County Council - Regular Meeting

according to the flag and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Silence for the victims of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence, Mr. Hogs here virtually.

Miss Kushnowski here. Mr. Lavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Mr. Mr. Thornton, Mr. Willovich here, Mr. Lombardo here, 10 of 11. Thank you. Attorney, could you please announce the executive session? Yes. Prior to this meeting, we had an executive session to discuss litigation. Oh, okay. Prior to this meeting, we had a executive session to discuss litigation matters.

Thank you very much. We have two ceremonial proclamations tonight. First is for suicide awareness month. Whereas suicide is a major public health concern that affects individuals of all ages, gender, socioeconomic backgrounds, and communities across the United States. And whereas in the year 2024, Luzar County tragically lost 54 residents to suicide. Each one a heartbreaking reminder of the urgent need for prevention, compassion, and support. And whereas if current trends continue, Loser County could surpass last year's total of 54 suicide deaths in 2025, making proactive intervention more urgent than ever. And whereas suicide is often preventable and raising awareness about mental health, eliminating stigma, and ensuring access to care are vital steps in saving lives. And whereas organizations, community partners, and individuals across Lzern County are working tirelessly to provide education, promote mental wellness, and support those who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide or mental health challenges. And whereas resources, National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and our local helpline at 570-8291341 are available 24/7 to provide immediate confidential support to anyone in crisis or seeking help. And whereas it is imperative that we as a community reaffirm our commitment to supporting mental health initiatives and encouraging open dialogue and ensuring that no one suffers in silence. Now therefore, we the Luzzer County Council hereby designate the month of September 25 as suicide awareness month in Luzernne County and call upon all residents, schools, organizations, and agencies to join in this effort to raise awareness, support those affected by suicide, and foster a culture of hope and healing. Thank you. Uh our next uh proclamation is for the 100th anniversary of G, and Council Member Belovich is going to read it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh this hits very close to home for me and Councilwoman Stevenson, our alma mater. is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. So this is in honor of the 100th anniversary of G which we will be holding ceremony on Friday September 19th at the auditorium at the G middle school. So whereas G Memorial High School named in honor of the Grand Army of the Republic first opened its doors in 1925 is a proud institution dedicated to educating generations of young people in Wilsair and across Luzernne County. And whereas for a century, G Memorial High School has stood as a cornerstone of public education, producing graduates who have gone on to serve our community, state, and nation, distinction in fields ranging from public service and business to the arts, sciences, athletics, and military. And whereas the values instilled in the students of G, discipline, perseverance, community pride, and respect for history, have continued to shape not only its alumni, but the strength and resilience of Lutheran County itself. And whereas the school has served as a gathering place, a cultural hub, and a symbol of unity for countless families, educators, and community members throughout its 100-year history. And whereas, as J Memorial High School marks the centennial milestone, it is fitting that Lzern County recognize and honor its legacy of education, community spirit, and civic pride. Now therefore, we the Luzernne County Council do hereby recognize and congratulate G Memorial High School on the occasion of its 100th anniversary and extend its deepest appreciation to the administrators, teachers, staff, alumni, and community members who have contributed to its remarkable legacy and to J Memorial High School for the enduring contributions to our county and its people. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Bovich. And I know Miss Fox, you're in the audience to accept the suicide proclamation. I apologize. I didn't see you there before. If you want to Yeah, absolutely. Please. Please feel free. Thank you.

I wanted to sincerely um thank the Lutheran County Council for issuing a proclamation in honor of suicide prevention month. I can tell you that as the MHDS administrator, I collect data every month on suicide. Um I we I could tell you that the average age of those committing suicide in Luzar County is 50 years old. most are males. Um the age range is 16 to 88. Um out of the 39 people who have just this year in 2025 committed suicide, um 33 of them were males. 25 were byated with the data I collect. But I had the privilege this weekend of attending the out of the darkness watch park and tell you how humbling an experience that was because I saw our friends, our family in that park. The numbers were just extraordinary. um with a picture of their loved one, their friend around on a lanyard. And it was just um it was just a humbling privilege to be there and to know that um these types of proclamations are just so important in spreading that awareness because let me tell you that the people committing suicide are not the severely mentally ill. They are us. They're you and I. These are our friends, our family. They don't have a history of mental illness. They have no history of receiving services. So suicide does not discriminate. It affects people of every age ground demographic. So that's why public awareness such as this proclamation is so vital. We must work together to dispel misconceptions, reduce the stigma around seeking help, and continue to spread awareness. So with my sincere gratitude, I thank you for this proclamation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Fox. And as somebody who in my line of work has

unfortunately had to respond to many of those incidents and seen them firsthand, uh not only is it just as a human being a jarring and and and very emotionally affecting thing to see just as somebody on the other side, but um I I can't even imagine the grief that the families go through when they see it. So to have resources like this in our county um is so important to me personally and I know that many people have taken advantage of them and and lives are have been saved because of this. So thank you so much for all the hard work you do. Okay. Any 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 agenda items only. First up we have um Mr. Banks. Bernie Banks.

Good afternoon. Um, my name is Bernie Banks. Um, I was here to speak about the RCO. Um uh there's a lot of contractors in this area that are not um union qualified or are not part of a union and the RCO seems to be gauged at trying to um get a union standing. Um we just bid a job for Demunz Road and for Broadway. out of the four biders on demands or five on demands, excuse me, and four on Broadway, there wasn't a single union contractor that bid those jobs because there aren't none in this area. Um, we just had a job up in Scranton, excuse me, that got thrown out. Our we were low at $550,000 and um they gave it to the fourth bidder who happened to meet the RCO for an extra $158,000 of taxpayer money. That doesn't seem like it's a a good use of money to um that the taxpayer should be paying. And one of their arguments was well it's grant money. We pay grant money as taxpayers. Um our employees are earn prevailing wage which are in the contracts. Um laborers and operators make depending on um how many uh days a year if they're laid off, but it's it's very easy for prevailing wage operators to be making 130 $140,000 a year if they're not laid off. if they're laid off, they can still make 8090,000 and have four months off, you know. So, it's not an issue of whether these people are getting good wages contractor has to pay the same prevailing wage. We've as American Asphalt have been in

business for 73 years serving, you know, Luzar County and surrounding uh counties and as well as most of our competitors. They're all well-known sub international companies. And as American Asphalt, we've done over a billion dollars worth of work in the 73 years. Our guys are as qualified, if not more qualified than people that we would pull out of the hall um to get the R standard with the um we had a couple jobs that we did have to do that with. And at least in our industry, I'm going to say it might be different for um electricians and builders and stuff like that, but for heavy construction, um when we the unions had told us, okay, well, just take the guys literally on one of the jobs, they uh made us take two to meet the PLA and then those guys sat on the side while our guys did the work. All we did was inflate the cost of the project. Um it's just that the qualified people are not union that are going to meet this RCO. You know, as contractors, we're just very qualified and I think the RCO is going to be a terrible waste of taxpayer money.

Okay. Thank you, sir. Three minutes up. Ju just uh to clarify, I believe this current iteration of the RCO, uh road paving projects are excluded from this this current iteration of the of the of the ordinance if you want to read through it. Okay. And that would that be also uh like um the sewers and waters and um it depends on the type of construction. So you have to go through the go through the uh go through ordinance to look at the specific uh types of types of construction. But yeah,

because I know in the RCO it it did say that you're interested in you know the uh protecting the public's money, which I get totally but with that being said, all of our jobs are bonded to you guys. So there is a protection there. And if you want to ensure that you're getting qualified contractors, just have it as a pendot. They have to be pendot pre-qualified. Okay. PENDOT does the the gauging then. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have Dan Eustace.

Good evening. I want to tell the council that if you truly represent the welfare of the residents of Luzern County, you must vote yes for the moratorium on future lures with regard to the sugarloaf transmission line. Furthermore, in regard to zoning laws for data centers, they must be located in areas appropriate so as to preserve the well-being of county residents. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next up, we have Scott Lindy. Mr. Lindy, just so you know, we'll have to put that online if you're handing it to council if whatever if you're Okay. Just want to make sure you're okay with that.

That's fine. Uh, speaking of the uh uh the responsible contractors uh new uh draft thing, I I handed out the uh bids from the last two days and there would only be one contractor in all of them, which would be a an outside contractor that that would be able to bid on these projects. If if if anything even close to what you're considering is passed for the responsible contractor ordinance, it would just drive costs up incredibly on all your projects. And it's just quite honestly unfeasible. And uh you know, and the warehouses where you have to protect the financial and proprietary interests and then you have uh and to complete safely, efficiently in compliance with high standards and responsibilities. And then the last one, whereas the county seeks to uh support business and uh industries located in this county as well as uh attract new businesses to provide the greatest opportunities for employment of county residents and local taxes, receiving and employing the county public uh works. It just will not do that. If you do it, it's just going to cost us a lot of money and you'll have a lot of contractors, local contractors not working. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lindy. Uh, next up we have Mr. Solano.

Okay. Yep. Take your time.

Restart that timer when he's changing the batteries. All right. Go ahead, Mr. Solano. Thank you. Thank you for being patient. Not a problem. Uh, for those of you that don't know me or haven't met me, I'm James Solano with A Picket Construction. A Pika Construction is a general contractor in Lousern County, Pennsylvania. We performed and continue to perform work in all of Luzernne County. Our employees live in and around Lousern County. Um, thank you to those that uh met stopped by our offices and met with me last year to talk with me about this uh responsible contractor ordinance. Uh, I do still have issues with the way that it's written now. Um, we're also members of the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. 90% of the construction workforce is merit shop open contractors. The other 10% is signatory to a union. ADC represents that 90% of the construction industry right now. You're going to be excluding 90% of those contractors with this new RCO as it's written. I'm also a little bit concerned because ABC wasn't contacted to draft the new revised RCO. We weren't contacted to draft the new revised RCO other than that little bit we had with myself sitting on the side with Warren. um from the local union, but so be it. Um fewer bidders equals less competition. Less competition equals higher costs. Can't

get around that. Um I don't see how this RCO helps achieve the purposes of let's see, we wanted fiscally responsible. We wanted qualified safety workforce development. And you also threw in there if you wanted contractors from just Luzern County as well. I saw which okay. Uh financial is self-explanatory. Qualified that's going to be governed by the bid documents. Safety there's nothing other than an OSHA 10 thrown in there. Nothing was mentioned at all in regards to the experience modification rate that we went over last time. That needs to be a part of this workforce development. Class A is still mentioned throughout the RCO. The term still doesn't mean anything. Yes, Pennsylvania registered programs is mentioned in the document and that should be the standard. The document the RCO is way too exclusionary to um what happens to my more well I'll call them more well seasoned veterans of our workforce. I majority of our workforce is 55 plus. I'm not going to send them to an apprenticeship program. They know what they're doing. They know how to do it. They know how to do it well. The RCO is still way too vague. Nothing is defined. There are no specific metrics in this. This can easily be molded to ensure a preferred contractor is all of a sudden becoming the responsible bidder. I ask you to please emphatically vote no against the RCO as written.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Solano. Thank you. Next up, we have Mr. Zola,

John Zola, Sugarloaf. Thank you guys for bringing us to a vote tonight. So I want to talk about um agenda item number 10. The proposed 12mi uh Sugarlo 500 KV transmission line will directly and negatively negatively impact more than 60 families and indirectly affect at least 30 more. This is not a single family isolated issue. You have already heard testimony from the alliance to stop the line, from ppl, and from others. Tonight, I ask you to set aside all of that testimony and set aside the politics. Instead, focus on just two questions. First, can you in good conscience defend placing a transmission line of this industrial magnitude so close to people's homes and to their families? Second, how would you vote if this project threatened your home, your family, or your way of life? Once you have answered these quest or those questions honestly, I urge you to vote with integrity. Tonight, you have the unique opportunity to walk with the people of Luzern County. We graciously and respectfully ask that you do just that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zola. Next up, we have uh Mr. Senko. Good evening. Andy Senko, Sugarloaf Township. I'm here to talk about number 10, item number 10 on the agenda and ask that you do not fall for the PPL spin and halftruths. And don't fall for the lobbying money behind PPL. Before we lose this battle regarding big data, it's important that you vote tonight for the resolution placing a moratorum on future future lurer requests for the Sugarloaf transmission project. Do not underestimate the power resource and lab land grab that these big data centers are capable of. It's not just the 90 families that are impacted by this that were just spoken about. It's all of Luzern County and beyond. I remind you to look back on the comprehensive plan that was co-authored by Luzern and Lacawana County. And I ask you tonight to stand tall and to walk with the people regarding number 10, this moratorum on Lerta south of the Sesuana Power Plant.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Senko. Next up we have Cory Dunn. Hello My name is Corey Dunn. I'm from Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. I hold in my hand a federal lawsuit against both Loser and County Children and Youth and a Manelli claim against the county and a RICO case against

Sir Is this regarding a uh an item on the agenda on our on our on our voting session agenda? They sent me in here for the voting session. Yeah, you you indicated there was an item on a voting session agenda. I indicated above the empty lot. Okay. Can would you be able to come back at the end of the meeting then? The second the second uh comment section must have misread it.

Okay, thank you. Next up we have Casey Ross. Sorry. Bless you. Hi, I'm Casey Ross um from the Freeland area. I'm speaking about the transmission project. Um my main concern is environmental harm. Uh I think people work really hard for their land and their homes and with the way things are going uh a lot of people are trying to grow their own food. People are becoming more environmentally conscious and I think that this project will be very bad for a lot of people's health and I think that we should really be environmentally conscious at this point in human history. Um, I think that we're just going way too far and this there's talks about this leading to a data center which I mean I've done a lot of research and that's also very bad for the environment and I don't want to like in a decade down the road be growing food for survival because of raising prices trying to survive and I can't because of pollution you know so I think that uh taking a look at that would be a good idea especially for the new generation. I think my generation in particular is aiming towards more natural ways of living and growing our own food and we're very very passionate about protecting this planet. It's the only thing we have no matter how much technology you have. Even the technology

relies on the planet. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Ross. Anybody else in the audience for public comment? Go ahead, Mr. Walsh. Jamie Walsh, Rash Township. Uh, I told council a couple weeks ago that I was going to take a trip to data center alley and report back to you into three minutes as fast as I can. The 500 kilovolt line going through the sugar Sugarloaf Valley uh is just the beginning. um what I witnessed down in data center alley four hours from here. It's worth the trip to take a ride down. I have a tour map for you that's that was given to me by a local resident who also accompanied me on the tour. It is in 10 to 15 years it is actually Armageddon what took place there. There's 8 to 10,000 acres of forest and farmland gone. Um they are now expanding so quickly they're filling ponds in to develop more at Quantum Park. You can look it up. Just for reference, Ashurn City is 20.1 square miles. Sugarloaf Township is 22.4 square miles. Just as a reference, there are 140 data centers in Ashurn or in Ashurn City with 117 more on the docket once they get more 500 kilovolt power lines um uprooting the people that live there. Diesel generators, anywhere between 15 to 100 diesel generators on each one of these at each one of these facilities depending on the size. cemeteries. Um they just built if this is the cemetery, they built a data center there, data center there, data center there within 75 ft of Tippets Hill Cemetery. Ballfields and parks are completely surrounded with data centers. They had

no infrastructure plan prior to building these. This is how it got out of control down there. They did not have an infrastructure plan. They just bought a lot, started building a data center, and said, "We got to get power to it. So, we're just going to go this way." Um, they've uprooted everybody that lived there except one community, uh, which I was at, and I toured their house and and now, um, Dominion, which is, uh, their power company, is now putting a 500 kilovolt data center right through their development. Um, substations are massive. They're 150 yards by 150 yards just by visual. I didn't have a tape measure and I couldn't get close enough to them. They require 99.995% uptime, which means the the utilities in the community get prioritized over the people that live there. The the priority goes to the data centers. Uh people h now have to have smart meters on their homes um which regulate your utilities. every single thing that you're using and in the middle of a 100 degree uh summer they can shut your air conditioning off. That's how dangerous this is to our county. Don't let Lowden County end up or Luzern County end up becoming Lowden County. Um and the last thing I have, any scenery, habitat or farm that was there in 8 to 10,000 acres, this took 10 to 15 years. It is history forever. It's gone. Any waterways and trails are compromised to say the least. And um I'm just really urging council to vote yes on adopting number 10. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Anybody else in the audience public comment? All right, we do have a couple of members on Zoom and I do have uh an email as well. So, first up on Zoom, we have Annie V. Hi. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you. Uh Ann Vanessier, Sugarloaf Township. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the Lazar County Community Action Coalition. And I'd like to read uh some of the letter that I submitted to all of the um council members uh earlier this week and to um manager Cookamo as well. Uh tonight I ask that you look critically at the impacts lures have had on our region particularly lower lern county beyond the vague promises of economic revitalization in mines lands um that is often touted and halt more being granted until a full and thorough assessment of the program in our area can take place. We don't wish to stop progress rather to do it better, more ethically and consider all aspects of the complex economic terrain here in our region. Luras are intrinsically tied to hyperscale development. Though it turns out they don't have to be exclusively used for this, but in our area that seems to be what it's going for. And the electricity required for that is in turn linked to the need for the proposed and need in air quotes for the proposed 500 KB ppl transmission line. These needs are exclusively for large developer profit and with luras being granted in these areas the average citizens will see even less tax revenue benefit to our community. So council says crucial role play in this matter. Florida must be approved by the school districts in which the applicant municipality and uh developer have. As I ensure you're aware, Hazelton area school district currently has a nearly $5 million uh budget deficit, which was a $10 million budget deficit until they u raised taxes recently on local residents by about 5 and a half%. Rather than look thoroughly at items such as lurus, which if halted could require prospective developers to pay their fair share when setting up shop and generate important potential tax revenue, thereby helping to close the deficit gap. The

school board instead recently voted to increase those taxes, as I stated, 5 a.5% for local residents. Already in the last few weeks, North Point, operating on one edge of Humble Industrial Park in Hazel Township, has clearcut hundreds of acres of wooded area where some of these data centers are being built. They did this now so that the endangered species called the Indiana bat will have to relocate when they arrive during their typical November migration. In the past, they would have nested there, but will no longer have this location. Less than a mile away, residents in neighboring Sugarloaf are preparing to have to endure a host of largely unknown quality of life, environmental impacts such as water runoff, disrupted water table, noise, emissions from backup generators, skyrocketing electricity costs, and more. And now they face another and closer proposed data center by LBT investments, who currently is in litigation with Sugarlo Township in the Luzern County Court of Common, please. I have good cause to believe that these projects are lines uh transmission lines at hypers scale data centers sustaining inordinate amounts of power and water. We've established well that the 500 KV line is not for residential or even small scale use. They have no need.

Thank you very much. I hope that uh the rest of the council is able to read that letter and consider it tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, we did receive it. Um okay, next up we have um Ashley Bart. Ashley Bart me now. Yep, we can hear you.

The old commercial. Okay. Having microphone issues. Um, my name is Ashley Bart. I'm in Hazelton. I also have family property in Sugarloaf Township. Um I'm asking you to vote yes to placing the moratorum on lur requests for the Sugarloaf transmission project to help aid in protecting the welfare of the people, land, and communities of this county. I'm also asking that um you know as a county we are in a bit of an assault of hyperscale development which is very concerning on many levels. So, I do think, you know, this transmission line has not been fully transparently disclosed for its usage, although I think most everyone who's paying attention knows what it's for. And I'm just asking you to consider the welfare of our people um and the impact that this choice will have on our futures forever. That's all.

All right. Thank you, Miss Clark. Next up, we have Mark.

Mr. Chairman, this is Mark Rainbow Hazelton speaking. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, I'm going to speak on uh the hazard mitigation plan in correlation with the uh high transmission lines. Uh because I don't understand uh Mr. chair, why uh if there's going to be a hazard mitigation plan update or a new one for 5 years, why uh the southern end of Luzern County would not be put on in terms of its water resources if it's going to be if the water resources or wastewater resources are going to be used for the data center. I mean, that should be put on there because as you know, Mr. chairman of all people as you are a first responder. You know that the first responders uh need to have plans and protocols in place in case of a severe uh event like a drought uh for um you know in case there's no water access or little water due to a drought because there is uh restrictions. on the uh me who served on the uh Hazelton Water Authority board for three years knows the history as far as when there was a severe drought in the early 90s. uh Lehi in Northampton County uh was in court against the Hazelton Water Authority because of uh the severe weather drought restriction and we had to use the water and we did not know and there was a non-n notification uh lawsuit by Lehi and Northampton County against the Hazelton Water Authority at the time. So I would behoo it would behoove the uh Luzern county to put that uh in the hazard mitigation plan with respect to the uh data center and high transmission lines for uh water and

wastewater usage uh for these these plants. Uh secondly uh as far as the RCO goes, Mr. Chairman, I've been I've been fighting against this since 2017 and I said this then and I'll still I restated it when it was resurrected uh recently that this is discriminatory. Uh it pits winners and losers uh you know the union shops versus the uh private companies and I believe I truly believe that there needs to be uh a level playing field. Uh it should be it should be left to the uh the state and the union uh members and the or companies and their and the organizations that represent them to hammer out the details. And it should not be on the county to put this. It should be the state uh that does this. Um it's I don't believe the county is within its jurisdiction to do this. I mean they could do it for county owned projects for uh federal

for state I mean my three minutes my three minutes are not up. No. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Rambo. All right. Next up we have Elurish.

Can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. So um Linda Yurish Sugarloaf. Um good evening council members. So, we the people have done our homework. Over the last several months, we have presented to all of you countless facts and data concerning health issues, pollution, noise, insecticides, water, environmental, wildlife concerns, endangered species. The list goes on. Numerous people have spoken about their homes and properties that are threatened to be removed or diminished. We have spoken to many about many people about their um their lives and not just the people who are living in these homes and properties now, but the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren who for years to come have the right to keep these homes and properties that their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers have put their blood, sweat, and tears into so that their legacies may continue to provide for those people whom they love and have loved. This privilege, this ownership should not be taken away because some entity that is bigger and more powerful, has more money can just say, "Well, too bad." and do it anyway. To strip the people of their inherent rights of mankind, and this is from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, stripping uh um the inherent rights of mankind. All men are born equally, free and independent, and have certain inherent and indefeasible rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property and reputation, and of pursuing their own happiness. The lack of transparency in the way PPNL has in the past and continues to try to push this project forward without any regard for human decency is grossly inappropriate, inconsiderate, and selfish. It is a menace to our community

and in my opinion it's reckless governing if this is allowed to happen. Therefore, I'm asking this council to vote in favor of the moratorium up south of the Sesuana power plant. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, we have Dan Eustace on Zoom. Yeah, I just wanted to say um regarding the power lines and data centers, Mr. used is what municipality from? Oh, I'm sorry. White Haven. Thank you.

Um but um just to speak again regarding the power lines and data centers that I think we all know they're bad. I mean I you can look at it any way you want, but um we've talked about all the negatives. Um we can see across the state and across the country that um people, residents, municipalities do not want these. Um we can see as uh Mr. Walsh said that um you know we can we have we already know what the result is. Um and we see people across the state um a lot of different municipalities coming together to fight these things. Um and in the end it it's pretty simple. the people of the state, people of this country, the residents, those are the people that are going to suffer and the billion and the trillion dollar companies, they're going to be the winners. So, someone has to stand up to them and do the right thing. So, um I ask you to do that. Thanks.

Thank you, sir. Uh I don't see any other hands up for public comment. Anybody else? All right. Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the August? Oh, I apologize. We have an email. I forgot about it. Okay. Uh, this email is in two parts. Some of it's for the work session. So, I'll just read the voting session items first. It's from Robin and Walter Cochan from Dallas Township. Read voting session number 10, Lura Moratorium. We appreciate that council recognizes the critical importance of maintaining quality of life for all Luzern County residents. However, while we fully support a lur of moratorium, we are questioning the wording of temporary nature in the area noted this properties to be served via the Sugarloaf transmission project. While it's a good start and needs to be passed ASAP, we do not believe this moratorium goes far enough. As you have so indicated after meeting with a rep of local business development that there are plans for further development, do not fool yourselves or the public into thinking that data center developers will not be targeting other county areas besides the Sugarloaf community. That is why zoning ordinance must be updated ASAP. Contrary to Councilman Thornton and Lavage's commentary at the last meeting, it would also be in the county's best interest to not offer lures to data centers or industries that will transfer Luzern County into a burgeoning commercial and industrial zone as we witness in the Lehigh Valley's destruction. Not doing so will not only prevent other businesses from coming to Lzern County, but will attract the type of businesses that will enhance our area. Please do not retain the use of lurers for less invasive and intrusive businesses in Please do retain the use of lurers for less invasive and intrusive businesses in our community. Focusing solely on economic gain in exchange for quality of life is an enormous and very foolish mistake. Once it's gone, it will be too late and NPA is a very unique and beautiful area that is worth protecting. Okay. Oh, and we have another hand up. Uh, Michelle Rizzo.

Hi. Can you hear me? Yes.

Hi everyone. My name is Michelle Rizzo. I'm from Sugarloaf, specifically Black Creek. I don't typically get involved with these sorts of issues, but since you're listening, I want to take a minute and ask every single one of you on the board tonight, and I believe I have your names, Joanna, Carrie, Patty, Kevin, Chris, Jimmy, Britney, Leanne, Brian, John, and Greg. I completely oppose these data centers and I completely oppose these power lines. my family's property is being affected by it. I think it's very important that during the term that you have sitting in those seats that if there's one thing that you do that moves the needle that's important to people that you consider whatever acts need to be taken to prevent these data centers from going in and to prevent these power lines from going across. Thanks for listening.

Thank you very much, Miss Roso. All right. Hearing no other public comment. Oh, uh, Miss Jordan.

Hi, it's Deborah Jordan from Sugarloaf Township. So, I just want to confirm and reiterate the other voices that spoke tonight. the unknowns and the uh threats that we've seen other counties experience in people's daily lives, their property values, their drinking water, uh schools, daycares, etc. It's not worth risking all of that for the chance that uh our county can profit economically. I say we do need to prosper but we need to we need to say yes to this moratorum check the facts gain more knowledge and then proceed. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Jordan. All right hearing public com is there a motion to approve the minutes of the August 26 2025 voting session. Some moved. All in favor? I opposed. Minutes are approved. We'll move on to the agenda. Number one motion to adopt the resolution adopting the hazard mitigation plan update. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Hos. Miss Kushnowski. Yes. Mr. Luscavage. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous.

Number two. Motion to adopt the resolution forgiving the loan from interest uh on the UDAG funds to West Hazelton Burrow or their JC Drive bridge replacement. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Luscavage. Yes. Mr. Excuse me. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Wovich. Yes. Mr. H. Yes, Mr. Lombberto. Yes. Unanimous.

Number three, motion to adopt the resolution approving the financing by redevelopment authority of uh county of Lacwana of certain projects to the benefit of the dascese of Scranton Catholic School System Incorporated, a Pennsylvania nonforprofit corporation serving the public. So moved. 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. Mr. Wovich. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number four. Motion to adopt a resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project dress for success loan county. So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Mr. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Lcgavage. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Number five. Motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for the Northeast PA Lamb Bank. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Wovit? Yes. Mr. Haw? Yes, Miss Krishnowski. Yes, Mr. Lcavage.

Yes, Miss McDermott. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number six, motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for Luzern County Operations. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Wovit? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes, Mr. Lascavage. Yes, Miss McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes, unanimous. Number seven, motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for Reeba's Auto Sales. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Smith?

Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Wavage? Yes. Mr. Hos? No. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes, Miss McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Sabatino. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. 9 to1. It passes. Number eight. Motion to adopt the resolution approving the allocation of opioid settlement proceeds to Shrew North Recovery of NPA LLC. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Wovich. Yes. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lavage? Yes, Miss McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Yes, Mr. Sabatino.

Yes, Miss Smith. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes, number nine. Motion to adopt the resolution approving the architectural design of the Water Street Bridge and county responsibility for its portion of the costs. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. H, excuse me, Mr. Wovich. Yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Miss Kishnowski, yes. Mr. Luscavage, yes. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number 10. Motion to adopt the resolution placing a moratorium on future alert requests for properties to be serviced by the Sugarloaf Transmission Project. So move, Mr. Chair.

Second. There's a motion in a second. All the questions. Go ahead, Miss McDerman.

Answer some of the um concerns. Uh the this moratorum is not going to stop PPNL. They're still going to do what they're going to do. They're filing it in October and then they have to go through all the steps. So, I do know they said they will meet with the consumer advocate of PA, a gentleman by the name of Daryl. It then goes to the office of small business advocate. It will go through public hearings, administrative law judge, you file exceptions, file reply exceptions, office of special assistance, then it goes to the commission. So there's quite a few stages and safety uh protocols that are in place. Uh if no data center because we did meet with PPNL, several of us did and also by Zoom. So we did ask a lot of the questions uh of the concerns that were brought to us. They said that if no data center comes here, the line will still be completed. And this 12mi line is going to be used for local need. Uh they need that for the customers and everybody in the area and the houses. Uh just right now all of PA is using just right now all of PA is using seven or eight gawatts, but they said in the next 10 years we're going to need 14 gigawatts. As far as PPNL condemning houses, they said they cannot. and that was sent over in a letter. They cannot condemn a house or reasonable curdage 300 ft around a house. And then for the existing easement and power lines, uh PPNL has already been using pesticides on the property around those power lines that are existing. And they say that it's localized. So it's the same chemicals. It is a chemical that would be used. It's nothing different. And again, it would only be localized. Um, those are some of the answers that we got from PPNL. So, I just wanted to bring that to everyone's

attention. Miss Stevenson.

Um, I would like to sorry and I apologize for the way that I sound this evening, but um during that meeting with PPNL, um, they were very direct. They said that they were coming regardless of what we do as council that the moratorum would not impact them um submitting in October. Um Leanne and I and and especially um Councilman Thorne asked very direct questions on impact to the community. Um and they let us know that future development will be coming regardless of what we do. We ask questions about how they plan to manage the relationship between the county and the areas where they continue and say they're coming to build. Um, and they were quite adamant. Um, very direct in their answers. They honestly did not seem to care. Um, as you all stated, that was most of your experiences with dealing with PPNL. Um, that was what I took from that meeting, that they're going to they want to do regardless and that the county does not have um does not have the power to stop them essentially. Um, that's what I took away from that meeting and I wanted to make sure the public knew that. Um so while the the moratorum will not um will not end the power line from coming to Sugarloaf and it will essentially impact the county worse off than anything else. Um I I this is a very unfortunate situation and um I'm very sorry for those who who are actively actively fighting and advocating um against PPNL at this time. know that council is with you and and we have all collectively experienced and had a taste of some of what you've been experiencing over the last few months.

Yeah. Uh Mr. Lcavage.

So I think the other thing to keep in mind here is power and power generation and what this country and this state's going to need moving forward. Um you go back 10 years ago, 15 years ago, nobody wanted natural gas. I think by this stage of our life with the demand that we put on the electric companies, all of us would be living in the dark right now if it wasn't for coal and natural gas. And why is that? Because solar, the money that was thrown at solar farms, the money that was thrown at windmills does not even produce 3% of the electricity in this country. And why is that? Because it's not steady. It's not consistent. It's not reliable. So, there's some things that we just have to have in order to maintain our lifestyle and the things that we enjoy every day.

Thank you. Uh, Mr. Wovich,

I just want to let everybody know I did not attend the PPNL meetings for the same reasons that many of you stated. You know, they're not going to change their minds. No matter what we do, no matter how no matter which we go, they're not going to change. They're going to do what they want to do. And it's not fair to us. And I think a lot of us will stand alongside you at the PUC and many of the other avenues that we have at our disposal. And I just want people to know that we may not be able to change alerters of the past, but we will be paying close attention to everything that comes to this table in the future. We cannot stand for people telling us that this is what we're going to do and we're going to do it whether you like it or not. Well, we're going to ask harder questions, tougher questions to all of our developers and make sure that we're paying close attention to what businesses are coming to Luzernne County. And as your councilman, I promise that we will ask these questions. If not anybody else, I will. We need to make sure we're standing up for our residents, and I will always do that no matter how this vote goes tonight.

Thank you. Yeah. Okay, Miss Smith. No, go ahead. When reading this and thinking about how this has all gone down and happened, first I'd like to say that I am very frustrated that we can't do much to help the families who are being affected as much as we want to. Reading this and doing what I do for a living, I keep finding myself thinking about the objection that I would be facing in court if I was looking at this. And that would be the foundation. We have a foundational issue with this particular resolution in that it will not affect what PPNL is doing right now. However, as Councilman Wovich mentioned, the only thing we can do is make sure that we fix it moving forward. We have to ask more difficult questions. We have to be, as Councilwoman Stevenson has pointed out before, much more intentional when we are handing out lurers. And if data centers are going to come, then they don't need lures. If they're going to be here anyway, there's no reason to give them a tax break. If they're going to be here, we need to ask better questions. We need to ask more difficult questions. and we need to stand up for our people. So while I don't think that this particular resolution can affect the can affect what we want it to affect, the only way that we can do what we want to do moving forward is take every single project that is presented to us on an individual basis and treat it individually. I don't think

that a general moratorum will do the job. So while I stand with the people who are going to be affected by this, I am as frustrated as you are by the way that PPNL treated us. It's a learning experience and I know this council will work harder and better for our citizens moving forward.

Thank you, Miss Smith. Just add to some of those comments. Um, I attended one of the PPL sessions as well. And, uh, I know that there were a lot of great questions asked by council members that attended the other session that I wasn't a part of. a lot of direct questions uh like councilwoman Stevenson said that uh between yourself and then council member Thornton had some very pointed and direct questions about uh the quality of life issues in particular things about the herbicides um the EMFs that are released from the power lines and things like that and uh PPL did answer all of those questions um to what degree uh members of council or the public will be satisfied with those answers I'm not quite sure um they did answer numerous other questions for us regarding um the taking of land, uh, offering of $1 for pieces of property, uh, things like that. Um, and and all of those questions have have been answered for us. Um, and certainly, you know, those answers I'll make sure that they're available to the public for their uh, consumption. Um, but, you know, while we have all uh, or most of us have to see uh, a better conversation as far as this power line is concerned. Um and and we voted for the um for the uh for the the uh resolution to ask PPL to consider the alternative routes which we also discussed with them at these meetings. uh this particular resolution as it relates to a moratorium on luras uh as other council members said it really is not going to make any type of difference any type of tangible change in this situation because lertas as as many members of the public have said that they you know they don't really understand the process and and many members of council when we first got on council we didn't really understand what a lerta was either but now as we've been involved in it for numerous years tax abatements through the lerta law can only be grant granted to certain types of land that are considered blighted under um different rules and regulations. So the only way that we can physically grant Alerta in any of these

places is if it is on a piece of blighted property. Um if a data center wants to come to one of these areas or a uh largecale manufacturing organization or some other entity that would use a significant amount of power wants to come to one of these areas and the power line is there. um essentially like the carrot and the stick to get them there. That will have nothing to do with the tax abatement. That has nothing to do with us uh putting placing this moratorum on developing land that is otherwise not being developed by anybody else. I know there um or a number of people who have said during this discussion they've talked about uh one of even the email that I read earlier said that uh said like not doing so will not prevent other businesses from coming to Luzern County but will attract the type of businesses that will enhance our area and I just would wonder exactly what those businesses are because up until now nobody is developing this land. This land is sitting there vacant. It's sitting there dangerous. I talked about my experiences a as a first responder having to go to these places where people are being, you know, experiencing traumatic injuries because they illegally trespass on these very large comb banks. Um, and people have died there because of that. And it just sits there day after day, year after year, and it continues to be an extreme scourge on the area. That's the only places where these tax abatements can be given out to people. We can't give a tax abatement for a piece of virgin woodland. and and I certainly don't think anybody on this council would intend to do that. Um so by preventing us or by us passing this moratorum and stopping us from from being able to let this land be developed by somebody who has the ability to develop it, all it is going to do is hurt the future of Luzern County. It has it has nothing to do with the current project of the of the power line. It has nothing to do with um with the the de the development that is

already on the way there. All it has to do is with the future and if we are not going to be intelligent about how we do this, it's going to seriously jeopardize a lot of other things. And and you know, again, we totally stand with the residents. We totally understand the situation. We've been down there. We've seen what areas will be affected. We've asked all of the questions that have been um that that have been asked of us to ask PPL. Um and and while you know, two weeks ago I said yes, I I agree with you. They haven't been as forthcoming as they could be. They could have come to our meeting and we could have been asking all of those questions right here out in the public. But now we have to be the middleman and relay what they said to you, which is frustrating to me. Um because I don't want to have to be the one to tell you, hey, PPL said this or PPL said that. I want them to be able to say it to us so that you can see it as well. Um but like I said, I'm happy to provide you with the emails they've sent us. I'm happy to provide you with any commentary that they've had and any correspondence they've had with us in the in the interim. Um but as far as this particular resolution is concerned, it will have absolutely no effect on what is happening currently in in that area. Anybody else? Any other comments?

Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair. Oh, uh let Mr. Hos go first and then you can go. Miss McDermott. Go ahead, Mr. Hos. Thank you, sir. And and forgive me for not being there in the in the flesh. Um colleagues, I just if you're having a real change, I would just Are you there? Mr. Hos, can you hear us?

I I am. I'm sorry. So, I just want to encourage you all if you're remotely on the fence about this, please think a little more globally. I I get that the the the the PPL situation is what's driving this particular discussion, but this moratorum is about a more global situation we're facing, which is the issue of quality of life here. In days of old, if you looked at old maps from a hundred years ago of the northeast, specifically Wan Valley, Laruana counties, you know what they call this? They call this anththerite land. They call this the coal lands. Look at some old maps. We have a chance to maintain the wonderful quality of life that was able to be preserved in spite of that. When the mines left, we actually have green space here. We actually have less traffic than just about anywhere else in in more densely packed parts of our country. We have um jobs that are are not the they're not being driven by warehouse at this point, but we keep on seeing another one built every year, another one built, another one built. What we're going to see is more of the same. So, I understand a lot of you are probably going to vote against this, but going forward, if you're if you're really honest with yourselves about saying no to this and and accepting a lot of these past LERA, if we could really covenant with the people to really look at quality of life issues and I I I tked Mr. Scheing, our our solicitor at one of the meetings we had to really look and see what other tools are disposal. This is a tool. It's not going to resolve this conflict, but it is a tool and it does give council the upper hand. A moratorum is not cancelling growth. It's not dispelling growth. What it is, it's postponing it until we can wrap our hands around what we're seeing come here in this very pivotal time in history. We have one chance to do this. And what we're going to see here is it's going to be exponential growth here. All growth

is not good growth. Look anywhere else. Mr. Walsh was talking about Lowden County. Look at urban New Jersey, which is a big chunk of the state. Look at the Lehigh Valley. I was just there a few days ago for a doctor's appointment. It's coming here, but it's not whether we like it or not. We represent the people. The vast majority of people in our county don't want unchecked growth. They don't want it. They want growth. They're not even anti- power plant. They're not anti-modern conveniences, but there's got to be a win-win for everybody. So, I would encourage you, please vote for this. It's really not hard. It's not going to cancel any growth that we're having here. People and companies still want to come here because this place is open territory. A lot of the other metro areas of the country are already developed and we are at the crossroads of New England and Point South and the Midwest all come through Pennsylvania. We have a strategic place that has value, but we've got to be willing to fight for it. I encourage you, please support this as one of many tools that we could have at our disposal.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Miss McDermott,

PPNL did say that there there are going to be other projects that they're going to be upgrading across the county. Um, and that's to our dismay as well. So, if we try to stop it in one area, then we're going to have to try to stop it in another area. Again, we're not stopping PPNL. But another thing is zoning. We're working on the zoning in the county, and maybe it's something that the zoning can put in there. maybe they could put some type of a a moratorum for data centers and and the municipalities that we help with the zoning. Um and my final concern I guess or question would be if we don't give a lerta but the school does and the municipality does that doesn't stop them from doing it you know a company coming in anyway. So I don't know if the school's given the luras and if the municipality is given the lerta I think that they are. I'm not sure though.

Just piggy back. Yeah, just to piggy back off you though, isn't there more money given to from the schools than it is from us? I mean, if if you're talking about tax forgiveness getting it'd be more productive or lucrative for them to get it from them than it would be from us anyway. Miss Smith,

listening to the public talk about it about this particular resolution and listening to my fellow council people talk about this particular resolution, it seems to me that there's this is an answer to a twofold problem. There's the PPNL problem that we have done our due diligence with that we have found that we can't do much to do to change um except to learn from it and move forward with it and use the systems that are available to us. But there seems to be another issue and that's with the word moratorum. When I'm in the community and I'm talking to the residents of Luzon County, one of the biggest issues I hear about are opportunities for young people. And while these luras are difficult to deal with and there's a lot of there's a lot of questions that go along with them, they can create future opportunities for young people. Um, Councilman Hos says that thi said that this was our one chance to make sure that we are intelligent about what we bring into our county. But I see each time we are asked for Alerta as being a chance. Each time we're asked for Alerta, it's a chance for us to be intelligent and intentional about what we bring into our county because there is no doubt that we do need opportunities for our young people for our county to move on. So this is not just a singlefold issue and unfortunately I don't believe that this particular resolution has the foundation that we wanted to have

and I really hope that all of you and all of us use the systems that are available to us in the future for future alert as well as this particular issue with PPNL. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Smith. And um just one other comment that I'd like to make very briefly is that I know that there has been a lot of discussion kind of folding in this issue of the power line with the luras with data centers um and and Lowden County in Virginia is obviously has allegedly is like the epicenter of of some of this with the data centers and Mr. Walsh had said that he had traveled there and there was a lot of information that he took out of it. Um I I didn't know very much about Lowden County um previously except maybe driving through it once or twice uh going on vacation. But um one thing that I did know about them is that they had a county-based fire department um that was uh very wellunded and uh very very effective at what they do. Um so what I decided to do a couple weeks ago was actually reach out to uh one of the Lowden County commissioners and uh I spoke to her. um she sent me a fairly lengthy email. I asked her about some of the questions that we had regarding data centers uh some of the policy that they've put forward because um obviously they have so many. And uh she did tell me that there are pros and cons to having as many data centers as there are there. But um one of the things that she did mention that stood out to me was that um all of the data centers there, while there are very many of them, they inhabit less than 1% of the land in the entire county. and that those data centers provide 100% of the general fund budget for the county which is extremely interesting. Um and they have a completely different uh form of county government than we do. They run their school district and things like that. So not including their school budget. Their regular general fund is completely covered under the tax uh taxes they receive from data centers. Now they have sort of um been taking a look over the last couple years about the development and how it how it is looking especially in that area data center alley that

place and um they are now putting in some restrictions regarding um what the buildings have to look like um issues with the uh the generators that they have. uh they were talking about having like different like uh things to block the view of the uh cooling systems only having closed circuit cooling and other things like that and you know I only reached out to her just in an effort to just get gather information as I've been saying right from the the start is I just want to hear from all the stakeholders here because um certainly you know while I I believe everything that's coming from um the residents and from those who are doing research on this I wanted to hear something from somebody that's a governing official on the ground who um has some experience with this before we start making decisions that um will potentially impact the county uh down the road and and hearing some of that. I mean, like I said, there are many pros and cons that she listed in this in this extensive email, which I'm happy to um send public and and to the rest of council, but um one of the two of the things that stood out to me was uh the the amount of land usage that they use and the uh and the the tax revenue that they they bring in. And in fact, uh, Louning County over the last 5 years, uh, from what she told me, I believe they were able to decrease county property taxes every single year for the last several years. Um, so, you know, those are those are just a couple of the things that I I was that I was told by this uh by this particular uh commissioner in Lowden County. So, I mean, just other things to keep in mind, too.

Any other comments? Call a question. All right. Motion in a second. Roll call. No, no, he said call the question. Mr. Haw. Yes. Miss Kushnowski? No. Mr. Lascavage? No. Miss McDermott? No. Mr. Perry? No. Mr. Sabatino? No. Miss Smith? I wish we had a better answer, but no. Miss Stevenson, no. Unfortunately, Mr. Wovich, I wish you could do more with this, but no.

Mr. Lombardo, uh, no. 9 to1 for one. Did you skip Mr. Sabatino? Oh, no, you didn't. Okay. Sorry. Okay. All right. Thank you. Number 11, motion to adopt the resolution to address the consequences of Miss Commonwealth uh budget deadlines. So, move, Mr. Chairman. Motion in a second. Uh, roll call. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Lcavage. Yes. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Yes. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Wovic. Yes. Mr. Hos.

Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Number 12, motion to introduce ordinance to define the qualifications of a responsible contractor. So move second. Motion and a second. Uh roll call, please. Just for everybody's edification, only four votes are needed to introduce this ordinance. That does not mean we are passing it at this current meeting. We are just moving it into discussion. Roll call. Mr. Luscavage. No. Miss McDermott. Yes. To introduce Mr. Perry, Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes.

Mr. Willov, yes. Mr. Hos, no. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Uh, yes. To introduce. Okay. Agent two passes. It's introduced.

All right. Thank you very much. We'll now have public comment on non-aggenda items. I have some slips up here. I'll go through uh Mr. Griffith. Thank you. Um and I'm uh excuse my ignorance on number 10 that you guys voted on, but I I think a yes vote was a vote for the people of Sugarwolf. A no vote was against the people of Sugar Wolf based on the fact that I from what I understand from the motion to place a moratorium on future alert request for properties to be serviced by Sugar Wolf transmission project. So if the property is in a blighted property area and they get serviced by a Suscoana or the Sugar transmission project, they could get alert clear. Of course, council could obviously fight them and and and refuse to learn as well. But a moratorum would say that they can't even apply until we figure out what we're doing. That's all they were asking for. And I don't understand why that why it was so difficult, but maybe I was missed something in the translation. Um, the other item that I wanted to ask about is um the uh contract for the prison. Are you in a contract? Council adopted that contract in March of 2025. We still have not gotten a contract. I know I spoke to the office of law about it. I've spoke to the union about it. I don't understand all the reviewing and all the changing or whatever has been is being done with this contract. council adopted that contract at a public meeting. If you file a right to know for a copy of the contract that was adopted by council, we can't get it. It's not available. And and my biggest concern is after it's been changed, is council going to get a chance to look at it again or is it going to be just the union looks at it

and it gets pushed through? I think council should look at that contract that you guys adopted because it's been passed around quite a bit for 6 months. So, if you guys don't look at it, I think you should just to be sure that the contract hasn't changed on what you guys voted on. I don't think they're making substantive changes. I think they're making punctuality and issues of that kind. But clearly, I think council should take a look at it before it goes anywhere at that point. But we should have one. The other issue that I'm I'm concerned about is the issue with the uh Castillo realy property, the old Juvie Center. In 2020, we sold that property for $50,000. There was a big rush to get that done. In 22, and Mr. Scavage will remember this, we reduced the price to 30,000 because there was a problem with the sewer line. We were told then that all he had to do is he had the permits ready to go. He was going to be done in two years. There's been nothing done to that property in five years. I know it's a private sale, but I don't know if we've been hoodwinkedked here by this developer or what, but I thought the idea to sell this property was so we were going to end up with loft apartments and something done with that building. Unfortunately, the only construction I see going on over there, political signs. So, I don't know if that's what we asked for when we sold that, but clearly that's what we're getting. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Griffith. Um, next up we have Mr. Hayden. George Hayden. Thank you. Uh, my name is George Hayden. I'm the president operator of Hayden Power Group, a local contractor celebrating 50 years in the Hazel Township area, Hazelton, Pennsylvania. Um, I'm against the RCO. Uh we employ local people to be able to do all different types of work for Luzar County and we've been doing work in the county for many years. Uh as you know uh we have local people doing local work. This is a um a violation of the fair opportunity for other contractors to be able to bid on projects that are local and around the area. Um it doesn't allow for any open competition. you're actually uh scrutinizing uh companies like ours and other companies in the local area who pay taxes. It also increases the taxpayer u burden by not giving you uh by not allowing competition for all the different trades and all the different contractors in the area like ours who pay taxes on multiple businesses. And I just wanted to make sure make everyone understand that we are a local contractor and we're always trying to do good things for the county and I think it's in your best interest to look at this in a with a with a good eye and realize that this is going to affect a lot of small contractors and large contractors like us and some of them in the room and um I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hayden. Next up we have Corey Dunn. Hello, my name is Corey Dunn. I'm from Hanover Township. I hold in my hand a federal case that I filed against Loser County Children and Youth and Lutheran County themselves. Um, due to federal civil rights violation, Manelli claim, and RICO act addendum that was just recently added. Um, I'm here to provide notice to council. Um, I am Corey Dunn. I am a civil rights advocate here in Luern County. In accordance with S USCS rules of civil procedures as well as rules 17 and rule 20 of the United States Supreme Court, the Constitution of the United States have has the overreaching requirements that every state must follow. States cannot enact their own alternative legislation substituted for the guarantees of the Constitution of the United States. That would mean that state laws are more powerful than the Constitution, and that is unlawful. Clause one of amendment five states, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by grand jury." However, the state of Pennsylvania has enacted its own alternative legislation that permits prosecuting attorneys and police officers to charge by way of information as opposed to an indictment. That is unconstitutional. An imolment violation is when you pay a public official to break the law. The Constitution has two areas that enforces this. Article 1, section 10 says, "No state shall create any law that shall

impair the obligation of contract." Police officers, prosecutors, judges, children, and youth agents are all under a contract. A contract to perform based on the oath or affirmation that they took to support and defend the Constitution. Contract parameters are defined within the Constitution of the United States. And when a state an inferior law that directs their agents to disobey the Constitution of the United States, that is a violation of article 1, section 10. Also, this is reinforced in the 14th amendment. Um you will find issue of that there a state shall create no state shall create enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the United States citizens. The privileges and immunities of the United States citizens are at a minimum the most enamored within the bill of rights the first 10 amendments. Unfortunately, the state of Pennsylvania has enacted a law in its inferior constitution that permits public officials, judges, law enforcement officers to whom you all pay to violate the Constitution of the United States. As a result, there is an inordinate amount of people currently in prison in the state of Pennsylvania illegally and unconstitutionally. One, Mr. Tanowan Downing is legislating this issue in the United States Supreme Court and I am here to notify you on behalf of Mr. Downing that if you continue to pay public officials to break the laws, criminal sanctions can and will come from this. Officials must be made aware that paying people to disobey the law is an emolement violation. It is illegal.

Thank you. Your time's up. Thank you. Okay. Um, Mr. Zola. Okay. John Ola Sugarloaf again. So, Councilman McDermick, you said that PPL um told you they weren't servicing any data centers and some other stuff. Mr. Dool, you have to address your comments to the chair, please. Okay, Mr. Chair, that was mentioned. Okay. Did they put that in writing or did they just tell you that?

I I believe it's in writing. Is it What was I'm sorry. Can you repeat what it was? It was said that PPL told you guys that this five Sugarloaf 500 KV line would not service any data centers. Was that correct? They did not say that. They did not give us names of I could have swore you said that.

Right. They said if no new no new development a list of like they said if no new development comes in the line will still be still be constructed. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. Well, is any of that in writing or or did you just take what they said as the truth? The one thing that we have in writing and I know John said he'll either did or will forward it to you, the actual answers. Everything else was uh questions that we asked and notes that we jotted down ourselves. So, very similar to like when industry comes in and asks for Alerta. You don't ask for any

documentation. said they couldn't, and I don't know if if anybody else remembers this, they said they couldn't proprietary, right? Yes.

Well, that's what they tell everyone about every answer is they can't give you any answers. So, okay. I just wanted to see, you know, if you're acting on just what PPL's telling you or if they actually gave you physical documentation and evidence. And the second thing is I can't see that you have any scientific evidence that this moratorum would not have helped the cause. You're saying it wouldn't, but you're saying it wouldn't because PPL told you it wouldn't. Okay. But that's negotiations. I don't think PPL was going to roll over when you said we're going to put a moratorum on. But perhaps if you would have put the moratorum on, it would have caused a reaction. That's what we were hoping to see. But that's all water under the bridge. And my time's going to get close here. I just want to read this. This is something similar. Okay. The proposed power line is just the beginning of a much larger issue in southern Luzern County. People will soon find themselves living in the middle of an industrial park. The development of the perimeter areas such as Freeland, Driftton, Stockton, Beaver Meadows, Weatherly, Hazelton, Hazel Township, Sugarloaf, Black Creek will completely encircle the residents that live within. Education, recreation, public health, and overall well-being are being overshadowed by blind and misguided economic growth. Contrary to popular rhetoric, this type of development will not keep our brightest. if you just allow me a minute, will not keep our brightest young people home. Instead, it will drive them away because no one aspires to live in a place that prioritizes industrial expansion while sacrificing quality of life. The growth will demand thousands of new families to relocate here, placing unbearable strain on already inadequate infrastructure, overcrowded hospitals, schools, roads,

housing, police, and emergency services. I'm just about done. I'm sorry. This is poorly and hastily planned growth. It is like building a new home on a weak and crumbling foundation. It is time to slow down and create a comprehensive plan that values quality over quantity. We must first consider what our infrastructure can realistically support and then recruit only the most premier environmentally conscious companies to our ne to be our neighbors. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Z. Thank you.

All right, Mr. Senko. Good evening. Dr. Andy Seno, Sugarloaf Township. I'm not here tonight because some of this I'm here tonight because some of this council have forgotten the simple rules that I learned from my parents when I was a kid, just like many of you did. In fact, these rules are so important. Take a look at your preamble. They're hanging right there on the wall. I'm wondering if any of you have read that. For those of you who participate and practice with these rules, thank you for your time. For those of you who do not, these words are for you. The first lesson my parents taught me was to have courage and be be brave. They said, "Always do what's right, but know that that doing the right thing is often the hardest thing to do. Play nicely with others. on the playground. It meant sharing and playing nicely and fairly in this chamber. It means no surprises. No council member should drop a a rewritten resolution on the table without sharing with all the council members in advance. That's not teamwork. That's manipulation. And it breaks trust of the people that you represent. Another lesson they taught me, be yourself. When you bend your positions or change your words to fit a campaign narrative, you're not serving the people. You're serving yourself. Authenticity is the price of public office. If you're here for show or for political gain, you've already failed your oath. Another lesson, actions speak louder than words. I heard an awful lot of talking tonight, but I didn't see any action. Don't tell us you're outraged at PPL's letter while your actions show the opposite. Don't tell us you care and you're with

the people and then sit on your hands. We see it. Empty outrage means nothing. Action is what matters. Another lesson. Be honest. When a council member says that Luzern County's bond rating depends on massive development deals, that's not the full story. It's halftruth packaged as just as justification. Be honest with us. We can handle the truth. Another lesson, earn trust. 10-minute campaign theatrics during a board comment section is certainly not leadership. It's self-promotion. Saying you don't pick winners and losers while handing out tax breaks to outsiders, that's complete hypocrisy. Work with us, not around us, if you want trust. Otherwise, we'll find leaders who will. Honor your word. If you promise, deliver. If you can't say so, trust is built on follow through, not sound bites. Everyone is important. Another lesson my parents taught me. This council made a gold star father beg for basic relief just to stay in his home. Yet campaign donors, friends, and developers get red carpet treatment. That tells us exactly where your priorities are. These lessons are not complicated, but some of you have abandoned them. When faced with choices, you protect yourselves instead of the people you you swore that you were sworn to serve. That is not leadership. It's disappointing and it's betrayal.

Thank you, Mr. Senko. Anybody else in the audience for public comment? Uh, yeah. Go ahead. You first, sir.

Dan Eustace, Right Township. Um, what the council did tonight is sold us out. Sold yourselves out. You sold yourselves your souls to PPNL. If we can't stand up to the big guys, which we shouldn't have to, you're here to protect us, the citizens, and our well-being and our quality of life, not PPNL. And who is PPNL? Then what we ought to do, all of us, is go out and purchase a separate generator and tell PPNL, "Get lost. They're going to put this through whether we want it or not." Is that the way it should be? If it was going in your backyard, Harry, how would you feel? Rilda, any of you, if it was going in your backyard, what would you think?

If I had a rightway, I would certainly

I have a rightway where they come through. And now you want to talk about accidents happening on this guard land. We have a piece of property in Mountaintop where PPNL went through with a transmission line through a farm that's hundreds of years old and destroyed a piece of property that can't be used for anything else. And there are people on a regular basis who think because PPNL put that road through there, that's public property. I can drive through there. I can destroy other people's property off that because it's PPNL's. We have got to stop selling ourselves out. PPNL these big corporations billionaires should not have any right over common taxpayers. And if you can't believe that, what you did tonight is yes, you sold us out and you sold yourselves out to PPNL. And if we don't continue to fight PPNL, they're going to continue to get away with it. And we can't allow that because we have children and we have grandchildren and they deserve the best life that they can have. And it's not going to happen by PPL coming in here and say, "We're going to do whatever we want to do anyway." It's not right and we have to stand up to it and we have to correct it and you are part of that process and tonight you sold us out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. US. Uh Mr. Walsh,

Jamie Walsh, Russ Township. Uh just some of the things that were mentioned tonight um from many members. Uh, where did I put all my notes? A couple of things. Um, the fire department, you're right, they have a first class fire department. The reason that fire department was upgraded was so they could take care of the buildings that they have down there because of the buildings the data centers put in there. They had to upgrade their equipment. They had to upgrade their facilities in order to support this data center boom that's happening down there. So, you are correct about that. Property taxes have remained level. I was with a a realtor that's been down there for 25 years. Property taxes have remained level the last five to six years, she told me. And um for a million-doll property, she's paying $10,000 a month uh $10,000 a year on that property. Which brings me to property values. We were in a strip of town homes. I said, "How much are those town houses worth?" She said, "A million dollars." go to her house and she like has a house like in Liberty Hills. Beautiful. And I said, "How much is your house worth?" "A million dollars." Every house there is pretty much worth around a million dollars because that that the that's that's all that that's the highest they can get. That's the lowest that they'll get for these properties. And that's driven because it's right outside of Washington DC. And the population that's in DC will drive out there for it. um schools uh opportunity for young people. Um you talk to any business owner in this county, they can't find employees. There's plenty of opportunity here for young people. Everywhere you go, there's for for uh hire signs. You talk to any of these contractors, they can't find enough people to work for them. There's opportunity here. Stop telling us there's no opportunity.

Uh project creep in Salem Township right now. Now that Amazon has uh gobbled up 1500 acres, now they're asking for more industrial zones out in Salem Township. That's being voted on on the 16th. It's project creep. It just continues and continues and continues until this area is gone. Um your res your passing of this resolution tonight would have helped us build our case. You're right. This isn't the end- all beall, but it's one more layer that we can put when we go in front of the PUC and say, "Our county council is with us on this, but you didn't do that." Um, the reason PPL's communicating with you now is because they're being forced to they're being forced to talk to you now and tell you what's going on and they're still giving you halftruths. And um what's going to happen with the areas that potentially may not be developed here is there's going to be a major increase in the in the parks that we have and recreation areas that we don't we don't have enough now to service this area. And now when they gobble it all up in the Sugarloaf Valley now all these people are going to have to come to other parts of Lutheran County overcrowding and so on and so forth. But um That's all I got.

Thank you. Anybody else in the audience for public comment? All right, we have a couple of um people on the Zoom. First, Mark. Mr. Chair, this is Mark Rabo of Hazelton speaking. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to say that I'm not surprised, but I'm very disappointed as uh you and the other members of council have shown, Mr. Chair, that uh special interest and those who donate to uh camp political campaigns matter more than the people uh of the county, their property rights and their quality of life. That is a sad com, very sad commentary to say the least. Um, you know, I also would want to know as far as uh like what was stated by the good doctor and uh other members in in strong solidarity uh for the moratorum. This would have shown that you members of council were in solidarity with the people if PPNL were to use eminent domain against the property owners uh of the southern uh end of Lzern County and Sugarloaf and uh Escape and uh Bear Creek Township and all the areas affected. But you didn't. You sided with the special interest. And I I can't help but think that it uh that you're still uh your ears are still ringing from the uh filibuster 1 hour and 20 uh minute filibuster that your friend uh from the Northeast Alliance uh gave that letter are the end all beall. So I would like uh for you, Mr. chair and the other members of council to own up and say that you are for the special interests that uh economic development at the cost of at the expense of quality of life and uh and public safety of the people don't matter because you of all people as I said Mr. Chair are a public servant and also a first responder. your your duty

is to the safety and security of the people first, not for the special interest, but you've shown through your vote and the other council members vote that you contradicted yourself and you betrayed your own uh your own principles and your duty. It's it's very sad, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Rabbo. Next up, Annie V. Yes, thank you very much. Uh uh I'm happy to hear that Chairman Lombardo, you were able to speak with a supervisor from Lowden County. Do you mind telling me which one that was?

Uh I I'd have to actually look up her name, but I can uh I can email that to you if you don't mind. And I like I said, I'm happy to to share that information from that email with the with the public at large.

Absolutely. I I commend you for uh reaching out to them. I had the opportunity in um April to have a face tof face with uh the the uh vice chair of the Lowden County Board of Supervisors, Mike Turner down there, and he has uh written a very informative white paper. I've mentioned it a couple different comment uh sections and I think it would behoove all of council to read it especially listening to some of the comments from council members tonight who seem woefully um and lack of not showing a lack of knowledge uh in terms of grid buildout and and uh data center hypers scale development. I would uh recommend highly that you read that. That's just Google white paper uh Mike Turner Lowden County. It'll pop right up for you. I'd be happy to email that to all of you as well. uh and it will get into some of what Miss McDermott was speaking to which is that you can change zoning so that it is protective, fair and non-discriminatory towards data centers and towards uh the the average consumer. Uh you can do that by ending uh by right zoning etc. Um so it's happening. We we need to get with the times here folks. Um extremely disappointed this evening. Extremely disappointed. I would like to echo what many of the others said. Um, you know, none of you seem to continue to to want to talk about or continue to dance around the fact that, you know, Hazelton Area School District is the largest school district in your county. Very interesting. And it also happens to be the the school district that houses the state's largest industrial park, Humble Industrial Park. You have a lot of answering to do and a lot of critical thinking to do, council members and chair. I I hope that you will do that. Uh people remember things when when election time comes around and uh it would behoove you to remember who it is that voted you all in and u I just would would ask that you do that. Uh very very disappointing show tonight of we want

clean air, we want clean water, we want a quality of life. None of us are anti-progress or change, but they just clearcut hundreds of acres of land. So no, it's not all home banks. Respectfully, chair uh and blighted is not synonymous with uh reclaim mine land. So may may behoo everyone to look up some of those definitions as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss Beniti. Next up, Ashley Bart. So you mentioned that or it was mentioned that blighted land is dangerous. The only thing dangerous in this scenario was this choice made tonight. These choices that you are standing in line with to make in the future as what you've shown us through your actions tonight. Clearly, none of you that voted know have seen the property that this is going on. People's homes are not blighted. People's farms are not blighted, and they're not dangerous. So all of this shows a willful lack of knowledge, a willful ignorance to this whole scenario, which is wildly concerning for the entire future of this county for however long we're going to be in this 10, 20, 30 years. I don't know. It absolutely was said by Councilwoman McDermott that PP that she that she read that PPL said they would not be serving data centers. And I'm glad that's on record. So if you lied to us here, change your story and lie to us here. PPL lied to you and then you lie to us tonight. I would like to read the definition of dumb, temporarily unable or unwilling to speak. Make dumb or unheard silence. That is what you have done for us tonight. You have silenced us which is a act of author author authoritarianism quite frankly. It's embarrassing. You made a statement against us as the people tonight. You've made a statement against your county that we mean nothing to you. You've made a mistake because

you could have chosen to stand united with us and you've made it very clear that that is not your priority. You're the ones who have to sleep with that. The reason truly escapes me why you would choose to do what you chose. But let it be known that most of you chose the lies of PPL over the truth of this community and over reality. May the people of this county never forget that. It's incredibly disappointing. You've shown your cards tonight and thank you for showing us who you are. Thank you, Miss Bart. Before we continue, I just want to clarify that I did not say any person's property along the power line was a blighted property. That is not what I said. I was referring to properties that would be affected potentially by us having a moratorium on luras. As the lura law is very specific to what type of property we can give such a tax abatement to meaning it can only be on blighted land mostly it's used for mines guard land that is what I said I did not say anybody's land was considered a blighted property along this power line and this moratorum has nothing to do with the physical construction of the line it has to do with the granting of tax abatements that are allegedly related to to the line. But that is not that is not what I said. Next up, we have uh Mr. Eustace.

Yeah, I just wanted to say um Dan Eustace from White Haven. Um I mean I I know these are tough decisions. I I also I'm a volunteer burough councilman here at Penn Lake. Um, but I mean, while this may have not made any difference at all, you could have at least sent a message here, you know, and I thank Harry Hos for uh voting the way he did. Um, he gets it. He came out and talked to us at the last meeting that we were at. You know, he you could tell he cares about this. Um, and regarding these power lines, you know, that that they you know, Pennsylvania is the largest exporter of electricity. Um, so the people of this state aren't even, you know, they're not even going to benefit from this like in any and so PPL is going to make money at the expense of the people who live here. Um, and the quality of life for the people who live here is going to go down. Um, these data centers are going to they in Pennsylvania they're they receive tax breaks for the equipment in the centers. Um, they don't have to report it at all. They're trillion dollar companies receiving tax breaks from the state. As an example, I just put an addition on our house. I put three new doors in to get I think it was a $500 tax credit. I had to provide exact receipts for everything. Trillion dollar companies do not have to do any kind of reporting to receive these tax breaks. That's, you know, that's just something to think about. I know, you know, it's not it's a little off the topic, but but what's going to happen to this county all of a sudden? The good people who care about it are going to leave. Um, when all this stuff and this stuff's going to as it gets more and more comes in more and more, good people are going to leave and more people are going to get mad and just, you know, so

like Mr. Walsh said, there's plenty of opportunity around here if you want to work. Um, and these data centers aren't going to bring opportunity. I mean, they might they're going to look good for politicians because they're going to bring like five years, 10 years worth of high-paying jobs. So, it's going to look good in the short term and we're going to be left with minimal jobs, large land loss, and you know, I I just I' I'm not seeing the benefit here. So, but just wanted to say that and thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. used this. Next up, we have uh Miss Yur.

Hello. Um so in respect to um what council has spoken to on agenda 10 tonight um if you were all so disgruntled as we are then you should have put your money where your mouth is and voted yes to the moratorum and stood with us called them out stop letting PPNL do what they want and other big businesses. If more people um stand up, then maybe we can make a difference instead of just bowing down and letting them do what they want. I'm sorry I'm not speaking so eloquently, but I'm I'm angry. Too much anymore. Everyone just sits back and lets the powers that be run our lives, walk all over us and this country. I say stop. I'm very, very disappointed tonight. I don't even have a word to describe my disappointment. So that being said, in the future, I just hope that um you all can take some accountability for your seats that you sit in there and in the future stand up for our constitutional rights. Sleep well.

Thank you, Miss Yurish. Miss Jordan.

Um hello, uh Mr. Chair Lombardo. I just would like to say that my feelings on this are that the council is going to vote to tax break Lern County straight into poverty in the long run. So it would have very been would have been very good if we could have had a concerted effort of a show of force this evening. And also while the meeting was going on, I happened to look through the Pennsylvania Constitution. So I did not find the wards ppl in our constitution once, but I did find this natural resources and the public estate. The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. yet to come. And as a trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people. So if the vote would have been instead of 9 to one, and I thank Mr. Harry Haw for voting for the Lerta, if it would have been 10 to zero in favor of it, we may have just preserved those natural resources for not only ourselves but the future generations. Thank you all.

Thank you, Miss Jordan. All right, hearing no other public comment. Uh oh, wait. I apologize. Let me read the second part of this uh email from uh Miss Cochan. Uh for the work session, uh number five, zoning grant. We strongly encourage council, the county manager, zoning department to move forward as quickly as possible to update the zoning ordinance to adequately protect Lozer County residents from the rapidly approaching negative effects of data centers in the county. Too many communities are ruined because they did not have zoning protections on the books before the developer approached them with their data center plan. Number nine, voting machines. We appreciate the county working towards election integrity and hope the new voting machines, which are complying with federal election right security regulations, will alleviate many of the vast problems voters have endured during the election process. We look forward to the county changing its negative image around election and voter integrity. Okay. Is there a motion to adjurnn?

All in favor? Opposed? 7:54. Can we restart at 8:00 p.m., please? That be okay. Okay. All right. Thank you.

All right, council members, it's 8:00. Please take your seats so we can get started with the work session. Thank you. Council members, please take your seats so we can get started with the uh work session. Thank you.

All right, council members. Is everybody uh Okay, everybody. All right, it's 8:03 8:04 now. I'd like to call the work session to order. We've already had the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence. Mr. Hos. Miss Krishnowski here. Mr. Lascavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith. Miss Stevenson. Mr. Thornton. And Mr. Wovich here.

And Mr. Lombardo here. There's seven. I think seven. Yep. Joanne is still here. She's still here. Oh, and uh Miss Stevenson said she'd be on uh via Zoom, but just uh I mean, you know. Okay. Any additions to deletions from the work session agenda? Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? Second. All in favor? I opposed. All right. Agenda is adopted. Number one, midyear financial report. Miss Rosselle. He said, "Set the timer." Can you hear me?

Yes. All right. Come on. We're do this in a couple minutes. Um, so many of you are going to I mean, you you've already seen these numbers, right, when I did the report for the month of June, but I'm officially per section 8.04 04 of the Lzern County Admin code. We're presenting the midyear report which again goes through June 30th. You go the next one. H. Yeah. Okay. So, um the

no there you go. Okay. So, the first slide that you have are the budget by account classification report. Those are major classifications of both the revenues and the expenses. Um, again, everything that's been reported on before. Go to next. This graph shows our midyear revenue totals compared to the same time last year. So, right as of June 30th of 2025, we are at 130,973707. And this at this point in time last year we were um below that we were at 126 287039. The next slide shows the next slide shows some revenue other than our taxes. Obviously our taxes are a major revenue stream but we do have some other things um fees that we collect from our judicial services department which accounts for a decent portion of our revenue. Um some other smaller components are the fines, um some grant revenue, um interest. You'll see that we obviously have increased our interest every year. Um and uh rent, we've also increased that. The next slide shows our mid-year expense total. So as you saw, our revenue increased. I mean, our expenses also have increased a little bit. So in 2025 our expenses so far are 58,516 375 and our expenses at this point last year were 57562169. So if you look at that just as a percentage um you'll see that we are seeing of course within the parameters um of our budget and um we are at our general fund actual expenditures are at about 38% of our budgeted amounts and our revenue at this point in time well as of the end of June um we're at 78% of our budgeted amounts. Next, just to highlight some things um for this year. Um we all know that Luzar

County did receive American Rescue Plan funds in the amount of 112,890,152. During the first half of 25, our spending has been pretty consistent with what it was like in 2024. Um we've spent 11.7 million so far in the first half of 25. In 24 it was 10 about 11 million, 10.973. through June of 2025, the interest that we've received, which I report on every month through inception, is $8.9 million. And 1 um 062 of that was actually received in 2025. And next, in addition to the American Rescue Plan funds, we also have our opioid settlement funds that we've received. So through June of this year, we've received 11.7 million so far. About 5 million of that has already been obligated. We have only dispersed though about 1.4 million. We are also earning interest on those funds that we're holding. So far since uh so far as of June 30th, we have received 467,543. Next, so just a few highlights for 2025. Um you know, a couple things have happened in the last meeting. We know that we just um we approved the bond restructure. So we have that going on. Our 2024 financial audit report was finalized on time and reflected an unmodified opinion and we're currently on track to stay within like I said before our budget revenue and our expenses for calendar year 2025. So I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. Um you know as um I'm happy to do that. So does anyone have any questions?

Mr. Sabatino. Good evening Miss Roselle. Um thanks for the report. We appreciate it. I had a question on the interest on the opioid funds. Do does do those funds have some of the same restrictions that the ARPA funds have or are they the funds themselves? Yes, they do have similar restrictions but the interest we could use on anything. Thank you. And we have not used it on anything yet. That's you haven't touched it yet. Any other questions from council members? Hey, thank you. All right. Thank you, Miss Roselle. Number two, re receive and discuss division reports August 2025. as

Thank you. Thank you, Walter. Uh, as always, uh, if you have any questions, uh, about the report, you can call me, email me, uh, and, uh, text me. Um, I just want to uh remind council uh that we will be having the se September 11th uh memorial on September 11th, Thursday. Uh it begins at 8:30 uh here in the Rotunda. It will last about an hour. Um we will have um the MMI Black Diamond uh coral uh group uh singing. Uh there will be comments uh by uh Chairman Lombardo and uh the honorable judge uh Tina Powchek Gartley. Uh we will also have uh string quartet uh musicians from the uh northeastern Pennsylvania, Philarmonic. Uh we will also have uh arriving tomorrow uh the uh 911 memorial flag uh which has traveled across the country. Uh it is made up of close to 3,000 small American flags and 86 uh other national flags uh sewn together to represent each of the victims who lost their lives uh on that fatal day. Uh it is created uh by a community. its handmade flag and it's a vision of Thomas McBrine uh who uh will be escorted uh into uh the county and into uh the building uh so that we can um

put the flag in the rotunda and honor uh all the victims of September 11th. Thank you, Manager Cropo. Uh, okay. Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. Next up, discussion regarding resolution authorizing the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to close a portion of Honey Hole Road for a bridge replacement project. Mr. V.

Good evening. Um, Pendot is conducting a project on I80 and SR309 interchange. Um for this project we need to close Honey Hole Road which is a Luzern county owned road for uh portions of time for time period of 2027 through 2033. Um they are doing both the eastbound and westbound bridges over Honey Hole Road. Um any questions? Any questions for council members? So, they're just looking to be able to utilize the road for their construction. Correct. Yes. There'll be detours in place.

Okay. Any questions?

All right. Thank you. Number four, discussion regarding resolution approving a contract with the Ziggman Company for insurance risk management services. Um, every three years we put out an RFP for risk management services. Since we don't have um an insurance professional per se on staff, we use the risk manager to look out for the county's best interest. Um, there were two proposals received. Um, there was a selection committee made up of county staff and we have recommended Ziggman and Company. Courtney Scarandella is here. I hope I didn't butcher your name. I'm sorry. Um, she's here to answer any questions that you may have. Um she has been with the company for I want to say what five years. Prior to that we dealt with Ruth Moroski Keller. Um she is kind of working on retirement. Um so Courtney is our contact person now but she's here if anybody has any questions.

Any questions? All right. Thank you, Miss Bar. Thank you. All right. Number five. discussion regarding resolution authorizing the county manager to apply for a municipal assistance grant to aid in funding an updated zoning ordinance.

So, uh, Mr. Reese and I are here. Um, we had come to a prior work session where we were going to be applying for a MAP grant, but we would use it to, uh, cover costs associated with a consultant. However, we got one proposal back and it was for over $180,000. So, obviously, we do not have the $90,000 cash match. Um, so what we did was we went back and had a conversation with DCED and we can actually apply for a grant to do it in-house. Um, so our match would be the inind services and Dan's here to elaborate if you have any other questions. Uh, is there an advantage to potentially doing it in-house rather than uh farming it out to somebody else? Cost really.

Okay. Otherwise, the quality of the of the updated ordinance would basically be very similar. You think? I mean, this is my first go around updating a zoning ordinance. So, it's been done in house ever since we've had a zoning ordinance. Understood. So, we haven't had a consultant do it in the past. Okay. All right. So, it's not a really a deviation of anything we typically do. All right. That's good. Any questions? Thank you. Yep. Number six, discussion regarding resolution approving an extension of lease with King's College for parking at River Street between West Jackson and North Streets. Wilsberry for fiscal year 2026.

We've been uh with a lease uh with King's College for the upper parking lot uh for years and this is just uh an extension of that. Thank you. When was the last time that we did this uh a lease with them? It was somewhat recently, wasn't it? Two years ago. Two years ago. Okay, any other questions? All right, next up, discussion regarding resolution adopting a fund balance policy.

Hello again. Sorry I left that mic on. Um, you'll see in your packet that we've attached an ordinance, a proposed ordinance adopting an official fund balance policy. We've talked extensively about the fund balance that exists um on our financials. I know there have been several questions. Um, right now the fund balance sits at approximately 28 27 million. It was at 28 million. Now it's a 27 million25 at the end of our 2024 audit. When the auditor came and presented um the audit to council, they talked about the fund balance and kind of what industry norm was as far as what our target should be. And he talked about three months. And right now we're sitting at 2.7 months. So we're we're actually very close to where he was suggesting we be. In addition, as part of the boundary structure, we've had a um a rating call with S&P. So in the rating call with S&P, one of the questions they asked us was regarding our fund balance, how healthy it was, you know, how many months we had and if we had an official policy. So that's why we are at this point in time trying to adopt an official policy, which will help of course going forward um in just helping us with our credit rating. um help ju just like if you were to get a mortgage on a personal level. I mean, the county is obviously a much larger issue, but um you know, we need to make sure that we have funding and we have a reserve in place so that when we do, you know, need to go um possibly borrow if there's a disaster or something like that that would occur, you know, our creditworthiness is really high and that we have no issues with that. So, does anyone have any questions about it?

Any questions? Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Number eight, discussion regarding the ordinance to define the qualification of a responsible contractor. Any uh uh manager Crocomo, did you want to make any remarks on this? I know several of us have been

No, but we've been uh working on the responsible contractor ordinance uh and actually uh council uh woman uh Stevenson uh has spearheaded it. uh we understand uh the issues uh that have been raised this evening. Uh uh I believe that uh this ordinance uh addresses those issues. Um and uh that uh the input uh from the council members uh u created uh the final product.

Any other council members have any comments on this? I know that there's been um there Oh, Miss Stevenson.

Yes. Sorry. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to those council me members who were able to review and um, manager Kroamo for the the constant communication and work that's sort of gone into creating multiple revisions of the RCO. Um, if you have further concerns or, you know, haven't yet reviewed, please uh, reach out and let us know. Um, but I I do feel like many of the um, issues that were brought up have been um, sort of addressed in the new in the new copy presented to Yeah. So that I mean this is this is I know that there are uh members of the public and of the um of the uh uh construction community that have come out and had uh you know comments and questions and concerns about it. Um but please just just make sure that you're reading the current iteration of the responsible contracting ordinance. Um, and if you have any specific concerns about this iteration, then, uh, we'd be happy to answer and and potentially, um, you know, u potentially make some alterations or or or whatever, you know, would make this more amaniable. Um, but this this iteration has been, uh, you know, has been going through conversation for, uh, several months now, and, uh, we have changed it several times. Um, so I know members of council that introduced this are satisfied with it as it is to, uh, bring to the public for their consumption. And obviously you have, you know, the ability to uh speak on it whether in support or against it. And uh that's pretty much all I have on that for now. Anybody else?

That's agre uh agreed. If there are issues, uh send them to us and we'll address them.

Okay. All right. There's nothing else on that. We'll move to number nine. Uh discussion regarding the voting machine recommendations. Good evening everyone. Uh so following a comprehensive review of the responses from our voting machine RFP, uh the Bureau of Elections conducted interviews with four of the vendors that submitted um one-on-one interviews and then all of the vendors were invited to the county to do an in-person uh demonstration. Uh thank you to Councilman Lombardo and Sabatino for for coming to um the the demonstration. Uh following that, the bureau staff made uh several visits to surrounding counties and counties um that do use the systems that we were reviewing. Um and as a result of our research and you do have our full uh report in front of you, uh we are recommending to move forward with uh HART interciv authorize us to move forward with them into fiscal year 2026.

Okay. Um and the purchase of this equipment will come from the election integrity grant. Is that correct? No. So it would be uh we're actually recommending a lease agreement for five years. Okay. Um and that would be a general fund expense. It is already covered in our uh in our proposed budget for 2026. Understood. Any other comments from Miss McDerman? If we just saying if we were to keep the Dominion machines, where would that money come from anyway? That would have to it would be a whole year. I mean we purchased the machines but we would have had to do a maintenance agreement with them again.

Correct. So we we would have either needed to extend the existing contract or to u purchase new equipment through them um as part of their which would have come again from the general fund. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Sabatino. Um, in the cost of the lease for in the cost for the lease um of the equipment and then uh the ancillary uh things uh that would come along with this uh is does any of that include the printing of the ballots?

So I did put the uh ballot paper and the costs of the printed emergency ballots under our additional information sheet. Um, as it stands currently, we print emergency ballots for every voter in the county. Um, because we use the ballot marking devices in the event of catastrophic equipment failures, we need to be prepared, um, to ensure that every voter is able to vote. So that doubles our cost essentially where we're purchasing the blank ballot stock for our ballot marking devices, programming the 720ome ballot marking devices used throughout the county and additionally purchasing printed emergency ballots. So this would sort of cut those costs in half on um for election preparation and for the ballots themselves. So the total of 851,000 includes the printed ballots for every voter in the county.

Correct. So that would be under the printed emergency ballots. The 130 some thousand a year. And and do we forgive my ignorance on this one, but do we have to have a printed ballot for every voter for every person?

Because we use the ballot marking devices. we could get uh printed ballots for every registered voter minus the registered voters that are receiving a mail-in ballot. However, again, best practice is in the event of catastrophic equipment failure or whatever else may occur. Um because as we know, voters will go to the polls and surrender their mail and ballots to vote at the polls. Um, so best practice would be to have one ballot for every registered voter. Thank you.

Is uh I just have a question. Is the is that policy of printing an emergency ballot for every voter is that something that has been developed over the last couple of years or is that something we've so that's happened since uh the since 2022. Yes.

Since 2022. Okay. All right. That that's understandable. And this obviously will help alleviate some of those issues. And um just I I know that I I did attend that um demonstration. Very informative. It was a great uh great situation. I highly recommend council members to please go when when there is um you know the further demonstration of these machines and even to just go to the logic and accuracy testing for the um for the election board and the election bureau as it stands. It's it's always a great learning experience for me. There's always a great question that's asked, something that's answered. Um the bureau and the board does a fantastic job at that. Um just with these particular machines, this um the paper that's being used, can you talk about that? Is it um is it does it involve anything printed ink or anything or is it like a is it a a printer?

Thermal printer. That's what I was thinking of. Yes. on the um the machine ones which would be used for the um the ADA um Bandhava requirements in each precinct. We will still have one ballot marking device for each precinct as we're required to. Um those use thermal printer paper. Um the other ballots are just the printed ballots paper just like you would see currently with the the mail and ballots. Um, and those would be uh printed through our our vendor,

right? And then those uh regular ballots would be uh filled out by hand by a voter and then they would be fed into a ballot tab tabulator device which will indicate to you um if you've overvoted, undervoted, and uh other potential errors that might be with the ballot before you cast it. Correct. Yes. All of those issues would be able to be corrected by the voter at the polls um instantly. they could choose to spoil that ballot should there be an overvote, undervote, ambiguous marks. Um those would be settings that we would alert the voters to um before they've even attempted to cast the ballots. All right, any other questions? Mr. Sabatino,

um I noticed in your report that your anticipated cost for temporary staff is going down $8,000. Correct.

What is the reason behind like what is the reasoning? So currently we are because of the volume of equipment that we use um and the setup with our current system um within their software we're require we in order to meet the deadlines for certification need to have more of an excess of temporary staff to assist with processing ballots um preparing machines, opening equipment, all of the the wonderful things that happen behind the scenes. Um, but if you want to stop by our office the day after the election, it's total chaos, but very, very informative for anyone who hasn't seen um what it's like unpacking 186 locations worth of equipment. Um, but that would be reduced because of the way that the those processes would occur within Hart's system. Um, we're anticipating a much much lower need for temporary staff.

And one more followup. I know I read in one of the newspapers that you're going to be doing your own logic and testing.

Correct. Because we will no longer be using 720 ballot marking devices, 226 precinct scanners, and five uh central count scanners. We're going to be preparing and testing 186 precinct sc or uh ballot marking devices, 226 precinct scanners, um and the five uh central count scanners, and that significantly reduces the need to have bodies in in order to program them. We would be able to manage that with our current staff. Would you do me a favor and email council uh what the cost would be for HART to do that and

uh uh any other cost that would be associated with all from heart Mr. Wovich? Yes. City you're testing 186 ballot. Do we have extras in case something happens to one of them? Yes. Okay. Okay. Go ahead. Mr. Krishnowski. I was just curious since they're going to be using a new are new equipment, the old equipment, what are you doing with it, can to get money back for it?

So, we're looking at a combination of of avenues in order to um offset some of the costs, which would be selling consumables, equipment. you know, we have I think we have approximately 800 small HP desktop printers uh in stock currently and several hundreds of toner cartridges for those. So, there are consumables that are able to be resold and pending council's approval of the contract with HART, we would be looking pretty much immediately at at what avenues we can take to offload those pieces of equipment. We're also looking at maximizing the equipment uh and supplies that we have inhouse um in terms of some of the carts that we have are still very usable. Changing some of our processes internally um for transporting supplies to the pole workers instead of the I know you were a pole worker for a very long time. So, the the judges bags that we've been sending out, um most of those supplies could be sent out in a single cart in addition to everything else that comes from the bureau.

It would it would make it a lot easier for our workers and a lot easier um for our staff as well. And I just because you you have less. Are you lowering the amount of precincts that there are? No, we have the the same number of precincts until uh somebody petitions the court to combine any of them. Okay, thank you. Um, attorney Sche has a question. Your microphone, please. It sounds like the adjudication will be simpler if the errors could be corrected right at the machine.

Correct. So adjudication of um those issues that we discussed, overvotes, under votes, ambiguous marks, um would be primarily addressed at the polls. Um and that would be something that I would work with the board of elections moving forward as to how we would process those um into 2026 and and moving forward. Um, additionally, the the setup within HART's system is a little bit more intuitive. Um, where instead of those of you who have witnessed our right in adjudication have seen how we're reviewing entire ballots in order to get to one contest within the system that we're looking at, we would adjudicate one contest at a time. So, you would see all of the writings for that contest. And I believe we are looking to do a full system endto-end demonstration for members of council um in the next week or so.

Uh Mr. Sabatino then Miss Krishnowski. Sorry. Um as I've expressed to you before, I I have a concern with paper ballots, you know, over the ballot marking devices. Um, you're taking the temporary staff down, but how are how does this system address people's handwriting on their for their writings? And, uh, with a lesser staff, how do you anticipate any problems with the primary having different ballots for different precincts, like getting them out and and to the the the right precincts? And

do you anticipate like phasing staff down a little bit over time or

I think the the primary difference is that instead of needing to bring in extra hands to do pack this, tie this seal. That's where our our temporary staff reduction is coming in. the the bulk of what you're describing, the ballot preparations, the um contest, all of the assignments for the ballots would be managed by full-time bureau staff. I will be the one doing our ballot programming. Um and so those costs would be reduced for the temporary staff that are handling all of the I need you to put all of these supplies into alphabetical order. um and less of us being rellyant on a vendor or temporary staff. So it will be managed by the bureau which is currently fully staffed. So

understood. And how does the system address the handwriting issue? Like so handwriting the the writeins would be viewed in the snippets. It would show only the what is written into the the box. And I actually do have Kelly from Hart if you want to come up and sort of describe how writings are processed or I know we have online. Perfect. Awesome. So, we do have uh Lety online uh and she can speak to some more of the the details. Harry.

Hi. Can you hear me? Uh, we cannot hear you. You can hear. Is there an issue with the TV? Maybe. One second, ma'am. Okay. All right. Do you want to try again? All right. Go ahead. See if we can hear you now. Okay. Can you hear me now? I I can

I I can I can hear that she's talking, but I It's very faint on on the uh speakers here. She she'll have to turn her mic up. Ma'am, could you I don't know if you could turn your mic up or if you're maybe have it positioned in a way that we can't we can't hear you almost at all. Okay, let me see if I can turn it up. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay.

Is this any better? Uh, not really. a very little bit but maybe um when we do our demonstration end to end that that question would be answered. Yeah, I I think that would be okay. Okay. Uh to do but Okay. So, sorry. Uh Miss uh Miss Krishnowski, I was just wondering is there any way to give whoever votes a copy of what they voted? Because that's a big huge thing because when back before when you would vote, you would get a slip and you'd go vote and you'd hand it to the person. So, you never got that you voted. Is there any receipt that they have that they voted?

I don't believe so. And just just as with the the current voting machines, there wouldn't be any like ballot print that they take. They would have their printed ballot when they check in at the polls. Um they would receive their their ballot from the the workers at the location, right? And you usually get a paper and you give that paper to the person that's taken to the machine. There is no more machine the voting slip, right? That's from the electronic poll book. That that is not changing. So, do they still get to get that and keep it? Well, they are not supposed to keep it. They were supposed to return it to the pole workers. That's what I'm just asking if they because I know that was a big thing told to me that people wanted to have something that said that they voted.

Um the the poll books do still print the voting slips, but those are supposed to be returned to the the bureau. Yep. Any other questions, council members? All right, thank you very much. All right, that concludes our agenda. We now have public comment. Um, anybody in the audience, public comment? Mr. Griffith, sorry, I did have your slip up there. I I already gave it to Sharon, though.

That was okay. That's fine. Yeah. And and I thank u Emily for the um good presentation on that equipment. And one of the questions that I had was the ballot marking devices that are going to be used for the handicapped accessible people. I assume and I'm I don't want to assume but are they going to be Dominion machines that we keep or are we going to use heart interactive machines? They're heart everything's heart. Okay. All right. Cl Thank you. because my concern was is there going to be a programming for the Dominion machines for the 186 pre precincts that have a U ballot marking device which that is not obviously the case. Thank you. I I wanted to ask that. Uh, my other point that I wanted to raise is I I've noticed in the paper where Wils Bear City is applying for a $2.1 million grant or a something for the gaming funds and I noticed the request that he's asking for doesn't include any infrastructure and I was kind of curious as to, you know, we gave him a $500,000 loan to fix the Cunningham sewer line and he's asking for $2.1 million from the gaming funds to do fix the fountain and some other things in this that I just don't know if he should pay that 500,000 out of that 2.1 million. Just a just a question as to why he's not asking for uh money to fix the or money to fix the infrastructure of the city. Uh

controller uh Griffin that that they're applying for that LSA grant on our behalf because we cannot apply on our own.

Oh, is that 2.1 is the LSA grant? Thank you for the clarity on that. I wasn't sure. I did see that in a paper and I I was a little bit disappointed that but that explains that and the other issue is on on number six where we extension of the lease. Thankfully we did increase that from over the years. It's steadily been increased. Kudos to administration for increasing the rent on that lot. I would really like to see us go after the act 13 uh reimbursement part that we're trying to work on. And I know that was something that was brought up many years ago about the riverfront committee and Kings and Wilks and all have a partnership in that process and we're still still working on that whole process. So if we can continue to work with that, they're here looking for the extension of the lease. It might be a good opportunity to to get them to participate in that uh contract agreement for the act 13 stuff. So thank you. That's all I have. Thanks, Mr.

Griffin. Anybody else public comment? Anybody else in the audience? Anybody on the Zoom? Is there a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Meetings adjourned. Thank you very much.