Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

At this time we'll start the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors meeting. Please stand with me and say the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Mr. Gallardo, could you please call the roll?

Absolutely. Ms. Hanna?

Here.

Mr. Layton? Here. Ms. Kane?

Here.

Mr. Kesiak? Here. Also in attendance are the interim township manager, Ms. Stephanie Teeley-Coles, township solicitor, Mr. Esposito, and township engineer, Mr. Kessler.

Thank you, Mr. Kesiak. Thank you, Supervisor Gallardo. Our next Board of Supervisors meeting will be Monday, September 14th at 7 o'clock p.m. We have some special items and announcements. GRIVEN at the Gates will be held on Saturday, September 26th from noon to 5 p.m. at Forsythia Crossing Park. Also, we have our Summer Recreation Charity Check presentation. Ms. Tierney, our supervisor, do we have somebody from, Someone here from Fostering Hope. Fostering Hope. We do have somebody from Fostering. Could you please come to the podium, please?

So I'll get started. This summer, our summer rec campers once again had the opportunity to participate in our annual Charity Car Wash. This program has previously earned Excellence in Parks and Recreation Award for Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society. The Charity Car Wash teaches our campers the importance of giving back and being active, caring members of the community. Each year our campers choose a local organization to support with proceeds from the event. This year, our campers chose to donate proceeds to Fostering Hope. It's a volunteer-driven nonprofit that supports and fosters community by providing essential items including clothing, baby gear, toys, books, and duffel bags at no cost to foster adoptive families. This truly is a Kids Helping Kids fundraiser, and we are incredibly proud of our campers for making a difference in the lives of other children and families in our community. On behalf of our 300 plus campers who participated in the most enthusiastic car wash you would ever see, our summer staff, our program coordinator, Joanne Morelli, and the entire Parks and Recreation staff, we are proud and honored to present this check of $1,535 to Fostering Hope of Floribucks County. So you want to come out for a picture?

Yes, would you like to say anything?

Yeah, you can say something.

Sorry, a little less formal than we usually are here, I feel like. So good evening. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. I'm Sarah Burstein. I'm one of the volunteer leaders from Fostering Hope Lower Bucks. On behalf of everyone in our chapter, we just wanna say how incredibly grateful we are to the Middletown Township Parks and Recreation Department, the camp staff, most importantly, all of the kids who took part in the car wash, because this is the third summer in a row, as she said, that the camp has held this fundraiser for us, and it means so much to us, not just to receive this donation, but there's really especially something meaningful about knowing that these young people spending their time and energy during the summer, getting involved, and learning firsthand what it means to give back to their community. As she said, at Fostering Hope Lower Bucks, our goal is to help children experiencing foster care feel a little more secure, a little more comfortable, and most importantly, valued and loved. And for those who don't know, we are a fully volunteer-run and donation-driven organization, so we are fully supported by fundraisers such as this one and donations in kind. And so the money raised tonight really can help us provide so many different things for these children, as mentioned, like dignity duffels, which are duffel bags that we can fold up that they don't have to move their stuff in trash bags. Everything from clothing and toiletries to school supplies and sporting equipment to furniture, beds and desks and dressers, birthday presents for those who wouldn't otherwise have them, as well as actually cell phones for teenagers to help them really foster more independence. And then we also do experiences because sometimes it's not about giving them a thing, but letting them do something and experience something that makes them feel like their classmates and their neighbors and their friends who, you know, just want to feel like normal children. So we are extremely grateful for this donation and the time that went into raising it and giving these kids an opportunity to do something positive for kids in their community who they've never even met. So we hope they know that what they did matters. So again, thank you. Thanks to all the kids, the counselors, the families, and everyone who made this car wash possible. We are really thankful to be a part of a community that teaches its children not only to have fun, but to give back.

Thank you. At this time, we are going to have the swearing in of our new township manager, Mr. Christopher Hoffman, if you could please come up to the desk.

We don't have enough hands. We don't. All right. Christian, you want to hold the Bible?

Thank you. Okay, here we go. I, Christopher Hoffman, do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania I will faithfully, impartially, and diligently discharge the duties of the Office of Township Manager of Middletown. You know what? Let me go back. Hold on. No, no, no. I went too far. I went too far. I'm so excited. You have no idea. Okay. That I will faithfully, impartially, and diligently discharge the duties of the Office of Township of Manager of Middletown Township.

Discharge the duties of the Office of Township Manager of Middletown Township. Of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

That I will uphold the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

I will uphold the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

And the ordinances, policies, and lawful actions.

The ordinances, policies, and lawful actions. Of Middletown Township.

Of Middletown Township. And that I will faithfully serve the Board of Supervisors.

And that I will faithfully serve the Board of Supervisors.

And the residents of Middletown Township. with integrity and in the best interest of the community. Thank you.

I'm so sorry.

Thank you. I know. That was quite the oath. We're serious here in Middletown Township.

Okay.

All right. At this time, we have public comment, non-agenda items. Do we have a sign-in sheet or anything like that? Thank you. Navin Smarma?

Yeah, Naveen Sharma.

Naveen Sharma.

590 Atkinson Lane, Maple Point Development. So thank you for the opportunity to take a few minutes to speak. Is this so loud? Okay, so I am a member of the Financial Advisory Committee of the Township. And in our last meeting, we were provided, we had every question asked for a, just to look at the Middletown Township Police Pension Fund plan, or the information. And just for our own sake, because that's not what our job is, not that is financial advisory, right, for the township. So we took a look at it and I was looking through it. I became concerned about what's in it. And this is the document. It basically talks about the assets and so forth and so on. So I said, our police protect us and we need to protect them. And so I wanted to give some comments about my concerns here. And I'm happy to discuss further if anyone wants to talk about it afterwards. My experience is I've been in the financial industry for 35 years. I've been a senior risk manager at some of the largest asset managers and insurance companies in the U.S. And so that's sort of the experience I bring to this. Now I will, one caveat I will add is that there may well be other documents that I haven't seen. So what I'm saying is based on what I see here, which I think is supposed to be a fairly complete document. Okay. Good news first. The holdings seem to be fairly liquid. So what that means is you can get out of the market if you need to, if markets go down, that's one. And I don't see very many private assets, which tend to be fairly illiquid and can create problems that you may have read in the newspapers as issues that are going around the industry. Now, some concerns. And this is what I read in here. So pension plans are an asset liability management exercise to match the typically what we call the interest rate durations to the durations of the liabilities to the assets. Now in here, there's nothing about liability metrics and there's no information on liabilities in here, which I'm surprised that ought to be in here if you're talking about a plan document, one. Number two, because there's no metrics, you don't know what the duration is, interest rate risk, in other words, of the assets and the liabilities. So you can't really tell how well that's matched up or not, which is very important because you want to get rid of interest rate risk on an asset liability basis. Also, it doesn't say anything about whether the plan is underfunded or not. So if it's underfunded, that affects the mix, and I don't know that because it's not in here. Next comment, asset mix. In my opinion, and by the way, I'm not certified to give advice, but as a risk manager, I'm making my observations and what I've read, okay? I think the equity mix is too high, and the fixed income mix is too low. Equities are 54% of the portfolio. And what's even more surprising to me and concerning is that the range of equities allowed is 0% to 70%. So what we're saying is giving the talk field that manages it up to 70% leeway to go into equities, which is unfathomable to me. And fixed income is 44%. Next comment. Of the top 10 core equity holding, in other words, stock holdings, include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Palo Alto, Microsoft. Very high volatility tech names. They move a lot. And to me, that just seems risky as part of your top 10. Next comment. What's really important when you're doing risk, particularly in equity, there's certain key metrics you have to show. I mentioned duration. There's also volatility. What's the volatility of your portfolio, of your individual stocks versus, for example, the liability you have to deal with? Not there. Terms called beta, terms of tracking error, which all reflect how you are managing a portfolio relative to the benchmark and to liabilities, that's not in here. So obviously that comes along with the concern here. Next comment, rate of return. If you look at the rate of return in here, it shows the return of the portfolio which has equities and fixed income and some other assets. But there's no information on the balanced return of the portfolio. What is really put from the balanced basis of the benchmark? So it shows equity holdings, equity benchmark, and fictional benchmark together is not listed in there, which doesn't make sense. It's a portfolio, so you should have the total picture.

Let's see what else, something, yeah.

And if you look at this thing, if you look at the equities in the fund have underperformed the S&P 500 for year to date, one year, three year, five year, 10 years. Asset mix, what are some things that I mentioned could be part of the reason, but they've underperformed. And it's likely because the high volatility of these top 10 holdings and whatever else was in there. So clearly something is not working there. And then the last thing I will say is hopefully there's someone in the township who's reviewing the pension plan's assets and conducting their own due diligence on what Tocqueville is managing. I don't know, of course. For example, has anyone compared, also an example could be, has anyone compared the asset mix in this with other municipalities? So I think there's some concerns, you know, our police, are obviously our first responders, and it's important to protect their future. And I would urge and suggest that someone look through this and get involved to make sure that the volatility and all the other things that I mentioned are under control. That's all I have to say. Any questions? Can I ask questions?

I might be able to answer.

Thank you, Ms. Tilly-Cools. I might be able to answer a couple of questions for you. I'm not sure what document you're looking at, but there are extensive documents related to the pension plan, including the actuarial evaluation. It looks like you might just have a quarterly report. I'm not 100% sure, but first it's important that you understand there is an actual pension committee that is made up of members of the police union and they meet quarterly. Our finance director, Laura Hucklebridge, who is a CPA is involved and attends those quarterly meetings to review the performance and the investment program. There is an investment policy statement which is recommended by the committee and adopted by the board. It's been a long time since that is updated but that asset mix that you identified is part of that investment policy statement. I think that you raising the point that the portfolio is underperforming the benchmark is very important and we will definitely take a look at that.

Yeah, so you would never have a range of 0 to 70 if somebody has closely looked at the policy statements, for example. So, yes, so I assume there's obviously lots of details. And so whatever the boundaries are, clearly to me seem to be too wide, and there's other issues, as I just mentioned about that. And if it's a quarterly statement, I want to see if it's a pension plan, if it's asset liability management, I want to see what the liability numbers are in here and all the risk metrics. Nothing's in here by the asset mix.

You can certainly make a right-to-know request, and we can get all that information to you.

Okay. I'm, as a citizen, offering my concerns as somebody who's been doing this work for 30 years, and you can take it for what it's worth, but I'm concerned about the police pension plan. Thank you.

Thank you. We appreciate you. We have Lynn Dobley.

Linda Opley, 314 Greenwich Road in Pencrest. It has recently come to our attention that an apartment-type facility has been sold, and our lovely families have been replaced by some people that we don't really know what they are, what they're doing. I can tell you they're disruptive. This is 413 North Pine Street. And we've been trying to get some answers on what is going on there, the community, and we are getting nowhere. So we would like tonight to see if we could get some answers about who owns it, who's living there, if there is any oversight there. It has not been a pleasant situation since they moved in in May. And Jim and I spoke a little earlier today, so I think he's prepared to explain to us what is going on.

Thank you. Mr. Ennis?

Sure, so the building and zoning department became aware of the issues towards the end of June. Yes, the property did change ownership. The property's always had numerous units there. It did not go through the necessary rental inspection process. There's one code enforcement officer has been very diligent Inspections are now it's going to be scheduled it took a little while for it to get there But there's not I understand the frustration, but there's not much to State right now about that especially in a public format and everything else because things are being investigated So we don't really want to compromise that But I can just say it is being handled accordingly to the ordinances special or rental inspection words THAT'S ABOUT ALL I CAN SAY RIGHT NOW. THERE WILL BE MUCH MORE TO RELAY TO THIS BOARD AS WELL AS THE PUBLIC ONCE THE INSPECTION PROCESS IS PERFORMED AND WHATEVER DISCOVERED IS FROM THERE.

THANK YOU, MR. ANNES. FRAN CROWS?

GOOD EVENING. GROWS. MY APOLOGIES. HI, EVERYONE. I brought copies of these, and I asked Brian if he would distribute them to all of you. I'm concerned about the warehouses up the street. Does anybody know what's going to happen with those? Have there been any applications or tenants reviews? Are we going to get data centers in those warehouses? Does anybody know?

Mr. Ennis.

So there has been no application for any kind of use in occupancy to establish anything in either of those warehouses. There's been some quote-unquote feelers, but none of them have been data centers. That's about all I can add right now at this time.

Thank you, and we are currently working on an AI policy.

That's correct, yeah. The township solicitor and I are going to be talking more about the, I think it's 12 pages long, proposed ordinance that will eventually be proposed in front of you at a later time.

Yes, and we appreciate that.

I just want to encourage you to take care of the township. Don't let us get in a bad way with the water and the electricity and all of that. You know, there's too many good people here. We shouldn't be worried about what kind of harm can be done to us. And back to what Lynn was talking about, the house. I'm in that same development.

And hold on a minute.

I got a message from one of my neighbors. because I'm the committee woman over there. And she told me that there was someone going to that facility who was aggravated sexual battery. And he moved into that halfway house at the end of our street. So can anything be done about that? Criminals residing there.

All I can say at this time is the rental inspection program, especially change of tenants, given that there will be information about who those people are and we may further do some background checks on that. That's about all I can give you at this time. Okay.

Thanks, Judge. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ernest. Please keep us posted. Okay. Next we have Kim Creeden.

Good evening. My name is Kimberly Creeden. I also live in the Pencrest section. I'm here to support my neighbors and also to make you all aware of our concern about what's going on at the end of the street. We're just very concerned about what's going on. When things are done under the radar, per se, are going to be investigated. It makes everybody's anxiety higher. We understand people deserve to have places to live, as do we, but we just want to look out for our safety, our family's safety, the little children in the neighborhood's safety, and if any of these people do have problems that need to be addressed, which I understand as a healthcare provider, They need to have their treatment also, but it needs to be out in the open so that we can all live together or things can be handled in a different way.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Christine Emelson? Tomlinson. Tomlinson. My apologies.

Good evening. Thank you for having us here. I do have some questions regarding the same thing, the apartments on 413. So a couple of my questions are, after the inspection reports are done, what kind of information is going to be available to us? Like, are we going to know if there's program or people in programs in that building? Will we be informed what kind of program it is? If it's a halfway house or something along those lines, will we be told what kind of halfway house it is? That's one of my questions, because I have been in neighborhoods with, I don't know what the proper term is, but halfway houses on our street, and depending on what kind it was, there were either severe problems that were involved with the residents of the neighborhoods, or they were totally quiet and fine. And so I just wonder if that kind of information, if we have the right to know, what kind of programming, if there's going to be programming in the house, what it is. Because there's children to consider in our neighborhoods, there's security to consider in our neighborhoods, et cetera. If it's something that's juveniles, I know sometimes we had this in a prior area that I lived in, there was a lot of disruption in the surrounding neighborhood. We also had a halfway house for alcoholics, which was fine. So I just feel like, I just want to know, like, what kind of information are we going to be able to get about that? And that's my only questions.

Mr. Ennis, can you speak to that at all? I'm not sure what we are allowed to share or not.

I mean, I'm not the right to know officer. I'm also not the one with the expertise in the right to know field. I don't know what they have the right to. All I can say, as frustrating as this answer is probably to many people, is that we just have to let it run its course, especially through the inspection process, what's identified. And we have to be fully in compliance with all of our codes and ordinances in which we are doing.

Thank you. Would the residents be able to have your email? Do you have his email?

You know what, that's an excellent point. I'm more than happy to maybe at a different time, maybe we can all meet and have further discussions.

Okay, yeah. Thank you, Mr. Ennis. Appreciate that. Next up we have Lance Sayers.

Good evening, board, Lance Sikors, Middletown. First, I would like to welcome Mr. Hoffman. Welcome to our township. I guess I didn't know about this issue, but did we not pass an ordinance a couple years ago? What is this place zoned? Is it zoned R1? I thought we passed an ordinance a couple years ago where all halfway houses and things like that would have to be in commercial...

All I can tell you right now is that the property has had on record since the 90s numerous units there. And so it's what you call a legal nonconformity.

Okay.

All right.

Okay. All right, so to move on to the last meeting that we had, I know Mr. Bruno had a presentation. I know Tom over here is supposed to have an article on Levittown now that we haven't seen yet. However, when that occurs, I know the township disagreed with some of the stuff that Mr. Bruno said. Are the citizens gonna be able to see what you guys had that makes you believe that his research was not complete or you came to a different conclusion based on what the township did in that approval process?

Mr. Ennis. And Isaac, okay. It's a busy night.

All right, so we have a meeting scheduled actually tomorrow with representatives from the DEP, specifically the Assistant Regional Director and also members of the DEP's Environmental Cleanup and Clean Water Program. All I can say, BEYOND THAT IS THAT WE WERE FULLY INTENDING ON CIRCLING BACK AND CONTACTING MR. BRUNO, BUT WE REALLY WANT TO HEAD TO THIS MEETING WITH DEP FIRST. FURTHERMORE, AS I EVEN KIND OF COVERED DURING LAST MONTH'S MEETING, THE PROPERTY IS ON THE DEP'S WEBSITE, AND IT IS ACTIVE STATUS AS PART OF THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP AND BROWNFIELDS PROGRAM. I ALSO SUPPLIED THIS BOARD WITH THAT INFORMATION, AND I'LL LINK ON HOW TO ACCESS THAT INFORMATION. It is known as the Cameron Saba Tract. And yeah, that's about all I can right now at this time. But the meeting with DEP that's going to involve myself, the township engineer, and the interim township manager is crucial. Again, that's scheduled for tomorrow.

Thank you, Mr. Ennis. Mr. Kessler, do you have anything to add to that?

Nothing really to add. That meeting will be able to clarify any, I guess, misreading of what they have either on their list or any of the history that we've been discussing. So we're planning to circle back and obviously we want it to be clarified so everyone knows exactly the situation there. So we know the steps to remediate.

Okay.

All right, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or non-agenda items?

Good evening, everybody. My name is Bradley Cooper. I'm not a Middletown resident. I'm actually a Newtown Township resident. But I come here seeking, asking if you folks on the board would be willing to help me with why I'm coming here. But I first would like to thank all of the supervisors last year. who were on the board last year, who are currently on the board this year, who had a hand in bringing the Newtown Water Company to this meeting to expose that they were trying to build a water sewage treatment plant on Lower Silver Lake Road next to the Wawa. And then the effort that you put in to show your opposition towards that, to help stop that from being built because it was an egregious effort application that nobody knew was going on in the township of Newtown. Now the reason why I'm coming here is because I want to ask you guys if you would be willing to maybe send a letter or have a representative come to my township meeting because That land that the water company was gonna use to build the water sewage treatment plant was eminently domain from Jim Worthington who's the Newtown Athletic owner and he got the land back and now he posted on social media that he wants to build a big giant development there. And I think that that's another egregious use of that land that is going to have more negative effects on the township of Middletown residents who live right there than it will on Newtown residents because we don't live that close to there. And I don't think that we should be abusing that land for a big giant development. I think it should be used for something that everyone can enjoy, maybe a park. And again, I know that's hard to put in an area like that, but something that people can enjoy or use, or just leave it alone. So that's why I was asking if you folks would be willing, since it's closer to your township than mine, and it's also, I know not your jurisdiction, but if you'd be willing to send a letter or document to my township supervisors to tell them that you don't agree with this, that you're against this, if you agree with me, which I hope, because I don't see any positives to this, more negatives. or this Wednesday we're having a supervisor meeting if someone would be willing to come there as a representative of Middletown to talk to them doing public comment like I am to tell them no I don't like this I don't think this is right this is going to have more effect on Middletown residents and all the problems that it could arise I'd greatly appreciate it because I don't like it I don't think it's right and I think that it causes more problems and issues for Middletown residents and what it's going to bring to that area just like the Wawa does and and how we have to expand and do all this other construction to make things work or things fit in an area that it doesn't belong in, should never be there, like they had to expand the bypass right by Shady Brook Farms where Stony Hill Road is to make everybody be able to get to 95 easier than trying to cram into each other. So I'd appreciate it if you'd be willing to help me. Thank you.

Thank you.

Could you leave your contact information with township supervisor, interim township supervisor before the end of the meeting? Thank you.

If you'd like, we can look into what's going on there and report back to you. That would be great. Thank you very much.

Any other comments, public comments? Okay, thank you. Okay, next we have our next agenda item, consent agenda items. So I'd like to make a motion for the following consent agenda items. A, consideration of authorizing payment of August 10th, 2026 bills list in the amount of $2,259,092.37. B, consideration of approving the July 13, 2026 minutes of the public meeting of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. C, consideration of adopting resolution number 26-20R, appointing bank signatories. D, consideration of resolution number 26-21R, to authorize the exchange of property with Lower Bucks Joint Municipal Authority. And E, consideration of financial security release number one final for the Everett Miner Subdivision lot one at 1021 West Maple Avenue in the amount of $32,631.50. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda items.

I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any comments from the public? Any comments from the board? So motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Consideration, next agenda item, my apologies. Number seven, consideration of lot line change application S-LD number 26-6 at 76 Brown Street and Sumac Avenue. At the applicant's request, this item has been tabled for next month's meeting. Thank you. All right, number eight, consideration of authorizing advertisement of ordinance amending sign regulations within township zoning ordinance. Mr. Esposito?

Yes, thank you. If the board members, this is a continuation of a discussion that we had in January that would amend some of the sign regulations that we have within the township zoning ordinance. Board recalls there was a recent case law that affects regulations of signs within Pennsylvania municipalities. Essentially, the case said that you can't restrict signs based off of the content. Any restrictions have to be content neutral. This mainly affects temporary signs within municipalities. So we looked into our zoning ordinance and the sign regulations and it does affect our temporary signs and they're mainly the types of signs of yard signs, for sale signs, political signs, opinion signs. So essentially all of the regulations have to be the same for size, duration, location of these temporary signs. So the best solution that we came up with was to create a single category of temporary signs. So put all of these signs into one category and have a universal regulations for those. The biggest thing that most people would probably notice, the signs are going to roughly be the same as what they are. The one that most people will probably notice is political signs. They were the only signs that were allowed in the townships right of way. That will not happen now, because if we allow them in the right of way, we would have to allow all temporary signs within the right of way, and we certainly don't want that because of a safety issue. So that would be the biggest issue that most people would probably recognize for the signs.

Thank you, Mr. Esposio. And this is just to advertise the proposal?

Yes, this is authorized to advertise, and if the board wants so, it will be on next month's agenda to approve and adopt the ordinance.

Okay, thank you. Is there a motion to advertise the proposed ordinance?

I'll make a motion to advertise the proposed ordinance. I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any comments from the public?

Any comments or questions from the board? I just had one question and a clarifying. So were there any other options that we could have taken other than going about putting all of these signs into one category?

No, because if we categorize them differently, people could have contested that we were treating different signs differently. So if we allow political signs to remain, somebody that wanted to put a for sale sign up would allow, they would have to be also allowed in the right-of-way.

Okay, and this means that people, and what does this mean for people in their front yards?

You are still allowed to have signs in your front yard. So just to clarify, in our discussion in January, the biggest thing that the board wanted me to change was, We were requiring permits for all types of temporary signs. We have removed that now. So all temporary signs are not gonna require permits or any fee from the residents. But they still have to comply with the regulations. If they do not comply with the regulations, they would receive a zoning enforcement letter and give 30 days to come into compliance with those regulations. If they don't come to compliance within that 30 days, then we would look to fine. the people, but you would still be allowed to have signs in your front yard as long as they comply with the size and duration regulations that we will have.

Thank you. All right, so we have a motion and a second. No questions or comments. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Next agenda item, consideration of enacting ordinance number 26-06, chicken ordinance. Mr. Ennis, will you present this item?

Yes, I think this might be the fourth time appearing in front of this board. It was going through many policy discussions, and if you remember the last time, which was during the May 11th meeting, it was agreed that this would go in front of the Planning Commission, and dependent on their recommendation, it would now be in front of you guys for an actual vote for adoption. So it has gone in front of the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission unanimously approved the draft that was in front of them with the condition that there would be a licensing component with the required permit. You have a draft. I'm still a little bit working on that. I got a couple of days to work on that of a draft of the actual permit application and also what would entail for the licensing. YOU ALSO HAVE WHAT WOULD BE A CHANGE TO THE TOWNSHIP'S FEE SCHEDULE THAT WOULD NOW REQUIRE THE PERMIT WITH A FEE AS WELL AS AN ANNUAL LICENSING FEE THAT WOULD INVOLVE AN INSPECTION PROCESS. BEYOND THAT, I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO COVER, YOU KNOW, WITHOUT JUST HEARING YOUR THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS, BUT YOU DO HAVE MY RECOMMENDATION THAT I DO THINK NOW THAT IT'S GONE THROUGH A VERY RIGOROUS PROCESS, DID RECEIVE THE NECESSARY RECOMMENDATION FROM THE TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION, ALSO GOT A RECOMMENDATION OF APPROVAL FROM THE ACTUAL OR THEY FOUND NO OBJECTION, I SHOULD SAY, FROM THE bucks county planning commission uh is now uh ready for for some form of adoption if if the board uh does so to it does choose to vote that way tonight but i'm here to answer any questions about the content of the code uh if you remember what was really ultimately decided based off of a very rigorous public input process uh that the township found that there was many more in favor, considerably so, than against, and that the most kind of flexible option, which was to allow them in all the residential zoning districts, that would be the RA1, RA2, RA3, R1 and R2, they would be allowed to have chickens with certain conditions and requirements.

Can I share, can you correct me if I'm wrong, these are some of the conditions So lot size minimum 5,000 square feet? Correct. Up to four chickens, one per additional 5,000 square feet?

Yeah, so if you have a lot that's anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 square feet, you're allowed four. If you go beyond that, up to 15,000, you get another one and then another one, so forth.

No roosters?

No roosters, that's a big deal, yeah.

Right, personal use only? Correct. No free range? And the coop and run, one of each per property, rear side? Yard only 15 feet from property lines, maximum 8 feet tall, maximum 50 square feet, 4 square feet per chicken.

That's correct. So a lot of these are very consistent with some of the codes that we found, not only, you know, just out there in Bucks County, but certainly in neighboring communities. So these are very identical dimensional standards.

They seem doable. Care and cleanliness, feed, water, and storage, make sure those are proofed. I won't mention the other one, and composting. Menorah may be composted on site. So is there anything else that you think that our residents need to know?

No, I mean, like, yeah, just to delve just a little bit deeper, there's a lot that comes down to nuisance and just property standards and ensuring that there's not any kind of real issues. But if there are, there's some real requirements for code enforcement to follow.

Thank you, Mr. Ennis.

Mr. Adams, could you just talk a little bit about the process that a resident would go through if they were interested in obtaining chickens, if we were to pass this ordinance?

Sure. So a permit is required, and that's even for those that may have chickens already. A resident would never do that. I found out a lot through this process. But anyway, there is a permit that is required. They would have to go to the building and zoning department, fill out the permit, also the registration form. I would ensure that it's in compliance with the zoning requirements that you have in front of you. And then after that, we would make sure that there's an annual inspection every year with that registration. And again, that registration is actually consistent to a lot of neighboring communities, what they already have.

Thank you.

I think the biggest issue that I saw and I heard from residents is the nuisance, but it sounds like we've done a lot of due diligence on understanding what that could happen and how to mitigate that.

That's correct. Yeah, I would say in my experience here so far that many of the enforcement issues involving these is just the fact that they have chickens, not necessarily that they have been a real property maintenance issue. There's been a few, but not nearly in comparison to that people just know they're not supposed to have chickens and they're contacted in township and that's been really the basis of a lot of the enforcement.

Thank you, Mr. Ennis. Okay, so is there a motion to enact ordinance number 26-06, the chicken ordinance?

Make a motion to grant approval to amend chapter 500 of the Middletown Township Code of Ordinances to regulate and keep chickens in certain residential areas. Approval includes amending the Middletown Township fee schedule to include $150 permit fee with an annual registration fee of $50 for keeping of chickens in certain residential areas.

I'm already hearing some chatter back here. I just want to say that isn't compliance. I'm sorry. That is consistent with how we treat accessory uses and structures in the township as far as the fee itself.

Thank you, Mr. We will have an opportunity for comments when we, after we make the motion in the second. So, okay. All right, so there's the motion. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from our community or residents? Can you come up to the podium so we can hear your? Thank you.

All right, sorry. Lynn Dobley, Pencrest. We just want to make clear, is it strictly chickens or are we talking about guinea fowl and quail and all that other stuff?

It's strictly chickens, and if you want, I can even go through the actual, I guess, Latin definition of chickens that we're now going to be part of the zoning code to ensure that it's going to be chickens and hens, specifically no roosters.

Clock away. All right. Any other questions or comments? Go ahead.

My name is Bill Stackline, 696 Far Avenue.

My question is what was the previous ordinance? What was the ground that you had to have that chickens and bees?

I wish I had exactly all those details, but let's just say you needed a very, very, very large property.

And I think it was five, I think it was at least five or 10 acres. Yeah.

Right.

So you needed a very, you're going to take that from 10 to 5,000. That's correct. Okay. Not half. No. Not a quarter. Nope. They're going all the way down. Yes, like I said, I mean. 5,000. That's right.

So, if you've been part of these conversations for about.

Unfortunately, I haven't, but I lived through this. Right. Because the chicken coop was closer to my house than their house.

Right. So, I mean, there's setback standards. That's all I can tell you right now.

Yeah.

And bees? And bees, they're good.

Yeah, I'm not going to address the bees right now.

One thing at a time. That will be your next assignment.

I make a motion that maybe we look into bees also then because they are pollinators. They do well. They don't attract rodents and such.

We'd love to hear it. Please bring the information.

10 acres down to 5,000 square feet.

Thank you. All right, so we have a, oh, any questions, comment?

I just wanted to know why the, I think it's 15 feet off the property line. Why is that in the ordinance?

Yeah, I mean, given the size of the run and the coop, and again, as you can see, I think that some people are concerned about how close it will get to their neighboring property line, that the 15 was consistent with our research as far as what other standards are found in other codes, especially in neighboring properties. I mean, neighboring communities.

Hi. My name is Angeline Dougherty. I live at 1539 Old Lincoln Highway. I've been here a couple of times with this too. So my question is the $150 application fee, you said it's for accessory building use. Let me finish, one second. So an accessory building would be any building outside of your actual home, correct? And it'll be $50 every year, right? Wouldn't you have to pay that for a doghouse, a shed, a carport as well?

Mayor Mrakas, All I can tell you is that this is consistent with other communities, this is what we found it is also treated as an accessory us so we're also. Mayor Mrakas, treating the fee as as that, but as the as far as the license requirement that was something that was recommended by the planning Commission, and so there were the sport is considering that recommendation.

And just as a side comment, I mean, I really appreciate you guys taking this into consideration because there is a lot of chickens. I mean, nobody here has them illegally, you know, but there are a lot of chickens out there. And I would love to be able to have them again myself because I've tried to comply. But I feel like there's a lot more being put on a chicken. We don't require people to have a certain amount of space for a child or for a dog. And it's you know I mean I'm saying just keep things in perspective and I think $50 every year is a little bit much because you don't I mean the dog permit is $12 or something I don't know but for a dog license is really cheap and you know you can they're all over the neighborhood and nobody picks up their stuff and all kinds of things so just to kind of keep that and keep us all on the same level it's my pet too just because they view it as something else it's still a pet thank you again thank you

Any other questions or comments? Okay. Mr. Ennis, you're not sitting down.

Hi, Sandy Anthony, 2062 Langhorne Yardley Road. Thank you for taking your time to consider this important issue. I believe that all residents who want to keep chickens should have the opportunity to do so, providing they are well taken care of. At the same time, I do believe that any regulations put in place should be practical and should not create unnecessary costs or burdens to the taxpayers. At the May 11th Board of Supervisors meeting, the proposal discussed was a one-time permit for residents who wanted to keep chickens. Applicants would explain how they intended to care for their chickens and be able to pay a nominal fee. I felt that this was reasonable and a sensible approach. However, at the Planning Commission meeting, the recommendation changed to an annual license and annual inspection. I have serious concerns about this change, particularly from a taxpayer's perspective. An annual licensing and inspection program would require ongoing staff time and resources. Someone would need to send out annual renewal notices every year and follow up with residents who did not respond. If a license was not renewed, what happens next? Would additional notices be sent? Would staff be required to investigate and maybe go to the property? requirements for the inspection requirements creates even more questions. Who schedules the inspections? How many times will staff attempt to contact a homeowner who doesn't respond? Will someone eventually have to go to visit the property? If an inspection identifies a problem, another appointment will need to be made to schedule, to confirm that the issue was corrected. In some cases this may require multiple follow-up visits. Considering the number of residents who are interested in keeping chickens, I believe this would quickly become a significant administrative undertaking. It would require staff time, scheduling, record keeping, inspections, follow-ups, and enforcement, which ultimately becomes a cost to the taxpayers. I respectfully ask that you reconsider the annual licensing and inspection suggestion and return to the original proposal, which was a one-time permit fee without routine inspections. Residents who choose to keep chickens should be trusted to take care of their pets. And if someone fails to properly care for their chickens, creates a nuisance or violates the requirement, neighbors will have the ability to report those specific issues and the township can address them on a case by case basis. There is no need to create an expensive and complicated inspection system before evidence of one is necessary. We should start with the simpler one-time permit approach and see how it works. If problems arise or if the system proves ineffective, the Board can revisit the issue and make suggestions based on actual experience. Thank you for your consideration. I hope you will choose the approach that gives residents the opportunity to keep chickens and also be responsible to taxpayer dollars.

Thank you for your comments.

I mean, she's not wrong. But again, this is a recommendation from the Planning Commission. But on the flip side, if it is as cumbersome as she describes as we go further into it, we can also take away the licensing inspection at a later time.

We can revisit it.

That's correct.

Okay. Is that okay? Sound good? Yeah. We can revisit it, so.

But once you've already scheduled the employees to do it and everybody gets in the system, like to take it back would be harder. To not start with at the beginning, just see how it goes. People are gonna be responsible for their pets. You know, people are responsible for their dogs. People are responsible for their chickens, too. So I would prefer to see it come later. You know, once you know there's an issue, why make a problem when there isn't a problem?

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Mr. Ennis. All righty. Thank you for all those comments. Oh, Mr. Sayre.

I guess I'll keep it in perspective from a standpoint of like, does the community not police itself to begin with? And starting something and charging people to police it, when I kind of view this as a food source. So when we take a look at what the state charges for a fishing license, which is about 20 bucks a year, or a hunting license about 20 bucks a year, fishing license about $28 a year. I think this is a little bit far beyond the cost of you know charging people to create their own food like do we get into like hey like when people have gardens we have pests that come to gardens are we going to start charging people to grow tomatoes you know i appreciate the passing or the getting to the ordinance i mean honestly it's probably harder to pass a chicken ordinance to get a land developed around here but um I think we should use some common sense in what we're charging our citizens, considering we're already charging, I don't even wanna get into the tax rate increases, but that's my two cents.

Thank you. OK, so we made a motion and a second. We have comments. Any other comments? All right. Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Okay, our next agenda item, agenda item number 10, consideration of purchase an unmarked police vehicle from Fred Beans of Doylestown, Pennsylvania in the amount of $39,984 and vehicle uplifting by SKD, Tryons of Croydon, PA in the amount of $10,702.10. Mr. Barterello, I mean, Chief Barterello.

Good evening, Ms. Hanna, fellow board members. Before I propose this, I just want to address just a couple of issues first regarding 413 North Pine. Mr. Ennis did speak to me today about it. There's a very, very small amount of police reports thus far since the property is transferred. So I would just encourage, obviously don't call for no reason, but when you have an issue, call us so we can document it. It's always good to have a trail of documentation. if you're talking about a potential nuisance property so definitely call us there are problems right but when i was reviewing the reports it was more like an uber driver got lost in the neighborhood and someone was looking for a halfway house right so call us when that happens right in the street Yeah, it was one of our officers that initially had an issue when they responded right to the property and rose the issue with Mr. Ennis and the zoning. So definitely call us if there's an issue. We're going to be working with him as well regarding the inspection process. I just wanted to encourage you to do that. Yep. And then for you, sir, every two years, the Office of the Pennsylvania Auditor General issues a report on every municipal pension in the Commonwealth. So they do fall a little bit behind, but that will answer most of the questions that you had, the actuarial assumptions in that report, and then how the pension's performance is against that assumption. And the last report, our pension was funded 88%. Just so you know. So I have the website that I'll give you after that you can actually go to the website and review the state auditor general's report on our pension fund. Okay, you're welcome. All right, Ms. Hannah. So tonight I'm requesting authorization for the purchase of one unmarked 2026 Ford Explorer. That is going to replace two unmarked Ford Fusions. that were declared total losses that was following separate crashes earlier this year. They were parked and unattended during those crashes, so there are no injuries in those crashes. But rather than replacing, no injuries to the public either, but they just drove into the backs of our police vehicles, so they were total losses. The department determined that just replacing both of those vehicles with just one will give us what we need as far as our operational capacity. So it's a pretty good price considering it's under $40,000. So we're looking at a CoStar's price of about $39,984 plus upfitting, which will bring the total project cost to $50,686. It will be offset by about $19,500 in insurance proceeds. And we have about eight vehicles that we are placing on municipal bid. Those are decommissioned vehicles that have been accumulating for years. We usually get a few thousand dollars per vehicle. We're estimating about $3,000 per vehicle for $24,000. so when you combine the insurance proceeds and what we're estimating for the vehicles we're looking at the cost being offset that will only cost the township approximately seventy seven thousand one hundred and eighty six dollars the other thing that this will do uh we are getting ready to propose our capital uh for the upcoming year we always usually ask for four marked one unmarked by approving this tonight we will not be asking for one unmarked we'll just ask for the four marked vehicles So with that, I'll take any questions. And if there are none, I would respectfully request the board's approval.

How much is the price difference between an unmarked and a marked vehicle?

They're basically the same. So this is about, this is the base model Explorer. It's an active, it's a four cylinder. So it's the lowest base model that we could get.

Okay, thank you. Was the loss of the two other vehicles kind of fluke accidents or something that we should be aware of that we need to insure against?

No, they were, I mean, so in my 12 years here, Ms. Keene, I think we probably average maybe one to two per year. Some years we'll have three, some years we'll have none, considering the hundreds of thousands of miles that we drive. Crashes are pretty rare. Those were just kind of fluke accidents that kind of happened back to back. Those were older fusions anyway. They were 10 and 11 years old. So the fact that we recovered 19,500 form was actually pretty good.

Okay, thank you. All right. I make a motion, a move to approve the purchase of one 2026 Ford Explorer police vehicle through the COSTARS Cooperative Purchasing Program from Fred Bean's Ford in the amount of $39,984 and authorized police vehicle uplifting by SKD Tryon's Emergency Vehicle Uplifting in the amount of $10,702.10 for a total project cost not to exceed $50,686.10, funded through insurance reimbursements, surplus vehicle sale proceeds, and the Township Capital Fund. I have a motion. Can I have a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions from the residents? Any questions from the board? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Ms. Hanna.

Okay. Next up we have agenda item number 11, consideration of authorizing the execution of a contract for the Middletown Township Veterans Park Repairs with Foraker Landscaping of Langhorne, PA in the amount of $19,700. Ms. Tierney, could you present that item?

Sure. As you can see from these images, there's some failing of the brick and some trip hazards at Veterans Park. Right now I'm focused primarily on safety issues and the trip hazards are an issue. You can see that it's about, there's several trip hazards, about an inch to an inch and a half. And with the nature of the park and veterans visiting it, It's a high priority item. So I'm looking for your approval to use four acre landscaping to complete this project.

All right, can I have a motion for the project?

I'll move to approve awarding the contract to four acre landscaping to repair and seal the brick walkways at Veterans Park for the total amount of $19,700.

I have a motion. Can I have a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions from residents? Any questions from the board? All right. A motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Our next agenda item, agenda item number 12, consideration of awarding base bid for the 2026 CDBG ADA curb, ramp, and sidewalk improvements project to NJS Concrete of Feasterville, Trevos, PA in the amount of $282,860. Mr. Kessler, could you present this item?

Thank you, Madam Chair, fellow board members. Before you tonight is the 2026 CDBG funded project. That's a community development block grant. It's a federal grant that the township's been fortunate enough to receive the last few years. This year, the application was for basically reconstructing and improving the concrete areas in front of the township building here. There's a lot of settled areas, you know, a concern for trip hazards, as well as just a few connections that have always kind of been desired to connect the sidewalk in the front of the building with the sidewalk that is going around to the shopping plaza, as well as the flagpole. So on the screen there are the highlighted areas that would be the project scope. The blue areas are kind of the existing normal sidewalk areas. The frontage here would be redone as well. It's kind of in that orange color. And in the contract, it's specified to be more of a stamped or a nicer layout of the concrete. That would be to the township's preference, what we want to see as the entrance there. And then there's two areas that are in the green color, if you can see those against the blue. The one is that connection of the sidewalk to the pedestrian area to the side of the building. And the other is an area just outside the police department that is a bit short right now with the overhang. And what this will do is kind of square that off and give it a little bit more of a comfortable space under that overhang. for folks that are coming in and out of that entrance there. So the project went out to public bid. The grant amount that the township received was $225,000. The township, knowing that amount and knowing some of these additional connections we wanted to make, budgeted $100,000 in addition for this year's budget, which gave the total project $325,000 to be available for when it went out to bid. It received two bids. The bids were thoroughly reviewed by our office and the solicitor's office as well as staff. The lowest of the bids unfortunately did not meet a few requirements that we have for the bid documents and just some of the consistencies there. So it was determined that the second lowest bidder was the lowest qualified bidder. And that's who's recommended tonight. NJS Concrete, who the township's worked with on a few projects over the years, is the lowest qualified bidder for this project. Their total contract bid with the base bid and the alternates, the alternates being those connections, was $282,860. So that still is a good amount below our budgeted amount with that grant funding. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Kessler. Any questions, comments?

Yeah, one question. The additional $100,000 that you mentioned, is that from the roads from removing the striping, or is that just in budget we added an additional $100,000?

It's in budget. My understanding is that was its own item in there for this project this year.

Okay, and I was gonna ask this on the last question, but when we do these types of concrete and paving, do we have any type of warranty that against settling or so that we're not paying for it down the road?

There's ways in the construction that you can really prevent against that. Not being here when they did the pavers originally. Pavers are usually susceptible to that more than more of a solid concrete. So the specifications for this project is to look into address that. We anticipated it should last a long time. We won't be revisiting this one hopefully anytime soon.

And the low bidder, was that the apprenticeship piece of the RCO, or was there additional items that prevented the lower bidder from coming through?

There were additional items. That was one of them, but there was a series of ones that really, you know, when we looked through everything, it was definitely a recommendation to go to the next lowest bidder.

Thank you, thank you for your comments, Supervisor Koehn. Okay, so any questions from the community?

Okay, there's a little piece in the parking area where the handicap is that there's some curbing that's broke. Could you be able to add that too?

We can definitely take a look at that. As far as, are you speaking about an area that's kind of shaded in there or is it beyond that?

It's not shaded in. So it's where the four or five handicap is. I had mentioned it before. Oh, that front row? Yeah. So some of the curbing there is cracked. So I just don't want any people to get hurt on that. So it's only small amounts, but if you can get that repaired too.

We can take a look into that for sure. Yeah, if it's a possibility to address it, we'll try to do it.

All right, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Oh, we have another, oh.

Timing. Timing. The timing, if it's awarded by the board tonight, contracts usually take about three weeks or so. This is a project that we're hoping would be constructed this fall and be done before the winter. Well, once we meet with the contractor, we'll know their exact schedule. Absolutely, yeah. And just being the front entrance of the township building in general, there's absolutely going to be a lot of coordination for maintaining access and making sure that there's not disturbance on days where it would be busier and that type of thing. So when we meet with the contractor, we'll go through scheduling and coordination quite a bit at the pre-construction meeting.

Yeah, let's make sure that we have November in sight for that.

Absolutely. And with all contracts, whether it's private or public work, they're not permitted to work on any recognized holidays or days that the township building would be closed for like an election day activity. So that's also something that we'll coordinate with them to make sure.

We have wood service that comes in here on the judge for Middletown.

Yep. yes yeah that's going to be probably the the biggest part for the contractor to deal with the concrete work itself is i would say they're bread and butter so the scheduling and making sure they accommodate for access for the township building is a top priority

Thank you. My apologies. I went a little bit out of order. I need to make the motion and the second, and then if there's more comments, let me get back to what I'm supposed to do here. All right. So I make a recommendation. I recommend to award the base bid and alternate number one for the 2026 CDBG ADA curb ramp and sidewalk improvements project to NJS Concrete LLC in the total amount of $282,860. I have a motion. Do I have a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Any other additional comments from our community? All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes 5-0. And we'll keep an eye on it for election day and everything like that. Thank you. Great comments. All right, next up, we have our presentation of our communication plan. Ms. Liz Martin, will you please introduce Ms. Julia French?

Good evening, Board of Supervisors. I'm Liz Martin, Public Information Officer. I'm happy to introduce Julia French. She is our summer communications intern. She's a student at Penn State University. Julia spent this summer researching, working with other townships, collaborating with various departments in our township, and working on a communications plan. I'm very excited for her to present this. She did an excellent job and worked really hard on this.

Good evening, supervisors. My name is Julia French, and I am a public relations student at Penn State University. This summer, I serve as the township's communication intern. In this role, I was tasked to create a township communications plan, which I'm excited to present to you tonight. Over the past two months, we've taken a comprehensive look at how the township communicates and how we can improve on it. The result is this communications plan, a 22-page strategic framework for making township communication more transparent, consistent, proactive, and resident-focused. A lot of what you'll see tonight formalizes things we are already doing well while also giving a clear structure for where we can improve. In June, we conducted a community communication survey to better understand how residents currently receive township information, what they want to hear from us, while also giving a clear structure. We heard from a very established group of 653 residents, about 76% of which have lived in Middletown for over 20 years. There's a lot of positives here. About 69% of respondents say they trust the accuracy of township information and about 62% rated our communication as good. What I think is particularly valuable is what residents told us that they want to see going forward. Email was overwhelmingly the preferred communication method with 510 respondents selecting it. Residents also asked for earlier project updates, more transparency, better website information, and more proactive communication. This plan is not simply based on what we think good communication should look like. It is also informed by what our residents told us they need from us. Communications does not happen by accident. Without a common framework, it is very easy for communications to become reactive. Departments may communicate differently, projects may be handled differently, and residents can receive different levels of information depending on the issue. This plan gives us a repeatable township-wide approach. This does not mean that every project or every department communicates exactly the same way. It means that we are all operating from the same basic principles and expectations. So what does this plan actually do? At its core, it creates one coordinated township-wide approach to communication. It gives our departments a common framework, strengthens collaboration and information sharing, and helps us ensure that residents are hearing consistent message throughout the township. It also puts a greater emphasis on being proactive and transparent. Getting accurate information to residents earlier rather than later, simply responding to questions after concerns or concerns, questions or concerns arrive. And finally, it gives us a way to measure our efforts, understand what's working and continue to improve over time. Ultimately, this is about being more intentional and consistent in how we communicate with our community. The entire plan ultimately centers around three strategic goals. First is to increase awareness. We want residents to better understand township services, projects, programs, responsibilities, and issues. Local government can be complicated and good communication should make it easier, not harder, for residents to understand what we're doing and why it matters to them. The second goal is to strengthen the township's brand. Our brand is the experience residents have with Middletown Township. Consistent visuals, messaging, tone, and information all help reinforce credibility and make township communications recognizable and trustworthy. Included in the plan is a comprehensive branding guide sheet, which is linked in the digital copy. Our third goal is to increase community engagement. Communication should not only flow from township to residents. We also need opportunities for residents to ask questions, provide feedback, participate in meetings and surveys, and have meaningful impact when appropriate. So in simple terms, we want residents to know more, recognize and trust our information, and have more opportunities to participate. One thing the survey reinforced is that no single communication channel reaches everyone. That's why this plan uses a multi-channel approach, including print, digital communication, community engagement, as well as traditional media. The goal is to match the message and the audience with the right channel, and for important information, use multiple channels so we reach residents in ways that work best for them. So what actually changes with this plan? We're focusing on website improvements, clearer brand standards, department communications liaisons, continued community surveys, and performance tracking. These changes help us identify information earlier, coordinate more effectively across departments, and better understand what residents need from us. The overall goal is simple. Communication becomes proactive instead of reactive. To make that proactive approach consistent, we'll follow a four-step process. Plan, review, implement, and then evaluate. We first identify the audience, key messages, communication methods and responsibilities. Then we coordinate with appropriate departments to make sure all information is accurate. From there, we implement the plan through the right channels and evaluate what worked, what didn't and what we can improve next time. It gives us a repeatable process instead of starting from scratch with each project. We also want to make sure we're measuring whether our communication is actually working. We'll look at four areas, reach, engagement, trust, as well as overall performance. That includes things like website traffic, newsletter subscriptions, participation in meetings and surveys, resident feedback, public perception, and communications analytics. The goal is to use that information to continuously improve as well as report our progress annually. I'll close by saying that Middletown Township is already communicating every day. This plan simply gives us a more intentional and consistent framework for doing that everyday work. The goal is not to communicate more. It's to communicate earlier, more clearly, and more consistently while creating meaningful opportunities for residents to engage with us. Ultimately, strong communication supports transparency, builds trust, and help residents better understand the work of their township. Thank you all for this opportunity and for your time. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Wow, that was quite a comprehensive plan. I appreciate your work and your attention to the detail. Definitely communication is always top of mind for us. We are always striving to be transparent and to make sure that we're clear and that our residents have the best information possible. So I appreciate this. Any questions from the board?

No questions. Just thank you for the comprehensive plan that you've put together. I think it was really well thought out. I love the idea of tracking it and reworking it and evaluating it. One of the biggest things that I'm kind of, I have residents come to me and say, why didn't I know about this sooner? And I think this really helps that process, right? Understanding sooner rather than later what's happening at the township and what their feedback is. Because the more feedback we get from residents, the better. So I know it's been something that has been, you know, I've talked to each one of the supervisors about is how do we get residents to know more and earlier? So I think this is a really great step forward. Thank you.

Yeah, I would agree. I would just say this is something that we've, I think, all been striving for. And this is, I think, probably exceeded our expectations in terms of how comprehensive it is. And it really, I think, checks all the boxes. So really, really great job. Excited to have this be put into action.

Thank you.

Just want to say thank you for being thorough. It was an awesome plan. And I also, I heard a lot of chatter about the website and the cost, and I'm assuming that that's a big part of this comprehensive plan. So hopefully the people that question the website will understand that this is going to help us communicate a lot better with the community.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead. If you wouldn't mind, if you are so inclined to consider adopting the plan, that would be great.

Yeah, I was about to, yeah. Any other questions or comments? All right, anybody would like to make a motion?

I move to approve and adopt the Middletown Township communication plan as presented.

We have a motion and a second. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments? Questions or comments from the community? Okay, oh.

Yeah, so really terrific work, thank you. I guess two questions. One, how do you start this? In other words, you don't have everybody's email or cell phone numbers, things like that. So is it gonna be flyers to everybody's mailbox? How is that gonna start? So people can then sign up?

Or the email updates?

yeah or or maybe i presume some social media too we currently have an email platform where you can sign up to receive notifications it's right on our website you can put your email in sign up we send them out monthly sometimes more than that

That's not my question exactly. So people that don't know about any of this, how do they learn about it the first time? The only way I can think of is to put flyers in the mailbox because you may not have the emails or their cell phone numbers or however you're doing it.

We can definitely consider that. I think that's a great idea. Yeah, so we will put this on social media, our website, which we are currently revamping. But it's definitely a great idea to put flyers in people's mailboxes, send out mailers. So thank you for that.

Right. And the second point is, if possible, like, you know, you may have heard about this, you know, when research showed when they were coming up with 401K plans, people weren't signing up. then what they decided to do in the industries was to do an opt-out approach, where you were entering the 401k plan. If you didn't like it, you could opt out. That way, a lot more people started joining. So if there's a way to do this without being too invasive, I would suggest that.

Yes. Currently, residents can opt out of our email notifications as well. So we definitely try to get more residents to sign up for that email.

Thank you. Thank you, so we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Okay, all right, our next item on the agenda, another exciting initiative. We have VIBE, our Volunteer Informed, Built, and Engaged presentation by Monica Tierney, Interim Parks and Recreation Director.

Well, I definitely plan on partnering on the communication plan for this VIBE program. What if every resident who wanted to volunteer knew exactly where to go, and every township project had a network of residents ready to help? That's the idea behind VIBE. We have residents who want to get involved. We have township projects, events, boards, and committees that need volunteers. The interest is there. What is missing is a consistent way to connect the two. We have seen successful volunteer efforts in the past, from cleanup days, the skate park project, the team task force. BI builds on that history by creating one township-wide volunteer network. It can support township initiatives, as well as the Environmental Advisory Board, the Human Relations Committee, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, the Stormwater Committee, and now the Birdtown Committee initiatives. The goal is simple, connect residents who want help with opportunities to help with opportunities where they can make a difference. Can you change the slide? Thank you. VIVE is about more than filling volunteer spots. As you can see here, Yeah. The mission is to inspire volunteerism by connecting residents with meaningful opportunities that strengthen the community. And the vision for the program is the community united through volunteerism, where every act of service creates long-lasting connections and positive change. You can see there's four core pillars, which is volunteer, inform, build, and engage. That is the culture we're trying to create. General volunteers can support township events, community projects, neighbors in action. Oh, wait. Oh, I went the wrong way. Oh, there it is. So right now we're going to start with four core frameworks. There's going to be general volunteerism, things that you'll see in the parks, typical to parks and recreation, special events, that type of thing. Neighbors in Action, we're looking to create a neighborhood champion program where we find champions for each neighborhood within the township that can help initiate projects within their own neighborhoods. We could maybe give them a kit to take out for a cleanup day. They bring it back, and they give us the information. The Game Changers is particularly exciting. This would be our youth program. We found that youth don't necessarily like to participate in programs called like Teen or Youth. So we're trying to create something that's fun and edgy for youth to get involved with. This would be a group that meets once a month, similar to how this team task force used to meet. They will take on initiatives and they will drive the program themselves. So they're going to create the volunteer opportunities themselves. They're going to pick things that interest them and they're going to go out into the community and volunteer. And then there'll be different other opportunities like athletic support and maybe for races or We just had a pickleball tournament, our pickleball volunteers, that type of thing. So different interests, different ages, one volunteer network. I go down.

Okay.

Ultimately the vibe helps us do five things increase participation strengthen connections build community pride Reckon that and we're going to recognize our volunteers, and we're going to create a ready network of volunteerism Instead of starting from scratch every time we have an event or a project we can build a network of residents that are already available with a helping hand The final piece is the recognition piece. We really want to make it so that our volunteers know that they are valued. We're looking to have volunteers create vials home patches. Maybe every 50 hours or so you get a volunteer patch that's a different color, something you can earn over time. And then an annual appreciation banquet where we provide volunteers over a certain level with some sort of banquet that we celebrate them at the end of the year. We can also pursue some sponsorship to offset the cost for these things. So the goal is simple. Recognize, retain, grow. And in closing, at the end of the day, VIBE is about taking something our residents already want to do, serve their community, and make it easier for them to do it. We have projects. We have opportunities. We have residents who want to make a difference. VIBE gives us a way to bring those pieces together. One program, many ways to serve a stronger, more connected community. Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't ask you if you have any questions on the line.

Well, first, I want to say thank you. I think, you know, our community definitely needs this. It's always important that we find common ground, and I think this is one way that we do it. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in this. I think it's a great way to get people involved who might not know how to get involved, right? And we're making it easier for them. So, I see where it can be implemented in so many areas and already so many departments. So thank you very much. Any other questions or comments?

One quick one. First, sign me up. So don't worry about that. But also, I don't know if it's outside too much of the scope, but what about including the volunteer fire services in this?

I'm sure we can include, I mean, we can expand and grow or change as we go, but for sure we could.

That's definitely something that the township needs, you know, and it's something that if we can kind of use this platform to grab people that would normally go to volunteer for a fire service, but maybe you always thought about it, if there's a way within all these programs to sprinkle some of that in there, they might find an interest and might be able to do it.

Yeah, I think that's a great opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

uh first just thank you for doing this i think it's a great a great idea um there's really no better feeling in the world than helping people and especially in your own local community i think a lot of people will find it very rewarding um assuming that we approve the beginning of this program how can and where do residents go to sign up when they want to join

Well, I plan to connect with Elizabeth. We'll have a sign up that we've already created actually just in preparation in hopes that you approve it today that we'll send out through social media networks and email platform and our program guide to let people know how to sign up for the VIBE and start getting involved. And then with time, I think word of mouth will also help.

That's awesome. I know a lot of the schools, they have their National Junior Honor Society and they have to give hours. That's another opportunity. So you already have a lot covered. Thank you so much. I'd like to make a motion to approve the initiation of the VIBE program.

I second.

And we have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments?

All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Motion passes 5-0. Thank you.

so many good things okay next we have the 2027 budget calendar miss tilly cools uh good evening i'm happy to provide the board and the public with the proposed schedule for the 2027 budget process and this proposed schedule will give the staff the directors the board as well as the public sufficient time to review and be involved in the budget process. So the first meeting will be the budget workshop that is related to capital projects, and that will be on September 28th. All these meetings are Mondays, to be consistent. And then there will be two working budget workshops on October 19th and the 26th. Encourage the residents to come out to those to provide their feedback. Those are the workshop meetings. The budget is already underway. Our finance director is already working with the team to move that forward. The preliminary budget will be presented at your meeting on November 16th. Following that, you will have a town hall public budget meeting, which is similar to the one that you initiated last year. And that was... extremely well received and in line with everything that was just discussed from your communications plan. And that would lead to your final budget adoption on December 14th. And so there's no action. This is purely informative for the board and for the residents. And again, as always, encourage the residents to remain involved.

Thank you, Ms. Tilly-Cools. Okay, and with that, other business? Mr. Kessler?

Nothing further, thank you.

Mr. Esposito?

Nothing, thank you.

Ms. Teeley-Cools? I would just like to add on to what you all said about Julia's excellent presentation. Julia is a Middletown Township resident. I wanted to make sure everyone knew that. And I wanted to publicly thank her for her hard work this summer and congratulate Liz Martin for managing her and overseeing her. It was really an excellent outcome. And thank you. That's all.

Thank you. Mr. Leighton?

I just very quickly wanted to thank the police department, the park and rec department, and our fire services. Last week we had two community events here in Middletown. We had National Night Out, and then we had our summer movie night, which I attended both, and it was a great time. Our team is always really knocked out of the park, and it was just a great experience to get to see our residents. And the last thing I wanted to add was about the budget calendar. I know it's probably not the most exciting event, but I attended last year, most of if not all of the different workshops and it really is important that our residents come out because it's the best way to understand where your tax dollars are going and to have an input because if you show up in December at the very end a lot of work has been put into that budget you want to get your comments questions answered earlier on in the process because really I think that's that's how we operate best when we get input from our residents so I highly encourage people to take advantage of those workshops and town halls and to come out.

Thank you, Mr. Lane. Ms. Kane?

I just wanted to thank our interim manager for her time that she spent. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for stabilizing the ship. Really excited, Chris, that you are here and that you will be taking on going forward. So welcome and thank you.

Mr. Kizak?

Yeah, nothing further than thanking, once again, Ms. Teoli-Coles for coming in and stabilizing our organization. And welcome, Chris, can't wait to get to work with you.

Mr. Gallardo?

I just want to reiterate what they were saying. I never got to work with you, so it was cool to do it just for a little bit. Also, happy belated and happy birthday publicly to Ms. Martin. And Chris, welcome aboard. And you've got a great name, so I think there's a bright future ahead of you here.

Okay, also I just want to say so many thank yous to Ms. Teeley-Cools. And welcome aboard, Mr. Hoffman. We're excited to work with you. So many good things tonight. I want to thank all the residents for all your input, your feedback, for being here. It takes a lot to come out on your night after getting done work and being here. And I have nothing else to say. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion.

Second. We are adjourned.