Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the September meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Mr. Gallardo, will you please call the roll?

Absolutely. Ms. Hanna?

Here.

Mr. Layton? Here. Ms. Kane?

Here.

Mr. Kisiak? Here. I am also here, along with Township Manager Mr. Hoffman, Solicitor Mr. Esposito, and Township Engineer Mr. Kessler.

Thank you, Mr. Gallardo. Upcoming meeting events. Next Board of Supervisors meeting is Monday, October 5th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Budget workshops are Monday, September 28th, Monday, October 19th, and Monday, October 26th at 7 p.m. We also have Groovin' at the Gates on Saturday, September 26th from noon to 5 at Forsythia Crossing Park. Special items and announcements. We have the Ovarian Cancer Month Proclamation, which I will read at this time. Proclamation recognizing September as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in Middletown Township, whereas almost 21,000 people are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States every year, the deadliest of all female reproductive systems. and whereas ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths of women in the United States and causes more deaths than any other gynecological cancer, and whereas in the United States a woman's lifetime risk of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer is about 1 in 91, and whereas women's lives can be saved through increased public awareness of ovarian cancer and its risk factors, signs and symptoms, and whereas during National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, we stand in solidarity with the brave women fighting this terrible disease. we honor the mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, and friends we have tragically lost. And we renew our commitment to ending cancer as we know it. And whereas each year during September, people living with ovarian cancer, their families and supporters, along with patient advocacy organizations, come together to raise awareness about ovarian cancer. And now, therefore, the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors hereby proclaim September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in Middletown Township. Middletown Township Board of Supervisors proclaimed this day the 14th of September, 2026. Next we have Heidi Shiver, President of Birdtown, Pennsylvania, who will present Birdtown presentation for Middletown Township.

Slight substitution here or interjection. My name is Ray Post. I've been a resident of Middletown for more than 35 years. And as the newly minted chair of Middletown's fledgling, so to speak, Birdtown organization, I'd like to thank the Board of Supervisors and, of course, Monica of our amazing Parks and Recs Department for supporting our Birdtown initiative. Our mission is simple. It's to protect birds and their habitats, making Middletown an even friendlier... There we go. Friendlier place for birds. And... as a direct result, a healthier and more beautiful place for all those of us who live, work, and visit our community. So thanks once again for supporting the Birdtown Initiative, and with no further ado, Heidi Shiver, the president of Birdtown PA.

Thank you so much, Ray. And also, again, thank you to Monica and also the Environmental Advisory Council, too, for all their work these past years and realizing this goal of becoming a bird town here in Middletown Township. So congratulations on being a new bird town. I'm just going to take a few moments to share with you a little bit more about the program. So just really quickly, our mission is, as like Ray was saying, that we work in partnership with local municipalities like yourselves, like-minded organizations to promote community-based conservation actions to create a healthier, more sustainable environment for birds, wildlife, and people. We've been engaged with municipalities in the state for over 15 years, and we're now across 17 counties. We're under the umbrella of the PA Audubon Council, and we're partnering with various conservation groups, including We Conserve PA, which runs the Environmental Advisory Council, Audubon Chapters, and the Bird City Network. We're an expanding program. We've really been growing a lot. We're up to 110 bird towns now across the state, including two or three actually new cities. That's Harrisburg, Easton, and Williamsport, and they're more applying them. Actually, Philadelphia has already passed a resolution, which is super exciting, and we just spoke with Erie last week. So a little bit about the Bird City Network. So there's bird towns and bird cities sprinkled all over the U.S. There's over 300 communities now across 13 states and four countries. They're supported by the American Bird Conservancy. And I'm really proud to say that we're the largest program in the network and one of the founding members. A little bit about the PA Audubon Council. So there are 19 Audubon chapters across the state. And their role is to serve the chapters and advocate for conservation and preservation for birds, sharing resources, and so on. We're under their corporate umbrella, and we're working with the Audubon chapters to establish bird towns across the state. Your local chapters, it's Bucks County Audubon, but you also work very closely with Bucks County Birders. They're in the area since 2003. They have monthly meetings, speakers, and field trips, and they're a great group and resource to lean on for walks and programming. So why do we focus on birds? Birds help keep our ecosystems running smoothly. They eat over 400 to 500 million tons of insects per year. They help scavenge carcasses, reducing diseases such as rabies, distemper, and plague. They disperse seeds, provide important pollination services. And hawks and owls, they help keep those mice and rat populations down. They're also really astounding and just really are beautiful and joyful. And I really think right now during migration, too, you know, how far they're traveling. But also, they're also storing a lot of seeds right now. Do you know that birds actually expand their brains so they can remember where they store all the thousands of seeds that they're storing that they can eat during the winter? That's crazy. But also, birds are everywhere, and we're really watching them. So there's 100 million bird watchers in the US, and they're spending $108 billion a year doing that. Birds are helpful in letting us know the environment is healthy. They are very sensitive to toxins and pollutants and can serve as a early warning system that something is wrong in the environment. So birds really do need our help and that's the purpose of our program. So breeding surveys have shown that the populations have declined anywhere from 30 to 77% or more and the numbers are still falling. The recent study from last year shows that 112 species are at tipping point, which is not great. Here's some faces to that. We have the eastern toey here on the left and the eastern grosbeak on the right. These are two birds that populations are down by more than 90%, and these would be very prevalent here in Bucks County. So what are the major threats to bird populations? Loss and fragmentation of habitat. There's over 40 million acres of lawns in the U.S., with 2 million here in Pennsylvania. Lawns don't provide any eco-services for birds. There's no place for them to get food, water, or shelter. Cats. Cats are also a huge problem. 2.4 billion birds a year are killed by cats. Also, window collisions, pesticides, climate change, invasive species, and plastics are also the threats to bird populations. So we will work to address these issues through engagement, education, encouragement, support, inspiration, and promoting awareness. It's been found that by targeted conservation efforts, we can really make a successful reverse in bird population decline. So here in Middletown Township, you can be thinking about the different actions that you can take. Here are some very important ones. For example, addressing habitat loss by planting native trees and shrubs to create green corridors. Addressing threats to birds by reducing bird window strikes and pesticide use. Developing proclamations, resolutions, and ordinances to address invasives. native plants, pesticides, and so on. And then also educating your community members about the importance of native plants and adding them to their yards. This is the different actions that can be taken by your Bird Town Committee. It's a categories, goals, and action worksheet. So again, they have 75 different actions or more that they can choose from based on what your thoughts and focuses are here in the township and how to address bird population decline. So what we provide for your municipality is a statewide structure program with congruous goals, concrete resources and achievable actions, a framework for community networking with other bird towns and conservation partners. We also offer free training and workshops for your bird town leaders and more opportunities and success in obtaining funding. So we just received this year a DCNRC2P2 grant. We're in the middle of our mini-grant application process, and I'm really pleased that you guys submitted an application today. So really looking forward to seeing that when I get home. So those funds will be provided for $31,000 mini-grants, and also the funds are being used to support our in-person regional Birdtown Clutch meetings. We also have a beautiful website. It has a rich array of resources, a list of all our conservation partners and bird towns, and lots of information for our bird town leaders. We also have a lot of communications and networking opportunities to be turned to our bird town leaders. We have a bird town flyer. This is our bi-monthly newsletter for our bird town leaders. It comes out tomorrow. We also have Bird Beat. This is our quarterly community newsletter to inspire and inform residents about actions they can take and provide seasonal tips.

And then finally, we have the Birdtown Forum.

This is a private Facebook page where our Birdtown leaders can share about upcoming events and inspiring stories. This is just an example of our workshop series. So this is our workshop series for 2026. We have this week coming up one on microforests. We have Rob Christopher from the city of Easton who's sharing about microforests and the success they've had there in Easton with that. And then we have our last one in October about fall garden cleanup. So our program is organized under four categories. These are the four categories of creating and protecting habitat, addressing those threats to birds, educating and engaging people, and promoting sustainability. These are the different categories. This gives you examples of best practices that can be taken under the different categories. So for example, under habitat, best practices would be promoting best management of community habitat, creating and protecting habitat, promoting native plants, and so on. It's also a certification program. It's four tiers, so right now you're a Green Bird Town. You can be a Green Bird Town for a year. So there is an annual report due on January 31st, but since you're brand new, you have over a year to do that annual report. So obviously you won't be ready in January necessarily unless you want to, but you can wait till 2028 to submit that annual report. At that point then, based on the actions that you've taken, it will go up to the bronze, silver, or gold level, okay? And this is a welcome packet that we went over, or I went over with your committee, just sharing all the different things that you have access to now as a Bird Town. Then finally, I just want to say congratulations again, Middletown Township. I'm so excited and delighted that you're a new Bird Town, so let's give you guys a round of applause. Before we stop for like a quick photo op, do any of you have any questions for me about the Bird Town program?

Will this be available on our website?

Yes. I think we were just talking with Paul. There's going to be a website page on your web page about Birdtown for here in the township.

And information on how to be a Birdtown leader?

Probably. I mean, you guys can look into the community and ask for folks that might be interested in being part of your committee.

OK.

Thank you. Of course. Any other questions?

I don't have questions, but I just want to say I'm really excited about this. I want to thank you for being here. I know that when I and some of my colleagues first found out about Birdtown, Pennsylvania, and learned that some of our neighboring municipalities were designated as Birdtowns, and we were not, we got real enthusiastic about the opportunity. And so I want to thank Mr. Post and the Environmental Advisory Council for all their work. And again, thank you for being here and presenting. Really excited to be part of the program.

Oh, wonderful. Great. I think there's over 20 Birdtowns now here in Bucks County. So we'll be getting together. I think it's November 14th in Lower Makefield is actually doing the in-person regional meeting. So I hope, you know, you'll have representatives from your Birdtown at that meeting. Thank you for the question. Thank you. Appreciate your support. Anything else? So if you all don't mind just standing up for a moment, I have some Birdtown signs and certificate to give to you.

Thank you very much. At this time, I'd like to invite the public to make any comments for the board's consideration. Please state your name and address for the record. First up, we have Ray Post. Did you want to say anything else or was that just? Okay, no, thank you so much. And then we have Al Monco. Did I say that correctly?

Lowell Oaks residents deserve the same pedestrian safety protection as every other Middletown Township neighborhood. I am here tonight because something is fundamentally wrong with the way Middletown Township has addressed pedestrian safety at the intersection of Laurel Oaks Drive and Langhorne Yardley Road. This is not a new concern. We discussed this in 2002, 2014, 2016, and 2025. I called a couple of weeks ago also on this. Residents have been, as I said, raising this since 2002. Middletown Township Community Park was erected somewhere around 1995, 1996. For more than two decades, residents of Laurel Oaks have asked the township to provide a safe pedestrian crossing to the community park. Laurel Oaks consists of 276 homeowners, single family homes. Yet after these years, the township still has failed to provide the same pedestrian safety measures at Laurel Oaks tribe that it has provided at the entrances and connections to to the very same community park, speaking about Walnut Way and Maple Point Drive. Why did the township install crosswalk traffic control measures, pedestrian warning devices and signs on Maple Point Drive and Walnut Way providing safer pedestrian access to the community park but failed to provide comparable protection to Laurel Oaks Drive? What makes the children, the senior citizens, the disabled residents of Laurel Oaks less deserving of the same protection? We're not asking for preferential treatment. We're asking for equal treatment. The Middletown Township determined that pedestrian crossing at Maple Point and Walnut Way Drive require traffic control devices and pedestrian safety measures. then the township needs to explain why the same consideration has not been given to the residents of Laurel Oaks. This is a safety issue, not an inconvenience. Langhorne Valley Road is 40 miles per hour. It was 45 miles per hour. Laurel Oaks Drive intersection is also located near a bend on the roadway, creating a visibility problem for both pedestrian and approaching motorists. The combination should concern everyone responsible for public safety. A 40 mile per hour highway, a bend that can obscure visibility, children, senior citizens, disabled residents, and families attempting to cross to reach a public park. That is unnecessary and a foreseeable safety risk. And who are the people most likely to be exposed to this risk? Our children, our seniors, residents with disabilities, people walking to the park. You promote a lot of activities at the community park. And our residents get that. We have no way of knowing when children go to the park. They don't tell mom and dad, hey, I'm going to the community park. They get together and they go. And that puts them at risk. 24 years ago, the request should have been enough. Let me put it into this perspective. Residents have been complaining about this situation since 2002. Your own records reflect that. I did a Freedom of Information Act request and confirmed that. This is approximately 24 years of residents asking for safer pedestrian connection. And the situation becomes even more difficult to understand because the township has already demonstrated that it knows how to address pedestrian access to the community park. You finish two crosswalks with lights, flashers, symbols, signs, but we didn't get anything, not even a painted roadway. We are asking for accountability. Tonight I'm asking the Board of Supervisors to publicly explain what is the reason Laurel Oaks was left out. What is the traffic engineering decision? What is the funding decision? What is the priority decision? What is the decision made by previous administration? Was there a traffic or engineering study that concluded the intersection was safe for pedestrians? I know there wasn't. My Freedom of Information Act information that I got shows PennDOT approved a corner crosswalk, not a mid-block, a corner crosswalk. The township has determined this intersection is safe, then I want to know the basis for that decision. We are demanding an immediate and interim safety measure. Until permanent pedestrian improvements are completed, we are asking the township to take immediate action. We demand that Middletown Township assign a uniformed police officer in a marked patrol vehicle at that intersection when you have activities in that park, when you know there's going to be heavy traffic going back and forth from that drive, from Lowell Oaks Drive. This is not being requested as a permanent solution, but as an interim safety measure. A visible police presence can slow traffic, alert motorists to pedestrians, and assist people crossing the roadway, and provide an immediate layer of protection while the township addresses the permanent infrastructure. The township should not tell residents to wait another year, another five years, another 20 years while they continue crossing this roadway under the same dangerous conditions. I'm gonna jump ahead because there's other people that are gonna talk. I don't think we should wait for a tragedy. As I look at some recent accidents, On August 21st, 2026, a pedestrian was struck while he was crossing over to the south entrance of Tyler Park on Newtown Richboro Road. That is a 45 mile per hour highway at the intersection of Hanover Road. On October 31st, 2019, two students were seriously injured while crossing the street to get to the George School. That was on the intersection of 413 and Crestview Drive, a 35 mile per hour road. So sometimes speed has no impact on collision with a pedestrian. Those incidents should serve as a reminder that pedestrian safety cannot simply be ignored until someone is seriously injured. I spent 25 years as a Pennsylvania State Trooper. During that career, I learned that law enforcement, government should simply react after something goes wrong. We should identify hazards, we should evaluate risk, and when foreseeable danger exists, we should take measures to reduce the danger before someone gets hurt. This is exactly what I'm asking of Middletown Township to do here. We are not accusing anyone of intentionally placing residents in danger. We are saying the township has been put on notice and this is a potentially dangerous situation for the past 24 years. At this point, the township cannot say we were unaware. The township cannot say residents never asked us. and the township cannot say that pedestrian safety at the community park is not a priority because the township has already invested in pedestrian safety improvements at the other two connections. There is also serious issue with governmental responsibility and accountability. Governmental immunity is not an absolute shield under every circumstance. Courts can examine the specific facts, the applicable law, and the duties involved, and whether the government entity actions or failures to act fall within recognition, exemptions, and other legal standards. This is not a threat, but I guarantee you if someone gets hit by a car on that intersection, you probably will face liability. So I will end with this. Why are the residents of Lower Oaks being treated differently? And what will follow after this meeting? When would you put up a crosswalk on Laurel Oaks Drive? Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Lauren LaRoe.

Hi, Lauren LaRoe, 18 Sequel-Pere Road. Thank you guys again for doing Birdtown. We're really excited about that. I actually have a completely different comment that I wanted to make, and I realize now that it might be agenda item number 12. I thought that Middletown passed an ordinance about signs on municipal property, and I guess there was a problem with that ordinance that you guys adopted, and so you have to edit it now. Is that accurate?

So we're amending our sign regulations within the Township Zoning Ordinance because a case came out last year, a little more than last year, that requires us to have all temporary signs be unanimous regulations that are the same for every type of temporary sign.

Okay, so right now, I always thought that you couldn't put up signs for the election until 30 days before, and then you have to take them down within 30 days after, and I just noticed that in the end of August, a lot of signs started popping up, and some of them are really big. Some of them obstruct your view on turning you know, certain intersections that are really busy, and so I was just wanting to follow up with you guys, like, is Public Works going around taking these signs down and confiscating them, or are we waiting to amend before we do anything? Because it's frustrating for a lot of people.

So this ordinance will affect the political signs. However, you are correct. It's actually, I think, 60 days prior to the election. That was the previous regulations. This will not allow any signs, not just political signs, but in the right of way. You still can have your political signs in your yard and other type. But yeah, there will be no political signs, any signs within the right of way. BUT RIGHT NOW, THE TOWNSHIP HAS BEEN TAKING SIGNS IN THE RIGHT-OF-WAY ONLY FOR IF THERE WERE MORE. BUT WE HAVE TO GET CALLS. WE DON'T KNOW EVERY SINGLE ONE THAT'S BEEN PUT UP.

IS THERE A NUMBER THAT I CAN CALL SO THAT I CAN REPORT SIGNS THAT I SEE? BECAUSE I WILL BE HAPPY TO HELP THE PROCESS IF I CAN.

You can call the township manager's office and report them and then we'll disseminate to the appropriate department.

Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. So right now there shouldn't be signs in the right-of-way, right? Okay. And you are actively sending public works around to try to take them down when you are aware of them?

As long as we know that they're within the township right-of-way. They might not be within the township right-of-way. If they're within PennDOT's right-of-way, we will not touch those. It's not township property.

How does a person know...

well you want to look at whether it's a township road or a state road if it's a state road it's going to be a pen dot right-of-way um also you could call us we we have the ability to okay so we could tell you it's on this intersection and we would determine whether it's within the township right-of-way or not awesome well thank you so much i really appreciate your time thank you um and do we have somebody who's online who has a comment

Yes, hello, can you hear me yes. Christopher know kowski albert's boy in line. Yet for being a bird now and i'm going to read a little statement here that I have typed up on the computer. An important characteristic of good lawmaking it is foresight, the ability to address the present day issue, while also considering future ramifications. Everybody's not Nostradamus, so a corollary characteristic is the ability to reassess, to reconsider, realizing and admitting that we could have done things differently and improved things. This board is full of reasonable folks, so that's why I'm speaking tonight, to call on you to reconsider what I deem a misguided polypacy. However, everyone has probably seen the news this past week about artificial intelligence, the fears that it could actually destroy humanity within the next decade. It's no joke. Various CEOs and former employees have spoken out. Just today, Dario Amodi, who's the CEO of Anthropic, said that they may need to utilize a kill switch to ensure artificial intelligence can't outrun its human control. Potentially very scary stuff. So color me dismayed to speak about the infiltration of big tech, artificial intelligence, and mass surveillance into our community. Back in 2024, the Board of Supervisors, in a different formation, agreed to a five-year contract with a tech surveillance company known as Plate Login. That five-year surveillance contract included at least eight separate cameras and cost taxpayers $15,900 annually. Between these public cameras and other private ones in shopping centers, I estimate that Middletown alone is home to more than 30 of these cameras, easily hackable. Perhaps people have heard of FLOCK cameras, F-L-O-C-K. They're the largest of the tech surveillance companies operating more than 120,000 such cameras nationwide. But there are plenty of outfits doing similarly. Middletown just happens to be in bed with a company called Plate Login. So Plate Login supplies cameras which are mounted near busy intersections and record and track every single vehicle which passes by, not to mention harvesting countless other bits of information in the process. Now, what does plate logging do with that personal data? They store it in a digital database where the information is coded, sorted, and returned to our local police department via artificial intelligence. How long is it stored? What guardrails are there to ensure that our police department doesn't illegally access that information? Overblown fears, you say? Hardly. ICE has used flock cameras without warrants to go after immigrants. Officers in Kansas used local cameras to pursue a man who wrote a critical op-ed about, you guessed it, the police department. And a Kentucky officer was named for tracking, stalking, and harassing his ex. She had to go to court for a restraining order. More than 70 officers nationwide have been busted for illegally accessing the information collected by these surveillance cameras. Now I know the default responses. The police department says these are a vital tool. They solve crimes. Hogwash. I could imagine a bank robbery. Blue Ford Explorer, north on Woodburn, turned right on Lincoln Highway. Yeah, we got a hit on the camera. Okay. We were doing just fine solving crimes two and a half years ago when there were zero surveillance cameras before we started surveilling our citizens. I would argue there hasn't been a single crime in Middletown which would have gone unsolved had it not been for these cameras. Do they contribute? Sure. Perhaps on occasion? Vital? Hardly. With all due respect to our police, the next dollar of spending any police department turns down would be the first. They always err on the side of more. More tools, more security, more everything. I can't necessarily blame them, but that's the way it goes. It doesn't mean it's the correct way, though. Let's keep in mind, the police department is not a co-equal branch of GOC. They work for us, and they answer to you. It is incumbent upon you, as elected officials, to determine whether or not these are the best practices and in the interests of our residents. ICE is walking around with electrified taser gloves these days. Small police departments have armored vehicles, formerly the domain of the military. And now we've knitted together a nationwide surveillance state, right for abuse, all in the name of security. I have a quote for you. Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. That's Ben Franklin. And one more, a bit more timely. Quote, I would welcome bipartisan legislation to ban these. This is not something I support. This is not something in the public interest. I think law enforcement needs to have tools to keep communities safe. Flock cameras are not a tool that I support. End quote. Just last week, our governor, Josh Shapiro, Now, you might be saying, he's got his finger in the breeze. It's political season. He's just going with the winds. Well, good for him. I'd urge this board to do the same. People do not want to be surveilled, especially not under the guise of security. Take these cameras down, cancel the contracts, put $15,900 back in our general fund each year, and tell the noxious tech oligarchs who are bent on destroying jobs, thieving art, and ruining the environment, not only will we not surveil our people, but Middle Town Township will not be a party to the AI destruction of humanity. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Any other public comments? Chief Barterello, would you be able to speak on just what type of cameras we have? We don't have flock cameras and we do use them for certain things.

Good evening, Ms. Hanna, fellow board members. We do not have flock cameras. In fact, I don't believe any or many law enforcement agencies in Bucks County utilize flock cameras. However, the previous commenter was correct that flock is just the camera. There are numerous vendors that make cameras. The cameras he's referring to that we have, he was mispronouncing it, they're plate logic. They are license plate readers. I will take a bit of exception in that they have helped us solve crime. Would we have solved those crimes otherwise? Yes, but they helped us in a much more timely manner. And one specific incident that I can refer to is a horrific homicide that we had a couple of years ago where the assailant fled over 100 miles away And we were able to track that movement based on licensed plate reader technology. Would we have eventually caught him? Sure. But we were able to safely apprehend him, take him into custody without incident within a couple of hours of the crime. So, and I could go through numerous instances where plate reader technology has helped us solve crime and certainly more expeditiously solve crime. We're a department of 64 sworn were a community of almost 50,000 people. You let me know how 64 sworn are gonna surveil 50,000 people constantly and let me know how we can manage to do that. That is not occurring. The other issue that I will take exception to with the comment is that these readers were only put in place two and a half years ago. Middletown Township has had license plate readers since 2013. We have a comprehensive policy that was issued the day that we acquired license plate readers. They were acquired by our department prior to me even becoming police chief. They were just mounted to a vehicle at that time. Now it's modern technology favors them being more stationary at intersections. So we've had this technology for 13 years. And I believe, and I think I can show and I can give more examples if you need that over the past 13 years, that at least our police department, and I'm going to speak for all of Bucks County because I'm president of Bucks County Police Chiefs Association. So I'm going to stick up for the 39 other police departments or 38 other police departments in this county that we have utilized LPR technology 100% to benefit our communities and to solve crime, solve it more expeditiously, and also to solve it and to be able to track things in a way that we're able to safely make apprehensions, sometimes without maybe use of force or maybe some other measures. So to me, of course, as a police chief, yes, I'm going to say that I believe the benefits of the technology far outweigh the drawbacks. Am I going to say there are no drawbacks? No. There are drawbacks to everything, right? The legislative decision as to whether we should have them is certainly up to you. I know a few years ago when I proposed them at the intersections where we have them, you were in favor of them. You did ask some questions and some good ones. Two of the intersections we actually share with Bristol Township and they have benefited both of our departments. But I believe overall the benefits that we obtain from them far outweigh any of the drawbacks. And we have a very comprehensive policy that strictly controls the use of the cameras. Outside of those three intersections, our police department does not own or monitor any other cameras anywhere in the township. I know there are rumors that there are flat cameras. We don't have access to them and we don't monitor them. So I just wanted to make those statements just to clarify. He made some good points, but I just wanted to clarify some of the points that he made just to kind of give you the police department's perspective on it as opposed to what his perspective was. If you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer them.

I just want to say thank you. And I know that we only have three. We're not connected to any private companies or businesses or anything like that. I think there's a lot of misinformation out there about that.

Yes.

I appreciate your comments.

Good. Any other questions?

Just quickly, how long do we store the data we gather? How long do we?

It is stored. As far as I know, Mr. Layton, it's stored indefinitely. So we can access it. And, you know, there's a reason for that. You know, sometimes you may be pursuing an investigation or made aware of an investigation that's several months old, and you want to be able to access, you know, data or information that is available to us. So it is stored for a lengthy amount of time. It's not like, to my knowledge, PlateLogic uses something called the VIPER system. I don't know exactly what the acronym stands for. That is connected to the National Crime Information Center and some other databases that Philadelphia uses, like the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center. And that information, to my knowledge, is, if it's not permanent, it's stored for a lengthy amount of time.

Any other questions from the board? Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

Any other public comments?

Eric Bruno, 790. It's not about that, and it's quick. Okay, on August 18th, Governor Shapiro issued an executive order about data centers known as GRID. Section 2A of that executive order states, for all agencies under the governor's jurisdiction, use of nondisclosure agreements in connection with a data center project is impermissible. Tonight, I have a question that I'd like to know and have you state yes or no to the answer. For clarity for this question, I'm excluding any matters of township personnel or HR matters. I don't want any of that. But the question is, I want to go down the line of the five up there. Are you currently under any NDA, secrecy agreement, or any other similar instrument that relates to township business? This includes all aspects of the township business, properties, services, sourcing, informational documents, or any other aspects of the township business, again, outside of staff or HR business. Mr. Gallardo? Yes or no?

Can I just interrupt? You read that so fast, and I don't think I heard two words. Oh, I'm sorry. Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, stop. Before you put us on the spot and ask us to take a yes or no position on a very lengthy and legal article, can you send it to us and give us time to review it?

It's a very simple question. Are you under an NDA for anything under township business? That's the simple question.

An NDA?

Yes, not excluding any personnel or anything like that. I don't want to know HR issues or anything like that. It is...

I'm going to interject here. Without seeing the specific question, they're not going to know every single... They're going to know if they're under an NDA. You just listed exceptions, so now...

It's one exception. It's HR personnel issues that I don't...

I'm going to suggest that we receive this in writing, and we can...

Okay. I'll be sending it to you five, and Chris, I would appreciate if you would answer for the entirety of the staff, and I would appreciate an answer by next then, because we're looking... I've been over to Falls Township, and they went through an NDI with Amazon with the data center down there. It was... atrocious in my opinion that a single any individual who represents who's elected and represents the township would sign that and What makes it even worse is that they signed it without like I could like understand that they were getting like a hundred grand or something But they signed it and got nothing and it portrayed the trust betrayed the trust of the township So I will send it out and I would like an answer by next meeting if you wouldn't mind.

Thank you Thank you for your comments Any other public comments?

Hi everyone. My name is Ashley Pierce and I also live in Laurel Oaks. Um, thank you to Armando for such a nice and well prepared speech. I do not have one. Um, but I did want to say I am the president of the Laurel Oaks homeowners association, so I do represent 276 homes. We do have similar concerns by many of our homeowners there. So, um, you know, he had asked a few questions. I also have children that go to maple point. My niece lives in Laurel Oaks. She goes to core Creek. They play soccer at community park. So, Definitely also a personal issue for me as well. But wanted to hear your perspective on this and maybe what that process looked like for Maple Point so that we could start the process to get this going for Laurel Oaks. How did they get approval? What did that look like to help us kind of get some answers there?

So maybe, Mr. Hoffman, I know that on Wednesday we will be discussing, if you want to talk about that.

sure and so for your specific question as to the prior decision making that led to the improvements at the other locations and just if we can unfortunately i've only been here for four weeks in a day so i will need to look into that for you i can talk about it because i i sort of have lived through all of this crossing up to finish out just real quick the second question um or the the comment from uh supervisor hannah we do have a meeting with our traffic engineer it's essentially like my kickoff introduction meeting with them um to be able to understand projects that are in the pipeline, what has been prioritized, understand our funding sources for them. So we are working to fill in some of those details.

Okay. Awesome.

Yeah, so what I would say, I know the gentleman mentioned that this has been requested for this particular crossing before, and I'm not aware of specific prior requests to do any sort of studies to see whether it's feasible to put an upgraded crossing at Laura Lokes Drive. If there were requests made in the past, I just was not aware of them. There was never a specific, as far as I know, decision made that there should not be one there. I can tell you that the three crossings on Langhorne Yardley Road that have all been upgraded were all unique in individual circumstances. So the one at Walnut Way, which is the newer development, that was done by the developer when they built those houses as part of that development. I know the one at Maple Point Drive, which is the one we did most recently, that started with, I believe, a resident petition from that neighborhood. And then it was a multi-year process. We got a grant to pay for it. And that took several years to get off the ground. I forget, it may have been a similar process with the one at Briggs, which is at the other end of Langhorne Yardley Road. But the answer is, I mean, we're not excluding it as a possibility. I mean, we're certainly open to talking about it. I don't know off the top of my head what it would take to put an upgraded crossing at that road.

Okay. Yeah. I guess it's more or less like we're happy to help from a homeowners association standpoint if we need to get petitions, like whatever. if you guys can keep us informed on what's great next steps and how we as a community can help push this forward.

I mean, that would certainly be something that we- We do have the Citizens Traffic Commission, correct? They can, go ahead.

Correct, that would be a potential outlet. I think maybe as the starting point following the meeting that we have on Wednesday, I'm not being a traffic engineer. I don't want to kind of commit what is possible or not. I know there are lots of kind of PennDOT requirements from various perspectives of site distance, speed on the road, but obviously there are other ones there.

Yeah, there's three others.

Right. So just making sure that there's no other like particular – at this intersection that might preclude it. So I think if it's agreeable to everybody, I think at a relative minimal expense, we can ask Pannoni to look into just those like initial details. Does it fit within criteria? And then we can discuss with finance and grant opportunities to see how practical it might be to turn this around. to the point of just the time that it takes. Any signal like that does require PennDOT approval and permitting. And so that just does add time to the permanent solution being implemented. So just I would caution that for any review that we would do on this topic.

I think just be important to hear like some of that feedback and then we can push forward from our end as well to help you continue to stay on top of it. So yeah, I'd love to hear just kind of what the feedback is from that meeting. And then again, we can work together, but definitely understand it's not something we'll be up tomorrow, but that's important for our community. So thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comments?

I'm just gonna follow up to this because I'm in the same neighborhood. Sean Gregory, 9 Gunning Lane. The one thing that I've noticed is that I think we are on the end of the jurisdiction, too. And I don't see the amount of presence of our police force in that area. I actually see a stationary speed camera there, but it has no photos. It doesn't take photos or anything like that. With school being there, those two roads, I live on them, I drive on them. Sometimes I don't follow the speed limit myself, but they're posted at 40. There's 55 and 60 miles an hour that are going back and forth. Is there any way the township could place law enforcement between the beginning and at the end of school so that we can assure the safety of people crossing a road that doesn't have an immediate crossing path there? I think that's kind of a given time. I mean, obviously everything's a process, but... We've got to be able to. Personally, I've seen more presence of lower make field around my house than I have my own law enforcement agency. I've seen them more around the holidays touting around the fire truck than actually running through the neighborhood and just doing safety checks and just making sure everything's up. We actually had a homeowner that had two cars stolen from their front yard. And that's when I saw police in the neighborhood. Why does it have to take a crime to have the presence? I think the mere presence makes things deterrent. And I'll tell you what, when you guys installed the cameras and you were working with, I believe, the bus companies, you guys put out a message stating that you've got $300,000 in tickets. That alone tells you that there's a bad driving problem. So before somebody gets killed, there's got to be an interim solution to help step up a little bit of enforcement so we can get to that end point of success without any minimal deaths and stuff like that. And then my second question. As I work in financial processing, so as you're talking about the cameras holding indefinitely, are we accessing that via an API to a database that they hold, or is that held on premise, and is it held separately away from all the other business of the law enforcement? Because my concern comes in, what happens if there's a zero day, and that system was a good attack? Do they have the key to the treasure trove of all the township's business in one single file location? Those are my questions.

Thank you for your questions and your comments. Any other public comments or questions? Okay, we're gonna move on to the next agenda items. Consent agenda items. I make a motion to approve the following consent agenda items. Consideration of authorizing payment of September 14th, 2026 bills list in the amount of $1,712,832.83. B, consideration of approving the August 10th, 2026 minutes of the public meeting of Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. Item C, consideration of awarding 2026-2027 Bucks County Consortium bid for rock salt to Riverside Construction of Fairless Hills PA at the rate of $75 per ton. D, consideration of suspending ordinance 337-103D on Saturday, 9-26-26 for the purpose of hosting beer gardens on township property. E, consideration of change order number three for stormwater pipelining project in the amount of negative $7,802.00. Consideration item number F, a letter F, consideration of payment certificate number two, final for the stormwater pipelining project in the amount of $186,749. Item G, consideration of change order number five for the Langhorne Gables drainage improvements phase two in the amount of negative $174.32. Consideration of payment certificate number five for the Langhorne Gables drainage improvements phase two in the amount of $79,524.17. Item I, consideration of approving resolution number 26-22R for an intergovernmental agreement to participate in grant application for towns against graffiti. J, consideration of appointing the township manager as Middletown Township's open records officer. I made a motion, I'll take a second.

I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the public? Any questions or comments from the board? Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion passes 5-0. Next agenda item, number seven, consideration of awarding the base bid and alternates number one for Hillside Avenue drainage improvements project to Mayfield Site Contractors Inc. of King of Prussia, PA in the amount of $524,900. Mr. Kessler will present. Could you give us some information?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Before the board tonight is the Hillside Avenue Drainage Improvements Project. This is a project that's been on kind of a holding pattern with the township for quite a few years. It's gone through a few iterations of design. The main reason that it's not been able to move forward in years past is just some funding availability with annual budgets to do larger drainage projects. with the stormwater funding that we now have designated for these types of projects. We have that in the budget available to do a project such as this. Hillside Avenue is down near the Neshaminy Creek. It's bookended by Shaw Avenue and Knoll Avenue. It's the last roadway, if you will, before the properties in the back slope down towards the creek. They've had stormwater issues and flooding issues with property damage for quite a long time. So this project really is looking to address all those issues. It's looking to kind of approach it on two fronts. One is to regrade the roadway to have the water pushed away from the trouble areas. And then also it's to install new storms and drains to get the water off the road and into the system so it can go out to the creek. It's proposed entirely within the public right of way and we worked with the community throughout the process to have this result as a project that should really improve along their properties in that part of the township. The bids for the project were publicly available. The bids were received on August 19th and we had five total bids received The lowest bidder does qualify with all the requirements in our bid package, including our township RCO requirements. They were a good amount below our engineer's estimate from the beginning of the year as well, predominantly because of the paving pricing that they had. So that was good to see. So we have the availability to not only include the base bid, but also the alternate number one that was part of the project. Alternate number one is some roadway improvements closer to where Knoll Avenue comes into Hillside. So we're pleased to recommend that both the base and alternate one be awarded. The low bidder is, as you read, I just misplaced their name, Mayfield site. contractors incorporated and the total amount for base and alternate one is five hundred twenty four thousand nine hundred dollars happy to answer any questions any questions from the board okay is there a motion to award the base bid and alternates number one for the hillside Avenue drainage improvement project

I'll move toward the base bid and alternate number one for the Hillside Avenue Drainage Improvements Project in the amount of $524,900 to Mayfield Site Contractors Incorporated.

Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second?

I second.

All right, no questions from the board. Any questions or comments from the public? All right, all those in favor of awarding the base bid and alternates number one for the Hillside Avenue Drainage Improvements Project to Mayfield Site Contractors, Inc. of King of Prussia, PA, in the amount of $524,900, say yay. Aye. Aye, I'm sorry. Sorry, aye. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. All right. Item number eight, consideration of authorizing the purchase of one Schwarze A7 sweeper twin engine from H.A. DeHart & Son of Thorafair, New Jersey in the amount of $383,985. This is going to be Mr. Gartenmeier.

Good evening, board. So our sweeper currently right now is 19 years old. We did look at it in 25's budget, but it wasn't enough. FLOAT THEN SO WE PUT IT IN FOR THIS BUDGET THIS YEAR. WE HAD FOUR DIFFERENT COMPANIES COME OUT. THE GUYS WHO DRIVE THAT VEHICLE ALL GOT TO DRIVE THE VEHICLES AND WE CAME TO THIS WHICH WE THOUGHT WOULD BEST FIT OUR NEEDS. IT DOES HAVE THE VAC ON IT FOR DOING CATCH BASINS. And it is one of the equipment that we do use. We try to get out as often as we can for street sweeping and for doing inlet work, for sucking out inlets.

Okay. Was this in the budget?

Yes, it was. It was in the budget for this year, and it is CoStar pricing, obviously. Everything we do is CoStars.

Okay, thank you. All right, is there a motion to authorize the purchase of the Schwarzer A7 sweeper twin engine from H.A. DeHart & Son of Thoroughfare, New Jersey in the amount of $383,985?

Yeah, I'll move to make a motion to authorize the purchase of the Schwarzer A7 tornado regenerative air vacuum sweeper twin engine in the amount of $383,985. We have a motion. Is there a second? I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions from the board? Any questions or comments?

I had a quick question, just because I was just curious, because you said we had our last one for 19 years. What is like the typical lifespan of one of these things?

So the one we have now actually isn't a stainless steel hopper. When it was bought back then, it was a steel hopper. We have patched the sides. We try to make it work as far, but it's just at a point where, that's why we put it in last year. However, the budget didn't allow it. Usually 20 years, 19, 20 years, you'll get out of it. Usually somewhere around there.

Thank you. Any other questions from the board?

Is there anything we can do with the current one to get some funds towards this?

So that will go out to, you miss a bid, or I'm looking at a trade, you know, the sandwich they'll give us for a trade-in. Usually it's better going on, you miss a bid for that, we might get more money for it that way. So that has to be determined yet, but we will get money back for that one.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Any questions or comments from the public? All right, no questions or comments from the public. Is there a motion to authorize the purchase? Is there, did we make a motion? Okay, is there a second? And we have a second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Item number nine, consideration of authorizing to approve a 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the implantation and operation of Axon Records as Middletown Township Police Department's records management system at a total contract of $1,377,000. $71.74. Chief Bartirillo, could you share some information about this item?

Sure. Good evening once again, Ms. Hanna, fellow board members. Real briefly, I did want to add one thing. I wanted to wait until I came up just regarding the Laurel Oaks issue. Pre-COVID, so it's quite a while ago, we did a pretty comprehensive traffic study on Langhorne-Yardley Road. It was one of those roads where it did show some speeding at the 85th percentile. We did contact PennDOT, as Mr. Hoffman said. We originally requested PennDOT to lower the speed limit from 45 to 35. They would not allow that. They did authorize us to drop it from 45 to 40, which is why it's 40 now from Bridgetown all the way up to Township Line Road. And two of those intersections have been completely re-engineered in the last couple of years with the... the traffic circle and then the widening at Woodburn and Langhorne Yardley. So I just wanted to just apprise the board of that, that we did do a study several years ago. It did show some speeding. We were able to lower the speed from 45 to 40. That's why it's 40 miles an hour now. So Mr. Carrasco, if that answers some of your questions, I know you and I email once in a while. So, okay.

Thank you, Chief.

Sorry, Chief. Just while you're on it, can you just speak to because I think a couple of folks brought up the idea of either just putting a stationary, you know, police officer at the intersection or having increased traffic controls or traffic, you know, monitoring. Is there anything? I know that that's something that we get we get requests by that from residents in every neighborhood and township all the time.

So our school resource officer that's up at Maple Point Middle School can certainly make his way there, especially since there is actually a traffic light now where the new elementary school is, so that helps control that. intersection a little bit so maybe we can shift the sro after school hours over to the langhorne yardley side to help with some traffic control there we'll certainly take take a look at that i can't guarantee it every day so sro is kind of busy that's a huge uh complex there but we'll look into it we'll do our best especially since they did build a traffic light on woodburn road when they re-engineered that that intersection thank you good any other questions about that okay All right, so with that, I am here tonight to request authorization to replace our current police records management system, that's CODI, with Axon Records. This is a very critical and important long-term investment for our police department. CODI, which is our current records management software, is an outdated legacy server-based system. And its recent acquisition by Tyler Technologies creates some uncertainty regarding its future development and pricing. So this is certainly the right time to move to a more modern cloud-based platform, which is what Axon is. So our police department currently has about 1 million individual files contained in our records management system. So having a top quality records management system is essential to organizing, tracking, storing, and securing such a massive amount of critical data. The biggest advantage of Axon records is integration. as it will integrate with our existing Axon body worn and dash cameras. We did shift after 10 years of being with WatchGuard a couple of years ago to Axon for our body cameras and dash cameras, and it has been a fantastic system and a great investment for us so far. It will also, the one thing it will do that CODI doesn't do, it's going to open up the number of modules and capabilities that we don't currently have with CODI, one of which is mandatory NIBRS compliance. We still operate with uniform crime reporting. We are going to be required eventually to go to the national incident based reporting system. Axon will automatically integrate that for us and all the data we enter will automatically be reported to NIBRS. So currently, Bend-Salem and Lower Marion townships have already made the successful transition from Cody to Axon. And I believe with Tyler acquiring Cody, you're going to see many other departments in Bucks and Montgomery County make the move very shortly. The cost of Axon over 10 years is $1.377 million. That's not a standalone cost. If we stick with Cody, we're going to wind up paying probably somewhere around $800,000 to $1 million over 10 years with Cody itself. We don't know for sure because we don't know what the fluctuating costs are going to be. We do know that with Axon, it is a 10-year agreement and it is stable and a fixed cost for 10 years. The Axon agreement, the reason for the higher initial pricing is for the data conversion, which is what we had with Cody when we switched from Alert to Cody in 2018. and also the integration professional services and support. But as I said, it does provide us 10 years of pricing stability. We were able to secure for the first year an initial $63,800 DCED, that's the Department of Community and Economic Development grant through the state, which will reduce the initial payment from about 395,000 to 331,000. There was also a PCCD grant announced today for $50,000 to help with NIBRS compliance. We are going to pursue that as well. We didn't get that one. We did get the DCED one. We are going to apply for the PCCD one as well. So this is a very important technology investment for the future of our police department. I'm recommending it because it provides us pricing stability and I believe the best long-term value functionality and technology for the police department. We're replacing an outdated legacy system with a platform that integrates the technology we've already invested in and puts us in a stable and solid position for the next 10 years. So for those reasons, I do recommend approval of Axon. I don't know if the board remembers, but about 13 months ago in August of 25, I also made a very lengthy, almost one hour presentation of this. Mr. Gallardo, Mr. Layton were not on the board at the time, but I did make a lengthy presentation of this at the senior center. at our capital meeting back in 2025, speaking then of the need for us to really consider the possibility that we were gonna need to change and upgrade and enhance our records management system moving into the future. I did get a lot of questions that night. I expect some questions tonight as well. And that night was just to introduce it at capital. Tonight is to actually make the formal request for us to switch. So with that, I do recommend that we approve this agreement with Exxon Records. And I am happy to answer any questions the board would have.

Does the 1.3 cover the integration, and is there any cost above and beyond that?

No, it covers everything.

For up to 10 years, so there's no annual cost on top of that?

So the way it's broken down, Mr. Gallardo, is you have an initial upfront cost. Axon doesn't... build the township until the system is up and running to our satisfaction uh if you look at the quote they provided they anticipate the the first payment not to be until i believe december of 2027. it's going to take a little while for the the conversion to take place it's a lengthy process when you change records management systems we went through it about almost nine years ago with with cody so it is a fairly lengthy process uh there will be that initial payment which we have the grant for to offset some of it and then years two through nine will be a recurring annual payment of about 109 000 annually years uh two through ten i'm sorry

I know you, I think I remember you walking through this previously, but what makes us choose Axon? Did we look at other vendors? Is, you know, are they in line with the same pricing?

They are for a high quality records management system for a department our size and for our needs. Obviously, Ms. Cain, there are varied records management systems. I mean, one records management system is paper and pen, right? If we wanted to do that, we could handwrite our reports again. There are records management systems that are suitable for small departments. Langhorne Borough utilizes a system called Informant. That's great when you have a couple of officers, right? But for a larger department, you need a lot more functionality, a lot more capability. And also, I think you need a vendor or a company, an axon that invests a lot of what they have in research and development. They're kind of on the cutting edge. It's one of the reasons we got out of almost a very bad body camera agreement with not as good of a company. I don't want to say inferior, but not as good of a company. And we went with Axon. It was a little more costly, but we can see now two and a half years later that it was well worth the investment. The functionality and the benefit that we have from it was well worth the investment. So there are some other systems. Comparable to Axon, one that a lot of New Jersey departments use is a system called Spillman, but it's going to be even a little more money than what Axon charges us. I like Spillman also as a company, but because no departments in Pennsylvania really utilize it, and a lot of departments in PA are switching to Axon. I think it's the better choice for us. And I also like the idea that we're already familiar with Axon because of the body and dash cameras. And we have that integration. So I have some familiarity with them. So I think they're the better choice for us in terms of records management.

I had a question, or a couple questions, actually. So initially, it says on here that Axon quoted Middletown for like $1.5 million, and that there was $208,000 in savings. Where did that $208,000 come from in savings? Some of it from...

some negotiating that I did with them, some of it because Ben Salem already utilizes it. And Ben Salem has agreed with Axon to allow us to utilize some of their templates, but just change it from Ben Salem to Middletown. That makes the process for Axon easier. So because of that, it's less labor intensive. They're able to offer us that discount off the initial price. They also said to us that as other departments, one of the things that I think that we got that I don't think other departments will be able to take advantage of in the future is the way they stretched out their pricing structure over 10 years. I think in the future, A lot of the contracts that departments get moving forward are going to be much more front loaded. Whereas with ours, you know, I did make a request as much as they could. I did ask them to even out the whole amount over 10 years. They didn't want to do that. And I really pushed them hard. I know Captain Feeney can tell you, we spent hours trying to negotiate with them. At the end of the day, we initially got about $150,000 off and then another $50,000 by negotiating with them. This was kind of the bottom line price that they came up with for us.

Does this price align with what Lower Merion and Ben Salem are paying over the 10 years? Do we know that?

So Ben Salem is what's called an axon department. So Ben Salem signed a long-term agreement with Axon where they get everything that Axon offers. So whatever Axon has, they get, but I believe they pay somewhere around $750,000 a year for that. And what happened with Ben Salem is they were paying that amount and they realized that they had access to Axon Records and weren't taking advantage of it. So they decided to go ahead and make the switch since it was kind of already included in their suite of what they get for that enormous amount of money. They have a lot more than just records management with them. As far as lower variance pricing, I don't know. I'm going to assume it's more than we are paying because they're like about double the size of our department, but I don't have their... their pricing.

I just wanted to add, thank you and to Captain Feeney for saving us $208,000. That's pretty awesome. The last question I just had was about the Parks-Consino RDA grant, because I don't have anything to compare to. How much do we, have we applied for that before? What are we expecting to kind of receive from that grant? Do we have any anticipation on what they'll give us?

Right, so I actually, I scribbled it out in my presentation only because I saw on our agenda packet that we were already had the listing of what we were gonna ask for through the RDA, but I know at our capital meeting in 2025, Ms. Cain had mentioned putting it in through the RDA. The RDA did in 2018 pay for Cody for us. They paid the entire initial year fee. It wasn't as much as what Axon is. I do think, I thought it was in 2025, and I do think it's a good idea for us to consider that for this year, but it was already on the agenda. So I didn't want to say that and mess up a later agenda item.

Sorry for putting you on the spot there.

I do. It's definitely, I think it's a good idea for us to consider that as a potential funding source as well. Yes.

Gotcha. What is the transition going to be from Cody to Axon going to be like?

In terms of? The support and the- So I think we will get, a lot more support than we got with cody one thing that axon does is they actually assign a technology specialist to kind of work inside the police department during the year-long transition uh there it's very involved when you're doing the data migration you're basically taking information from cody and trying to move it over to axon and before the system can go live you have to make sure that all the data is converted perfectly i've not I'm not a huge fan of Cody, but one thing I will say is they did an amazing job with data conversion from Alert. We do have all of our records exactly as they were in Alert. I know that Axon is going to strive to do the same thing. And one of the things that we have in this agreement is they will not get their first payment until all the data is converted to our satisfaction and up and running. It's a very involved, very lengthy, very labor-intensive process, and it is going to require the officers to relearn a new records management system. So just in speaking to Director Bill McVeigh from Ben Salem, because I went to Ben Salem several months ago to look at Axon there, and I was talking to one of their veteran cops in the parking lot. And he was a little frustrated because he's been through a few records management systems. But what Bill McVeigh told me is, you know, I bought Axon or we have Axon for the future of our police department. And it really is a company that is very forward thinking and is a company that you would invest in for the future of your police department. I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed, not surprised, but I'm a little disappointed in Cody. that they sold their company to Tyler. I don't think that's going to bode well for the future, but we'll have to see. But anyway, I believe that, you know, it's going to be labor-intensive process for us, but we did it with changing over from Alert to Cody. We'll be just fine moving over from Cody to Axon if you approve it for us.

Thank you. I appreciate that. All right, is there a motion to authorize the purchase of a 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the implantation and operation of Axon Records as the Middletown Township Police Department's records management system at a total contract of $1,377,071.74?

I make a motion to approve a 10-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for the implementation and operation of Axon Records as the Middletown Township Police Department's record management system, replacing the existing Cody Records management system at a total contract value of $1,377,071.74. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. All right.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions from the board? Any questions or comments from the public? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next agenda item, consideration of awarding a bid for the S. Flowers Mill Road low clearance improvements. There were zero bids received for this project. This bid will be re-advertised. Number 11, consideration of approving settlement agreement with Pennswood Village for stormwater impact fee appeal. Mr. Esposito.

Thank you Supervisor Hunter. Pennswood Village appealed its assessment of the stormwater impact fee about a year ago, first property at the 1382 Newtown Langhorne Road. Pennswood Village believed it was exempt from such assessment based on that it's a tax exempt organization. Last year when it appealed the assessment, there was a case pending with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on stormwater fees and whether such fees are either considered a fee or a tax. So what we did with the Pennswood Village appeal was I stipulated with opposing counsel that we'll put that appeal on hold until that case was ruled upon. The decision came out on that case in April of this year, and it did rule that a similar stormwater impact fee to Middletowns was considered a tax. So tax-immune and tax-exempt entities could not be assessed that fee. So this is just putting that into place that we won't assess that fee against Pennswood Village. However, we have put in the settlement agreement that if any case law or legislative action changes it and we can assess such a charge to them, that it will be put back into place.

So we're not locked in forever?

We're not locked in forever if the case law or some statute gets put into place by the state.

Okay, thank you. All right, is there a motion to approve the settlement agreement with Penswood Village for stormwater impact fee appeal?

I move to accept and execute the proposed settlement agreement with Penswood Village, resulting in the settlement of the stormwater impact fee appeal filed by Penswood Village at the Bucks County docket number 2025-07616 for the property located at 1382 Newtown Langhorne Road.

We have a motion. Is there a second?

I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Any questions or comments from the public? Motion and a second. Go ahead.

They were assessed at $6,000.

All right, a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. All right. Agenda item number 12, consideration of approving and adopting proposed ordinance number 26-07 of Middletown Township, amending the sign regulations with the township zoning ordinance. Mr. Esposito, could you share some information?

Sure, so this has been discussed by the Board a few different times. You recall last month we discussed it in further detail and the Board authorized me to advertise the ordinance. So this ordinance would amend the Township Zoning Ordinance, specifically the regulations having to do with signs and more specifically having to do with temporary signs. As I mentioned previously, I think under public comment there was a case that came out about a year and a half ago now that says that we can't have different regulations for similar type signs. So our ordinance was an issue with that. We had different regulations for different types of temporary signs. So what we did was we made one specific definition of temporary signs, put them all under that, have one regulation that goes against all those types of signs. And the biggest change that most people will notice are going to be the political signs within the right-of-way. No temporary signs can be placed in the right-of-way anymore. So that's what it is. The ordinance has been properly advertised and reviewed by both the county and township planning commission.

Is our ordinance on par with other municipalities around us that have put it in the place?

Yes, there are plenty of municipalities that have not changed it yet, but they're in the process.

And then how are we going to, you know, I know there's already confusion as to what is a township road and what's not. What are we going to put on the website? How are we going to message this?

So we have a handout that Liz Martin has been preparing that she's going to put on the township website and on social media. to try and let people know what the situation is. As far as what is a township road and a state road, that's not going to be on the handout, but that is something that they can contact the township and we can inform them of whether it is a township or a state road. so they don't need to know if it's a state road or a township road they can just one it's not allowed in in either it's still just because it's a state road doesn't mean it's allowed it's still not allowed in the state the pen dots right of way it's just because it's not our property Unless we get authorization from PennDOT to remove it, we're probably not going to touch it, although it's still a violation if it's put there. But PennDOT themselves might remove it. They might give us authorization to remove it for them. We just need to get that. Or there's another ordinance that we might consider to remove it from PennDOT's right-of-way as well. It's still not allowed in PennDOT's right-of-way. I do want to make that clear.

Could we make a preemptive request to PennDOT asking them to give us authority to remove signs in there right away? We will look into that.

Thank you.

I have a question about when it comes to enforcement. So assuming this is passed, and it's now the law in Middletown, if a sign is out of compliance, what does the township then do? I guess run through the scenario, like if someone's having a yard sale.

So if somebody puts a sign, a temporary sign, in their yard that is not in compliance, what we will send them a zoning violation letter. But they then have 30 days to come into compliance. If they don't come into compliance within that 30 days, then we can fine them pursuant to the ordinance. And that's the formal technical way that we do it. Sometimes we just will go talk with someone, but it depends on the situation. But if it's in the right of way, and it's a township right of way, we're just gonna pull it out.

Thank you. Okay, I make a motion to approve and adopt the proposed ordinance number 26-07 of Middletown Township amending the sign regulations within the township zoning ordinance. I have a motion.

I second.

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

All right, so I just want to get a little bit of clarification as far as, and you know Mr. Esposito, I especially have questions about the political science because I personally hate signs. So after the election, normally political signs have to come down 10 days after the election, correct? So after that 10 days, what happens after that?

So right now, it doesn't have to do with just political signs. It's all signs have to be removed within 10 days after the event. If they're not, then it's gonna be a similar situation to what I just told Supervisor Layton that we're gonna have to send a violation notice and they'll come into compliance and then after that, we will do the enforcement of a fine or other regulations. Now again, if it's in the right of way, that's a different, However, but it also depends on the type of sign.

So I'm saying right now political signs. So it's always been 10 days after the election, political signs have to come down. People are already going crazy looking at signs that are up now that normally should not be up now. They're not happy about it. Again, they're normally not supposed to be up until 30 days prior to the election. If they see political signs are up 30 days after the election, all right, and nothing's being done, so then we're gonna be talking until December, they're not gonna be happy about that. and that they're allowed to keep them up until then instead of 10 days after the election. And then what I've said to Mr. Ennis, that being on park and rec, that we see so many of these stupid people these signs in the creeks, in the woods, because they're too lazy to take them down. I have problems with that.

So first off, there will be less signs, because again, they're not allowed in the right of way. There's never been signs. I get that, but we have to follow the remedies that are available under the ordinance. So zoning ordinances specifically have these enforcements and remedies. We can't just bypass the not providing notices of violation. We have to send a notice of violation and give them the time to come into compliance. We can't just make an exception for political signs.

This is why, and I've had this discussion with you, this is why there should have been a separate section for political signs.

But this case law does not allow us to do that. We cannot make exceptions. We have to treat every type of temporary sign the exact same. We can't make exceptions. That's the case law.

Oh, you're going to see me a lot.

I'll have a, we can certainly have a conversation.

But there's going to be so many people that are going to be arguing that they want these political signs down.

I understand that. but we are restricted by what the case law tells us we are allowed to do.

All right, and the other thing that's gonna come up, and it's more with the athletic organizations, are signs that are posted on utility poles.

If they are within the right of way, which you're saying in the utility poles, yes, that's an issue.

Right. So again, our park and rec department needs to have meetings with our athletic organizations that they can't be posting them on that also.

Yes.

And that's part of our handout. We're going to be sending it into social media and we'll provide it to organizations and it'll be on the township's website. So we will inform organizations of what they're required to do.

Because, again, I've talked to some people. I am being bombarded right now with phone calls from residents that are just, they're angry about seeing all these signs too early. And it's not good.

Again, it's mostly the right-of-way, I'm guessing where you're talking, but other signs within- It's not the right-of-way. then again, there could be certain situations that political signs might be allowed in a yard prior to that 60 days, because that 60 days is not in effect. Because it could be, if it's specifically for an election, then yes, there's a timing aspect on that with the 30 days. But if it's just somebody's First Amendment right of an opinion sign, that could be put up at... Multiple times and it's gonna be fact-based. I I can't I don't want to get into Hypotheticals right now, so if you believe it's a violation Report it to the township and we will take it. We will take a look at it.

Well, okay, so Thank you. Any other comments? All right. We had a motion and a second.

Just real quick, repeat offenders. I didn't see anything in the ordinance and I just breezed over it. I didn't see anything in the ordinance. Is there escalating consequences for repeat offenders or is it just the same legal process, send the document, wait for them to get compliance, et cetera, et cetera?

You do, well, it depends on the exact situation, but yes, repeat offenders.

Let's just take a garage sale.

So the way the violation works, it could be per day, and repeat offenders, the district judge, when we go to get the fines and violations, takes into account whether it's a repeat offender. So sometimes it's going to be up to the judge. So it's going to have to go through the legal system. It's going to have to go through the legal system. We get in front of the district judge. The district judge, the first time offender, is usually going to give them the minimum amount. But again, it's going to be fact-based. But if it's a repeat offender, they're usually willing to give more than, they can't go more than what's required in the ordinance, but they're going to give us the per day sometimes on repeat offenders.

And then can you do the quick math, and I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the term, on the aggregate sign size, signage of signage. It's 12 square feet, but it's 24. I don't quite understand that.

So you can have multiple signs, they just can't, the aggregate of the multiple signs can't be more than 24 square feet combined. So if you have two 12 square foot signs in the yard, that's...

Okay, I just can see, I can see like a gray area, like, okay, well there's, back to political signs, there's this name on this sign, but it's different from this sign over here, and I could just see an argument one way or the other.

If it's a political sign, it's a political sign we're not going to take into account. If it's a temporary sign, actually, just if it's a temporary sign, it's going to be looked at from that.

Okay. Well, I guess we'll deal with it when it comes up.

Yeah, so if you have more than one temporary sign in your yard at the time, we're going to take that.

I was thinking more right-of-way type stuff.

Well, the right-of-way, they can't have any in the right-of-way.

Well, back from the right-of-way or whatnot.

Yeah, it's got to be 10 feet from the right-of-way.

Yeah, I'm just thinking that. I guess we'll handle it when it comes by, I guess.

Okay, we had a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0, thank you. Item number 13. Consideration of authoring the execution of memorandums of understanding to address employee matters between the Township and Police Benevolent Association, also known as PBA, the Independent Association of the Department of Public Works, and the Teamsters Union Local 107 times two. Mr. Esposito.

So these are memorandums of understanding that you have related to the township's labor agreements that it has. So I would advise you to, you have them in your packet, make a motion to approve and authorize the execution of such memorandums.

Thank you. I make a motion to approve authoring the execution of memorandums of understanding to address employee matters between the Township and Police Benevolent Association, the Independent Association of the Department of Public Works, and the Teamsters Union Local 107. I second. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. Number 14, consideration of authorizing the advertisement of a request for proposals for Middletown Township Country Club. Ms. Tierney. Thank you.

Hi, how are you? So as you know, the township's agreement with AgroGolf is currently scheduled to end at the end of 2028, and it's appropriate time now to seek a feasibility study. So we have, I have in front of you a feasibility study, a long-term operational plan requests, we would be advertising a request for proposal for this study. So there's no commitment at this time. We would just be advertising for RFP and then hopefully back to you in November with the results. If you have any questions.

Just for the benefit of the public, can you just very briefly provide some background about how the country club is currently operated?

Sure. We have an agreement with Agro Golf, who operates the golf section of the golf course. Then they sublet, they have another agreement with another company who does catering, and they have the bar downstairs, which is a separate business. And then there's the golf shop. That's all run outside by another organization. And they provide some money back to us at the end of the year. And those exact amounts I don't have with me today.

And then that whole lease agreement expires in 2028.

Yes. It's a longstanding agreement, about 20 years. So 2028 will be our 20th year with this group. They've been doing it for that long. The feasibility study will study current golf course clubhouse food and beverage, banquet staffing, marketing, and operational conditions. historical financial performance, revenues, expenses, cash flow, all finances, alternative operating models, including continued private management, direct township operation, and other public private models, facility and infrastructure conditions, prioritize capital improvement and covering immediately through long-term needs, performance and future potential of banquet event facilities and former swimming pool, Sorry, this is loaded. I just want to make sure it's a very large document. We really want to make sure we're covering our bases. And then in final, the study will cover an operating model, a 10-year financial pro forma capital investment schedule, implementation roadmap, and its intent is to serve the township's primary planning documents for determining the future of the management operation investment strategy of Milltown Country Club.

Thank you.

So that's four... separate entities their lease will end well it's one entity that kind of oversees all of those yeah thank you all right um um so uh is there a motion to authorize the advertisement of a request for proposal for the middletown township country club

I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize staff to advertise the request for proposals for professional consulting services to complete the Middletown Country Club feasibility study and long-term operating plan consistent with the scope of services presented to the Board.

We have a motion. Do we have a second?

I second.

We have a motion and a second. Any questions from the Board?

Not a question, more of a statement. One, thank you, Ms. Tierney, for putting this together. I'm just more saying I really hope that whoever we end up giving a contract to next after it expires in 2028, is really able to revitalize our country club. Because I know I used to use the pool there when I was in high school, and that's not an option for people anymore. Supervisor Gardo and I have spoken numerous times about trying to find ways to give families in Middletown the option to have fun and do things together. while staying in our township instead of going to other townships to their benefit and to our detriment. So I know you don't have control over the findings of it, but I am just really rooting that we're able to find a way to make the Country Club prosperous and economically viable for Middletown again.

Thank you, Supervisor Lane. Any other questions or comments from the board? OK. So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0.

Thank you.

Thank you. Agenda item number 15, presentation of the 2027 minimum municipality obligation for Middletown pension plans. Laura Hucklebridge.

Good evening board, thank you very much. Tonight I'm here to present the calculations for the minimum municipal obligation for our payments to be made in 2027. So this is a full year away. So for anyone that doesn't know what the MMO is, it is the, as it says, the minimum amount that the municipality has to contribute to the pension plans every year to keep them up to a certain level of funding. For 2027, I calculated the MMO for both the police pension plan and the nonuniform pension plan. For the nonuniform pension plan, our MMO will be just under $375,000. That's a decrease of about $23,000 from the prior year. I'll get into why the decrease is. And the police pension, there was an increase of $405,000 from the previous year to about $3.7 million. All combined, it'll be just about $4.1 million to be paid. For the non-uniform pension plan, the MMO was calculated to be $375,000. The decrease from prior years is due to recent retirements and pulling the wages and a lot of people took rollovers. So they pulled the money out of the plan less contributions because they took the money out. We're not paying long-term payments to them. And we also saw an increase in our funding levels. The non-uniform pension plan is funded at a level of 100% as of 12-31-2025. So that means that we have enough funding to cover 100% of the liabilities there, very stable funding level. For the police pension plan, We had an increase of $404,000 from the prior year. This is mainly due to a change in the mortality tables effective 1-1-25. So the non-uniform plan had their mortality tables changed in 2023. The police plan did not get changed until this most recent valuation. So when you change the mortality tables, you're taking into account more current life expectancies for the participants of the plan. So as their life expectancy extends, our liability increases. Therefore, this year's MMO was the first year where we see the increase as a result of those mortality tables. So for the end of 2025, the funding level for the police plan was about 83%. As we continue to see this MMO play out and the increase in the mortality tables, the funding level is expected to go down to 79% next year. So we'll keep an eye on that as it goes forward. The total MMO versus our state aid. The total combined MMO, as I said, is about $4.1 million. We do get state aid for our pension plan. And approximately it's been about 25% of the total MMO over the last few years. We do receive the highest level of state aid that we can apply for and get right now. The yellowish line that's there is the net liability showing what the total township MMO is, less any state aid. That's what we actually have to pay out to the pension plans every year. So just summarizing here, our total MMO, just under $4.1 million. We would expect about a million dollars in state aid, resulting in $3 million to be paid next quarter four of 2027. Any questions?

What's the ideal funding percentage, would you say? Is there like a benchmark that we should be benchmarking ourself to? I know you said 79. Is that in range or should we be higher than that?

Well, I looked at the RDA, not the RDA, I looked at the state auditor pension results, and anything over 90% is sufficiently funded. Anything that was between 90 and 70% was satisfactorily funded. Once you get into lower levels, then there's some questions, but I feel that knowing that our plan was In the 80s, 80% funded. The previous valuation in 2023, we were 88% funded. So we've been very highly funded in the police plan before. And I believe that we can get back up to a higher funding level.

Ms. Hargrove, you mentioned that we are kind of capped at the amount of state aid that we get. Do you know what sets that cap? Is that like a state law? Do you know how that's calculated or?

I believe it's part of the audit that's done by the state on our pension plans and what the funding levels are and the contribution percentages, the amount of wages that go into it. It's very complicated calculations, but I can get more information for you.

And maybe to add a little bit of detail to that, the baseline calculation is that we certify our number of like employee units each year and uniformed employees account for two and then everybody else is one. The state legislature then like late summer will set a employee unit value. So that number that we've certified earlier in the year is then multiplied by that unit value. But then I guess beyond that just being an objective calculation, then there's other limits through the law that you hit a maximum point that you're not able to get above at a certain point. And that's what we'll look into more to get you a definitive answer on that.

Correct. We haven't been capped at a dollar amount. I believe it's part of this calculation that you can't go above because we've been getting a different amount of state aid every year.

You may not know this, but how often, I forget, how often do we have to update those mortality tables? Is it once every 10 years, every year?

It's not every year. Our evaluations are done every two years by the actuary. They update the mortality tables. It's usually more like a 10-year update once you get all of the census data and things like that. Our new mortality tables, have rates based off of the year you were born. So prior mortality tables would have a range of 10 years that you were born. This is the 10-year range. Now if you were born in the year 2000, you have certain mortality table, 2001, another one. So it's much more detailed.

Any other questions? No? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Agenda Item 16, consideration of adopting Resolution 26-23R, approving the Bucks County 2026 Hazard Mitigation Plan as the official hazard mitigation plan of Middletown Township. Mr. Walsh.

Good evening. Just to provide some background on the Hazard Mitigation Plan. The planning process started in the beginning of 25. It was a year long of meetings and workshops led by the county EMA and Planning Commission. And the result was a 400 page document highlighting community profile, vulnerabilities and risk assessment. capabilities in relation to those risks, and mitigation strategies. So the plan's updated every five years through the county, and adopting the plan allows us to receive certain federal funding post-disaster and mitigation grants. Again, year-long process, 400-page document was developed. It was pretty intense, and it involved anyone in the county who wanted to participate.

So we need to do this process in order to qualify for FEMA if something were to happen?

For certain FEMA funding post-disaster and certain mitigation grants.

Okay. All right. Any questions or comments? Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to share?

No. Like I said, it was a pretty... pretty comprehensive process and it's just, it's providing the information for our community. That's all. They put the document together.

Thank you. Yep. All right. And with that, is there a motion to adopt resolution number 26-23R?

I'll move to adopt resolution number 26-23R, approving the Bucks County 2026 Hazard Mitigation Plan as the official hazard mitigation plan in Middletown Township.

We have a motion, do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Any from the public? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Oh, sorry. Oh, my apologies.

Yeah, Ray Post, Middletown Township. A question for yourself, maybe for the board. We have quite a bit of rail traffic that goes through the township. And a lot of tank cars, you may know, contain maybe about normally 100 tons of often flammable hazardous material. Do we have a good handle on what happens if, say, you know, like a vinyl chloride flammable carcinogenic material like happened in Ohio a few years ago, happened in Paulsboro, New Jersey a few years before that? Do we have a really good handle on what happens if we lose 100 tons of, really nasty carcinogenic plantable material on one of our rail lines in town.

Very specific incident, but coordinated response and relying on our partners, CSX, great people. They're a phone call away. It's honestly about being able to get a hold of them and kind of start putting all the pieces together. Again, the coordinated response is going to be the biggest thing. Isolate the area and figure out what's actually going on and what's in those tank cars. I mean, we've just seen it in Ben Salem, they had a derailment, and they lucked out, nothing leaked, but actually getting to them depending on where they're at is the biggest problem, and identifying what's in the cars.

It might not be a bad idea to see if you can get that information in advance, so you have some idea how you're gonna respond.

There is planning that happens with the county, with the HAZMAT team, and even CSX itself. It's just, you know, the incident is specific to what's going to happen. Because again, what's in that car? What's the product? Where's it going? There's a whole bunch of variables there. Exactly. Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. We made a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. All right, agenda item number 17, consideration of approving the following 2026 Regional Development Authority RDA grant program application resolutions. Resolution number 26-24R, police vehicles. Resolution 26-25R, public works vehicles. Resolution number 26, dash 26 are in Middletown Township Fire Department special services vehicle resolution number 26 dash 27 are laying where Middletown fire company hose and nozzle replacement resolution number 26 dash 28 are penned down Middletown magic emergency squad vehicle paramedic Responder vehicle. Resolution number 26-29R, William Penn Fire Company washer extractor replacement. Ms. Hucklebridge.

Good evening again. I'm just presenting these resolutions. These are not actual applications for the RDA at this point. We just need resolutions signed by the board before we can submit applications by the end of this month. These projects will all be presented at our capital meeting on September 28th. So we can go into more detail at that point in time. These are just preliminary resolutions. This is what we would like to purchase and we will be finalizing the applications over the next two weeks. but I will answer any questions.

The chief and Mr. Layton made a suggestion that maybe we amend the police vehicle resolution to be for the new Axon system. So is it still opportunity to change the actual items that we're requesting under the different resolutions?

I don't know what the protocol is for that. We'd have to have it announced at the meeting and signed.

And to clarify, are we talking about adding it to or replacing it?

I mean, either or, it depends. My question is, is that still open for discussion, or once these resolutions are authorized today, is sort of the door closed on changing what we're requesting?

Once the resolution is authorized today, that's what's going to go in the application that they're sending up. So if you want to change the resolution, you want to amend it now at this meeting specifically how you want to amend it.

So the resolution as proposed tonight with respect to the police department would request $300,000 to fund the police vehicles, correct? Yes.

Yes. And I will say that last year we received $750,000 from the RDA. $460,000 of that was for our vehicles for police and public works. In the previous two years, we only got about $550,000 from RDA. But again, most of that went towards vehicles. They tend to give us a larger portion for vehicles. The fire requests have been fully funded in previous years.

I think what our internal analysis was is that there's a relatively fixed amount available through RDA. So whether or not it was the RMS or if it was the vehicles, they're things that we are recommending to you to fund regardless. So because of the prior success with vehicles, we stayed with that. If it were to be probably replaced with the RMS, then the vehicles are coming up, but we're still recommending the same dollar value at the end of the day.

Yeah, that makes sense. I appreciate it.

Did we ever push through the RDA for the record system? I can't remember. Did we do that in 25?

No, it was discussed initially at our capital meetings, but then Same conversation. Right. There were discussions with Axon and we said, well, we'll hold off. So no, it was never submitted for RDA.

Well, isn't it also the case, and I believe the Chief said this, that we don't have to make that initial large payment until everything's been transferred over and that's a couple years ahead? I mean, would we be able to apply for that money in the future since we don't actually have to pay that money out? My timeline is correct on that. Is that right, Chief, that that big bulk payment isn't until a couple years ahead with Axon?

It's next year. It would be at the end of 2027. Okay. RDA funds you have to spend by the end of the calendar year. They give you very little wiggle room to extend if something's been delayed. But to pay for that payment for Axon, it wouldn't fall within those grants.

Budgetarily, we'll be preparing to make the payment in December of 2027 for the RMS. It's possible that if the implementation takes longer than that, we would not incur the fee until later, so sometime into 2028. But again, I think the same explanation applies, even if that became the thing that we prioritized for next year's RDA funding, we're still going to have the same types of vehicle requests because of the number of vehicles in that fleet. So we'll take note of this internally to, I guess, inform the recommendations that we make to the supervisors. But I think if we're operating within a relatively fixed amount, but it's the amount that we're requesting is less than the overall capital budget needs to seek anyway, We'll just make sure that we try to tailor it to things that we're confident can be funded.

Thank you, Mr. Hoffman. Thank you, Ms. Hucklebridge. Okay, so I make a motion to approve resolution 24R through number 29R for consideration of approving the Regional Development Authority RDA grant program application resolutions. So that's a motion, can I get a second?

I second.

I have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from the board? Any from the public? All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries 5-0. We are at other business, Mr. Kessler.

Nothing further to add, but we do have two sets of plans requesting some signatures at the end of tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Esposito.

Thank you. I just wanted to announce that the board did hold an executive session directly prior to tonight's meeting to discuss labour matters and ongoing litigation matters.

Thank you. Mr. Huffman.

Sure, just two items that I wanted to quickly report on. Just the first of my just personal experience, these last four weeks have been a pretty singular career and just life experience for me, transitioning here to Middletown. And so much of that just initially meeting with everybody had this idea that the right way to start was to focus a lot of time internal to this organization. So just wanted to thank everybody sitting in the back of the room here for bringing so much thoughtfulness and effort to initial one-on-one conversations and then immediately following up with departmental budget meetings where every single one of these conversations has lasted longer than a Jesus Lozardo complete game shutout. And so just such a tremendous, awesome amount of time spent getting to know everybody. So I will forever be appreciative for that experience. And then the second item, we'll have, I guess, more formal notice about this forthcoming, but did want to announce that Middletown's new Assistant Township Manager is in the room with us this evening. And if that person could stand up, spin around once and sit back down in their chair. I would like that to be the way that this is forever remembered. But that individual is Mr. Isaac Kessler. Can I wave instead?

Can I save the spin around for another time? Okay, fine. Thank you, I appreciate that.

That being said, I just wanna say thank you. I know you're thinking it's a life-changing event and I just wanna say that the fact that you're here and that you're spending so much time getting to know everybody and really connecting with everybody, I think that is why you are here. And also so grateful that you are going to be our Assistant Township Manager. And with that, Mr. Layton, anything?

Nothing, just want to congratulate Mr. Kessler and excited to continue working with you just in this new role, but we're happy to have you in our, you know, a more formal part of our Middletown family here.

Thank you. Ms. Cain.

Welcome Mr. Kessler to our team. And again, thank you, Chris. Reiterate everything that Chair Hanna had said. Thank you for coming and really taking the time to understand and learn the township business and its people. Mr. Keseck.

Yeah, I'll just say thank you and congratulations to Mr. Kessler.

Mr. Gallardo.

Just wanted to say thanks to Mr. Hoffman coming in and stabilizing us very quickly and in a good way. And then also, Isaac, if you won't stand up and spin, can you at least slide over to the assistant manager's station?

Thank you so much. All right, so is there a motion to adjourn the meeting?

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Motion second? Pass. Thank you.