Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

We are now calling the meeting to order. If everyone could please rise and face the flag for the pledge of

allegiance. America to the standy. I just want to welcome all of our neighbors, friends, and family members to our meeting tonight. Uh we have a lot of stuff to go over on our agenda and a couple special items, but I'm now going to pass it over to our secretary, Supervisor Garder, to take role. here.

Here I would like to note that the uh next board of supervisors meeting will be on Monday, March 9th at 7 p.m. Uh next we will have a reading. Uh it is Black History Month, so we are going to be reading a proclamation. This is a proclamation recognizing Black History Month in Middletown Township. Whereas February is observed each year as Black History Month, focusing on the contributions of African-Americans in our nation's history, from the first enslaved people brought over from Africa to the African-American leaders and advocates of today. And whereas the observance of Black History Month calls our attention to the continued need to battle racism and provides opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of a African-American history. And whereas the observance of Black History Month honors how African-Americans have been instrumental in shaping our nation's history and culture, and their contributions have helped to define the character and strength of our country. And whereas Black History Month acknowledges the countless obstacles that have been overcome by African-Americans to attain freedom, equality, and justice, and encourages the continued fight against systematic racism and discrimination. And whereas the African-American Museum of Bucks County, now located in Middletown Township, honors the rich legacy of African-American history and culture through traveling exhibits, public events, and educational programs and has been recognized as Bucks County's official archive of AfricanAmerican history. And now, therefore, do we, the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors, hereby proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month. proclaimed on this day the 9th of February 2026.

Thank you, Mr. Gallardo. Uh we will now hear about the CDBG application uh from Delta Community from Mr. Valor.

Yes, thank you. Uh this is a request from a local uh nonprofit organization who is seeking uh funding from the Bucks County Facilitated Community Development Block Grant Program and they are uh they requested the township assist them in fulfilling a requirement for public notice. Um, and so just to simply read as a public announcement, um, that Delta Community Support since 1977 has been serving adults who are intellectually and or physically disabled. Uh, they currently manage and maintain group homes in Bucks, Montgomery, and Delaware counties, providing a full range of 247 services. In addition to group homes, Delta manages adult day program facilities designed to provide life skills uh, training to those individuals with the intent that they may develop skills needed to integrate into those communities where they live. Recently, following the sale of their previous Bucks County Day program facility, Delta successfully secured a new location, the facility found um meets program space requirements with interior renovations, but they have old HVAC equipment uh that is inefficient and costly to maintain, and they are seeking CDBG assistance uh to replace their existing HVAC system with a new state-of-the-art energy efficient system. and they are seeking $216,000 from the uh county facilitated community development block grant program. And next, um tonight's a very special night. I'm sure it's why most of us have gathered here. We are celebrating uh the retirement of two longtime employees of Middletown Township, uh Bill Whitaker and Paul Capera. first.

Good evening. Thank you uh Mr. Leighton and to um the balance of the board of supervisors. So, tonight is a very special night. Um we're going to start off uh by recognizing Bill Whitaker who has 46 years of service uh in our public works department. So, to start, I'm going to turn it over to our director of public works, Eric, to get us started. Thank you. Bill, can you please come out?

Um, Bill Bill is with been with the township for 46 years. Um, he started back in 1980. Um, I got to spend over 20ome years with Bill as a co-orker, as a friend, and um, it it's heartfelt. Um there's a lot of knowledge that we're losing um with Bill leaving. However, um you know, Bill deserves it. He's worked for this uh for a long time and um he's ready to move on to bigger and better things. Um so, if I can have the guys from DPW also come up, please. Thank you.

Come on. So, as you can see, most of our or all the department um from DPWs out. Um Bill was an instrumental part of our crew. Um I I can't tell you numerous times where I asked his advice. Um he was here when we didn't even have roads that were paved that we had a greater. So that's how far that goes back. So not to put you on the spot, but anyway, um we do

we do have a plaque for you, Bill. Um is um congratulations to William Whitaker on your welldeserved retirement. Um with their um gratitude, your experience and communic community and involvement that made the township a better place. uh the Middletown Township would like to honor you with this plaque for all your dedicated years of service. Um wishing you uh endless happiness, good health and a and your next adventure ahead. You read that well. Thank you. Thank you.

Also that that's from the guys from from the shop. Yes. looked at pictures. Pictures

I hope you guys Congratulations, Bill. 46 years. The fun thing that Eric didn't mention, Bill actually started when he was two. Um, so we're super excited for him. Um, Bill absolutely embodies the spirit of Middletown Township and public service. So, Bill, congratulations. We are certainly appreciative of your your commitment to the township and you will definitely be missed.

Uh, so next is going to be Paul Cabera. PAUL,

we don't even have to say anything. That's all it, right? uh 17 and a half years as a full-time employee in Middletown Township. This May would be 20 years of service, Paul. Uh and it has been 20 amazing, excellent years of dedicated service. Um and honestly, when I when I thought about what to say tonight, incredible enthusiasm, but always putting the residents first. It was never about yourself. It was always about how we could make this place a this township an amazing place to live, play, and recreate. Uh, one of the things that Paul says to me all the time, he goes, "Eden, you have to sell the romance." He's like, "Parks and wreck is hard. When we think about trails, when we think about the comp plan, um, you know, it's difficult when it's sort of in your neighborhood, but when you kind of zoom out and you think about what do we want this community to look like, that's where the romance is." So, sell the romance. And I will never be as good at selling the romance as Paul is. We certainly um, appreciate it. Master relationship builder. Uh, and what I didn't know until I was trapped in a car with Paul when I first started here this summer. but he's also the local historian and he has a story about everything. Raise your hand if you've experienced sort of the story about everything from Paul. I imagine every hand behind me is up or should be up uh at least. But Paul, we're going to miss those stories um incredibly. So, we have a short video uh some of you may have already seen, but we're going to play it here real quick. Uh asking some of your uh your teammates here to describe you, Paul. So, are you ready? Did you bribe them for this? You know what's coming? All right, let's hear it. Everyone, tonight at our board of supervisors meeting, Paul Capera, director of parks and recreation, is being honored for his retirement. I asked a few of his co-workers and team members to explain what it was like working with Paul. Let's see what they said. Hey Nicole, what is one phrase Paul says all of the time?

Paul always says you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Hey Joanne, if Paul was something you see in a park, what would he be? One of the squirrels who cannot stop eating. Describe what it's like working with Paul in one word. Funny. Hungry. Hey Maddie, what is one piece of advice Paul has given you? Paul has taught me how to save 100 grand by the age of 30. Hey Patrick, what is one piece of advice Paul has given you?

So in Paul's previous career, he was a pension manager. So, from the very first day I started working here, the first thing he said to me was, "If you want to be able to retire, make sure you have 100,000 saved in your retirement funds by 35 or just give up." Piece of advice that Paul always gave me was to make sure I saved 100K. Well, Paul, I really wish I knew you in my 20s. Eden, what is one thing you will miss about Paul? I will miss his enthusiasm. Hey, Miranda. What is one thing you will miss about working with Paul? H,

where to begin? Um, probably the 7 a.m. emails, the 12:00 p.m. text messages, and the 8:00 p.m. phone calls. Um, and his great pot of coffee three times a day. Paul, you're I don't know if you can see the chalkboard he was writing on, but it it says I will not text people on the weekend. And I have it on good authority. He spent eight hours standing there writing that over and over and over as an important lesson. Uh so 17 and a half years, nearly 20 years this May. So who remembers where they were in 2006? So I looked up a couple things about what was happening 20 years ago, Paul, when you started part-time with the township. Uh fun fact, the first tweet was sent 20 years ago. Twitter was launched. It was actually considered to be the change of social media consumption uh in our country as YouTube was bought by Google uh and sort of started to change the way that we consume media. Hard to imagine that 20 years later. So that's not that interesting. But it was also the era of low-rise jeans. Did you show up in low-rise jeans when you were a part-time flight? No, you didn't. Okay. All right. Well, there's no picture, so we couldn't confirm. Uh Barry Bonds also surpassed Babe Ruth with the most home runs of all time, hitting his 715th that year. That was the juicing era in MOV, right? Remember steroids? Yep. Uh but perhaps most importantly, 2006, Paul's first year with Middletown Township. The Giants, his favorite football team, finished 8-8, but they made it with a wild card into the playoffs that year. And you know who they lost to in the wild card round, Paul? That's right. Go Birds. It was the Eagles. That's right. Go Birds. Eagles took the Giants out in the first round. Uh that was the Tiki Barber, Eli Manning, and Jeremy Shaki were all on that team. Remember that?

Y. Uh Paul, it's sort of fun to to mess with you and make fun of you here u on this sort of uh recognition of your years of service. Uh because you have brought so much joy into this building uh so much joy to the people that you work with both in and outside of the building. Uh, and who better to talk about some of the legacy that you had than another legend, our former township manager, Stephanie Tely Cools, is here and she also has a couple remarks. So, I'm going to invite Stephanie up uh to continue this good time.

Thank you so much. It's very strange being on this side of the uh podium. Um, hi, I'm Stephanie Tioli Kouls. Um, I have had the privilege of serving as township manager for most of Paul or most of his tenure as parks and wreck director, but I also served with him when he was in other roles in the department. Um, and so, as many of us have joked, there's a lot of joking when it comes to Paul. Um, you know, he can be a lot. He can be a lot, right? It takes a little time to get used to the style of the emails and the texts, things coming in when you're not even awake. But really, all joking aside, Paul is an incredible human being. He's an excellent public servant. And all of those reachouts at all of those hours of the day are because he had ideas. He's got ideas. And when those ideas come into his head to make this township a better place, right, he really wants to get out there and talk to people. Um, so I was here when Paul was promoted to director and I will say he never lost sight of all the little details of the things that he did before in his other roles. And so a lot of people might not know this, but he handles election logistics. He handles meetings. He stacks chairs. He moves tables. He pays attention. And he does all of this unglamorous work behind the scenes. Um he's not someone who ever looks at a job description, right? This is a guy who just does whatever it takes to get the job done. He's got a ton of heart. Um, and all of this is because he truly

cares about the community. Anytime there was a parks or wreck project or a new initiative, Paul pursued it with energy and conviction or uh if he believed in it, he didn't let it go. He would be a dog on a bone with any project that he was passionate about. He would push. He would follow up. Um, this is the guy who brought beer gardens to Middletown Township, right? And that was that was an idea of his probably three years before it happened. Um, he is somebody who understands finances, right? We know about his previous life, but this is a guy who always watched the numbers. He always cared about making smart decisions. He cared about stretching resources. Um he wanted his department always to um break even or better. Um he cared about not just the programs that are in front of him but the long range future of the of the department. Um he built incredible partnerships. So the EAC, the parks and recreation board, sports leagues, community groups, he always treated them as partners. He never looked at them as obstacles. A lot of people in these roles are like, "Oh gosh, I got to go deal with this board or that board. If one of those boards had an idea, Paul would passionately pursue it." And I would say that I always have been impressed of how Paul would advocate for issues that came from the grassroots of this community. Truly, there's just no there's no question. The township's parks, programs, and community spaces are stronger because of him. His leadership, his persistence, and his care for the community are unmatched. And on a personal note, he's kind of a great guy to work with, right?

He's a good person, right? He would do almost anything for his Middletown work family, right? He's got work kids. Saw a couple of them up there. You've got here's Christina, right? These are people that he took on as his kids. He I don't know the work kids were the recipients of his financial famous financial retirement advice you heard about. This is a guy who will pick you up. He'll drop you off. He'll take you to get your oil changed. He'll recommend a dentist to you. He'll get you an egg sandwich at Styers. Um, this is the guy and how I a lot of people in this room have received a bottle of wine from Paul with a piece of duct tape on it that says, "Merry Christmas, PK." Uh, happy birthday, PK. I I saved my last one. I saved my uh retirement one. Um, we loved working with Paul and we loved the stories of his girls, the stories of field hockey, the stories of medical school and of course the weddings. Oh, the weddings of all weddings. And of course, when baby G came along, he became our favorite pop. And we all get pictures of Baby G. And of course, just, you know, all of us remind Paul on the daily how he outkicked his coverage with his uh wonderful wife Peg. We constantly try to harass him to buy her cards that cost more than a dollar. And so PK, from all of us who worked with you, thank you for your friendship, for your service, your passion, and the beer gardens. Not done yet.

Stephanie, thank you. Stephanie, thank you so much. Next, we're going to invite up assistant director for parks and rec, Patrick Graham, thank you. Um, so Paul, we have been through a lot together over the last 11 years. Are you going to just stare up there the whole time or you going to let me? All right. He's got to bet that I'm going to cry, so I can't.

Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Um, so we've been through a lot together over the last 11 years. First as co-workers running recreation programs and events under Debbie and later on as a sort of dynamic duo running the parks and recreation department. I am proud of everything we've been able to accomplish and you should look back on your time here with immense pride recognizing the impact you've had on the community, the community that you have been a longtime resident of. The township is going to greatly miss your leadership, your creativity, your New York sarcasm, and your 247 365 delayed delivery emails and texts. Although something tells me that we will all continue to receive them regardless of your retirement. You've been an incredible co-orker, mentor, financial adviser, and friend. And I'm extremely grateful to know you and have you in my life. I'm sure you can't wait to spend more time with your family and relax. Enjoy every minute. And I hope that you can avoid Peg killing you before the years end. I wish you nothing but the best in retirement with the lone exception of the New York Giants ever regaining their former glory. Thank you again for Saquon Barkley. Good luck and go birds. Good job,

Patrick. Thank you so much. Paul, um when you look around, you see the smiles of peoples that you've touched. Uh and then all those in the township who are not here tonight, uh you know that your legacy is cemented forever. So, congratulations. Thank you. at least most of them. So, we have this plaque for you and we will invite your department for their picture. Oh, cool. Thank you. Yep. To the parks and recck department. Take a picture with the board.

One more list. And Paul, I know you're probably ready to sit down, but uh I have one more letter I have to read off for you. Um, I'm sure many people realize we are down a couple supervisors tonight. Our chairperson, Bernardet Hannah, was not able to make it and our supervisor, Mike Kizak, was not here. Um, but they did write uh a congratulatory letter that I will read off for you. As Paul Capra retires from his role as the director of parks and recreation at Middletown Township, we want to take a moment to express our heartfelt appreciation for his remarkable contributions over the years. Paul's kindness and generosity have touched the lives of countless individuals in our community. His enthusiasm for his work has not only inspired his colleagues, but also brought joy to the many residents who have enjoyed the parks and programs he has helped to develop. His fun-loving spirit and infectious sense of humor made every interaction a pleasure, creating an environment that was always welcoming and positive. I have thoroughly reviewed uh thoroughly enjoyed working with him and his dedication to enhancing our community through recreation has left a lasting impact that will be felt for years to come. As he embarks on this new chapter, we want him to know how deeply he will be missed. We wish Paul the very best in all his future endeavors and thank him for everything he has done for Middletown Township. And from the board, we all hope you enjoy your retirement.

Um, on behalf of the township's youth aid panel, uh, we wanted to come in here tonight. We we moved our meeting up early just so we could do this and, uh, get just give Paul a little extra recognition from us. I've spoken a number of times over the last few years and I always include Paul as a part of our thank you for the time that he has given us working with community service and the youth um troubled youth I guess perhaps in some cases in the township. Um Paul has given a lot of his time uh over the years. I've known Paul I've known Paul now for six or seven years I guess that I've been involved and he's always been right there ready to help us. But specifically over the last two or three years, we've probably tripled our uh requests from Paul for community service help and he doesn't bat an eyelash. Uh he spends an awful lot of his own time or has spent an awful lot of his own time helping us out and and helping us get things done that way. uh everybody has spoken to his wit and humor and uh it is interesting when you're dealing with Paul and your kids and and you're getting these texts back and forth and there's a lot of good little twists in there that add a lot of levity and humor to what's going on to what would other be otherwise be mundane uh work for kids. Uh and if I were to slip and call Paul Anthony, he would understand right now what that issue is all about. But um we just wanted to give you extra special thanks for the time you've given us and Rita would like to come up and just say a word or two as well. Okay. Thank you Paul and congratulations.

Thank you sir.

Can I come up? Is there a way? Am I on? All right. My name is Rita Bakshi and I'm the coordinator for the youth head panel. I wanted to speak a lot more. I'll start coughing. So, I'll just keep it short. Uh Paul has been a wonderful partner for us for this symbiotic relationship that we have with the youth head panel and the parks and wreck. And I I'm very grateful. Uh everybody was talking about is humor. There's not a text. There's not an email that doesn't make us laugh with kids coming with hickeys from you know what kind of concert. And um we only get to spend about a half hour with the stu the the juveniles who come before us. Paul spends an awful lot of time and he acts as a mentor to them and understands them better than we do. We are very grateful Paul and this is a little bit something from us for you. Thank you very much. And Paul, before you go, uh I uh I would remiss to be to not say something on uh behalf of myself. I I you were the first person that I met way back when. Um you know, at that volunteer cleanup, uh I just happened to mention that I was running for supervisor. Little did I know that I was talking to the great Paul Capera. Um so I just wanted to thank you. you've done such amazing work at making the quality of life of residents in Middletown um high because of the work in parks and recck. So um thank you for all of the volunteers, activities and events that you guys put on. um you you've done amazing things and I am proud to say that I was able to work with you and and you know also got

to uh have some uh you know excel fun as an old finance professional like myself. Um so I really wish you um the best in retirement um and and all the joy with your children and grandchildren. Um, and then, uh, Bill, if you're still here, um, I didn't get to say so, but, uh, I 47 year 46 years is amazing. So, um, I just wanted to give him my my, uh, my healthy retirement, happy retirement. Thank you very much.

Hold on, Paul. You're not done yet. You're not done yet, Paul. I'm gonna get on the love fest if I may. Uh Paul, I have thoroughly enjoyed working here with so many people and you, I have to say, are probably at the very top of that list. Um I've been here pretty much since day one of you being a director. Um and I can attest to all of the odd hour calls and emails uh and the room full of people here is a testament uh to the dedication you've had to this township. And there are very few people that I can think of who have spent quite literally every hour of every single day of the week uh putting this township first. Uh, and I can't thank you enough for that. Um, probably my favorite memory of working with you is all of the uh, bids that we've been able to put together over the years. And I will, uh, because this is being recorded and televised, I will not share the affectionate nickname you've dubbed for me. Uh, some folks in the room know whether what that is. Um, and I especially want to recognize all the public works guys who turned out who weren't actually sure if this was truly what it might be that Paul is actually retiring from here and that this might be the end of all of the 628 a.m. uh automated texts that they might be receiving. Uh, but I really want to congratulate you on uh a job well done and many years well served this township. Thank you for everything.

Thank you. And Paul, yes, I will say one thing before you um the first job I had out of college was working part-time as a camp counselor uh for our park and recck department here in Middletown. Paul was my boss's boss's boss, I think was the correct org chart there. But I remember coming in this room on a on a on a I think it was during in like a night in May and you and Joanne had us making balloon animals, teaching us how to be good camp counselors. Um, but my my favorite memory with you, Paul, my time working in parks and wreck was um this was right out of college, so I needed extra money. I needed more hours of work. And I remember you gave me a job because I worked at the senior center on Trenton Road. There's a communal garden there. And it was so hot this summer that the plants were wilting from the heat. So Paul sent me out to go water these plants um out there and there was bees chasing me and I was sweating. But um I learned a lot of good lessons from that. not only hard work and about proper crop irrigation, but the most important lesson I learned was that whatever job I get after this has to have air conditioning in the summer. So, I thank you so much for that. Um, also thank you for the the life that you breathe into this community. Um, parks and wreck is really what changes um a town from a place where people live um in their separate homes to where they come together as a community. And I have seen you just knock it out of the park time after time. Um, and you are going to be missed. Um, whoever is going to take your place has really big shoes to fill. Um, but you leave behind a legacy that you should be proud of. Um, I've never seen someone get so much love in this room before. So, you might be the most loved man in Middletown. Um, and that says something. So, thank you so much for your service to our town. It means everything to us.

Thank you.

Um, I'm just going to save you from turning around and turning back around again. Um, being one of the newest ones here, uh, I unfortunately got to know you the least. Um, only being here a month or so, but like Dana, I also met you at a park cleanup. Um, got to know you in a couple quick seconds and and thought it was going to be great if I got elected to be able to work with you. Um, so I can only thank you for three things. The park and snowball cuz my daughter loves it. Miracle at the Meadowlands one. Miracle at the Melands 2. Congratulations. Thank you. All right, everyone. I think we're going to take a quick break here. I know uh many of you are here um on behalf of our retirees. So, if anyone wants to clear out, unless you want to hear us talk about local government, which I know is exciting. So, but I will give you all an opportunity to escape now while you still can.

All right, I think we are all set to go. All right, now we are going to move on to public comment on non-aggenda items. Is there any public comment? if you could please state your name and whether or not you are a resident or taxpayer of Middletown Township.

Okay. Good evening. My name is Sheldon Post and I'm in Red Rose Gate. I have a few quick things. I'll try to be quick uh that I want wanted to mention tonight. Um, first of which, I know that you're all working on a new policy as far as public comment is concerned, and I wanted to make a few comments uh about that as to some of the suggested things that I had read a couple months or a month ago um that you're considering. Uh, one of which was timing uh people with public comment, three minute time limit. Uh, I for one would be exa against that. I don't know if I'll exceed three minutes here tonight or not. I'm going to try not to, but uh I remember years back on former boards here where there were some times when we had time limits and uh it seemed like more than one supervisor at the time. One was too interested in the clock and another one was too interested in telling that one that they got 30 seconds left or something. And it kind of bothers me that when things are being timed like that, and I I know I've also I I saw this at schoolboard meetings on occasion, too. And I know that when there's a time limit like that, and people are more concerned about a clock, I don't think they're really listening to us and the speakers. And so, I have a problem with time limits. And I would hope maybe that you will strike that from consideration. Um, another aspect uh that I saw was that you were considering perhaps moving public comment on agenda items up to this point and then public comment on non-aggenda items at the end of the meeting. Uh, I have an issue with that as well. Uh, both ends of it actually. It it would seem to me that moving public comment on non-aggenda items to the end of a meeting might be construed by some as you trying to discourage public comment because people won't want to sit around

for two hours, two and a half hours for a whole meeting to get up and talk about who knows what. Uh and I think it's important for us to have the time to speak on non-aggenda early. uh some people don't want to spend all the time sitting here and and doing that. And the my problem with speaking to agenda items up front is that then you get to the agenda item and it's time for a vote. And I think that's the time for the public to speak before you vote. And uh we don't know what you're going to say when you get to the agenda item. So it's kind of hard to speak to it before we would hear it. So, it's just a couple things that I hope you'll consider before you come up with some finalized policy on that matter. Uh, the second thing I wanted to mention is something that I brought up uh probably I don't know six, seven, eight months ago or something. I had voiced some concerns about uh the way things are written in agendas primarily for planning commission and for zoning hearing board. Um, people come up here every month and they speak and oftentimes you're about to make a vote and then the person speaking is told, "Well, it's kind of too late for what we're saying now because that should have been brought up at planning commission and zoning hearing and so forth before it gets to this point." And I made the point back then that a lot of times when you look at those agendas, you have no clue what they're talking about. And uh, things improved right away. I felt uh things were written a little bit better for the most part and you know it it got better but to me it seems to be drifting back again and if I may just a couple quick examples uh the most recent planning commission agenda. One of the items uh mentions it says application for preliminary and final land development to propose the demolition of the existing vacant Denny's building to

permit the construction of a 2700 square foot Taco Bell fast food restaurant with dual drive-thru at 640 East Lincoln Highway. I think everybody in the room knows exactly what I'm talking about. I think everybody knows Denny's was there. I think everybody knows where it is, what we're dealing with, and so on and so forth. On the same agenda, we have petitioned on behalf of the Corman Commercial Properties to Middletown Township to seek both a zoning map amendment as well as zoning ordinance text amendment to allow for the reszoning of the aggregate properties referenced in the application to M1 manufacturing and to establish a new use identified as a logistic fulfillment center within the limits of those parcels. It then proceeds to list one, two, three, four, five, six parcel numbers, which mean nothing to me, uh, along Lincoln Highway to be reszoned to M1 Light Manufacturing District or Open Recreation District, 2011 West Lincoln Highway. I, for one, have no clue what that means, where it is, what it involves, or anything else. And I suspect that there's people behind me that would be in the same boat and certainly people who might be home watching uh wouldn't have any idea. So how can I know whether I want to go to that planning commission meeting to question that if I have no clue what it's all about? So again I would like to you know request that you know the one item very clearly indicates where it is what it is and so on and so forth. And then this item, it's like reading a a bunch of a foreign language to me. I had the same instance by looking at the most recent zoning hearing board. Um I won't read both of them, but there is one that pretty much specifically states what it's all about and and the other one that leaves me in the blue for one. So um again I would ask that if whatever whoever writes those agendas if if things could be

written so that you mention existing buildings like Denny's and so on and so forth so that people really have a good idea where you're talking about uh I know that notices are sent to a certain number of people who live in the proximity but that you know that's usually very limited maybe 25 30 people uh when we have thousands tens of thousands in the township who would have no clue. So, I I'm just going to re-re request that perhaps agenda items can be looked at a little more or written a little bit more u um I don't know with real information that we could all understand. Uh finally, uh I think maybe from this side of the room perhaps I just have a question about something I saw this morning. Uh and I have to apologize. I wrote it down and I can't find that piece of paper. There was a truck that pulled up in front of my house this morning. Uh it was a white pickup truck with a camper back and I it had three big initials on the door. I think it was like ZFW or something like that. And they brought out a piece of equipment. They drilled a hole in our street. Um it was probably about that big around and they drilled it down, pulled out like a core I guess of the black top. Eventually, they plugged it back up, put a little tar on it or something, and because the drill required water, there was of course ice all over. So, they salted everything, which is all well and good, but what in the world is what was that all about? I would like to know if you can tell me.

I can I can answer that for you. Okay. So, for the road programs, uh, before we design the pavement to be redone, we'll take core samples. And that's exactly what that uh company was doing. They specialize in that. and it is a small hole. They refill it and they patch it and that gives them the detailed section of the pavement, how thick it is, if it's been built up over the years. And that gives us all the information that we really need to specify how the paving company that gets the contract, the milling and the paving, uh, what they're able to do and if they can adjust the road a little bit.

Okay, that makes that makes sense. It just seemed very strange. I mean, I heard the noise. I looked out and I thought, what on earth are they doing? and my first thought was water mane problems, but it was just a small hole in a little plug they pulled out. I figured that wasn't it. So, I appreciate that answer. Thank you very much and thanks for the opportunity to speak and kudos to our uh to Eric and his department for the most recent storm and the clearing of the roads and whatnot. Uh I was satisfied with that as one resident. So, and I think a lot of people were. So, kudos to them. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh Mr. Ratliff, I uh yeah, I had a comment about something that he was talking about with um simplifying the agenda items. Is there any way we could add like a short summary under some of these just to for transparency purposes with the public?

Yeah, he definitely I enjoy the comments. Um and it certainly has my gears turning and I suspect some of the other people in the room who write agendas who are nodding are feeling the same way. Um there are some state regulations that we have to follow when creating the agendas. we have to be very detailed and there's different case law that different attorneys interpret different ways as to what that actually means. Um, but there may be other sort of solutions that we can uh create internally to sort of alleviate the confusion that members of the community might have when reading the agendas. Thank you. Is there any other public comment?

Hello. Good evening. Missy Kitsm Miller, resident and taxpayer, and I'm speaking you to you tonight as a longtime member of the parks and recreation board and as someone who genuinely loves this community. I want to begin by recognizing Paul Capera. I know his time is already over, but um and the incredible job that he has done for this township. His leadership built the foundation for everything that parks and wreck has become. His retirement is welld deserved, but it leaves a huge hole and very big shoes to fill. I'm not here to criticize any individual, especially someone who hasn't even started yet. My concern is about the process and about protecting what has already been built. For years, many of us understood that there was a succession plan in place. Instead, we now find ourselves with an entirely new direction and almost a complete loss of the team that carried these programs. Paul retiring, Patrick gone, Nicole leaving, and Joanne left to hold it all together. Over the past several years, we have finally reached a point where Parks and Wreck truly works. Our board is cohesive. Events run smoothly. Sponsors come to us. Volunteers show up because they trust the people in charge. These relationships are the engines behind the talent show, the Fourth of July parade, Grooven at the Gates, the holiday openhouse, and so many other programs that residents depend on. My worry is not about whether someone is local or national. It's whether the person stepping in truly has the depth of experience, community relationships, and hands-on knowledge that this role requires. Parks and wreck is not just a title. It's knowing the vendors, the sponsors, the volunteers, the last minute crises, and the history behind every event. This cannot be learned overnight. I'm disappointed because many of us believed continuity and qualifications would guide this

decision. Right now, it feels rushed and the stakes are too high for that. Residents don't see hiring processes. they see whether Earth Day goes well, whether Grooven at the Gates feels welcoming, and whether their kids have places to play and belong. I'm asking the board to be transparent about how this decision was made, to ensure the qualifications truly match the responsibility, and to give Joanne the support that she will absolutely need. Parks and Wreck is the front porch of the township, and it deserves leadership that protects everything Paul and this community have worked so hard to build. Thank you for listening.

Hello. I'm a taxpayer uh and I live in the community. I I would like to tell uh Bill Could you state your name, sir, for the

Oh, I'm sorry. Michael Mars. Uh, I'd like to say congratulations to Bill and Paul for retirement and God bless them and uh have a have a great one. Uh, I do feel a little jealous with Paul because I never got to know him, but I'm only a taxpayer, but uh, it sounds like it was an anchor to the uh, township. Um, I do have to say this gentleman that came up here and talked about the agenda, that is one thing I would have loved to have thought about saying. Uh, that's not why I came here. However, uh, I spent eight years on the Sham school board and the attorneys work for the board which works you guys work for the taxpayer. Now, that agenda thing that the gentleman was speaking about, you don't put a bunch of codes in there and say, "All right, Mr. Taxpayer, go out and figure out that code or the address or things like that." I think that could be cleaned up and even on the legal side, I understand what you're saying there. So, I I would look forward to that and um it it's it would be a great transparency uh to everybody. I know we have to bring it down a little bit because uh the legal and then then the the citizen. Um then the other thing here is um the the speech that some people speak is very uh quick or an individual on the board here. So, I think we should uh slow the speech down because when we're at home listening to it, it's a little more difficult to uh understand what we're saying. We know speed reading. It's not a car commercial where they have the the the end of it at a speed

read on the legal clause. Um that I say that respectfully. Uh and that would be good to help with people with uh some hearing issues and that you know knowing some of my neighbors plus myself. I think that would be a blessing to us all. Uh now my last thing uh I have Oh, by the way, they're they're doing the storm water in my neighborhood. It looks like they're about halfway through. I'm hoping that Park View Avenue gets some storm water drains in front of my house so I don't have to swim out to the car. I'm looking forward to that. Uh now that them the money and the funds are there. Though it kind of bothered me, but it's $60. It beats a pair of shoes. So, uh, thank you for that. Um, in November at one of the meetings, you voted for, uh, going out for an RFP for the pension broker that's currently still handling it. But I would like to know, real quick answer, what happened with the RFP? Did it go out? If not, why?

I'm happy to answer that. Uh, the RFP did not go out. we were able to reach agreement with our current pension managers who've been serving the township for a long time. Uh they significantly reduced their fees um reducing the total cost um of their management uh and oversight of the pension plan. Uh we thought that that was pretty competitive with what the market would offer. Um and we accepted that change effective January 1st. Did you vote on it? Uh no. It didn't require any action was the legal advice we got. Um they essentially said, "Hey, this is what we're going to do." Um, they sent us a letter announcing that change effective January 1.

Perhaps legal can answer today. Uh, if they legally voted for this to go out on an RFP, don't they have to retract it on a on a vote? No. For a professional such as the pension manager, an RFP is not even required at all anyway. Um, so because they weren't required to do that, they didn't have to. And we're since they were staying with the same exact manager, a new contract wasn't being um continually as what is the mill rate on that? I forget the exact change. I'll take you within a couple of points. I believe the new rate is 55 basis points which I believe the original rate was 78 basis points. So it's about a 30% reduction.

Yeah, I'd rather not start start on the high level out of all due respect. Uh the the range even you you said it at the meeting is 35 to 45. So you know we're looking at he's getting paid $500,000 and it should have been around 250 maybe 275.

Yeah, I appreciate your comments. Um I think there's a lot that goes into it. Um I think the other side of it is in that range that I gave um at the meeting that you're referring to in November. Uh there's also a component of passive versus active management. um within that range. There are some that are paying for full active management, which is what the township has. There are some that are paying for full passive management, uh which is certainly be less in fees because there's less daily work that the managers have to do. And then there's some plans that have a hybrid. Um just

I think for total transparency sake, the board should take that out uh for an RFP, though I I understand completely about professional services and everything. Matter of fact, you're working under one, right? trophies firm, right? So, very familiar with it. Uh, no disrespect, I know Tom and the whole gang. I I personally think all the professional services should be out there on an RFP. It doesn't just keep everybody honest, but it shows that you're working for the taxpayer. Now I I know the proy uh firm and things like that working on the school board and otherwise great but we went out for quote and yeah that's when they were going to start chirping up. Now this gentleman that company went from 78% down to 55. That's not enough. he's been getting a lot more for a lot longer time. But I'm going to just rest on that. And I just think we have to be transparent. We're getting tax rate uh increases every year here now and especially now. So I mean you're the EIT tax. I would I would love to do an audit to be honest with you and right to know on where the where the tax money is going so I can get up to speed. Maybe I'll maybe I'll run for a seat someday. But I just want the transparency. It it's tough. Everything's going up, but you know, when we don't go out after a vote, why? And we weren't transparent with the the public until today. And not that you were trying to hide it, but you know, people are paying attention. you know, I

just got out of work and got here and uh I would have been still at my desk probably, but I was like, "No, it's important enough to me and I know it's important enough to somebody else, especially people at home." So, thank you for your time. Is there any other public comment? Seeing none, we will move on to the consent agenda items. Mr. Vala, could you go through the items for us?

Yes, absolutely. Uh, consent agenda items. Uh, item A, consideration of authorizing payment of February 9th, 2026 bills list in the amount of 2,587,139.7. Item B, consideration of approving the January 5th, 2026 and January 12th, 2026 minutes of the public meetings of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. Item C, consideration of authorizing advertisement of bid specifications for various 2026 projects. Item D, consideration of adopting resolution 26-09R, appointing bank signitories. Item E, consideration of adopting resolution 26-10R declaring a snow emergency beginning January 24th, 2026. Item F, consideration of authorizing change order number two in the amount of negative87,000349 uh89 for the 2025 Middletown Township Road Program. Item G, consideration of authorizing payment of payment certificate number two final in the amount of $59,26.3 for the 2025 road improvement program. Item H, consideration of enacting ordinance 26-01 to adopt amendment to the police department ordinance removing job descriptions from codification. Item I, consideration of enacting ordinance 26-2 to adopt the 2021 International Property Maintenance Code with modifications. And item J, consideration of affirming termination of police services contract with Sesame Place SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment LLC. Does anyone on the board have any questions about the consent agenda items?

I would just um I know uh number C consideration of authorizing advertisement of bid specifications for various 26 projects is a ch slight change in process. Um, so I'm hoping that um I'd like to request that as these projects come up and as we go to, you know, start pursuing that bid, if you could reach out to the board and just let us know as those projects come up um so that we can be aware of all the things that are happening.

Absolutely. We'll make we'll make sure that we're making the board aware um in our wrap-up process now and we'll also add it to the various department head reports that we give at the meeting so the public can follow along too. And for the public's purposes, because these specifically are bidded projects, the board by law has to award or reject those bids. And so there will be a closing of the loop, if you will. Um, so for anybody who's listening or may not be familiar with that process, uh, this will not be the only time you're hearing about those. Mr. Leighton, can I make a comment?

Uh, on item J is the consideration of affirming the termination of police services with Sesame Place. I just want to point out Middletown Township has a great relationship uh with Sesame Place, including our police department who's very active over there in providing uh police services. We fully expect that to continue. Um the current contract we have um was last revisited in 2018 and we're losing about 90 to $100,000 per year uh with the current financial terms of the contract. Um and so we've been in touch with the executive director of Sesame and discussed this. We're looking forward to and expect, you know, positive uh negotiations to sort of address this process. We're not looking to like, you know, profit on providing the service. We're just looking to make sure the taxpayers aren't subsidizing. Um so we'll report back as that process continues.

Are there any questions from the public on the consent agendas hasn't been made yet, so I just want to I will ask for a motion from the board. I move to approve consent agenda items as stated. I second. Now, is there any questions from the public on the consent agenda items?

It's the big seat. Ryan, don't screw it up. Eric Berno, 79 week. Um, I just want to point out uh two things because government is not always uh or it's always criticized when we go over budget on everything, but consent edge item F, we're under 87,000 if I understand this right on a project that's going under, you know, under budget. That's fantastic. That just needs to be pointed out. Um, and I guess based on what Mr. Rekov just said, we're saving money as well by renegotiating contract as well. So, I just want to point out to the general public that sometimes we can come under budget and can start saving money. Is there any other public comment? All right, seeing none, all those in favor of passing the consent item say I.

I. I. Is there any opposed? Motion passes 30. Next, uh there's the consideration of amended final land development application SLD number 25-1 at 1411 Highland Avenue, TMP number 22-016-183 R-2 Residential Zoning District to add a small addition and reconfigure the existing parking lot.

Yes, good evening. Um yes, this is a amended land development application for an addition to the daycare facility at 1411 Highland Avenue. Uh this hence the amended and final land development term. This did receive preliminary and final land development approval in June of last year. Supervisor Keane, you may recall and uh Supervisor Leighton, you were on the planning commission at the time and gave it a recommendation of approval. Uh if we can go to the next slide real quickly, please. This is the original plan that was approved. Um the property owner and attorney who are also here uh to uh cover anything that I may have missed through this this intro. Uh the there's an accessory building an existing accessory building. They were originally going to actually put a second story on an accessory building and also put a small addition that would that would connect the accessory building with the main building at to for the expansion. they've ran into some issues with that accessory building, just the state of it and everything else. So, if you can go into the next slide, please. Next slide. There it shows the actual amended land development application that's in front of you right now. The the accessory building is actually being kind of wrapped around by the addition at this time. Um it's now just going to be a firstf floor uh one-story uh addition uh for the uh expansion of the daycare facility. Um with that again impacts don't change. Uh the uh the waiverss that were originally requested they stay the same. Uh it did go before the planning commission uh during their January 2026 meeting. It did re get a recommendation of approval. And uh with that I um there's really not much else to cover because it was already approved project and the scale and scope and actually I think it actually will be uh less of an impact on the uh adjacent neighborhood because they're actually

reconfiguring their parking lot to make it easier to drop off and pick up kids. So I do recommend uh that this does receive an approval. And with that I I can defer to uh the property owner or the property owner's attorney. Any questions from the board? The only two things that came to mind when I reviewed this was um any impact on the impervious um now that it's not a second story and it's it's a full um addition and then to to that extent is there any concerns with that neighboring property now that the it's going to be closer to that property?

So uh that neighboring the neighboring property owner that would be most impacted did show up to the planning commission to express some public comments. the public comments were actually more in favor of the application. Uh the uh daycare uh owner works very well with the neighbors and uh so they they didn't really have much objection to to the to the uh project. Um impervious coverage uh it this matter did receive variances early in 2025. I think it was for imperous coverage or no. Okay, I'm sorry. I can't remember. I I actually I think there's a reduction, isn't there? My apologies. So, so there's actually a little bit of a reduction to the impervious coverage because of the landscaping that's going to be installed at the property. Yep.

I'm looking for a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to grant amended final land development plan approval for the proposed expansion to the daycare facility at 1411 Highland Avenue SLD25-1 with following conditions. applicant shall comply in full with all requirements of the Middletown Township subdivision and land development ordinance and the Middletown Township zoning ordinance unless relief was granted by the uh body having jurisdiction and two any remaining review comments shall be addressed in full. Is there a second?

I second.

Any questions from the public? Good evening, supervisors. Uh, my name is Daniel Capello. I'm a resident of Middletown Township. I just have a couple of concerns that I would like to address with you folks and maybe can get answered. Um, I am local to the neighborhood of Parkland, so some of these changes may potentially affect my neighborhood directly. So I going to start by saying uh acknowledge the gentleman's comments that I am too late to this conversation. Um one of the reasons being uh my residence was not notified. 32 residents were notified. Um and so we did not attend the planning commission. We did review the planning commission that happened earlier this month and it was brought we it was brought to our attention through that planning commission that the storm water was a concern of the engineering report and some of some of those concerns were addressed. Uh the neighbor at the top of the hill specifically brought up a concern that they did not want the water routed down Avenue B because of a concern of the water uh um infiltrating their property. it seemed like. Um, so my first question for you folks is were the uh neighbors downhill of the property notified of potential changes to this property?

Do we know? So I think it's a it's a Yeah. So the zoning code requires us to provide notice within a certain amount of feet, which I don't know off the top of my head, from the um uh from the project location. So that would have been the the uh regulations we followed. Okay. I appreciate it. But I can Mr. Dr. Kesler, would you be able to speak to some of the comments around storm water? I know that there's certain specifications that they do need to meet in order to be able to develop.

Yeah, absolutely. Uh the township's ordinance uh outlines the requirements they have to meet for any kind of development and in addition uh qualifies for that type of plan uh including their amended plan. So they have to meet all the ordinance requirements. The report, the comments we had, the applicant uh did, you know, go back and satisfy and clarify to make sure they were meeting the township requirements to manage the storm water that they're generating on the site there.

And I know there was some discussion back and forth about the most appropriate direction of the storm water. Um, and I believe the comments of previous neighbors have been taken into consideration. Um, has a a datadriven solution been uh involved here? has a water study, a storm water study been conducted to determine what would impact the neighbors the least opposed to who came out to speak?

That's pretty much what the applicant puts together as their storm water report. It's a it's a document uh that goes through all their calculations and and methods. Um I'll let the applicant kind of expand if they kind of uh assess some different options. uh but what they provided with their application uh you know managed what they were proposing on their plan and then also the storm water requirements in the township ordinance. So uh it does meet those uh management requirements um as far as options they could take. uh that is left up to the applicant of which one uh would best satisfy what those requirements need to be for meeting all the township uh ordinance

and will be the will the public be notified of what plan is picked? Uh it's the plan they they're presenting here the plan they're presenting. Correct. Okay. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Is there any other public comment? All right. Seeing none and that we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 30.

Thank you very much. Uh, next we have the consideration of a minor subdivision application SLD number 25-9 at 8:30 Old Lincoln Highway, TMP number 22-013-213 R-2 residential zoning district for construction of one new single family dwelling with the existing dwelling to remain.

Hello again. Um, yes, a minor subdivision, one lot being converted into two lots. The one lot right now is a 58,200 ft lot. It will be subdivided into two lots. Can we see the uh next slide, please? There. There we have it. Uh you can see it's kind of the subdivision line's pretty much going right down the middle there. It's just right now all one lot with an existing home. Uh the two lot subdivision will create a vacant lot that would actually have frontage along uh Richardson. uh offer the intent of having a an additional uh single family home built on that lot. Can we go to the next slide? I think there isn't. Oh, I'm sorry. So, that that is the that is the plan that is in front of you right now. Did go in front of the planning commission in January. Received recommendation of approval. Uh they are requesting one waiver and that's not to install sidewalks. They did uh commit to paying a fee in lie of uh for those for the sidewalks. uh the property owner and their design professional are here if there's any uh additional questions or or anything that needs to be covered that I'm not covering right now. And with that uh I feel that the impacts are negligible. Uh it's it's a uh literally just going to uh eventually bring one home to the neighborhood. Uh and the character and design of that home will be very similar to to that adjacent community. Uh so with that I do uh recommend approval and within my policy briefing that's in your packets there is the uh recommended motion.

Uh I can't remember off the top of my head but is there any like displacement of trees or other like shrubbery from this uh project that would be of like significant impact? Yes. Uh good evening. My name is Larry Burn. I'm the uh engineer for the project. And the uh rear lot, which I'll call it the front on Richardson, is basically lawn, but there are some trees that are on that lawn area that will be removed. And is the applicant have to pay a fee or or replant trees if they agree to to this?

Well, I'll get in there. I I don't believe there's any requirement to for pre-replacement because the limited number of trees and it's not by definition considered a woodland. So there's no like limits. There's some trees coming out but my understanding is it's doesn't meet the definition of woodland. So there's no tree replacements required. But fair statement? Yes. And these are these two new lots neither one are non-conforming, right? They're both conforming to the the lot area. Yes, that's a good point that this did not go in front of the zoning hearing board. Didn't need to go on zoning hearing board for any variances. You have a very large lot for the zoning district being cut into two lots that are fully compliant with that uh zoning district.

That's great. And I'm seeing on here like a asterric but um the proposed is like I was concerned that I saw like the lot coverage was max the building coverage was max but that's only kind of you know if at most this is what they would develop on

that that's correct. So so that the existing home really doesn't do anything because it's already there on any on a conforming lot even when it has the subdivision. Uh we don't really yet know what that new home's going to bring. uh as far as coverages and everything else because they're going to have to go through permitting and and uh eventually appear in front of the uh building and zoning department to to get get granted those permits. But that also it would be fully compliant with the zoning. I and I would imagine that's probably going to be pretty well under the building coverage percentage and impervious coverage percentage.

The um are there homes on either side of that lot currently? Yes. Do they both have sidewalks? There's no sidewalks in that in that that general area. Hence hence why there was not an issue with granting the waiver, but as long as they were going to pay question aesthetically if you had a sidewalk, a sidewalk, and then a break for no reason. So, all right. Thank you.

Any other questions from the board? If not, I will take a motion. I make a motion to grant a subdivision and land development plan for approval for 830 Old Lincoln Highway two lot subdivision and construction of an additional dwelling SLD 25-13 with the following conditions. One, applicant shall comply in full with all requirements of the Middletown Township subdivision and land development ordinance and the Middletown Township zoning ordinance unless relief was granted by the body having jurisdiction. And two, any remaining review comments shall be addressed in full. Second. Any questions from the public?

So, if I understand correctly, uh you had to go and get no variances for the code on this uh these structures, right? That's correct. Yes. So, your setbacks are a standard. Yes. according to the township. Yes. Well, why wouldn't we put in a sidewalk? Just curious. Well, you just said there's no sidewalks anywhere along West Richardson and Old Lincoln Highway is a state highway and they wouldn't permit sidewalks along there.

Okay. Right. Just curious because that's that seems to be an issue on Lincoln Highway, but I get it. Thank you. I'll add to we when we look at the sidewalk requirement uh not too long ago there was another property on West Richardson and we look at the overall kind of community of the block uh to see if there would be a benefit of having a sidewalk added or if really there was no connections to uh to make do there. Uh the only time we would recommend a fee and Lou is if there really wasn't any connections for sidewalk uh in that community area there. So that's why it's one of the requested waiverss here tonight.

Any other questions from the public? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 30. Thank you. Uh, next we will hear a presentation uh by Karen Ogden um with the Nishamn Consortium. Hello, I'm Karen Ogden with Bucks County Conservation District and I'm Ken Jones with the uh president of the Nami Wershed Association.

Before I start, I got to say I'm I'm in the Paul fan club, too. I only had four years with him, but in his capacity with the EA environmental advisory committee and as parks and wreck, I I had the the the benefit of working with him both for public outreach at Core Creek and um Grooven at the Gates. And it's always a good time. I never have a hard time getting volunteers from the office to come to one of Paul's events. So, that was a good thing. But that's not why we're here tonight. Tonight, um we're here to talk about the Sham watershed and where we would like to take um wershed management into the future since uh we can have the clicker. Sorry, we'll move on. No, the other way that way. Okay. So back in 2023, weekly I would meet with the Sham Wershed Association, Penn State Extension, Master Wershed Stewards, and we would be doing project level planning trying to get small um green storm water infrastructure projects on the ground. And it was very much ad hoc. Wherever there was an opportunity, we would jump. We were bringing in I think we brought in like 10,000 tree saplings over three or four years and and just tried our best to find places to put them in the ground and get the people to do the work. So for a year we're talking, you know, weekly getting that work done. But we knew as we were doing this, you know, we've all had that there's got to be a better way feeling and that spurred on this initiative that we're here for tonight. But before we got here, last year, almost a year ago, we came before you and asked for your support in building a pilot steering committee of, you know, at the time we're working with six municipalities. We wanted to get the townships around the table to talk about how we could work together with the district and with a nonprofit to advance watershed management. So you all were gracious enough to sign

Paul to our committee and um through the course of 2025 we met and we evaluated a lot of different um well before we could evaluate anything we had to get a grasp on what the main problems are and what challenges um I don't did I do that you can

there it is what were the challenges for the municipalities and when we talk about Emma's forest storm water management you know, we all often would hear it's an unfunded mandate. So, obviously finances is always the number one problem. Um, not just the dollars, but the the staff and the time necessary to to manage and report on their MS4 permits. And then the sometimes there's a gap in in the knowledge of natural resource management like people who actually know how to make a forest do what a forest needs to do and the the green infrastructure that are that's being designed and implemented. So, we became familiar with the problems um and then we looked around to see what was going on in other um regions and within southeastern Pennsylvania there's six storm water collaboratives in Chester, Montgomery counties. Bucks County does not have any. So, this is a first for the county. Uh we looked at the different models that those collaboratives were using and we pulled from it some some key points, key service areas that we thought our collaborative could offer to the member municipalities. And so we and that's where the analysis started and that's where I'm going to turn it over to Ken to talk about what we we pulled from that process.

Is this the magic button? The down arrow.

Very good. Thank you, Karen. So uh we if we look at this diagram here, this is sort of classic magic quadrant analysis here. We're looking on the on the x-axis there. You know what's the value to the municipalities? And this isn't what what we said. This is what the represent representatives from the various municipalities came up with. So we were really facilitating this discussion. Um and on the y- axis, you know, feasibility, can we actually pull this off? And so we ended up with this magic quadrant at the top right hand corner. Those were the the services if you like that the consortium would offer to the municipalities that they felt were feasible and valuable. So to that end um we came up with what we're calling the sort of four service areas that that the consortium would offer to the member municipalities. Uh so we've got facilitated collaboration, grant support, um minimum control measures one and two from the MS4. Uh so education, outreach and public involvement. So I'm going to spend just a minute on each one of those kind of describing what we're talking about here. So the first service facilitated collaboration um to the whole idea here is is basically to share knowledge and experience that's been gained across the municipalities. Some of some of the municipalities like uh Middletown are quite advanced. Um there are others that are not as not so advanced. Dotown's also um um done a nice job. So there's an opportunity to share knowledge and experience across the municipalities. Um and there needs to be coordination and facilitation and that's something that we would offer to the municipalities. So we're talking about a technical infrastructure organizing a portal for people to share

knowledge and information for us to capture these experiences. So that's sort of the that's what we mean by facilitated collaboration. Grant support is another one that we heard loud and clear. Uh it's a challenge. That's what we heard. And um you know with with the conservation district and our experiences and and potentially other entities that we might want to bring into the consortium, we we heard loud and clear that this would be a highly valuable thing. So, I won't get into the details unless you have questions, but this was sort of a a core a core uh benefit that was observed. Beyond that, um public education and outreach uh and actually getting the public involved in projects um in the community. These are things that that we've been doing for many years now. um in as Karen said on a largely ad hoc basis we'd like to be able to build the community involvement in these activities and um to that end you know we the consortium would create podcasts videos public education that all of the municipalities that are members of the consortium could utilize so it's you know hopefully um going to prevent the the sort of the reinvention of the wheel. So, we're talking about creating a portfolio of assets that that everybody can use. And then the public involvement. Um, we've been doing that for for many years. Frankly, it's a lot of fun. And we think there are a lot of other people in the community who would like to be in who would benefit from being invol involved in it. They're just not aware of it. And it's difficult for the municipalities to organize that those kind of activities. Although, I think it sounds like you guys are doing a pretty good job. So um in terms of kind of the roles and responsibilities here of the different

organizations. So the NWA we would act as the fiscal agent. So we are going to be responsible for managing the money if you like associated with this consortium. Uh we'll be creating the content organizing the volunteers. the co the conservation district is more than just the technical role here. Do you want to elaborate more on that?

Well, essentially, yeah, the technical and really a cheerleader. I mean, and working on the outreach and trying to build the the whole community to support storm water management in a way that in a cohesive way that we're just now, in my opinion, the county is just starting to go down that path and and we have a little catch-up work to do. So we're going to try to push it forward using this as a tool

and the member the member municipalities you are ultimately the decision makers and really the drivers for for making stuff happen um in in in this consortium. The uh the something I want to point out that that we think is very important is the individual the the primary person who would be your representative. We think that that that person should be very interested in storm water and and watershed management. That would be um an important feature. Somebody who's connected into the other aspects of the uh of the municipality, public works, park and wreck and so forth. And um number three, it's skipped commitment.

Yes. Yes. somebody who um is uh has the capacity to be involved and and add value. Uh and and really that's probably the most important thing that that you'll do should you choose to join the consortium is figure out who that individual might be. Uh ultimately that person is going to represent you and is going to bring ideas and uh some of the the uh the artifacts that we're going to produce to the to the municipality. Uh, okay. So, what's what's the ask here? What we're looking for is a commitment to participate in bimonthly meetings. So, this individual is going to going to represent the township. We're looking at um a fairly small lean ask to support some of the infrastructure that we need to create to support the consortium as we go forward. uh we think it's a uh it's a non-binding uh memorandum of understanding. You know, this is something we've got to figure out with six municipalities to start with. So, that may take a little bit of time to figure out exactly how that's going to work. But the idea is that you're you're making a commitment, but if we can't make this thing work, and let's face it, this is we're optimistic, but this is the first time it's being done in Bucks County. If it doesn't work out, you can step away. So, um the uh the pitch here is for you to join the CL uh join the the consortium. Um I think you've got a packet of information about how we went about the process and what we're proposing. Um figure out who that individual would be and then vote vote to join. Now I understand that there was a recommendation to uh go with a resolution as opposed to a so I'd be

opposite it was a recommendation that uh since it's a consortium uh oh I'm sorry yes or to do an ordinance ordinance versus a resolution. Yes. C can you give us the benefit of the thinking behind that? It's required consortium. Yeah it's a legal requirement. Um if it's just a intergovernmental agreement between two we only need the resolution since it's a consortium. We need the ordinance. Okay. I can send you some information. That'd be great. I'd appreciate it. You're the first one who's told us that. Fantastic. Yeah. So, that that's all we had to present to you. If you have any questions, we're happy to field them.

No, I for one um am excited about joining this. Um I know watershed health is very important to myself and my neighbors since we have wellwater. So, um, and obviously we've done a lot of work, uh, over the past couple years with storm water management. So, I think this just continues that. So, thank you for putting this together. Our pleasure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely excited about, you know, the prospect of of additional grant funding and getting the community involved. Um, it's something that I know um, our outgoing parks rec director put a lot of work in and we want to make sure that's continued and have a spirit of, you know, having the community come together and keep our area clean and wellkept. So, those are definitely two things that I liked a lot about your your proposal. Great.

I did want to add just for the board's edification that a couple weeks ago at the January meeting of the storm water advisory committee, uh we had uh Karen and Ken present to uh that committee uh the same presentation and they also received this positively and we're excited for the board to consider this. Great. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Good night. Do you want me to make a Um, we have to authorize an ordinance, correct? Yes. Okay. I uh I move to authorize the township solicitor to draft and advertise an ordinance establishing participation in the Nami Watershed Consortium.

I will second that. There any questions from the public? Seeing none, I want to ask for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Passes. 30. Uh, moving on, we are now uh on the consideration of authorizing advertisement of an ordinance uh to increase the speed limit of Big Oak Road from 25 miles per hour to 35 miles per hour and to add stop signs to Flame Drive at the intersection with Fur Avenue and Alyssa Linway at the intersection with Fur Avenue.

Yes. Good evening. Um, so before you tonight, there are two items. um they are unrelated to one another uh other than the fact that they amend the same ordinance. So just from a administrative standpoint um you the board has the ability to make the same legislative uh action simultaneously. So just that is what is before you but I will talk about them individually. Uh first is a bit of an unusual request. Uh the traffic commission has heard both of these. The first is on Big Oak Road, uh, which for folks who might be familiar, uh, begins in Middletown Township, uh, near Styrers Orchard on Woodburn Road and then ultimately terminates going into Lower Bingfield Township. Um, the and excuse me towards Township Line Road. Um, currently it is signed as 25 miles an hour. That speed limit was actually reduced uh about 14 or 15 years ago um because that was previous to uh that road being properly paved as it is now. Um and so at that time it was seen as a safety issue. Um which was the justification at the time for reducing the speed limit. Uh that has since changed. Um there was a thorough analysis performed by the township traffic engineer back in December. Uh and because it is a primarily industrial area, there's no uh residential properties that front to that um roadway. Um and really for the safety of the residents, that was actually the uh genesis of this is there was somebody who was uh basically getting incessantly beeped at for going at uh the proper speed limit of 25 miles an hour. Um and there was a study performed by the township traffic engineer which showed that the typical motorist is going much faster than that. Um the uh the traffic engineers did state that uh the roadway does meet the conditions to have a 45 mph speed limit. Uh but when considering the accident history there, uh they felt that the 35 35 mph recommendation was justified, which was what it was um prior to 15 years ago. Um and I will note too that there is going to be some additional signage and a reduction of the speed limit as you approach the curve going towards the railroad just as you terminate towards Township Line

Road. Uh so that would be signed at 25 miles an hour. Um, and signage throughout this whole corridor would be improved uh, if this ordinance is ultimately adopted by the board. Um, I'll just pause there if there's any questions specifically about that before I get to the other item. Nothing specific about that, but one of the things at one of those intersections I was hoping that maybe you could bring to the traffic commission is um when you're on your way from the Kohl's and you're turning left onto that road. If we can do anything about getting additional signage so that those people coming from the stop sign, do not I find myself the past couple of months

having to stop on the tracks because somebody kept started going on the stop sign not realizing that I didn't have a stop sign. So, if we could do anything um any ideas that would come up that would be helpful.

Sure, I'm happy to make a note of that. Um I will also mention um I it's been some time uh since we've talked about it in this forum um that PENDOT has a consultant studying two rail crossings um in the township. One of which is what you're suggesting um on Township Line Road. The other being uh probably one that folks are much more um familiar with being uh problematic, which is on Woodburn Road uh kind of near the CSX uh commercial tracks as well as the SEPTA train station. uh two of the four uh rail crossings that are being studied across the whole state are right here in the township. Um and so I know that there is some additional attention to that. Uh but I'm certainly happy to address that with the traffic mission.

Just one quick question. Since we have um published this, has there been any re any residents reaching out about safety concerns? I know it's an industrial area, but has anyone reached out about that at all since we've posted this up? Yeah, so I've received no uh negative feedback. Um, I will admit that it is a very unusual thing to see an increase to a speed limit. Um, but the traffic commission considered the fact that this once upon a time did have the same speed limit that we're seeing here and that the main reason it was reduced was because of the actual uh type of roadway that existed at the time. Um, and based upon the engineers recommendations, the traffic engineers recommendations, excuse me, um, that they felt that that was uh, justified.

Any other questions? Then I will uh take a motion. Sorry, before you do that, if you wouldn't mind uh if I can quickly jump to the other uh item on this. Sure, that would be helpful.

Appreciate that. Uh so the other one is uh adding two stop signs onto Fur Avenue. So Fur Avenue is in the Langorn Gables neighborhood. Uh it is a through road. Uh both Elissa Lin Way as well as Flame Drive terminate into Fur A. They kind of create a little U-shape there in the roadway. Um and the there was a neighborhood uh in that area who suggested especially because of the presence of some um uh school bus stops that there would be some stop signs added. Um and it is not required um per the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code for there to be stop signs here. Um as these roads that terminate into a through road have to yield to the through road. Uh if I'm getting that right for the police folks in the back of the room, I'm getting a nod. Um however, just because it is in a typically expected condition, uh that was the justification that the traffic commission felt uh moving this forward. Um and so now it is ripe uh if there's any other questions uh for the board's consideration.

Can you just walk me through again? I know they did this somewhere close to where to a corner that I live near. How do they go about assessing if it's a good idea to put a stop sign up or not?

Sure. So it really depends on what the genesis of the concern is. Um, oftent times it will come up as a traffic calming uh request and by law a and I'm going to get really technical here, so I apologize for anyone who's kind of uh rolling their eyes in the back of their head. A stop sign is a traffic control device. It is not a traffic calming device. So just to kind of frame that a little bit, a traffic calming device is something that slows traffic um directs traffic in a certain way. So you you're thinking of speed humps is probably the most typical thing. Uh especially in a more urban environment, you'll see things kind of like the uh curbs coming in a little bit or like a road diet is something you hear about periodically. Um a traffic control device is kind of the more uh hard infrastructure. Generally, anything that you want to stop traffic. Uh so stop signs and traffic signals are kind of the two biggies there. Um and so depending on how those requests come to the traffic commission, that's usually kind of phase one is if it is a traffic um calming request, typically um it is, you know, exceedingly rare uh that we'd look to do a stop sign there. And then we also look at um what is kind of the design of the neighborhood um and a couple of other things like that. And then uh the traffic commission also has the police department present. And so from an enforcement standpoint, they're also to provide their feedback um if there's anything just from kind of a boots on the ground standpoint that should be of concern or considered.

Now we'll take a motion. I move to authorize the township solicitor to draft and advertise an ordinance to increase the speed limit on Big Oak Road from 25 miles an hour to 35 miles per hour and to add stop signs on Flame Drive at Fur Avenue and on Elisa Lin Way at Fur Avenue. I'll second. Are there any questions from the public? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. 300.

Uh, next we are the consideration of authorizing the volunteer firefighter and EMS stipened incentive. Oh, is this me? Uh, I apologize. So, uh, this is the volunteer firefighter and EMS stipen incentive. Um, this is a pre-existing program, um, that the township has had in place for a number of years, I believe. Uh, we are incentivizing volunteers, um, who provide both responding and administrative, um, volunteer services to our four fire companies as well as the Pendel Middletown Emergency Squad. There's a policy briefing summary attached um that sort of documents both the uh current uh the quantity of members within each agency that qualify for the incentive um as it's listed in the current active policy as well as a trend analysis. Uh the total spend in 2025 was $72,479 uh across those five companies.

And if I may add, Mr. Ratliff. The board did authorize in the 2026 budget an increase to the stipen. Previously, uh since this program's inception in 2018, it was a $250 per volunteer um per year incentive, which the board increased to $599 uh per volunteer for this year. That's correct. And we had $121 volunteers across the five agencies um qualify for that. Yeah. And that's an uptick from last year. Have we talked to the uh volunteers? Is is this helping? Um it looked like over the past couple years we've only had around 112. So having 121, it look seems like it's going in the right direction.

Yeah, we'll have to chat with the emergency squad. Um they had an uptick from 17 uh qualifying volunteers to 23. So we'll have to see what's going on there. And at this program is what's influencing that. I would say Dana, as a volunteer firefighter, I appreciate the stipen going up. um having volunteered in other states and uh municipalities and receiving zero for our services. Uh this is it's an amazing uh thing to get from your township and it should really help push uh what is needed which is more volunteers.

And I will add too for the record that this is uh an important program especially for our many volunteers who are not uh Middletown Township residents. they live either in one of the four bureaus that are within the township's jurisdiction or uh location or from outside. Uh because those folks are not eligible uh by law to qualify for the tax credit program that we have in place. This is a way for uh the board to uh recognize those volunteer service. And do we know have do those have the burrows put something in similar to this type of incentive yet?

Yeah, my understanding is that they have not. Uh we are talking with the chiefs now about how the townships can sort of kindly without trying to influence the process provide some information to the bureaus for them to consider um in um partnering with this as well. Uh to Mr. Valla's point, this is one of three ways u middle township residents can be financially incentivized. The other two of course being a little bit more popular with a 100% reduction in real estate taxes and 100% reduction in their earned income tax. Of course you have to be a resident of Middletown in order to qualify for that. And so what we're seeing across these five agencies is that, you know, the Middletown residents are getting that and their volunteer next to them on the truck might not be because they live in one of the burrows. So certainly an opportunity that I think we would support the burrows to take on, but they'll have to review that in their policy priority process.

Yeah, I think this is a great uh a great program that we're starting here. I know we've talked a lot about volunteerism in the firefight um departments here. So, it is always good to see that we are incentivizing um new recruits and keeping the ones that we have. There any other questions from the board? Um not so much of a question, but if this motion is passed, are are we doing anything to actively push and kind of advertise that we do this um for some residents that may not even know that that's a thing or maybe thought about volunteering? But

yeah, that's a good question. Um there isn't an active sort of recruitment campaign that the township is undertaking now. Um I think there's been discussions about that with the agencies in the past. Um we're sort of talking, you know, with the the fire chiefs primarily about what that might look like and if the township's the right um sort of entity to push that. Um you know, there's some hurdles in there. Um but to answer your question, no. But the longer answer is probably something we're interested in trying to figure out what that looks like. And I know we've done a ton of work. Um our our public information officer has done a great job with our social media presence. Um so maybe you know after this meeting depending on how the vote goes if we could maybe you know address that saying hey look at the you know look at what we're doing for our volunteers.

Yeah absolutely she's in the room so I'm sure her gears are already spinning on that and I agree she does do a great job. It's hard not to understand what's happening in the township once it makes it to social media. All right. I will uh move to authorize the 2025 volunteer firefighter and emergency responder incentive program. I happily second that motion. Are there any questions from the public?

Hello again, Sheldon Post, Red Rose Gate. Not a question, just a comment. If there's any agenda item in my opinion that requires an immediate 50 or in this case 30 vote in favor, it's something like this. Uh, I think that, you know, our volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel, they deserve a lot more than, you know, what we're talking about. I know that uh at local politics and even you know if we go nationally or whatever you really have nothing to do with the following but it's mind-boggling to me that we can pay our athletes and our entertainers the kind of money that we do and uh devote tax dollars to building of stadiums and nobody bats an eyelash. something like this, I suspect I'll read on Facebook somewhere along the lines, somebody's going to complain because it's costing more money and so on and so forth. And it's just absurd to me that we even question something like this. Uh, you know, I think police, fire, rescue numbers one, two, and three in my opinion, my wife's opinion, I'm sure, uh, a little biased. I might add educators as number four, but u this is a no-brainer in my opinion and I would like to see something like this come up annually where the stipen can be increased and increased and increased because uh if anybody deserves it, our volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel do. Thank you.

And and by the way, I'm neither so I have no vested interest. Thank you for your comment. Is there any other members of the public like to speak on this item? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I.

Any opposed? So, you'll note the pictures uh that our PIO added to the presentation. So, what's happening? Our um the leadership of the township when they find themselves in interesting situations snap a photo and they send it to the PIO and she sort of cataloges it for when it might become relevant. So, she must have a fire file, a fire department file. This is a call they went on I think at the end of January. Uh there was a structure fire. You can see they're sort of dealing with it on the left. Um but there are non Pennsylvania native and frankly non United States native animals where they went. And so that's a zebra in the bottom right. Uh where you can see some of our firefighters taking a picture with it. So uh that was all over social media and it made it to tonight. Also close enough to a Dalmatian. So

yeah, pretty close. All right, that motion passes. uh 30. Uh, next item 12, the consideration of a letter of understanding with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission for participation in the regional energy benchmarking program.

Yes, thank you very much. Um, so before you tonight is uh simply an authorization uh for staff to execute a letter of understanding with uh DVRPC. They are are our regional planning uh entity that serve the nine count 9ount Pennsylvania New Jersey metropolitan area around Philadelphia. Um there is an additional legislative process that will unfold uh if the board decides to move tonight. Um so I just wanted to preface before I get into the details of it. This does not encumber the board to um carry forward this policy but simply just to move the process forward uh through our uh policy preparation process. Uh so the regional benchmarking program has been uh going through uh development with uh DVRPC officials as well as officials from Green Build Green Building United uh which is a Philadelphiabased uh firm that is providing uh services uh for this technical uh regional benchmarking program. And I'm sure you're asking what the heck is regional benchmarking or or as I like to call it regional energy benchmarking. Uh this program is specifically targeted um number one at municipal buildings. Um, more importantly, number two, at large commercial buildings. Uh, and really the goal of this is to identify um not only to the municipality, but to create awareness with those property owners of how much energy they're consuming. Uh, because those small number of large properties um control or represent a disproportionately large amount of our total commercial square footage. uh in the climate action plan which this program is consistent with. Um commercial energy in Middletown Township comprises or generates approximately one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions uh that are created in Middletown Township. Uh and so this type of a program uh establishes a foundation. It doesn't penalize uh or set requirements for these properties to comply with but simply just to report

the data to the municipal government. And so this type of program does exist across the country. Uh in Pennsylvania, there's only two examples of this both in Pittsburgh and in Philadelphia. And I will point out uh this is one of the first programs of its kind that is happening on a regional basis. Uh Middletown is working with DVRPC as well as about uh four to five other municipalities in the Philadelphia or excuse me, the Pennsylvania side uh suburbs uh in Montgomery and Chester counties to develop this type of program. And there you see the municipalities on the right. Lower Marian, Radner, uh, Westchester Burough, and Westland Township. And we are the only one in Bucks County. Uh, so this, um, letter of, um, understanding establishes the relationship between the township, DVRPC, and Greenbuilding United to continue developing this policy. There is a model ordinance um that we would like to uh if the board wants to move forward uh we would likely take to the environmental advisory committee to uh talk through in further detail and to provide some specific recommendations that can be customized for the township uh and to continue moving this forward. Um and specifically uh this would focus on large commercial buildings over 25,000 square ft. In a larger urban setting you'll typically see the threshold at 50,000 plus square feet. Um but as we looked at the um requirements uh or the kind of composition of buildings in the suburban environment uh 25,000 square feet or larger captures u most of the square footage. Um so this type of program or the ordinance that they are proposing uh puts municipal properties first. I'm happy to share that the township um along with the other municipalities in this program have already fulfilled that requirement. Uh and so we are already ahead of the game. um by year two, this would um require the uh commercial properties to begin reporting with the uh enforcement provisions to go in uh place into phase three if I'm not mistaken. And so really

the goal of this is any commercial properties or any multifamily dwellings that have a total area of 25,000 square ft or more. Um there are some exemptions for if it would create financial hardship to report um as well as uh any unoccupied buildings uh which we do have the ability from our fire department to get some of that data. Um and there is uh support right now through DVRPC to help stand up this program including notifying uh impacted properties or ones that would be um applicable to this ordinance as well as some technical assistance in actually getting that information. um put into Energy Star uh the portfolio manager which is where we are going to be capturing all of this data. Um and I will also note that there is some uh grant funding that DVRPC has facilitated to fund this program through 2027 and they are um very close to securing some additional funding that would carry it through uh likely 2029. Um so in the short term there is no cost uh directly to the township. Uh this would simply be um staff time uh from like a code enforcement standpoint to make sure that there are properties complying. Uh and I will point out I believe I have it on one of the next slides here and this just simply maps out the timing for implementation. So their goal is for this to be coming um before the board likely over the summer uh for further policy or in this case ordinance discussion. Um, so this is just a little bit of a highle analysis of the buildings that would be applicable. And I will note that this data is about a year old. So there are some uh very recently constructed properties that are not going to be represented in this data. And it also does not represent any taxexempt owned properties. They would be uh subject to this. But the data source that DVRPC had for this data shows uh uh p excuse me privately owned properties. And so you'll see here um in this analysis, and this is just simply a a table depiction of that analysis. I'll

put it for anybody who's kind of the data geeks in the room. Uh you'll see here that 102 properties or uh excuse me, 102 buildings, which make up 28% of all commercial buildings in the township that were analyzed, represent 83% of the total square footage. That's kind of the rationale for this type of program is that you're by targeting a relatively small number of properties, you're getting a disproportionately large uh amount of square footage that is really kind of associated with the greenhouse gas emissions. And I'll go back to that slide just to show you. So kind of the colorful bars you'll see it's really only about 25% of the buildings, but it's making up a disproportionately large area of square footage. And then this is simply a little bit of a breakdown of building types. Uh so again this does not include a lot of institutional uses. So uh schools are not represented in this data set. And if you know Middletown this makes sense. It's primarily retail, multifamily, industrial. And I will note flex is going to be kind of like your business park type uses. So think like Cabbat Boulevard over on the Falls Township border. Um so anything that's kind of like that hybrid uh commercial or office area. And again for any of the data nerds in the room, I'll leave these charts up for just a moment to digest them. U so again before the board tonight is to move forward with this letter of understanding. Um and by doing so it would move this board through the policy development process and um I would advise that this be recommended to the environmental advisory council for further policy discussion before it comes back to the board. So what exactly are we asking? And have we talked to any of our big business owners? What are we asking of them as part of this?

Sure. Obviously, this is just the letter of intent, but my concern is what we're asking for them in the future and how much it will cost them.

Absolutely. So, this is part of the support that we get from DVRPC is developing that list of contacts. I'm just going to continue cycling through the slides. There we go. Um that is some of the technical support that they provide is they have their uh data of contact information and the township has its own data uh from our internal services that we provide. Um and providing that outreach as part of this policy development process is one of the things that's being discussed with DVRPC and they are pro doing a great job of customizing uh their technical assistance along the way. The actual ask is simply to provide the energy consumption data to the township. Um and really that the primary purpose of that is to create awareness with the building or property owners. That way they are cognizant of the energy consumption occurring at their facility. Um, and that does ultimately open up the opportunity long term, uh, if the township wanted to provide a direct line of, uh, information for any type of, uh, rebate programs that might exist from the utility companies, um, or any type of grant programs that are specifically intended for a large building. Um, and it also creates some good opportunities with our planning and zoning department, especially as those properties might consider um, any sort of like substantial, you know, anything that's kind of above permit level work. Um it gives us some good insight as to what's actually happening from an energy consumption standpoint. Uh which currently the township has no um ability to monitor that.

Would the businesses be able to opt out? Um is it required? The way that the model ordinance is crafted, it is a requirement. Uh the only carveouts uh which I mentioned are for vacant properties uh as well as properties where they have a demonstrated financial hardship. Uh that would be one of the things certainly the board can consider in the policy development process is an opt out. Um the design of this model ordinance is that it kind of creates a ramp um before there's any sort of penalties that would be involved. So it would be I believe by year three uh before there would be any sort of enforcement um actually taken.

So to be clear, the board tonight is not authorizing the solicitor to review and advertise the model ordinance. It's just a letter of understanding to say we're willing to continue pursuing a conversation about this program. Is that right? 100% correct. And the board is under zero obligation to actually enact an ordinance to affectuate this program. If you get into it um either at the EAC level or back uh before this uh governing body, if you decide this really isn't for us, there is no penalty whatsoever. What's the timeline for considering the model ordinance?

Sure. Um it's a little bit in flux. Um, ideally DVRPC would like uh the board to uh take some kind of action uh likely by the fall. Um, I fully expect the EAC would be uh amanable to hearing this probably by the spring or summertime. Um, and so I would anticipate this coming back uh for further policy discussion by the summertime. And just to be clear, there's no cost associated with this part of the process or up to and including any uh enactment of the model ordinance or a revised ordinance thereof. Correct. just simply the staff time associated with uh continuing that relationship which has been going on.

And a question I have because I see multif family um dwellings are on here. What impact, you know, I know we're not committing anything tonight, but if this were to be enacted in the future, what impact would this have on utility costs for residents there? Because that's a big concern about people is the increase in cost of energy.

Sure. So this does not do anything to actually change the energy consumption itself. It's really just a mechanism to create awareness. Um I will note that the uh folks who have implemented programs like this um have shared that multifamily buildings are some of the hardest to get to comply because you're not dealing with you know one or two uh utility bills. You're dealing with in some cases dozens or even hundreds depending on the type of building. Um, and depending on the lease relationships, depending on the utility company, that can sometimes be easier or more challenging to get that information. Um, and so from their experience, that is often where they see the biggest impact. Individual property or excuse me, individual um, tenants in this case, whether it be residential or commercial, I would not expect to see any actual direct negative impact to this. if anything um in this case a commercial property owner or a corporate entity that has one or more leises within it um the idea is that this program would um give them an incentive or information to um enhance the energy efficiency of their building. So ideally the goal would be to reduce energy consumption and therefore energy cost.

That that would kind of be following his concern with the uh multif family if they start to receive violations if that turns into something that they basically kick back to their residents um and increase their rent and stuff like that. That obviously would not although it would help the building if they do what you say and actually you know make their buildings more efficient. But if they choose not to and they choose to just pass on, you know, the uh the violation and the fines to their residents, that could impact a lot of people.

So these these are all great great questions and I think the EAC this the staff township staff and the board of supervisors, if the board chooses to pursue the letter of understanding, absolutely have to address these questions. And I think many of the concerns that we're hearing now are some of the same concerns that I know at least inside the township building were definitely sort of talking about, right? we're concerned the model ordinance if if we get to that point which is an if um is the place to sort of deal with that right I mean those are the policy discussions where you will sort of decide like are we really going to find people for this like are we really going to allow them to incur costs all of that sort of has to be um tangled up and figured out um and I know from the township staff perspective we're nowhere near ready to even begin making recommendations or pursuing those conversations um because we're just not at that part of the process All right. Um, I am open to taking a motion.

I move to authorize the township manager to execute a letter of understanding with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and Green Building United. I'll second it. There any questions from the public? Lance Seg resident Middletown. Um, when you start talking about enforcement, what are we enforcing potentially down the road?

Sure. So, the way that the model ordinance is drafted and again I will emphasize model ordinance. This is kind of the, you know, cookie cutter and it is designed for there to be specific pieces that can be customized and specifically the enforcement uh mechanisms and uh specific details is one of those areas for customization. Um it would essentially be just like any other code enforcement matter. So like a property uh maintenance violation um you know for example like having snow removal after a snowstorm on your sidewalks. uh there is a protocol in place for both time and then uh usually there's a financial penalty involved um specific to you know what type of code there's you if you look through the code book

well I'm talking about specific to this you're giving me like sidewalk stuff I'm talking if we're talking about energy consumption what are we enforcing upon businesses like they're not you know reducing consumption they're not adding what sure sustainable energy things like they're putting at this point nothing yeah So I know at this point nothing but in the future. So the only thing that this program does is require them to report. They are not required to meet any certain thresholds. It's simply to relay the information to the township and that's the only thing being enforced. Correct. What about in a year from now if we join into an agreement? What could we what could we potentially be enforcing? That's that's what I'm getting at.

That's a fair question. So the model ordinance and this type of program only contemplates reporting of the information. It certainly does create a pathway because that information is now housed in a common place in a community. Uh it creates an opportunity longer term if there is a consideration to have additional legislation to meet certain thresholds. I would say there's probably a lot of legal questions that involve that. Um and that is very far away from what we're talking about here. This is simply for private properties to and again we're talking about large commercial properties to communicate that information to the township. Okay. Mhm. Thank you.

I have a couple questions here for you. Um is it energy consumption that you're looking at to to conserve energy? Uh it's just simply, you know, like your home uh Pico bill. It's just simply how much energy, you know, electric and natural gas is being consumed at the property. Right. I get a letter from Pico and it tells me, you know, where I fall within, you know, my square footage in my neighborhood kind of thing. Mhm.

Um I I think I'm going to follow this bouncing ball. I'm a big uh I'm big on you don't need to know, right? I would rather incentivize you to put uh LED lights in, not mandate because that helps me as a business operator. Now, as a landlord, that would also bring up the rent. Nobody can tell me that we're not going to be raising the rent if I were a landlord. I was there before, right? that the individual is going to pay that be it a company or an individual, right? So, you're going to mandate a small landlord to start observing all these numbers. You're going to hurt the renters in these uh apartment buildings, townhouse development, whatever. You're going to hurt the people that are already hurting. I caution you that don't go down this road. You're going to hurt the businesses. You're going to hurt the individual renters, though they don't think they pay taxes anyway for the most part. Talking to renters, I'm like, the the the rent is paying the taxes. So, you just did a nice little increase. They're hurt. We're going to be bouncing this ball. And we know government doesn't shortcut anything. What you're doing is you're bouncing this ball right down to a vote and because it's so easy to get the information from these businesses. Don't think they don't know what you're doing. You may not be doing it intentionally, but I see where it's going. I just give you your information. Then that information becomes regulated.

Then you're then you're going to start enforcing. Then there's fines. Don't go down this rabbit hole. make it an incentive for I don't know the apartment building to put in more efficient motors. What's the energy cost on motors? Do you have any idea? I wouldn't know what type of motor you're talking about.

Electrical motor cost. What's the the average bill? It's 80% of of the electrical cost. Now, I could give you some ideas. You don't have to go down this road or you could try to tax these uh business people because they'll be moving out of the township. It's 80% as of a few years ago. Your energy cost is to start that air conditioner, start those heaters and things like that. That's 80% of the cost. I would rather much better incentivize you as a as a business owner or even a homeowner. Put a VFD in there. VFD will take out the spikes on your power, save you money. You don't have to pass it on to the renter, right? And then then maybe the township can look for grants to incentivize that or if you whatever your big plan here is, you you incentivize somebody to do the to do what's good. On top of that, you put a VFD on that drive. Unfortunately, I know this business, right? You put a a polychain belt on that, it's going to be a positive drive. You can't do it on all drives, but you can save another 15% of energy just on startup and no slip. I'd be happy to try to help you out. Call Gates Rubber. They're the one of the biggest best manufacturers. I don't sell this stuff, by the way, anymore, but I I'm very well educated in it. You can incentivize people that are paying these electric bills. And believe me, they're they're they're feeling hurt. But hey, you want to save 10%. Look at this program. You you want to save more, look at VFDs. Give them a tax break on

on donate. Look at Pico. Pico will uh give you a tax incentive. There's other ways you you can you can get that information without prying into mind business or anybody else's business because the business community is going to turn against the township. I personally guarantee it. They may not be out here, you know, at the meeting and everything, but if I were in here as a business person, that's exactly what I'd be thinking. I'm going to expand my business what? To be more regulated. We all know we're regulated out of business. Why do this to them? Incentivize. That's that's my thought. But you're going down the right road, but it's the wrong path you're on.

Sure. And if I might just address one thing you mentioned, the idea of a program like this is to capture the information. So to your point about incentivizing them to do certain types of improvements to their benefit, the idea is capturing the information to know what is happening there. That way we can recommend the best improvements. And so the idea behind nobody trusts the government. You could be the greatest guy in the world. It's maybe trust uh

some people where a change of the board then it becomes punitive that I I fully understand what you're saying. Great idea, wrong message. Incentivize. Don't don't ask for their information. They're going to do it or they're not going to do it. I'd rather incentivize. you get more people to do it. Not not some somebody that has a business that's going to leave the township because of this nonsense. Because I guarantee it's going to cost you another employee in this township. What's that mean? More benefits, more salary, and then more computer, everything. Somebody that has multiple locations. You only have to go over here to Bristol. I'm sorry. Uh, and there's one or two firms that own them all. It's it's not going to be good. I don't think it's fair to business owners. That's all.

Do we have any idea of what they've done with this benchmarking data in other municipalities across the country?

Sure. Across the country. Um, I am not very familiar with um to the extent that this information has been used. I would very much stress that we are bound by the limitations of our state laws. Um I know that there was an extensive legal analysis done by DBRPC long before we got to this point to determine if townships are even eligible to assess this just because the two examples in Pennsylvania are two different forms of government. Um and so their recommendation was yes, we can do this. Um but especially to kind of some of the concern of you know the encroachment. Um you know my personal position absent additional legal advice is that you know doing anything beyond what is proposed here would likely be um you know very challenging.

I did read uh receive and review that legal opinion from the DVRPC uh and I agree with that assessment. I also do agree if there's going to be additional requirements on these businesses, there's probably going to be uh more legislative action on the state that would require to do anything further. I think we have another comment coming, but Mr. Valla, what's the timeline that the board of supervisors has to consider the letter of intent that's proposed?

Sure. So, uh they would like to know, um I would say by the springtime at the very latest. Um, we've been pushing this conversation off before the board for a little bit. Um, they would like to know if there's any interest in moving this forward. Uh, but like I said, there is no uh requirement that the board do anything uh from a legislation standpoint just by entering into this LOU relationship. So, the board doesn't need to decide on this matter tonight. They do not. Okay. Thank you.

Just a quick question. out of the retail spaces. Um, h how much of those do you know percentage-wise? Like how much would be kind of big box store versus a large small business, family-owned business, somebody that couldn't absorb, let's say, some of the fees or or any of the uh violations as opposed to like a Target or something like that.

Sure. So, generally speaking, it's going to be the big box, but you have to kind of separate the individual stores from the actual structure. So, we're talking about the building. So the same way like the residential example, we're not talking about town houses just because they're stuck together. We're talking about one structure that has multiple things happening within it. So it's not, you know, one retail building as opposed to a shopping center. It's not the mall and its individual tenants. It's the mall as one large commercial building, if that helps.

And this this motion tonight, if if if it were passed, this is not I think you said it not binding in any way. This is simply just allowing like an exploration of what could be not correct binded in any way. My recommendation would be that you task your EAC, which I believe we have Mr. Deini, who is one of your EAC members here, um to really dig into this u as environmental uh res environmentally minded residents to really dig into this uh for additional recommendations on some of those kind of open-ended questions before it comes back to you.

Hi, I'm uh Kevin Deie. I'm on the EAC. Um and I had no idea this question was going to come to us eventually. Um, just to clarify, I know there's discussion about not trusting government with information and all that kind of stuff. My understanding of the DRV UBC program is they're simply collecting information so they can make science decisions. Um, they're a planning agency. So, they put plans together, they calculate values, they make recommendations about best practices, those kinds of things. And that information is then disseminated out to uh the counties that they work with to make their planning um um decisions as best they can on the basis of fact. And that's what the that's what the information gathering is all about. If you're going to have a project of any kind, uh the very first question I ask about a qu uh about a project is what is the measure of success? And in order to have a measure of success, you have to know what your baseline is. You have to know where you're starting. And that's what they're trying to do with a program like this. How much energy are these buildings using? And as a as a general uh question, and that's our starting point. And as they make recommendations, as the future unfolds and more efficiency measures are put in place, you now know what your baseline was and where you are at this moment in time. And then you can make a determination whether or not those were effective, how effective they were, and so on. That's where the white roof program came from that you see all the white roofs in Philadelphia that they've helped reduce uh air conditioning cost and energy cost in the building because

it's simply white now instead of black tar. Um cities of Austin, I think Bloomington, Illinois and others have developed programs like this. Um, so I would suggest as you're considering this that this is simply an information gathering exercise and they are a planning agency. They have no force to push anything down anybody's throat to make anybody do anything other than have information available to make intelligent decisions about the future. Um, so we'll have those discussions as part of the EAC once it's before us. But that's what I know of these programs at the moment without having ever looked at this question.

Yeah. I think my only concern though is it's what it sounds like is that it's not just us providing it's requiring the businesses to provide that information even if they don't want to. Sure. But they have the information available. I mean they get a bill and they pay the bill and on the bill is how much energy you've used. We all get the same bill for them is a bigger bill but it but PICO cannot give that information to the planning commission without the without the permission of the owner or the user whoever the account holder is. So essentially, you know, this gets down to

It seems like we're diverting that though. Pico is not allowed to provide that information. Correct. We're saying you have to do it. You have to provide it to them

or grant the permission for Pico to provide it in your behalf. But the information is attempting to be uh gathered so that it could be matched to the building. a building of certain size, certain square foot, certain height, certain design practices that uh certain construction practices. They can then uh determine that buildings of this type built in the 1980s whenever Oxford Valley Mall was put in or whatever that was that it will use so many kilowatt hours per square foot. And once that is part of their database, they can look at the whole region in terms of similar buildings drawing this much energy and then they can start making decisions about grid development, how much energy has to flow into certain areas. I mean, one of the issues on your agenda tonight was to look at the old Cameron Saber landfill site and approve that for being a logistics center. Now, that's going to draw a lot of energy if that logistics center turns into an AI center. How you going to feed energy to it? Um, how do they make those kinds of decisions? How do we know how much energy is being used in the region? um that's the stuff they do and participating in that program to me doesn't seem like that's a negative thing.

I I agree with what you're saying and I I really I like the idea of benchmarking. I just I have some questions around requiring businesses to provide data. Um, but like I'm I'm open-minded to what what we could be doing. So, is there uh Mr. Espazito, is there a way that we could table the motion for tonight and send this to the EAC so that they can start looking into some of these dis discussion questions prior to us voting on a letter of intent? Yeah, there's no reason we can't

because we're essentially saying we're going to put we're we're committing to putting together an ordinance within the next year. I'd rather not commit to that before knowing a lot of this information. It sounds like we still we have that time. We're not we're not at the point where there point of no return where we can't join this. Is that right?

Yes. I would encourage the board to consider the LOOU in the springtime even absent the appetite to actually develop a policy in full. uh just because that is kind of the juncture right now because if there is not any interest from our point to give that kind of the college try if you will um you know they the other two parties subject to this LU obviously don't want to expend their resources on us if that's not our intent um but yes you certainly do not have to make that decision tonight

yeah I think I would really just like to understand what this means for businesses I understand and and love the idea of putting it through for all of our municipalities u municipal facilities I just want to understand what that means for businesses and how that's gone in other municipalities. Maybe they've they haven't had the push back from and haven't had a lot of that the um hardships, but I think we just need to do a little bit more diligence. Yeah, we can absolutely do it. So, if you want to, you can make a motion to table this agenda item and then direct staff to uh direct the uh this ordinance. How how would that just can I just make a motion to table the agenda item and that would simply be it?

I couldn't remember. Was there an actual motion already made? Um there was vote that down. So then one of you needs to make a motion to table. All right. I'll make a motion to table agenda item 12. I'll second still have public comment on the on the on that. Were you making a motion to table? We haven't. Yes, we hadn't finished the public comment. So, if you wanted to So, we have a person a second now public comment. Oh, no. Yeah,

it be on the It would be on the previous question, but whatever. Uh, yeah. Just uh first off, this is why we don't have a closedended This is a perfect example why we don't have a closed-ended um public or public comment um restriction. Anyway, uh I just curious how does um within this within the within the data collection, how do vacant properties, uh commercial properties, uh how are those factored in? I know we have like 30% vacancy, I'm not happy about it, and it's something that I've discussed um in the past about, but how are vacant properties tabulated within this?

Sure. So the model ordinance and again I'll stress model that is kind of the cookie cutter if you will u that contemplates any buildings that have been vacant for about 50% of the prior year. So um this would be anything um from the last calendar year um that has been vacant for 6 months or more would not be required to report. Um and the idea is for any properties that are actively occupied uh that those be um required to submit that information. Okay. Um All right. Thanks. Mhm.

I'll make a closing comment. I apologize, but uh I strongly suggest you take a vote on this tonight and and do a straight no. You're dipping into uh people's pockets. This bouncing ball is not going to stop. No matter what your intentions are, keep the government out of our bank accounts. We pay enough. And I don't trust any one of the government agencies if it has a threedigit acronym or whatever else. I don't trust the feds. I don't trust a county. You see what the county's doing up there? Those clowns, they can't tell you what a boy and a girl is. And they can't and they and they vote raises in for themselves. And then the little right to know stuff. You can't even do a right to know and find out who's making what. You get a digit. you get a number and and that's it. Don't do this. This is so wrong it's going to backfire on you. Can this do a vote? I highly suggest a vote, a vote no or a vote of yes because you're not kidding anybody. This is going to either be a yes vote or a no vote. You have the right information right in front of you. Do a no vote or do a yes vote tonight. You know what's right. You know what's wrong. We all know where it's going. We're not joking. I'm gonna be as passionate about it as I can. I suggest you put it on the board. Vote yes or vote no. Don't Don't play this game. Don't wait until like it's a June and everybody's out of school and you know, nobody's paying attention to you. It's It's not right. You have no business knowing what I spend on money as a business. You don't. This is freedom, baby. This is the USA. Follow the constitutions and amendment. Let's not get this confused.

All right? And get rid of this thing tonight. Be done with this. Come back with another one. And I suggest this. Give me something to incentivize me to do something better. Tax break. That'd be wonderful. Even if it's just me as a company doing it, give me a tax break. I bet you didn't you didn't speak to any of these landlords around here. Guarantee it. Didn't do it. And you probably won't get them because they have an exit plan and you're going to hurt the taxpayers. Please take a vote. Take a vote tonight. I make a motion. Take a vote. That's all.

Is there any other public comment? So now we will vote on you. You already made the motion to to table. We just allowed additional public comment. Okay. So we don't have to actually vote right now. The motion is to table. Okay. So do we have to take a vote on that or are we Yes. All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Our motion passes. 300.

Now the fun part. We're going to get the department reports starting with the township manager's office. Uh thank you. So I'm going to jump around. I don't have slides for everything on the manager's office and Mr. Valla and I are going to pop back and forth. Uh so one thing to address a comment earlier. Um we obviously spent a lot of time celebrating uh the parks and recck department, but as was mentioned, we also have two critical resignations that have happened. Um Patrick Graham and Nicole Tenner, two longtime serving um excellent employees whose contributions to the township are um too much to quantify um are taking leadership roles in another parks and recck department. Um to say that it will be sad to see them go doesn't begin to um express the collective feeling that I know our team and of course the township are feeling. Um, as a township manager, um, retention of good employees is certainly my responsibility. Uh, as a township manager, recruitment of good employees is also my responsibility. Uh, which is where the focus will shift as we manage to transition at this time. Um, and of course, we'll be partnering with the parks and advisory board as well as the EAC and other partners um, as we sort of explore those next steps to ensure that we continue to have a high performing um, parks and recreation department. Couple other things I want to note from my report. Uh we've had some pretty significant inclement weather. Uh just want to say thank you and congratulate the Department of Public Works for um their efforts in sort of managing it. Uh as someone who drives around some of the neighboring um townships, neighboring burrows, it you can literally tell the difference as you cross into Middletown. Um and that's the work that they're doing. Uh they do a great job. I think the record is about, correct me if I'm wrong, it's like 20 hours straight uh of continued sort of um performance in managing our roadways. It's it's a lot of work.

Uh it is 29 hours 29 for the back.

Yeah, thank you. Uh thank you very much for that correction. Um incredible. U certainly concerning. I don't love that they're working 29 hours straight. Um it's nice to celebrate that success on the other side. uh you know, we certainly be looking at uh sort of the approach to managing that in the future. But um thank you to the public works department, the work that they did uh an incredible job and thanks to all of the residents who call in um with compliments. We certainly do get feedback that is not always positive uh but we get just as much that is positive which is greatly appreciated and valued. Uh we had a waste management meeting. Trash is something that this community talks about a lot. A couple times a year we meet with representatives from waste management and we review and advocate for our residents in those meetings um sort of how the contract is going um and the feedback that we're hearing. One of the things that Mr. Vo did a nice job in our presentation with them is sort of hammering home the customer service challenge. Uh we have a lot of residents who will call uh their customer service line which is a dedicated line from Middletown Township uh and not getting a lot of great experience. So, we've gotten a lot of commitments from waste management uh on improvements of that, and we look forward to seeing the um uh seeing the fruits of that labor. Uh the township received a uh notice in January that it earned a $278,000 grant award for the Richardson Avenue storm water management project uh from the uh PA small water and sewer grant program. Uh super appreciative of that. Uh the construction for that is planned for 2027. So, we'll discuss that in the fall as we're looking at the 27 budget development process. uh Oxra Valley Mall. Uh something we talk about, so those who have been attending these meetings for a while, do you remember Scott Richardson? Scott Richardson is uh an employee, a uh high ranking person at Simon Properties who owns the Oxford Valley Mall. He is replacing Tim Fox. Uh they're both still staying with the company, but the Oxford Valley Mall is going back into Mr. Richardson's portfolio. Uh Mr. Richardson was really involved in Middletown. uh and by his telling which I'm certain is correct had great experiences working with the township uh and appreciated working with the township when it got the zoning code

change that ultimately allowed Cornerstone Tracy to develop um Atly Square which are the apartments adjacent to the mall property now. Uh so Midter is looking forward to sort of getting back involved um in the future of the Oxford Valley Mall and is planning a trip out here uh in the short term to uh note the state of the current mall to have some meetings here internally. We look forward to hosting him here in Middletown and for uh Simon to pay a lot more attention to the Ashford Valley Mall. Something I think we are all looking forward to. Uh okay, so let's talk about the Farms Edge project which is this um the Farms Edge at Shadybook project which is the slide that you see in front of you. Uh we held a town hall meeting last month with the members of the community at Silverlake. So there is an ongoing conversation for those who are dialed into the land development approval process about emergency access in Safarm Farm's Edge uh and some of the neighbors there. I think we sent um over 200 letters uh to the various homes in that community. We had about 12 homes represented um on that top picture on the left uh to sort of have a conversation. This was what we call sort of a citizen-only town hall. uh their opportunity to speak to the developer, to speak to township staff, members of our building and zoning department were there uh sort of talking about the project, talking about uh in this case the emergency access, how we might uh that might benefit the Silver Lake community from an emergency response. We're thinking about firefighters uh fire trucks actively responding to an incident in that community. Uh as well as how that might have sort of daily life impacts to the residents. Um I think this goes towards an overarching policy priority of the board of supervisors and promoting transparency uh as well as community education. Uh one of the comments we heard earlier uh was that when there are land development plans like does everyone know about it? This is something I really stress about. I know director Andis also stresses about this. Uh you know what are things we can do to sort of drive the conversation to make sure the residents who are impacted by these things in the township um are aware of it and can inform the process and be engaged. Uh I

think this is a good example um of how we can do that well and I think we can apply that in other ways in the township which I'm looking forward to. Um more baseball to be played here. Uh we did not resolve I don't think anything at that meeting. Uh hoping that we'll have some more resolution uh at the meeting in March. We expect to see the developer um probably 6 months or so uh before they're back in front of the board of supervisors. So a lot of time to continue working through it. but sort of wanted to use this example as ways that our township team are uh sort of proactively engaging residents uh in this room about things that are happening in their community that are impacting them. So with that, I'll take any questions from the board. Okay, thank you. All right, now we will hear from our fire department. Hello, my name's uh Daryl Martin. I'm a firefighter EMT with the Middletown Fire and Emergency Services. Here to deliver our January uh 2026 report. Uh starting kicking off in January, we start our 2026 fire inspection program which covers all the commercial businesses in Middletown Township. Uh this year we started with our first due software which was purchased last year and placed into service January 1st. With this software, it's going to allow us to have an integrated pre-planned vital building information that we're going to be able to share with all fire departments and municipalities that use the first do software. So when our chiefs are showing up, our fire trucks are showing up, anything they might need, they'll be able to grab out of their MDTs and computers. Um, so that's a big step for us. During the recent snowstorms, firefighters from our department as well as all the volunteer fire departments stepped up staffing those 30 to 35 hours straight

um handling all types of emergencies from minor emergencies to helping out the ambulance with shoveling and all those things in between. So, good job to all those that helped us with that. The uh township training committee is working on a bunch of joint training uh utilizing some vacant buildings up by the Ox Valley Mall that we'll be able to do some good uh training. We're also putting together some state and county classes to better the skills for all of our firefighters from all the departments career and volunteer and allow us to work better to better serve everybody. Uh we had one fire during that occurred during daytime hours. Um, multiple companies responded. Uh, Middletown and Engine 77 from William Penn both arrived within four minutes. The fire was held to the kitchen area. The home did suffer some smoke damage. However, they'll be back in their house. Hopefully, not too long from now. Unfortunately, on a sad note, we did have a one death to report. We had a fire in mid December in an apartment complex. Small fire, but an individual suffered injuries and just recently succumbed to those injuries in the hospital. So, we would remind everyone to check your smoke detectors and practice your exit plans and all that stuff. The townshipwide duty program, which is being put together by the volunteer companies to increase the staffing for off hours when Middletown Fire Emergency Services are not working, plans to pick up in March. Now, we're working with the county to develop a uh effective emergency communication center plan that'll allow that to be a smooth operation. So, we're looking forward to all that. And uh that's pretty much what I have from us. Any uh questions would note the if we go back Daryl, can we just talk about the picture that we see here on this slide?

Actually, I missed that on my thing. Yeah. So, we've been going out a lot over the last two weeks, obviously shoving out fire hydrants. In that picture, there's a fire hydrant that's in a culde-sac street in the boxwood section of Middletown Township. The hydrants under about 4 feet of snow. There's hydrant, two hydrants are both that way in that neighborhood. That's the career staff out just clearing those hydrants. A lot of residents stepped up to clear those hydrants. Be hydrant heroes as we called it in the campaign and did a great job. If anybody sees a hydrant, feel free to contact the fire marshall's office, anybody in the township building, and we continue to go out. We're out on two today. Uh if you know of an elderly resident or someone that's just not able to shovel that snow, let us know because we'd rather have that snow cleared out beforehand for ourselves and, you know, anybody else that needs to use that fire hydrant. And uh Good point. Yep. Thank you.

Yep. Uh, next our public works department.

Good evening, board members. Um, just a little background um, with the DPW. Um, we take care of more than 150 miles of roadway, 800 acres of grass that's open land for for all the parks and things that we do. Um, traffic lights. We we're in charge of traffic lights, street lights, storm water projects, storm drains, everything like that. Um, obviously our department is driven by kind of the the season sometimes. Obviously, we're not out cutting grass, we're out snow plowing right now. Um, with that being said, um, you know, we had like three major storms. I want to say major storms, but the last one was with more than 10 inches of snow. Um, and you know, I do want to thank my guys that, you know, they do care about their jobs and what they do for the township. Um, they take that seriously. Um, with this slide here, um, it's just showing that we were getting ready for the storm. Um, we have many vehicles. Uh, we do break stuff during storms. It, it's just the nature of doing business, unfortunately. Um, so that's our shop. Um, trucks are getting worked on. Any problems? You know, we try to get all that stuff straightened out before snowflake hits the ground. You can go to the next one. Um, that's just a representation of, you know, when we could get salt delivered, which everybody's in the same problem. We can't get salt. Um, but that is a picture of when we were able to get salt. Um, us stacking a salt and that bottom left hand. Um, we do take that salt. We do have brine capability. So we do brine roads. Um we brine all the main roads first and then we'll go through the cut through sections we call them um of the sections and then if time allows we will start hitting interior roads. It depends on the storm. It depends. We

don't do it every time. It it depends on the storm itself. um that there is some equipment that we use um because not only are we tasked with the roads, but then we're tasked with doing about 15 miles of sidewalks to try to get that and the parks um you know completed. Uh we we try our best. Um obviously that's a little on the back burner. The roads are our most priority um that we need to take care of. So, those two pieces of equipment we have, uh, one is we call it the Gator with a plow on the front of it. It does have a salt spreader on it. The other one is a new piece of machinery we bought this past year. It's actually a mower, 72inch mower. It goes on the front of that. However, we have a broom for the front of it that when we get a lighter snow, even with the heavy snow, it will work a little bit. Just takes a little bit longer, but that will clear sidewalks and and do a great job for us. Um, obviously, you know, the weather drives are are what we do. However, there's still things we need to do. Potholes are always coming up. Um, on the left there, um, our plows will hit manholes at times. So, when a plow hits a manhole, we break the blade on the bottom. So, then the most of the time the whole blade has to get replaced. So, what you're seeing there is we put down um it's called a a manhole protector and it actually gets heated up and put on the ground and the plow when it comes on that side will actually ride up over that so the plow is not getting broke all the time. Um obviously we still have like I said we have sign work going on. There's still stuff that goes on even though it's winter time, even though it's cold out. We still have things that that we need to do. Um, that's just two of them right there replacing a sign at Veterans

Highway and the sign guy was replacing no parking signs and um, you know, we do a lot of building maintenance in the wintertime. A lot of things um, you know, indoors we try to get done as well as stuff for the parks um, you know, at their their facilities and things like that. So um I do have a quick question for you um specifically about the salt that you had mentioned because I know a lot of municipalities are struggling. What is our current stockpile look like and what is the is there a plan to try to address this to prepare for a future storm?

So we have been addressing this in many different ways. Um you know there's a consortium bid and there's 36 38 somewhere around there that are on consortium bid. Um I have four orders placed that I can't get. Um so it's been a problem. Um letter has been r um written um to Morton Salt which is the contractor who we deal with. Um there's still last time I heard maybe four weeks to six weeks out uh was the last thing I heard. Um we did get salt uh we we started getting salt in and then it stopped. Right now we have about 700 tons on hand. 650 700. Um I mean we're good for another storm or two, but you know it's not a good position to be in. And and we were filled from the previous storms also. So every time we get a storm I usually reorder. Um it's just that their facility and the way the um river froze up, they couldn't get the material and now we're stuck kind of. And it's not just us. It's numerous townships.

Yeah, I'd be happy to address that a little bit further detail. Um the county municipalities especially are collaborating to address this issue. This is not just a Middletown issue. This is widespread. Um and for many for anybody who's not familiar because it is so cold and has been for so long, the Delaware River, which is kind of the primary way that barges literally bring in salt from around the world to this area, um it is not possible right now. Um and so we are uh exercising a lot of different avenues uh everything from legal, tactical um and trying to source salt from some very creative ways uh to make sure that we are providing that immediate safety need uh but also doing everything everything we can to make sure that um you know there is appropriate accountability in place.

I just have two questions. Are you ready for winter to be over? And two, are you happy that our brine machine is actually fully functional this year? Yes, it actually does help. Um, it's nice to get out and and put down brine because it does buy you time. Um, the last storm we just had over the weekend, that little one, you could tell where we put the brine down, we didn't have to touch. It was down the black top and it was fine. Thank you for I know it's been a rough winter so far. So, thank you. Thank the team.

Thank you. He didn't answer the first question, but he is ready for winter to be over. Yeah. The groundhog's announcement of six more weeks was not wellreceived at the Department of Public Works. So, I just wanted to say as as one of the uh volunteers on the fire duty crew that was mentioned before during that storm, um we had a bunch of calls that night and the roads were way more manageable than some of the private complexes, apartments, and stuff that uh that didn't have you guys plowing for them. So, I appreciate it. Um, and I'm sure the people that we responded to appreciate that we were able to get out there safely without any problems.

Just to let you know, also, it's not just me. Um, you know, Albi, the police, uh, they had their command staff in. It makes it so much easier when everybody just works together. They get a call. If we can plow before they get there, it makes it so much easier for everyone. So, kudos to them also for making this happen. Thank you. Well, thank you. Uh, next we hear from our building and zoning department.

Hello again. Um, you have in uh your packets my report that's very numbers heavy. Not going to really get into that uh too much unless you want to ask some questions about that, but it really covers the January 2026 period uh for permit activity, code enforcement activity, zoning hearing board matters, land development matters, things that went in front of the the planning commission. Um, but I really wanted to just take this brief time to just kind of give an overview of the building and zoning department, their roles, responsibilities, and functions since this will be the first of many of these types of reports moving forward. Uh, what you have there uh on your is the taken directly from the township website. It's basically the roles and responsibilities fully spelled out. Uh the main responsibility of the building and zoning department is to uh ensure uh and to protect the public's health, safety and welfare through basically how a property is used, how a property is designed or laid out and also what's constructed on the property. That that's the gist of it. Now, it does that mostly through enforcing and administrating uh specific ordinances in the township's code of ordinances. uh those those ordinances would be the zoning, the building code, uh the property maintenance as well as the subdivision of land development ordinance. Uh there's a lot of responsibilities and functions that kind of fall all in there. But when you talk about administration, you're talking about permitting and ensuring things are are fully reviewed and uh permits are issued and also inspected, especially when something is proposed for construction within the township. Uh right there you have an action shot from our township's building code official. That's Brian Barry. uh he took over for uh Tom Mcool retired last year. He was mentored by Tom Mcool. So he uh definitely was in good hands that whole time and and and then continuing that really uh reputable legacy that Tom set. Uh next slide please. Uh during the uh January uh 2026 period uh there's nine employees I

should uh mention and including myself in the building zoning department. But uh specifically uh some of the things that happened uh for uh uh staff within the building and zoning department Kimpasura uh she was promoted to the senior admin assistant position at the department of public works. Uh she originally started as a customer service uh at the counter. Uh went on to become an administrative assistant and now is a senior administrative assistant. Uh she's moving to uh department of public works. I'm really happy for her. She's going to be a great asset to that department. uh has worked for the township for close to eight years now. Uh wonderful with the residents. So, a big asset to uh to to the Department of Public Works and I wish her well. Uh kind of bummed that she's leaving, but it's great that she's staying in in the organization and she's definitely a uh good example of just growing within uh your talent. Uh next there is Mike Quinn. Uh Mike Quinn was just hired in uh November of last year as a building inspector. uh he is not as certified as Brian Barry, but he is really working fast and gaining all those necessary uh certifications to do all the plan review and inspections that are necessary in the township when it comes to permits and construction projects. Uh and he just gained a another certification for to be a mechanical uh plans examiner. Uh so again, just growing within uh the department. And last but not least is Madison Vans. Uh she got the employee of the month for for January. So I'm I'm really happy for her. uh she's our uh zoning and code enforcement specialist. Uh she uh within the last couple months gained a uh certificate of zoning officer uh certification and uh so she she too is just uh she worked originally part-time for the police department, came over uh to uh the building and zoning department and then really just been a great asset to the to the community. Uh next slide please. And last slide, I just wanted to kind of specifically uh identify the the the the committees and boards that the uh

building and zoning department works directly with and and those uh two primarily are the uh planning commission as well as the zoning hearing board. Planning commission is a seven member uh committee appointed by the board of supervisors. Their meetings are the first Wednesday of every month. uh they primarily look at all subdivisional land development matters that are presented to the community uh as well as any kind of zoning text amendments or zoning map amendments and also conditional use applications. They they provide uh advice and recommendations that eventually go in front of the board of supervisors and the zoning heron board. They're a five member uh board appointed by the board of supervisors. Uh they have a very believe it or not very narrow and limited scope but it's a very important one. uh they are a quasi judiciary body. So their their meetings are very rigid. If you ever actually went to one of them, they're they're they're a hearing and what you see is a lot of people uh asking for variances primarily from the zoning uh code uh and they have to provide to testimony. Zoning hearing board goes ahead and weighs those matters and maybe or maybe not they will get granted those variances. There's also such things as special exceptions also appeals of my enforcement that they would consider as well. But uh that is I think yeah I promised everybody stay under five minutes. I did it. Uh but that's that's my presentation in brief. Uh definitely uh we'll give you more uh information more detail especially for construction projects as we move forward with these director reports.

Right. Thank you.

Our next we'll hear from the finance department. Good evening. I have our January 2026 financial review. I will give you a quick overview of the finance department. There are four people in the finance department, including myself. We handle all of the revenue. That's the money coming in and all of the expenses. That's the money going out. Everything passes through our office. We have controls in place to ensure that we are safeguarding the assets of the township and that we are um taking care of the taxpayers money. So we can start with our January review. Here we just have the overview of the operating funds. These include all of the funds that were in the budget except for the capital fund. So right now um revenue is at 892,000. Expenses are a little high there at 3.2 2 million. However, we have not recorded all of our year-end entries. And so, that process will record revenue in different periods. Right now, we have December of 2025 and January of 2026. So, we're still recording revenue for January 2026, and we're still reviewing all of the expenses that came in in January to see which ones of those really apply to 2025 and will get moved back to 2025. So these numbers are a little out of whack, but they will be adjusted as we go through our normal audit process. So this is a graph of our revenue by month. Um January is the red dot all the way to the left there. Um as I said, it's a little low right now because we haven't recorded all of our revenue for January. Our highest month is April. That's when all of our tax revenue comes in. And so you can see that. And December of 2025 is the black dot all

the way to the right. And that's a little low as well. As I said, we still have to record uh revenue transactions between the two months. This chart breaks down our revenue by kind of category. The largest amount of revenue that we had was park and wreck so far for January. That was all of the summer camp registrations. That was $384,000 of summer camp registrations from park and wreck. The other category includes the storm water fee. We had 162,000 in storm water fee collections in January. And public safety covers all of the building permits and building and zoning transactions. That was $244,000. These are the expenses. Again, the red dot to the left is January. That's elevated, as I said before, because we need to review and move transactions back and forth between December 2025 and January 26 and December of 2025, which is all the way to the right, is very low. Again, same reason. We still need to go through and review all of those transactions. We have some summary of the fund balances. Our general fund balance uh went down 2.2 million in January. Again, that was the increase in expenses versus the smaller amount of revenue that came in. This will be adjusted as we go through our year-end audit process and do the approvals. So, right now it's uh in flux. We have our capital fund is next. Um there has been minimal activity in the capital fund so far for January. We are continuing to record transactions as they come through, but as construction

ramps up, we'll see changes here in this fund. Similarly, in the storm water fund, there's been minimal activity except for the collections of revenue. Uh for our pension plans, we did meet with the pension managers in January to discuss the Q4 results for our two pension plans. For the police department, the pension plan increased $5.9 million during 2024, which is an annual rate of return of 13.07%. So, we had a a good year. Similarly, with the non-uniform pension on the next slide, we had an increase of 1.5 million from December of 2024 through the end of 25 to take us to 13.6 million and that's an annual rate of return of 13.32%. Some other things of note for the finance department, we received the CDBG funding of $110,000 for the 2025 ADA ramps. The total cost of that project for the township was 143,000. The difference between the funding we received and our cost was engineering fees. Our board of auditors met in January. They only meet once a year unless there's an issue that they want to discuss. We had our quarterly financial advisory committee meeting earlier in January as well. We reviewed the results of the investment fund that holds the $40 million that was the proceeds of the water and sewer sale. That rate of return for the year was 5.69%. We do have a budgeted transfer of $1.3 million out of that investment fund into

the capital fund for 2026. Finally, the finance department was very busy filing our required year-end returns, our W2s, and our 1099s. Um, we've been diligently working on our reports for the auditors. And I just want to thank my staff, Mary, Marne, and Linda, because they've been doing a wonderful job making sure that we get everything done on time for our reports. Take any questions. Right. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. And last but not least, our IT department.

Good evening. How we doing? So, uh, for 2026, there's two critical, I would say, uh, projects that we're going to be working on. um Microsoft Teams and looking for a new ERP system. With Microsoft Teams, we're looking on um adoption, one drive migration. Um I'm going to forget my slides. So um I had a meeting with uh all the directors last week and within that meeting we discussed about moving to Microsoft teams. If you can go to the next slide and the whole point with Microsoft teams is to be able to collaborate. I um asked all directors to um start thinking of ways to manage their data that's on their shared drive because we're going to move that data into teams into channels and this is really a new way of managing your department. um this allows us to be hybrid if we have to. Um work more efficiently, communicate better and it will bring us all together as one. What I would like to say it's like it's a start of creating a network where we are digitally connected. Um the whole purpose here is our data is important to us and we need to organize it properly. So there will be a time where we'll bring AI in and they could just search a property and all the information will come up. Um so it will seamline the process, make things easier. So, my goal for 2026 with

Microsoft Teams is to um have all departments moved by the end of the year um for us to get off of our file servers and we will be providing training to the directors and to the employees. um with the directors might be a little bit different training because this is going to be more of a new management style um versus the employees. And then also if you want to move on a few key capabilities I'm sure most of you use Microsoft Teams you know the chat uh meeting file sharing collaboration the integration with Microsoft 365 um I like to say that Microsoft Teams will be like the hub of uh collaboration and thirdparty apps will connect in for example um like Adobe um you know any type of project management software we don't have to stick with Microsoft projects there's all these third party apps that could integrate into teams and these are things that we're going to start looking at but the first step is let's just get on the platform and then we'll start moving our way um forward from there also So the next initiative for 2026 is for a new ERP system. Um one more one more um enterprise resource planning. Um listen uh I love the idea of an all-in-one system but there's no such thing. So all in this meeting the directors were informed that we are going to be looking at every piece of software we have here. We are going to

be looking for a new vendor. Um, I'm not saying that these softwares are going to be replaced that they currently have, but we're going to be looking for a connection like an API that will connect the information into our new ERP system. We're looking for a cloud-based system. Um, and we're thinking this might take about two years or so at least minimum. I mean this is a big change in the organization and this is where I'm saying like we're trying to bring the organization in a new way where we are completely digitally connected. Does anybody have any questions?

No, I just want to thank you. I know this is a huge undertaking to say the least. Um but thank you for doing this. I think it also speaks to um the security and making sure that we have all of the protocol in place to be able to be ke based to be able to be collaborative in a digital way while being secure. So, thank you for all of your work that you're doing here. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It's hard to go last, Chad. Good job.

Uh one other thing for other business. Uh we didn't put in the reports, but worth noting uh the township received a federal appropriation from Congressman Fitzpatrick. It'll be $2 million for uh upgrades at the uh Department of Public Works. Uh that's about a $10 million project. Uh we have 2 million secured. Um there's a a couple hundred thousand, excuse me, um budgeted for to begin the design process in 2026. That grant probably won't be available before 2027. We're going to continue to pursue grant opportunities, but in the meantime, we're appreciative of this particular award. Yeah, that's excellent news that we got $2 million in grant money. It's fantastic.

All right, other business. Any other business, Mr. Valor? Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Kesler. Uh, I just, uh, wanted to congratulate again uh, both Bill and Paul. Uh and for the supervisors, uh we do have previously approved plans, record plans for signature. I know it's a late night, uh but it does require three signatures and there are three of you here tonight if you wouldn't mind before you leave. Thank you, Mr. Espazito. Uh same as uh as Isaac, just wanted to congratulate Bill and Paul on their retirements. Thank you, Mr. Riff. Nothing further. Miss Kane, nothing further. Mr. Gerardo,

nothing. Thank you. Um, last thing I want to say, this is something that was brought up to me actually by um, one of our staffers. Um, obviously our our public works department did a fantastic job this storm and we are all all of us are hoping that there is not another snowstorm. Um, we're all sick of shoveling. Um, but one of the staffers here did bring up a good point um that in Middletown there are a lot of um, seniors or non-able-bodied members of our community who can't always shovel their own property. Um, I know in the storm we had a few weeks ago, the bad one, um, I went out and shoveled my elderly neighbors driveway twice. It wasn't fun. Um, but I am just putting out a PSA. If you have neighbors that are not able-bodied, please consider helping them. Um, we are best when we help each other out. That's what community is all about. So, I just wanted to put that out there. Other than that, I guess we can make a motion to adjurnn. So, I will make a motion to adjurnn.

So, move. Second. We are journed.