Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

want Number one.

from Monday, January 5th. Can we all have a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? Justin Queen here. McCoy here. The Robinson here. Natalie Coulson here. Jasmine Griffin here. Rashad Bates

here. And we'll move on to appointments. The administrative, excuse me, the administration of oath of office for council reelected and elected officials. Who starts first? I'm first. All right. Cool. There you go. [laughter] First up is Councilman Mr. Rashad Bates. You're going to stand over here. We have someone that's going to My mother is right here. Cool. So, we'll ask your mother to come up. She's going to hold the Bible for you.

Good evening everyone. Right here. I thought I Let's hear words. Yes. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everyone. We're going to swear in our first uh council member. Um Mr. Bates, are you ready to take the oath? Yes, I am. All right. Um going to repeat after me. I state your name. I, Rashad Bates. do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support, obey, and defend that I'll support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America

the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Homeule Charter of the Municipality of Nsttown, the Home Rule Charter of the Municipality of Nortown, and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Nsttown and the municipality of Nortown. town. I will discharge the duties of my office. I will discharge the duties of my office. As council member for the first district as council member for the first district for the municipality of Narstown for the municipality of Narstown with honor and fidelity. with honor and fidelity. I will uphold, obey, and enforce I will uphold, obey, and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Narstown

and the municipality of Narstown without consideration to a person's Without consideration to a person's race race color color sex sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age age national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap or disability handicap or disability Congratulations.

Thank you. [applause] [applause] All right. And next up will be Councilman Dustin Queen. It's the strong one in the family.

This is all right. Councilman Queen, are you ready to take the oath? Yes, I am. All right. I state your name. I, Dustin Queen, do solemnly swear or affirm I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the home rule charter of the municipality of Nsttown the home rule charter of the municipality of Nsttown and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Nsttown and the municipality of Nsttown. I will discharge the duties of my office.

I will discharge the duties of my office. As council member for the third district. As council member of the third district for the municipality of Darsttown. for the municipality of Nartown. With honor and fidelity with with honor and fidelity. I will uphold, obey, and enforce I will uphold, obey, and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Nstan. and the municipality of Nsta without consideration to a person's race without consideration of a person's race color color sex sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age age national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap handicap or disability or disability

congratulations [applause] [applause] get over And next we'll have Councilwoman Madier Robinson.

Hold this. You got to hold your Bible. Oh, you got you. All right. Good, good, good. Come prepared. Yes. Yes. Great. You raise your right hand and lift your left hand on the Bible. Are you ready to take the oath council woman Robinson? I am. All right. You're going to repeat after me. I state your name. I, my dear Atlia Robinson, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly affirm that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Home Rule Charter of the Municipality the Home Rule Charter of the Municipality of Nortown

of Nortown and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of ourst and the municipality of Nsttown. I will discharge the duties of my office I will discharge the duties of my office as council member at large as council member at large for the municipality of Narstown for the municipality of Nartown with honor and fidelity with honor and fidelity I will uphold obey and enforce I will uphold obey and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Narstown and the municipality of Narstown without consideration to a person's race without consideration to a person's race color color Sex. Sex. Religious creed. Religious creed. Sexual orientation. Sexual orientation. Age. Age. National origin. National origin.

Ancestry. Ancestry. Handicap or disability. Handicap or disability. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. [applause]

A lot of members. And for our newest council member, we'll have David McMahon. [applause] You can bring whatever you like. Yeah, you can bring them up. They can all come. We'll hand this to the person that you want this Bible. If you want the Bible, you can just call All

[snorts] right. Uh, Mr. McMahon, are you ready to take the oath? I'm ready. Okay. I state your name. I, David McMahon, do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. the common constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. the home rule charter of the municipality of Norsttown. the home rule charter of the municipality of Nortown and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Nortown and the municipality of Norsttown. I will discharge the duties of my office I will discharge the duties of my office

as council member at large as council member at large for the municipality of Norsttown for the municipality of Norsttown. With honor and fidelity, with honor and fidelity, I will uphold, obey, and enforce I will uphold, obey, and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Norsttown and the municipality of Nortown without consideration to a person's race without consideration to a person's race color color sex sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age age national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap or disab Disability handicap or disability. Congratulations.

Thank you. [applause] [applause]

Good. Thank you guys. Yeah, there we go. All right, moving on. We're going to go to the election of officers. Does anyone have a nomination for vice president?

I would like to nominate president. president. Um, all right. So, would anybody like to nominate a president? U, Mr. I would like to nominate Rashad Vince. I second. Any other nominations? Any other nominations? Any other nominations? All right. No other nominations. Um, we have a roll call for that. Correct. Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? Queen. Hi. William McCoy. Hi. Dear Robinson, hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi, Rashad Bates. I The eyes have it. Congratulations.

Congratulations. [applause]

All right. And next, can we have a nomination for the vice president of council? I would like to nominate Justin Queen. I'll second that, Madam Secretary. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, any other nominations? Any other nomine I nominate Jerry Robertson for vice president. I second that. Any other nominations? Any other nominations? Any other nominations? So I believe we go in the order of who was nominated first.

Okay. Uh Madam Secretary, may we have a roll call, please? is for Dustin Queen being vice president. Dustin Queen, hi. William McCoy, hi. Dear Robinson, no. Natalie Coulson, no. Jasmine Griffin, I David McMahon, no. Rashad Bates. I The eyes have it. That's the end of it. Or we go with the second round. All right. Congratulations, Vice President. Appreciate you. [applause] Well, that concludes the reorganization meeting. Can we have a motion for adjournment? Oh, so moved. Second. Second. All right. Uh eyes.

All in favor? All in favor? I meeting is adjourned. Uh so this is the end of the reorganization meeting. We're going to go into our normal meeting now. So if you want to stay, you can. If you want to leave, this is the best time to do it. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Appreciate you. Thank you. Love you. Thanks for Oh, thank you for coming. I love you. I appreciate you.

Oh, bet. [laughter] Thank you. I appreciate you. Love you. Thank you for coming. Love you. Thank you. Oh, I love y'all. Thank y'all for coming. Oh my god. Thank you. Come on, son. Thank you for coming. I love you. Thank you, King. Love you. Thank you for coming.

They did nominate. But thank you for Thank you for everybody. You doing okay? I miss the conditioner. Down and out. Oh my god. Sh has it now. All right, I'll I'll sneak down.

I like the hair, sir. Look at I don't know that I

Natalie, I saw you driving. No.

Oh my god. Did you get ice? No, I'm just Oh, you're It's just funny. It's called you go to me sometimes. Okay. It's funny. They get it before. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. So you had it's a it's a det.

Thank you. I'm gonna come down to you.

Nars Municipality Council meeting of Monday, January 5th. Can we have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance? Terry, can we have a roll call, please? William McCoy. I Robinson.

Ally Coulson. Oh, present. My bad. Jasmine Griffin here. See David McMahon here. Justin here here. Uh letter. Should we go to the swearins now?

Okay. I made a mistake for the last meeting of the aerma. Me and Dustin Queen have to be sworn in again as president vice president. So we're going to do that now before we start the rest of the meeting. somebody. [laughter]

Thank you. Come on up. Yeah.

All right. As formal, we are swearing in uh the new uh Norsttown Council President and the Nortown Council vice presidents at this time. Great. Uh Councilman Bates, are you ready to take the oath? Yes. Okay. I state your name. I Rashad Bates. Do solemnly swear or affirm Do so solemnly swear or affirm that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Home Rule Charter of the Municipality of Nortown. the home rule charter of the municipality of Narstown and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania

and the municipality of Narstown and the municipality of Narstown. I will discharge the duties of my office I will discharge the duties of my office as president of council as president of council for the municipality of Narstown for the municipality of Narstown with honor and fidelity with honor and fidelity I will uphold obey and def and enforce I will uphold obey and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Norsttown and the municipality of Norsttown without consideration to a person's race without consideration to a person's race color color sex Sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age Age national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap or disability

handicap or disability congratulations [applause]

all right so we will now swear in our vice president for town council uh Mr. Queen All right. Right. Councilman Queen, are you ready to take those? Yes. Right. I state your name. I, Dustin Queen, do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America

the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the home rule charter of the municipality of Nsttown the home charter municipality of Nsttown and the laws of Pennsylvania and the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Nsttown and the municipality of Nsttown. I will discharge the duties of my office. I would discharge the duties of my office as vice president of council as vice president of counsel for the municipality in Arstown for the municipality in Arstown with honor with honor and fidelity infidelity I will uphold obey and enforce I will uphold obey and enforce the laws of Pennsylvania the laws of Pennsylvania and the municipality of Arstown and the municipality in Arstown without consideration to a person's race without consideration of a person's race color color sex sex religious creed

religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation orientation, age, age, national origin, national origin, ancestry, ancestry, handicap, handicap or disability or disability. Congratulations.

Thank you. [applause] Yes, indeed. All right. So, moving along, we'll have a motion to approve the minutes of uh see if you help me with that. It was December 16th and which

16 and 22 and 22nd. Can I have a motion to approve those minutes? So, move. Second. All in favor? I. All right. We did not have an executive sess executive session this afternoon, this evening. Um, vice president, do we have any announcements? Now, I do not have any announcements, but I want people to know there's Jess back there. If you need a translator, if anybody needs a translator, she's back there. Wave her hand a little bit. So, I have an announcement. Uh, Council Member McCart,

good evening. So, last night there was another shooting in our community and sadly this follows a year marked by far too many shootings with young men being shot uh incarcerated and murdered. This level of violence cannot treat cannot be treated as a routine. It tells us that what we are doing is not enough and that we must respond with urgency and focus. Real solutions required a layered approach. That means target patrols in high-risisk areas such as Pow Street, Corson, Aster, where all of these different crimes typically occur. better communication and real-time communication around public safety and intervention strategies that focus on the individual most at risk, which is the youth in our community. And that could pre prevent them from becoming victims of violence. It also means investing in prevention. We can have credible messengers. We can have trauma and informed support. There's so many people that come into this into this space right here that offer the offer these different services, but we do not collaborate with one another. And that's something that I wish changes. We can create opportunities that interrupt cycles of harm before they even turn deadly. There is no single fix, but there are proven strategies. What we cannot afford is delay, disconnection, and complacency. Every shooting we fail to prevent is another family forever changed. Our young people deserve safety. Our families deserve peace. And this community deserves leadership that meets this moment with urgency, coordination, and real action. And it's traumatizing. I worked inside a Nortown area school district for like the last four years. And I done seen generations of young men lose their life. The moment that I started working at the Lincoln Center for Family and Youth, which this municipality partners

with, I done seen a young man lose his life along with his other friend. Then I also seen a young man end up getting his life taken away from taking a life right near Oak Street Park. I seen kids get robbed in fear to come to school. All of these different things. And it's two advocates or a few advocates in the back and also an advocate right here, a advocate right here that pours into the community, but they need assistance. It's going to take collective collaboration in order for us to see our efforts even taking a step forward. So today, I would like to dedicate $1,000 of discretionary funds to your organization and also to the pathway to potential Derek's organization in the back. So that's $2,000 that I'm committing $3,000 to the George Washington Carver Center, your organization, Halfways to Potential. I want to start the year off right and that's pouring into the youth because without the youth helping us walk into tomorrow, we can never tell what the future might look like. Thank you, [applause]

Councilman McMahon. Um, I'll be holding the first of my monthly town hall meetings uh this Thursday, January 8th. Um, I'll be going district by district over the course of the year. We'll be in the fourth district. um at the American Legion Hall be 6 o'clock to 7:30. Um it'll be a moment for me to introduce myself to you all um and then more importantly hear your concerns uh listen to uh what your needs are and hopefully over time we put together some uh plans of action to solve uh the issues that we're facing here now. So and very well said will thank you.

All right, moving along. We will go to responses uh from questions from the last council meeting. Mr. Lightner, we don't have any questions from the last. All right, moving along. Now we are up to public comments. Um matter of fact, we have public comments. Okay, James Waters. Happy new year.

Looking for a good team. Shame the Eagles didn't make it. But anyhow, uh, anything that I can help you all with, I'll be here, you know, talking at any chance that I get. And, uh, and it's all basically about either public safety, community to everything that gentleman said there that was beautiful. Well, I come here today to tell you about the u visit the state rep. Scott's office about the the safety of the intersection of West Ary Street and Selma Street. And uh I'd heard that uh we need a traffic study that'll start getting PennDOT's attention to that. We fixed everything that needed to be fixed. I mean the missing do not enter signs, the stop sign, you couldn't see the paint that wasn't in the street. You know, all that's taken care of. Drove by to see if maybe the the street lights were out and you couldn't see. But you know, there's actually an extra one there that looks like it's well lit, but whatever it is. But there's a thread on next door that I'm involved with and out of that there were several recommendations. Speed bumps just like the ones on Decal Street, a traffic light there or a flashing light with red towards Selma and and yellow towards Ary Street. All right. So much for that. Pennsylvania American Water Company is raising their rates. Uh, I dropped off a letter of a draft of what's going to be part of the three-part series uh that I like to do every time they raise the rates. And you can send a letter to the PUC. You can testify at a hearing, public hearings. They have public hearings now. They're they're uh Zoom. And uh State Rep. Scott helped me uh finding out about that so I can get to read the pretty much the same thing. I got to add

a few more things to that letter. And now, uh, Senator Capetti has helped me with a formal complaint to the DP about them not doing their job. And, um, Manager Leonard has that book and we will get together to talk about it. Uh, I was in State Rep. Scott's office today. I left them a copy of it. And um what it boils down to is uh for 26 I'm after economic development. I want to prove how we've been cheated with economic development in several different areas. And naturally my concern being with the river um we've lost millions of dollars in not being able to have river events. Now Lynn and I went up to the Erie Canal. We got details just like when they tried to kill the the prison, found out that that was $50 million that wasn't taken advantage of. Tourism, etc., etc. So, that that's my latest beef. and up.

I love you guys. Jordan Alexander.

Can you hear me now? Perfect. Um, hello everyone. Uh, I come here not as a schoolboard member today. I come as a community member, but I wanted to really allude to what Councilman McCoy had mentioned. Um I am concerned that there's have that the local government is not paying attention to the uptick in violence. Um because in my schoolboard meetings, you know, we discuss how do we keep kids safe? And one of the things that you know that I'm having issue with is the lack of communication. And I think that in order for us, the school board and everyone else who deals with this government to have confidence is we need communication. you know, there hasn't been much stability here in the last year. I'm hoping that with the new chief that we have stability. Um, especially, like I said, dealing with kids. You know, we have a vote coming up on whether or not we're going to put metal detectors in schools. That's never been a thing here. And I'm just trying to figure out where the heck has leadership been at to the point where we're now putting metal detectors in our schools. We have to have armed guards because we have teenagers who are out of control. And I'm trying to figure out when are we going to start locking up criminals? We know where they're at. We know where they sleep. I don't understand why we haven't gotten them yet. Or when are we going to start actually enforcing our laws? Listen, you can't just do whatever you want. Why don't we have curfews? Why don't we have more police officers? People are scared. I look at surveys I uh from students and parents who say they feel as though that this council is in the abyss. There's like it's like, well, what are we going to do? You know, I think that there needs to be serious communication and um if that comes from, I don't know, the municipal administrator or whoever, but there needs to be an increase in communication, especially to the school board because we are the ones who deal with the youth. We're the ones who have to deal with the trauma response. I lost my friend. I lost this. I lost that. We deal with that firsthand. And a lot of times that beef spills comes from the streets, spills into the school or

spills up the school into the streets. And we need a way to mitigate and and and uh squash that. Um, another thing regarding because he had said something about the river. Um, I spoke to former chair Lawrence about possibly bringing the trains back up to Reading and Hershey and all that because I feel as though it would be a great economic feeder, bring a lot of foot traffic and bring a lot of attraction. Um, I don't know how often y'all contact SEPTA, but I think that um, having SEPTA involved with more transit oriented development is the right way to go for future economic development and growth. Thank you. Seria Mayo,

good evening. Happy New Year's all and um I'm just going to be real quick because um Will kind of took everything out that I was going to say. Um just the thing is that I want two things is that we're building up shelters, we're building up mental health program um programs, but we don't have a place for these kids, safe space for these kids to be at. And I've been saying this forever and ever that I think we were so focused on two groups here in Narstown where I kind of said over and over again, it's more bigger than just two groups. You got to get a broader eye. It's a left and it's a right side and it's a lot more and this is why this is happening. And two is I don't know who I need. I think I need to go to Will because it's his um district. But I want to um come to you guys about possibly um a young man lost his life here last year, the beginning of the year. He was the first murder of 2025. He was somebody that I mentor to growing up. He played for me and pal. He was like a little brother and then he lost his life to death here as a mur a senseless murderer and I want to have u memorialize him at the Crawford Park here in Narstown. I spoke to his mother. She's down with it and I just don't know what I have to do about who do I got to write. What do I got to do? But I want to be able to put a plaque at Crawford Park in honor of Germaine Pierce. Um, unfortunate for me, I didn't get a chance to sign in. She choose to allow me to have a little bit of a time. I want to say thank you to council. Um, it's a privilege to be here to be with you guys and we're about to start a new year, right? Thank you to Will McCor for what you just did. It's very courageous of you. Um, everybody cannot blame everything on council, right? We as a community have to come together and we

have as a community have to stand up against what's going on. We all have to take responsibility. I'll keep saying that. Every one of us owe some type of responsibility in what's going on. What could we do better? And I sit back with my team and try to figure that out. What can I do better? How much more time do I need to spend with these kids? I'm getting phone calls now. The kids I brought here the last time. About six of them are indicted. I'm watching in court and watching them on in camera shooting. Shock. I'm like, these are the kids that I was bringing here to get away from that. But not knowing it was under investigation. Got to them too late. This is the thing. And now they going to be spending 10, 20 years of their life in prison. This is the reality of things. We have to do something now. We have to act now. Thank you,

Derek. You Derek. Derek, you knew something. It's interesting, right? That people typically always question what's going on with the youth. Why is the youth a acting like this? But then again, as you look around in these spaces like this where things happen, right? No one proposed the question, where are the men? Where are the men? Why are the men not stepping up? Absolutely.

And I know people for like in my entire life, I was born and raised in Narstown from Mor Street. So like I've seen the change from men stepping up in the community to men taking like the seats uh like just sitting down and then the women stepping into the leadership roles. I don't know what that situation is, but right now we have a significant problem with the young black men in Narstown, but it's not enough black men stepping up to guide them along the way. Absolutely. So, I don't know if we need to do an outreach to pull some of these men back out into the field because they sitting in the bleachers right now. Absolutely.

Like, we know where they're at on Friday night, Saturday night, but that's when most crimes and things happen. Well, right now it's it's any day now, just like we seen last night. Yeah. So, we got to sit down and plan some things out. Hopefully, the municipal administrator can also assist as long as well as the chief. It got to be a collective effort. If it's just one side, just your organization or both of your organizations, it's so much more kids in Narstown. And then also, you have kids that I'm seeing now coming from 69th Street Transportation Center straight to Narstown. I see this on a daily basis. Yeah.

In fact, I was on the northtown high speed line today and I see a dude, like a young man dressed in all black on the phone with another man, another young man, but he got like a laser on his gun, like a big gun in his hand. I'm just walking up the aisle. I'm like, "Wow, he's coming in Norristown talking about that." Yeah. And one of the things is that people have to understand is that Yes. So, one of the parents, just to be quick, I went to one of the parents house who when I went to court for one of the kids and I saw her rain camera and most of the activity was taking place at her house.

So, I had asked where was you at? What was you doing? What was going on? How didn't you see this happening? Her son never been locked up before. He never been in any trouble. She works. When she come home, she got to make sure they're fed, go to bed, go back to work again. She didn't even see this from her own ring camera. And this is the evidence they're using against him. And so we all as a community have to come together. It could be the men, women, whatever it is. We have to come together. There's too many division. Too many division. People are worried about this that who's talking to who who's coming to Norris Town. We have to come together. It's the only way this problem is going to be solved.

And that's it. Appreciate you. Thank you, [applause] Erica Wharton. Erica Wharton.

Good evening, everyone. Um, my name is Erica Wharton. I'm just here to be a community person. Um, police chief trail, I invite you to the George Washington Carver Community Center. Um, we've been around 65 years, African-American. The history is from July 5th, 1944 to African-Amean Kitch Dr. would love to see you. The kids would love to see you. You know, some people when they come into our community, they jump at certain organizations and the black community is definitely always overlooked. Um, you guys need to stop opening arms up to outsiders because we could do this internally. However, yes, the men need to step up and as well as us women. And you know, like I say before and I have arguments with people, parental involvement, that's the foundation. without it. Don't touch my kid. You don't chastise them. No. Whoop their tails. You get what I'm saying? So, we've been around 65 and a half years at the Carver Center. Um, Mr. Lightner, I know you mentioned grants before with other organizations, but the George Washington Carver's been here for 65 years. The public libraryies been here. Like there's other organizations that have been here that you got the the horizon, you have a youakate, a climate, you have a lot of organizations that you could partner and build off instead of welcoming arms up to outsiders. Um, and the rules, I'm going to tell you guys this schoolboard meeting, they say the rules before the meeting. If you don't live here or affiliated with the organization that you're representing, you should not be allowed on this microphone to talk. You guys, I recommend you to state that in the beginning because you have a lot of people that are coming up here speaking that are not from the 1940 that are that have no affiliation with any organization at all. Just to make the,

you know, make it transparent as you guys say. Um, I have a lot thing going going on. Mr. Lightner, I know you mentioned something smart um before when I brought up um I'mma give positivity and you said I'm not elected official. However, it don't matter. Smile, smirk. I still like you. You don't have to like me. I don't lose no sleep from anybody. My kids, anybody. They know I don't like them, too. Um and you know, I appreciate you guys. My cousin Heather Lewis was here last month. I witnessed her dying, and I've had to tell her this today. three weeks prior. So, I want you guys to get training. AED should be on every level. Like, I'm a certified instructor. I don't want to do it because I would love to just be a part of the class just to see another instructor instruct. But just because you never know, people freak out. If I was here, I probably would freak out like, oh my god. But, you know, she's doing well and she's going to be back up here speaking. [laughter] So, just stay tuned. Love you guys. Have a good night. [applause] woman Robertson.

I just wanted to say thank you all. I think that the urgency and the needs are that were brought forth as always are important, especially the ones that were brought forth tonight. I want to also name that there is quite a substantial amount of work that is trying to happen with our youth in this community. Not that it lifts the burden in any capacity, but what you what Naran is facing is not a unique situation. We are not the only ones in the world that are facing this high rate, this turnover. And there is also a systematic oppression that feeds this into this moment. So, we didn't get here by happen stance. We didn't get here today. We won't get out of it overnight. But I do hope that you will find some solace in knowing that the urgency is there. It is real. You may not always see the plans or the actions that are being taken or being moved, but I know at least the majority of people that are on this desk right now have some type of service arm, service organization, active work that is either directly related to youth or the upbuilding of the youth in some type of capacity. So, you may not always see it, but I would encourage us to try to figure out and ask first, try to understand what other organizations are doing. I think there's a a a lot of overlap. There's a lot of shared opportunities for funding as well, but those things have to come as conversations and not confrontations all the time and sometimes there are shared visions that can be shared over coffee and not over public comment. So, I'll just offer that as a segment. I also work in the nonprofit sector and always open and available to share to talk about how the funding can work, how you can keep that the the log of it as the overseer of a nonprofit. It's a it's a process and it's hard and especially as we're all competing for the same amount of funding. Collaboration is the way that is singularity is really not going to do it because there's just not enough in the pot. So, we will have to find ways to overlap. I also want to acknowledge that there are so many things on the plate. This is not something that I brought up last year, but very early into my term last year, I presented to administration a very detailed plan with how how we could help

and address some of our youth while also strengthening our service organizations here in this community. We were able to push that so far that we even had a lot of buyin partners very early. But then a million things came up. Some of them not as important as I would like them to be, but a million things come up. This is where it happens when we have to figure out how to prioritize what work to do. Do I wish we could have got that further quicker? Absolutely. It might have been a life saved, but I also hope that that helps us to take our our smaller differences or taking moments to really organize our thoughts around what we want to do so we can actualize those plans. I promise you there's probably a hundred plans in this room. We have to get through the things that divide us so that we can put those plans into action. I do not believe there is a lack of planning, but I do believe there is a lack of effective collaboration. So, that is what I would charge you with. I am accessible. My number and my email are published. I'm highly accessible and I'm highly responsive. Reach out to me. Moving on to appointments. Resolution number 26-01, appointment of professionals for 2026. Mr. Lightner.

Thank you, Mr. President. So, council, before you this evening, you have a proposal for professional service agreements for 2026. So, these agreements cover our essentials which are legal, engineering, financial, planning services, and of course, this is support our daily operations, regulatory compliance, labor matters, and capital projects. These are professional service which are again not not supported by bidding. Uh they're professional service. We do this on an annual basis on an appointment by resolution. And this is how municipality has historic historically proceeded uh with these firms in order to us for us to provide continuity institutional knowledge and of course control our costs through defined scope and rate schedules. uh council, you also still retain the the right the authority um for all services that are budgeted as well as again this is not a new funding. This has been approved in our budget not anything new that's added to the budget. So tonight what we're asking for you is to look at this uh review this again. These are our legal matters. These are our labor issues, our audits, our engineering firms, our capital projects and all these professional services again are routine that we use on annual basis. You do have one in there boil contract consultant. What they are they are an architect and an engineering firm as well. The reason we have them added into this, again, it's a professional service, is because we're having them do a feasibility study, which we talked about during the budget season. Uh they're doing a feasibility study for the fire station, the public works facility, and also the uh park and Rex new recreation center. So, their purpose is to provide the feasibility study with the architect engineering work. And the reason we use them is because we can't

have our current engineering firm do the plans, do the reviews, and also review the plans afterwards. So we need to have a separation to have a different firm do the feasibility study. And then we have our engineering firm once things go through, they would approve the plans. So what we ask you to do is approve this as presented. And if you have any questions, I'll be able to answer those. Council, any questions? Um, I have a question. Council McMahon, how long how many years have we had the contract with Kosen Okconor? I'm sorry. Can you hear that? How many Oh, how many years have we had the contract with Kosen Okconor?

The contractor, the contract with Kosen Okconor. Oh, Kosen Okconor. Um, I believe I don't have it off the top of my head, but I know it's been for at least the last five years. And year by year, do we u re-evaluate them compared to other um law firms with similar labor? Past practice, uh I can attest to past practice. Um my time here in the last two years. Um we were looking at looking at other firms this year, but as things got busy, we got too late in the budget season, we couldn't, but the plan is to look at it next year. Okay. Thank you. And

that's for all the firms. Council, any other questions? Yes. So, I do know Annie, we review some of it, but um I recognize a lot of them, but like you said, boy, I do not. Did we have a discussion with that particular contractor with council because I don't recall having a discussion about that contractor services? No, we we didn't have a conversation with uh council about that. All right. So, How did you pick this particular contractor? Through recommendations and referrals. Okay. And you said we are approved for this contractor in our budget.

Yes, we are. Okay. So, not particularly this contractor, but we approved for these particular services. All of these services are approved in the budget. So you also mentioned that our current engineer cannot do what this one does or they can do but it's not good practices for them to prepare the plans, review the plans and then when the plans go through. Have they done that in the past? Not that I'm aware of. And I I don't know if you had new facilities built in the past. I know you did renovations here, but I can't attest if they did that. And I don't think they did. you had an actual third party construction firm that handled that their re renovations to this building.

So, is this something that we could do when those projects come up and we can review it? Cuz I know we're supposed to do RFP or or have uh have our consultants look at these things, but it seems like we're preping someone without doing a a bid for it. These are professionals.

I know they're professionals. I'm not questioning that. But I'm what I'm saying is like we're preping someone before these projects even come up that I think council should have a discussion about more detail of each project and then we should go and see what our needs are because for one I saw uh we had an air about the fire station. We haven't even discussed the fire station with council yet. So how are we picking a professional to do that before we even have a discussion about what exactly we're doing with the fire station? Like I never even talked about the fire station. I've been on council, but we're preping someone to do service for us when we don't know exactly what's going to happen. That's what I'm saying. Like we could definitely revisit it, but like I see Kilky, uh the labor lawyers, the these are companies we constantly using our services for years. We know them. We always look for some we can't. But this one we don't know. It just seems like more of a RFP type of thing than versus a company that we're going to be using a month in and month out. That's how I see the appointment of professionals because everyone we hire is professional. I get that, but I thought this was more for our monthly or daily type professionals. So, me personally, I would like to make an amendment on that because I think this is something council should definitely be involved in and have more knowledge in. Um, just going forward, I think we should h ask more questions and not rubber stamp every like I think we kind of rubber stamp too many things that come across our desk. It's not a knock on you. It's not a knock on them. But I think this is a conversation we should have as council. Um because right now I unless anybody on council know this company. Mr. President, if I may,

the fire station, the recreation building, and public works were all discussions before I got here. At our last council meeting, Mr. Vice President, you asked during the budget season about how do we come up with that number in the capital budget or because it's in the capital plan for these projects to take place. No, what I said was it was a discussion with council

but these projects were already in line before I got here. The fire the firehouse was already a topic of conversation. The parking wreck has a master plan already. So you guys have asked in our budget we gave you an estimate but then in the budget season you asked me we need real numbers Mr. Vice President you asked real numbers. So we said we're going to get a feasibility study from a firm that can give us what the true cost would be for these three particular projects. So that way we know exactly what the cost would be when we put it into our capital budget. Right now we don't have that. And these are professional services. Not that they're professionals, but professional services according to the law and um our solicitor can attest to that. You don't have to put those out for bid. They're professional services. We we never put any of these other professional services out for bid. It's the same thing. They're architect and engineering firm which does not require bidding process. and they were referred to they referred to us by other municipalities nearby that have had fire stations done because you can't just pick any firm that everyone can't build a fire station. Everyone can't build a recreation center or a public works building. So this company came highly recommended from surrounding municipalities within the within the uh the county that have recommended this organization even outside of this county in Delo as well that this company has built fire stations, public work facilities and they've given us a list of their references. The only thing we're asking for is a feasibility study to determine what the true cost would be for these facilities. Can I ask real quick? Um, are they the only ones that were like contacted or were like other ones contacted as well?

There were others that we looked at and talked to. Um, but from a cost perspective, they wanted to give us a set cost, but what this firm does is they don't give us a set cost. What they'll do is by the hour based on um b they'll do it by the hour based on what we put in for what we're looking for. So, it's not like we're going to be set with a set 100,000. They're also at a at a set fee. So, we will not go above that on that hourly cost. Okay. I think you might Oh, I'm sorry. Was about I did have questions. Okay. I'm sorry. Go. Okay.

I had questions in regards to the feasibility study itself. I know that this is a professional service and I think sometimes with these appointments, they're kind of clocked mentally that they're happening annually. As I read in this proposal though, this feasibility study is not to exceed the course of 12 weeks. Is that correct? And I was wondering within that same timeline, are they going to be simultaneously looking at these three different projects or do we know if there is a any type of tailored timeline to accomplish what seems like a big load of work in the three in the 12-week period?

It's going to it's going to be tailored. They going to do one with the fire station and then go to however whatever order we decide to go with. Um, more than likely we're going to probably go with public works facility first because that's money that we have already set aside for the new public work facility and then we'll probably go to the rec center then fire fire hall. Thank you. My last two questions were about the timeline of start and completion around the feasibility study. When do you propose or when is the administration believing that these studies will begin? And I guess that would also inform then when you think that they'll be ready to be presented back to council

if it's if it is approved tonight. The plan is to reach out to them first thing tomorrow and let's get this thing going. Um because again we need to get this process underway to start looking for grants if we need to start looking for grants but also at the same time we need to start preparing for our 27 2027 budget and 2028 budget because these facilities again this is a conversation we need to have that we know that we're going to have to have bonds for some of these. Uh but we have to start with looking at grant opportunities. But we can't go there unless we have we can't really go after grants until we really have a a true uh architect engineer plan to present through our our grant process.

And this feasibility study is not the plan itself. It is as I'm just understanding in the worlds of feasibility studies. It's the beginning of it's the shapings of the plans to see what is feasible and what could potentially be included in a plan. Correct. and what is what it potentially would cost us at current con construction rates. Um but they also will give us what the inflation costs would be or the C you know CPI over the next three to five years depending on when we're looking to to do this. U but it also will give us actual drawings and not final plans but uh concepts so that way we can also use that as our grant grant proposal.

All right. We don't even know where we're going to put this thing. I would love for us to have a conversation first about if we even can do it. We got to raise the money. We got to see what that's There's so many different things we need to even have a discussion about. I'm not saying that won't come, but it seems like we're putting the cart before the horse. I haven't I haven't even had a conversation with the fire department like what were their needs wants what it would look like for them for us to even be able to pass this on to someone else to see what we would want in that feasibility study. We got to have a discussion about it first before we hire someone. This might be very very well be the company we pick. I'm just saying we need to have a conversation or council first about what we can do, what it looks like, where the location may be, things of that nature. How are we going to do a feasibility study? We don't know where we're putting it.

Well, Mr. President, Mr. President, I'm talking like council. I really think we need to

have conversations amongst ourselves first of what the community needs. talk to the fire department. For example, since we're talking about the fire station, I know there's other things we need to include them. We should have these conversations before we dedicate spending taxpayers money. We should be in the know and have knowledge. Then if we want to take that next step, then it should go. That's why I'm saying like don't lock someone in first before we even have the conversation. None of us has any knowledge about the different companies or this thing. And listen, you can have the opportunity to go more into detail with us. I sometimes it's hard to come up with questions on the spot as well. This is the first time I think most people are hearing about this and seeing this, but I don't want to lock in a company before council has time to formally questions. Fire department has input, other people have input. I I just think there's no harm in us getting more information on this. the council. Um, again, these studies, these plans have been in place before I got here,

but council has never had a conversation about this council especially. And also, there was a fire study done, which we have. That's right. And council council has seen that. And there's also another fire study has been done by the state. The fire study that was done before has been in there. And there's another fire study done by the state that will be presented to council shortly once it's done.

I get it. You want it. I'm not going I'm talking to council. I'm not saying what you're doing is wrong at all. What I'm saying is for four years I've been here and Mr. Bates has been here, not once have we sat down to see any plans about a fire uh fireh hall. Not saying we don't need it. We as a council have never seen it or discussed it. I think council, representative of the people need to see these things and have a conversation. That's all I'm saying. I'm not trying to say that's all I'm saying. I'm not fighting you or anything like that. Like I'm saying, we will probably get to it, but I think council but the this is an operational function. How can council talk about something if we don't have the information to present you? This is what the feasibility study is doing.

But you just said there's something out there for There's a fire study that was done that talks about the firehouse, but you saw the master plan for the park and recreation building

which we just went through for the last year, the park and recreation plan. and they said to you, they gave you the draft. They gave you that, but we don't have the true cost, which is what the feasibility feasibility study does. As far as the lot goes for the fire station, that was a discussion that has been going on for years. That lot that has been set aside for the fire station is the same lot that the county has talked to us about, that was talked to council about, maybe the previous council, but the lot hasn't changed. It's the same lot that has been discussed. The reason we need to do this study to see because county wants to say that this is the lot they want us to have, but we don't know if that firehouse can fit on that lot. Okay. So, what the study does,

for example, you're talking about the lot down there, um, Marco Street, right? All right. I think that's a problem because I think that's a horrible location. I'm pretty sure the people, you don't want to be on a two-way a street with that much traffic. So before we even get to that part, I think we should bring in our fire department and say, is this actually a good location? Which I don't the fire has been a part of that conversation with the county. Well, we get different information then and that's what the study does,

but lightener I I'm really telling you like we need to have the conversation. You're talking about putting that on the busiest street. Even I'm not a fireart person, but I know that could be a problem because one you get a a major road going this way, you're going to have to try to stop two lanes as a main artery. So, we need to have the discussion. That's all I'm saying. Um, council needs to I never seen the plans. Council's never seen a plans. We need to have Mr. President and council your knowledge. So, I said my piece

Mr. President on council that's my job is operations, right? I've sat down with fire. I've sat down with the state fire department sitting right there. Chief O'Donnell, our our uh planning, we've all sat down to look at this. But again, everything's only conceptual. In order for us to really know what we need to do, we need to have this in order to present you with something that is solid, that has substantial information on it, not a con concept. And that's what's been talked about for years is concepts. Okay, Lightner, you understand what I'm saying? That that council needs to be informed, right? Why are you not wanting council to have more information?

Because this is an operational function. But we're council. We represent the people. The people, we need to know about this so we can tell the people. So what you want, so I guess so if I'm understanding correctly, Council McQueen, what you want is anytime that Lightner does um administrative jobs or hires anyone, you want to know ahead of time to talk about it just because we are spending taxpayer dollars that should automatic. Okay, that's why I'm making 100%. That's on everything. And we should be on the know cuz how are we going to be good stewards to constituents if we don't know? Okay, we're servants to the people. So if the person if the people ask me question answer

so uh uh Mr. Lightner I have a question for you. Um before we talk about tableing anything um I want to make sure so this feasibility study is needed. How soon is it needed? We have money set aside in order to get this done. So how soon is it needed? We need to get it done as soon as possible so that we can start looking for how we're going to fund these projects or if these projects can even go where they're allotted to go. Okay. And then from my understanding there's you said they are paid hourly. So there's a set amount that we can't go over. Correct. Now this is you said a yearly a yearly contract. This is only or this is just a contract just to get that feasibility study

to get the feasibility study done. So then if we do approve and allow it and say that we want to look at other people on the side know while that's happening is that something that's possible or that a waste of time and or money? It would be it' be a waste of time and money because the only thing they're going to do is the feasibility study to determine these three locations and after that they're done. But Mr. Bates, yes,

if we get the information we had on the next agenda and that's no that's not stopping us. I'm just talking about for us to get some information have a so we all be informed when we come here we know exactly what it is unless one of the council people could explain to you I totally understand what you're coming that's why I'm trying to answer get these questions answered here so then if we do the appointment I would make an amendment to put the boil construction on the next council meeting and then we'll have time to discuss it for the next week or two and how much does that slow us down Mr. lighter

and can we get the PL because we got new council people. I know um Dave and Natalie you probably never heard of the fire department where they plan on putting or anything in that nature. Correct. Well, I've I've heard through the county that they want to put there it's the property where used to be the Times Herald building in that area. So I'm kind of aware that there's been conversation um around that as a possibility and it seems to me so then the next step in that process is to how how you know how feasible is it to actually have you talked to the fire department to see to how they feel about that? No, I have not that that's what I'm talking about like but nonetheless but just just providing the doing the pre uh the feasibility study and then getting the result back

that is also another step to uh review the process and and whether we go forward. We're not saying it's not a step, but I want to make sure that we get everybody gets to say so, but there are a lot of council people. Well, that's great that you're doing that, but there's a lot of council people that have never heard that, don't know where we want to go, have never seen the plans. I'm just saying we should be able to look at it, read it, and then be educate ourselves before you make a decision on it. Okay? But once but once we have that feasibility study, then we have something very concrete to go to one of our town hall meetings and have conversation with the community with a little bit more concrete information in hand to do that.

I do agree what they're saying because if this was done by the county as well already. I feel as though they've done their due diligence and doing the right thing. But have we done it? Have we done? This is this is our feasibility study as well. I'm saying this is not only affecting what I'm saying is how we done our job. We done our job, right? I I I think what we do too much as council a little bit is rely on what other people tell us and do and not us. We might agree with them. But we still should put our eyes on them. They're not wrong there. No, it's not. At the same time, it's been I guess you said kill Kenny's already looked into it. Kelly's already looked into it.

Well, kill Kenny didn't speak for herself. That's what I was asking. That's [laughter] not him personally. But but here's my thing. We're We represent the people. A million people could look at it. We need to look at it cuz we represent our people. We don't look at it. Where's their representation? Can I can I ask a quick question? Um it's in response to my earlier question, which I'm trying to remember. It was, you said it was hourly up until a certain amount, but it's still under what? It's under It's still under what everyone else came in at. Is that what you said? I can't remember. How did you say it?

They're set at hourly rate. So, there's a set threshold, they won't go above. So, we whatever we have budgeted, um, whatever that hourly rate is, that's what they charge. So, we can't exceed, let's call it, we can't exceed amount. And the amount that like the cap is at, that's literally what our amount is at. Correct. And they cannot go over that at any point. Ju just to be clear, my problem isn't with the feasibility study at all. It's the choosing of the company. Not even that. We haven't seen it. We don't have all the information. That's my issue of council. We need to be more informed so we can have these discussions and make these decisions. The people are saying that we're not informed. That's why they're saying what they're saying.

All right. And it looks to like we're just rubber stamping. Well, my my question is may maybe I'm not understanding, but you're saying you're not informed, but we're trying to inform you through this study.

The other thing, too, is that you're only focused on you're only focus somebody turn their focusing on the fire, but we have the public works facility that council's aware of that's going on the state hospital site, and that building, as you know, is not in the best condition. So the state hospital site is where the new public works facility is going to go. You've been in here where uh the state hospital has presented and talked about where the public works facility is going to go. This is part of the feasibility study. We need to know does that property that they have set aside what is going to look like for our public works facility. You've been a part of the master plan for the park for the last year and a half. That's part of the feasibility study. But what we're

But I'm trying to understand what is it that you need to be informed of. I hear you. I understand. I understand what's why he wants to do it. My case. I mean, we're just being redundant. We could take it to a vote. I said what I Can you hear me now? A little better. If basic I understand what he wants to do. I'm just I my stance is

really this should be a debate among council if if the president wants to recognize somebody that's different I'm not dispar I'm just I'm just trying to step there's no back and forth that's back and forth with the audience being among sure that's just me all right yeah let's let's move on okay so Uh council, can I have a motion to appoint uh the professionals of 2026 resolution 20? Oh, I had to appoint everyone percept boil

until Okay. So then you would take a vote on the motion to amend first. If if that passes then and then you would vote on the rest. If it fails, you just vote on everybody. If you understand, Mr. President. So, council, can I have a motion to uh amend 26-01 appointments professionals for all the professionals except for the BL construction? So, move.

Oh, sorry. Secretary, could I have a roll call, please? On the amendment. On the amendment. Wayne McCoy. No. No. Dear Robinson, no. Natalie Coulson, no. Jasmine Griffin, hi. David McMahon, no. Dustin Queen, hi. And Rashad Bates, no. Motion fails. Um, so then we'll go with a motion to appoint resolution 2601 uh for appointment of professionals of 2026 and all the professionals. Uh, anybody first? No, I need somebody to make a motion. I'll make a motion.

I'll second it. Madam Secretary, we have a roll call again, please. William McCoy, I wait. Sorry. Madira Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. No. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. No. Shai Bates.

Hi. The eyes have it. And I just want to say that um I understand where you guys are coming from, but I think that in the future if we are unsure about a a specific company or something, we should get together and work it out. Uh, moving on. Human resources resolution 2602 requests for municipal council to approve a resolution ratifying the collective bargaining agreement between the municipality of Norristown and the American Federation state county and municipal employees. The AFL CIO District Council 88 crossing guard units for the term of January 1st, 2026 through December 31st of 2028.

Thank you, Mr. President, this resolution is before you for the collective bargain agreement for Aphme local 317 for our crossing guards. Again, as you said, covering January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2028. So, this agreement is a result of good faith negotiations between uh municipality and the collective bargaining agreement. Uh this good faith negotiation provided stability, predictability, and essential public service and safety functions ensuring that our children can get to and from school safely during the school year. From a fiscal standpoint, uh the contract includes modest scheduled a 2% annual wage adjustment. Uh this does not add new benefits. It maintains the existing work rules. Um all costs were anticipated as part of the budget for 2026. uh and there's no unplanned fiscal impact or associated with this agreement. Uh this is a three-year term which provides us a natural cost stability but also gives labor stability as well as uh cuts down on frequent negotiations. This also helps us avoid disruptions in our service the families that rely on the service during the school year. The crossing guards still remain part-time employees with limited benefits and this agreement is consistent with the ASME contract in the past uh through council uh council practices. Approving this agreement tonight will allow us to take effect as scheduled and it avoids any retroactive adjustments. It will avoid any interruptions in the crossing guard services and for this reason I'm asking council to approve this agreement as presented. Council, any questions? Councilman Robinson,

I have a question about the frequency. Um, I noticed that this was a three-year term. Just for my understanding, previously, were these annually renewed uh or was this always on a three-ear cycle? They they're they're different. Sometimes they're three years, four years, but on average, they were about three year average with the cross. Council,

any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a uh do I have a motion to pass or excuse me, do I have a motion for resolution 2602 uh for municipal council approving resolution ratifying the collective bargaining agreement between municipal valtown the federation of state county municipal employees of district 88 crossing guard unit for the term of January 1st 2026 to December 30th 31st 2028. Second. Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? William McCoy, sorry. Hi. Dear Robinson, hi. Natalie Coulson, hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McCann.

Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Sean Bates. Hi.

The eyes have it. Move along. Buildings code and compliance request approve the harb coas. Hello Keith. The historic review board has met and reviewed the following applications which they are presenting to you with a recommendation for approval. 517 George Street, 513 Swed Street, 345 West Marshall Street, and 1230 Lynwood Avenue. Council, any questions? Oh, council, any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the request for the harp coas? So move.

Second. Madam secretary, roll call, please. William McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Nie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McCann. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates. I. The eyes have it. Thank you. Next we have planning and municipal development public hearing to request adoption of ordinance 2510 for the 2026 community development block grant proposed budget. Hello Jane. Happy new year.

Good evening council members and happy new year. Um we're before you tonight asking you to consider um adopting the 2026 community development block grant uh proposed uh budget and it's a public hearing. Uh so it's solicitor I think we uh so uh we're going to put into the record copies of advertisements of this public hearing. Uh Miss Misier is making a presentation. Then there will be an opportunity for council comment and an opportunity for public comment and council can either continue the public hearing if they need more information or close the public hearing. Thank you.

So tonight I'd like first of all as a presentation especially for the new uh council members to get an understanding of how this program works. The municipality is what we call an entitlement community for the community development block grant funds from the department of housing and urban development. Uh over the years, I think since 1986, we've been receiving close to a million if not over a million dollars per year uh to do various projects in the community. This these uh projects are not just chosen out of the blue. They're bas basically tied to data that comes from the sensors. So whatever we do in terms of u planning the project projects we do we have to have a fiveyear plan each five years we have to do a fiveyear plan which is actually uh driven by public so to speak and the census information. So it's not just Jane picking out projects that she likes um but rather it's guided by that uh that principle. So in this particular year uh we will be looking at the uh uh CD gene um 20 not to remember if it is 2024 to 2027 I think anyway um but for this year we're looking at the application for the action plan just for 2026 and in so doing uh there's a process we have to go through that is actually made by mandated by the uh HUD and I'm going to read into the record the process so that it's on record and when anyone asks about this uh type of process or why we do it at least we we are able to point to it and say this is what we have did to gather ideas go through this process advertise and recommend the uh projects.

So for the 2026 uh we did started developing administrative recommendations throughout the year. There's a memo I usually send to council members and uh department heads sometimes in August saying are there any projects you're thinking of um including in in in our CDBG projects and if they do have that pro a project that they're interested in we make sure that's the planning department makes sure that it's in line with the uh consolidated plan and it's in line with the census information that we're supposed to use and that way we actually evaluate the projects and we come come back and we actually tell council about it and we also have public hearings. So, um we we had a notice for a public hearing for the 2026 annual action plan which was advertised in the local paper of general circulation. In this case, it's the Times Herald on August 22nd, 20 uh actually August 22nd, 2025 and August 29th, 2025. Our first public hearing to garner public input for projects was held on September 8th, 2025. We presented the proposed projects and their budgets on the October 7th, 2025 council meetings received authorization. We actually came council meeting and received authorization to proceed with advertising the proposed p budget and a public hearing was held on October 27th, 2025. We also advertised uh on October 27th for public hearing in a local paper times herald on October 10th, 2025 and October 17th, 2025. We had a second public hearing uh on October 27th, which I think we received only one public uh participant, but there were no comments that were received at that moment. A

30-day public comment period was held from October 23rd, 25 through November 21st, 2025. No comments were were received. An ordinance 25-10 was scheduled to be presented to council at the December 16th council meeting. However, due to an unexpected postponement of the meeting, ordinance 25-10 was presented and received authorization to advertise from council on December 22nd, 2025. Um, the advertise ordinance 25-10 in a local newspaper was advertised December 25th, 2025. If uh we do not if castle does not act on this uh ordinance tonight, it could actually delay our funding if actually jeopardize the funding in reality because there's a deadline where we have to send this application and uh unlike years before I say 10 years before when we were able to um start a project here if we had if we could estimize estimate rather the budget of a project. Nowadays, we have to wait until Congress has actually allocated the funding and then the HUD will send us a letter saying this is how much has been allocated for your annual um uh for that particular annual thing. That's when we are then authorized to sign the agreement and then start the projects. So, I'm here tonight asking council to consider approving this uh proposed budget. I'll go through it because the coun uh new council members as well as the public might not uh remember some of the the projects that were included in this budget. So for the 2026 we had proposed a continuation of the owner occupied housing re rehabilitation

program. This is a program that uh facilitates the reh rehabilitation of owner occupied housing allowing homeowners to remain in their homes and preventing uh blighting elements. [clears throat] $45,978 was set aside for that. Now I want to add a note that it seems rather minuscule given um construction costs are usually very high. What what planning department does is we seek other funding from the state and we seek also from the county or any other sources. We also will um work with um nonprofits like Habitat or whoever could help us out because construction costs are really high. So we were fortunate last year, the year before last, we received $500,000 from the state that added to that part. So that might seem small but actually it's not. But it's just adding to the kitty and we'll continue looking for additional funding to make sure that we help our homeowners stay in their homes. The majority of our homeowners are actually senior citizens and and housing is usually uh not been kept up on in terms of rehabbing and maintenance. So they tend to be the ones who are recipients of this grant. So uh in order since I'm not a technical person in that sense, we have to hire uh the housing rehab technical supporters. um support and we went out on an RFP I believe about two years ago and we do have um the technical support and we have set aside $35,000 per year for that um program. They're the ones who carry out the process and we oversee that process to make sure things are done correctly. uh in the CDBG program, we also have to make sure that we follow the fair housing uh that is part a condition of

this grant. Uh we do have an organization again uh they are on board. they were RFP and we have set aside 30,000 for that and they're the ones who would take in complaints about discrimination and it's part of our 5-year consolidated plan and we have pledged and we're required to basically have that condition for for the use of this grant. In our consolidated plan, we also had set aside um actually we had mentioned that economic development is critical and past council members had always put great emphasis on the development and support of small businesses in the municipality. In that sense, we had gone out and received actually um specialty services from Widner um and they have been helping us with the small business development and I don't believe this I think this might be they'll be coming to present by the way uh the next council meeting so that you'll know of what they have done in the past. We've set aside 40,000 for that. And what they do, of course, is provide assistance to small uh businesses from Norristown, not outside Norristown or if they're coming to Nortown to start a business in Nortown is when they can be eligible for that assistance. They're also helping us um uh basically uh underwrite as well as help us with the uh what you call the loans that came in through ARPA. If you recall some of the council members and if you're new, you might not know about that. We we received some COVID money some time back, not only directly, but also through uh the county. They're also helping us make sure that our small businesses in Nora uh can apply for that uh funding. And they're forgivable loans as long as you're able to prove that you're retaining or adding uh jobs in the community. And the rule of thumb is

that for every job you create or retain, $35,000 is basically um the manner of which is you can uh justify the use of those funds. Now, some years back, um something I don't like talking about, but I have to mention, uh if you recall, um the municipality did receive a $5 million loan against this uh grant for the Logan Square project. And for some of you who might be aware, it didn't work. Therefore, the collateral, which is this grant, has to be paying back those funds, I think, until 1932. I think it's in 2032. We're close to it, but it was $5 million. And over the years, we've managed to to uh pay as much as we can. Uh the minimum payment we can on on that particular loan is $438,340. Um but at least we're coming close to an end. Once we finish paying that, then we can get back our full um funds as we normally would have. Uh in order for us to uh that's the planning department to administer this. Um HUD also allows us to basically pay for the salaries in the planning department for people who work on this grant. And uh we've set aside $147,000 for that purpose. The total amount of grant funds that we're requesting from HUD is $736318. And um that concludes my presentation. Are there any questions from council?

Thank you, Jane. Uh council, any questions? Counciloman or Robinson?

Yes, I had a question. Um, and you probably have explained this before, so I'm not even sure if it's meant for the hearing or not, but I just had a question around the line item for the Small Business Assistance Center. Namely, I know we're playing the loan. That was going to be one of my questions. When are we done, which I thought was 2032, and it sounds like that that is kind of when that wraps up around 2032. That is a significant portion of this funding. Um, and then it seems like the other amount post kind of oversight of the funds. I was wondering out of the $40,000 to the small business assistance center, is any of that funding directly to the businesses or is that just for the operations of the small business center?

Good question. That's just for the operations. And to be honest with you, the amount of work they gave us is way over the 40,000. So they use funds from other sources to make that work. So this is almost like a subsidy of that total cost. Yes. And then just so I'm clear because I've and I know they're going to come next week, but I just, you know, I have a lot of questions always about the small business assist assistance center. Are they then helping to procure funding? I guess my hope with this block grant, right, part of the mission of the block grant is to get funds to businesses. Yes. Ours is not structured in a way that we can do that, but we are trying to get services to businesses in the meantime. How else do we get funding to these businesses? Is that what we count on the small business center to do?

Good question. In fact, when they come to present next week, they'll give you some very good news because they for them to survive to also make sure that they can have basically I guess products, if you will, to be able to give the their um applicants. So, they are looking and have actually sourced other funding that our businesses can take advantage of and a good amount too. So, they'll be able to present that to you next week. Looking forward next time. Thank you. No more questions. Council, any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the adoption of ordinance 2510 of the CBDG proposed budget?

Secretary, roll call, please. Yeah. Oh, I'll open the floor to public comment. Okay. How do how do one with this small business come to you for like grant opportunities and funding? Oh, I'm sorry. How one come to you to find out about oh Erica just first name

Erica Wharton today a Gemini um how do one come to you about applying for small businesses because there's a lot of small businesses in just real quick just so it it gets a little less confusing uh direct those kind of questions to the chair and then he can direct them back to Miss and kind of handle it that way just how do how do one approach Mrs. Jane this morning about granting grant funding opportunities for small businesses. Jane, you can answer. [laughter]

So, um the reason why we hired uh Widner um University small business is for them to actually be able to meet with folk like you who might want who might want that. So, they have the expertise uh of of telling you what you need to do. They can help with uh doing um uh what do you call it? A a business loan. They can help in marketing. They can help in actually doing a business plan. And they do that so that you're ready to be marketable. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome.

Any other uh anyone else in the public have a question? Seeing none, I will close the floor for the public and then I can go to the motion. All right. All right, council. Again, uh, do I have a motion to request the adoption of ordinance 2510, the community development block grant? Oh, I had to close the hearing, too. Oh, man. I'm messing up. Council, do I have a motion to close the public comment? Close the hearing. Close the hearing.

Yeah. Second. Good. Okay. All in favor? I Council, do I have a motion to adopt the ordinance 2510 community development block grant? Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Thanks. William McCoy. Hi. Dear Robinson, hi. Natalie Coulson, hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Keenan. Hi. B. I. The eyes have it. And thank you, council.

Uh before I adjourn, I just want to say a couple things. I was supposed to say this earlier, but I jacked this meeting up a little bit. So, I just want to say first off, happy new year to everybody. Um I want to say thank you to my colleagues here for entrusting me with the responsibility of being your president for 2026. Truly appreciate it. Also want to say thank you to administration, the staff, the business owners out there, the residents and my family um for all of your help and support for the last four years because I couldn't do this without any of you. Um so the other part is uh it's an honor to be here again and so for you know Narstown has a lot going on. We have a lot of important developments in the infrastructures coming up and I just think it's very important to say that we can't get this done unless we work together and as Councilman Queen's favorite phrase is we got to be a united front but um leadership style has not changed. I'm still going to meet you guys where you are going to talk to the residents more often, work with Leonard a lot better uh so we can understand what's going on with the staff and also work with our colleagues here. Um, the idea is to make sure that we're all focused on Narstown and moving forward. And I'm going to do my best to try to block out the external noises that we that we deal with. Um, also with that being said, we also have to strengthen our relationships with outside the municipality. Uh, we have to keep an open line of communication with our state reps, our community, our excuse me, our county commissioners and our newly elected schoolboard members. Um, I believe that if we all work together, all these governing bodies work together, we can propel Narstown forward faster and more efficient than ever before. So, [clears throat] the goals this year are collaboration, fixing what's broken, and amplifying everything that's already working. So, again, thank you all, and uh I'm excited for 2026. [applause]

Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Yes. All in favor? I have a journ.