County Council - Regular Meeting

One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence. Mr. Haw here. Miss Krishnowski here. Miss McDermott here. here. Miss Smith, Miss Stevenson here, Mr. Thornton here, Mr. Witch here, Mr. Lombardo here. 10 of 11.

All right. Thank you. We'll now have public comment on the proposed ordinance. I'm not reading the whole paragraph. The bond refinancing. Uh we do have one we have one uh one slip for Mr. Griffith. Okay. Anybody else public comment on the on the uh first public hearing? Uh, Miss Lawrence, can you switch the screen because it says there's somebody with a hand up. Uh, Mark, Mr. Rabbo, Mr. Chair, this is Mark Rabo Hazelton speaking. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. question at the I don't think it was answered but uh is this refinancing to include the bar is this refinancing including the monies for the human services agencies uh because of the current uh state budget impass? Um, and if it is, will the interest payments and the penalties uh be included? Uh, or is that going to be uh is the state going to give provide something in writing to LER County that uh those penalty the penalty costs and the interest uh the interest payments are going to in that? Is is that uh is that what uh is this included in that bond refinance? Is that the end of your comment, Mr. Rabbo?

Yes, that is. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. And no, this is not the same thing. Anybody else? Public comment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor? I opposed. First public hearing is adjourned. It's 556. I'll call the second public hearing to order. We already had the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence. Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence. Mr. Hos, here. Miss Krishnowski, here. Mr. Scavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Willovich present. Mr. Lombardo here. 10 of 11.

Thank you. We'll now have public comment on the proposed ordinance adopting the 2026 long range operational fiscal and capital plan for Luzern County.

Any public comment? Uh Mr. Rabbo? Mr. Chair, this is Mark Rego Hazelton speaking again and on the capital plan. I would just like to remind yourself, members of council, and the county manager, as I've had discussions with her, replenishing the capital uh budget, the capital fund uh which would provide for the capital budget. I do believe since uh you know council is going to be talking about this at the voting session about the um about the luras. I think that what needs to happen in terms of replenishing the capital fund and the manager for usage of the tiff rather than lura's for certain projects and the reason I state this is not only because of the tiff's uh unique ability to replenish uh not only capital funds because uh that's why Mr. Rabo, your mic.

Counties and the school districts to replenish their capital. Hello. Okay, go ahead, Mr. We can hear you. Keep going.

Okay, so the the capital fund can be replenished through the tiffs because they're a tax deferment, not a tax exemption. Uh the county and the uh school district and the municipality would still collect the same amount of but it would uh like the arena project for example, the county redevelopment authority and uh it generated over $9 million for the county, but the county never realized $9 million since $7 million went to the city of Volksair without having uh the city not paying one penny into the uh the arena project because of the fact that they said, "Well, Cole Cole Street was included and the county management particulars, but I think council should look at the tiff uh because of the fact that the tiffs when managed properly and overseen properly can replenish the capital fund. So I I would encourage and urge the county uh council and the county manager to explore that option moving forward. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Rabbo. Anybody else public comment on the uh public hearing? Is there a motion to adjurnn? All in favor will restart in 2 minutes at 601. Thank you.

Recording stopped. All right, everybody. It's 6:01 p.m. I'd like to call the voting session to order. We have already had the pledge of allegiance in progress.

Roll call, please. Miss Lawrence, Mr. Hos, here. Miss Krishnowski here. Mr. Lcavage here. Miss McDermott here. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino, present. Miss Smith, Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Mr. Thornton here. Mr. Wovich here. Mr. Lombardo here. I have 10 of 11. All right. Thank you. Um the proclamation for the women's club uh will be delayed until a September meeting. Uh the women's club said that they wanted to get pictures and stuff. They didn't have enough members that would be here tonight. Um so we'll do that at a future meeting. Deletions from the voting session agenda. Oh, before I apologize before we get started, attorney scheme, can you announce the executive session?

Yes. Prior to this meeting, we had an executive session to discuss two litigation matters and we are taking that under advice and we will update council further request in short order. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any deletions from the voting session agenda? I would like to entertain one if somebody would like to make a motion to delete number five. the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing county measure to apply for municipal assistance grant to aid in funding an updated zoning ordinance. Um the deadline for that grant has been pushed back. So they are going to uh they're going to do it at a later time. Okay. Motion in a second. All in favor?

I opposed. All right. Number five is deleted. That reflect the change of numbers. Any other deletions? Is there a motion to adopt? Motion in a sec. Is there a second? All right. Motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? The agenda is adopted. We'll now have public comment on voting session agenda items only. All right. I have two emails here. Mr. Zola, I know you have a comment that you put down. Would you like me to read the email or would you like to make the comment? It should I'm just going to read I'm just going to read the first part of your email since the um there was like an attachment.

All right, how about I have you just make the public comment instead because the email is it's short. I want to give you the full time you're going to want to have Okay. All right. I have one email that is from Alana Roberts who is the manager of community relations for PPL and attached to it is a uh a letter which she asked to be read for the public comment. It says, "Dear council members, PPL Electric Utilities appreciates the opportunity to provide comments regarding the transmission line project and resolution that is scheduled for discussion at your upcoming public meeting. We value the county's interest in this important infrastructure initiative and welcome the opportunity to share our perspective. The proposed Sugarloaf project is designed to meet the growing electricity demand in Luzern County and support long-term economic development. As you are aware, the greater Hazelton area continues to attract manufacturers and large uh power uses, and we anticipate electricity demand in the region to grow significantly up to 16 times current levels by 2030. To meet this demand, PPL Electric Utilities plans to construct construct 12 miles of new transmission lines and two new switch yards utilizing the existing right-of-way corridor to minimize environment project will enhance reliability and resilience for all customers in the region and is part of a broader effort to modernize the electrical grid. We understand that new infrastructure can raise concerns and we are committed to working closely with land owners to minimize impacts. Our approach includes fair compensation for easements, trans transparent communication and ongoing land owner and stakeholder engagement. The project will review and will require review and approval by the Pennsylvania Utility Commission and anticipate construction to begin in spring 2026 with completion in fall 2027. After reviewing and drafted the proposed Luzern County resolution, PPL Electric would like to clarify the following points to address questions and concerns expressed. One, there is a need for the project to support the exponential growth in the northeastern Pennsylvania region. As a public utility, PPL electrical has an obligation to serve all customers when there is a projected low growth in the area. We are require required to take prudent steps to meet that demand. The company does not get to pick and choose

which customers it wishes to serve. Number two, there will not be a 200 foot wide service road. Instead, PPL electric will uh uh will use existing service roads from the prior 69 kilovolt transmission line to the ex extent practical. New access roads may be installed as needed to support construction and operation of the line. Typical access roads are approximately 20 ft wide and if the company does not have the permanent access road rights, it will restore the access road to its per prior condition when construction is complete. Number three, PPL Electric is not creating a new transmission corridor. The project as proposed utilizes an existing corridor operating on easements the company has held for over a century. While PPL electric seeks to utilize right of way to build the new line, we have sought to widen the existing rightway to 200 feet to reduce the number and height of structures required. The new is not disrupting pristine land. It will utilize an existing transmission corridor that until recently had a transmission line in place. To the extent houses now exist near the corridor, they were built after the transmission easements were established with full knowledge of PP Electric's rights on the property. In addition, we have no evidence there's a long-term effect on property values from a project like this. There's no threat to the environment. Our track record shows that we work cooperatively with regulatory agencies, obtain all required permits, and meet all environmental requirements and regulations under the terms of our permits. Once built, the transmission line involves minimal activity, and its environmental impact is minimal. The health and safety concerns, as articulated in the resolution, are misguided. PL Electric safely operates thousands of miles of transmission lines across its service territory, including areas more densely populated in the Sugarloaf Valley region. All lines are constructed in accordance with applicable safety standards. Additionally, the alternative routes listed in the draft resolution are not viable solution. These profered routes would be more disruptive from land use, environmental and constructibility standpoints or would violate PJM reliability criteria. The proposed

alternatives are also within the Sugarloaf Valley region and changing that would shift impact from one group of land owners to another. As such, without new information, the company at this time has no plans to either pause this project or choose an alternative route since the route we will be submitting to the PUC later this year is the one that has the least environmental and community impact. PPL Electric looks forward to continued dialogue with council members and land owners who have questions or concerns about this project. Customers and community can access information about the project online at sugarloafro.com where a dedicated email address is also available. We believe that open dialogue is essential and welcome to opportunity to provide additional information and address any issues directly. I respectfully ask you include this letter as part of the record of the meeting and that the proposed resolution is discussed. Thank you again for your engagement and for considering these comments. We look forward to continuing a uh constructive dialogue with Luzern County, its council and its residents. Sincerely, Shelby A. Linton Kennedy, the director of public and regulatory affairs from PPL. Okay. We have a bunch of slips. Mr. Griffith.

Okay. Uh Brenda uh Rizzo. My name is Brenda Rizzo and I'm located in Black Creek Township. There are two lines. They did not discuss the Black Creek one, only the one that's going through the Sugarloaf area. Uh, a friend of ours that's been working with us, uh, Andy, um, could not make it tonight, Andy Senko, so he asked me to read this for you. I'm not good at reading with I'd rather just speak from the heart, but this is from Andy. a lot of his property is being taken by the Sugarloaf line going through. My name is Brenda Rizzo. I live in the Luzer County and I'm here tonight because it's clear that PPNL's proposed 500 kilovolt transmission line is not being built for this community. We will not get anything out of it at all. It's being built through it. Let's be honest, this project benefits corporate developers, not the people living under its shadow. 240 foot high with a light on top. That's how big these monstrosities are. Here's what needs to happen. No more delays. Vote yes for the ordinance. This transmission line is not just unsightly, it's unsafe. Studies have linked high voltage lines to increased risks of childhood leukemia and many more significant health issues. Vote in support of the residents, not big business. In fact, you can't get too many studies here in the US. They're always squashed. I talked to someone that even some of the major universities that do studies, the studies are squashed. You have to go overseas to Switzerland or some of the European countries to get good studies on the EFMS. Then, property values. The National

Institute Environmental Health Science reports values drop significantly for homes near lines like this. These aren't theoretical harms. They're real and they hit families where it hurts most. My farm right now is 101 acres. At 10,000 an acre, it's worth $1 million. I don't want to sell the farm. I want to give it to my children. But the value of the property goes almost in half. The last time I read it was 44%. So now it's less. It's a little more than half. Do you want your property to go down that far? Is PPNL going to give me more than a dollar for my easement? Second of all, cancel the alerted tax breaks that were handed out for this project. Billiondoll companies do not need handouts. Local taxpayers are footing the bill and getting nothing to say in the process. Let's not That's not economic development, that's exploitation. Third, freeze any new lurer approvals of the Sescuana power plant until PP&L permanently abandons their preferred route. PP&L itself profits more than a billion dollars per year. A price cannot be put on good health and the value people put on their properties. PPL can afford to reroute the proposed line if their project is so essential. They should be willing to find a path that doesn't put Luzernne County families at risk. They can also build some kind of plant near where it's necessary instead.

All right. Thank you, Miss Roso. Okay. Next up, we have Mike Hoover. You're you're okay till the end. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh Wendy Lar Ro. I'm sorry if I said it wrong. I can't read your handwriting. Okay. Lorac Okay,

Mark Clark. Thank you all for the opportunity to speak. I wasn't planning to speak tonight, but I feel compelled to do so on behalf of my family. Everyone here has something to lose. We're all going to lose acorage if PPNL gets their way. My family loses everything. They take my house, my barn, and my land, and they kick three disabled senior citizens out on the street, penniless. Now, I'm physically handicapped. My wife is physically handicapped. My older brother that lives with us is mentally and physically incapacitated in the middle of dementia, and he's blind. We purchased this house 40 years ago with the intention of making it handicap accessible. I've spent those years making it handicap accessible. And something happened. I got old. Now, we just purchased our first wheelchair. This is all put in place for this. Now, I have a background in electronics and real estate. I know how to negotiate a contract. I've been trying to operate with good faith with BPNL. Basically, they lie. Every single thing they have said to me verbally to my face or over the phone has been a bold-faced lie. Every single dimension, every fact and figure they put down on paper and sent me has been a bold-faced lie. I know. I have measured the property, okay? I know what is going on and I know what they're saying is wrong. What they're intending to put in there will make my house unlivable. We have three seniors living on social security. They're going to put us out on the streets penniles. Oh, I'm sorry. They offered me $1. I had a few words to say about that. Now, they're offering to buy my property for $1600. They do not operate ethically. They will not negotiate in good faith. They don't care about the law. They supervent circumvent the law. They could care less about what the impact it has on the community. And it doesn't help any one of us. This is only serving Amazon.com.

This does not upgrade the electric for our community. We have nothing to gain from this. And I just wanted to tell you that I'm trying to negotiate and work with them in good faith. But I can tell you I could talk a half an hour of the illegal and immoral and unethical things that these people are doing. And I'm trying to save my family. I'm trying to save my house. I can't do this alone. I will lose. I need these people to help me to keep my family together. And I need your help. I can't put compassion down on a piece of paper. I can't put ethics and morals on down on a piece of paper and give you a line graph. This is the best I can do to get my point across to you. I don't like bullies. I've been fighting bullies all my life. They're a bully. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Uh, Mr. Zola,

John Zola, Sugarloaf. I just want everyone to know that the PPL letter that was just read, um, the Alliance to Stop the Line provided a, um, rebuttal to that. I I hope all of you viewed it. I sent it to everyone and I and I want the public to know that that's available for their view as well. That'll be it'll be part of the record.

Okay. So, if I could uh ask you guys, I I passed out this three pages of of pictures. So, if I may direct your attention to exhibit 1A, which shows the wooden poles illustrated in the photograph. These are the size and style of poles that the land owners agreed to in the early 1900s. The 69 KV line was meant to provide electricity to homes and to families. So you could see everyone see those small wooden poles running through the property there. So that's what was agreed to when the original easement was made. Um, now if I could direct your attention to exhibit 1B, which shows the massive 500 KV steel poles in the picture, this is what PPL now claims they have the right to build, and we strongly disagree. Now, these poles are spaced at 500 ft apart. The best that could happen is if they stretched it to 800 ft, there'd be one less pole. still horrific. This is just horrible. This should not be near anyone's home or on their property. This is not what the people in the early 1900s signed up for. Had they known this could ever happen, I doubt very much they would have accepted it. Common sense tells us that the original intent of the line and the subsequent agreement with the land owners was never to allow an industrial size 500 KV line to pass through their properties. for PPL or for anyone else to suggest otherwise is disrespectful, disappointing, and frankly nauseating. It is my opinion that PPL with its

unlimited lobbying power, legal teams, and nearly unlimited money intends to fully take advantage of regular people, many of whom are living on low or fixed incomes, in an effort to enrich themselves. We are not backing down from this fight. Tonight you have the supreme opportunity to show the citizens of Luzern County that you stand with them. And for some of you, tonight is also an opportunity to show whether voters should or should not support you in November. And finally, the last picture, because I know some of you were out to the site, and I thank the ones that did come out to actually see it with their own eyes. is just the finished product because the other pictures didn't have the finished product with the basketball court on it and the pool. So, that's just the finished product. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zola. Next up, we have Andy Senko.

Good evening. Thanks for this opportunity and to the surprise of Mrs. Rizzo, I am here. Um, my name is Dr. Andy Senko, Sugarloaf Township. I'm here tonight to urge this council to take three bold and necessary actions to safeguard the people of Lzern County. First, vote yes on the resolution opposing ppl's proposed 500 KV transmission line through southern Luzern County. This project is not progress. It's exploitation and it's ppl spin. PPL is forcing land owners into a corner while hiding behind vague promises of data centers, AI, and century old right ofways. Science is clear. These lines threaten public health, property rights, property values, and the environment. A yes vote by you tells PPL that our citizens are not expendable. Second, resend the letters that were granted without proper public input. These tax breaks benefit outside developers, not local families. Certainly not anyone in Lzern County. The people who elected you deserve transparency and accountability. At a minimum, residents must understand what a lerta is, what it costs, and who truly benefits. Residents of Luzernne County do not benefit from these luras. Billiondoll companies taking our money benefit. Third, impose a moratorum on all new Lordis south of the Sesuana power plant until PPL abandons their preferred route. These projects are all tied together.

Developers coming here chasing cheap tax deals and the power lines built to serve them. Until this is resolved, no further breaks should be handed out. You took an oath to represent the people of Lzern County. That means putting residents first, ensuring open government and protecting the health of our communities. Tonight, you have a choice. Stand with the families. Stand with your voters or stand with the people who stand with the people who entrusted you with this responsibility. Vote yes on the resolution for the people of Luzern County and not big business coming into Luzern County. Finally, impose a moratorum until fairness and transparency are restored. Have the courage to draw a line in the sand and the bravery the bravery to lead not for profit but for the people of Lzern County. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next up, Linda Urish. Good evening, council members. My name is Linda Yurish, and I'm a licensed nurse with nearly 40 years of experience caring for patients, people, human beings in hospitals and homes across this region. I've seen firsthand the short and long-term tolls of chronic health conditions on the population, especially the elderly and our children. I've been privileged to witness the bursts of many children and honored to hold countless fragile hands at the end of life. I've comforted grieving families and experienced firsthand the results of how chronic illness related to environmental pollutants have and can devastate these same lives. That's why I'm here tonight. This is not just about land or a power line. It's about public health and community safety. PPL's proposal to run 500 KB transmission lines through our neighborhoods poses serious risk that cannot be ignored. They insist there are no health concerns, but their evidence is largely internal. Independent research not funded by utility companies shows a different story. Long-term exposure to electromagnetic field electromagnetic fields EMFs from high voltage lines has been linked to serious health risks. EMFs from these lines EMFs from lines like these can extend over 250 yards in every direction. Two and a half football fields in every direction. Would you let your children's um play there? Your family's children play there? Would you let your wife or your husband plant and tend a garden there? Hold picnics and family gatherings? Something to think about and think hard. Peer-reviewed medical research has

linked long-term EMF exposure to cancer, childhood leukemia, sleep disorders, stress, anxiety, depression, cognitive and behavioral disorders. This isn't fear-mongering. It's science and it's reality. and it's your responsibility to act before harm is done. Adding insult to injury, PPNL doesn't even have the legal right of way for this project. Yet, they've made clear the threat of eminent domain to take land from residents who refuse to sell. That's not partnership. It's exploitation and it is unacceptable. And we need to talk about leadership. PPNL CEO Vincent Sorggy, who once lived in nearby Lacawana County, knows this region and its people. For him to now push a hazardous and unnecessary project through our backyards onto his former neighbors and friends while making over 11 million a year, that's not just disappointing, it's disgraceful. So, I'm calling on you, our elected leaders, to stand with the people you represent. Vote yes on the resolution requiring PPNL to abandon their preferred route. Resin tax breaks given to billion-dollar corporations and act a moratorium on new tax incentives until this project is permanently off the table. This is about more than infrastructure. It's about protecting the health, safety, and future of Luzern County. I spent 40 years caring for this community, and tonight I'm sincerely asking. No, I'm sincerely pleading with you to do the same. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, uh, Trisha Maro.

Good evening, council members, and thank you very much for this opportunity. My name is Trisha Marell, and I'm from Sugarloaf Township, former Cunningham mayor. Some of you know me as Kimberly Plateek's sister who previously ran for Luzernne County Council. Sugarloaf is one of the many communities directly impacted by this onslaught. Sugarloaf, Nescape, Butler, and Black Creek Township supervisors have already had the courage to pass a resolution opposing this project. Now, I ask you to do the same, to have the same courage and responsibility to stand up for our residents. Look beyond Luzern County. St. Charles, Missouri was the first city in the nation to ban data centers outright, protecting families and the environment. There are three actions this council must take tonight. As previously mentioned, vote yes on the resolution opposing the transmission line. The World Health Organization classifies electromagnetic fields from power lines as possible carcinogenic. Our county already faces elevated cancer rates, 715.5 cases per 100,000 people, well above the state and national averages. This line will only worsen these risks for families already burdened by poor health outcomes. Resin that lur a tax break blindly given to big business. PPL profits more than a billion dollars a year. And as mentioned before, Vincent Sorggy whose roots uh trace back to Lacawana County. He takes home over 11.3 million dollar annually. Meanwhile, taxpayers would subsidi will subsidize the ppl project with no public input, no guarantees for community benefit and rising electric bills. This is corporate welfare plain and simple. Finally, this council must impose a moratorum for all new lura tax breaks south of the

Susuhana power plant until PPL permanently abandons the 500 KV 12m line. This moratorum is crucial. The proposed route threatens vital water sources, disrupts households, and increases exposure to hazardous electron electromagnetic fields for thousands of residents. Other communities have acted decisively to prevent such harm. Lzern County must do the same and demand transparency and accountability before any further approvals. It is important to call out the joint comprehensive plan created by Luzernne and Lacawana counties that calls for sustainable community focused growth and environmental protection. PPL's proposal flies in the face of that vision. It's time for the council to stand with the people, not with corporate profits. Yes. Vote yes on oppo prop opposing the transmission line. Rescend all lura tax breaks. Enforce a moratorum on any new learn approvals south of the Suscuana power plant until PPL permanently abandons preferred route. Please, we beg, side with your neighbors, not with big business. Thank you for your time.

Next up, uh Robin Cochan.

You want to wait till the end? I do. Okay, that's fine. All right. Next up, Dan Eustace. I have another slip up for Dan L. Eustace or I don't know if it's L or C, but the the one that lives at Jagger Road. Him first. Okay.

Good evening, County Council. I'm here uh as a concerned citizen of Luzernne County to urge council to vote yes on the resolution for all the right reasons as stated in the resolution and for the generations to come. It's not us that we're we're worried about us a little bit but the biggest problem is the generations to come and what they're going to have to put up with. I live very close, well not very close, probably less than a hundred yards from an electric uh from a PPNL line and the electromag as one person stated electromagnetic field extends 250 yards from the center. So if you figure that's from the center to the right, it's also from the center to the left, 500 yards. And electromagnetic fields have uh been known to cause cancer. Three years ago, my wife was diagnosed with cancer. Thank God. Three years later with uh chemo and radiation, she's clear of that. But that needs to be taken into consideration. We do need to resend alerters issued to PE issued until PPNL agrees to the alternate roof. And if you want to do something to give incentives, they're as it's been said, they're billionaires that, you know, it's a a billion dollar uh service. Want to do something? Why don't we give incentives to the residents? If you're going to make that money and they're going to pay it to the council or to the county, then give some back to the to the residents. The other thing is these things need to be put in the right places. We need to issue the moratorium and all learners until PPNL adopts the alternate route of the 12m 500 KV line. Again, we understand that there are

better ways, but it it has to come down. County council was voted in to protect the citizens quality of life in this county. not PPNL, not these other uh services. It's to protect the count the uh citizens of this county. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next up, uh Dan Eustace from Lake View Drive. [Music] Wait until the end. Okay, next up, Jennifer Yanni.

She's also Okay. Anna Venitaryi.

Good evening. My name is Aminary Sugarloaf Township. I wasn't going to speak tonight, but then I heard the letter from PPL and I was compelled to. Um, so it's their fault. Um, I just want to talk about a little um I'd like to rebut a little bit of what they they put in that letter. So, a lot of people think that uh this is a lot of angry citizens having the nimi mindset, not in my backyard, but it's a lot more than that for a lot of reasons. But one of them is one of the claims that PPL continues to make is that there's this massive uh PJM is projecting these massive needs. We have to upgrade the grid. If we don't, everything's going to crash and burn. Uh you know, our future is at stake as as humanity. Um but I'd like to posit something a little different tonight for your consideration. Does PA need the electricity? No. Um, Pennsylvania has so much excess electricity that our state has been the largest exporter of electricity every year since 2007. That's pretty significant. They didn't put that in the letter. Pennsylvania's electricity exports are enough to meet the imports of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and DC. um and still have some excess power for part of Virginia, which is the nation's largest electricity um importer right now, which is interesting because they're turning into data center alley, but they don't have the resources that we have. Uh we have water, we have land that the developers want. So, just as Pennsylvania has long been the largest importer of trash, our state's role as the nation's largest electricity exporter means that Pennsylvania communities get polluted for the benefit of other states. It's time for other states to take more responsibility for themselves. PPL, which is of course, as you know, one of the largest electric utilities in our state, they expect to see its summer peak load demand jump more than 60% in the next 5 years by 2030.

The amount of excess electricity Pennsylvania already exports, and I got numbers for anyone who's a numbers cruncher, 83.4 4 million megawws in 2023 is already more than that amount PPL says it's needed for by 2030 which would be 83.2 million. So that's a deficit even if we accept like so there a difference we're exporting more than we need. So if we expect accept the massive expansion of data centers and speculative energy wasting crypto mining or all the different things that are coming right now to the to the state, there's a lot of them. We already have the capacity for this. We have the capacity for this and should make neighboring states take care of their own needs so we can use our own power. And that goes for any of the hypers scale buildout too. They absolutely have every um they have the pockets to create their own power sources and they don't want to do it and PPL wants a cut of it. I get it. They're business people. Who isn't? But um I'd just like you to take those things into consideration. We've been the largest exporter of electricity end over end since 2007.

Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else in the audience for public comment?

Mr. Walsh. Jamie Walsh, Shar Township. Uh, just wanted to give you all an update. The Office of Consu, Consumer Advocacy will be here September 16th. I told you we didn't have a location. We do now. It'll be at Hazelton High School at 5:30 p.m. Uh, regarding this um, power line. I share our community's concern. Uh, tomorrow I'm going on a tour of Data Center Alley. These are just some of the 600 data center sites in in the entire state. There's 600 data centers across the state of Virginia or the Commonwealth of Virginia. There's 141 specifically in one community, Ashurn, Virginia, uh that we will be touring tomorrow. These are just some of the some of the highlighted areas we're going to be visiting. So, solely Highland Park, it's an AWS data center with over 100 diesel generators permitted as their backup power. This is the typical amount for facilities of this size. There are over 9,000 diesel generators permitted in Virginia at this point. Um, I'm going to skip to the next one. AOL headquarters, original AOL headquarters used to have five thou 5,000 employees at its peak, demolished and replaced with powerhouse data centers, less than 150 employees. So, don't give me this. Creates a whole bunch of jobs. Tippetsz Hill cemetery that was preserved by Vantage. They had to preserve a cemetery in order to build data centers all around it. I will be having video and photos of that when we come back. Uh Louden Gateway Metro has the lowest wrership on Metro. It's been surrounded by data centers because they

were allowed by right in the mixedtouse development zone. Um Hampshire Park, Washington and Old Dominion Trail. behind the parking lot. You can see the AWS data center and diesel generators from there. Now, uh Lowden County Parkway, huge data centers on both sides. Uh PTOIC Energy Park Drive is near Leburg, Virginia, but goes under the dual 500 KV lines, which are due to be expanded by more 500 KV lines and the connected and connected to the other 500 KV lines to create a loop which will go around the data center alley as well. Much more energy infrastructure is coming to power all this. These are in court by the way right now. Google data center is a heavy water user in their 15 largest consuming data centers in the state. And PTOIC energy is a peaking gas plant 780 megawatts that has been uh bought up by Blackstone which uh also owns QTS which is a data center developer. This is what we're concerned about Sugarloaf becoming and and it's right in front of us. I mean, it is happening. It uh the first data center was put in Lowden County in 1999. Now there's well over 150 in in the whole county. Um and I don't know that that's the future that we want to look at every single day. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Anybody else in the audience for public comment? I have two hands up on the Zoom. Ashley Bart.

Hello. Hi, we can hear you.

Okay, great. Yes, thank you. My name is Ashley Bart. I am in Hazelton and have family property in Sugarloaf that is directly impacted by the transmission line. Um, I think a lot of what I would have spoken to has already been commented on this evening. So, I thank my fellow residents and neighbors for that. Um I am just supporting the request to for you all to vote um yes on the resolution to place the moratorum on the leras and to suspend the construction of the transmission line. I think if you were to look, you know, kind of to echo a bit on um some of the comments tonight and to speak to the email from the PPL representative, you know, she mentioned in there that the old right of way was for a 69 kilovolt line. Well, this is a 500 kilovolt line, which is more than seven times the size of the old one. And there have been many homes, many new homes constructed along that property since that was first used. So I think um you know John Zola had mentioned this, but that that right of way is not built for an industrial line of this size. And the people that have spent their life's earnings to build homes there and create families there should not have to be impacted by them. So much for this. Um, also there are the studies that the EMFs are, you know, basically measured up to 250 yards. If

you go and stand on that line, there's homes. I mean, some people are saying this line is like 30 feet from their bedroom or 100 feet from their living room. And so, I I can't even imagine what the volume of EMFs are in that. And I don't think it's anything that anyone should have to just be dropped on them so irresponsibly by PPL who doesn't want to take the time to look for a better alternative for people. They're only looking out for their interests. Um, I also think that we need as a county as a whole to really look at, as I've been attending these meetings and gathering more information, there are a lot of concerning developments, like major developments happening in Hazel Township, of course, this project in Sugarloaf, um, probably more in the greater Wilsberry area. And it's concerning that where do all of these major major developers like there's about 40 to 50 buildings being proposed in the planning um in the plans right now planning department right now in Hazel Township. That is concerning from a resource perspective. And I just question if anyone is really looking at all of the projects across the entire county and where are these resources going to come 15 years down the line?

Thank you. Okay. Next up, Mr. Rabbo. Mr. Chairman, this is Mark Rabo of Hazelton speaking. Can you hear me? Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, I would like to stand in solidarity with my neighbors in in Sugarloaf Township, Black Creek Township, and uh the my fellow uh resident in Hazelton uh for the approval of this uh resolution to put a moratorum on the lures. Uh I would agree with every uh commenter from uh the southern end of Lzerent County, my fellow neighbors and cit county citizens. I would just like to bring a perspective of somebody who served on a utility board from somebody who served on the county redevelopment authority board and somebody who is certified as a operator of heavy equipment espec specifically horizontal directional drills that are being used in the Great Lakes region of our country and the southeast southeast corridor of our country to place these high transmission lines underground instead of above. of ground which would greatly and negatively impact the quality of life and the land private private property of residents and citizens and for PPNL to say what they said they contradicted themselves Mr. chair and members of council and county manager Cookamo and and administration officials because how is it if they're going to use the existing uh corridor then why would they even need to use eminent domain and seize private property in order to put in those uh new lines? If they're going to use the existing corridor then they would then they wouldn't need to use uh eminent domain. That's number one contradiction. Number two, Mr. chair and members of council, how is it that they're going to if they're not going to use eminent

domain, okay, in terms of putting in these new lines, then uh you know, why would they if they're going to use eminent domain, then how are they going to square how are they going to address the situation when it comes to uh blighted areas according to the lera? Because as you know, Mr. chair and member of council and manager proamo and administration officials that uh eminent domain has to be in terms of uh using alerta it has to go through blighted areas which blighted areas have been certifi have been identified and certified as blighted areas that's that's a major uh issue because if there are no blighted areas that have been certified legally certified and identified then guess what those land private property owners have a major case uh specifically and I would direct the attention of the office of law uh Mr. Sche and uh the other solicitors to Kilo the landmark uh US Supreme Court case Kilo versus city of New London 2005.

All right. Thank you, Mr. You know, Mr. Chair, that that needs to Okay. Anybody else for public comment? All right. Hearing none, we'll move on to the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the August 12, 2025 voting session? Second. Uh, okay. Mr. Thornton was the first. Second, Mr. Wovich. Motion in the second. All in favor? I opposed. Minutes are approved. Number one. Motion to adopt the ordinance adopting the 2026 long range operational fiscal and capital plan for Lozer County. Some moved. Motion and a second. Just one quick question for management, Mr. Chair.

Go ahead, Mr. Hos. Um, Mr. Kok, is there an order of preference or priority for these projects? It seems like it's just all this is what we want. Don't know if there was any. We didn't we didn't prioritize them. Uh, but uh, we can if you want. I don't want to handicap the management by, you know, putting money where we need to put it, but I just want to know if there was anything that was really like a driving force as far as capital develop capital improvements go. There are some of course that we'll probably have to do sooner sooner than others, but uh but we didn't prior they're not in order of preference. Thank you. Any other questions? Motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott?

Yes. Mr. Perry. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Number two, motion to adopt the ordinance uh for the bond refinancing. Second motion and a second. Chair, go ahead. Just for the public's edification. The uh refinancing these bonds is projected to save the county over the next several years between three and four million dollars. So, it's a tremendous bonus for the county residents. Just want to let everybody know that.

Thank you, Mr. Thornton. Any other comments? Motion. Uh, Miss Smith. Thank you. I looking at this um after the week last week or last meeting, I do think that we've done this inappropriately and incorrectly. No, we haven't. Most importantly, most importantly the fact that we're borrowing money with these. I think that's the reason for my record. We we have not done anything inappropriately as far as procedure is concerned.

I miss manager Crocom would you like to respond to that?

Uh yes uh the uh charter is clear. Uh obviously council uh could have introduced uh this ordinance, but the charter is clear and it explicitly gives a a very specific list including uh ordinances that uh relate to fiscal responsibility. Uh they give that uh option uh to the county manager to introduce uh and that's the way uh that we did it. And if you look at the policy reasons behind it, uh whoever added that uh language into the charter was very uh forward thinking. Uh the administration is the government unit that deals with the day-to-day operations and that includes reviewing our fiscal plans, our capital plans, uh any kind of budgetary plan. And by giving the county manager the authority to introduce the ordinance uh allows us to actually uh circumvent any kind of political maneuverings that might take place uh when elected officials are dealing with uh very significant issues such as uh refinancing. Not saying that this particular council would do it, but just remember when this charter was written the situation that we were in. So, uh allowing the language is clear and unequivocal. The county manager has the authority to introduce that ordinance. And more importantly, we're approving it. Council is obviously the ultimate authority on these issues and we're the ones approving it. So, how it gets

introduced to me is personally unimportant. And number two, it it does follow the guidelines of the charter. You have why it was never done that way in the past because I went back and I looked at the the votes. Why is this the first time like this? It could have been, but we want to get we want to maximize uh the interest rates right now and we want to get this done uh in in a very efficient manner and that's uh that's the reason why it was done that way. There's no prohibition. It could have been done with council introducing it, but the county manager also has the authority to do it.

I just don't like that it's never been done this way. There's a lot of things that h that we have changed. The answer that it's always been done that way. That's the wrong answer. I don't allow I don't allow my department or division heads to say that. When they come in and we ask them why and they say we've always done it that way, I tell them why. That is the wrong answer being changed right now. All right. Okay. That's all. Is Is that the end of your comment, Miss Smith? The end of my comment is this. Okay.

Well, I certainly agree with uh Madam County manager. Um most of the time, I do believe that there are partial times that we there are other times that we need to look at why it was done that way and why it's changing. Right now, um I'm just interested in an answer. Doesn't mean that I'm not in agreement with the borrowing. I just the answer. That's all. But we can move on. All right. Mr. H making my record. Thank you.

Yeah, I think there's broad consensus about the borrowing. I I understand my my colleagues um where she's coming from, but I I want to know specifically about the transaction fees. Um M manager, can you speak to that because we're looking at at a very nice windfall with this reconig?

Ryan, are you here? Sorry, I'll just repeat that. Yeah, um as of this morning, rates have actually been moving in your favor. The estimated gross savings as of today are currently $3.47 million um for the county. The estimated cost of issuance are 0.9% of about $500,000 give or take. That is but your savings of that 3.47 47 is net of all savings. To put that in perspective of your last borrowings in 2017, your borrowing costs were 1.98%. And in 2015, they were 1.5. So when you look at the transaction fees on this, they're significantly less than they have been in the past.

But what's the exact dollar amount on that? Because you 551,000. 551,000 on it's over 50. It's 58.6 million. because I I I agree with you. The rates are look like they're we got the wind to our backs. It looks very favorable and there's going to be a a Fed adjustment a rate adjustment September 16th 17th which I'm if I'm looking at the market looks like it's still going to go down. So I think we might even see that number increase about the win. I mean I support thisly Mr. Chair, but just looking at what our exposure is for that. Absolutely hope they do.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other remarks? All right. Motion in a second. Roll call. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Scavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? No. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Will? Absolutely. Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. And Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Great job, administration. 10 to one. It passes. All right. Number three, motion to adopt the resolution modifying the lease with Cano Community Foundation for county owned lands in Butler Township.

All right. Motion and a second. Uh, Mr. Krishnowski, I think, was Oh, it was. Yes. And then um, correct. Yeah. Mr. Mr. Okay. Motion to second. Roll call. Mr. Lavage. Yes. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry, Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Wova, yes. Mr. Haw, yes. Miss Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number four, motion to adopt the resolution modifying the lease with the United States government for property located on Route 11, Wyoming A, Wyoming Burough. I make the motion.

Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss McDermott. Yes. Mr. Perry. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Wovage, yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Miss Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Luscavage, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number five, motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the county manager to execute a lease renewal agreement between Luzern County and Dom Enterprises Incorporated. So moved. Motion and a second. We deleted number five. So this is the new number five. There's a motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Perry, Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes.

Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Wovich? Yes. Mr. Haw? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous. Number six. Motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project for the Dallas Area Fallare Incorporated. Second motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Sabatino. Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stevenson? Yes. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Willovven? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Kushnowski? Yes. Mr. Luscavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Lombardo? Yes. Unanimous. Number seven. Motion to adopt the resolution approving a modification to an American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded project, Luzern County Library Systems.

Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Wovich, yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Miss Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Lascavage, yes. Mr. McDermott, yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous. Number eight, motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the county manager to co to co-sponsor a TASA grant application with Anththerite Scenic Trails Association. So move, Mr. Chair. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call. Mr. Miss Stevenson. Yes. Mr. Thornton. Yes. Mr. Will. Yes. Mr. H. Yes. Miss Krishnowski. Yes. Mr. Lascavage. Miss McDermott.

Yes. Mr. Perry. Mr. Savatino. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous. Number nine. Motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the county manager to apply for a task grant for bike lanes on Orange Road in Franklin Township. Second. Motion and a second. on the question. Mr. Chair, go ahead, Mr. Ross. Yeah, question for management. Uh, did or maybe uh council at large, too. I thought we approved this in a couple months ago. Remild, I I thought it was a 100% match at that time or maybe it was really close. I don't know if you could clarify that for me. Michelle Sparitch will clarify. Is that for a different a different project?

Okay. Um, we approved a multimodal application for Orange Road. This is a transportation alternative set aside program through PennDOT. And after speaking with uh Riley Associates, he encouraged us to apply for this for the bike lanes again because he said if we don't get the full multimodal award, we can kind of peacemeal the money to get the project done. So this application is kind of strange. We have to have a draft application into PENDOT. I believe the deadline is November 5th. I don't know where Dan went. Um but I want to say it was November 5th. I'm sorry, September 5th. And then Pendot will review the draft application and then the final application is due in November. So Pendot will kind of hold our hand through the whole process.

So the initial application that we put through that was for multimodal funding through DCED. It was DCD funding. Correct. It's a different grant, but we don't know if we're going to get the whole award from DCED. So we're trying to expand our horizons. If I could miss you, was that a 100% award at that point? the one that we put in for or is it No, it's a match. It's a We showed up. Do you remember offh hand and forgive I don't mean to I'm sorry I don't surprise you like that. I should have just emailed you in advance, but I was just thinking I thought it was like a 90. No, it was more than 90. It's definitely more than 90. So, if we if we support this, which I can't imagine why we wouldn't, we're looking at plugging in that last 10%.

No, I don't know how it will work. All I know is that we have an advantage an an opportunity to put in for funding for a project that we need to do. So, we're going to take advantage of that opportunity and and see how our chips fall. Yes. So, I support this 100%. Township supervisors in Franklin are extremely excited about this. It can't come fast enough. So, thank you. Thanks for having a bird's eye view. Any other comments? There's a motion in a second. Roll call. Mr. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Willovich? Yes. Mr. Hos? Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lcavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes, Miss Stevenson. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Unanimous.

Number 10. Motion to adopt the resolution setting forth non-binding parameters for business entities applying for LERA status. So move, Mr. Chair. Second. Motion and a second. Question, Mr. Chair.

Go ahead, Mr. Thornton. Um yeah, I was reviewing the schedule today and u I just want to say there probably some deep economic ramifications to this. We've stated them in the past. We've had lengthy lengthy discussions on learners, the value of them, the importance of them for economic development, um how much it increases tax revenue in future years to the county. U this a couple of effects will will fall out of this if it passes. Uh one is industry and developers around the country take note of these kind of votes. Um whereas in the past corporations would readily come to Lutheran County requesting a lerta after they request it from the local municipality and the school district and they come to us then we consider the lerta u and by the way just for everybody's knowledge luras according to uh someone stated it earlier it might have been Mr. cost. The the state law in Lerta says they can only be granted for envir environmentally compromised land, blighted land can't we we can't grant Alerta. It's inappropriate, maybe illegal if we gave Alerta for a development on pristine rural land. So according to state law, that's not supposed to happen. So when news gets out that we're developing a more inhibitive uh schedule for developers, many times they won't even seek Alerta here in in the county. They'll just simply go south of us, Carbon County,

Skooko County or they'll go north of us county that pretty much gives out alert us to any kind of development up there all the time as their regular uh policy. So I'm concerned about that. This could have far-reaching effects far far in the future 20 30 40 years from now. Uh secondly, when we discourage learners, we're discouraging developers from coming here and going elsewhere. That's simple fact. uh that equates to in the future we won't get those great increased tax revenues from those corporations. We'll simply continue getting the little pittance of taxes on that land that's undeveloped, undeveloped, scarred land, environmentally compromised land, uh land that nobody ever wants to build on because it's so expensive to remediate the soils. So that's why they don't that's why our lands around here have been sitting in Lutheran County since the 50s when the mine companies closed up and they left their column banks and their coal fields and slag and no one's developing it because it cost a couple million dollars before you even start developing the project just to remediate the soil. So when we grant Alerta over the next five 10 years actually the revenue that come into the coffers here at the county increase dramatically every year every year till the 10th and final year sometimes the eighth and eighth and nth or 10th year where we get enormous amounts of revenue coming from big business and big corporations. that reduces the pressure on the then sitting councils to raise taxes on the mom and pops and and the regular folks in this county.

I hate to take any kind of measures or employee measures that's going to cause me if I was here or future council to increase taxes on the res residents when we could have got it off the corporations but we kind of pushed them away. we didn't want him here and we did that with a prohibitive schedule like this. So, I'm very concerned with the message this sends. Oh, and not to mention um S&P is the rating agency around the country. They issue ratings not just on yourselves individually. Uh credit ratings, businesses, they give credit ratings. They have a credit rating for the county. Obviously, the higher our our credit rating, the better positioned we are as a county and for many financial reasons. We don't want to take steps that could actually make them lower our rating. That's that's detrimental to the county. Um, many cases it causes tax increases to the people. Um, and I would hate for that to happen here. anything that's perceived by S&P as a negative or detrimental uh item to development or future prosperity or economic growth could result combined with other things if you're taking other matters that are considered uh inhibitive of future growth in the county that has the effect of lowering our credit rating. So that that I'm concerned about too. The last thing I'm concerned about is the schedule is different for warehousing and logistics development. And whereas warehousing used to get a really bad name because they were not good paying jobs, today's world since co warehousing is paying 20 to 22 bucks an hour, 40 to 44,000 a year. a livable wage that you know

you're not going to be very wealthy or that but I don't like that it's a fiveyear limited schedule uh much harder tax break or very little tax break for those companies there's a per acre development fee of 5,000 per acre whereas the other guys that come here for manufacturing or techbased development they're going to only pay $2500 uh per acre say for manufacturing I don't like when any government body at the federal level or state level or local level is picking winners and losers. The government should not be picking winners and losers of who they think should be successful. Whether that's the United States government, state government of Pennsylvania, or the county government. I just think that's a bad practice when we start sticking our nose and our feet in there and uh thinking we know better of what's best and what's going to really take off in this county. So, for those reasons, um I'm I'm opposed to this resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Thor. Just to add to those comments, um I know I I've brought this example up numerous times in this discussion about the lura schedule. Um, one of the few school districts in all of Luzernne County that has not had to raise taxes over the course of the last five years is the school district I live in, Pton Area School District. And that's because our largest taxpayer in Luzern County owns property and has facilities, buildings, logistics facilities, uh, techbased development facilities on minecard land in the greater Piston area. Uh, that's Mr. Rob Miracle. and not only is he the largest taxpayer in the county, but he's also responsible for helping save the entire west side of the Wyoming Valley during the flood of 2011. Um, so we have developers like that that are local that love this area and want to invest in our people. And now school districts like Pittston area who have given out tax abatements which at the time were called Koz's are now reaping those benefits while most others in this county are having to raise taxes every single year. Just across the river in the Wyoming area school district they've had to raise taxes uh how many how many times Mr. Thorton?

Uh probably about 12 years in a row

right and it's past the index every single time. Um and and just to echo some of some of the other things Mr. Thornton said, this certainly I think will chase development out of this county. And I know that there are a lot of people in the audience who are concerned about um the way that some of these tax abatements have gone on and and I certainly understand what you're saying, but even in this schedule, a warehouse or a data center would receive the best tax abatement. Um, and for us not to be able to individually negotiate on these things will end up being worse for us because the development will not come to the area. We will not be able to provide uh tax relief to residents and we won't be able to also negotiate with them on other issues too. We could say, "Hey, you know, if you're coming to this area, maybe the fire department in your town uh could get a new fire truck off of you." we can certainly negotiate those types of things. That's happened before. Um so I I don't support this and uh this again this is not necessarily related to the power line issue. Um I don't think they're mutually exclusive and you know we we don't want to be stopping development from coming into Lzarn County because it'll end up being a detriment to everybody here. Miss Stevenson.

Um I I do have some reservation. A few months back when this originally came up, I supported Councilman Sabantino in introducing this lura schedule. Um, Councilman Thornton made some very valid points that we we went back, we did some research. Um, I absolutely agreed with um this is the same Lerta schedule that was presented several months ago, which means we did not learn over the last two months. We did not make any adjustments. We did not make any changes to this schedule. Um, which I don't support. um we we knew and we understood that um setting up the learner schedule the way it is presently wasn't quite fit for the county. Um we didn't get to revise that. Um so um that is the main reason why I don't think I can support this moving forward. Um I was hoping to see something change some differences in either how we structure that percentage- wise um how we tailor that to manufacturers or whoever depending on those categories. Um, but yeah, I'm just putting that out there for the record. M

M Mr. Sabatino, I would uh like to make a motion to refer back to the committee to rework it and bring the changes that we've learned need to be made for, you know, future consideration. Make that amendment for tonight, Mr. Chapatino, or we just make it here? Well, I'd rather rather not do it here. I'd rather not do it on the floor. Right. I'd rather not do it here. I'd rather refer it back to the infrastructure committee and let us do our due diligence on it. I second that. All right. Is that a table? It's tabled already. Yeah, it's we never removed it from being tabled. Oh,

okay. So, there is a motion to refer it back to committee. All right. Motion in a second. Roll call. Yes, I'll resend my second and refer back to the committee. No, I don't want to resend mine. Okay. Okay. But wait, mine needs. Is there a second for my original motion at this point? Point of order. No, no, that was for Mr. Savvino. So, is there a second for Mr. Hos's original motion on the learner schedule? All right. Motion fails for lack of a second. Okay. It'll be referred back to committee.

Yep. Roll call. Mr. Wovich. Yes, Mr. Hos. There's a gross lack of leadership that we're showing here. We did this two months ago and the public's here tonight even with variant related issues and we're kicking the camp. No, Miss Krishnowski. Yes, Mr. Lavage. Yes, Mr. McDermott. Yes, Mr. Perry. Mr. Sabatino. Yes, Miss Smith. Yes, Minson.

I believe we are exemplifying great leadership by taking this back to the table to figure out how to do it properly. Um, I would appreciate the fact for us not making that mistake moving forward. So, yes, Mr. Tharton and I agree wholeheartedly with Miss Stevenson. I think this is the prudent thing to do. Uh I vote yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. Agenda one goes back to committee. Number 11. Motion to adopt the resolution encouraging PPL to pursue alternatives and its installation of lines for Sugarloaf transmission product in order to project in order to maintain the quality of life for Lzar County residents. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Is there another question?

Go ahead, Mr. Thor. Yeah, just uh a few things on this resolution I want to comment on. Um and my comments should not be taken that I'm in favor of PPNL or I'm supporting them or taken that I'm admonishing them or criticizing them. So neither one of those. Um, my big concern for speaking right now is that this resolution is putting the cart way way way ahead of the horse. The the proposed project is not scheduled to begin till next year. In the meantime, the normal procedure in any kind of proposal like this by utility company is to first hear all the public comments from the public at the public utility commission's hearings. The PUC, this is why the PUC was set up long, long time ago so that utility companies can't just shove this down the public's throat like they used to. Uh me personally, would I want anything like this with these towers going through my land? Absolutely not. Never. That that that's just a horrible horrible thing to consider. Um however, we have a method in place methodology PUC and um the DP they have to weigh in. They have to weigh in on this. Uh there are some uh pretty uh severe allegations here in this resolution such as like toxic herbicides are going to put the children and grandchildren at serious risk. Well, that could be true and I want to hear that. I want to hear that from D or the PUC. Um I do want to hear the truth if they'll tell me. And you know, I didn't fall off the turnup truck yesterday. Uh if I feel they're

lying about everything when they've had their opportunity to speak. I think that's absolutely the time to go after them and and and just call them out on it, what they're lying about. Um, the other thing, the other reason I think it should be put off, I don't care if it's two weeks from now or four weeks from now or whatever, council is meeting individually and privately with PPNL representatives in the next week. We're all going to sit down privately in small groups and we can ask them a thousand questions and sit there and assess, are they BSing us or do we think they're telling the truth? And I think maybe we should sit down and wait for them to speak and answer our many many questions. A every council person here I'm sure has a bunch of questions. I know I do for PPNL. Um I just think uh we we we need to follow the normal procedure PU D hearings um and our private meetings with PPNL next week. Wouldn't that be make sense? Wouldn't that be prudent? Um, so and the other thing I do want to state here, I heard a lot of public comment, much of it of great value, but some of it was just a little off. Um, I heard several people at the podium speak that uh they're encouraging council to pass this resolution tonight, which opposes this new transmission line. This resolution does not oppose the transmission lane. I don't know if you people read it. Um the paragraph of importance is the last one where it says Lutheran County Council encourages PPL to listen to the concerns of the residents. So of course we all feel that they

should listen to us what we have to say. I mean I have a lot to say to them. I know they're going to listen to me. They may not follow what I'm saying, but at least they're going to hear me. And I think they should hear every one of you and everyone else in those townships down there that are affected. Um, so I just wanted to make that known here. Um, a couple other things that I heard tonight just to clarify the record. Someone stated they never had an opportunity to weigh in and listen about those past lures that we granted. Well, that that's just simply not true. Every letter we granted was individually done with multiple public meetings at at a minimum two public meetings but some of them three and four public meetings with a lot of public discussion. So we don't do things uh non-transparently here. We advertise these things. We advertise these agendas. Everyone in the public knows what we're going to discuss. So that I wasn't buying that we kind of pull the wool over to public size would pass lures. Um I I mentioned this with the other resolution. Lurers can only be granted for compromise and blighted lands. We can't give lures on a nice gorgeous farm anywhere. It's just not allowed. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that. Um the moratorium issue came up several times tonight. That's not even on the agenda tonight. You're allowed to talk about it.

It's on It's on the work session.

It's on the work session. But people were saying tonight I encourage you to vote for the moratorum. Well, we may in the future, but not tonight. That's not on the voting agenda. I don't know. A lot of people I think were kind of misunderstood and thought we're voting on a moratorum tonight. That's not part of this at all. Um so those are some of the things I just wanted to clarify. And if we are going to pass this resolution which says again council encourages PPL to listen to the concerns of residents and consider alternatives to the blah blah blah with all the alternatives listed after that. Um that's that's fine by me. Uh the one thing I would like to clarify Mr. Chairman, we want to make sure this is factual. And the second whereas where it says the read it reads the proposed transmission line will run through land that is not rural but rather popular with homes and families. The the fact of the matter is that land is rural and that's not my opinion. factually uh according to state number state statistics and their requirements it's not only rural it's very rural. Uh the state requirement to be classified as a rural township is u two 291 people per square mile and two 291 or less. Um, Sugarloaf is 175 per square mile and Black Creek is 70 people per square mile. So, well well within the rural. So, I'm not comfortable voting in favor of this because it it's truly not a rural. I'd rather it read some and I can make an amendment if you wish. Uh, I'd rather it read the proposed transmission line will run through land that is populated with

homes and families. And that's that's what I I think would be more factual. So if I can um I make that motion to make that amendment to read like that. There's a motion and a second on the amendment. Uh there's any questions? Any questions on that or is All right. Roll call on the amendment. Mr. Hos. Yes. Miss Krishnowski? Yes. Mr. Lascavage? Yes. Miss McDermott? Yes. Mr. Perry? Yes. Mr. Sabatino? Yes, Miss Smith. Yes, Miss Stevenson. Yes, Mr. Thornton. Yes, Mr. Wovich. Yes, Mr. Lombardo. Uh, yes. Unanimous.

All right. And thank you. And thank you for the amendment. And could I continue with one other amendment?

Go ahead, Mr. Thornton. Uh in light of my comments about I'd really like to see us encourage the public to pursue this matter and attend the PUC meetings and the D meetings um and follow that process. And at the end of all of that, everyone then could still say whatever they want to say to people, you know. Um, I think jumping the gun on this is is just premature. Again, they're not starting construction till next year. And I I I think we we could do this two weeks from now or four weeks from now, but um I'd like to see uh if I can offer an amendment and hopefully it passes. I'd like to add one whereas clause and change the now therefore clause if that's okay. And I'll read it out loud. That's all right. Okay.

So, all the warehouse clauses that are there now on the uh resolution would stay the same and then there'd be one more whereas clause right after that and then I would like to replace the now therefore clause. So, you're adding a whereas and then replacing the now therefore. Can you read your language?

Yeah, I'll read the language. So, the warehouse clause would read, "Whereas concerns have been raised by residents regarding PPL's placement of a new electrical line, it is essential to recognize that the appropriate channels for addressing these allegations are through the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PUC, and the Department of Environmental Protection, the DP. Period." And then the now therefore clause, the one that's here now is not bad, but I think it's it's it's more appropriate to say All right, we're going to do one at a time to show that. Can we add that? Whereas can you Well, how about this? Read your now therefore clause as well and then we'll do them one at a time. And then the uh now therefore uh amendment that I would offer. Now therefore, be it resolved that residents are encouraged to formally present their objections and concerns to the PUC and D as these bodies serve as the proper forums for evaluating and responding to such challenges. Engaging with these agencies ensures that residents voices are heard within the established regulatory framework allowing for a thorough and fair examination of the issues at hand.

Okay. We'll start with your first whereas clause. That's a separate amendment. That's going to be the first one. Okay. I make a motion for that whereas amendment. Okay. Can you read it again? Whereas concerns have been raised by residents regarding PPL's placement of a new electrical line, it is essential to recognize that the appropriate channels for addressing these allegations are through the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and in the Department of Environmental Protection. Okay. Mr. Thornton proposed an amendment. Amendment. Is there a second on the amendment? On the proposal, Mr. Chairman, go ahead. Mr. Ross, the

both amendments, if I could speak about both of them concurrently, both of them essentially make this moot because obviously the PUC is there to field such requests. Without having these and it's concurrent with the schedule for the LERA, it's concurrent with the moratorum coming up in the work session. You you understand people would not have come to the table to even wanted to meet with us beforehand if it weren't for these public life. Everybody has a lot of theater. I'm sure you know. So if we just send our hands and let the appropriate common channels go through, it's in the bank. It's 95% done the PUC. Okay. I just want I I hope we're just very clear about this. So when you change that, yes, those are the channels. But we are encouraging people before it gets to that point to truly listen to concerns of the people to examine not the bottom line per se but the quality of life in our neck of the woods here in Pennsylvania. This is a very special place. I feel like we have these same debates every time. So I feel the need to address them. Representative Walsh brought about Northern Virginia. I lived in Northern Virginia. I lived there. It was a beautiful place. I still like Northern Virginia, but now it is a much more congested, not rural place whatsoever, even if it's with the national designation rural place. We know that 100% of counties in New Jersey are designated urban counties, even though if you've been to Western New Jersey, it's rural. Okay? So, it's a numbers thing. Things like this are meant to confuse the original point of this, which is to have people, you know, listen to our people, to listen to us, listen to the council. We are tasked with representing the people and preserving the quality of life here to the best way possible. I'm not opposed to development. I'm on the record for that. I don't think anybody here is opposed to development. But we want a real dialogue. We don't want breadcrumbs after the meal is all taken over. And that's what these people are concerned with here tonight. They're worried about getting the crumbs. They

brought up very legitimate arguments. Um, when you look at something like this, PPNL is it's it's a for-profit company. Now, it has different designations because it serves the public as a utility, but it is for profit. PPL makes money not by making electricity. They make it by transmitting and transferring energy. So, of course, they're going to want to build more lines. That's just good business practice. If you want to sell more lemonade, you make you pick more lemons and you sell it. they make a profit. So something like this gets them to it doesn't get them anything. It's it's a suggestion. It's an encouragement. All right. This really has no teeth. However, I really believe it did get us this far with a potential dialogue and with these people here as this is written. This doesn't take a stance one way or the other as far as the appropriate channels with the PUC or the protocols. Has nothing to do with that. What it has to do with is having PPNL be very forthright, forthright as possible with everybody to fact, not just Councilman Thor. Everybody, because that's what we deserve here in northeastern Pennsylvania. I I just hope you understand what's at stake. This is so much more than just a power line. This is a whole way of life here that you heard in the presentation that I wasn't here for. The plan for our area is to become an industrial zone. Especially, it's going to start with South County. It's going to start with you and you all that are here today. Your kids will not have your grandkids will not have the same life here. It'll look like Northern Virginia. It'll look like New Jersey. That is what we're tasked with here. I'm a Republican. I'm very conservative individual. I believe in free enterprise and we're not putting our foot on the scales. It's my that's my line. But the LER is we are putting ourselves in the driver's seat and not big business with what everything you just you all just said no to with the LER schedule. We talked about that. We ran around that for two months. You said no. We're going to kick it back to the committee and we're going to sit around and talk about it for hours. You could have done it tonight, but we're going to

wait and it's buying time for the entities that don't have the same perspective that we do or people in this crowd do. Please support this. Let's just call the question and move it without any amendment. Let's move it. Thank you. All right, M. Miss McDermott.

Okay. I other council members have done this before where you bring an amendment, a big long amendment at the last second and you have a copy there. Why couldn't you have handed a copy to us before? So, I have a hard time trying to I hear what you're saying, but I like to read it and understand it. So, you didn't give us a copy of it. So, I have a hard time, you know, saying yes to the amendment. I have no problem with the resolution. Again, it encourages council. It encourages PPNL, but again, non-binding. It encourages. So, I have a hard time just trying to vote on an amendment that was just thrown at us.

Uh, m Mr. Lascavage and then Mr. Thornton. What I have a problem with is we get these resolutions and all these things and then what happens is they're always done before all the facts are out and it's rather irritating. We're all going to meet with PPNL. We're going to sit down. We have questions. We heard a lot of things here tonight. We heard a can, you know, cancer causing. Well, I at home, I looked it up. And then the National Cancer Society states that there's no proof of a cat causing cancer. So, I I got to go by what they say. I have to do research, right? If we're responsible all sitting here, we need to dig it out. Now, I'll ask that same question to them and see what their answer is. And I'll say, "Well, where's that provider from?" That's our job here. Also, I heard a comment, "This isn't the poll that was proposed in 1900." Well, no kidding, because most homes didn't have electric in 1900. So, I don't think those polls at that time would be sufficed for that right away. The other thing, too, is we can never blame a corporation for rightaways. That's buyer beware. When you buy a property, you buy a house, you're there's an empty lot there. If somebody's buying a house in Luzern County, I'm going to encourage them. If there's an empty lot sitting next to you, do your research because myself and Brian in the small little town of West Pitts ran into this. I couldn't tell you how many times in a small town about somebody opening a junkyard or an excavating business or everything else. And you know what the zoning was? Zone for it. So I said, "Be glad that he's keeping it nice and neat and doing what he's doing with it and not making it any worse because the zoning because people don't realize this in this county. There was a ton of spot zoning that went on in in this whole county. Good or bad, it's there and you got to live with it. So we we got to know all the facts and I don't think anything should ever be put

before us to vote on it whether it's significant or not when we don't hear all the facts from both sides. That's our job. All right, m Mr. Thornton, and then I I have a comment on um I agree, Mr. Hos. I agree with all your comments.

It's great land. We got to protect it. We got to watch over it. Um I apologize. I typed this up right before the meeting tonight and came down here. Um I made two copies at home because uh my printer is so slow. But anyway, uh it wasn't that I was trying to hide anything from anybody. Um I'm not changing I'm keeping every whereas clause in there that's in there. I'm not eliminating anything. I'm adding one more whereas clause encouraging people to go and talk to PU talk at the meetings with the D and the PUC. I mean, the opposite of that then is I don't know if the argument is for the opposite of that to not not go to the meetings, not discuss it, not weigh in on it. If that's what everybody wants, go ahead, do that. I think it's uh more appropriate to go to those meetings and discuss and see what happens. But that's all I that's all I'm doing with the warehouse clause. the the other amendment is for the now therefore but u I just want to clarify I agree with Mr. Hos all those points you made

all right thank you so then present the amendment

okay all right um yeah I I wanted to make a comment and then I'll have council Mcder um so I agree with what Mr. Lcavage said about wanting to have all the facts uh before we make a decision. However, I will say that I have been for the last two months in contact with Alana Roberts, the manager of community relations for PPL. Talked to her on the phone several times. I've asked her a number of questions about this project. Um and I specifically asked her several weeks ago to please attend this meeting. I said, I want to make sure everybody has the opportunity to say what they what they want to say and and you know, council members will be able to ask you questions or ask a representative from PPL questions prior to this vote and they sent us this letter. And I'll be honest with you, it completely enraged me last week when the letter was sent. Um I, you know, it answers a few questions, but there are so many more that council members have. There's a ton that the public have raised that are very legitimate. Um, and what made me even more angry was after receiving the letter, I called Miss Roberts on Friday, and I have not gotten a return full phone call since then. In my last conversation with her, and I'll tell you exactly what she said. That's how angry I am about this. I said to her, you know, I want to give you an opportunity. I want to give PPL an opportunity to come here and to respond, but you're going to be asked a lot of questions by council. I need you to prepare for that. I know I'm going to have questions for you. I know other council members are going to have a lot of things that they want to say. And essentially, one of the things that she said to me was, "Well, even if you pass this resolution, this project is still going to happen. We're still going to go through with this. Um it doesn't mean anything." And I said, "Well, what's the point of the phone conversation that you and I have been having for the last two

months? What's the point of having all these public meetings?" Um, and it just it just made me very angry to see how disrespected not only the members of the public are, but us on council who are trying to ask questions and and especially myself as the chair. I'm trying really hard to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak. Mr. Zolola, I had you here two weeks ago. We gave you about an hour of time to go through um some of your concerns. I've heard members of the public several times and we've come to your house and you know I just wanted to be fair. Give PPL that opportunity as well and this is all they send us is the stupid letter. Um so

I I I I am aware of that. She No, Miss Lawrence didn't uh she didn't she didn't turn the timer on so I'll blame her for that. Sorry Sher I'm sorry. Um but I know so I had to throw her under the bus. Um but for those reasons I 100% support this resolution. Mr. Thornton, I I agree with the sentiment behind what you're trying to say. Um, but I I don't support those amendments and uh I I don't think that they're going to uh make a big difference because the members of the public know that they have to go to the PUC and you know, I'll certainly be there with you when you go there. Um, you know, we want this line not to be in the place that it is. Um, and I think that there needs to be more conversation about where the alternatives can be.

Go ahead, Mr. Thank you. Um, the resolution says Lzar County Council encourages PPL. So, we're not encouraging the people, it's encouraging PPL. That's that's all I just wanted to state. All right. Is there So, is there there's still a motion in the second on the amendments, Mr. Thornton? Mr. Lcavage, you're still okay with your second? Okay. All right. Any other comments on the amendments?

Just one last comment, Mr. Chair. If you're enraged with Pino for being disingenous and speaking generalities, we need to apply the same standard to developers who come in here and give us generalities, which they've given us. My my fellow committee members on the infrastructure commities. So, please direct your your your rage towards an appropriate channel as well. It's it's the same thing. It's it's I know, but it's just a little fresh. We we got to be a little more consistent and we've really got to do this a little better. But yeah, call the question. All right. Questions called. Okay. Questions called for the first amendment. The first whereas motion of the second. Roll call.

Well, that was a change to two letters. Yeah. The fir the first new whereas clause.

This is for the whereas. Yes. Yes. So, a no vote will say no to the amendment. Correct. Yes. No. Yes. No.

No. No. Yes. No. No. Would you like to make them? Mr. Chair, I resend my uh I can see where the sentiment's going here. I resend the uh my suggestion for the now therefore for uh concerns with PUC and D. All right. Thank you. There's a motion on the original resolution. Is everybody okay with it as amended with the that first amendment, not any of these other ones that Mr. Thornton was talking about? Okay. There's a motion to the second. Roll call. Miss Krishnowski. Yes.

Mr. Lavage. No for reason. Miss McDermott. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Perry. Mr. Sabatina. Yes. Miss Smith. I really wish that we could accomplish this in a more direct way instead of just encouraging PTL to listen. But um I'm still going to vote yes. M. Stevenson. Yes, Mr. Thornton.

Yeah. Again, I I really wish we put this off for two or four weeks. It wouldn't have harmed anything. Uh but I since the the resolution encourages people, you know, to listen to the people, I'll vote yes, Mr. Belove. Absolutely. Yes, Mr. Hos. Yes. Yes. Mr. Lombardo. Yes. 10 yes, one no passes. Okay. Thank you. Number 12. Motion to adopt the resolution submitting a letter of support to the PA Department of Labor and Industry on behalf of Lzern County Community Colleges grant application for advanced manufacturing training program. So move second.

All right. Motion in a second. Uh just on the question really quick. I just want to clarify. I had this added to the agenda. I know it's going directly onto the uh voting session, but I happen to run into uh Mike Nargavage uh from Luzar County Community College who runs the workforce force development program. He had mentioned that uh that that program applied for uh applied for this grant from the PA Department of Labor and Industry and that there was a deadline for submissions of letters of support. Um so I wrote the letter very quickly wrote the resolution and just said I will throw this right on the agenda and if as long as council's okay with it, we'll be you know we'll be supportive of it. So yep, there's a motion in a second or any other questions? Roll call. Mr. Lavage. Yes. Miss McDermott.

Yes. Mr. Perry, yes. Mr. Sabatino, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stevenson, yes. Mr. Thornton, yes. Mr. Wovich, yes. Mr. Hos, yes. Miss Krishnowski, yes. Mr. Lombardo, yes. Unanimous.

Thank you. All right. Now, public comment on non-aggenda items. I do have a bunch of slips up here, so if you don't want to speak again and just let me know. Uh, Mr. Griffith. Evening council. I have a an issue with the res and I know the resolution that you just passed on the encouragement. I think the ability for us to change resolutions and stuff on the fly to Miss McDermott's point is a valid point. The public has an opportunity to speak to a resolution that was on the agenda. when you start making changes to that resolution, I think it's imperative that the public get a chance to see what the complete document is so they can comment again if they need to. The the resolution is getting changed on the fly here and I don't think that's appropriate for council to do that. the the issue about approving the ordinance for the learn the the the borrowing is a concern that and I do agree with uh manager Crocomo that that wasn't done in the past and that's not an excuse for us to do things the way we always done it and that's obviously an issue for me as well. I don't like to hear that well that's the way we've always done it if it wasn't done right. When we drafted the charter, the reason we put that in there was for the separation of power between council and the manager for borrowing. It was specific. We did that for a reason because the county commissioners put us $500 million in debt before we went home roll. So, as charter drafters, we decided that we were thinking it was appropriate for council to at least have the opportunity to bring an ordinance for borrowing to the council body and get the four votes first. So that way they knew that was something that they had a reason to borrow on. It wasn't anything more than that. It was just to keep the power in council's hands for borrowing. The ability to say this is a budgetary ordinance is a stretch at best. Are we going to do that with Lertas? Can they

be automatically introduced? That's a budgetary function. Can a manager automatically introduce Alerta? So I think it's a slippery slope we stand on. I I don't have a problem with the ordinance. Just to be clear, I think the ability for us to save the money is great and I applaud the administration for doing that. I just think that when we step when we step on a slope where we allow stretching of a of a of an ordinance or stretching of the procedure, I think we get into a a gray area where moving down the road we could have a problem with different people in in the manager's position. We don't have that problem with manager Cookamo and we won't have that. But I want to make sure that we keep our separation of powers for council. Every time you give up a power, you lose it forever. And that power is specific for council because it's a borrowing. If if the manager wants to go out and borrow money, clearly you guys have to approve the ordinance. But the the ability for council to get four votes first is specific in the charter for borrowing. It says by ordinance. So, I'm I'm glad that you guys passed the ordinance for it and gave the 3.4 million. I think that's a great idea to save us the money, but I just think we need to be cognizant of the fact that at some point along the way, we could end up in trouble with allowing these type of things to happen without uh doing our due diligence on the council side. It's a power of council, not a c power of the it's not a power of the county manager. So, thank you very much. I appreciate your opportunity to talk.

Thank you, Mr. Griffith. Manager Crocomo, would you like to respond to that?

Yes, I would. The actions and the statements of the controller in challenging the county manager's ability to introduce an ordinance for refinancing are not only misguided, but also detrimental to the governance and financial stability of Luzern County. The home roll charter clearly delinates the responsibilities and authorities of the county manager, particularly regarding financial matters. By attempting to obstruct the ordinance related to debt reissuance, the controller fundamentally misunderstands the charter's provisions which categorize such actions as integral to the county's fiscal management. I also want to be clear that the county controller may have been on the initial discussion of drafting the charter. He never finished in that position of drafting the chart charter. The charter explicitly states that proposed ordinances concerning the annual budget and long range fiscal plan shall be automatically introduced without requiring four affirmative votes. It is indisputable that refinancing debts falls within the scope of fiscal responsibility. To argue otherwise is to undermine the very framework that governs our county's financial operations. I'm just I'm concerned that you we didn't get that same advice the council when she was chief solicitor

and and DC deals DC deal sit down DC will decide sit down I want to respond to that the county controller is is is threatening to go to DCED we will prevail because we are correct in how we did this.

But what it will do is postpone the positives of this refinancing. And I tell you every single day that we you the taxpayer lose money because of the actions of the controller. I will report to you every single day. And as a matter of fact, uh do we know what that might uh happen if there is a delay in the uh in the uh acceptance by DCD? Ryan, do you have those numbers?

I do. Okay. Would you share them with uh council? Yeah, sure. Mr. Griffith, Mr. Griffith, please sit down. Mr. Griffith, please sit down. I asked the bonding company for Mr. Griffith, please sit down. They did not respond.

Um, just this is still on. Just to give a perspective, right now your bonds are outstanding are at a 5% interest rate. So you have that ability to refinance them at a lower interest rate. Every day that goes by where you're paying that higher interest rate as opposed to the lower interest rate, you're losing savings. So right now, estimated based on current rates, everything staying the same. If you're delayed by a month, you're looking at a loss in net present value savings of $145,000. If you're delayed by two months, that goes up to $200,000. If you're delayed by three months, $320,000 loss. Four months, $440,000 loss. So, if there's any delay in this refinancing, right now we're expected to close. We'd like to close for October 10th. Any filing at DCED where there's a challenge there and that gets delayed every single day. If interest rates remained exactly the same, the county and its taxpayers will lose money.

Question. All right. Thank you. This is this is not question and answer time for council. This is public comment time. Okay. Please, Mr. Thoren, please. Will Mr. Griffith call me out specifically and I want to answer. Okay. After the after the members of the public have an opportunity to all have their Thank you. comments heard, council members can have an opportunity to speak as well. Okay. Andy Senko.

Thank you. Andy Seno, Sugarloaf Township. The organization I oversee is about a $300 million a year organization. What I was able to find on Luzern County, it's a bit more than $400 million a year. If any of you believe that the county's S&P rating is solely based on largescale development, I'm happy to have a conversation offline with one or all of you. Perhaps I could be of benefit to all of county and help you maintain a solid SNP rating without large-scale development. I also want to note I've watched for months as a man Anthony Hall, a fully disabled veteran, a gold star father. He pleaded with this council to fight for a tax break that would allow him to save his home. Anthony Hall is just one individual who fought long and hard to obtain tax relief. Compare that to the billiondoll industries who are receiving lures from this council with unbelievable ease. Contrast the hardship facing many residents in Luzernne County with the generous tax exclusions tax exclusions for their profit developers are drawn to. If I were a developer or PPL with deep pockets and dollar signs in my eyes, you bet I'd bring my business to Lzeran County where taxes seem to evaporate, meaning more money for me as the developer or PPNL. Since I'm not, I can only ask this council, when will my family, including my parents living on fixed income and other residents of Luzern County, when can we expect our tax abatement? If the data and power industries are so eager to build and develop here, use that and leverage, listen to the people, secure fiscal security for our county for many years to come.

Tonight, someone mentioned winners and losers. It was also stated, "I don't like picking winners and losers." If you don't immediately act on Lura's big business and PPL as a council, you clearly have picked the winners. Big mi big business. And you are sending a very loud and clear message to the losers. The very people you were sworn to protect and serve. All right. Thank you, sir. Uh, Linda Yurish. Okay. Uh, Trisha Marell, Dan Eustace from Lake View, Lake View Drive. He's coming. Okay. My name is Dan Eustace. I am deeply troubled by the push to welcome massive data centers to Pennsylvania. I honestly have never seen this much community involvement and coming together to voice opposition to large-scale developments such as data centers, high voltage power lines, warehouses, and other dangerous industries that threaten our health and happiness. I truly believe that most Pennians do not want this in our state. These industries would leave a permanent scar on our landscape and environmental destruction that we will be left with forever. Trillion dollar companies will make massive profits all while receiving tax breaks from the state without any accountability in reporting their spending. I and my fellow Pennians have numerous concerns. Some of our many concerns regarding data centers and high voltage

power lines include water scarcity, well and aquifer depletion, worsening air quality, noise and light pollution, decreased quality of life, environmental destruction and loss of quality wildlife habitat, rising electricity costs, essentially taking of property by eminent domain. physical and mental health risks, reduction in property value and placement of such facilities in non-industrial areas. I ask you to stop and think what think about what this is all for. Is further advancement in technology and AI actually a good thing? Its effects on youth are generally agreed agreed upon as being negative for that matter. Many of its effects on society in general are negative. This technology is not a a necessity to life, but it's a want that is propelled by multi-billion and multi-t trillion dollar companies that do not care about the well-being of the residents of Pennsylvania. In a world where we already have issues such as water scarcity, availability of clean energy, worsening air quality, wildlife habitat loss, this would only make things much worse. These industries would forever change our landscape while the rich get richer. and it is the people who live here that were that will suffer. This would be very similar to what the coal industry did to this area many years ago. As a solution, I ask you to consider a few things. I ask you to think about all of us who live here and who will be negatively affected as described above. These projects need to be more slowly evaluated, not fast-tracked. They must remain in in industrial areas not close to our homes. Once these industries come in, there will be no turning back. I ask you to listen to all of us in our communities that are coming together to oppose what is happening to our great state of Pennsylvania. Thanks.

Thank you, sir. Next up, Jennifer Yanni.

She's okay. Uh Dan Eustace from Jagger Road again. Thank you for letting allowing me to address the uh council. Um, members of council, we understand we can't stop data centers from coming here to Pennsylvania, but we ask you to mandate zoning laws so that these are placed in appropriate areas such as industrial brown areas, coal strippings, etc. areas that have, you know, been destroyed by coal baronss and steel mills and every other thing that uh has come and gone and and left behind messes for us to clean up. This way will limit impact on residential and conservation areas. Uh my my wife's family lives on a farm that has been there for 150 years or more. We're being uh in Dorne Township. They're planning on they are working on zoning laws for data centers and trying to exclude them to certain areas. Right now it doesn't look real good, but council has the power. Council has been elected by the people that are here and the people of Luzern County to protect us. And that's what we're asking for. We're asking for you to protect our

backyards, our areas where there's pristine lands, where their uh people have lived for ages. and deserve to continue to live there the way they were. We're not opposed to advancement. We're not opposed to, you know, the other things that improve, you know, uh, tax base for Luzern County. But all those things have to be done in the right manner. Um again, you were sworn by an oath to protect the rights and the quality of life of these residents. Um if there's any doubt, if you have any doubts of the data centers, let me ask you one question. Data centers, PPNL lines, would you want that in your backyard? Would you want it in your mom's backyard, your brother's backyard, your child's backyard? If you can answer that and say it's okay, that's one thing. I believe that if you all look at that and and go with what's in your heart, you would agree data centers, PPNL lines need to be put in the places where they belong, not where they disrupt citizens lives that have been there forever. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Uh Mr. So, this was a long confusing uh conversation we had here tonight. Uh, I just want to thank the council people who did try to help the people here. I heard a lot of testimony tonight very heavily weighing in favor of um industry and developers and very little conversation from Mr. Lascavage and Mr. Thornton in regard helping the people. If you think for one minute that we haven't had countless conversations, countless meetings with PPL where they made complete fools out of us, you're mistaken. Sadly mistaken. Go on our Facebook page, take a look at the Valley Country Club illustration. It's all videoed. You can watch at least an hour of it. You want to see how they made fools out of us? We have tried every amicable way to resolve this with ppl. They made fools out of us. They don't answer questions. And when you do meet with them next week, open your eyes and you'll see boilerplate answers, riddles for answers. Nothing will be straightforward. And at the end of the day, it's going in one ear and out the other. They are emotionless robots. And you will see that for yourself. Mr. Lascavage, you mentioned

Mr. Zolola, you have to address your comments to the chair. Please don't call out council members individually.

Okay. I'm very sorry. Very sorry. I'm very passionate about this. You go online and you find out one area that says there's no health concerns and there's 10 other ones that say there are health concerns. There's always going to be that. There's always going to be one side saying this and one side saying that. So, we can't just bring up that one organization says there's no health concerns while there's 10 others that say there are. And when you talk about the right of way, I I I wish that I I I'm not going to point to people, but I wish the people who were talking tonight would have come out and actually saw what we're looking at here. This is not like buying a property would arrive away. Listen, we knew the poles were there, right? There were small wooden poles. No one in their right mind could have imagined them putting these monsters in our yards and through our valley. And here again, we're not trying to stop them. We just want them to take an alternative route like refurbishing a line that's already there along with four or five other reasonable routes that we gave to them. So we're not trying to stop them. I would just like all of you to just kind of look at it at for a human aspect and see what we are looking at.

Thank you, Mr. Zola. Thank you. Anybody else public comment in the audience? Go ahead, ma'am. Forgive me. I'm an old widow farm wife. Uh, can you just say your name and municipality again? I apologize.

My name's Brenda Rizzo from Black Creek Township. As Mr. Zola has stated, we were with PPL. People held an open house. There were 300 of us packed into the the uh center there by the golf course. We did ask questions. Everybody got quiet. Try to keep 300 people quiet. We all were real quiet. Mr. Zola asked the lady that was in charge, forgive me, but I'm getting older. I can't remember her name from PPNL. And he kept asking questions. And he says, "Well, aren't you going to answer my questions?" She said, "No, I said I would listen to your questions." That's what we got. Then I went to the a guy with a map, nice big map on there, and I want to know, I can't find out where my line is going. I know what property they're taking. Five acres, hundred-year-old trees, a whole hay field. How are we going to feed our cows? So I I asked the guy, I says, "Where does mine go through?" Oh, he said, "Oh, you can find all the information." He's shown me the one from Sugarloaf, the original line. I said, "No, no, I'm in Black Creek." "Oh, there's nothing going there." Okay, then why did they call me 15 times so far? Robert Bell from He's originally from Tennessee, but he's from the Texas group that goes out and gets the rightways for PP&L, so they look good. 15 phone calls, three times to the house, once unannounced. Tried to talk to my neighbor and my neighbor said, "No, you talk to the landowner, not me." The surveyors were there. I had to throw them out. They never called. They just showed up. But just so you know, there's no there's no tower system going through my area. Not at all. They offered me a dollar. I I tried to get hold of the rightway specialist, Nick Swagert, and I sent him a list of questions three times. He said, "No, no, we're we're just thinking about it. We're not

really putting one in there." So, I don't know about you, but that's not comedy to me. Also, because I'm an old widow, they think they can kind of like come in there and take over. And little sweet talk. Normally, when I have trouble with my electricity, like the line was so low, so low, the electric line, I couldn't get my horses in and out of the pasture was hanging down. Three months before they came to fix it last night, the electric went out. I have five acres they want, and there's no easement on it yet. Would you believe within 15 minutes PPNL was there with the trucks. Not only that, out of all the people there on my my road, they brought a generator and they put the generator up and I had electricity in my house. Nobody else on the line. They fixed it. Within about an hour or two, they had the whole thing fixed. And lastly, I want to say thank you. This has been a long hard process for you. I know you don't get paid. I talked paid as much as you should get. I talked to one of the supervisors and I could not believe in our township what he's making. I I would not put up with everything that you guys put up with for the amount of money I'm sure you're making. So, please take these thoughts home and think of us as people. Think of it as my I'm your grandmother. Do you want this tower next to my house?

Thank you, Miss Roso. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Public comment. Speak again. Yeah. I spent my wife life working as electronic engineer. Just say state your name. Minister

Mark Clark 80 Red Rock Road. I spent my life working as electronic engineer. I could sit here for two hours and lecture you about the harm of EMF given off by that. Anybody that says it doesn't doesn't know what they're talking about. It is dangerous. It affects the pituitary gland. It affects your melatonin, your serotonin. That's it first. So now you can't sleep and you're cranky like I am. But it has long-term effects. Leukemia, cancer, cancer, all up and down my street. Now, I don't look at any study from the United States because it all depends who's paying for the study. You go to Europe and you get an unbiased, impartial, and they all say the same thing. Now, normally I'm called in this capacity to talk about science. That's not what I'm going to do today. I'm going to ask you guys to go home and look in the mirror. This is a question of right and wrong. This is ethics. This is morality. What side of the line are you on? Are you going to help us or not? I'm sorry. I'm gonna lose my house. I'm a little emotional about this.

Thank you, sir. But go ahead, ma'am. In in the back, just state your name and municipality, please.

Hi, my name is Sheri Bole. I'm from Sugarloaf Township. I just have 10 seconds. Um there's so many things that we're talking about EMFs and it's very important. I know some of these folks are my neighbors and the line is literally right next to their house. Um I don't know if any of you have seen some of the very very very large power lines. They do spray herbicides. Um everybody knows Monsanto Roundup. I don't know if you want to breathe that and drink that. Um that's proven that's proven very very bad. They will spray something even worse than that. Um, and that will go into the water tables. Uh, it is right in front of my property and it is right next to all of these people that are from Sugarloaf. So, there's so many aspects. Not too much mention of that. I heard herbicide, but um, that stuff is is is brutal. It's deadly.

We have wells. And we have Yes. And we have wells. It will be in the water tables. Um, and not to mention the wild the wildlife concern, excuse me. Um, all of the wildlife will be affected by not just the power lines, the light, um, the um, the herbicides, the the noise, the noise, the humming, the buzzing and humming that these things cause is is is incredible. Um, I just wanted to touch on that and and make that more known. Um, because I know the EMFs are big, but these there's a lot more to it than just the events. So, thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, Miss Cochan, did you want to speak?

I guess you uh Robin Koshan, Dallas Township. I guess you're lucky that I am so cold from the air conditioning. I'm only going to talk about what I think is really the most important issue tonight and it is the PPNL resolution. I do want to say how discouraging it was to hear support for watering down the resolution with an amendment and a show of a lack of understanding of the timeliness and how these land men work. I totally get it what these people are saying because 10 years ago my husband and I went through landmen knocking at our door when we had the natural gas boom come to town and nobody would help us. Not state representatives, not the federal government, nobody. The only person that helped was our one township supervisor and it made a difference. So, please don't think that there's nothing you can do. Miraculously, we did get the pipeline moved twice. It's still on my land, but they wanted to put it right next to my house. And believe me, it was the most stressful three years of our life of what we had to go through and expense hiring lawyers just to protect our own home. So my heart truly goes out to all these people. And I'm grateful that council passed the resolution because you have no idea what's coming to town. It's not just going to be PPNL. There's going to be a lot more behind it. And you you you just get you have to get ahead of this as soon as you can and protect our area. It's true. We're very unique and in several ways. One way is they know we're like sheep up here ready for slaughter. We got the rain tax. We got the casinos. We had a lot of things that have happened to us that they take

advantage of us. But you can stand up for us now and you can change that. you can change Lutheran County the way things have happened and you can protect the people and you can keep our beautiful area beautiful instead of being ruined with all these data centers and the AI. So, I only encourage you, please be creative, be courageous, work for the people, do your research, find out about AI data centers, and I'm sure that you can really help keep northeastern Pennsylvania the beautiful area that it is. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Cochant. Mr. Walsh, did you have another comment you wanted to make? Jamie Walsh, Ross Township. Just a couple of things for council and the county manager. If you have any questions that you would like me to ask while I'm in Virginia, uh the next two days, um leaving tomorrow morning and coming back Thursday afternoon, I'm meeting with um constituents, uh government official, groups in opposition to these for years, for decades. Uh, and I tried to find groups in favor that I could talk to, but there are none. So, I'm I just want you to know if you have any questions that are burning in your brain tomorrow or tonight late night and you want to email them to me, you certainly can and I'll try to get some answers for you. And uh as far as you know what I'm concerned about, one other thing I am concerned about since you're going to uh you know be dealing with this a lot in the coming months and potentially year is I'm really concerned about you know there's a lot of townships in my district that are not covered under their own planning and zoning board. They're covered under county councils. And I think we really need to address um um some type of ordinance to protect the townships that are that don't have their own planning and zoning boards and that fall under the counties. Uh I would really appreciate if we could have that discussion and maybe on the agenda uh for maybe not next meeting but the meeting after if it works works for everybody. Thank you.

Mr. Walsh, just so you know, that is actually what number five was on the agenda to update the ordinance. There's there's the we're waiting for the grant funding to do that. We are in the process of actually doing that as we speak right now. Our plan saw it in the paper. I just didn't know when. Yep. That was Yep. In the process. Thank you. Yep. All right. Anybody else in the audience? Public comment. Uh I have two hands up on the Zoom. M uh Mr. Rabo.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, uh I was cut off at the three minute mark. Your alarm went off and uh the it immediately cut me off in mid-sentence. So, I'm going to finish that sentence by saying Con Edison uh the power co uh the power public utility um I believe it's in the Midwest if I'm not mistaken uh in the Great Lakes area where I got my certifications in heavy equipment and crane uh do run their high transmission lines underground and even under the Great Lakes. Um if you check it if you want uh Mr. chair, members of council, and county manager Cooko. I could send that information to you. I think I did send it uh previously, but I'll send it again just for your edification. Also, Mr. Chair, you said about uh Pittston Township. Um you know, the economic development in Pittsen Township. I've driven commercial truck through Pittston Township. I know that high transmission lines there very well and I hear the buzzing and I hear all the stuff and it but it's in a commercial and industrial zone. It's not snaking through. I don't believe it's making through res ma massive residential areas. Even if they are, they it's they're within the commercial and industrial districts that are zoned for that usage. So, I don't know about that uh what you what you were alluding to there. Uh but the uh what the vice chairman said about the economic development for luras uh he said that luras are you know like and I believe the person who had at the work session in a 1 hour and 20 minute filibuster said uh that lurers are the end all beall learners are not the end all be all. I'm not saying he's he's alluding to that but he's making it out to be. Whereas the economic development tools that are provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, specifically DCD, give a plethora of economic development tools that the

county has at their disposal, but chooses not to. So, I think that should be made clear. And Mr. Chair, one request, uh, can you close out the meeting in a moment of silence for May uh, West Hazelton Burough Ma uh, Mayor Frank Schmidt. He was a loyal uh public servant and he believed in living by example. And I think that he his his example uh shine shines brightly for all public servants, those appointed and elected officials who serve in southern Lern County. So I make that request. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh thank you, Mr. Rabbo. And we certainly can do that for Mayor Schmidt. Okay. Ashley Bart.

Ashley Bart. Hazelton. Um, I want to thank the council members for your votes this evening and also just want to speak to and make the reminder as was mentioned that the luras were originally put in place to be an incentive to um revitalize deteriorated mine lands. If you go and look at the properties in Hazel Township and Sugarloaf Township at least, you will see that those properties are not deteriorated. They may have been at one point. If anything, they have destroyed them by clearing out over 1,200 acres of wooded area, which is done strategically, by the way, in between of protected species because if those species were there at the time, they wouldn't have been able to do it. So there's a lot of unethical and strategic and opportunistic choices that are being made that are not in the spirit of what that incentive was originally meant for. We are also, in my opinion, overwhelmingly industrialized in those regions and in the county as a whole. So yes, when we're looking out at what this these decisions are going to be in 40 years, we do need to take that into consideration because there will be nothing left if all of this goes through. And so I am not afraid to say like, not that I'm against it. I've been a business person my whole adult life. We need the right businesses. We need to consider reszoning some of these industrial areas. There needs to be recreation. there needs to be commercial um more commercial properties. There can be other things. It doesn't have to be these empty warehouses.

And you know, you can go online and look at the comments of people. Um it's easy to say like, oh, we are just an industrialized area. It's not what we want anymore. Like it's enough. We've had enough. There's ways to beautify and revitalize this region in a different way in coherence with what's already here. but not making it worse.

Uh, thank you, Miss Bart. Okay. Anybody else public comment? Is there a motion to adjurnn? Could I respond, please, Mr. Thornton?

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. uh controller Walter Griffith made a comment that uh amendments to resolutions should be public knowledge and shouldn't be uh haphazardly or randomly thrown out at a public meeting like this. I agree with that. I don't think I've ever done that in the past. However, he omitted one very important material fact. This resolution resolutions are normally given to council two weeks ahead of time in a work session. with the specific language. This one was not none of us saw this until Friday when it was publicly advertised in the papers went out for public advertisement. So I didn't have this language to read it had I had it two weeks ago. I would have suggested an amendment at that time. U I think uh what happened was Mr. H lobbied heavily with the chair to put it directly on the voting session without us being able to view it ahead of time. So there it was. That's fine. We ran with it. And I want to remind everybody that uh everybody knew including Mr. Griffith that we didn't have the ability to see this resolution before the public did. It came out Friday and that was it. Uh he knew that but he admitted that fact. Uh, I want to remind everybody I vote a further resolution tonight and I did state I was not advocating or defending PPL. I mean that I just the only amendment I try to make was to suggest the public attend those hearings and I still think you should. I'm not saying that's going to save everybody or do anything. I just thought it'd be wise to put that in the resolution. But that's all. Thank you.

Okay. Oh, okay. Uh, we're going to have a a motion to adjourn in memory of Mayor Frank Schmidt from West Hazelton. Is that Mr. Lo, you're making that motion? Second. Okay. Yep. Moment of silence.

All right. Thank you. We'll resume at 8:30. Recording stopped. Chris, you dropped your head.

Some of them could be expensive, others are. Take it to the bathroom first. And by the way, that was a good call. I was like, and then you were like, Robin probably needs

It's lit. I mean, if you want to if you want to wait for one of us. when we're done. Yeah.

No, I mean it's hard. It has nothing to do with. So the only thing that you're going to have to worry about Yeah. is public comment and people that are going to be staying. But most of the people here already addressed the concerns with first public comment and second public comment. I don't know what else they're going to say anymore.

He's going home anyway.

He knows he knows better. My birthday party.

I did not get you. ring. What do you want? That's right. I don't know. You would love that.

You would love it. You call her. Wow. Funny dad. Okay.

Yes. Have you been there? All right. All right. Council members, it's 8:30. Please take your seats.

Sorry. I'd love to set a time limit. All right, council members, please take your seats. That's fine. Council members, please take your seats. Did Le did Leanne leave?

Okay. All right, everybody. I'd like to call the work session to order. We already had a pledge of allegiance. A moment of silence. Roll call. Miss progress. Mr. Hos here. Miss Krishnowski here. Mr. Lascavage. Miss McDermott. Mr. Perry here. Mr. Sabatino here. Miss Smith here. Miss Stevenson here. Mr. Thon, Mr. Wovich present. Mr. Lombardo here. You have 10 of 11. Thank you. Any additions or deletions from the work session agenda? Is there a motion to adopt the work session agenda? Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Agenda is adopted. All right. Budget reports. Miss Roselle, come on down. What happened to my public comments? Looks like I need

Good evening. Good evening, council. Um, the reports that are included in your packet are the the budget reports for the month of July. The first report is your revenue report. Revenue earned is at 83% of budget or 139,211,276. Our current year tax collections as of the end of July are at 112 million which represents 97% of the current year tax revenue budget. Our expenses are at 72,350,266 or 45% of budget. Next is your listing of budget transfers followed by the accounts payable detail. The last report is your treasurer's report showing a cash balance of 179,399 at the end of July. The cash balance at the end of June was 190 million. Our interest that we've earned for the month of July is 303,465. Of that, ARPA accounts for 156,699. Our year-to- date total interest that we've earned through July is at 2.3 million. Our ARPA cash balance is at 37,240485. Our ARPA interest that we've earned this year is at 1.2 million. and ARPA interest earned um since inception is at 9.1 million. Also, I wanted to let everyone know that we've started working on our 2026 budget. We um had budget meetings all day yesterday and today and tomorrow and Thursday and for the foreseeable future. Um so we're working on on that now. That's that's the focus of um budget and finance right now. Does anyone have any questions for me?

Hi. Sure. There you go. You are going to get a new big beautiful binder. Absolutely. The tabs are ready to go already. Jen is on it. Fantastic. It's great reading material, right? Any other questions? Any other remarks? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Number two, discussion regarding the resolution uh adopting the hazard mitigation plan update. Uh go ahead. So, um, we are required if we want to be eligible for any FEMA funding, if there are disasters, the hazard mitigation plan has to be updated, um, which we have the consultant on the line. Dan's going to give you a couple highlights, but the next council meeting, you'll have to adopt it. So, we are eligible.

Yes. So, we started the uh, hazard mitigation plan update last December. Um, it's been a pretty quick process getting it to the point where it's been adopted. It was adopted uh July 31st by not adopted it was approved July 31st by FEMA. So now um it's going out to all the municipalities. All 76 municipalities have to pass an ordinance in order to uh adopt the hazard mitigation plan. Um this is the work session. The vote voting session is going to be two weeks for you guys to adopt the hazard mitigation plan for the county. Um and uh so far we've received seven um adopted resolutions from municipalities. I'm still waiting on 69 more. And I have uh Devon Benny from Michael Baker International. She's uh the project manager lead that helped us with updating the hazard mitigation plan. And I don't know if she can speak now, but I'm gonna run the presentation for her.

Hi. Thanks, Dan. Can everybody hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Perfect. I'm going to quickly go through some highlights of the plan. I think Dan gave a great overview. If you want to go to the next slide. So, I'm here today as Dan mentioned because the plan was um approved by FEMA and on July 31st and so we are now in the process of plan adoption which means that you all as a council will need to adopt the plan on the county's behalf within the next year. Um although we're looking for you to adopt sooner than that. So I'm going to give a brief overview to the plan and then talk about what adoption means just very quickly. Next slide. So for the plan overview um I'm going to give some very high level details. It is a pretty long plan over 400 pages with appendices. Um if you want to take a look at it at any point and have any questions you're definitely welcome to ask me or Dan. But um in general, if you want to go to the next slide, Dan, um the hazard mitigation plan is really a document that is meant to help Luzar County and all of its municipalities reduce their risk to hazards. Um it's really meant to help with your decision-m when it comes to risk and then also it provides um eligibility for specific mitigation grants. Um, if you want to go to the next slide, the plan, as I mentioned, is pretty long. It com it it consists of seven different sections. I would say number four, the risk assessment, number five, the capability assessment, and number six, the mitigation strategy are really the biggest components of the actual plan. If you want to go to the next slide, the risk assessment looks at all of the potential natural hazards and humanmade hazards that could potentially impact Luzar County. This slide shows that um all the hazards that were profiled in

the 2025 plan. And anything in red, there was an either an addition or change to to that um title and hazard profile since the 2020 plan. I should back up and mention that um it is required by FEMA that each hazard mitigation plan for every county is updated every 5 years. And so this is a 5-year update of the plan. Um every hazard profile looks at the risk for each hazard in relation to the entire county as well as at the jurisdictional level. And this is really important in terms of identifying where um the county is vulnerable to each hazard. We also look at all of the different assets in communities that may be at risk. And so this really helps identify where mitigation may be needed. If you want to go to the next slide. Um the capability assessment really focuses in on um different types of plans um and abilities to be able to mitigate risk across the county. Um we spoke with a bunch of different organizations and also had communities fill out their own um assessment of their capabilities to identify where there is the ability to help with mitigation efforts and also where there are gaps which help inform the mitigation strategy. Um, as you can see on this slide, um, communities feel they have, you know, some ability to help mitigate risk, but there are also areas that there are gaps in that this plan can help maybe identify how to create partnerships and help um address those gaps. Next slide. And so really the all of the um findings from the risk assessment and the capability assessment go into developing the mitigation strategy which focuses on different actions that communities in the county want to take in order to mitigate risks in order to apply for specific um funding grants um at FEMA.

You must have an action in the plan to be able to apply for that funding. So we worked with all of the communities and stakeholders to develop this plan and this is really what will be used moving forward to help imple implement mitigation priorities in the county. Next slide please. And so here we are ready to adopt the plan. Um I'm going to give a very brief overview of how we got here and kind of what the next steps are and what this means. Next slide. So over the past couple of months, we went through the process of having um FEMA review the plan as well as FEMA. And both of those reviews, we um made edits based on their feedback. and FEMA ultimately on um July 31st approved the plan pending adoption, which means when communities and the county adopt the plan and also any um additional stakeholders who want to adopt as a special district as they adopt the plan, they then can use it to leverage it for um themselves to apply for grant funding. And so, as you can see, we're in the process of getting jurisdictions to adopt the plan and also getting the county to adopt the plan, which is why I'm here tonight. And as the plan is adopted, FIMMO will issue approval letters showing that um each community um and stakeholder is good for the five years until the next plan is updated. Next slide, please. And so what we're here asking for you tonight is to take a look at the plan and then adopt it on behalf of the county. Um because we've received APA or approval pending adoption from FEMA, you are able to adopt the plan as soon as you um would like. Um this is done by signing a resolution which I have an image on the next slide and Dan has a copy that can be shared with the council. I believe the plan is to have you all um vote on

that and sign it at the next meeting on September 9th. Um and so once that's approved and signed, Dan will end up sending that to FEMA and the county will have um the plan adopted. Next slide, please. And so this is just an image of what you will be filling out and signing. Um if there are any questions about logistics, I'm happy to answer them, but this will be shared by Dan after the meeting. Next slide please. And so um just some logistics um as soon as FEMA receives the first adoption um that starts the time of the five years um starting for when the plan needs to be updated. So as Dan mentioned, seven municipalities have adopted the plan and so that starts that clock. Um, every participating jurisdiction has one year from this date to adopt the plan. And so that's why we're getting this in front of you now. Um, and then we also recommend that there are annual review meetings to kind of look at what's changed over the course of a year. So then when you get to the next 5-year update, there is data and information. It makes the lift a little less significant. Um, FEMA does send a reminder email each year and Dan will be receiving that from FEMA, I believe. Um, and you all can help navigate that update process. I believe that is it in the presentation. I don't know if there's another slide, Dan. Um, oh, sorry, I did forget about this slide. There are specific FEMA grants, as I mentioned, that you must have an adopted hazard mitigation plan to apply for. Um, as of right now, that still holds true. And so having this plan in place and adopted will help you be eligible to apply for um grants during disasters and also um if non- disaster funding is still available.

Next slide please. Um with that any questions? I know I really breeze through that. I was trying to be quick within the aotted time given but it is a very large plan. I'm happy to field any questions today or at a future date if interested. I just have one question on other council members. We will have an opportunity to see the full plan, the full 400 some page plan. Yeah, I can send you the link. It's on our It's on the web page for the hazard mitigation plan, but I could send that to council. If you could send that to to our council email, that would be awesome. Absolutely. Yeah, Mr. Sabatino. Um, what is the plan to get the other municipalities? Do you anticipate resistance of getting No, I mean, they they all participated in developing the plan. Okay.

So, it's just getting getting them to sign it. uh adopt it. Any help we can give you thereating them? Please ask us. Happy to do that. We have a list of ones that we need to adopt. I mean, we just we just started getting the the adopted. We have a year to get them. Like maybe if it's coming up on the end of the year and we don't have Yeah. I mean, I I created a dashboard to like hound them and I'm I'm going to send out like monthly maybe shame maps to show them that these are the ones that have approved that too. Maybe we can reach out to them and Okay. encourage them in the nicest way possible. Yep. Did you have a question, Stephvenson? Okay. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. All right. These next two should be very quick. Um discussion regarding the resolution placing a moratorium on future lur request for properties to be serviced by the Sugarloaf Transmission Company. Can we do the West Hazelton? Let's do the All right. Hold on a second. Yeah, number three.

Oh, I apologize. I I exed out number three beforehand. Okay. Discussion regarding the resolution for giving the loan from interest on the UDAG fund to West Hazelton Burrow for their JC Drive bridge replacement project. So, uh, as you recall, uh, the county council, uh, used UDA money, uh, and gave a loan to, uh, West Hazelton Burrow, uh, $425,000 to, uh, repair, uh, a bridge, uh, that part of the bridge that collapsed. Uh we were able to uh negotiate uh that uh we can receive uh a pendot uh grant of $400,000 to do a road on Crestwood Drive uh in exchange for um forgiving the loan uh of West Hazelton. And the benefit of that is that we will get a much needed uh road in uh Crestwood Drive and we wouldn't have to wait for the uh monthly payments from West Hazelton.

Any questions? I think that's fantastic and we we've obviously we forgive the loan to them. Correct. That process so then they don't have to continue paying. Correct. It's a it's a win-win for the county and uh for the bureau, right? It was a very good idea and partnership we had with West Hazelton in order to get that bridge project finished quickly. Any other questions, remarks? I just I just have some questions. So, um, we're taking it was ARPA money that was used, right, Rem? So, UDAG money that we gave to Wes Hazelton. I wasn't You okay? Three years ago. No, it was last year. Yeah.

Before Yeah, because I remember that. I don't think the guy was here for that one.

Right. There was a We gave them ARPA money to repair this a bridge. Uh and when they started doing the work, part of the bridge collapsed which needed more repairs. And so, uh the state uh gave them money because it was about another million dollars that they needed uh to repair the portion of the bridge that collapsed. and we loan them $425,000 and they've been paying. It was a no interest loan. They've been paying making their payments, but we can get state money to actually do do a road now and then forgive the loan to West Hazelton.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think that's great. We need roads. Why Why this particular one? Was this a state initiative? Why? Why the industrial the Crestwood road? Because it's really in in in bad shape. Okay. It was recommended by our engineer engineer. Okay. I'm just trying to to figure out how this all came through. How did this How did this Did Pendot reach out to us? Did we reach out to them? How did How did this whole thing PEDOT reached out to uh reached out to me? Okay. About doing the the swap. So we had UDAG money which has incumbrances.

No, it was interest money. It was interest money that has zero incumbrances. And the UDAG money, we have an opinion. Yeah. Uh from our outside council that that UDAG money we can use uh for whatever purpose we we want. Okay. Uh but we use the interest money. Okay. Yeah. And I know I if I don't think we ever got acceptable uses for the UDAG money. Do we ever get that as a council? I don't remember getting that. We do. We do have that. That's not There was an opinion uh that was uh given to us by Elliot Greenleaf and Dean. Jack Dean was here at uh an executive session. Okay.

So, this is a county roads county road number 25. And I'm guessing West Hazelton already paid us enough money that to make up that difference at 25,000. assuming that from it's it's negligible if there is a difference. I it just seems like I mean we're helping West Hazel and Burough. That's fantastic. But seems like it's a wash for us. It's our money anyway. We're just going to basically fasttrack it. That's what the cell is for this winter. The sell is that we're going to get a road finished. Yeah. But it's going to be to Kenny Road. It's going to be Yeah, but it's going to be a It's going to be a fast track. It's not going to be three years. No. No. happening immediately. Okay.

Oh, yes. Always the storm water report. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it sounds great. Just want to make sure I get the details right. All right. Details. Thank you. Thank you so much. Questions? All right. Number four, discussion regarding the resolution placing a moratorium on future alert requests for properties to be serviced by the Sugarloaf Transmission Project.

Yeah, Mr. Chair, thanks for putting this on the work session agenda. And I I I know I didn't lobby you for the other ones. You just asked to put it on the the other two on the agenda for time constraints. Time is of the essence. This one I was hoping that the other the LERA would pass earlier so we didn't have to go take this more extreme route because that's essentially what this is. This is a moratorium on lures. But this one actually has a whole lot more teeth because um if we can't we can't tell people no you can't do this. Obviously, there's a whole process out there, but what this does, the whole idea of this is to um again have more community consensus, grow smartly, not just haphazardly like we've seen other jurisdictions across America and really mo course PPNL to the table. I mean, you yourself, John, said they were disingenuous with you. Um they were disingenuous to the folks that are here. I think seeing this here also shows that we're we're serious about coming to the table and being transparent about things. So, I mean, a support of this would um do just that. Now, obviously um I'm sure if some other colleagues were here, they would say this is going to severely restrict development. It's really going to give a black eye. It's going to tell people county is not open for business. No, it's not. This is helping coers um a giant business interest who is concerned with bottom lines more than quality of life issues to come to the table and really just make it work. This is not extreme. Again, I'm not anti-development. I'm not anti- power lines. We need electricity. We need that. But I think some of the folks that brought some items here tonight, especially that one that we're a net exporter of energy, that was very curious. That was a very interesting fact. I would like to see more of that. But it's things like this that I would like to see PPNL come to us with as early as next week. I guess they're going to meet with some of us. And if they could bring their full data, I

would like to see maps. I would like to see the alternatives. I would like to see things that they say they've done. So let's have a discussion about this. What this does, again, it's a little more downstream than what we just passed earlier, but I think it's going to yield results. if we get what we want, we don't have to go through with this to on on the next voting session. We don't have to say, okay, we definitely have a moratorum, but it's going to bring people to the table and I'm sure we'll have other interests, too, that would gladly chime in on this. So, I'm happy to have the discussion, but um that's really the genesis of what we're looking at here. Council members, so Mr. H I Y

I I I mean I do have concerns about this just as I had concerns about the

Alberta schedule. Um and and I know that you kind of flippantly said that people will say that it will reduce the amount of interest in this area, but we have heard testimony from people that says exactly that that says that something like this will in fact reduce the amount of business development that will come into this area. And I understand that there are desires to only want certain types of development or only want certain types of things in the area, but if they come to us, I I mean, I'm I'm going to say yes to that, too. I I'm not just going to say yes to a warehouse or to a data center or to a a you know, a a train station that may want to come to the area. I'm going to say yes to everything because I think that we could have it all. We can have all of that and we can have that be a real benefit to the citizens of the county and and as we do these luras we do them in an individual way and you know now okay so we know to ask certain questions and I'm happy to ask any question that needs to be asked at these at these uh at these work sessions and and you know part of the problem is that we have and I'm not trying to pick on you Mr. But we have agenda items that get submitted last minute that go on to the the voting session and then as we're expected the same night to vote on them, we have council members that are uncomfortable with language. They want to change things. They want to have a discussion about it. And then we end up here at 9:00 at night trying to hash out something that's a really serious resolution like this. And when we have luras that are on work sessions, we don't have an opportunity to sit here and have a a a a really good thorough discussion because it's 9:00 at night. Three of our council members just left because they don't want to be here anymore. And I'm not saying that that's right or wrong. I mean, I certainly will stay here as long as I need to to have the discussion, but I know that I'm not

going to be firing on all cylinders at 11 PM. So I I think you know I I just want to be and as the chair of council I try to be mindful of that when I set the agenda is to make sure that we have enough time to have discussions about a lot of these contentious issues. So when I get things at the last minute it makes it really difficult for me to be able to um to account for the amount of time that we'll have to discuss these things and it may end up bleeding into a situation where we just don't get enough time to have a a a good conversation. Um, as it relates back to this though, I mean, I I I certainly, you know, sympathize with the situation and as a matter of fact, uh, somebody mentioned, um, I forget who it was. It might might have been Mr. Rabo mentioned, um, the he said the Pitts Area School District again and and mentioned the power lines. My parents in their development, a 230 kilovolt power line actually bisects their residential development. Um, so I've lived with this situation for uh all the years that I lived with my parents. Um, and I get it. I understand totally that it is an eyesore and it is something that I was told stay away from. Don't go near there when you're a child. I I understand all that and I certainly support the residents of Sugarloaf as they try to get the power line moved away from uh the properties that they're looking to move it away from. Um, but I mean I personally would have liked to have a little bit more discussion on what the alternatives are. I know I've heard some things, but that's kind of why I wanted to have uh all the stakeholders in the room to be able to have that conversation and and you know, we haven't done that and that's what made me angry at at PPL is because they didn't take the time to um to address the public and and address counsel. So, um as it relates to this though, I just I think that as we are discussing these issues, they're not mutually exclusive. One does not exist without the other. In certain cases, this is not going to stop I don't think this is going to stop that power line

from coming through because all of these uh developments that the power line essentially is being used for are already in place are already getting ready to be put in place. Um, so I think that to continue to just do these lures on an individual basis is the best for us because we have complete control over that and that way we're not scaring away development and we can still advocate for the citizens and we're still telling them, okay, you have to be in a blighted area. I like a lot of the ideas that were shared here tonight to make sure that um things aren't being put too close to houses and stuff like that. Um, but we do have a lot of blighted property here in Luzer County. We have a lot of property. I I know just near where I live, I can think of five places right now that have big giant calm banks that are uh completely, you know, difficult to look at, dangerous. I know in my job as a firefighter, we go to them quite often to have to rescue people that are riding ATVs. They fall off of them. We had one gentleman um like put up booby traps in them, which was very bizarre and disturbing um to keep people from actually going in them, which makes them 10 times more dangerous. Um so I totally understand that. So I would like to see those areas be redeveloped into something that's more usable, at least safer for the community. Um, and I mean I I don't know many private citizens who are going to be able to put out that kind of money to redevelop that uh those types of areas. So I think that we need to sort of balance these ideas. But I certainly, like I said, I support the residents of Sugarloaf and I totally understand the situation. That's why I supported this uh resolution earlier tonight. But I think that this is a completely different issue.

Go ahead, Mr. Sabatino. Mr. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but the local municipalities are the ones that declare land eligible for Alerta. Correct. Yes. Okay. So, we don't normally we don't look at it at all until the local municipality approves Alerta, the school district approves approves Alerta, and then it comes to us at the end. But the local municipality establishes what what in their municipality what they consider to be blighted land and eligible for Alerta. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Is is that the same in the case of the municipalities who are governed under our zoning ordinance or

that's different, right? So the zoning is different from the learning. Okay. They're deciding it's blighted or it's on property that needs to be developed. It was formerly a property that wasn't And normally these developers put a lot of money in to clean up the property to make it suitable. And that kind of property usually is not available for homes, right? But I'm I'm I'm putting that out there as a way for people in the audience to maybe address it with their local supervisors and burough councils what land they are declaring to be learner eligible. And if they find that there is land that shouldn't be on that list, they should take it up with their supervisors and their and their local burough councils and city councils and such.

Right. The land that we're talking about at issue is already approved land that could be used for learning, but we're what the ordinance that I mean the resolution you're planning on doing is then going to say a portion of the county is going to have a moratorum and other parts are not which means we're theoretically discriminating against a portion that has already approved land for Alerta and we're allowing it in different sections. Whereas if you listened to anybody who wanted to have alert and decided I don't want to allow it there, I don't want that. That's fine. But you're putting a moratorium on and saying people can't go here. And it's not land is not already developed. It's specifically with the intent of stopping the line from coming in. And one more point of clarification, I know that it kind of got muddled in some of the public comments, but the land that the

power line is going on is not it's not Alerta eligible. So I know that got muddled in there a little bit. We we would not grant Alerta for a power line. Right. That's Mr. Chair. I don't want to take up Does anyone else want to chime in first? I'm sorry. Want to go? information. But yeah, go ahead. Thank you.

So, one hand washes the other in this. Clearly, it's latent demand. If you build a bigger highway, you extend 81 a couple lanes, you're going to have more traffic. Correct. If you extend transmission lines, you're going to have more of electricity. You're going to have more and and more development and large scale development. That's what you're that's what we're doing here. Okay. That's why North Virginia if it when when Representative Walsh goes he's going to find out that's exactly what happened down there. So you had one data center begat another one it begat another one. Um so when we look at this yeah I agree with attorney scheme. Yes this is discriminatory alert are discriminatory. Every time council says yay or nay against one you're discriminating against people who apply for that or endies applied for. That's essentially the nature of it. You said no. I said you said they're discriminating towards people.

What's that in the resolution? You're saying people from here to here need not apply because we're putting a moratorium on it. Yes. So you're discriminating against that one line compared to anywhere else in the county on a regular basis. You're not discriminating against somebody because you don't approve alert. There's been plenty of luras that have come here that we've not approved. Well, not me. I don't vote. But you guys have not approved because you didn't like the lura.

We just we just didn't do a car blunch. We just did it on a on a case by case which is still discriminatory. We're saying no and we we really don't disapprove a lot of lawyers. We approved most of them and we let the developer dictate the terms which is again why the schedule would have been extremely helpful and I I just don't think that's going to go anywhere. I mean I it would be nice but I'm I'm just saying about this particular one. Yes, that all right.

Well, I'm just I'm just trying to explain but there there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with saying no to an area of lura for loser county. We're not speaking for the school district and we're not speaking for the municipality. So developers may still propose alertive for those designations. They're just not going to get abatement on county funds and that's the nature of it. That's the that's the stick that we have. That's the only stick we have in this outfit because we cannot tell PPL to not come here and just say no, we're not interested in a power line. No, there's a process. Councilman Thornton was talking about that, right? You have to go through the PUC. There's a lot of protocol. You have to have public comment. But what this does, it is a disincentive for unchecked rampid growth. And it is a disive. Yes. And I understand what you're talking about, chair. Yeah, agreed. It's it's going it's not going to stifle growth, but it will force the developers to think a little more clearly about their proposals and about about moving that forward. We've had plenty of letters here on my time that were that were approved and it was done very haphazardly. Do you recall the one I don't know if anybody was on council at that time Hazel & city uh developer came and approached the city. They gave Hazelton city a better deal than loser county and they kept on saying well that's the deal to the city except that's the deal. And I kept on asking them well why? And they couldn't come up with the answer. Well the answer is because you're a business and you want the best bottom line and I don't fault them for that. Okay. So again, this all comes back, it's kind of part of the same coin here that this puts council in the driving seat to have a degree of control over the development that comes here.

Mr. Wovich and then a couple people before you, Mr. Perry. Mr. Wovich, Mr. Savatino, Mr. Perry. Okay. So my understanding is that we're trying to move the power line, right? Your resolution stating if it uses any power line, no matter if it's the one that's moved or the one that they're proposing, that you can't get alerted. Is that my understanding correct? To use the proposed power line coming through for it's a temporary proposal. It's not indefinite. It's temporary. It is indefinite. It's because we want to for them to examine other alternative routes that are more palatable to the rest of the public. But yours just says service via the Sugarloaf transmission project. Not which one?

The one that's looking to expand. It doesn't say propose. It just says service via the transmission project. I would assume if they did move the lines, it would still fall under this alert, your alert of proposal. No, it's it's the one in question. I mean, we if we can word smith, we can make it we can tighten that up, Greg, if you want, but I mean, obviously, I'm not talking about another one. I'm talking about the one in question here. Well, the future council might not understand that. If you can make the amendment if you want to, but I'm I'm just saying that's obviously the spirit of this. And yeah, you're right. a lot of a lot of things on council. We don't look 10 years in the past too. That was bad precedent. We should look 10 years in the future. All right. Uh Mr. Sabatino

to answer about why I wanted the schedule to go back to committee. We did not do enough to address data centers and different types of things and I didn't think the voting session was appropriate to negotiate that. And I want to go back and do be very intentional on how we do this because we could do something like get a community fund together that to bring back and you and I have talked about this to bring back the homestead and let the developers pay for it. Okay. So, we need to be more intentional about it. We need to like you're trying to do with this. It's get blood from a stone basically. We can be more intentional with the schedule and how we're presenting it, but to half-hazardly negotiate it in a voting session is not the way I want my legislation to be done. So, I appreciate that we wanted to get it done tonight, but this is kind of my baby and I want to do it the right way and I want to get the most for the residents of the county. And if that means we're going to talk about it for another two months, then we're going to talk about it for another two months. So, I appreciate this and I want to do this, but we need to be more intentional and we need to be more focused on not just past president, but like council minich said, the future too and how we are addressing the future of this county.

Thanks for the forthrightness, Jim. I appreciate that. So, again, you're looking more of a bottom line thing, what we can ring out of for taxpayers. I'm looking at at the more globalized quality of life and that's what we've got to look that's long that's not 10 years that's 50 years in the future like a lot of folks here said tonight we're looking at a quality of life issue that it walks out the door every time we have these conversations always come down to the bottom line we need development we need development we need development yeah but at what cost uh Mr. Perry and then Miss Smith and then Mr. Sabatino again I apologize

well Mr. and we're on opposite sides of the fence with learners but boy I mean with this situation it really changes the scope and I think as a council we learned a lot and if we would have asked a very simple question when North Point came up to ask us for alert and we asked a lot of questions and you really did and all we had to ask was how are you getting the power to your facility. That one question, we wouldn't have allowed this. We We never would have passed it if we could have asked that one question. We dropped the ball on that. We didn't ask the question because we didn't know to ask the question. But we've gotten better going forward and you can attest to that. I was on eight years ago. We passed alert like because that was the thing to do at that time. We've gotten a whole lot better. The the county got a lot better financially with the last few alerters we passed, maybe North Point was even one of them. They've given us a lot more money. The next alert that comes to us and it has anything to do with data center. Well, this is we learned a lesson. We will ask those questions and we won't be given I won't be here. This December is the end for me. But the next council that gets on, it won't be easy to get alert and we because we we paid the price for it. They paid the price for it. I would like to stop PPNL in a second. But apparently what they told the chairman doesn't matter. They're putting that line in. I says and that's and that and I really bothers me that we didn't ask that question because things would have been totally different. So, we really did drop the ball there. But again, we didn't mean to because we just didn't

know to ask that question. Everybody knew it was coming from PPNL. But how was it getting there? We did ask that question numerous times. How was it getting there? Yeah. What upgrades you need for the grid? We We did ask why didn't somebody like We press them on it, too, Mr. Perry. We did press them in the infrastructure committee meeting. That's why I voted no. Wait a minute. I I I want to interject here on North Point. North Point, you're you're you're focusing on North Point and and they were not dishonest with us at all. And I want to be clear about that.

And the the the power line it is a PPNL issue. And it's a PP and I've been trying to get them to to along with the chair. We've both been trying to get PPNL to answer questions, specific questions about about what's going on uh in Sugarloaf Township. This is a PPNL issue. It is not a North Point issue, right? because North Point would continue on with their development.

I didn't mean to insinuate that it was North Point. They obviously didn't have the answers to give us because they didn't know what PPNL's plans were, but maybe for doing data centers like this, we should ask PPL to come before we do alert. I'd ask them what they're planning on doing for or we could have or we could have pressed them on that issue. But I mean, hindsight is 2020, Mr. President. Well, I I I understand that, but it bothers me that that you know, we didn't think of that. We were asking the right questions to the wrong people. Yeah. Well,

but ju and and just to just to I I apologize. I know Miss Smith wants to speak, but just to add to that, I mean, this this to me is going a little bit further than what we need it to do because, you know, a warehouse that stores goods is not going to be consuming as as much electricity as a data center is. Might still utilize that line though. might what I'm saying it would be banned under his

right right so that that's what I'm suggesting is that that might not it might not use that electricity which means that line would not necessarily have been necessary but the line again you know the data center that is that is already going to be constructed and going to be used by that line is it's already occurring so I I just don't see how this is going to ex this is going to stop this situation from happening by us not continuing to negotiate with developers about specific projects that they have. And they don't always come to us with speculative development. In fact, many times they come to us with specific things they'd like to do.

And to be honest, what we have to do is recruit the right development. Somebody said it tonight. That's what we have to do. That's what we have to target. We have to target the right development that's right for our communities and not every community is the same and certain development might work in one area that might not work in another. And that's what we need to do.

The fight is with getting answers from PPNL. That's that's what the fight is. And the fight, the forum of the fight is at the PUC and at DA D because that's that's the forum that's going to ultimately decide. And if you have the you have the arguments, you have those arguments and they're very uh convincing arguments. That's what you have to do. You have to make those arguments in this forum that is exists to decide that and we as a community have to make sure that we get the right development in the right areas and we do that by doing our homework and if there are developers that are coming we do ask certain questions now.

Yeah. Thanks for saying that. I really appreciate that because I I feel like um like I'm just trying to be open and transparent and my colleagues on the other side of this issue just want to develop it at all costs and I I I'm having a hard time people just acknowledging that there's a lot of quality of life at stake here. This is this is truly what's at stake long term. And so I feel like I'm being talked past when I bring things like that up. You know, admittedly this is more extreme, but again it's like that's what recourse not many recourse we have left here. So, I don't know how what what we could do as a county, what resources we can marshall to do just what you said there. I really appreciate that. What what product can we put together? We have we got we have people that are going to show up at the PUC. That's fine. But what as a county, what can we do, you know, and I I would challenge all my colleagues here, management, everybody has a stake in this to to really put a project because time is of the essence. That's why I appreciate you, John, putting this on here. I didn't lobby him to put these on like was said. I didn't do I asked him, he said, "Yeah, and I appreciate this. John John's always been a pleasure to work with in my tenure. I really respect that,

but time is of the essence. Time is wasting. Every day that goes by, we're we're I feel like we're on the losing end." And I think the people here feel the same way. We're losing out. Okay. So, let's get the show on the road and really go to bed for our people. We have to do it and for for the next generations. I feel like now I'm starting to go down that path. Just yammer on here. But um you know just just as a closing thought here, I would still like to see this on the voting session. I don't know what the process is, Mr. Chair, if we need four votes here to move it forward. I know it's it's a resolution.

I It's a resolution. Okay. So I would like to see this and I think this shows that we're extremely serious about this, that there's a lot more at stake here than just the bottom line. Well, Mr. Mr. House, I I got to respond to what you said about, you know, council members wanting development at whatever the cost is. It's not I'm just saying it appears that way.

That's not what we're saying at all. You know, there's a lot of different types of development that want to come to this area. Right now, we're having discussions currently about getting our rail line back from our RDA so we can bring development through that into the areas where that rail line runs. Um, and and and the economic development that that will bring. We've made major investments through the American Rescue Plan in the Wooksberry area. Imagine if we had a train station in the Wooksberry area and not just in Pittston. Imagine if we had that there. We can bring 2,000 residents a day into the new IRM uh IRM temple when they have a show. We can bring residents to the uh to the theater in Wilsbury and downtown at the Kirby Center. So, we're not just talking about tax abatements for these uh these these blighted properties and for these developers that are coming in just for warehouses. I mean, there's a global conversation that's happening right now. And unfortunately, it's it's it's getting lost in the other conversations that we're having. So, we are having those conversations. They're happening. It's not just about luras. It's not just about warehouses. It's not just about data centers. It's about all of the above. And that's going to be uh what what is going to be the holistic approach that we need to make, you know, this county a place that we want to live and stay and it's going to be affordable to live here and people are going to get good jobs and we're going to not have to raise taxes on the county residents every couple years. Did you Mr. Sche you had something you wanted to add? talking

what Jim was talking about with the schedule. If that gets done, then you could basically set it up as Rilda was saying with attracting the businesses you want in based on the schedule and then you don't have to have a moratorum on people coming in because they're only going to come in based upon the schedule. So that would make sense and it would be non-discriminatory. Miss Smith, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I forgot about you.

You touched on it a little bit, but one of the big problems is that one of the big problems with this, one of the big problems with Luras in general and trying to figure out if they're going to be using this line is that this Lerta has this North Point Lerta has nothing to do with PPNL. stopping lures is not necessarily going to affect them because who knows they may not have anybody who's using that power line. They're just expecting it to to become a huge business one day. Um we're not privy to that information. And the other thing that's problematic with it is that we hear we do hear one we do hear sometimes that they come in here with a plan, but more often we hear that they're coming here and they're building to spec. And even if we said, "We don't believe you. Can you just tell us what your project is?" Because I believe that most of the time they know, even when they say it's they're building to speculation, they're never they're not going to tell us. But I did want to just mention if you do move forward with any kind of suit, you do have a constitutional right to enjoy the outdoors. Uh it's the envir environmental rights amendment. I believe in uh the first article of the Pennsylvania State Constitution that you're entitled to the enjoyment of the historic, scenic, and aesthetic of the um environment around you, which this may be a constitutional claim somewhere in there.

Thank you. Any other comments? All right. Finally, uh, discussion regarding the resolution to address the consequences of the Miss Commonwealth budget deadlines. Not yet. Uh, public comment is at the end. Mr. Zola, go ahead, Mr. Ross.

Thank you again, Mr. Chair. Again, time is of the essence on this one as well. So, um, on behalf of the four of us who all went down to Cap, thank you, council, for sending us down there. I I know I don't want to speak for everybody. I think everybody really, including, um, manager Koko had a a real time of learning and growth. Um it was just wonderful to already see what's going on in other parts of the state. Um a big unifying issue was the state budget impass. Uh negatively is impacting everybody. So I crafted a resolution to take a stand against the state. Again, it has no teeth because we're just the county. We have no jurisdiction over Harrisburg. However, um it encourages the state to get the job done and to return to Harrisburg and pass a budget as soon as possible. Uh we have to pass a budget on time every year. We have to they um they don't. The most recent time here for the edification of people listening at home or in the crowd. Basically it it talks about um delays have cost county taxpayers interest for borrowing money in order to continue operations during budget delays. Manager Krommo spoke about that in recent u meetings. Most recently the nine-month budget impass in 2015 to 2016. The state begins their fiscal year on July 1. So, we had nine months of no state matches. We almost had to shut the doors and we had to take out a loan. Uh cost us a lot of money back in 2015 2016. It was really ugly. So, um it says here, "Whereas severe delays have threatened to increase private tax for county residents with the potential for this to occur again this year in 2026. And whereas the failure of the governor legislature to pass a budget on time exacerbates these issues. And whereas the Pennsylvania House and Senate have recessed until after Labor Day, leaving counties to speculate about the priorities and funding streams from the Commonwealth budget of this fiscal year, which is an unjust burden. And whereas it's the impass is detrimental to the welfare of county taxpayers. Be it resolved that the county loser urges the governor legislature to prioritize the responsibilities, work collaboratively to finalize a budget without further

delay. And be it further resolved, the governor legislature should not adjourn until a budget is in place. Okay. and the county should be promptly reimbured for any and all interest money acred on loans taken to cover expenses for the irresponsibility in Harrisburg. Okay, we know that's very polarizing in Harrisburg. I like working with the county because, you know, R&D doesn't matter here at this table. Matters is getting the job done for the people. They don't have that luxury in Harrisburg. I get there's other things at play. However, it severely handicaps our ability to get the job done and it puts people in real jeopardy. A lot of people depend on these county services as we know. So, uh, put this forth. It passed the whole membership by a vote of 98 to 19 which is like an 80 85% passage. So there's near unimity unonymity on this and um all this is send the message. Um we would like to do this as soon as we possibly can because um a unified voice with all 67 counties would hopefully coers a legislator to really do the job. School districts are going to be hurting, municipalities be hurting as well, but we're tasked with dealing with loser and county. So, um, there was something just day as a last minute before this as well. Um, I I think you all get it. I don't know if mild if you get it as well, but they asked what is what is it costing Lutheran County? And I I'd be forwarded to you if you didn't get it, but I'm assuming you did. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be happy to. And just they they want real proof of of the burden that we're facing here. So, I encourage some colleagues to vote on this the next voting session. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the

Stevenson ability. This is relatively Yeah,

sorry. This is relatively the same resolution we had at CCAP. Um, it was extremely wellreceived. Um, as Councilman Hall says, it doesn't necessarily have teeth, but it does send that um that message up to the state. That is extremely important um to be addressed. I think it's it's extremely necessary to kind of put that language out into the universe and say, "Hey, we are going to we're advocating from a county level to make sure that you guys can get back there and do your job and make sure that funding is going to trickle down the way it should be." Um, I was super impressed by this. H CCAP was an amazing experience. I actually won Eagles tickets, guys. It was a pretty It was a pretty good time. Um, but this was a a very powerful piece that I think was super wellreceived and um I'm absolutely supporting that.

Mr. Sabatino, thanks. I too would like to commend Councilman House for bringing this to the CCAP floor. Um, you did a lot of great work on this and you lobbyed all the right people and you did your homework on this one and I'd like to uh point out that we have a state representative here with us. So, you're you're on the hot seat now. We were on the hot seat all night. Now it's your turn. You know, please get back to Harrisburg and please do not make us have to force us to get a loan and to keep this county afloat. Okay. Uh Mr. Willovich, I just want to make one amendment. I'd like a signature page so I can sign it. Yeah. Oh, we could have we could do that.

We've done that before. Absolutely. Happy to do it. Uh M Mr. Perry, do you have something?

Thank Thanks, Mr. H for doing a great work that you do and thanks for the council people that went down there. Fabulous work. Uh keep going. Great. Anybody else? All right. Public comment. Um I have a couple slips up here, but I think most people have left. Trisha Marell, I think she's gone. Linda Urish. No. Okay. Andy Senko, did he leave, too? All right. Mr. Okay,

there you go.

I can kind of see where this seems to be heading. Very disappointing. Um, we know about PUC, DP, all these places. We're dead. It gets there, we're dead. Period. Everybody in this room knows it. Well, I don't um you know, I don't think that putting a moratorum on is going to stop development. I think it's going to be a speed bump. Moratoriums could be lifted. Sometimes it takes very, very, very firm action to get something done, to get someone's attention. So, I'm not going to drag this out. The people you got, you heard all of us. You know, our situation, we need your help. And I think at a very minimum, regardless of how the vote turns out, I would like to see it brought to a vote. And I think everyone in this room would agree with me. We don't want to see this in December or January. They're going to file at any time. September, early October, PPL is going to file. So, is there any chance we could get this that we could at least agree? Like, can you guys do that tonight to say we're going to bring this to a vote? it it as of right now it'll be on the next voting session Mr. Um I mean we certainly

I mean does that mean you'll you'll vote on it like next time? I'm just trying to understand. I don't know the system. Two weeks from today. Two weeks from today. Yeah. You'll vote to either approve the moratorum. Yes. Okay. Up or down? All right. And again guys, I want to thank everyone who came out and actually looked at things. I do appreciate it. I want to thank you for the resolution tonight. really appreciate it and and not trying to like squeeze you guys for anything. It's just this this is a really big deal. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Zola. Uh Dan Eustace, is he gone? Okay, Mr. Griffith. Good. All right. Anybody else in the room? Uh go ahead, sir. And then Mr. Walsh. Dan used here. Okay. Um, you're the one from wh which from from White Haven Pen White Haven. I apologize. Okay. Just wanted to make sure.

Just a quick thing, but like a big argument I hear for like this industry, the data centers, all that is that like, oh, our taxes aren't going to go up, but our power bills are going to go up. We we know that's going to happen, you know. Um, we also know our property values are probably going to go down, you know. Um, so I' I mean I' I'd rather my taxes go up than the cost of, you know, pro electricity goes up by 50% in a lot of these places. You know, that's probably, you know, you're right about even. So, just something to think about. But that's it. Thanks, guys.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Jamie Walsh Ross Township. Uh something else for council you might want to consider. Um someone had mentioned the St. Charles, Missouri uh situation. They put a moratorum for a year on any data center development or expansion. and it's giving that town a year now to come up with an ordinance that everyone can live with. So that's one thing. Um actually Dorance Township just did this two weeks ago. They put a moratorum on data center development. It's giving them a year to come up with an ordinance instead of rushing and ramming it through. Uh that's another way. And um since those data centers aren't going to uh need power now um that gives time for maybe PPL to be a little bit more reasonable uh in their actions because they've been very dismissive throughout this entire process. Um and then uh I did receive a text this afternoon. I do not know. I'm not in leadership down in Harrisburg, but I did get an uh text this afternoon that to clear our schedules for next week. Now, we did not get the official um uh message from the speaker of the house that we're going back next week, but uh hopefully they're not calling us down there just for charades again like we got called down a couple of weeks ago. So hopefully they are working on this budget deal and and they have something serious to promote to us to vote on. Um the current situation in Pennsylvania, we are we have 46 billion in revenue and the governor is asking for almost 52 billion. Um it's it's just not even close. And that's that's the

big hangup down there right now. Just so everybody kind of knows the 30,000 foot level and then all the details fall into it. like a lot of the things that they're they're battling about um in leadership. So, I have a question. Yes. How come uh you couldn't agree at least to have the same funding for our human services that nobody that I don't even know if that went to the floor. just give us what we need from even last year's funding so we can operate human services so we can provide the services to the citizens of Lutheran County who need the services.

Um the Senate the Senate did send the bill down to the House and they and the and the uh to fund those services at its current rate and the um it never made it out of appropriations committee in the uh House. So, and just so everybody knows how it works down there, currently in the House, we have 102 Democrats to 101 Republicans. So, every committee down there has 14 Democrats and 12 Republicans. And they would not let it out of the committee. So, that's why it got crushed in the House. They didn't even call us down. It got crushed in appropriations and never made it to the House floor. But the Senate did try to pass it uh current levels which is like right around 47 total 47.6 billion or yeah 47 47.6 billion. So this is this is the games that's happening down there and um I will be back in two weeks hopefully with a lot better news for you. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Walsh. Uh, any anybody else public comment in the audience? Go ahead, sir. Just name a municipality one more time.

I spoke earlier about the bad business practices of PPNL. When they first came to my property, they put a contract in front of me and they said, "We're not going to be building on your property. This is just so we have the right to update and to to maintain our things." And this is just for legal and for insurance reasons. Both lie. PPNPNL expected to come into this area quietly and get what they wanted without anybody knowing. The last thing they expected was alliance. The last thing they expected was 300 people showing up at that meeting. Okay, now we got their attention. Now they're going to try to play hard ball. They're going to try to push this thing through. If we wait till we get to the PUC, we're going to lose. Now I I know you think you have a lot of faith in the PUC. We don't. By the time

Yeah. By the time we get to the PUC, they'll have a forward momentum we won't be able to stop. This has got to be stopped now. They've got to be held to the fire now before they go any further because they're bullying us. They're pushing this through. They don't expect anybody to question anything. They expect to be able to do whatever they want. And if we start pushing back, they're going to start pushing back. So, we just time is of the essence. We can't wait months. We can't. This has got to happen soon. They're breaking ground. They've already broken ground. Has anybody mentioned that? They've already started clear cutting property. They don't even have approval. They don't have any permits. They don't have approval from the townships. They started clearcutting land. They don't care about the rules. They don't care about the law. They're bullies. They're pushing this thing through as fast as they can and as hard as they can, and they're expecting to get their way. I say no.

All right. Thank you. Uh, anybody else public comment in the audience? Okay, we have one person on the Zoom, Benjamin Bird.

Yes, sir. Uh, ladies and gentlemen of the council, my name is, uh, Benjamin Bird. Uh I'm from White Haven uh Pennsylvania and I'm uh actively advocating for uh Dorance uh Township uh to assist with their their zoning laws um and to look at the ordinance and reshape it so that it it makes some common sense. Uh I have 25 years over a quarter century in public health uh environmental health uh occupational health and safety specifically with electrical safety with the US Army uh for re research development and engineering uh outside of Pikatini Arsenal is is where I was working uh now retired. Um what I would like to do is offer the council uh input uh from a a personal health perspective of what we're looking at. I understand there's the financial perspective. I understand that there's the the business development aspect of uh of all of what we're looking at now with with data centers, with the high voltage lines, with uh easement uh expansions and the installation of the resources that are necessary to develop Luzern County into the future. Um however, uh I believe that we need to really stop and take a closer look and I apologize for not weighing in earlier. uh as I was unable to due to personal emergency, but I did want to at least offer uh the council maybe a little sanity check and provide a perspective from a human health aspect of what we're looking at. uh we're dealing with some very permanent and very serious uh potential changes to our county that we can't predict uh as how widespread they are going to uh to continue to to develop uh once we open that floodgate. Um, the one thing I did

want to really speak to is the potential for the 500 megawatt uh, transmission line. That line is a line that has traditionally been intended for direct transmission in larger open unpopulated areas over wide swaths of country. Uh, generally not a 12mi tract uh, near a populated area. What you're looking at with that is is electromagnetic field variance. uh there's E field which is your voltage and B field which is your magnetic field based on load and with a data center occupying uh the load structure of that uh that line uh it's going to be under full load uh constantly uh there's going to be very little letup to that which is going to make that an unintentional transmitter of some pretty significant magnetic fields and potential for induced currents. There is a lot of epidemiology uh evidence that shows that this links to childhood leukemia uh developmental delays, developmental issues. Uh but from a public health perspective, it also can induce currents on large metal bodies. It's going to require an infrastructure smart design and change uh well beyond just the minimum easement that PPNL is going to be adhering to.

Right. Thank you, Mr. From that aspect. I I I'm going to finish up in two seconds. Uh I would be more than happy u to offer the council electrical safety and a knowledge base and maybe perspective that they haven't had for a a brief presentation if they'll so be interested. I will contact you at a later date via email. Um but please consider taking me on my offer and uh hearing out that aspect of this.

Thank you, Mr. Bird. Okay, before we leave, I have a public comment um that I have from an email. Um this from Cheryl Sundra of Hanover Township. Uh yeah, Miss Lawrence, start it because it's very long. Do loan county. It deeply saddens me to have to write this today, but it appears that our little valley with a heart is in desperate need of cardiac rehabilitation. Imagery branding also couldn't hurt due to the poor event management and complete lack of competent public and social media relations in 2025. Reputation matters more than anything else because what's written about a community online may be the only chance they get to make a good impression. Many local entities and businesses are working hard to shine a positive light on this area and all it took was one poor managed reputational crisis to undo all their positive contributions while the rest of us are left in a town with a bad reputation that will inhibit our collective ability to succeed. The messaging for the low cutie controversy was bungled from the very start. These days, in addition to worrying about issues received scrutiny from public figures like Steve Corbett and editorial teams from local newspapers, the story also made national news. There are threads on Reddit and numerous other social platforms. And now, thanks to AI, Luzar County, Wilsbury and Lokut County will ever be negatively intertwined. Whenever anyone searches for any of these topics, I personally first heard about the controversy from someone living three hours outside of Luzar County because their co-workers were making fun of a city that replaced Low Cut Connie for having inappropriate lyrics about inclusion. They further noted that Low Cut Connie was being replaced with an AC/DC cover band known for lyrics like Big Balls, Whole Lot of Rosie, Giving the Dog a Bone, and Love at First Feel in the name of providing a more family and communityfriendly event. I have to wonder if Railda Crocomo even bothered to vet her response with anybody providing messaging to the media that would sound so ridiculous to others when shared across social media platforms. Next, I learned about claims of some threat from people commenting on local public Facebook pages. These people found the claims to be suspicious, which isn't surprising. There were no details

provided by any county officials about this unspecified threat. It's an unfortunate fact that local schools often must shut down because of threats. When they do, they alert the taxpaying public to the nature of the threat and they let them know how the threat is being handled. Then once everything is resolved and the school is ready to open again, taxpayers are told the results of the investigation by the authorities. This is exactly the way all such situations should be handled. Otherwise, you're just creating unnecessary controversy and doubt among the taxpaying public. The bottom line is you can't neutralize a potential reputational issue when your me when your main messager can't even manage to deliver a believable message to the public. People are now sharing theories online that are branding the Valley with a heart as Valley full of hate based on two variations of perceptions that have gained traction because officials never bothered to provide the public with more information about the threats. Public perception number one, some county boomers with influence who fear diversity got their panties in a bunch and canceled Low Cut Connie on a whim without ever looking into their reputation as a band just beard because they heard they stand for inclusion. Public perception number two. Lazern County bowed to Trump administration officials working with ICE in Pennsylvania who want to silence low cut county for their statements against the often inhumane tactics of ICE because they're afraid to stand up for values like empathy and compassion because county residents possess neither and these officials need the votes. And there's another page and a half, but uh time is up. So is there a motion to adjurnn?

All in favor? I opposed. Meetings adjourned. Thank you very much. I