Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Call to order the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors meeting. Please stand in saying the pledge of allegiance. Afterwards, please remain standing for a moment of silence while we um acknowledge our fallen soldiers. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Supervisor Gallardo, could you do roll call, please?

No problem. Uh, Miss Hannah here. Mr. Leighton, here. Miss Kaine, here. Mr. Keak here.

Thank you. Uh, upcoming meetings and events. Uh, next board of supervisors meeting is Monday, May 11th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Supervisor Anna Payne Memorial Park dedication will be Friday, May 1st, 2020 2026 at 4:00 p.m. at Cobalt Ridge Park. And our Earth Day event is going to be Saturday, April 25th, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Court Creek Park. That's always a great event. Um, and we have some special items and announcements and some proclamations. Our first is local government month proclamation. Mr. Gizac,

this is a proclamation recognizing local government month in Middletown Township. Whereas local governments throughout the Commonwealth provide valuable services to the citizens and of the communities they serve. And whereas in recognition of the work performed by local governments, the Pennsylvania General Assembly designated the week of April 6th through April 12th as local government week in Pennsylvania. And whereas local government is often referred to as the level of government that is closest to the people, providing important citizen services such as law enforcement, public health and safety, recreational opportunities, and public works. And whereas many individuals, including employees of the township and numerous volunteers, participate in providing local government services to the residents and businesses in Middletown Township. And now therefore, the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors proclaimed that April 2026 is hereby designated as local government month in Middletown Township. And now be it therefore resolved that the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors will continue to work to promote civic education and engagement in an effort to educate citizens about their local government, strengthen the sense of community, and engage the next generation of local government employees and volunteers. Middletown Township Board of Supervisors proclaimed this day the 13th of April, 2026.

Thank you, Supervisor Kizak. Uh, Supervisor Kaine, could you uh read the um Autism Awareness Month proclamation proclamation recognizing autism awareness month in Middletown Township whereas autism is a complex developmental condition that affects communication, behavior, and social interaction impacting individuals and families in diverse ways. And whereas early diagnosis, intervention, and access to support services can significantly improve the quality of life for individuals on the autism spectrum, empowering them to reach their full potential. And whereas it is essential to promote acceptance, inclusion, and understanding to foster a society where individuals with autism can thrive in their communities, schools, and work p places. And whereas autism awareness month serves as an opportunity to educate the public, support research efforts, and advocate for policies that enhance the well-being and rights of individuals with autism. And whereas communities, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to participate in activities that raise awareness and show solidarity with the autism community, fostering a more inclusive and supportive world for all. And now be it therefore resolved that the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors proclaims April as Autism Awareness Month. Proclaim this day the 13th of April, 2026.

Thank you, Supervisor Kaine. Supervisor Leighton, could you please read the Earth Day and Arbor Day proclamation?

Yes. This is a proclamation recognizing Earth Day and Arbor Day in Middletown Township. Whereas Earth Day celebrated annually on April 22nd and Arbor Day observed on the last Friday of April serve as reminders of our responsibility to protect and preserve our natural environment for current and future generations. And whereas trees play a vital role in maintaining ecological balance by improving air quality, conserving water, reducing soil erosion, providing habitat for wildlife, and combating climate change through carbon se sequestration. And whereas communities, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to engage in activities such as tree planting, waste reduction, water conservation, and environmental education to promote sustainability and ecological stewardship. And whereas it is imperative that we foster an awareness of the interconnectedness between humanity and the natural world, inspiring action towards a healthier planet. Now, be it therefore resolved that Middletown Township Board of Supervisors hereby proclaim April 22nd, 2026 as Earth Day and Arbor Day in Middletown Township, I urge all citizens to participate in activities that support environmental sustainability, plant trees, and make conscientious choices to protect and preserve our planet for generations to come. Proclaim this day, the 13th of April, 2026.

Thank you, Supervisor Leighton. Uh, next we have uh, Supervisor Gallardo. Uh, could you please read the life-saving recognitions for our fire and EMS proclamation?

With pleasure. This is a proclamation recognizing the life-saving actions. Whereas on July 6, 2025, members of the Pendell Middletown Emergency Squad and William Penn Company responded to an emergency incident at 40 Foria Drive East involving a citizen in critical medical distress. And whereas upon arrival, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and police quickly assessed the situation and determined that the individual was experiencing cardiac arrest. And whereas without hesitation, those responders initiated immediate, decisive, and highly skilled life-saving measures, including CPR, use of an AED, advanced airway management, and medication administration. And whereas through their training, professionalism, teamwork, and calm response under pressure, these members were able to restore vital signs and stabilize the patient prior to transport. And whereas their actions directly contributed to life saving the life of this individual, reflecting the highest traditions of the fire service and emergency medical profession. And whereas the courage, dedication, and commitment to public service demonstrated by these individuals exemplify the core values of Middletown Township and serve as an inspiration to both their colleagues and the community they serve. Now therefore, be it pro proclaimed that the chairperson of the board of supervisors of Middletown Township hereby formally recognizes and commends paramedic Adam Broadigan, paramedic Chana Visles, EMT Laura Horvath, EMT even Ian Liberatory, firefighter Chris Russell, firefighter Andrew Conaway, firefighter Riley Collins, firefighter Jim Huins, firefighter Chris Tomzac, firefighter James McCulla and Bucks County Police Dispatcher Dennis Denis Castro for their outstanding and heroic actions in saving a life on July 6, 2025. Be it further proclaimed that we

extend our sincere gratitude for their service, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of our community. Um, I apologize. We have to take a five minute break. We've lost audio.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. It's actually a good chance to folks leave.

Oh, yeah. If you came to celebrate and recognize um the EMS and um the fire personnel, you can leave now if you like to. You don't have to stay for the entire meeting, but you are more than welcome to Okay, we have audio again. Wait for everybody to take their seats. Okay. All right. Next item on our agenda is public comment. Non-aggenda items.

Oh, that helps. You want me to say my name again? Dave Cahill, 462 Cynthia Pendell. Um, March 23rd, I attended a meeting at Pendle Burough Hall about the uh high-rise apartment complex that Sept is building. I just wanted to clear a few things up here at the microphone. Uh, this project is not in Pendle Burrow. It's in Middletown Township. Correct. Yes. No. So, any approvals by uh any approvals that need to be made are going to be made by the Middletown supervisors, not by Pendell Burrow Council or any of their boards or committees?

Okay. Is there a reason why that wasn't stated at last month's meeting? Yeah, this why the supervisors never mentioned that the project wasn't in Pendell that it was a Middletown Township project. The there's no application for the project. It is not in front of the supervisors yet. That was uh my understanding just anformational meeting. They they decided to hold it in Pendell. Um so my question is why if it's not in Pendell, you'd have to you'd have to ask you would have to ask them. That was their that was SEPTA's decision to do that. not not not the township.

So, I'd like to clear something else up. Uh Mark Mafa is not an elected official of Pendel Burough. I hear that he's the uh he's the Bucks County Treasurer. Uh is the Bucks County Treasury Department funding this project? It it's a SEPTA project. So, I don't you have those are questions for SEPTA. I don't we don't know the answer to that. There's You understand that there's no there's no project yet. There's no plan that's come before this board except it was just having a public information session to gauge interest and feedback and they did it in Pendell for reasons you'd have to ask them but there's no plan for any project in front of Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. Thank you very much.

And I'll I'll just add that was a meeting that SEPTA had set up. We were invited to it as Middletown uh even if the work is proposed on the Middletown boundary. But, uh, our understanding was they had it at Pendelle just due to the proximity to where the project is for folks to be able to find a close place.

Good evening. My name is Celeste Alvia. I'm here to plead with you Langghorn Gardens. It's First Street, Second Street, Third Street, and Fourth Street. All the years there's been beautiful elderly people that have lived there that have now sold their homes to young families that have small babies and young children. There the speed limit is 25. Everybody's going 35. There's no stop signs. One at every corner instead of four stop signs. I was in an accident. Someone smashed into me. There's no sidewalks. There's no lights. There's going to be tragedy at Langghorn Gardens. First, second, third, and fourth street. Enormous amount of babies and children, toddlers riding their little bikes, their little big wheels. Cars are flying by. I'm pleading with you, all of you. Please look at this and see what you can do to help us. There's no street lights. There's no pavements. There's no speed bumps. There's nothing. I'm here to save the children.

Do you have anything else to say? No, I think you pretty much said it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have a citizens traffic commission. So, um, if you can share that with them and we'll also share that with them. Thank you so much. And I have a petition from many of the neighbors that would if you want to provide us your contact information, we might be able to have someone um from the traffic commission contact you to try and get your input on that as well. I've called over the past two years and no one is why I'm here. Well, we talked to we will push it. We will talk to the the commission itself, but we can have them contact you if you want to give me your information at some point.

We we talked to Perry Warren. He's the at Harrisburg. He's the head guy for traffic safety and he suggested that we come. Yep. And we'll it's it's the Middletown Township's traffic commission. So, we have citizens that apprise that commission. So, we can for your time and I'm sure you don't want to see tragedy. So, Thank you. I appreciate you.

This is my first time at the meeting, so I apologize. Um, my name is Jacqueline Seabbridge, uh, 739 Madison Avenue in Langghorn. I've been a resident in my home for 15 years, and I'm here today because, um, of the chicken ordinance. It's been something that's been, you know, talked about for the last two years and it's constantly been rescheduled. It was supposed to be tonight and it was rescheduled. Um, and the reason why I'm out is because this is something that's really important to me and several other residents in this area. We had a petition. I believe it was 1,200 people and it was really gaining momentum, but then we had the whole tra um trash issue with everybody, you know, being upset about, you know, trash pickup and the trucks. So, it kind of got tabled, but um so this has been postponed for about two years now. And I wanted to know what is the reason for the postponement. It just seems like there's no transparency. Like it's something that seems like you're not interested in or you don't want to vote on. So, it's constantly being kicked down the road. And now I'm here today because I'm a resident and I'm frankly upset. You know, this is I took off of work, you know, to to come to these meetings and they're constantly being postponed. Um, and it's just disheartening, especially when the township continues to approve dense residential development and, you know, smaller issues are being pushed aside. You know, I understand that chick, you know, chicken ownership is not a huge, um, you know, thing on a lot of people's dockets, but, you know, it's something that's important to some local, you know, residents. Um, also, other townships have adopted, you know, policies for chickens. We're pretty much the only township in this area that has not approved chickens. I can go over, you know, all the different benefits of having chickens. Um, I just feel like people are going to have chickens regardless. Um, you know, I would rather see the township get revenue from something like having backyard chickens and have it monitored. I understand we don't want people having 50 chickens in their backyard and we want to have a clean, you know, sanitized, you know, area for the chickens, but I just feel

like there needs to be a decision made. you know, what do you need us to bring to the meeting to kind of get this process along and uh with documentation plans? I mean, I can get information from other townships and their ordinances. Um, but I would really like to have, you know, this rectified, you know, in the next couple months. It has been something that we've been considering. Mr. Andis, could you speak to it? Sorry.

So, you're not wrong. It it actually was a scheduled policy item for for tonight, but um not going to I think you'll be able to figure out as we go a little bit deeper into the agenda is why some of the policy things got removed uh for tonight's agenda. It is going to be on the May agenda. We are working on kind of giving the board a menu of options that they can consider as far as how to handle the chickens. solidify because the meeting actually this is probably I just want to make sure

it it will be can I I'm going to say this it will be on the May agenda it was absolutely supposed to be on tonight's agenda but some a lot of policy discussions got removed for for other reasons next meeting do you want to like I don't I've neveration of like what you No now I we we have some ideas I mean there's there's a there's a multitude of ideas that they're going to consider And you'll see during the May discussions if you actually want prior to the May meeting, I don't have the exact data in front of me. If you actually maybe want to contact me a couple days before, I'd be more than happy to discuss what what they're going to actually consider during that that that meeting. Okay. Okay.

Thank you. Any other public comments?

Okay. Um, next agenda items. I'd like to make a uh motion to uh the to approve the following consent agenda items. Consent agenda item A, consideration of authorizing payment of April 13th, 2026 bills list in the amount of 2,368,824.58. Con. Um, consent agenda item B, consideration of approving March 9th, 2026, minutes of public meeting of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. Consent agenda item C, consideration of adopting resolution number 26-11R, sewer planning module for the approved land development at 830 Old Lincoln Highway. Consent agenda item D. Consideration to purchase inlet tops and collars through Co-Stars Vending Premier Concrete Inc. of Broomal, PA not to exceed the budgeted amount of $160,000. Consent agenda item E, consideration of awarding Eureka Stone Quarry of Shaont, PA, and the amount not to exceed $78,000 for the 2627 Bucks County Consortium Road Material Supplies Contract. Consent agenda item F, consideration of change order number three for the Langghorn Gables Drainage Improvement Project in the amount of negative $95. Consent agenda item G, consideration of payment of certificate number three for the Langghorn Gables drainage improvement project in the amount of 86,176.40 for work completed. I made a motion. I'll take a second.

Second. Okay. Um, all those in favor of passing the consent agenda items as stated, say I. I. I. I. Items pass 5. Thank you. Next item on the agenda, consideration of termination of township manager. I make a motion.

I move to the board of supervisors to approve the termination of the township manager to provide required 60 days written notice of termination with an effective termination date of June 13, 2026. I'll take a second. Second.

I have a statement to read. The board of supervisors of Middletown Township has made the decision to terminate the township manager as this is a personnel matter invol involving an appointed employee rather than an elected official. It is the board's policy not to comment further on the specifics of that decision. As you can see in the next agenda item, the township has a clear plan in place to ensure continuity in leadership and operations. We have full confidence in our township staff and department heads, and we expect township services to continue without disruption. We will proceed with a search for a new township manager immediately. The next agenda item, consideration,

public comment. Oh, sorry, public comment. I'm a little nervous about that one. Okay. Any public comment

Laggers Quincy Hollow Middletown. Uh my only question is is um with the termination effective date in June, is there a contractual um payout for any amount of time? Are we is Middletown Township on the hook for a certain uh severance or anything like that? Um that would have to be paid out. Mr. Espisito, at this time we're not going to uh comment on the on the personnel decisions. He does have a contract. It's not a personnel decision. That's a middle. He does have a contract and we're going to abide by the contract. And that's all we're going to say that right now.

Okay. And his salary is open record. So what we pay is absolutely above public. You're not going to comment on, but you're going to make me submit a foyer request to get that information instead of commenting on it at a meeting. Yes. And that's pretty open government. Thank you.

Eric Berno, 79 Sweetgum. God, I feel like I have egg on my face. uh January I stood up here in uh at during um the meeting and I with fullthroated endorsed uh endorsed Mr. Rackcliffe to when we signed him bond for a full time. Um the only thing that I want to know is well actually no there's two things. Um first was there any dissenting uh voices when made the decision? You guys aren't going to say anything I know. Um, and two, was the township harmed financially in any of these issues that we're bringing back up? That's all I want to know. Were we harmed financially as far as something that would be uh outside of any contracts or or um anything like that?

Not not to my knowledge with anything financially. No. Okay. So, we're not worried about embezzment or spending on Never mind. All right. Thank you. Any other comments? Jesus.

Hi, Tom Morelli. Uh 203 Chilton Place in Langghorn. Uh my comment regarding the I I understand you can't give specifics. uh my years working with GERCA, you know, Stanford research, typically when somebody was put on administrative leave, there were two types of administrative leave. One was for investigative matters and typically those were administrative leaves with pay. Then there was ones that were for disciplinary matters. Those were administrative leaves without pay. And then if the person was terminated, the contract, well, it's going to be whatever it is, but typically there wasn't a payout if it was a disciplinary action because it was something caused by the individual against the terms of the contract. Without telling us specifically what occurred, can you tell us if it was a disciplinary or an investigative administrative leave, meaning one with pay, one without?

We can't make any comments on personnel items. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Lauren Laro. I live in 18 Secre. I just want to say that I really hope that you guys will consider Nick Vala to be the next township manager because he's done an incredible job with our township for many, many years. And I just wanted to voice that in his favor. I don't I know you can't comment on anything, but just wanted to support Nick Valick because he's done a great job as our assistant township manager. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments?

Dave Cahill, 462, Cynthia Pendell. So, he's being fired for appointing someone to a position that was supposed to be elected. Did I understand that right? No. No. The statement was that since he is an employee appointed employee, not an elected official, the board's policy is that we don't comment on employee decisions and personnel matters. He made a decision. No, the board appointed him as an employee. He didn't make any decisions. That's all right. Thank you. Any other comments?

Thank you. All righty. At this time, I will take a vote. Um, all those in favor of um the termination of the township manager, say I. I. Motion passes. 5-0. Next agenda item, consideration of appointment of interim township manager. I move that the board of supervisors appoint and rehire Stephanie Teley Kouls to serve as the interim township manager on a temporary at will non-contractual basis to be paid at the same bi-weekly rate as when she was last working for the township without any other ancillary benefits.

A second.

I have a motion and a second. Are there any comments from the board? Any comments or questions from residents, Lance Sagers, Quincy Hollow, Middletown Township. So, I remember standing up here talking about this huge tax increase that you guys just did. Um, and specifically the fact that you guys were saying our township was in shambles and now we're bringing back the same person that we needed to just significantly increase taxes on every citizen in this township because of things weren't being fixed in a timely manner. And that's the person we're going to bring back to run our township again. That's the person who I'm assuming was in control of hiring the person you just fired and we're going to put her in control of hiring the next person.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but so I'll just um since I was chair when most of those things transpired and I think the comment you're referring to might have been mine, um I think I think each of the things you said is factually incorrect. So, uh, Miss Toli Kouls did not hire Eden Ratliff. The board of supervisors did. Misty Kools will not hire the next township manager. The board of supervisors will. The reference to the township being in shambles. I don't think that was the phrase I used, but I think it was my comment that the reason why a tax increase of this size was needed at this time was because we had deferred um a lot of things and deferred increase in taxes in the past. That was a board of supervisors decision. It wasn't Miss Toli Cool's decision. She doesn't decide taxes. We do. So um I don't think there's any connection there. The reason for bringing Mr. Toli cools back on an interim basis um is completely independent of that.

Okay. So, was the condition of Middletown Township made were were the supervisors made aware of the condition of of Middletown Township, our infrastructure over the 15 years she was the township manager or accurately described the condition of the infrastructure of Middle were you guys made aware of that? Absolutely. Okay. So, it was a joint decision because she's got to make you aware of it. All right. So, it was a joint decision not to make those upgrades at the time. I I don't know what you mean by upgrades. I'm not sure what you're referring to.

I'm going back to when you guys just raised taxes significantly. You're the point that you guys kept driving home is that we needed to uh repair all of the infra in infrastructure that we had not upgraded over the last 10 years. Okay. Those are poor decisions. not just by you, by the current manager.

I mean, I honestly, Mr. Bachman, I I own those decisions. I I was on the board the entire time. Those decisions were not a township manager's call. They can't make those decisions. Only we can. And I took full responsibility for the fact that we put not raising taxes as a priority over we had to defer projects, defer infrastructure improvements because we were trying to avoid raising taxes on residents which put us in a position when this year at least I felt we needed to increase taxes as we did. I mean that that's those are board of supervisors. Those are policy decisions. Township manager you know carries out our policy. So I just I don't I don't think that that's Miss Toli Koul's responsibility. you know, our decision- making in terms of, you know, levying taxes.

Okay. So, legal speak, you guys certainly hired the new manager. Who did the interviewing? Who found the candidate? Who did all of the leg work? You guys? Yeah. We had a a thorough process that involved um well, we weren't all on the board at the time, but the the full board of supervisors as well as the department directors and an outside consulting search firm. And she was in control of that. She was not. She was completely removed from that, right? She she had no opinion. Nothing. None whatsoever. Not share her opinion. Okay. Thank you.

Um Eric Bruno again. I need one thing from you guys. I need you guys to put a timet on this. I know you get you just gave your your motion. I need you to make that within 45 days. We need we I need you guys to have a deadline for yourself. Obviously, I don't want you to rush and just do anything and make mistakes and all this stuff, but I I need you guys to have a deadline within that motion that will give you guys fire to make sure you guys do this and and we can get back to um some semblance. I'm fine with Stephanie coming back in the interim, whatever. That's not a problem. I want long-term stability. So, and I would like long-term stability quickly. So, I would like you guys to make these decisions um and work uh to find another uh township manager who's acceptable for Middletown Township and all 50,000 residents, but I need you guys on a timet.

So, the board is um definitely going to uh approach this uh with urgency. Um, but also we want to make sure that we hire the right person for this community and for the Middletown Township staff. So I understand your need for a timeline. We already have a timeline for ourselves. The timeline

it's when we find the right person. So that's the urgency. six months the last time around Steph from well but well I mean it was probably before started looking before that because obviously Stephanie had plans before it was publicly announced so um you say 6 months now I'm taking you at your word that there were there were um uh things that could not be fixed with with with him but you're saying six months to find the right person and that's what happened so I I I am sitting here as a resident of Middletown Township and demanding that we get back to normality as quickly as possible. And I would like to see a timeline on here.

The only thing I I I agree with you, Mr. Bruno, we want to get back to having a full-time township manager as quickly as possible as well. It's certainly the desire of everybody on this board, but we also need to make sure that we're thoughtful about it and find the right managers. So setting an artificial deadline to hire somebody township managers um there aren't as many available township managers out there in the world uh as one might like and so we have to make sure we find the right person. We got to get it right.

Joe Fitch 346 Wyoming Avenue. Is there any truth to the fact that they were friends outside of the township and that might have been why Eden was hired or is that a false rumor or that who were friends? Stephanie and and Eden. That was an outside company that did the search. Gotcha. Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay. All those in favor of consideration of appointment of interim township manager Stephanie Tely cool say I. I. I. Motion passes 5-0. All right. Next agenda item number nine. Consideration of preliminary final land development application for S-LD number 26-2 at 2050 and 20 2520 Old Lincoln Highway for upgrades to the Namin Water Treatment Plant.

Yes. Hello. Uh there are representatives from Aqua, Pennsylvania here. I'm actually going to have them do more of the heavy lifting as going through the slides so they can actually describe their project. But uh just to cover my policy briefing summary that's in your packets quickly uh it did receive a recommendation from the planning commission during their March meeting. Uh as I state it is uh upgrades to the property's existing water treatment plant that would include the construction of a nephas treatment system. Uh the application was uh reviewed by all the necessary uh staff and consultants. Um and also there was no objection found with the requested waiverss. Uh there was only two of them. One was just to allow preliminary and final plan approval concurrently and the other had to do with not having to provide a landscaping plan. Um with that I did uh recommend preliminary and and final land development approval is granted for this one. uh primarily because it's it's a much needed as they'll get into and describing uh improvement for really the water quality. So therefore it's a necessity for the public's health, safety and welfare. Um with that uh I want just ask the representatives to come up and kind of cover some of their slides and details and also be able to answer your questions when it comes to uh the project itself.

Thank you Mr. Andis. All right. So, a little bit down.

Good evening. My name is Gina Gerber. I'm with Riley Riper Holland and Colo. I'm here on behalf of the applicant Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc. This evening, we are here with regard to some improvements that are proposed for the Namin Water Treatment Plant, which is currently operating, has been operating for quite some time in your township. As Mr. and indicated we are doing these improvements in order to remove and do a better job of removing the PAS that are currently in the water system in order to comply with EPA mandates that will take effect in several years. So, we're trying to get ahead of the curve here and make sure that we're upgrading plants throughout this area to make sure that we address this issue. Um, I'm joined here this evening by Brennan Kelly with Aqua as well as our project engineer Janie Jordan from ACOM. We're going to run through those improvements with you just so you understand what's on the ground, what we're removing, what's going in place, which is effectively the subject of the application. But just to kind of summarize it all, um this is a rather large property of which only a portion of it is actually enclosed and fenced in and is being improved at this stage. Um there is a demolition of a circular basin which is very visible. You'll see it throughout the slides. Um that is being removed. We are introducing a new pumping station. There's going to be a new treatment building as well as a new water storage tank on the property as part of the improvements. We're not anticipating any additional folks coming or going from the site as a result of these improvements. These are really just internal upgrades for the system to be running more efficiently and more effectively and removing those PAS from the drinking water that serves this community. So, I'm going to turn this over to uh Janie Jordan to just kind of walk you through our slides and what we're proposing to do on the site.

Thanks, Gina. I'll just walk you through the slides. Uh they pretty much covered it, but we're here for questions. This is just the zoning map showing where the plant's located down at the bottom left. Uh it's in the M1 zoning. It's a light manufacturing district. And this is a good aerial photo of the plant. So up on the left is Lincoln Highway and then down here is route one and you can see the huge basin Gina mentioned. So that's being demolished and then where that is we're going to add the new PAS treatment building and the pumping station. So we're not really increasing any impervious area really. And this is a better view of the aerial just kind of showing where we're located and what's going on. The Namin Creek is on the west side. That's where we're pulling the water from. And you can see the repairarian buffer that won't be disturbed. It's going to stay as is. Any work that we're doing is within the blue fence line. That's the existing fence line of the property, the operations of the plant. And you can see the three red footprints. Those are the new buildings and the two buildings and the one storage tank that are proposed. And you can see the basin footprint that's going to be demolished. I'll move on, but if there's any questions, we can come back to this slide. This is just to show you what the new buildings look like. Uh we're matching the existing architecture that's on site. This is what the pumping station will look like. And this is what the new POS treatment building will look like. This will house the vessels that do the actual POS removal. And then this is the storage tank itself. This is what this looks like. It's just a concrete structure. Uh it'll just have water in it, so no people will be entering this building. And then this is just an overview of the site plan, just kind of a different

version of it showing some of the zoning key zoning requirements. I think that's yeah all we got. Uh we can take any questions anyone has. Any questions from the board? any new impacts that are that are we're going to Middletown's going to feel from these this new equipment or the new stations? No, just once it actually gets installed, the water will be have less PAS in it. So, just an improvement. How long will it take? What's the timeline?

The construction is scheduled to end in 2028, which is ahead of the 2029 uh regulations. And we're actually going to bid this week. So the construction will start soon. Yes. Thank you. Could I have you just explain PFAS for the public that is isn't familiar with it?

Yeah, no problem. Uh try to pronounce it. It's pre and poly flora alkali. They're uh just trace background elements that are in the water. They're chemicals. They're actually man-made chemicals. They have some non-stick properties. So they're used in some like household products, uh non-stick pans and things like that. and they're known as forever chemicals. They just don't break down. So once once they get into the water, they don't come out. They don't break down in the water. They don't break down in our bodies. So we're just introducing the treatment that will remove these from the water. Uh what do you do with it once you remove it from the water?

We dispose of it. So we take it there's a media that takes it out and then we'll take it away and dispose of it. It's a carbon um carbon filter like a refrigerator. same thing which is big. Yeah. And then how they get in is there's there's not a single source. So they're just they're called background elements. They just sort of exist in the water. They're not it's not like a spill of some sort or one. There's not a single point source. They just um are elevated concentrations. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Oh, thanks. Okay, we had a motion. I'll take a second.

Motion to make it. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'll make the motion. Um, I make a motion to grant preliminary and final land development plan approval for the upgrades to the Namin Water Treatment Plant at 2050 and 2520 Old Lincoln Highway S- SLD. Uh, 20 number 26-2 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. Number two, any remaining review comments shall be addressed in full.

A second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments? Uh William J. Plunket 2001A West Lincoln Highway. Do they treat any water from Middletown Township at all? I don't think they do. I don't think they have any benefit to us whatsoever. Thank you,

Lauren Laro. Cycle pair. Um, so they said they were going to dispose of the PIFFAS, which is great, but they didn't say where they were going to dispose of it or how that disposal was going to happen. And I was just curious if they could answer that question for us. Sure. So the um the carbon in the filters absorbs the POS and we we detect the um the level of coming out of the the filters. So when the POS level is spikes up a bit, we'll change the carbon out to new new carbon. Where will you put the POS contaminated carbon?

Um that's taken away by Calgon. It's a company. They um reactivate it by putting it in high temperature furnaces, kind of burn it off. Where are those facilities where they burn it off? Um I'm not I think like Georgia is down there. So it's shipped up from Georgia to carbon and back down. So interesting. Thank you. Yep.

Joe Fitch. Um the water storage is that store fresh water? Does it store water that is about to be cleaned? And if it is for about to be cleaned, can you do anything to absorb the rainwater through that building into the tank? uh that water in going into the storage tank will come from the PAS buildings. So, it's already been treated. Uh we couldn't we couldn't introduce any rain water into the treated water. It would be contamination. My name is Tom Pet. I'm from Langghorn. Uh, I think the builders should pay for this, not us. What's going to happen? You You guys build all these houses out here. You got apartments, all they need all this stuff. Where is it going to go? It should go right under contractors who building these houses. You should have been taking escro out of every house. So, don't don't do it. One thing to mention too, we're uh we're pursuing Penvest funding for this. Um we've been successful in getting a lot of um grant money from Penvest for these projects. Um POS is something we didn't put in order um and the government kind of recognizes that and has funded uh you know these treatment processes. So

just to clarify the last gentleman's comment, uh this is a a land development application for Aqua PA. So it's work they want to do on their property on their site. The reason they come before the board is because it's within Middletown Township. Uh so it's it's not the township or township residents that's paying for any of the work. This is a project that they are doing and before the board to ask for approval per their land development plans.

Whether or not there's benefit to where they serve the water, but they are still a property in the township. So, they have to come before the board for approval of what they want to do on the site. And to Mr. Fitch's comment, the land development, they're still uh required to meet storm water requirements for the site. This is them treating the water that they then serve, but any storm water on the site, they still have to uh meet all the requirements, which their plans and calculations do. I just thought if it was untreated water, it would be a great way to, you know, suck up some of the rain water. That's all. Sure thing. Yeah. Just to clarify. Yep. Thank you.

Um, Eric Bird, I know you guys are down the hill. Is there any traffic that you guys would anticipate while you're doing your construction that would be like blocking off traffic for a little bit to move it? Okay, they should go ahead and know. That's good. You're good now. Yeah. Okay. No additional employees either. It's um it's a quiet treatment system. Um everything will stay the same. We'll just have the the POS treatment in. Thank you.

We made a motion and a second. Um uh those in favor of um the recommended motion say I. I. Eyes pass 5-0. Motion passes. Thank you. Next agenda item number 10, consideration of petition from Corman Commercial Properties seeking a zoning map amendment and zoning ordinance text amendment seeking adoption of ordinance 26-05 to create a new overlay district LC logistics center overlay district.

Good evening again. Um you have my policy briefing summary. Uh there are representatives for the petition here tonight. I'm going to have them do the heavy lifting, but uh right now just kind of covering how we got here. Uh this is a petition not only for a zoning map change, but a zoning text change. Zoning map change would uh this is the existing zoning that you have in front of you right now. Uh the zoning map change would get rid of the purple there, which is a C commercial zoning district, and reconfigure the green to a a different area. uh well stays but also reduces it to a certain degree all effort to expand the blue which is the M1 light manufacturing zoning district. So you can see that right there. There's also going to be uh as proposed a conservation easement that will run along the Nami Creek. That's the zoning map change uh real quickly covered. And then the zoning text changes to the zoning ordinance would allow for a logistics fulfillment center use type in the M1 light manufacturing zoning district by conditional use for properties that are 50 acres or greater within the M1 zoning district. So that's really the nuts and bolts, the the brief details. Like I said, I'll let the uh petitioners kind of explain more as as we go along with this matter, but it did receive a recommendation of approval from the planning commission during their March meeting. That's after at least three, if not four appearances before the planning commission starting from pretty much around this time last year. Uh and and also going ahead and vetting a lot of the uh what was initially proposed. Um real uh important points to that were initially proposed that were removed are a data center type use as well as a cold storage type use. So those are no longer proposed with the logistics fulfillment center use type.

Um, as far as impacts, um, impacts right now are kind of unclear in in the sense that it won't be until they propose a land development that also has to go through a conditional use hearing process where conditions will be established by the board if it's ever presented for a land development. So, you would also have they would also have to go before the planning commission to gain recommendations for both of those elements. Uh and then with that, you know, as far as some of the things that I I do find positive about this one, you get the uh conservation ement around the uh around the Shamy Creek. Uh you have better access to the open recreation zoned properties uh now that there's they're actually connected to the frontage and uh there's also, as you would see within the text, uh this site, a great deal of it is a brownfield site. So they would have to absolutely remediate that site uh by and get the seek the approvals by all the necessary especially federal agencies for that remediation.

Can you explain what a brownfield site is? Sure. It's a contaminated site. Uh it's a contaminated site. They can get into the details on just to the level of contamination and why it's contaminated. But it's it's it's it's another sort of land use term for a contaminated site, a toxic site uh in a way. Um, with that based on the fact that it did receive recommendation from the planning commission, based on the fact that it was reviewed by uh all the necessary staff and consultants, um, I do uh recommend that you can uh if you if if so uh grant the approval for the petition both for the zoning text and the zoning map change. I'm now going to go ahead and defer to the uh representatives to to answer more questions and get into even further details.

Can I just ask a quick question before you step back, Mr. Andis? So given that it's a brownfield site, any land development that occurs would have to comply with the Department of Environmental Protection and clean up what is the entire right the entire site. We they wouldn't be able to do anything until we knew that they had all those approvals from from those those higher agencies, especially on the federal and state level. So just thinking sort of broadly, so in addition to the the the getting the conservation easement, we also assuming there's land development, we'd also get a cleanup of what is now a tox hazardous toxic. That's right. Property they would they that's that's and that's actually a specific requirement that's stated in the uh text uh changes and that that cost Jim would also be covered completely by them.

Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Nothing for the town. Yeah. It's just those two slides. And if you want to go there we go.

Good evening. I'm Ed Murphy. I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant and to uh follow what Jim said. Uh this site is a legacy uh super fund site. Um been there for a long time. It was many uses many years ago including landfill. Um and none of it was created by my client. Um it's been there that condition has existed for quite a long time. Um as Jim said u today that is what the zoning graphically looks like. The three purple areas are zoned commercial. The light blue area is zoned M1 and the green area is zoned O open recreation. Um that condition where you have the frontage of the property zone commercial and the rearmost portion of the property zone something else is something that all of us are familiar that have done work in Middletown. That is not an uncommon arrangement. Never very clear to me after all these years why that was ever done that way. But many parts of Route One throughout the township have similar or did have similar type of zoning arrangements. As Jim said, the proposal in front of you this evening, which we initiated about a year ago when we submitted the formal petition, is to um consolidate the zoning um by eliminating the commercial uh pieces, the three separate pieces that were along Route One, and reducing the amount of the open recreation area to the far east of the site. In lie of that, uh we

would create uh a 200 foot buffer that's that cross-hatched area that follows the uh rearmost portion of the property adjacent to the Namin Creek. At the end of the day, if we were to move forward with this proposal, uh the total amount of open recreation or conservation eased areas would be slightly north of 21 22 acres where today that former far east area of green was about 19 acres. So, you're picking up 2 to three acres of additional conserved open area. The idea for creating the conservation easement along the Namin Creek frontage was to allow for the installation in the future of trails or public access trails that would connect to the boat ramp area that's in the O area in the far eastern portion of the site. And as Mr. KZAC said all of this is dependent on having the super fund site remediated. So u the creation of the uniform M1 zoning district was designed to try to attract a user for the site that would also accept responsibility for the significant financial obligation to clean up the site. So all of this presumes that the site ultimately will be cleaned up and uh we have been actively uh talking to prospective uh tenants, purchasers etc. All of whom are not frightened away by the enormity of the cleanup but have been uncomfortable with the sort of hodgepodge existing zoning that exists. So that's the real impetus for trying to

create a more uniform zoning classification that would give confidence to the business community that they could locate a use that could afford to undertake the cleanup. That's part of that. So that's number one. Number two, part of the modification of the zoning ordinance is what I just described, the changing from the purple to the blue and the green and the conservation easement. The other part of the uh petition that's in front of you is to create this logistics logistics center overlay which would be creating an opportunity via conditional use which the board would have input over on approving a use that's not presently in the list of M1 allowable uses. You heard Jim indicate that over the last year we've had different proposals uh because we've had interest in uh proposals that would include um a data center and cold storage. Those uses were not viewed supportively by your consultants and your planning commission. So the ordinance that's in front of you has eliminated those uses. So, uh, the only new use that we're introducing that isn't already in the M1 district is this logistic center use, which would happen be conditional use, not a use by right. And it doesn't include a data center or cold storage. So, um, that is in essence what's in front of you. consolidation and cleaning up, if you will, of disperate zoning districts that don't candidly make a lot of sense um in today's environment. to establishing a 200 foot wide conservation easement along the entirety

of the uh Nisham Creek uh frontage to the rear of the site uh and ending up with two to three acres more of conserved or open ground with the understanding that before we could do any of this we have to clean it up. So we're trying to find the key to making the site attractive for redevelopment which would include the cleanup. So, that is in essence what's happening tonight and that's what we are requesting that you consider approving tonight.

Um, I just want to say uh well, I'm appreciative that the applicant is willing to put on the burden of cleaning up um this area. Before I was on the planning commission when you guys came before us, I did not even know that this was a contaminated zone in our township. So, I am appreciative of that. I just want to clarify something with the proposal in front of us. There is not going to be a data center proposed on this property. Am I understanding that correct? There is not. Okay. Because yeah, I would I would definitely be a no.

As was when you were on the planning commission, that was a comment that we heard repeatedly and for a lot of reasons practical and otherwise that is not part of anything that is being proposed here. Correct. Nor is cold storage, which is another popular use. But the issue with cold storage is the height of the buildings required for cold storage, which typically are 120 ft or taller. And a lot of people were uncomfortable about having a building that size, even though this area, as you probably saw from the prior applicant, it sits pretty low in that whole area. But even so, there was not any support for a building that high. So that has also been removed from the list of allowable uses by conditional use or otherwise.

I had a couple quick questions um as I was going through this earlier um with Jim and my first one is so this is a logistics fulfillment center amendment. Does this mean that the only way that someone in our township will be able to set up a logistics fulfillment center is if they meet this criteria? Yes.

So, and then so none of like the warehouses today that were just built can no longer utilize logistics fulfillment as a use. those centers to locate a logistics fulfillment center under this proposed ordinance you have to meet all the criteria which the minimum is 50 acres and I don't believe there's any other site in the township of that size with the other conditions that are specified in the ordinance that could qualify.

Can you help me understand what does this text amendment consider a what's the definition of logistics fulfillment center in here? It's spelled out um in the definition. It says, "A logistics fulfillment center is a planned development of light manufacturing and related uses designed as a whole and meant to allow greater flexibility over a land while reducing impacts to neighboring properties versus building or via building orientation setbacks and buffers, including improvements for internal streets, landscaping, utilities, and buffering. It is a coordinated for lack of a better word fulfillment center means warehouse or something like those that we are all familiar with that have populated the area over the last 15 20 years.

Okay. And and this would be the only site in Middletown that would be allowed to have that based on this text amendment.

Yeah, I'll jump in. And right now the only um site that is not developed would would be this site. It doesn't necessarily mean somebody can't buy multiple properties and try to uh make them one to be greater than 50, but that would have to include buying already established buildings, knocking those down and and putting them together. So it would be pretty difficult to to do. Okay. And then one of the things that's really great about this is the conservation easement, but we're not actually including are we including any type of minimum open space or anything in this text amendment or is it just hey this is what we propose to do with it once we we have this passed?

No, the ordinance requires 150 foot buffer. We have a 200t buffer. Though the ordinance does mandate to a certain degree along the creek a buffer that in our case the rear yard would normally be 75 ft. We are proposing 200 ft. So we are 125 ft further away from the rearmost property line where we can't develop other than a pedestrian trail that's open to the public. So the open space that we are creating is built into the ordinance via the buffer requirements of 150 ft.

And just to add a little bit to that, um, as Mr. uh, Murphy has previously stated, the logistics fulfillment center is a conditional use. So they would have to come, if they want to propose a land development, they're going to have to come in front of the supervisors twice. Once to get the conditional use. As part of that conditional use, the board can come up with reasonable conditions as part of what they're proposing. Some additional open space could be a reasonable condition that the board could consider depending on what they're exactly proposing, but that is something that might be up to the board at that time. Well, there is no minimum, right? It's just you have to hit them buffers. You have to hit the buffers and then the board can possibly look at other things. Again, looking at what they're specifically proposing at the time.

Yeah. And the buffers are consistent with the light manufacturing. Correct. because I I think I'm looking at this right. The buffer yard is 150 for our current M1 and this proposed is 150. So it it's s it's consistent. We are proposing 200 not 150 the conservation on that plan but that's not part of the text amendment. Correct.

This is what we're doing. We are proposing a 200 foot buffer as part of this plan. What I am looking at I don't see it says 150 ft minimum proposed and existing but we are proposing to do more than that. We're saying 200 ft. Yeah. I guess I'm not concerned about this development. We're doing a text amendment which means this will live on in the future.

Okay. So like that's my that that would be my concern is and then I guess I think you answered this but this conservation easement isn't essentially like my concern is we're removing the you know we're removing that o that open the the o district. I my preference would be not to ever touch those. We're only taking a portion of it. Part of it stays part of it is going to be subsumed into the M1 with the conservation. Right. Right. We're essentially realigning it on the property. We're not adding too much to it. Two extra acres of open space slash open recreation. Okay.

Gaining between two and three acres between the conservation easement and the remaining o in the far right. You're gaining Okay. Gaining almost three acres. Yes. Okay. At after today. Right. That's on your proposal but not necess. Yeah. Okay. And then my last my last question is what was the pro thought thought process about going text amendment versus going to just the zoning hearing board and having this all reset for this site?

Because of the significance of the changes and the site itself of 85 acres. No one felt comfortable that going to the zoning hearing board to handle something that truly was legislative in nature that really is the province of this body is what and I think we all agreed that given the enormity of the site etc that it was appropriate for legislative action not zoning hearing board. Any other comments?

All right. Thank you. Um, do you I have nothing further if anybody else has any other questions. Okay. Any comments from uh the community?

Is a conservation easement and open recreation interchangeable? Is is open recreation the same thing as a conservation easement? I guess I'm concerned that they're they're counting this hashed area as part of an open recreation area that they're like giving to the township and they're giving us an extra 50 ft, which is great, but I'm just wondering um if it's a conservation easement, right, that's still like a sensitive area and I don't know that that's something that we necessarily use as open recreation because we're trying to preserve habitats and such. So, I guess, you know, it's it's it's a good thought, but I'm afraid that they're not increasing our open recreation space with this proposal. That it's actually reducing the open recreation space because that conservation easement is not going to be something that we're going to be like encouraging people to be walking along because we're going to be trying to conserve nature there. But if I'm wrong, please tell me I'm wrong and help me understand it. I don't know if Jim can Yeah, I I think I asked this, but correct me if I'm wrong. It can be utilized for things like trails.

Yeah. And I think to Jim's point, if we get to the next level, the conservation easement is intended to be a recorded document. It's going to be crafted by the township solicitor. It's going to have input from everyone. And the intention is to allow those uses in the conservation easement that are consistent with the open recreation area today. So it's fully intended to be designed by you for the benefit of the public. So it's going to be co-terminous with the open recreation area. So I'll just add to that the easement by definition will have specifics to what's conserved in that space. The easement is still the property of the developer here. So the the O the open recreation that's the township property that can be used for all the things described in that zoning district. The easement on that property since it is part of that property for any remediation they have to do that would include that area as well. And at the end of the day that easement that's conserved would be shared use that could be collaborated with the township for along the creek there. Um, so if that answers the question a little bit, it just uh is that designated area after remediation that's now space that's conserved along the creek side that the township can coordinate to hopefully, you know, do something that's available for public use.

Oh, go ahead. So if they come if if according to conditional use when when they apply or they go to move to something else like according to conditional use we could make that a part of conditional use. Sure. Yeah. Are there any concerns with utilizing this conservation easement? I know the majority of it is in the flood way in the flood plane. Any concerns with that? No. That's appropriate to have trails. You're not going to build structures necessarily, but at grade trails, as Isaac knows, it happens all the time and that's appropriate and attractive place to put them. So, yeah.

Yeah. Because what 90% of that easement maybe more or less percentages, Dana, but I mean, it's along the bank of the creek. So, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

And just something I want to else point out is some of the zoning is open recreation. Just because it's zoned open recreation, it is not the township's property. It is actually owned by Corman. We have no right to use it unless they permitted us to. So, and that is part of what they're proposing is the open recreation can't be used any anything for other than permitted under open recreation, but they're proposing that they will allow us to get on there and now use that conservation easement area as well. So unless they allowed that, we just can't go use their open recreation data. Good questions. Thank you. Uh, so it's a I I'm with Ryan. I didn't know this was a contaminated site. What's it contaminated with currently?

It was a dump in the 70s that closed down. Landfill. Okay. And I have a methane pipes coming out. Oh, okay. Methane pipes. Okay, cool. Um, and so Corman bought it in what 74 I think. I think that's what the public record said. Corman had it when it developed in the Shamy Valley on the other side of the creek in Ben Salem. Okay. Yeah. Well,

so if I understand this, I guess this is more to your guys. So, if I understand this, this would restrict any new um uh what's the word? Warehouses um out of M1 zoning districts. And it would essentially say this is the only place left in Middletown Township that a warehouse would be able to go if we you don't want you to confuse warehouses with logistics fulfillment center. There are other warehouses here. There could be other uses for warehouses other than a logistics fulfillment center. Everyone always assumes kind of like an Amazon type of fulfillment center. I just don't want you to think there are not other warehouses. You're just washing. You're just crushing me right now. Crushing. Thank you. All right. Hey Jim, any concerns with

Thank you. like what it um what a Jim. Um yeah, sorry. One of you, one of you, any concerns with the definition of logistics in here and how it any like I'm struggling with if someone came to the Reedmans and wanted to do a fulfillment center, would they be able to open and do that with this new text amendment?

So, I would say that the key part of that definition is planned development. So, it's it's it's a it's it's something that's going to be planned. It's something that's going to have the allowance for just about every other use that's already allowed in the M1, but now it's going to be a fully bland development that's also by conditional use. So, you got to emphasize that. Now, there are sometimes vanity names of calling something a logistics center that I wouldn't say necessarily is this type of use type. It just might be a vanity name that is really just some combination of a warehouse and an office that is allowed in the M1 now. But this one because it has the planned development sort of emphasis in that definition that that's what it's going to be. So you can't just go ahead and maybe create a a use type in an existing building or an existing site throughout the township. It would have to be a planned development through a conditional use process at at 50 acres or more which also you don't really have anywhere else except for here. I mean, you have some ability to maybe try to have that somewhere else, but it'd be really, really difficult.

Is that a better

Joe Fitch? Um, I think it's been a dump longer than in the 70s. I remember my father telling me as a kid that they used to go down there in the dump and shoot rats. So, I you know, in in the in the 50s, he was 20 years old, 1950. Um, you know, my concern is, you know, you're going to dig up this dump. Do we have to worry about any contamination? Not that I'm sure it hasn't rained and soaked the ground, but going into Nam Creek with digging all of this stuff up. Um, we mentioned it's in a flood zone. Do we really want to build something this big in a flood zone or partial flood zone or whatever on top of that? All the impervious surface and where's that water going to run off? It's going to run off right into the Namin Creek and go downstream to Humeville where we've had so many flooding problems as it is to where they got to shut down Main Street in Humeville. So, do we really need something else to to give us more flooding, especially with the storm management stuff that we're trying to do now? Um, let's see. Traffic. I think uh we just had somebody killed on Route One. Um, and right after that, I think Middletown did a huge speed trap on there. I mean, you get people coming off the superighway at 50, 60 miles an hour onto that open section of road. I mean, do we have to Are we setting ourselves up for another traffic light or more accidents? I know years ago there's still I I think the sign's still there. A gentleman was killed because one of the I think it was an auto parts warehouse made an illegal U-turn in front of the guy and he hit him with his motorcycle and got killed. So, that's another thing. We got traffic studies and and all kinds of stuff like that to worry about.

We got two unused storage warehouse eyes in the township already that we're not collecting any tax money because if I'm correct, you guys said we don't collect any tax money until an occupancy permit is issued. So now, are we going to have that um trailer or the trails and the parking? Like, okay. So, you're going to put a a a trail there. I mean, is it really going to be that aesthetic that you're you're looking at the this huge industrial building and and the stream? I mean, holy cow, we got Co Core Creek, Silver Lake, Tyler Park, you know. Um so, what are we going to do about traffic? We have so many problems with young kids on bicycles and motorcycles and stuff like that. Why not build a BMX track like they used to have in Ben Salem or a motocross track or or something like that for kids in the community? Bring some money into the area that way. Um, as far as going back to the trucking thing, we have so many other trucks being parked all over in this area. We got them in Pendell, which was supposed to be the Waw Wa. We got a ton of trucks there. We got Sam's Club and um Restaurant Depot where I took a picture a couple weeks ago where the guy had some kind of fluid leak and he's changing his uh antifreeze it looks like right in the ground and dumping it right on the pavement. And then you got the mall that's like a truck stop. I mean, holy cow. If you want to do that, just build one of them gigantic freaking BIES truck stops there. If if that's what we're we're looking to do, if we're looking to be a trucking community, you got the turnpike, you got Route One, you got 95. We're in between Philadelphia and New York. I I I mean,

we don't need another fulfillment center, storage center, or anything like that. I mean, it's just ridiculous. It's it's been empty property for all this time. do something that the township can use and not cause any additional problems for ourselves.

I mean, anybody have any comments or thoughts or if I could just just a couple things. A lot of what you're talking about is really land development stuff and we're just not there yet. I mean, this is just a zoning amendment. So, you know, th those those topics will all be addressed, investigated, and ultimately decided upon by this board during conditional use and during land development. But to your other point about doing something else with the property, you're forgetting though, this is a super fund site. We can't just develop the property. It has to be cleaned up in accordance with the D. And so, it's either going to remain wasteland forever or we're going to find a willing partner who's going to invest the substantial amount of time and money it's going to take to to clean it up. So, that's part of the impetus for this.

Well, if you I mean, if you're going to put a BMX bike track in there or whatever, I mean, do you really need to tear it up? No. You're just going to bring in some fresh, clean dirt and make jumps and ramps and and stuff like that. I mean, holy cow, you're going to be playing in the dirt anyway. Yeah. So, do you got to dig up all the crap that's there? Yeah. It's not that simple. If it was that easy, we'd all be doing it. Yeah. Now, look, stop. I don't know where to start with the number of things you said. One, the site's got to get cleaned up. Nobody wants to have an 85 acre super fund site in the middle of the township, right? Somebody's got to pay for that. Somebody stop. Let me talk. It's Corbin's property. Let me clean it up. We'll We'll go down each. We'll go down.

Let me talk. You've had your time. Let me answer.

One, the site has to be cleaned up pursuant to a D remediation plan that is approved. Nobody's going to go out there, one, and build in the flood plane, or two, allow contaminated material to get into the creek. D controls all that. The most likely scenario for cleaning up the site is going to cap it, not dig everything out and remove it. But again, D makes that decision, not us. So, nothing's going to be built in the flood plane. The site's going to be cleaned up to a D standard, not our standard. and without another partner to pay for the multi multi multi-millions of dollars to do it, you're going to continue to have a super fund site sitting there like you have since the 40s or 50s or whenever it has. So happy to talk about it. And as Mr. Keysac said issues of traffic and access and all that stuff will happen years from now once if and when a purchaser tenant is found that's prepared to exhibit the financial courage to do all of this to get it to a point where we can talk about responsible traffic management, storm water management, and the like. But we're a long way away from doing that. And without having this first step, we're not going to attract anybody to do anything. and it'll sit. So, I don't understand why Corman Suites isn't responsible for cleaning it up anyway. They knew what they were buying when they purchased that property. You know what I mean? So, why aren't they responsible for cleaning it and maintaining it?

That's the D. I mean, everybody everybody, it seems like everybody wants to point fingers in every different direction. I've got human waste that runs out of a sewer in Middletown Township into Mill Creek. Nobody wants to do anything about it. Call the DP. Call the EPA. Call this place. Call that place. This has been going on for years in Middletown Township and nobody wants to do anything about it. Well, all right. So you're going off that's a different topic and that's this is

it is this is this is this is public comment on this agenda item. So we have to stick to this agenda item on this agenda item. This board of supervisors does not have the legal authority to tell Corman that they have to spend millions of dollars to clean up the super fund site. So our options are it stays a super fun site in perpetuity or we find a willing partner who like is Corman is now proposing is willing to take this step to develop it to clean it up and hopefully to find a willing tenant or buyer. That's that's what's we're considering tonight. Your op your suggestions of like other things to do are just not feasible. It's just not possible. We can't just go in there and build a BMX course. It was it was used for four-wheeling and racing dirt bikes and quads for the longest time until a young kid got hurt a few years ago and then it got permanently shut down. So, you know, you it it's a it's a thing to get kids out of their houses or camaraderie or making friends or whatever. You know, it would be something for the community.

Oh, I don't disagree with the concept. I'm just saying we can't just go in and build it. And and and my feeling is is that, you know, again, and we've talked about this, the planning commission and the zoning board and you guys are all fingers on the same hand, but it seems like nobody communicates with each other. You know what I mean? Like the they'll approve variances in building on lots under 10,000 square feet and you guys have no choice but to approve it. Oh yeah. Well, they said that we can do it. And so, Mr. Fetch, I know that uh

I'll just say that the the township isn't looking to have recreation on a super fun site regardless. So, the the goal of remediating the site at some point of time is definitely desirable no matter what. Um to your other comment about like elicit discharge in another part of the township, I know we'll see each other on Wednesday for the stormwater advisor committee. The MS4 section on elicit discharge. We should definitely talk about that because that is something we would want to address. So that's the venue that we can really address that issue as well.

Tom Peter again, I was wondering, he brought up a good subject. these two warehouses out there and this apartment complex. Have they been paying their fair share of taxes or they give a 10-year whatever? 10 years they don't have to pay taxes. Did they do anything like that? What's going on? There is no 10-year rebate for for taxes. I'm just asking you is was there a deal made that they're not paying their fair share of taxes yet? No, there was there was no deal made. They're responsible for paying their taxes. There are taxes. Yes. So this guy got 600 apartments. He's probably paying a couple million dollars a year taxes

for the apartments that for the apartments that have been built so far. Yes. So why did they raise our taxes then? They shouldn't had to raise our tax. You're getting all this money coming in, right? Hey, I've been here for since 53 and this place is a mess. else. I know. Okay. Um I'm going to make a motion.

Okay. All right. At this time, I'm going to make a motion. I make a motion to grant approval for the petition to amend the Middletown Township zoning ordinance by allowing a logistics fulfillment center use type with associated requirements in the M1 light manufacturing zoning district and to change the Middletown Township zoning map by reszoning an aggregate of properties to the M1 light manufacturing or open recreation zoning districts SLD number 25-4. four second.

We have a motion and a second. Any comments from the board? All those in favor of uh the recommended motion say I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you. Our next agenda item number 11, consideration of awarding James D. Morrisy, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA in the amount of $1,711,679.40 for the 2026 road improvement program and roadway striping.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh this year's road program uh if you recall the budget uh for the 2026 budget is a total of $2 million. Uh that is a toz all items that are included with what we do each year to make the road program happen. So that includes uh the bidding, the engineering, the inspection when it goes to construction. Uh what that leaves is uh 1,840,000 for the actual construction work uh that's uh award recommended to award with the contract. Uh so we have this year's uh program with a base bid and a few alternates. Uh the base bid is to uh mill and repave uh Quincy Hollow in its entirety, that neighborhood, and also the Juniper Hill neighborhood in its entirety. Uh both of these uh follow the multi-year plan that the township has had uh for a few years now to improve the ADA accessibility and the curb ramps a year or two prior to when we can repave the road. Uh the reason for that is that there's some roadway disturbance when they do the curb work and the ramp work. Uh and that allows the road program to come and basically be the final step to have a a fresh new roadway surface. Uh the base bid includes those two uh neighborhoods. Uh alternate number one, as it's defined, is a portion that's Harris Avenue uh as it comes down from Route One to Rising Sun Avenue. Uh it's a small segment there that uh is also a drainage improvement project that has a uh has had an issue with the way the water comes down Harris Avenue to the properties uh lower down on Rising Sun. Uh so this portion of the road program uh will regrade and repave that roadway. Uh prior to that, our public works department will install uh drainage structures and and additional

uh inlets and and pipes to improve the drainage uh for it to be captured. And then the contractor for the road program will repave the road to direct it uh to those new structures. Uh that being said, that alternate number one uh will uh be paid from the storm water fee funds uh that the uh township has. Uh so it won't actually come out of the roadway program uh budget line item. Uh it's included with this contract because of the the paving work and we're able to get better pricing with it being bulk uh for the contract. Uh alternate number two uh was Red Rose Gate uh to repave that entire neighborhood. Uh to uh include that with this year's contract, it was always anticipated that that total price would be above the budget for this year. Uh but we looked ahead uh at years coming up of which neighborhoods we wanted to do. Uh so to get pricing for Red Rose Gate, which would be the priority to start with the program next year, uh we wanted to have an accurate current pricing that we could use for budgeting when that time of year comes up uh later in the in the calendar year. Uh so it's it's not recommended to approve with this contract. Uh but we have accurate pricing now. We can really use that to plan to continue the program next year. Uh the rest of the alternates, and there's a few of them, each of them are roadway for restriping. Uh so it's uh alternates numbers 3 through 16. Uh that's 14 striping locations uh throughout the township. Uh I have them listed in the packet there if we uh need to name them, but uh they're basically to refresh the striping on the roadway. um replacing kind to just give it a really a facelift for the striping to be more noticeable and also safer for the traveling public. I will note the last one there, the final alternate is the service road uh

portion that's in Langghorn Manor Burrow. Uh the alternate before that is the service road portion that Middletown Township owns. Uh the Langghorn Manor Burough portion uh we've coordinated with the burrow. they're uh agreeable to to pay that alternate cost. So that would be money that they pay the township to have in this contract for the contractor to just keep on striping. Basically, they don't have to pick up and re uh start uh beginning and end where Middletown stops and starts. Uh we did receive three bids uh that were opened on uh April 6th. uh we reviewed uh them thoroughly uh and happy to say that the low bidder is uh below our our budget. As I mentioned, the road program budget uh is 1,840,000. Uh the total for all the roadway program items uh is 1,650,48140. So about $189,000 and change below uh what we have for the budget. sets savings uh to what the township is planning for this year. Uh and as mentioned, that alternate number one, Harris Avenue, is stormwater fee funded. Uh that alternate itself is $61,198. Uh which brings that total recommended award uh to that 1,71169740. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I think my only question in reviewing this was why we were restriping the service roads when they may not be here once PEDOT's finished with their work or are these the portions of the service roads that are remaining?

That's a good question. Uh I guess two parts. one, uh, they will benefit from restriping this year. Uh, just for safety and and having them as, you know, noticeable lines. Uh, there's not a ton of linear footage on those uh, service roads. It's pretty much the linear lines as you go through them. Uh, to your point about the Pendot project, uh, we all know that's, uh, something they have planned. It it is a few years out still. Uh so we do feel that having that included uh is beneficial with the restriping that's done uh just in the various locations that we have as the alternates.

Thank you. So for safety reasons correct? Yes. And then and they all are separate alternates. Um you know if the board desires that could be left off but we would recommend we include it uh to just be all together. Yeah. I was just trying to figure out like how do you identify that hey the service road's the one that needs to be restriped versus somewhere else in the in the township

when we looked at which roads we wanted to restripe obviously there's the ones that were recently repaved like North Flowers Mill outside here they do the restriping when they do repaving that's part of that work as well these are roads that haven't been repaved uh at least in a few years uh it's starting to fade so we work with uh township staff as well as the public works department to identify which roadways would benefit from the restriping. And it was it was identified as a priority as part of this year's program as well to refresh those lines that haven't been touched in a while. Yeah, I just see it's almost $40,000 to redo those service roads. So, I wanted to make sure that we really in fact needed to redo those.

I understand. Y Yeah, go ahead. Um, I'll make a motion to award um the base bid alternate number one and alternates numbers 3 through 16 for the 2026 uh liquid fuels program in the amount of 1,711,679.40 to James D. Morsy Inc. I second. We have a motion in a second. Any comments from the board? Any comments from the community? All those in favor of the recommended motion say I. I.

I. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Uh, next agenda item number 12. This item has been removed from the agenda. Uh, consideration of agenda item number 13. consideration to adopt resolution number 2612 to adopt initiatives to be recognized as a Pennsylvania Ottabon Council Birdtown.

Hi, Monica Tierney. I'm the interim parks and rec director and um I'm here today because the EAC recently voted to ask the board or advise the board um to recommend the that we apply for Birdtown. And um Birdtown was provided us with some slides that we could go through today. Okay, I'm just going to quickly go through not um in heavy detail to discuss the importance and why we should have Bird Town. Um so real quick, the mission is Birdtown Pennsylvania works in partnership with local municipalities and like-minded organizations to promote community- based conservation actions to create a healthier, more sustainable environment for birds, wildlife, and people. Um the there are about 101 bird towns across the state. There's about 300 bird towns across the nation in 13 different states um including the three cities of Harrisburg, Eastston, and Williamsport. Um on top of that, there are I believe it's 18 in Bucks County, Birdtowns, and then just in lower Bucks, there's Doylestown Falls, Laura Mayfield, Morrisville, New Town, and Garly Burough who are all participating in this program. Um so those are I guess I jumped ahead there. Um, so just some facts about, you know, the reason why we protect the birds, um, is to and and maybe Lauren can expand on this a little bit more, but um, you know, they they eat, uh, bugs in the the township. They help, um, with sustainability, and Lauren can also contribute a little bit more to this. She knows more than I do. Um, and then major threats to the birds, you know, habitat. Uh, 40 million acres of lawns in the US and two million in PA. Um, cats are a big predator of the birds. Um, there's a lot of window collisions. These are some of the things that we could be working on and some of the things that align with some of the other initiatives we're doing in the township along with the climate action plan, storm water management that we're doing,

possibly the plastic bag um, ordinance that um, has been before the board. Um there's many things that we can do as far as education, um storm water education, uh programs that maybe could help with some of the storm water implementation that we're doing. So it all aligns with everything that you're already doing in the township. Now, um and then this just explains a little bit more. I'm sorry I'm trying to go fast because I know everybody took a little longer. And there's four categories that we focus on for Bird Town. There's creating and protecting habitat, addressing threats to birds, educating and enga engaging people, and promoting sustainability. So, um there's a feather system. So, right when you sign up, you're green. Uh no changes. It's about it's a $100 application fee. We can go up and down in these phases through feathers every year. We we provide a report to Birdtown once a year uh to say what we're doing and then that then we'll get our feather uh for the year. So, uh, we could fluctuate over the years. Um, so we're on the third step right now and, uh, I have a motion or resolution for it in front of you today. We did have a meeting to review the process of Birdtown. It was a public meeting that we had heavy attendance about was it a year and a half ago about year

two years ago and um, you know, there is a committee through the EAC for Birdtown and now we have this motion in front of you today. Thank you.

Um I just um I want to thank the EAC for uh championing this initiative and Miss Tierney and the park and rec department. I think it's fitting that on uh the day that we um uh announce the event to uh rename um one of our parks in honor of um Supervisor Anna Payne. we are uh going to have this resolution for consideration because getting a Birdtown designation was actually something that was really important to Anna and that she really pushed for when she was on this board. Um I regretted that we weren't able to to get it done while she was with us. So I'm really happy that we're moving forward with it now. So thank you Lauren and the EAC and Miss Tierney and everyone at Park and Recck. I appreciate it.

How does the township support this process after the resolution? What what are next steps? Uh there would be an application process. So it's all right here. Uh it's a $100 fee, an application process, and then um that will get a re reviewed by Birdtown, and that would bring us to our green feather. And then after that, there's other initiatives. How do I go back? Oh, well, they're in your packet. Uh there's a list of initiatives that we can um do for the township. There's a very long list, many different things. Um, it could be storm water management, uh, encouraging bigger tree canopy, uh, plastic bag ordinance. There's many different things that we can do on that checklist to increase our feathers. Thank you.

Okay. Any other uh questions or comments?

I just just want to, you know, reiterate that I'm really excited that we can do this for Anna. I remember I was at the the township holiday party when she came up to me and was like, "Why aren't we a bird town? How do we become a bird town?" I was like, "Thank you. That's all I need. We're doing it." And, you know, I'm sorry that it's taken as long as it has, but I'm really excited to have Monica's support. She knows all about it. Um, and I think the the biggest thing that we would be looking to move forward would be like working on a native tree ordinance. That's probably the next big like nut to crack to to keep our certification and keep things going. Um, I know that's part of the salo thing that you guys are working on. So, I'm not sure if that's something that can be addressed separately, but um, everything that Birdtown like acknowledges is stuff that we all strive to do. So, it it completely aligns with our climate action plan, with our storm water management plan, with our um, parks and w comprehension plan. So, um, you know, it really does sort of help bring us to the next level and and help hold us accountable to doing those things. So, I'm really excited that we're considering this today, and I really appreciate Monica and all of her effort to get this resolution before you guys today. So, thank you.

Thank you. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 26-12R, resolution of the board of supervisors, Middletown Township to adopt initiatives to be recognized as a Pennsylvania Autobon Council, uh, Birdtown. Second. Motion a second. Any comments, questions? Okay. Uh, all those in favor of adopting the resolution say I. I. I. I. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you.

Next agenda item uh consider consideration of resolution 26-13 to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Nami School District for relocation of portion of walking trail along Langghorn Yard Lee Road. Mr. Espazito.

Uh, thank you. Uh, as the board will recall, a few years ago, the Namy School District received some land development approvals for its Maple Point campus, uh, to construct the, uh, Court Creek Elementary School. As part of that land development approval, they had to perform some traffic improvements uh, both along Woodburn and Langghorn Yardley Road. What we're going to talk about tonight is some of the traffic improvements along Langghorn Yardley Road. Um the township asked them at that time to try to coordinate with the PENDOT project that's going along in that area to try and connect uh everything with that. So they are the school district has to widen the road in front of the school along Langghorn Yardley Road. That will affect the walking trail uh that is uh along there right now. Um it has to get pushed back because of the widening. This walking trail was performed by the township um on the on the property uh I think somewhere around 8 to 10 years ago. It was part of a project that the township uh wanted to have walking connectivity to Court Creek Park. As this walking trail was requested and built by the township, um the township uh is going to take responsibility for relocating the trail as opposed to having the school district do it. Um we have spoken with public works. public works has said that they can actually perform the work and we would not have to to bid it out with anybody. So, it would be at the township expense, especially since the township was one that originally installed it. Uh, if you have any questions on the specific type of work, Mr. Gartwire could probably answer your questions. Um, but we have to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the school district to allow us to do the work on their property.

And this in the end will save taxpayer money in general between both Nisham and So, so if we required the school district to do it, they would actually have to put it out and pay for a separate contractor to do it. This is work that the public works department can do itself. So, it would ultimately save the taxpayers money. Thank you, Mr. Garer. Can you just briefly talk about the scope and cost of the work for your uh your workers?

Yeah, so basically um we were asked by the school district as Mr. Espazito said um looking at the project, it's not a huge project. It's something in our wheelhouse that we can do. Um Isaac um from RVE, we went out and looked at it. Um it's realigning basically once there. Um and it probably in the big scope of things, it's not going to take that much to do. Um I mean we we've done bigger projects. Um as Mr. Espito said that there would be have to be multiple um um contracts or whatever, you know, bids going out to look at this and that. So that's why we thought it was a good idea for us to do it in house. So, I know I know the labor is all going to be in house, but what do you need in terms of materials or equipment? That would be a

we have all the equipment. Um, basically, you're going to pay for the stone and the black top is basically what it is. And it's not it's not the whole trail. It's a section of the trail that needs to get realigned because of the turning lane that they want to put in for the school. So it's and if you if you're familiar with that, which I'm sure you are, the driveway going up on the side on Langhornley Road, it would be to the right of that if you're going up the drive and on the left um has to get re reconfigured. That's about it. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't have any other questions. Thank you very much. Okay. I'm going to make a motion. I make a motion for appro approving resolution number 2613R to authorize uh the chair uh authorize the chair of the board of supervisors to enter into the proposed intergovernmental cooperation agreement with the Namin school district setting forth the terms and conditions by which Middletown Township will perform all work necessary to relocate and construct a segment of the pedestrian walking trail along Langghorn Yardley Road.

Second. We have a motion in a second. Any questions or comments board? Any from the community? Um I just have a comment. I just want to say thank you for um you know uh solving a problem uh within um our community. Um I appreciate that. Um all those in favor of uh the motion say I. I.

I. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Uh, next agenda item, consideration to adopt resolution 26-14 to move forward with the community conservation partnership program C2P2 grant process for the Detective Chris Jones memorial playground rehabilitation. So, um, there's a grant opportunity right now that is open until April 30th. So, it's this is a very timely request. Um, as I was going through the budget, recognizing that you have $100,000 allocated to the Jones Park playground, um, I quickly realized that $100,000 is not going to be enough and we didn't really consider, um, you know, surfacing and engineering as part of our cost estimate. Uh, this is a perfect grant because we already have money set aside. Um, I did get some quotes on a potential playground. Uh, you can see before you a kind of sample. We did discuss police theme. Also looking at the um also looking at the master plan for parks and recreation. Accessibility was very important. That's something that we really hadn't considered u as part of the design before. So you see some texture, some imaginative play items. You see a rockaround in the background that you can, you know, roll right on and everybody can participate and play together. So um before you that's kind of a sample of what we could do, not necessarily final product, but um that's what the quotes based on. um in front of you today. The amount of the quote in total is $375,760. Um the grant we would ask for a match of $187,880. So um please recognize that this grant won't be awarded until the end of this year, early next year. So it would be a next year project. So it's something that we could plan for a little better financially. I had been working with Laura um Hucklebridge to kind of discuss that plan out with her and um you know that would be something that we'd have to talk about in the budgeting for next year.

Thank you. I think a lot of our grants I think we find out about them in October and November, right? That's pretty much how we do it. Thank you, Monica. I appreciate that. Um questions. Yeah. What is um I think one of the big the big cost increases here from what I've seen in the past when we've approved playground is the Dora safe. Why do we have that now in that playground and what what's the thought process about adding that in?

So durafe is a it's a tile system. So we've had trouble in the past having um installation in Middletown Township. We've had issues with installation of rubberized surface. tile surface is something that we even could potentially teach our public works department to install and they're tiles. So instead of like the shrinkage that you see in rubberized surfacing or a tear that's impossible to replace unless you replace the whole park, you can only replace you only have to replace tiles. Um instead they last a lot longer. Um so it's much more durable than you would have to. And to be honest, that quote is if we have full install, not if we um train our public works staff to so I was trying to give you a very like conservative type quote. So if our public works staff do install it, it would be a lot less.

Is the thought process we'll have that type of surface going forward in all of our playgrounds? Uh potentially. Yeah. Um we Yes, potentially having tile, maybe even the same color, then you can pull and peel them out. um and replace them throughout the whole park uh easily. Well, maybe if that's what we're planning on doing moving forward, maybe it does make sense then if our own department can help install just to save money because that's going to be a repeated cost because like Supervisor Kane said, it is a sizable amount to have that installed. How long do they last? Uh 20 to 25 years. So, the same length of the playground essentially.

About the same length as the playground. Yeah. U where would they get the training for the installation? The company um Soft Surface who installs them is willing to offer training to our public works staff and even oversee the first time they install it. Okay. Thank you. All righty. Um I'm ready to make a motion. I make a motion to adopt resolution 26-14 to move forward with the community conservation partnership program C2P2 grant process for the Detective Chris Jones memorial playground rehabilitation. Um have a motion. Second have a motion second. Any comments or statements from the board?

I just say um I will send you an email. I know there was a resident that was really um pushing for this playground to be to be finished and done. So, if we are pushing it into next year, let's make sure we reach out. Sure. Yeah. Great. Any other comments or statements from the community? Okay. Um I make uh all those in favor of uh the motion to adopt resolution 26-14 say I. I I motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Tierney.

All right. Um our next uh agenda item, consideration to uh Oh, we're done. Oh, we have department reports. All right. Yay. All right. Sorry. All right. Uh first up, we have Department of Public Works, Mr. Gartmemire. Just kidding.

Good evening. Um, so obviously we have u this winter was a challenging winter for us. Uh, many snowstorms. My guys worked a lot of hours unfortunately. Um, we handled the snow I think pretty well. Um, you know, we always have phone calls. We can't be everywhere in the township at the same time. um we only have so many trucks, so many guys, we do have breakdowns in the winter time with u plows and vehicles and stuff. So all that's all taken into consideration. Um also with the salts kind of being the way it was this year, getting salt, um we were grabbing it from wherever we could and things like that, we never ran out. I did get low a couple times. Um I'm just glad there wasn't a couple more storms else we would had to do some other things or try some other things. Um these pictures that you just seen um are disorg plowing um the small dumps, the big dumps um you know plowing the streets for for Middletown um trying to get them back open u for the fire, EMS, uh police and everything and for mainly for the residents too. Um that's just us going through our plows before the storms. Um the brine machine, we do use the brine. Um so that's the brine machine. We just cleaned that out um for the season. So that got all cleaned out and we're ready to go for next year now. Um so we had to do a couple adjustments on it and fix a couple of things, but it's all good to go for next year now. Um that's just jobs that you know are continuous and it never stop. Uh we always get calls for trees down. Um we're always doing stuff in our sign shop, making signs, doing signs, doing stuff for parks. Um you know, you name it. Any sign we kind of we kind of make and put up. Um that's just some drainage stuff we were doing. Um you know, that's on Big

Oak Road. Um the drainage ditch, it was backing up. It was filling out on the roadway. So we went up, cleared it out, and then cleared that out going down to the creek on the right. that's also on Big Oak was the box covert for the drain that needed some work. So, we cleaned it out and that's just that's going on right now. A lot of it um you know when you get the weather that it was so cold, the rain, the hot cold, we get potholes all over. Um we we do many potholes unfortunately and that's it. Any questions or anything? No, I tried to make it as fast as I could.

No, thank you. I I know you guys have been working hard all winter and you're working on the potholes and you you help tremendously with Earth Day and all the events around the community. So, we appreciate you. That's why we're here. Um, I did have a quick question for you. I know I asked earlier about the salt levels. Have we What is the current status of that? How How is our our salt stockpile looking at the moment?

Yes, we're stocked pretty good. I will be ordering more salt. Um, so what we do every year is because the salt price is going to go up next year, so we still have room. I'll figure out how much room we have. I will order salt again and we'll stack it in our barn. Um, and then next year you don't have to worry for probably like three, four storms. That will be good to start off the new season without rushing to try to get salt or whatever. It's something we do every year. Something I I have done every year since I took over. Um it's just you know sometimes like we ran into it was very hard to get salt. Nobody had salt. You know I was calling all the way down to Baltimore actually to get salt. So that's how far we were reaching out to try to you know make sure we had salt for the township.

All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have parks and recreation department um with um our our new department head uh Monica Tierney. Welcome and thank you.

Thank you. Um so we've been very busy um trying to keep up with all of the cool projects that you had planned for the year. So uh we did have community cleanup day on Saturday. We had about 30 to 35 volunteers in total clean up five different sites which is really great. Uh we had about a hundred bags that we took away. Uh giant bags that we we took away and uh pallets and chairs and we even found a quad in the creek. So there was a whole bunch of uh you know clean up that we did while we were out there and uh you know the the township the neighborhoods that we cleaned up are better for it. It's really great. We have a tree planting on Saturday at Cobalt Ridge along the green belt where we had recently just taken down a bunch of uh dead trees. We're replacing and putting in some new trees. I think it's about 15 or 16 trees that we're going to plant. That's at 9:00 a.m. If anybody wants to get dirty and help us, that would be wonderful. Um, and then we also, as mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, have our Earth Day event coming up on April 25th. We're really looking forward to having you there. We do have um, I think we're at something like 35 vendors. We have great sponsors. Um, Robin Keer Real Estate is sponsoring us for $2,000. Uh Remington Vernick is sponsoring us for $500. And we also this year new is a Tesla sponsorship where they're actually going to they donated $500, but they're also going to do test drives um on site so people can try them out and drive around and uh there have a bunch of fun giveaways and things that they're bringing to the event. Uh we are doing the tree giveaway like we always do. Um the AC is going to be doing that and we have a bunch of entertainment and you can see kind of the cost breakdown here. Our partners are Bucks County, Falls Township, Bristol Township, and Hume Bulb Burrow. Oh, 36 vendors, sorry. Um, and we're going to have also horsedrawn carriage. So, the most modern transportation and the oldest transportation all in the

same event. Um, Mojo Gypsies will be the band that will be there. Um on May 1st, on May 1st, we're going to have the renaming uh dedication to for uh the new Anna Pain Park. Very excited for that day. That's going to be at 4:00. We have uh we're as part of that, we're installing this great garden at um Cobalt Ridge Park around the new sign. It's a native garden with purple uh flowers for Anna. And there's also rocks in there as an homage to the rock. And um there's we're also looking at getting a bike rack and maybe a couple tables to spruce things up at the park while we're getting things ready. Um 4acre landscaping is providing $1,000 in kind sponsorship for that planting and um the community foundation is also donating $3,000 towards that project. Okay. So, uh, just to talk a little bit about what we've been doing in the first quarter, uh, we served 832 families through our programs, which is really a great number at the beginning of the year. Very excited about that. And we've been, uh, you know, fielding phone calls, visits to the office. Um, so very busy in the department. I skipped it. I'm sorry. I ruined it. Did I miss the slide? Okay. So, as far as registrations in the last two months is 368 registrations, uh 25 reg registrations and 190 different profiles created in our system. On this slide here, you'll see our summer camps are doing great. The teen program, the summer camp at the barn, and the community center are all full. Um, we're still working to fill Cork Creek Park, but that is typically what I'm told, the

last to be full. So, I'm we're still working through that. And then our basketball summer wreck also usually doesn't start filling until Memorial Day. So, we're on track. We're on trend for that uh program. Um, as far as staffing, we're rolling through. We had a very competitive year this year for camp staffing. Uh we did have to make some cuts and some hard choices, but uh we're just about finishing that process and starting to send out offer letters soon. Been working with Melissa and Joanne on that. And then for the basketball co program, we are still bringing in some of the coaches. And this year we will be roughing our own games instead of hiring a refing company. It's a little less money and it is a recreation basketball, so we don't really need professional refs. as that was at the recommendation of Kyle who runs the basketball program for us. Um, as far as capital projects, Simus tennis courts, we're still working through the RCO on that. Um, Twin Oaks netting, the quote came in much higher than anticipated. I am communicating with MAA to see if there's some kind of partnership that we can do to try and get that that price reduction. Um, camera and securityurities right now are uh security cameras. I've been talking with the police chief about that uh to kind of see if maybe there's some input that they might want to have long term. Um and maybe we need to approach it a little differently and more broadly. So, we're having those conversations, just initial conversations. Um senior center, we haven't made much movement, but we did apply for a grant to try and fund the bathrooms there. And then you saw the Chris Jones Park presentation today. Um we there was a big bit of a We're going to move to the next one. Thank you. Um, I have been doing park inspections as I'm going through and recognizing that there's a lot of deferred maintenance that um, we have and one of the big biggest projects or one of the big problem areas was Twin Oaks Park. And here's some pictures and images of some of the things that we were facing

at the beginning and some of the things that we were able to tackle already, you know. So, um, there was a wall that had been roped off for a long period of time. Um, and I really want to thank public works, uh, Dave Cavana and Eric. They have been so great. um helping with these things as we were trying to muscle our way through before opening day. Um we were able to replace things like end caps on bleachers that were just dangling and ready to scrape a kid's leg and and uh the wall that was crumbling down and major potholes on the walkway that you know we have elderly and senior citizens walking down to see their kids play. Um benches that had splinters and were splintered. And on the next slide there's just a few other um MAA improvements. Now, the one on the bottom right, we intend to build a new dugout, but um since it was so rotten, um MA did kind of put it, we called it the band-aid on there just for this year to make it look a little more presentable. And they also have been working very hard in this field. I just wanted to share that with you. You know, um this is really beautiful and they've spent a lot of sweat equity. I saw them out there in the winter working on it, you know, just rolling out the grass and, you know, setting it all up. So, they really did put a lot of time in there. So, I did want to share that with you. supervisors um Gallardo and Leighton and I were there on Monday for the opening, Saturday for the opening and it really did look great and it looked like it had a facelift, but I I do understand there's more work to be done.

Yeah. And then there's just some things at the barn, minor things that we were just finding and and Eric uh was very quick to get these things fixed. We had a raccoon problem. We had several different raccoons. We had a raccoon show up during yoga um class just recently. So um you know we were able to take care of those things. Thank you animal control. Really appreciate it. Um there we're just doing some of our uh summer prep. So um it's just some of the regular summer prep on top of some of these deferred maintenance items. And then I'm happy to say we have two new staff coming. Uh one started today, Alex. Um she's really great. She's coming from St. Joe's University. She works in um like recreational athletics and inter murals. Has a lot of great experience. Glad to bring her on board. I think she's going to be a great addition. She's going to be the program coordinator. And then we also have a local um graduate uh who is going to be an intern for us. He's going to or he has a planning degree and environmental sustainability and planning are his specialties. Um with some of the conversations we've been having with the EAC's, he's been a great fit. He's also been volunteering on the EAC for the past at least year. Um so he's been a really involved uh so we're glad to have him on board. He's going to help us talk through some of the environmental things that we've been working through and he's going to help us in the department in general just to kind of learn things around how park and wreck go. So we're really excited to have him on board. So that's all I have for you. If anybody has any questions, glad to answer. And um

yeah, I had one uh quick question, Mon, and thank you for the the presentation. Welcome to our new staff members in parks and wreck. Um I wanted to one thank you for all the work you've done on uh the Anipagen park. Um I'm really looking forward to it and I encourage all residents to come out. Um I think it's going to be a really special day. Um some one comment I did want to make um when we were at MAA over the weekend. Um we did speak with Representative Jim Popiac about trying to get a grant to put some more money towards the Twin Oaks Park. Um, and I would really like us to try to explore that because anything we can do to save residents money since you said like the netting in particular was a higher quote than we had expected. Any way we could save money and work with him to get a grant. He seemed very open to the idea. So, um, just wanted to put that out there. I think that's something that we should definitely pursue cuz, you know, me and Christian talk often about Levittown needs more love, you know, in, uh, in our neck of the woods. So, anything we can do to help get Twin Oaks Park funded and save residents money, I'm I'm definitely all for it.

Same here. Um Jim was definitely very excited for us to give him a list and costs and needs uh to help out with that park and and us talking with the the heads of the MAA uh over there. They there's a lot of concerns with fencing and safety concerns stuff like that that definitely should be taken care of. I appreciate you taking care of some of the things that you just showed in your slides because that's my daughter goes there. We we're there all the time and seeing some of those things finally get addressed after a long period of time is appreciated. So, um, just wanted to say thank you and and hopefully we keep continuing to keep both of our parks, you know, on the same level instead of, you know, one getting more than the other. Great. Perfect. I'm on board.

Thank you. Okay. Next, we have additional reports, but they're read only. So, if you would um if you're interested, you can see them on the website. And at this point, uh, we have other business. Any other business? Uh, we do have a few things for signature. Uh, if, uh, three of you would, uh, wouldn't mind sticking around for a couple more minutes. Nothing further than that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Espazito.

Uh, yeah, I did want to announce that the board did hold multiple executive sessions. one on April 6th, 2026, one on April 9th, 2026, and one immediately prior to tonight's meeting to discuss personnel matters. That's it. Thank you. Anything from the board? Nothing further. Okay. All right. I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. We are adjourned.