cost lease or some sort ofou 99 years at a dollar a year be great. Um, I and I want to put up a building. I will find my own grants to put up my own building, but I know that there's some uh ARPA money for the airport. Uh, and I'm so full disclosure, I'm on the uh the airport board. uh and I I was on the um the part of the group that selected the engineering company to the airport. So I I have an understanding of how that funding works. So I know that a fair

amount of it has to be spent really soon. Uh and um this is a good way to spend at least some of it. Not too much, but some of it. Um and again, our goal is be a long-term partner to the community. So with that, I thank you for your time and uh any questions for me? Thank you, Major Stanford. I think Miss Parish would like to come up and and just make a a comment or two regarding the ARPA funding related to the airport and then we can have questions from council members. Just for clarification, we do have ARPA money, but it had to be allocated by 1231 of 24 and it's already been allocated for projects at the airport. We'll be doing um the Jedi fuel facility, the tea hangers, and the AWAS system. And that's all going to be in by next year. Yes, it is. All right. Yeah. I mean, that's aggressive. No, it has to be in by 12:31 of 26, but it will be done. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Next year. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Any questions from council members? Go ahead, Mr. Lcavage. So, I think what you provide is a great service. We'd be foolish not to embrace something like that. Um, I'd be in favor of giving, you know, a long-term lease of a piece of land there. I would like you to sit down with the scribbles and figure that out where that piece of property would be and then of course I would encourage you to get, you know, grants or anything since the ARPA money's already spoken for. Um, you know, and then move forward with it because anybody that's been watching television, unless you're, you know, not paying attention, what happened in Texas is certainly, you know, earthshattering. in a matter of 45 minutes, your life can change in a in a big hurry. But as I said, sir, I live in West Pitts. So, yeah. So, so does me and Brian. We're we're very well aware of that. So, I I know I applaud your effort. I think you're doing a great thing and uh I know

there was, you know, many helicopters and planes flying over rescuing people in Texas and uh I would like to see this happen. We just got to, you know, figure out a way. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I I believe that's something we definitely could look into and I certainly would support that. I think you all do a fantastic job. Um I admire the Civil Air Patrol and as a matter of fact, one of the handouts you gave me is of uh Major Hester. I went to college and graduated college with him. I actually know him very well. He's a great guy. I'm still friends with him on Facebook and I see all his videos that he posts of uh him flying in the F-16s and it's just I I'm very proud of him every day to know that I went to school with him and know him as a friend. Um, so I I appreciate that and I'm gonna send him a text after this to let him know he was part of our meeting tonight. Um, Miss Krishnowski and then Mr. Thornton. Sorry. Sorry, Brian. I I was just curious, what are the ratio between men and women going to this because it seems like clearly there's a lot more men involved in this than women. It does. Um, I would say among cadetses, it's probably and I I don't have a firm number. Um, I can generate it, but I can't I don't have it in my head. upwards of 30% of our cadetses are are female, 25 30% and um maybe a little less of um male female and male among the the adult members. Is there any way to get more involvement with female people? That would be great. That would be great. Yeah. I guess my question is are you looking into ways to do that? We are constantly looking for ways to get really anybody involved. Um uh um so one of like a male dominant thing that stays that way and I guess that's why I'm asking. Yeah. Well, so our national commander right now is Brigadier General Major General Regina A. Uh so and her deputy commander is um uh Major General Rose.

Oh, she's chief of staff. I can't quite remember who's but the the two of the top slots in the organization are held by women ma'am. Um Pennsylvania wing is not commanded by a woman at this point. It's commanded by Will Schloasser but uh you know I women hold very important roles in civil air patrol and I I guess I would just like to see more. You know I I would as well yes ma'am. Um and I will do everything in my power to make that happen at least here in I think it's a worthwhile cause though but but thank you. Thank you Mr. Thornton. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, just two things. One, if you could stick around after the meeting, I just wanted to talk to you. Yes, sir. Thank you. And to your point, u I was surprised about two years ago, it was uh we did a tour of that airport and u some of us were on a tour. I forget who it was, but uh I learned that there is a program specifically for women, women in aviation at that airport. Now, the Scribbola is the operating company that that runs the airport, the Scribbola family. One of their nieces who is a pilot. Uh, in that family, you have no choice. No matter if you're male or female, you got to be a pilot. Um, and, uh, she runs her own, uh, women in aviation program there. I saw their bulletin board with all the accomplishments of the women and, uh, there's a big advocacy for women in aviation at that airport right now. So, I would encourage any council member here to uh you know, go over there and take a look or we could arrange it through the county manager. It's very interesting though. I often thought of that, but my wife shut it down quickly. And I would add that uh my cadetses fe I have several female cadetses and they participate in that women in aviation um u event every year. Um last year, the

year before, last year I think I sent four or five female cadetses to uh Lance of Sloum Park where the Girl Scouts were having kind of a a career a career day thing with their summer camp and my cadets ran kind of an aviation hey here's how here's how airplanes work kind of thing for them. Yeah. And I I know at that airport she does something similar to school young woman scabbola woman. I forget her first name. I apologize, but I think she recruits from the local high schools uh STEM program uh females to participate in that. So it' be interesting to go over and take a look at that. Thank you. Thank you for coming. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, I apologize. That's all right. Miss McDermott, then Miss Smith, just something that I thought about when you were saying going to high school. So, do you actually teach um someone how to fly a plane? Is that part of the So, the short answer is yes. Um the slightly longer answer is um for adults, it's if you have your private pilot's license, if you have your certificate, Civil Air Patrol will teach you what you need to do in order to fly for them because obviously our requirements on how you fly and the procedures and for the mission flying uh are pretty specific. So that has to be that has to be taught and that's called form five flying. Um called a form five check ride. I'm I'm not a pilot so I can't really speak too much to that. But on the cadet side there are actually opportunities to learn to fly for these guys and uh and there it's it's actually pretty amazing. We have three different things you can do. You can do um so first of all let me start by saying that every cadet in civil air patrol gets five orientation flights. So, what that is is, and like I said, we have an airplane here. Um, the pilot will pick three or four cadetses, however many he's got time for that day. And this happened for us last weekend actually. We flew some cadetses and the pilot will

put them in the airplane. And you got the pilot, the cadet with in the front seat, and you got a couple in the back seat. and they've all got the the big Mickey Mouse ears on and uh he will talk them through what he's doing, explain the instruments to them and he'll roll out and he'll just do the whole thing and then he'll take off and tell them what's going on and then when he gets up to altitude he'll actually let the cadet sitting next to him fly the plane. Uh in fact, if one of my slides you can see a cadet my slide still up. No. Okay. Um sorry about that. But there's a picture of this cadet. I think it's probably a 14 15 year old cadet who can barely see over the cockpit combing uh is actually flying the airplane. Now the pilot doesn't obviously doesn't let them get into any trouble but they are actually maneuvering that airplane uh and then they'll land and then they'll change seats and then they'll do it again till everybody uh gets a chance to sit in that front seat with the pilot. And this happens five times for every cadet. Then if the cadet is truly inspired, there are actually a couple ways for them to actually learn to fly. We have what are called flightmies and they happen every summer. Uh there are probably a dozen maybe 15 around the country and they the cadets will apply for them and it's not easy to get into because it's pretty competitive but uh if they get accepted they'll go to wherever the flight academy is being held. We hold two here in northeast region, one in New Jersey and one in New York and they will spend a week basically doing flight school. uh they'll do the ground stuff, they'll do instruments, they'll do uh you know all the various things that I don't know about that pilots learn and then if they're doing well enough at the end of the week we'll take this 161 17 year old kid and they'll give them the keys to a quarter million dollar civil air patrol aircraft and say see you in half an hour and these kids will actually fly the aircraft they'll solo the aircraft uh those are the flightmies and then we also have what's called the cadet wings program which is cadetses can apply for a full scholar ship that will get them

their private pilot certificate. Uh, and civil air patrol pays for that to happen at the local FBO. So, if if one of my cadets lands that, they will be basically learning to fly with the scribbollas. Uh, and the Air Force and Civil Air Patrol will be paying for it. So, yes, there are absolutely ways to to learn to fly. Thank you, Miss Smith. And then, Mr. Clark, I just wanted to say thank you for coming. I think this is a great project. I actually have had a few students who have gone through the through this program and so I've seen the effect it has not only on your cadetses and members but also on the community and I'm very interested in trying to help you out in some way even though herb funds are done. So are you local interested in this? H are you local? I am I am local but I've been around. So I was curious who the cadets were they here cadetses I can tell you later. Okay. I'll tell you exactly. I'm sure I know them because I've been here for a few years. So, but thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thornton. Yeah. And one other point, uh, the Scribbollas do run their own flight school there and they work with Marywood University. Marywood has students that, uh, put them down there and they train new pilots. I I understand about 40 new pilots every year and teach them from A to Z. People have no idea how to fly. They be they come out of there and they're pilots. And I understand there is a a pretty good severe shortage of pilots in America. There is. And and they're helping fill that gap to the extent that they could, but it's a great program there. Thanks. Any other comments for council members? Thank you very much, Major Stanford. We appreciate your time, gentlemen. Ma'am, ladies. All right. Moving on to public comment. Any public comment? Mr. Griffith, I know you had a You're good. Okay. Anybody else? Public comment in the audience on the Zoom. Second.

All in f Oh, I apologize. I'm sorry. I do this all the time. I have a public comment that was sent into us that I forgot to read before. All right. This is from Linda Paul from Wils University. It says, "I'm strongly opposed to the proposed 22 287g agreement which would engage our police officers with ISIS activities. We all have seen ICE is not simply detaining murderers, rapists, drug dealers, etc. for deportation. They have been detaining hardworking long-term members of our communities. One may be in favor of that or not. I and many others are not. But either way, our police officers should not be involved in those activities. We need our police officers to focus on crimes such as as assault, murder, rape, child abuse, etc. If they are assisting ICE, and detaining people who are otherwise upstanding community members, and the police will have fewer resources for tracking down and arresting serious criminals who endanger us all, we will all be less safe. In addition, studies have shown that over and over again when police are involved in enforcing immigration law, people often fail to report serious crimes because they fear deportation. Again, this makes everyone less safe. So, I'm asking the council to please think of the well-being of us all and vote against the proposed agreement. Thank you, Linda Paul. Is there a motion to adjurnn? All in favor? Meetings adjourned. Thank you very much.