Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome everybody to this meeting of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. Would everybody please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley all.

Miss Kel, would you please call roll? Mr. Kizak here. Miss Hannah here. Miss Kain here. Also in attendance tonight is township manager Mr. Ratliff, assistant township manager Mr. Valor, township solicitor Mr. Espazito, township engineer Mr. Kesler, chief of police Joseph Barelli, Director of Building and Zoning Jim Enis, Director of Parks and Wreck Parapola Capera, director of finance Laura Hucklebridge, director of public works Eric Gardemire.

Uh, thank you, Miss Corpal. We have a few upcoming meetings and events. First, our budget workshops are going to be Monday, May 13th, 2025 and October 20th, 2025. Both at 6 p.m. So that's the next two Mondays here in the municipal building, 6 p.m. Those are our budget workshops. Uh that is where the board of supervisors goes through the process of developing uh our budget for next year. So please come out and be part of the budget process. And then we have our next board of supervisors meeting which will be Monday, September or rather November 17th, 2025. and that'll be at 700 p.m. Uh we do have a few uh special items tonight and the first is a fire uh prevention month proclamation and that reads as follows. Whereas Middletown Township is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living, working, and visiting our community. And whereas fire is a serious public safety concern both locally and nationally. Whereas home fires kill more than 3,500 people in the United States each year, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and fire departments respond to more than 360,000 home fires per year. And whereas Middletown Township's first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of home fires and home fire injuries through prevention and protection education. And whereas the 2025 fire prevention week theme charge into fire safety lithium ion batteries in your home, these batteries uh power so many of the items that we use every day, phones, laptops, ebikes, toys, power tools, and more. While they are efficient, they can also pose serious fire risks if they are damaged, overcharged, or improperly stored. Be this proclaimed by the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors this 6th day of October, 2025.

Next, we have another proclamation recognizing community planning month in Middletown Township and that is as follows. Whereas change is constant and affects all cities, towns, suburbs, counties, burrows, townships, rural areas, rural areas and other places. And whereas planners can help navigate this change with data-driven insights and expertise that provide better choices for how people work and live. And whereas community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningfully involved in making choices that determine the future of their community. And whereas the month of October is designated as National Community Planning Month throughout the United States of America and its territories. And whereas the celebration of National Community Planning Month gives us the opportunity to publicly recognize the participation and dedication of appointed planning commission members who have contributed their time and expertise to the improvement of Middletown Township. And whereas we recognize the many valuable contributions made by the professional community and regional planners of the Middletown Township and extend our heartfelt thanks for the continued commitment to public service by these professionals. Now therefore, do we the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors hereby proclaim October as community planning month. And finally, we have a proclamation for uh disability employment awareness month in Middletown Township. And that reads as follows. Whereas people with disabilities have long strengthened our economy and expanded our nation's possibilities, during National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we recognize the immense contributions of disabled Americans. And we recommmit to delivering America's full promise of equal dignity, respect, and opportunity for every American. And whereas national legislation has made significant strides towards equal opportunity for people with disabilities, there is more work to do. People with disabilities are three times less likely to have a job. And when they do, they are often paid less money for doing the same work. And whereas the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we celebrate all the people with disabilities who have moved our nation closer to realizing that ideal and in the process have made America more prosperous,

inclusive, and humane. And whereas the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors celebrates the progress we have made, may we continue to open the doors of opportunity even wider for people with disabilities by advancing access and equity. And now therefore, be it resolved by the Board of Supervisors of Middletown Township that October be proclaimed as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Thank you. Yeah, go ahead if you don't mind. We were asked also to announce that um fire prevention expo will be this Saturday, October 11th at the restaurant depot from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This free family event will feature department um our department alongside with all four fire departments. The day will include emergency vehicle displays, public safety demonstrations, a temple med flight helicopter, food trucks, vendors, and much more for the community to enjoy. So, please come out.

Thank you, Miss Corpal. And thank you to firefighter Riley Collins for reminding us of the uh expo. Okay, that uh brings us to public comment on non-aggenda items. Is there any public comment on non-aggenda items? Just come on up to the podium. Uh state your name and address. Yes, sir.

Hi, Dave Cahill 462 Cynthia A Pendell, former member of the Pendell Fire Company. And I think everyone's aware that I've been asking lots of questions about uh the loan documents for Tower 8 for over a year. And uh I I got a phone call from a friend last meeting last month telling me that you guys were discussing theou for uh paying off Tower 8. And I thought that that was kind of strange. Uh Eden, the last time we talked before Labor Day weekend, you said that you were going to take a look at the loan documents and you were going to give me a call. Did the fire company use the truck fund money as income on the loan docks?

That's not exactly what I said. Uh but it's good to see you, Mr. Cahill. What I said when we met, when you and I met, we talked extensively about Tower 8, about Pendell, about the volunteer fire service and how to support them. And we also talked specifically about apparatus uh within the region, how that's blown up in cost, how that can be funded and supported by the township supervisors and what that policy direction looks like. What I did say to just clarify your point uh is that if we get the loan documents and if I have the chance to look at them, it would become a public record and I would let you know so that we don't have to do this, you know, process of trying to get it. To answer that question, I do not have the loan document. that didn't become necessary for me to review uh from a legal standpoint as we as the board of supervisors considered entering into anou uh to pay off the balance of that truck to allow it to be part of the regional fleet.

No one with the township supervisors or anybody any of the managers, nobody took a look at the loan documents before you signed into theou.

The only loan document that we received uh that we needed was a note to determine the uh the payoff amount. It's kind of funny that you're uh you're speaking now and you didn't say I don't think you said a word in the year that I was asking questions about Tower 8. I think it's funny that you're you're finally opening up now. So during that meeting uh last month, you said that you I'm sorry, Eden and Mike Kisak, you both uh mentioned that Ieded everything once everything was explained to me that I was all right with the uh with theou agreement and purchasing the tower. So what I said was that you were in agreement with my understanding of why I thought it made sense for the board of supervisors to fund the purchase of apparatus for the fleet which would include aerial devices and that was really a fire tactic conversation that you and I both as firefighters understanding why engines and aerials are necessary uh in the community that you and I sort of have saw that the same way.

Yeah, I don't think that is what you said but uh and it's all on it's all on it's all on YouTube. Anybody can go back and it's all there. it. I thought that I was some kind of that I was a big somebody in the uh in the area and what I said meant something. I'm a I'm nobody. I'm just here asking questions. I'm a I'm a taxpayer resident in Pendell Burough and you guys are offering the paid fire services out of Pendell Fire Company and uh I got a tip I got a tip from somebody about how they were struggling with members and money and I was just kind of wondering how they could afford that big expensive tower that they bought. So, my question is, was truck fund money listed as income on the loan documents for them to get? And correct me if I'm wrong, was it a $700,000 loan? 630 something. You said 700. It's 630.

Yeah, I'm I'm assuming. I the original loan was Yeah, the original loan would have been more than that. The payoff was 630. Yeah, I had a very credible uh official from Middletown Township tell me that it was 700,000. So that's why I I come up with that number. So you did show some numbers on the video board. The payoff on the pay the payoff was uh 500 I believe it was 569,000 something like that. Yeah. I I'm surprised that none of you have the numbers. You have no Listen, I have the contract. Would you like a copy? I have a Yeah, I don't have the numbers memorized. To say that we don't have the numbers is not correct. I don't have them off the top of my head in this meeting and but we reviewed them extensively at the last meeting.

I have copies of the contract. Would you would you like a copy? Can I approach? This is not an agenda item. We're not voting on anything. I mean, you can you're certainly welcome to pass it up, but I mean, I just want to know what you're you know, making sure that we're all on the same page. We we have all these things. We just don't have this is not an agenda item. So, we don't have them with us this evening. We don't have numbers available immediately at our disposal to answer your questions. I mean, if you if you have questions about the numbers, we can certainly get the answers and get back to you. It's we're more than happy to do that.

Yeah. So, Frank Far's been very helpful because Frank can't lie. He's the he's our state senator. So, he's telling me that uh Pendell Fire Company was supposed to buy a straight stick and it's in the contract that the Pendell Fire Company was supposed to buy a straight stick. So, if the loan for the tower was 700 or 600 a high sixes, I'm I'm going to I'm going to round it up to seven. That means that the the township supplied about $800,000 for the tower and the fire company financed almost another 50%. They took a loan for another 50% for the tower. Is that is that common? Is that a common thing to do? I I I don't I don't I'm not really understanding what your point is. I'm not I I I apologize. I really don't know what you're driving at.

So, you just bought three engines. You bought one for Langghorn Middletown. You bought one for Humeville, William Penn, and you bought another one for the township. It was uh there was a number put on it, not to exceed 3.72 million. Correct. The three engines. There was an article in the Levittown Now. That's where I'm getting my info from. So, was there a was there a not to exceed number put on tower 8 when the pendell fire company was looking to purchase tower 8? Yeah,

we weren't buying that one. We're the township is is purchasing through this new apparatus program the new ones. Is that am I correct on this right? Yeah. So, you're asking me questions about tower 8 that long since predate me. Um number one or any of us on this board for that matter. Right. I mean, yeah. And number two, the process that the township went through to purchase the three engines that you're referring to now would be different than funding the balance of a note for an aerial device that no one objects to the fact that should be in the in the township fire service. Okay. So, those are so there's a little bit apples and oranges there.

So, I'm a little curious why two people are no longer here after I started asking my question. Stephanie's gone and your fire chief, your acting fire chief is gone. And it just after I heard what you were talking about at last month's meeting, it just it raises so many more questions about Tower 8. So if truck fund money Eden, you told me at our meeting that uh that the budget money that the fire company gets from Middletown and the truck fund money you felt as though was considered income.

Correct. I was theorizing that it could be possible, but I'm uncertain. So, if that's true, that every year that the fire company got money from you, from the township, that it was income, wouldn't they lose their uh private independent nonprofit status? I'm not sure.

Yeah, just seems a little funny. Um, is the township is the township uh are you on the up and up with the uh with the Middletown taxpayers about the the uh the paid firefighter crew that's operating out of Pendle? I don't even know what that question means. What do you mean? Are we on the up and up? What do you mean? Are you on the up and up with the taxpayers about how that's how that's all being how that's all being

everything we do at the board of super funded everything we do on the board of supervisors is public record. Every every dollar we spend is is publicly available. Every dollar every every dollar we bring in in revenue and every dollar we spend is all public. So I be Can you be more specific? I don't know what you mean. So, Middletown Township is is footing the bill. The Middletown Township taxpayers are footing the bill for the paid firefighter the paid firefighters out of the Pendle Fire Company using Pendell's engine and calling it engine 244 during the day. Right. We That's It's a lease agreement. It's a lease agreement, but you're the taxpayers are footing the bill for the for the firefighter for the full-time firefighters.

What do we What do we lease the the the engine for? $20 a year. $20 a year. Yeah, but you're paying you're paying the crew. We have paid firefighters that are township employees. Paying the crew 12 hours a day, five days a week, Monday through Friday, 12 I think it's 6 to 6. The township's paying of course we pay our firefighters. Okay. So, and they and they and their job is to protect the residents and the property of Middletown Township by fighting fires. Yes. By doing fire prevention, by doing inspections. That's that is our fire services department that has existed here for way longer than I've been here. We've always had a paid fire staff.

So, do your taxpayers know that the four burrows are getting free fire protection from the township through the the firefighter program and your taxpayers are footing the bill for the for what's going on in the four burrows.

So, that's not exactly true. So the fire the volunteer fire companies are incorporated in the burrows and they provide fire services to the burrows. Um the township does supplement as we do with many things besides just fire services because that's what neighboring municipalities do for each other. It's very often that municipalities neighboring us, Lower Mayfield, New Town, other townships when we have fires, they come and help our residents too. That's how fire services works. We don't ask them to to pay us money. paid the paid crews are also fighting fire in the four burrows and it's not costing I know it's not costing me a dime in Pendle Burrow. It's not costing the taxpayers in Humeville any money and it's not costing anybody in the two burrows in Langghorn.

Okay, Langhorn Manner and Langghorn Burrow. So, are your taxpayers aware that they're footing the bill for that? Have you made them aware? And was there ever a resolution put on a on a uh on the ballot asking them if that was okay to do? No. No. Okay. So, basically, to be clear, this didn't start with this board. This has been going on for years and decades. Yeah. Your paid firefighting crew was put together in 2018. Been been around for seven years and we have discussed have we have had open meetings where we have discussed and you're the the you know your question was there a resolution. Funny. God is they should. So, if they're paying attention, they should know.

Yeah. Is it funny that you're finally opening your mouth too after a year of me being here answering questions? The only the only thing that you said to me when I asked you if you had anything any input on this, you said that I kept coming here and I kept asking all the same questions. We don't know. And I asked many questions. Why don't you know? You're you guys are the supervisors. You're you're managing you're managing a township. You're asking us questions about Pendell Fire Company that we don't have control over what that they're doing. you know everything there is to know. That statement's absolutely wrong because according to the contract, Pendell Fire Company is supposed to report everything to you.

In fact, um page three, uh section three in in the contract, it states something in there that the fire company shouldn't be signing into any agreements involving the township. Your your vote for theou last month, it was smoke and mirrors. You you're already co you were already co-owners of the truck. You supplied the $800,000 for tower 8 and then you tried to sign into you signed into some agreement to pay off the tower because I wanted to see the loan documents that I still haven't seen. You're still hiding the loan documents. You're not hiding anything. And that's true. You're hiding the loan documents. You absolutely are. Both the statements you just made are unequivocally false. So are they?

They are. So then why haven't I seen the loan documents yet? I ask Ask Pendell Fire Department. No, no, no. Did you pay Did you Did you pay Are you co-owners of the truck? Did you pay the loan off? The loan was paid off, but we paid the principal balance of the truck. We did not enter into an agreement with that existing loan document. So, the loan document should be available through the township now, now that you're co-owners of the truck. It's the loan is paid off. The loan doesn't exist. Doesn't matter. There's still a loan document to prove. You don't think what happened here was a cover up? Absolutely not. No. No. Doesn't look good. Well, that's your opinion.

Doesn't look good. It is my opinion. It's opinion of some other people, too, because the comments that were made last month by some other people that came to the microphone was, "Why are you rescuing the Pendell Fire Company? That guy was right." And we explained over and over that we are not rescuing the Pendell Fire Company. Really? You did? They couldn't afford the payments. We We agreed that this apparatus is necessary to fight fires in Middletown Township. Listen, I get that. I get all that. Then why are you then why do you object to us owning Tower 8? Because they couldn't afford they had no income. So what to afford that $700,000 loan? What do you mean? So what? Who cares if whenever they bought this vehicle, whenever they bought it, they couldn't actually afford it? What What difference does that make to you?

Is it okay? Is it okay for the other fire companies to go spend whatever they want on their trucks? We just bought trucks for all the fire companies. I know you did, but is it okay for them to ask for whatever they want at at whatever they want? Whatever they want to spend. It's ancient history. I mean, this this is the past. We we're not we're not concerned with what happened in the past. We're trying to approve fire services going forward. That's all we're trying to do. It's all we've ever tried to do. So, you want to keep bringing up things that happened years before any of us were even involved and documents that we weren't parties to about an entity that we are not part of. Go ask them these questions. We don't have answers for you. I told you, you know, just like uh falsifying a loan documents against the law, so is collusion. And it just looks so bad.

How could we collude in a document that we weren't a party to? It wasn't our loan. We didn't own the vehicle. We didn't take out the loan. We didn't sign the loan. What does that have to do with Middletown? You made everybody think that you were going in havesies on the truck on tower 8 when you already owned half of it. You were already co-owners. Theou theou meant nothing. Okay. Theou meant nothing. I'm not going to argue with you. I think I think the chief needs to do an investigation. Okay.

Okay. I really do. And if I okayed everything, Eden, if I was okay with everything once you explained it to me at that meeting on Labor Day weekend before Labor Day weekend, why did you tell me to go to the FBI? Yeah. At this point, you're mixing and matching things that I said in order to string together a statement. These things are not in the context of the conversation that we had. What I suggested was is that if you believe that there was fraud with a loan document, which I highly doubt, by the way, if you believe that there was fraud, it would be the jurisdiction of the FBI and you could call them. And you said, "Well, you weren't going to do that. You would just keep asking us questions." To which I said then and I'll say, "No, I don't have the answers to your questions."

You told me you you told me to call the FBI and you asked me point blank that if I was wrong, you asked me if I would apologize. And I told you I would. And I'm not those comments are out of context. I'm not apologizing until I see the loan documents. Thank you. Other public comment on non-aggenda items. Just come on up to the podium. State your name and address, please. Sure.

Todd Phillippy, 1325 Old Highway. Uh it's right across from Our Lady of Grace Cemetery. And uh first of all, in a bit of a different tenor, I'd like to thank you for your service in the township. uh on behalf of the residents and I would like to address um two items that are related to each other. One that this board I know is not responsible for but if you could bear it in mind when it comes to future considerations and then the second one is something I'm requesting immediate action on. Um my prepared statement will take just under four minutes so I'll read that. Uh the first issue is rising taxes and fees. Uh we've lived on our property since 1991. In 2002, the township sold the Water and Sewer Authority to avoid raising property taxes. While that delayed a tax increase, it immediately increased the burden to residents. As what we were paying quarterly, we began to pay monthly, effectively tripling the cost. Today, we have some of the highest public water and sewer rates in the country as Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority raised their rates another 15% this year and the water quality is not good. In 2014, an earned income tax was enacted. Since then, millage rates have continued to rise. Last year, the county, school district, and township raised millage rates by 8.3%. And this year, the school district added another 10 points to their millillage. Refuge collection costs increased 19% this year along with the switch to automated collection, which has not gone very well on our road.

Now, there's a stormwater maintenance fee. Uh my bill from Burkheimimer Tax Services included this little insert that said that if the fee is not paid by the end of the year, we will put a lean on your property. Now, while this is um only $60 and may not seem like it's excessive, the potential for continued increases is what is alarming. In Philadelphia, a similar stormwater fee was enacted in 2010. It has now risen to $240 a year, even for a small row home. So, here's issue number one. The steady rise in taxes and fees for the residents of our township has significantly outpaced inflation and the consumer price index. This disproportionate increase places a significant burden on residents, especially those with fixed incomes. I would ask you to bear this in mind when contemplating any future increases and consider if it is proportionate to inflation and the CPI or if it is taking a higher percentage than that. The second issue relates to the stormwater fee fairness. In 2006, I built a new house to replace the historic one that I struggled to restore for 15 years. During construction, the township enacted an ordinance for any new construction requiring 100% groundwater recharge of storm water. This was in response to the flooding along the Namin Creek. For our home and two neighboring lots on Rosewood Avenue, compliance required soil testing, engineering, and installation costs totaling over $36,000. None of our storm water goes into any facilities that the township maintains. The same is true for most new construction in the township since that

time. To have already paid significantly to manage our own storm water and then to be required to pay an annual fee is not right. I raised this issue with the acting township manager when the first bill came and was told that all properties must pay regardless. I followed up with an email asking what could I do to complain about this and didn't receive any response. In Philadelphia, a similar universal application was successfully challenged in court and exemptions were granted to properties that manage their own runoff. Given our significant prior investment to ensure zero stormwater discharge to the Nishe Creek or Township system, I respectfully request that you wave the stormwater fee for properties that infiltrate 100% of their storm water on their property. So, I'll leave that with you and thank you for your time and consideration.

Um, thank you. Do you want to talk about the storm water issue?

Yeah, I would be happy to. So, um I'm glad you shared. Um a lot of folks, about 7,000 folks who hadn't paid the storm water impact fee from the original bill that went out in May received a second notice, uh within the last week or two. Um so for anybody who might be hearing that is current, that is true. Um the other thing I wanted to share is the stormwater advisory committee has been meeting a few times already, including later this month, I believe on the 21st. Their information is on our website. Um and at that meeting um they've been really working through developing a storm water fee credit policy. So providing credit to properties that have um a variety of you know either onl lot um storm water improvements um or also some credits for residents such as you know providing rainarrel workshops and things like that. That is something that is still in progress that we expect them to be making recommendation to this board and talking about it in this forum uh in November.

Okay. All right. Very good. Yep. Thank you. Philadelphia has a similar policy for homeowners that enact such things. So, thank you. Thank you. Other public comment on non-aggenda items.

Hello. Good evening. How you doing? Um I'm here for um um Molly Woods. We call her Molly's Acres, Molly's 19 acres at Maple Avenue and uh uh Flowersville Road and Molly's 15 acres at Belleview Avenue and Playwigy Field. we call it where Albert Hecman is. That used to be the old playwiki field for for Langghorn High School, Langghorn Middletown High School. Um I'm here for two nice kids from two 257 South Hawthorne Avenue. A group of us for the last six years, we met at the library at Pine Street. Um and uh and Pine Street and we did a we did a survey. Uh I'm by the way, I'm a national an international corporate real estate expert. Okay. I built over 95 7-Elevens from Marlin to Beach Haven and a million2 square feet of shoe stores in in historic central business districts in the northeast. Um I work with the CEO of Walworth. We used to tour the New York ADI and uh I did a couple articles with the New York Times and uh the article pertains to what we're talking about. I I took took a team of team of us and we said, you know, we want to get Molly's acorage uh on Maple on Maple Avenue and Pine Street. We watched all the beatd downs on Belleview Avenue for the last 5 years with Toll Brothers. Okay. And we said we want to champion the the Langghorn Middletown township and all the historic burrows around there. We did a we did a um we did a you know we did an analysis and uh we can look at 20 we can look at two acres or or 100 acres and and tell you how it's going to finance. We we do all historic architecture. We we design homes, town houses, Irish pubs with slate roost we'll have two of them there. Uh tell us we you know we we we take the acres and u um 51% of the project will be owned by the ladies of Langghorn. 49% will be owned by our architects and builders

that we pick from the northeast. We have architects that can design anything and that's uh you know it's a good story. And uh we wanted to uh also we would be able to champion $700,000 for the Lhorn community. Okay. Wanted to do some special things for Langghorn. Um 150,000 architectural fund for uh all Middletown Township Burrow up to up to George School. It's a really neat trade area. I don't think people really know. It's six miles from George School to Unionville. There's four historic burrows that that blend in with Middletown. You don't see that anywhere. And um and when the corner of Flowers Mill Road in Maple Avenue is like that's like the main corner when you you know from Middletown, it's like the center of town. So we want to do a masterpiece on that corner and uh do it right. We don't do track track stuff and we don't, you know, we saw we know the upper Dublin prominade very well. I've been invited to go see that many times by builders actually. So, but yeah, we're passionate about architecture and really we want to do an educated article with Bucks County Harold or after 5 years of being ignored and I'm we I'm used to being ignored. I've been ignored a long time. Okay. Uh we want we're going to champion all the families in Middletown Township from Quincy Hall, Frosty Hollow to Swan Point to George School to Eville Burrow and highlight the four burrows and we wanted um you know the projects they're trying to do on Belleview Adam just it's just wrong for our historic area. Okay. I think I'm the only one that really we we only work on projects that are connected to a historic brows. Okay. Where you you can connect um like Maple Avenue. I know people people don't know, but we want to be able to walk from 1995. We looked at doing sidewalks from Taranton Estates along Flowers Mill Road and down Maple Avenue, which would be nice sidewalks all the way to the Lyron

Friends meeting house. You know where that is? Okay. And you know people when we look at it when we look at your township when you leave the Dunkin Donuts on West Maple Avenue, you enter a historic district. When you leave the Dunkin Donuts on East Me East Maple Avenue going in East Route One, that's historic. It's all to us, it's historic architecture. Okay. And years ago, Middletown Township and all the burrows were one township. So, but we did we did a lot of stories. We have we have some great stories of uh two of the families are my my daughter's going to be here tonight. They're at a field hockey game. and two of the families there um our grandfathers went to Middletown High Lang Middletown High School graduated in 1939 and their grandfather's probably the greatest architect that ever lived in uh in Lox County. So, but we want to go on record. We want to get a story with hopefully we can get a story with the newspaper so we can champion. You know, you can't call one person and it it gets lost.

Appreciate you sharing that information and your history. Um, I mean the things you're saying, you know, they sound wonderful. Um, yeah. Obviously, the the difficulty is what you're talking about is I mean, these are privately owned properties. They're not properties. Yeah. And the thing I the thing I say when two nonprofits own the properties, it's not like my my two nonprofits own services. Okay. Molli's been here since 1921. My family's been here since 1917. Okay. And some other great families since 189. So, they're two nonprofits. as a school district and it's um and in Molly Woods and it's just you know do the right thing embrace the legacies and historic architecture of the community. So thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Good evening. My name is Kevin Griffin Jr. and I live at 1131 Jeffrey Lane. Uh, as a resident of Jeffrey Lane and a homeowner that backs up to the access road, I feel like I need to address a few concerns that my wife and my two children, plus some of my neighbors that are also here with me, um, are concerned about with the RC3 project of the superighway. Um, it's just high level obviously because I know this is a big project and don't want to waste a lot of time, but we want to start with the communication from the township. Um, we would like there's a few questions we would like answered. um which was one when did the board approve any plans to allow the removal of the access road? I know it was a joint effort between the the township along with PennDOT and I know that you know PEDOT has a lot of say in this but um it doesn't we don't feel that our voices were heard enough when they made a decision or whomever it was that made a decision to eliminate the access road starting at Fox Court and I believe it goes all the way through to Belleview due to the clover leaf and all that stuff that's taken part over there. I understand that there were some studies that were done, I believe, by the federal government along with Middletown. Um, and I apologize if any of this is incorrect, and you can correct me if you need to. Um, but so that was one. um to a neighbor of mine, well a neighbor that's here actually has taken her time and viewed most of the minutes that go back all the way back to prior to 20 February of 2023, which was the first time that she noticed that anybody at the board had mentioned the project um by Miss Payne. Um and all that was discussed was the timeline, not necessarily the removal of anything. Uh there were seven residents that expressed their opposition to the project at that time. Um, so we would like to know the other part is why we haven't had any communication orformational packets sent to Parkland Manor, the Langghorn Manor. I know Langghorn Burrow and I again I understand that those aren't necessarily your entities, but it's a joint project that's taken away a lot of thoroughare

and it is going to impact hundreds if not thousands of people daily. Um, and the reason why we bring thatformational packet up is because, as you're aware, the storm stuff, the trash pickup, and everything else, we were getting flooded withformational packets about everything that was going on like that. And we just, again, we just feel that this is, it may not impact the entire Middletown Township, but it does impact a huge demographic of individuals. Um, the other part is safety. Um the access road provides a safe passage for vehicles entering and exiting at various points of Parkland again the manor on both sides of the the um the superighway. Um and by doing this and you will now be turning Jeffrey Lane Fox Court turns into Jeffrey Lane. You'll be turning that into the new access road. There are dozens of children that live on this on on that strip right there. And not only that, but again, the access road provides entrances and exits throughout Parkland. And I know for myself, I use that access road to navigate within Middletown to get to Pendell and to get to various parts so that I don't have to drive through residential neighborhoods knowing that there are a lot of kids that are playing out in the street. You have uh Popppler Park, you have Sunflower Park. These are all parks that are township parks and and as any of you have driven by there at any stretch of the time. They can get flooded with kids and all that stuff. And I thoroughly enjoy having kids talking and laughing and being able to walk through their residence without fear of being struck. Um I would hate to have to be here to discuss a child being hurt or killed due to this. Um we are just asking and again we're not unreasonable. We're just potentially asking for accommodations to possibly keep it open to the Humeville Avenue that would again allow the residents and individuals of Parkland and those other communities to go through our area on the access road, providing an entrance and exit onto Humeville Road and Humeville Avenue, which are actually

geared towards that flow of traffic. Those roads are meant, I believe they're state roads, which means they're wider. They have sidewalks on both sides. They allow for safe passages for pedestrians along with the travel that would be needed. Um, today again, other residents had taken measurements and the median that goes to the back of our homes is 15 1/2 ft. And according to the plan by Pendot, it's only they only need 12 ft for the shoulder. So, we're just wondering again why the removal of the access when there is plenty of space there for emergency vehicles to take care of accidents on there. Um, Highland Avenue was never meant to handle the traffic that they are that PENDOT is proposing. Um, I don't know if any of you have driven down Highland Avenue recently, but anytime there is a landscaping vehicle, uh, tree service, food deliveries, or any types of delivery trucks, it's almost near impossible for two cars to travel at the same time. By doing that, you will be eliminating the emergency vehicles ability to get to the highway. Again, Parkland Fire is right there. Currently, they're able to navigate through the neighborhood using the access road to get to an accident. Um, recently I was able to use that as a car drove off of Route One and went through my backyard. And, you know, we're still fighting that. But, so now you've eliminated that and now they have to go down Highland Avenue, go around the proposed circle to enter onto Route One in order to use utilize the shoulder, which at this moment they can use the service road and get to those pedestrians safely and quickly. Um, in one of the proposals there is a um there is a proposal to have a bike and pedestrian walkway which now would utilize the access road. So, we're just wondering again why we would be moving a roadway that's that's already there for this purpose, putting it onto a residential street and then moving the residents to a a road or a pathway

that's actually much closer to the highway. And again with everybody knows you know anybody can get hurt flying objects things of this nature from there. My third part would be is to kindly ask that you guys put up a or at least on your website and again if it's there I apologize but just to make it more transparent to have a dedicated part of the website for projects and things of this nature where everything can be put up there so all residents have a a place to go. The only place I can find it currently is by trying to navigate Pendex's website along with I believe I believe it's Bucks County Transportation, a nonprofit organization that does this. But again, it's very difficult to find all the stuff that's going on at the time. um with there we would like all applicable studies that were completed um traffic noise environmental um I had organized a meeting with Joe Hogan um back in July of 2024 and at that time we were instructed that there was an uh environmental impact study that needed to be done at Belleview and that the project might not even happen and now we're being told that it's being pushed through. Um there was a noise study done and again I'm not entirely sure but word of mouth is is that where they put the the device was on the inside of Parkland and wasn't even on the residents that are facing the highway even close to that. So we would just like to to know what studies have been done where they've been done and when because uh because again from what our understanding was is that this traffic study was done in um I believe it was September of 2021. that's COVID. That's not going to accurately reflect any data that's relevant today. Same goes with the noise and traffic. Um, I thank you for hearing me out and I along with many of the residents look forward to working together to keep the access road and open an open dialogue to potentially have it as an agenda item because I do know that if we can advertise this, we could pack this place. Um, and again, it all you're going to hear is the same thing, the

same sentiment, which is please keep it. We all want it. If that means um I believe PennDOT had mentioned at the time that they were only going to service up the Fox and if Middletown wanted to continue with the access road, they were more than welcome to continue with the project um and keep that road open. So we're you know we're asking you guys to kindly consider it and uh just let us know if we can be of any service or anything like that. So thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Thanks Kevin. surprised that nobody

I'm David Horn. I'm not nearly as prepared as my neighbor. I've only been here a month. I was not happy to find out about the clove leaf. He's absolutely right. It's going to totally destroy traffic patterns in there. We had a bed delivered. The delivery truck completely blocked Jeffrey Lane. Nobody would have been getting through there any time of day. I was down at the the the the township park on Saturday and I noticed there's traffic parking on both sides of the street. It was a little tight getting through there. You know, I'm I'm thinking, you know, that's residential streets. They they park there. How are emergency vehicles going to get through there? Um you know, I I guess I'm a little concerned that I'm finding out that the residents were were not really kept in the loop. Um, and on top of that, now there's now an alternative plan to what PennDOT is proposing that, uh, instead of the Clove Leaf, uh, they're going to have roundabouts, uh, to to mitigate some of the safety issues. And apparent one of one of Pendot's big concerns were the curbs along US1, which have no business being on a high-speed uh, throughway like that. if you hit a curb at that speed, your car is probably going to flip and end up in his backyard. I don't know if that's how that's happened. Um, uh, like I said, being being very new, I was I was uh concerned that um, um, yeah, there there was actually this board had not taken any vote on it. It did not have an official position, but was generally in favor. They weren't opposed to it. And that was of concern. You know, we we live here, you know, and

uh you know, I'm learning some of the roads around here and they can barely handle, you know, the traffic that's on them. Um and having all this stuff being diverted off of US1 and coming through here, you know, cutting south to go down to to Homieville, uh you know, cutting through to come around and go up Fort 13. It's gonna get ugly. It's gonna get really ugly. I mean, maybe Mr. Cast or Mr. Valicanin, I mean, the the fundamental issue is that this is it's a state road and it's a state project. It's we're just a little township. I mean, we enough grassroots opposition to it. Well, understand may be willing to change their mind.

And you listen, as residents, you are free to mobilize whatever grassroots grassroots um you know, agenda you want and I encourage you to to do that. I'm not suggesting otherwise. I'm just saying I there was some suggestion that maybe this was a township project or or we we voted on it or I mean but it would be nice if the township was behind the residents after determining what the residents actually want. I I'll add to that that the uh the project RC3, right? It goes through the different R numbers that they have from basically the interchange with route one working up this way, right? So

RC3 is the section that primarily goes through Middletown Township. the pendot website for the project would be your best place to get their latest information and we can obviously share that if you need but what they have on there as of today is that they're in their environmental assessment phase. So they have their kind of conceptual layout of the section and then they go through an environmental assessment phase and then they go into the actual design phase where they start to really put it together and they always have stages where they then involve the public input. They have meetings. They'll I'm sure reach out to this township and talk about how they're planning to put everything together. I know a priority of this project for PennDOT from what I've heard and what I've read, the people I know there as well, is that the access roads along the stretch of Route One now pose a high risk for just vehicle accidents and things like that. understanding that you are more in favor of them not going away but

but that they're they're looking to improve overall safety and then overall layout of of their highway in their rightway where they tie into the local roads is where that interaction with the public really steps up after this environmental assessment phase. So there's nothing in the way of any kind of construction even listed on their latest updates until at least 2029. Uh so after environmental is when they really get into the local meetings and getting feedback from local neighborhoods of the things they actually proposed after environmental and find out.

No, I'm saying you'll you'll have that coming in after the environmental phase where where they say here's where we're looking to tie in and then they look for the input back from the the local streets, the local neighborhoods of the folks that are living there.

So I don't want the impression to be that the township kind of just let everything go through. Obviously, it's it's not to that point yet. They had conceptual layouts of what they want to do with their rightway. Uh and then we'll be much more involved, I believe, after their environmental assessment completes because that then gives them more limitations on what they can and can't do in certain areas and then they can really get back to the drawing board of what they really want to propose and that's where I'm sure we'll have a lot more information to share public. And we did reach out to PennDOT um it was got to be a couple years ago now asking them to come and do some some sort of opportunity for the public to come and present feedback and they declined. Um but I think the reason maybe largely was that it was just premature. They're just not any they're not even close to really the design phase yet which is when you would start trying to get input. So it sounds like you'll have an opportunity.

They did do a public update back in April. And just to answer some of the questions from both gentlemen and I apologize if I miss any details. Uh the website for anybody who's interested is us1bucks.com. So that's the project website for all three phases. Um I

it's linked to our um website actually. If you go onto our website and you go up into community um and then you scroll down um township information, it says US1 improvement project and then actually if you go into project information under section RC3 um it gives you some all that information and then there is um under frequently asked questions it says that um comments can be submitted at any time via comment section of this website or you can email info@us1bucks.com. So I would suggest um I would definitely encourage all residents to um email that it's info@us1bucks.com.

All right. And if I could add to um just to the comment about kind of the different design concepts and the township's formal feedback on that referencing 2023, I think it was actually a year or two even prior to that. Um I want to say 2021. Um there was a presentation made about the then conceptual design and that was when the kind of trail concept was talked about. Um and as uh Mr. Kesler mentioned uh PennDOT was the one who is really driving this whole project forward and their feedback on the access roads which are township roads. Uh they were advising that they wanted to do away with the a lot of the access roads. There's pieces that have to remain for people to access their properties but on the whole as they exist today they are strongly advising against the current design because it is in their belief less safe and the conversation

design. Yes, I agree. Yes, I agree. There's an alternate design that addresses the safety issues but doesn't drive traffic into the three burrows. Sure. And I think to miss When you say alternate design, what are you referring to? Uh we had an engineer at the meeting at the funeral home about a week ago uh who who presented a design that eliminates the curbs along US1. It leaves the feeder roads in place. And uh I'm sorry, just so so you as a resident group hired an engineer to to prepare an alternative. He was at the meeting. I think I am terribly new. Oh, the burrow. Okay, got you. I'm very new to this neighborhood. I don't know where all the bodies are buried yet.

Yeah, I'm just trying to Yeah, I understand. I appreciate it. I was just trying to understand where the alternate design was. Okay. All right. Yeah, but there is an alternate plan and it sounds a lot better than pen dots. Yeah. Okay. I'm I understand now. Sure. I think just to summarize, there is not a final plan in place. They're still in the public feedback environmental investigation phase. So, there is still more to be updated. Um and we can certainly u check in with PennDOT to see if there's any latest reports. We just want to make sure that that we we keep the conversation going. Sure. If anyone would like to um just share your contact information with our staff in the back, we'd be happy to stay in touch with you about this issue. It may be a good idea. I know we've been trying to do it recently is get res like have a residents meeting

um associated with this so that way we can at least maybe show them the plans that exist, show what's out there, show what our engineer has reviewed so far. um and then potentially get, you know, some of their comments. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And as a first step to that, this Friday I have a meeting with Senator Ferry actually about RC3, about this project. So, I'll be able to go back to the recording and make sure that we understand all the comments that were presented here tonight and I can bring those to the meeting on Friday as well.

Hi, my name is Bob Griggs. I live at 1144 Jeffrey Lane. I just wanted to say just real just one minute just for some clarifications. So the it was a tra transportation engineer under contract at Langghorn MA Manor Barrow and he was at the meeting at Dungivenish and he he's worked with Pendot and he presented this plan that basically retains the service roads. So that now what we were told was that Middletown Township had already approved the project as far as PEDOT was concerned and that was I guess why we're mostly concerned like is it was almost like Middletown Township has given their approval and that's it and our concern is we feel that that the project still needs to be looked at and we would like that if Middletown Township has approved the project that they basically back off a little bit and let you know let some uh alternative designs be presented. Our main concern is that service road. I live on Jeffrey Lane. When I go to Pendell, when I go to church, when I go Planet Fitness anywhere, I make a left off of Jeffrey Lane. I go up to the service road. I drove I drive over to Yunville Avenue. That's the way I go. That that service road is like part of our local road network. And I can almost guarantee almost everybody here who drives in that area from our street, that's the way they go. removing that removing that road is going to force both two-way traffic onto Fee and it's going to and Avenue F and it's really just going to basically cause more traffic on those residential roads. So that's basically our main concern. I don't think anyone has a problem with safety improvements on Route One that definitely needs it. That was that highway was designed it was basically before a lot of modern standards were up. So we have no problem with that but we're really concerned about those service routes. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. And I and I think I think my understanding is now that we're still, at least at this point, everything's been very preliminary and that we haven't even gotten to the point where they're doing

final design of what this project is going to look like. So, I I think the answer is that there's clearly still time. Is that fair? Yeah, it's correct. Our office as well as the township traffic engineers office, I'm sure, will be in much more discussions with with PENDOT as they go through there. There hasn't been anything as far as Middletown Township saying that we have no issue with anything they've proposed so far. So, we'll uh we'll definitely be talking with them more and sharing that with the public as they get into those uh phases following their environmental assessment. Okay. Thank you. Yes.

Hello. Um my name is Brooki. I'm a resident of 32 Deep Dale Drive East. Uh I'm also joined here by some of my fellow residents from Deepdale Drive East. Um we're here tonight to make public um our section's desire to update our park in Deepdale East. Um I can guarantee probably most of you do not know that Deepdale East has a park. Uh we are the grass basketball park that is rarely if ever um used for basketball. Um, it's essentially dedicated green space and I can attest to this as the resident who lives directly across from it for the past six years and I can count on one hand the amount of times it has been used for basketball probably about four times in six years. Um so a few years ago uh we voiced to Paul and the parks and recck committee our sections community efforts that have become incredible and essentially um the true heart of our community. Um that space has become the area where our section gathers for uh gatherings, craft nights, cookoffs, celebrations, all free to our community members and anyone else who likes to come and join. Um, however, we are constantly bringing tables, chairs, popup tents, uh, running power or water essentially from my home across the street. Um, so the space is not serving the residents at all. Um, it is a consensus in our neighborhood that we need to update and improve this area with a small pavilion uh, and power with the other improvements happening to the other playgrounds and parks. And I must compliment the Lions Park upgrades. They're fantastic. Um, I think it is time for you to respectfully consider the budgetary consideration uh to

improve this space for the residents of Deepdale East and Middletown community. Um, we have a great community of support within our section, including a community contractor who has volunteered supplies and his work if needed, as well as local boy scouts as well. Um, so as you review the budget and plan for next fiscal year, the future future fiscal years, we would ask you to please consider this for Deepale East.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Is anything contemplated currently for Deepdale East? Is this something that's even Mr. Coper? I'm asking our park and park and recck director to comment. So, we are contemplating something. The the grass basketball court is great. Um, I took uh Eden on a tour. He was there August 30th. The neighborhood came out and everything else like that. Um, the issue was with the money that we had, we were going to update and spend about 150,000 to do Lion's Park, more of a public area. Um, we don't have any objection to this. It was a budgetary concern. Plus for a they are landlocked, you know, so we're trying to look at other options to get them to the Lions Park versus getting them there. So, we are looking at the whole thing and, you know, it's a great neighborhood vibe over there. So, we want to do something for them.

Sure. Great. Thank you. Okay. Other public comment on non-aggenda items? Anyone? Yes, sir.

Good evening, board. Lance Cers, 98 Queen Lily Road. Uh, not going to belabor the fire thing as far as the entering into the agreement to buy the apparatus. I think more of my concern is, and I think we voiced it last meeting, um, would have to do with exactly whether it was a bad loan or not. Um because then that goes to we have taxpayer money going to fire departments that have poor leadership. Um I can give you an example of good leadership because I think uh Chief Bartella stewards our police department well and he comes here and requests you know if he needs a new vehicle or um his officers come here and request if they need equipment that is vital to what their services. Um, I don't know if I've ever seen a fire chief come here and ask and I hope that's the direction we're going if we're going to continue to have paid firefighters and fund our fire department because I think that's what frankly the taxpayers would want to know where this money is going. Um, you know, instead of just being at a meeting like we discussed last month and we get tossed into a hey, we're bailing out this loan, we're going to pay it off because of it makes financial sense, which I agree with. it made financial sense. That's a lot of money though. Um and we didn't even enter into that loan initially. So those are the things that I think um are frustrating to myself and potentially other people that voiced their opinions. Um my second comment tonight would have to do with um noticed the last couple meetings Amy's not here. Um I'm not surprised she's not here. Um, I guess my question would be is how come there has been no comment that I can remember that the board has made as to why she's not here?

Yeah, it's actually we're going to talk about that tonight. Miss Strauss and her family have moved out of the township. So, um, we have to, I guess, officially accept her resignation. Um, also her husband who's on the zoning hearing board submitted his uh, resignation. That's actually on the agenda tonight to accept.

So, his is on the agenda, not hers. Um, so that goes to my question is she was sworn in in March. Okay. To the best at it I have, uh, their family house went for sale in June. All right. I don't know about anybody here. Maybe it was a spur of moment thing. I don't think I sell my house not knowing, you know, I didn't just come up with this two weeks ago and then I put my house up for sale. That's I don't, you know, I don't view that's how people sell houses. So, we're swearing somebody in in March. house goes up for sale in June, it's pending sale a week later all the way till August. And we have somebody with no vested interest in the community voting on things that affect our community when we have other candidates that could have been sworn in uh in March. You know, we have him sitting in the crowd. Ryan's running for supervisor next month. Um so I just thought that's not a good look for the board. you know, that's me questioning the board's judgment in regards to that. And I'm just wondering why other candidates who are, you know, able-bodied um have a vested interest in our community um weren't considered.

I Well, first of all, I I'll defend Miss's record. I think she's been a phenomenal supervisor both when she was elected and when she was appointed. Um and I thought she um really represented the residents of this township well during her tenure here. I'm not going to speak for her regarding the decision of her family to move out of the township or why. That's none of my business. Um, I will tell you that regarding your suggestion that we should have appointed a a candidate, um, we made a decision, a bipartisan decision not to appoint, there were there are four people running for board of supervisors right now. We made a bipartisan decision not to appoint any candidates because we didn't want to make it political. And so, we unanimously appointed Miss Strauss based on her having served in the position previously and also um, her close relationship to Miss Payne. And we thought that's what Miss Payne would have wanted. So, we felt that was the right decision for the time. Again, um I thought Miss M. Strauss did an excellent job in that role. So I I mean I just disagreed with your suggestion that we should have appointed a a political candidate and made it a political thing. I just didn't want to do that considering we were filling the vacancy of somebody who tragically passed away.

Okay. Were you aware she was playing? And we had no idea and neither did she at the time when we appointed her. She had an opportunity that came up and their family decided to move. Yeah. I didn't want to to talk about but my understanding is she got a a job opportunity that was unexpected and they they needed her to relocate. Okay, appreciate it.

Other public comment on non-aggenda items. All right, we will move into the consent agenda items and they are as follows. Item A, consideration of authorizing payment of the October 6, 2025 bills list in the amount of 2,964,91689. B, consideration of approving the September 8th, 2025 meetings of the Middletown Tim Township Board of Supervisors. Uh C, consideration of a financial security release number one final for Popeye's restaurant SLLD number 21-9 in the amount of 446,71218. Item D, consideration of financial security release number one final for Chick-fil-A restaurant SLD number 23-8 in the amount of $1,143,230. E, consideration of change order number one for the storm water pipelining uh project in the net amount of $58,41. F. Consideration of authorizing an intergovernment intergovernmental agreement with Langghorn Burough regarding the MS4 credits for a storm water project to be completed by Langghorn Burough. G. Consideration of awarding the 202526 Bucks County Consortium Rock Salt contract to Morton Salt of Chicago, Illinois. H. Consideration of authorizing traffic signal easement agreements with Nami School District and the county of Bucks for Cork Creek Elementary School. And finally, I consideration of authorizing resolution number 25-23R authorizing sale of one 205 Ford Explorer to the Nishmines school district. Is there a motion on the consent agenda items?

I move to approve all consent agenda items as stated. Thank you, Miss Corp. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Hannah. It's been a motion and a second. Any board questions? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Carries 5-0. Next on the agenda, uh we have a conditional use hearing uh CU number 25-2 for the Thatcher Square Town Home Community by WB Homes. The applicant to construct a 34 unit townhouse development where 20% of the units will be attainable housing at the property. This is at 1492 Woodburn Road, Levittown, PA1 19057, TMP number 22-055-016 in the P professional zoning district. Yes.

Good evening. I'm Ed Murphy. I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant. Um the matter in front of the board is two parts. The first is the conditional use hearing. Um and the second assuming we move forward through the conditional use would be consideration of land development plans. Um this is a project that um involves the redevelopment of the Knights of Columbus property on Woodburn Road in the P professional zoning district. Earlier this year, uh this board did approve an amendment uh to the P professional zoning district regulations to allow for an attainable housing component to a town home project as a conditional use. Uh prior to the board's approval of that zoning ordinance amendment, uh representatives of WB Homes, the owner of the property and Habitat for Humanity, the U attaining attainable housing partner of WB Homes, made multiple presentations to this board and to your planning commission uh and presented a sketch in support of the concept that would include the attainable housing component. Uh since the board's adoption of that uh zoning ordinance amendment in February, uh the as you might expect, the land development plans have been engineered, prepared, submitted, and reviewed by the various boards and agencies and consultants in the township. Most recently, your planning commission did recommend approval of both the conditional use as well as the land development plans. Uh which brings us here this evening. So um I understand that the conditional use is a public hearing. So we will have uh the court synographer present and if there's no other preliminary matters I'll uh I have two witnesses that will

likely uh comment on the aspect of principally the conditional use. uh Chris Canavan who is the president of WB Homes and Florence Kawasco who is the um president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Bucks County. So I guess with that as background uh Mr.

I do have a couple preliminary things that I do want to get started with the with the hearing. Um first since it is a public hearing we do need to ask if anyone here would like party status. Uh there are two ways for the audience to participate in the conditional use hearing. The most common way is to make comment during the public comment portion of the hearing. The other way is to request party status in which you would become a party, could present your own evidence, and cross-examine the witnesses presented by the applicant. The board would decide if you are a person affected by the application and whether to grant you party status or not. So, I would ask if there's anyone in the in the hearing that would like party status to this. See none. Now, that doesn't mean I we will open it up for public hearing. So you will be able to comment on the uh on the project at that time. Um before you get call your witnesses, I am going to put in uh board exhibits. Um we are going to label as exhibit B1 the application for conditional use submitted by Redford Acquisitions LP. the applicant. We'll label as exhibit B2 the notice of hearing, proof of advertising in the advance of Bucks County, the proof of mailing to the neighboring properties, and the proof of posting from the township at the property. will label as exhibit B3 the applicable provisions of the township zoning ordinance section 500-3209C which are the general requirements and standards applicable for all conditional uses in Middletown Township and section 500-1803J which are the conditional use standards for townhouse use in the P professional zoning district. We're going to label as exhibit B4 the township review letters, remembering that these letters also are related to the land development project. Uh those letters are the August 28th, 2025 re review letter from the township engineer Remington and Verdict Engineers. The August 15, 2025 review

memo from the township fire marshall. The August 29th, 2025 review letter from the township traffic engineer, Pannonian Associates Incorporated. the September 3rd, 2025 review memorandum from the Bucks County Planning Commission, the and the August 29th, 2025 review letter from the Middletown Environmental Advisory Council. And we're going to label as exhibit B5 the conditional use site plan rendering submitted by the applicant with the application. Do you have any objections to the exhibits? No objection. If not, I'll move them into the record. Then thanks.

Uh perhaps we can have both Mr. Canavan and Ms. Kowasa at least sworn so that they'll both will be prepared to answer questions. Uh, do you swear or further the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I swear. I do.

So, we'll start first with Mr. Canavan. Uh, you've heard my introduction about the history of the project. starting in the fall of 2024 uh when we first introduced the concept to the township and then subsequently followed up with multiple meetings to develop the ordinance that allowed for the adoption this past February of the amendment to allow town homes in the P professional district with the attainable housing option. Correct. Yes, I did.

Thank you. Um, first identify yourself, your business occupation, your position with WB Homes, what the relationship is between WB Homes and the owner of this site, and your role there.

Very good. Thank you. Uh, my name is Christopher Canavan. I am the president of WB Homes. We are a home building and land development company. Uh, WB Homes has been in business approximately 40 years. Uh we are also um the owners of this property 1492 Woodburn Road. We are the um fe simple owners now. We settled on the property in June and it is in the name of one of our wholly owned subsidiaries of Redford Acquisitions LP of which I am the president of the sole general partner of that limited partnership. Before I ask you some specific questions about the project, explain the concept of having an attainable housing partner for a project like this. What was the uh idea behind it and how has that generated a actual agreement written agreement with Habitat for Humanity? As we discussed uh this ordinance, it became very important that we figure out a way if we were going to generate what would be attainable housing units, how would they stay attainable for future generations and not just benefit one select group of buyers. So, the ordinance specifically requires that a developer utilizing this section of the ordinance to partner with a third-party entity, could be a nonprofit, county, the township to make sure that we put in appropriate safeguards for the future viability of the attainable units. We have chosen to enter into an agreement with Habitat for Humanity. We have a signed memorandum of understanding for how we will transfer units to them and sell those units so they will be at a rate that they can then meet the obligations of the attainable housing uh requirements for um the adjusted median income for the potential buyers. Habitat then has a land trust model which will be able to protect those units so that after the first set of buyers buys the

seven units from this development when they go up for sale again they will be attainable to the next group of buyers and that will be on Habitat through their uh restrictions to enforce in the future not left to a developer. Uh you heard Mr. Espeto make reference to diff two different set of regulations in the current Middletown township ordinance that relate to conditional uses. Right. Yes, I did. One is the general conditional use criteria that we'll get to second that apply to any conditional use application in any district in the township. Right.

Correct. However, the first set of criteria for conditional use relates specifically to the attainable housing option that's now available in the P professional district. Right. That is correct.

Okay. And the various review letters have acknowledged our compliance. But I'd like for you to simply check off each of those required criteria in order to qualify to apply for a conditional use for attainable housing option in the P professional district. be happy to. The primary items within the ordinance deal with design and restrictions on the development. Uh, and I'm going to run through these and I'll be happy to answer any questions on them. I'm not sure who's controlling the screen. Can we go to the site plan, which should be sheet four, I believe, of the plan deck. H, go to sheet three. I apologize. It looks prettier. Thank you. Um, as we're looking at the plan set, there are a number of restrictions that go into the design. The first, uh, restriction would be the number of units per building, which is six. The plan sheet obviously shows that there are no more than six units in a, uh, building. Number of parking spaces per unit is two spaces. We're in compliance with regards to that. uh accessory structures. Uh we meet both the requirements running enclosed decks and porches no greater than 10 feet from a setback and we are allowed to have box bay and bay windows uh project no more than 2 ft into a required yard. We've done that for architectural variation on site elevations. There is then a number of architectural requirements that uh are detailed under section 13 of the ordinance uh regarding deflection of front and side elevations and also material changes. I will get to that in one minute but I just want to stay on this slide to meet two other requirements. Um number 14 requires all roads, alleys, stormwater facilities, etc. to be owned in perpetuity by a single ownership. This community will be a planned unit development. The unit owners will own the footprint of their building. The remainder of the community will be owned by the community association. Homeowners association

declaration will be provided to the township solicitor for review. And they will be responsible for the maintenance of all public uh or excuse me, all common facilities, none of which will be dedicated. The private roads meet the minimum widths of 24 ft with no parking and 28 ft with parking on one side. There is sidewalk on one side of the road. All units that face an existing roadway. So this would be the set of six units that face Woodburn Road. The front elevation needs to be facing Woodburn Road. So when you're driving on Woodburn Road, you're not looking at the rear of a unit. If you don't mind, go to the final uh slide. So this would be the elevation of units from towards Woodburn Road with no garages facing that way. They'll have a front door at the ground level uh and general architectural features. Their driveways will be to the rear of the unit. The next groups of units would be the other elevation that was being shown which would show garages in the front with their front doors. It it balances out the way the site lays out but we are in compliance with that section of the ordinance as well. And then finally under that section there is a requirement for um a community association which I previously mentioned. Um then the last piece is the attainable housing option is a requirement for 20% of the units within the development to be attainable. So with 34 units rounding up that would be seven units that would be attainable. I think when we discussed the ordinance it was at six we are at seven now for the attainable units and that is what's reflected in the uh memorandum of understanding with habitat. The paragraph 15 also identifies other more typical area and design requirements as well in order to qualify for the attainable housing option. Correct.

Yeah. And we do uh we meet the minimum gross tract area of 3.5 acres. We have 3.8 acres uh maximum density of 9.25 dwelling units per gross acre. We're at 8.75 dwelling units per acre. And then the remainder are bulk area dimensional requirements with regards to height, separation, impervious coverage, building coverage, and minimum open space, which we meet all of them. Let's talk about the more general conditional use criteria that apply to any conditional use application. And I'd ask you, if you would, to comment on those, and then we'll have uh Miss Kowaska come forward, and we can talk about the relationship and partnership Habitat has with WB. Um the general requirements are is it in compliance with your comprehensive plan? It is. It's particularly related to your redevelopment and housing section. Uh we spoke at great length about that during the text amendment requirement. This area was specifically noted for redevelopment. Uh this property would also improve a blighted property that has fallen into significant disrepair in the community and the proposed community will remove the blight on the property and reinvigorate this part of the neighborhood with new residents and newly constructed housing stock. The property uh that is subject to this application is adjacent to multif family residential next to the right of it if you're facing it from Woodburn Road and across the street on Woodburn Road and then single family housing to the rear. It makes an appropriate transition of zoning uses um from the existing professional uses adjacent to it as well. The property is um uh currently served and will be served by both public water and public sewer. Uh the property also has the benefit of there's currently two driveways accessing Woodburn Road from the site. We will be consolidating that to one driveway to help with uh safe traffic flow. Um sections um the final piece is there is no

transportation impact study required because we did not trigger the requirement of the ordinance 34 units. We only have 34 residential units. The ordinance uh requires 50 units or more to trigger the transportation impact study. And as I think everybody is aware, this site had previously been used as a banquet hall and restaurant which would generate more traffic than our current uh proposed residential use. Um Florence um much as Mr. Cannon did identify yourself and your position with Habitat for Humanity.

Uh Florence Kawasco, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Bucks County. and you've been present with us throughout from the start of the project as part of the proposal to achieve the attainable housing goal that the township has established. Correct. That's correct.

Even though most people know of you and your mission, why don't you briefly describe for those that may be unfamiliar what Habitat's mission is and how they've come to partner with WB Homes. Habitat's mission is to uh make affordable housing, attainable housing possible for for folks. Um very simplistic terms, all of our homeowners can afford to pay a mortgage. It's not a giveaway program by any means. Um but they just cannot afford enough of a mortgage to buy a home in very expensive Bucks County. Um, so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to help not only um people that are at 80% or less of the AMI, but actually we're going to serve a few more um households that are above 80%. No other organization helps someone like that.

What's AMI? Um average median income. And how many projects active projects that does Habitat have now in Bucks County? Right now we have active four. And total the number of projects you oversee and manage. We we have built 134. Okay. Um explain your relationship with WB Homes.

So we were approached um with this opportunity, the fact that we'll be able to buy homes at cost. Um WB Homes is not getting a profit on what they're selling to us and uh we'll be able to sell the homes at um a reasonable cost. will have to fund raise for the balance between the cost of the homes and what the families can afford. Would a person driving by the community or driving in the community be able to tell which units are habitat units and which units are not? Absolutely not. Explain why.

Uh so uh we happen WB Homes happens to have three models that they're going to be offering in this development. We have chosen the the lower cost model, the lowest cost model. Um, so it just blends in. No one will know from the front. Uh, the habitat units will be interspersed in the buildings. It's so there's not going to be a quote habitat section, right? Uh, the exterior finishes will be identical. It's the interior finishes that may be less expensive than certain other market rate units. Right.

That's correct. explain to the board in the audience how you and WB Homes ensure that a unit or the seven units that would be sold to Habitat purchasers will always remain available to other qualified Habitat purchasers. Starting in November of 2022, Habitat um has Habitat established a land trust model which means that we retain ownership of the land of every home we sell. um that keeps up with the land lease model and when the family goes to sell they have restriction on the um the sale that they have to sell to another income qualified buyer.

And what's the typical profile of your typical buyer? It's um we serve people that are um are physicians assistants, firefighters, um uh teachers, typically firsttime home buyers. Yes, first-time home buyers. Okay. And what's the program that you would offer to a first-time home buyer that would qualify for a Habitat occupancy? Um, explain program, I'm sorry. How big a discount, okay, from the market rate units would a Habitat house cost?

Okay, so um our homeowners can afford a mortgage, you know, a um an 80% of the a median income can afford a mortgage of around 180,000. And so that's the mortgage that they can afford and we will um sub we will subsidize the difference between that and the cost of the home from WB. WB is selling us um the homes at around $365,000 and the market value of these homes will be over $500,000. The deeds will show the value of the home at 500 over 500,000 whatever the market value is. And who profits from a future resale at a value greater than what the value is when the first Habitat buyer bought it?

The first Habitat buyer gets back their equity and they get a share of the appreciation up to a predetermined we have a formula that we apply. So there's no way that our homeowners are going to get anything close to 515,000. They're not going to get anything close to even 300,000. Okay. I'd offer both uh Miss Kowska and Mr. um Canavan for any questions that the board members or audience may have on the conditional use aspect of it. Any board members have questions for either of the witnesses on the condition conditional use aspect?

Mr. Espazito, I don't see any questions. Mr. Before you do that, can you clarify what the difference between the conditional use and the land development and what what questions go into each?

So, right now, under the conditional use, what you uh that what they're asking for approval right now is whether you would give them conditional use to permit the town homes to be a use at this property. Um, right now, they can't build town homes unless they get this conditional use. It is a um a permitted use based off of they meet all of these conditions. Once they get the conditional use approval, if approved by the board, then they have to go through the land development aspect and go through the subdivisional land development ordinance, prove that they've done all that, our uh traffic engineer and our township engineer reviewed all of the plans for that and go through all of that aspect. So, this doesn't go through the salo, the conditional use. goes through the specific conditions listed in the zoning ordinance and whether they met those or not

and we've reviewed and they meet all of those conditions. Yes, I I will ask the engineer if he believes that they've met the um we believe that as it pertains to the identified criteria which you established in your ordinance to permit an applicant to qualify for an attainable housing option that we have met all that both the objective criteria that we reviewed and the subjective criteria. Yes. And that's what we're asking you to approve. If you do, then we're going to talk next about the stuff that we're all more familiar with, and that is the nuts and bolts of the land development plan, the engineers review, and things like that.

All right. Any questions for the witnesses? Okay. Do you have any more evidence to present on this? I have no other evidence or testimony to present. If there's no more evidence, we're going to close the record and we'll open it up for public comment and we'll move the exhibits in slide that we presented. Yep. They're they're they're accepted. No objection to the exhibits. But if the board doesn't have any more questions, we'll close the evidence and then we can open it up to public comment for the the audience. Okay. So, we're closed. We're closed and then we'll open it up for public comment.

Any public comment on the conditional use aspect? Out of the 34 town homes, how many of these town homes um are going to be sold to only Middletown residents? We do not have the ability to restrict who we sell homes to. Okay. How many of the Habitat for Humanity 7 homes are going to be reserved for Middletown Township residents? Florence, let none as planned. Did you hear that?

So So none as planned, she said. Um, so my question is is we're looking at another highdensity housing uh proposal. Okay. Um, when uh what is it? WB building um can certainly build other residences on this property and and make um uh a wage or you know they'll probably make less money um but they can certainly make money off this property. Um the board represents Middletown Township um and the residents of Middletown Township. I'm failing to see where the benefit um of this project is for Middletown Township. We can't even get Habitat for Humanity to guarantee Middletown residents at these attainable housing. This is something that I've heard the board talk about being such a huge issue. We need attainable housing. Man, it's so great these buzzwords, right? And then we can't even get our own residents in these houses that we're approving that are not only going to clog our roadways even though we're not doing a traffic study. I understand. He said it was a banquet hall and other things. There hasn't been traffic around Knights of Columbus. Even when it was open, I've lived down the street from it for 15 years. There hasn't been traffic there. So, when we're adding 34 more residents, God knows how many more kids to our uh school district, which I keep bringing up this uh this uh study that we just did that our schools are going to be overcrowded, particularly our high school, uh within the next four or five years. Now we're adding more. We haven't even seen the town homes that you guys approved um at the old Oliver Hecman yet. So that's not even built. So we don't even know what the traffic looks like once those town homes are in place. And they're coming with a plan that doesn't necessarily benefit Middletown Township at all. It benefits him and his pocket. I'm failing to see how it's benefiting the citizens of Middletown Township because it doesn't. I understand we need housing, but part of our comprehensive plan as well talks about open space.

Where was the open space in that project? Because I heard him mention that comprehensive plan, but he didn't mention open space. I think that's something valuable to our township and I hope it's valuable to people sitting on the board. Um, thank you. So, I think um just to be clear, we're talking about the conditional use, which is a question of whether or not they meet the conditions in order to move forward with the proposed use. So, I think a lot of your comments probably are more appropriate for the land development phase. Doesn't mean that's fine. You're welcome to say them and um they're noted. They're on the record. Um so, we we can talk about them. I mean, I guess um and obviously my colleagues are free to speak. I I will say that um I see this as number one, uh this has become a blighted property. Um this is an opportunity to make this a useful property. Um I think the goal of attainable housing has been an aspiration of this board or at least most of the members of this board for a long time and the opportunity um to provide that I think is uh worthy and valuable to the residents and to the community. Um, I think that, um, the representation that the traffic impact from a banquet hall compared to, uh, this residential development, um, actually would be potentially less traffic. Um, and so I think there's, you know, you asked what is the benefit to Middletown Township. I think there's a great deal of benefit to middle Middletown Township. I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think legally we can restrict sale of the residence to only residents of Middletown Township. I've never seen that done and I I'd have to do some research whether that would be a permitted um kind of restriction. That would that would be unusual.

Yeah. Um so um if I could add though Yeah.

Sorry. One one thing though is the six hab the seven habitat homes will be sold to we're allowed to sell to only people that have either live or work already in the county. So we're not bringing in you know you have to have proof that you live or work in the county. And I understand what she's saying, but if it's being buil in Middletown Township, it should benefit Middletown Township citizens. If somebody works here and they want to move here, great. I I mean, I would even be flexible with that. But to open it up to the whole county to me when it only affects citizens of Middletown, the effects of this, whether it's our schools, our traffic, um, and I understand you guys can't force them, but she can certainly say, "Hey, that's what we're going to do if you guys approve it."

So, you guys don't have to make it a I don't believe she can she can't do that. She can't. No. She works for Habitat for Humanity. She can't say those those are the residents on That's against the law. You can't decide that you're only going to sell Yeah. Yeah, I meant to sell to particular people based on where they live. I don't think that's legal. So then it's not a good idea.

I I'll just make one other point. Um um and um you you you've talked many times about open space and I I I agree with you. I mean that and that is a very um fair and worthy um concern about not only our township but Bucks County, the whole region. The issue though that we repeatedly run into is um this is not a decision between whether or not this is going to be preserved or open space or whether or not it's going to be developed. We as a municipality do not have the the ability to buy and preserve every piece of property and designated as open space. And we don't own the property. It's privately owned. And so the only thing we have control over is what gets developed on that property. So, we have to we have to make decisions um about what we approve within the con confines of our ordinance. Um but we don't we can't just say no, you know what, I understand that's your property and you own it and I understand that you want to do something with that property, but we're telling you you can and you've got to just keep it open. I mean, that that we cannot do. Uh life would be a lot easier if we could and then we could decide which parcels we just want to keep open and vacant throughout the township and that's just not unfortunately something we have the power to do. So, I I agree with the aspiration of preserving open space to the extent we can, but short of the township actually buying the property ourselves and owning it, which is just not feasible. Um, we we, you know, uh, that's not the choice that we're left with. That's not the choice that we're facing with a lot of these development projects.

So, I'm going to go back to when this was changed from a professional zoning to the zoning it is now. You did have the choice to not change that zoning district. Absolutely. and you made the choice to change it. And I think that and I and I absolutely believe that was the right decision because if it wasn't changed, we wouldn't be talking about this right now. It's not true. We might be talking about a different development in a different use. But we felt like attainable housing in this location was a better use for our residents. You asked how is this going to benefit Middletown. My feeling and of the board, whoever else voted for that was that this was a better use of that property than as it was currently zoned as which was a a blighted professional zoned property. And I don't know if your zoning has not changed. It's still professional. And I don't know if your your residents agree with you.

I mean, you can certainly disagree with me. That's you have absolutely have the right to your opinion. Just so we're clear, the professional zoning designation remains. This is an option that the board created. So, the underlying zoning remains unchanged. Any other uh public comment? I don't know if you can change that back to the diagram. Hold on. Can you just talk into the microphone cuz they can't hear you at home if you're not talking to the microphone? Oh, could you switch it back to the diagram of the proposed site? Can I go to it and point? Of course.

Okay. So, I'm in R2 zone which backs up like my property is exactly backing up to this whole project. Um, currently there's a oversaturation when it rains a lot. Like right now we're good, but when it rains like we have a lot of rainfall in a year, my sump pump can go 10 12 hours a day. So I think we're going to talk about storm water when we get to the land development part which is the next phase. Uh, I mean you can certainly address it now if you don't mind. So we can answer a question on the record as well.

Yeah. The current property with all the impervious that is on it between the building and the driveway, there is no modern storm water management detaining any of that storm water runoff from those parking lots and it runs to the rear of the site towards your property where there is a wooded area and there's a small wetlands that formed in that area and then discharges off that site.

As will be presented when we go to the land development aspect of this when we if if we are successful in getting the conditional use. We have a series of underground storm water detention uh basins and storm water management throughout the property that will control the rate and volume of discharge of storm water off of this property. So I believe that it post construction what you see will be less saturation, less water runoff during peak times from the property. So it should possibly assist your situation. And as you'll note, the last building on the property uh does not go all the way back to the rear of the property. There is that wooded area to the rear of the property. And this ordinance required at least a minimum of 30% open space around the site. That area is preserved as part of this for two reasons. To stay as open space and to retain the wooded features which would also protect the wetlands and provide an additional area for the storm water to be treated before it might run off the property.

Can I continue? An silly question. Is there going to be fencing, privacy, anything to block off that area? Because if not, I mean, you could literally walk in right to my backyard. And currently, people on that property could walk into your backyard. I mean, we are going to put in appropriate buffering around the property. There may be some fencing between adjacent uses. We haven't fully decided where. Probably not in the heavily wooded area. Would we run a fence back in that area? No, not the wooded area. I mean, closer to the property. That was not a plan. That was not something we had planned on doing at this time. We think the separation is is great enough that you don't have people looking to wander onto the adjacent property.

Right now, there's no one and you're proposing hundreds. So, I mean, I'm just wondering some sort of fencing or something cuz there's no people there now, but there's going to be a bunch of people. I appreciate the comment. I We weren't intending on fencing around the whole entire property when it comes down to it. Um obviously it's an adjacent apartment complex to the property as well. Okay. Um is there any I don't know um like evaluations on the degree of how the property how the degree of the actual property going like how

the grading of the property from the rear. It's a generally flat site. Okay. Um the storm water does generally run from Woodburn Road to the rear of the site and that's how we've managed it with the storm water management uh facilities as well. So you're going to propose those that drainage like is there going to be there is there is a series of underground basins that will be underneath both the driveway and to the rear of that last set of units to detain the storm water that would run off through a series of inlets and pipes on the property.

Okay. so that it won't be a direct discharge off there. It will handle that volume of water significantly better than anything that's currently being handled on that property. And that's heavily regulated with both the township engineers office reviewing it and the Bucks County Conservation District who re where we are required to get an MPDES permit which is a storm water permit for discharge from the site. Yeah. I don't know I don't know if our township engineer just because the township engineer reviews all of this and can you just comment on the the the storm water improvements and how that might impact her her property in a positive way?

Yeah, absolutely. And it's a really good question because you see the the existing site, you know, has that large parking lot and like the applicant had mentioned, uh the proposed work that they have shown here. I'm sure when they uh talk about the land development, uh item, they'll go further into what they're actually designed to improve that. So, it has a system that manages it mostly underground. um and we'll have more of a controlled rate that it would come off and towards towards the back uh area of the property. So as compared to now it just flows towards that area. This would actually be a managed design system uh that would control that in an improved way. Um so that that is more of on the land development side but uh they have uh provided that as part of the plans and the calculations and the reports that they uh give the township. A storm water management report is one of those things. And it's also reviewed as mentioned by the uh conservation district which is partnered with the PA that they need a permit approved to actually have that system operational.

Okay. I just wanted to like let the township know that that was an issue and I just didn't want all the the units make it a worse issue. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We have that in in our letter that we noticed as well. Well, I know was brought up at the planning commission as a concern and um that is something that as part of their proposed work they have uh you know looking to address. Okay. Yeah, that's fine.

If there's no other comment, it's uh the board can consider it's right for the board's consideration.

Okay. All right. I will move to grant conditional use approval for the Thatcher Square uh town home community at 1492 Woodburn Road SLD number 25-08 with the following conditions. The applicant shall comply in full with all requirements of the Middletown Township subdivision and land development ordinance and the Middletown Township zoning ordinance unless relief is granted by the body having jurisdiction. Two, any remaining review comments shall be addressed in full. Uh, and three, the applicant shall provide a fee as determined by the township engineer in lie of providing uh the required uh number of street trees. Is there a second?

That that part actually should be in the uh land development approval for the street trees. Oh, all right. So, just with the first two conditions. Motion amended. Is there a second? Second. Thanks, Miss Corpal. It's been a motion and a second. Any board questions at this time? questions from the public. Everyone in favor say I. I. I. I.

Opposed. All right. So, that carries uh 4. And that um by the way, I just realized that maybe perhaps throughout this meeting I've been saying 50 instead of 40. So, just correct that for the record that uh all motions so far have been approved 40 by the board. Um all right. Apologies for that. Force a habit. So that brings us to uh agenda item number nine, which is consideration of preliminary and final uh subdivision land development plan approval for the Thatcher Square Town Home Community by WB Homes at 1492 Woodburn Road, Levittown, PA19057, TMP number 22-055-196 and the P professional zoning district. This is the former Knights of Columbus property, Mr. Murphy.

Right. and we've already pre-aged most of that conversation, but um concurrently after the board adopted the zoning amendment in February, it was the applicant's choice to proceed either separately or concurrently with the conditional use application and the engineering of the land development plans. And that's what the applicant did. We processed uh and submitted the formal conditional use application which you just acted upon together with the detailed fully engineered land development plans. Those land development plans have been reviewed just like the conditional use was by the various boards and commissions both within the township and also the other outside agencies like the Bucks County Planning Commission, Conservation District, etc. that you heard about. So what's in front of you now is the land development plans that you've seen and which have been the subject of those reviews. At the most recent planning commission meeting, planning commission did recommend approval of those land development plans subject to our ongoing compliance with u the various engineering comments that were outlined in that planning commission motion that I think the board probably has access to. and the grant of a handful of waiverss that were submitted uh as required by law uh each of which were reviewed by the planning commission and voted upon as well that night. So um happy to go into any other details uh that you would like but uh we have met multiple times with your staff consultants etc uh before appearing here tonight to make certain that the plans were in our view and their view ready for action by the board tonight. So

thank you Mr. Murphy. So do any board members have any uh questions for Mr. Murphy or for the applicant?

I actually have a a couple of questions. Um, one of the things too, so I've only recently, thank you, uh, township manager, uh, Eden, um, realized that it's not normal for us to do preliminary for townships and municipalities to do fin preliminary and final in the same meeting. So, um, one of the things that I hope going forward that we can do is kind of remove this voting on something at the same time. um because I think doing them separately similar to what we did with Shady Brook gives the ability for the residents to kind of understand what's happening um for the fee in lie of so this is the third situation that we've had for woodland situations where a developer does not place the trees um or the plantings and is doing a fee in lie of um so like one like particularly here like Why are we not able to meet the the plantings? I mean, it seems like this was this ordinance was developed with this project in mind and we need waiverss on top of that which is confusing.

I'll address both. First, it's the difference between preliminary and final engineering. Used to be significant. And many times years ago, applicants felt uncomfortable having their engineers complete the engineering to a final plan stage without having the comfort and security of knowing they had a preliminary approval already in place. over the years that has changed. I don't recall and I'm what you said about Shady Books, right? But from an engineering standpoint, we do not engineer a plan only to meet the preliminary plan criteria in the ordinance. Every plan we engineer now is done to a final plan level of detail. So, you're right. You can choose not to grant preliminary as final, but to suggest that that's uncommon, it's not. Years ago, it was, but now with the level of engineering detail provided, we meet the level of engineering detail required to qualify for a final plan approval. And I think Isaac would confirm that. But it's your choice not to grant it. I hear you. But there's no technical reason not to entertain it. As to the trees, it's not technically a waiver because we are willing and have committed to meet the ordinance requirement for tree replacement if we can physically accommodate the number of trees you require on the site. What we said at the planning commission was that Isaac and the staff can determine if we have he can say if we made full effort to plant as many of the required trees on the site, we will certainly do it. And to the extent that he says or the staff

says you can't plant any more trees for fear of them not surviving, we agreed we would plant them elsewhere or provide a fee and live. So to say that it's a waiver technically is not true because we it's more a deferral subject to whatever direction we get from the township staff, their choice, not ours. Ed, if I could just add to that, I believe these are for street trees. Street trees in your ordinance have very specific criteria with where they get placed along a roadway. And when you get into a development where you have spacing of units, roadways, and then underground utilities, often it's not possible to practically fit them where the ordinance is saying. I have no problem committing that we will make every effort to plant the trees on the site. I think it was only two street trees that we were talking about that were not able to fit per the thing. So, we'll just find another location on there to the to the approval of the engineers's office. It's to our betterment to have more trees on the site, not fewer.

Okay. Um, one of the the I was just going to follow up the question around like the um the selection process for who gets the attainable housing. Um, I know I had asked this is similar to to what the resident had asked, um, but not quite as strong. But I know I went the last meeting we were at, we thought maybe we could go back to that selection process and include something that, you know, gives, you know, additional favor to members that have history within the township. And you were kind of going to go back and kind of look to see if that was the case. Did you did you happen to look at that, see if anything had happened? Yeah, as was mentioned, it would be illegal for us to do that.

Okay. Okay. But but of course we will do our best to advertise strongly in the Middletown township area to make sure that everyone in the township is aware and we'll have we'll have a day of interest perhaps maybe even here in terms of making sure that people are able to come and understand what what the program is about and how it would work. That'd be really great. Um and then um I just I had one more question around the housing but I didn't I'll get back to it. Um the back buffering that was one of the questions that I had. Is any of that back buffering being taken away with this new development or is it remaining the amount of trees that are there are staying? Yeah, we are retaining that buffer and there's an underground storm water basin between that unit and that wooded area that will discharge to a level spreader just before the woods.

Okay, great. And then my last question is around the HOA. Yes. Um I know in previous kind of um 1700 Woodburn, we had some specific criteria for the HOA. Is there anything that's going to exist here like no sheds, no porches, those types of things?

Yeah. So, as I mentioned earlier, the development is a planned unit development. So, the they're only buying the footprint of their building and then we give them what's known as an exclusive use area around their building. So, there's some landscaping and they have the ability to put a deck off the back. There are no accessory structures allowed within the community. Uh we have restrictions with regards to trash cans need to be put in there. You know, you can put them out during trash day, they need to go back in the garage afterwards. There's a number of restrictions. Above ground pools are not allowed. things of that nature because they have no yard technically. That is all common ground to the benefit of the community and they just have very limited exclusive use to just an area just off the rear and fronts of their units. And does the HOA handle trash?

The HOA will. Yeah, we will have a single hauler that gets contracted for the development. Same with snow removal from the sidewalks and the the roadways. The only snow removal for the residents would be their individual driveways. Miss Kane, I do want to jump in there with the 1700 wood burn the no additional accessory structures. That was a specific condition of the board. It currently is not. Now he Mr. Canavan did state that they will not and we will I can ensure that they'll be in the HOA documents. I would ask if he wants to if you board would uh we can make that a condition of the approval if that's like Yeah. Other board questions for the applicant or Mr. Murphy.

All right. Any uh questions or comments from the public on the land development aspect? All right. Seeing none, um I can accept a motion.

Conditional use approval for the Thatcher Thatcher Square Town Home Community at 1492 Woodburn Road. Oh, you know what? I'm sorry. You're reading the conditional use motion. Oh my god. I'm sorry. The next one. I'm having like massive trouble with this.

Sorry. I make a motion to grant Yeah, see that's just coming up wrong. It's right below it.

A land development plan approval for the Thatcher Square town home community at 1492 Woodburn Road SLD number 25-08 with the following conditions. Applicant shall comply in full with all requirements in Middletown Township subdivision and land development ordinance and the Middletown Township zoning ordinance unless relief was granted by the body having juris jurisdiction. Two, any remaining review comments shall be addressed in full. And three, applicant shall provide a fee as determined by the township engineer in lie of providing the required number of street trees if necessary. Um, can we add? Yeah. Subject to the specific conditions of no accessory structures and other aspects that the applicant has agreed to during this meeting.

Do I need to? No. I'll just add it to the motion. Yep. All right. Thank you, Miss Corp. Is there a second? Second. There's been a motion in a second. Any board questions? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Carries 4. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right. Next on the agenda is consideration of authorizing uh advertisement of bid specifications for the Maple Avenue North Flowers Mill Road signal improvement project.

Mr. Balor.

Yes. Good evening, supervisors. Um a project that we have talked about um some time ago during last year's budget process is a signal improvement project uh right outside of our uh municipal building here. Uh this is for a total of six intersections all the way from if you kind of follow the road uh the intersection of Langghorn Yardley Road where it turns into Winchester Avenue and North Flowersville the very top of North Flowers Mill all the way heading down towards Route One. So, past the municipal center, past the shopping center, making a left if you're heading towards the post office. So, bending at the Maple Avenue North Flowers Mill intersection. Um, and then the signal in front of the Dunkin Donuts and the uh southbound interchange with the final intersection being in on Wheeler Way uh as you go towards the post office. Uh the township received a grant uh just shy of $139,000 uh from PennDOT's Greenlight Go program to modernize those signals. Uh those signals all contain original equipment. Uh the township expressed interest some time ago to do an adaptive system in this corridor. Uh and Pendot came back and said that they wanted to see some uh kind of incremental improvements as they believe that those would resolve some congestion issues in that area. Um and PennDOT did um appoint through the grant program an engineer to design um the improvements and our township traffic engineer has since uh vetted those improvements and taken them through the pendoting permitting process and it is now ready for implementation. Um I do want to highlight that the only visible change that residents will see other than reduced traffic of course is the left arrow heading out of the Flowersville Shopping Center. So, you're making a left from North Flowers Mill onto Maple Avenue. So, again, heading towards the direction of the uh post office. That will not anymore be the five light, kind of the clustered left turn arrow. It will be the new modern. It'll be four lights in a row with a blinking left. That is the new pin dot

standard for a safe uh yielding left turn. So, that will be a new visual improvement. Otherwise, the only thing you'll really see is just the improved flow of traffic in that area. It's all technology that's getting improved. Uh so this is uh being brought to the board for um authorizing advertisement of bids. It will come back to the board for u awarding those bids at a later time. Thank you, Mr. Val. Any uh questions from the board for Mr. Val about this project?

Yeah, I think this is the roadway that we received um funding a million dollars from a a developer to put adaptive signals in. So, it sounds like we weren't able to put the adaptive in, but with this updated um with this updated technology, we will be able to put the adaptive in once it's in place. Is that the case? Like, what is the timeline that we could potentially see? Cuz I know this corridor is bad and it's part of the reason why we needed the funding because there's going to be significantly more traffic in this corridor once those those warehouses have traffic flowing in and out of them.

Sure, that's a great question. So that was a question that came up during the land development process for the two warehouses at the rebent toll property for folks who are familiar. Um and the township had originally approached PEDOT at that time through the HOP process for those uh warehouses and the land development process they should add. Um inquiring about the township's interest in wanting to do the adaptive system and Pendot's feedback at that time was the technology there is so outdated that we can't even really modernize or monitor the flow of traffic currently. Um, and in order to do that, they wanted us to make some um, incremental improvements, which is the improvements we're talking about here. And if those improvements are not showing the changes to the extent that Pendot would like to see, they would then entertain allowing the town to move forward with an adaptive system at that time.

All right, that's great. Um, one of the other questions that I had with respect to the bidding process. So, um, how does our how does the township um make sure that the the contractors that we use are are are like qualified under the RCO? I've heard that there's been some scenarios lately where like there's been contractors that have come back to us and as and you know asked about it. How do we rectify those situations that occur?

Sure. So, I should add for this specific project, uh, with some verification from the township solicitor, um, I don't believe would qualify for the RCO given the specific nature, um, because the RCO is defined for public works, kind of more of a typical construction project. Uh, but I can certainly let him speak to that if you would like to. Um, and then would you like to also speak to the vetting? Sure. Okay.

Do you want to speak to the vetting question for other bidded projects? So for other bidding projects that we do have to require under the RCO. So we ask uh we have a questionnaire in our um in our bids that go out uh that list all the criteria that is listed on in the uh responsible contractor ordinance. In addition to that, we ask for uh letters. Uh the specific thing that's always usually an issue is the apprenticeship programs. Um we ask for letters from the specific apprenticeship programs that they have um participated in. they need to be updated letters and then we usually uh vet those specifically either the township engineer or myself um to make sure that they specifically meet the requirements. Um there are times that we have to we go back and forth ask for additional information just to make sure we have everything that we need.

Thank you Mr. Espazito. Um any other questions for Mr. Val? If not, I can accept a motion. I move to authorize advertisement of a bid specifications for the Maple Avenue North Flowers Mill Road signal improvement project. Thank you, Miss Hannah. Is there a second? Second. Been a motion and a second. Any board questions? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Carries 4. What's that?

Yeah. Uh, spring 2026. Uh, all right. Next on the agenda is uh consideration of accepting uh the resignation of Kevin Strauss from the zoning hearing board. What? Oh, sorry. I skipped sorry. Sorry, Chad. Sorry. I didn't recognize you with a suit on. I was all confused. Don't take it personally. Yeah. Uh, all right. Consideration of authorizing the purchase of a microphone system for the public hall. Mr. McGee.

Good evening. Um, so the microphones that are in front of you are approximately 10 years old. Um, they are actually no longer being supported. So, and also we don't have enough microphones as you can see. Um, assistant township manager Nick Valad doesn't have one. Our plan commission were completely short. So, in doing research, which I hear myself echoing in this room, um, I worked with three different vendors, as I mentioned before, and we're trying to find the best solution without changing the appearance of this room. So, these microphones have built-in speakers. So when you're speaking um you won't hear yourself but everybody else that has a microphone will at the deis um our three speakers up here um currently the sound is just going straight like this and it's just bouncing off the walls. It makes everything very echoey and very hard to hear. So, um, we're also going to reprogram those that the sound just goes right here in the front before the deis for any performances that go on. So, we will significantly approve improve the improve the sound quality. Um, I'm not going to say I could guarantee you that this will solve all of our problems, but this will definitely we don't do performances here or anything like that for us to put up sound barriers. Um, so by controlling where the sound is going, I believe we can solve our issue with

the equiness, the echo, and have clearer quality so you can understand everybody well. Um, so as I said, I worked with all three vendors. I do recommend that we we um work with uh he they're a co-star vendor. Um, ever since I've been here since 2019, we've been dealing with them. Um, what I found out during my research that all the audio programming was done by a different vendor before my time. And when you mix different vendors doing different things, you're going to have issues. Um because the vendor who actually did the system really knows the system and knows what they programmed and we just experienced the situation um with the old township manager the last meeting where everything went haywire and it's all because there was no programming done for the speakers in the hallway or the speakers up in 220. Um, and these are these are things that I don't want us to ever come across again. Um, so I recommend moving forward with Lero. We did budget $30,000 for audiovisisual upgrades. The total cost is 32,86644. Does anybody have any questions?

Any questions? I saw that you used three vendors. They all said the same the same item and the way we we kind of chose them is um going with the same vendor that kind of we've worked with previously. So that way they know the system, they understand it, they've used it before. Yes. Um and was the price really that different between any all three of them?

So at all three vendors, one recommended doing drapes and then microphones next year. Now, keep in mind the microphones we have here are still fairly decent. I'll try to find another use for them for us. Um, even though it's no longer supported by the manufacturer, but um, and that alone was going to eat up our $30,000 budget pretty much. Um, the other two vendors did one recommended new speakers up here, one new speaker and new microphone system. and Laro was actually the one that recommended um those same microphones. They all recommend the same microphone, but um they said, "Well, we can program these speakers so the sound's not going all over the place where we so uh after talking with all three vendors, I feel more comfortable with what they recommend. What kind of technical support do they offer if they're going to program the microphones? How will we know how to continue with that type of programming or if something happens and we need to adjust it?

So, Laro is a great contractor for us. Um, we've had to have issues while your meeting is going on and we just call them up on the phone. They just tie right into our system and help us solve the problems. um with other vendors, they're like, "Oh, yeah, we have a 24-hour help desk. You just call and then if it's after hours, somebody will call you back." That's not the support I'm looking for. I like the support that we currently have with Lero. Um that they're always right there on a dime. And David, who does the switchboard in there, he works very closely with them as well. So, it's a it's a good team.

Thank you. No. Any other questions? All right. I'm going to move to authorize the purchase of the Telvic microphone system from Laro in the amount of $32,86644. Is there a second? Second. We have a motion in a second. Any board questions? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Carries 4. Thank you, Mr. McGee. Thank you. Um, so the next item on the agenda is uh consideration of accepting the resignation of Kevin Strauss from the zoning hearing board. As I mentioned earlier this evening, uh Mr. Strauss has uh moved out of the township and he did submit his letter of resignation. So I will make a motion to accept the resignation of Kevin Strauss from the zoning hearing board. Is there a second?

There's been a motion and a second. Any board questions? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I.

Opposed? Carries 4. We are uh seeking applications to fill Mr. Strauss's seat on the zoning hearing board. So if any folks out there are interested in serving their community on the zoning hearing board, uh please uh submit your application on the township website. Um all right, so those are really uh the the 12 formal agenda items that we had on the agenda tonight. The e the plan was to take a brief recess at this point and then um have an overview of the 2026 budget workshop. I think though the expectation was that this would be a relatively short meeting. Um it's 9:15, Phillies are in the bottom of the ninth. Um I think what we're going to do here is just um adjourn the meeting tonight. Um the budget workshop begins uh next Monday night. We'll have more than enough opportunity to go through the whole budget process. Um there's a lot of information available on uh the township website and certainly any of us township staff manager assistant manager are all available to answer answer any resident questions about uh the budget workshop process uh as we move into um the budget process. So um at this point I'm going to just uh skip that item and move right into other business. So I'll start with Mr. Valot.

I actually would really like to get into the if we could do the budget and get through with it. Um, my only problem is the next two the next two budget workshops are not um are not live and they're not recorded and this is the only chance that the residents will be able to actually go back and look and hear about what we're doing for this year's budget. Two two comments. So, uh, to the township staff, we're ready. Happy to do it. Also recognize Mr. Keyzak's comments the hour of the night. Um, but to that last point, Miss Kane, the budget workshops are live and they are recorded and we're doing them here for that reason. That's great. Yeah,

that's great. Okay, thank you. We did change that. But listen, I I'm If you want to have the presentation, we can do it. I just it's, you know, township staff have been here late. It's 9:15. We only have uh when people are prep prepared, especially I know myself when I'm prepared to do a presentation and it gets pushed off, it's it's kind of hard. um especially when you prepare, but I'll defer to the township staff. I I I think we're good either way. We're not going to be offended. I I recognize the hour of the night. It's 9:00 at night. I'm not sure that there's robust public here. Again, I'm not I don't mean to buck the question. We're happy to proceed. We're happy to recess. Uh and we're happy to go home and see you next week.

It's your it's your call, Miss Keen. I mean, I'm happy to accommodate your request. I mean, if the the next weeks and the final week and the the two budgets that were I was worried that no one was going to have insight. It's a huge budget year. There's huge implications to it. Um so I wanted to make sure the residents had transparency in what was happening. Let's recess 10 minutes and come back then. Yep, that's fine. Okay, we'll take a short recess. Thanks.

All right, thanks everyone for staying. I am going to uh call back to order this meeting of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors. And so our next agenda item tonight is a uh 2026 budget workshop uh presentation. I'm going to turn it over to our finance director, Laura Hucklebridge.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you everyone for staying for our revenue budget presentation. We're going to do an overview of our revenue streams, kind of a a little education for all of our residents so they understand where our money is coming from. And then we'll go into some actuals and projections for 2025 and a little look at 2026. Here we go again. Okay. correct way. Here we go. We're going to start with our big red number, our negative 2.8 million deficit. This is the budgeted deficit for 2025. Good news is that right now we're at a negative we're at 2 million deficit. So, we're doing a little better than what we budgeted. So, that's great news and we'll get into that a little bit more. But ultimately, we're trying to close this so that we don't have a deficit, so that our revenues cover our expenses every year.

And thank you, Laura, for putting this on a slide. I mean, I think it's why I'm kind of passionate about this. We've been in a deficit for what, since 2023, I think. Um, and it's just one of those things where like it's just year after year we're in this deficit. And I just want to thank the staff for like again putting that number out there because it's something that we've needed to talk about. Yes, we'd like to present a balanced budget so that we don't have this going forward.

All right. Who collects your taxes? So taxes can be collected by the township, the school district, and the county. They all have the authority from the state to collect taxes to provide services. Of those three different taxing authorities up there, the school district is the largest portion of your taxes by far. Comparatively, Middletown has two main sources of revenue. They get taxes and they have fees. The taxes are collected by the elected tax collector, the county, or our other tax firms like Keystone and Burkheimr. The main taxes are the real estate taxes, earned income tax, and real estate transfer tax. There are several other taxes that are act 511 taxes that are mainly business related except for the per capita, which is a resident pay tax. Most of those taxes are grandfathered in and we cannot adjust them. the real estate tax and the earned income tax. The township does have the ability to change those different rates year-to-year to adjust revenue. The other source of income is fees, fees for services. These are collected directly from the town by the township. There's mandatory fees and what we're calling utilization fees. So, under mandatory fees, it's the trash fee, the storm water fee, fire inspection fees, things like that that are required services. Utilization fees are more optional. They're the park and wreck fees that you pay, building and zoning permits. Um, Sesame Place, Oxford Valley Mall, and the school district all use police services. So, we have reimbursement contracts with them. So, that's a fee right there.

This is a breakdown of the township revenue by source. So, property taxes, earned income taxes, and the act 511 taxes make up more than half of our revenue. This is the $43 million that was budgeted total revenue for 2025. So, those are our largest sources. And altogether the taxes and fees go to fund all of the services that you guys want in our community like police, fire protection, road maintenance, community programs. So fees and taxes are all needed to cover those services. So now we're going to get into real estate taxes. Give a little overview of what those are. So the property taxes are based off of a mill and a mill is just a word for a dollar for every thousand dollar of value. So based on the assessed value of a property, you can charge a portion which is this percentage, this mill of the total value. So in Bucks County, we have an assessed value of all the property. It is not the market value. It is much less than the market value. And the last time the assessment was done was 1972. And as Eden had mentioned to me earlier, that is the oldest assessment that has been done in the state that has not been updated. So we are we hold a lovely category for that. So I think we have a quiz, a pop quiz um for our participants. If you want to um participate, you can go to menty.com menti.com and enter that code 58918947. And I should also add the board certainly, but also anybody who might be watching this live at home or online can

also use that code who's watching this meeting live can participate. And it's completely anonymous. So, as you sign in, you're going to be able to participate in the quiz, but we will not know who in the room gives what answer, and nor will be able to see it after the fact. So, go into it with confidence. It is a quiz, but it's self-graded. Yes. So, the first question is, what is the average assessed value of a home in Middletown Township? So, this is your guess from those ranges. the assessed value and this is coming in live. So we have one person who we know is able to log in to Minty. All right, a few more. Here we go.

We got three. Another few seconds for a few more people through the through the township, not Yes. the the county assessment county assessed value which is what your tax rate your real estate tax rate is based off of.

Yes. All right. Well, we've got a tie between 29,000 and 123,000. And the answer is unfortunately 29,000. So, a millage. Um, so here we have an example, the estimated market value of $500,000, but the assessed value was only $29,000. So for a value of that home, the township is only getting $560 in real estate taxes. Not very much at all. What percent of your annual real estate tax bill do you think goes to Middletown Township?

Our next mentee question.

Yes. Next menty question of all the real estate taxes you pay to the county, the school district and the township. What do you think goes directly to the township? We've got some good answers there. The actual answer is 8.3% of your real estate taxes go to the township. As I said before, majority of it goes to the school district. Last question here. How much money does the average household pay to the township each year in real estate tax? All right. So, we kind of alluded to it in the previous slide that it's about $560 is the average amount that each household pays to the township. Okay. So a resident summary here as we talk about the assessed value there's a total assessment for the entire township and that's called the tax base. So the total value is 530 million but 8.3% is the total real estate taxes that we get of that total assessed value. Here we have different um real estate tax totals depending on where you live in the township. The very light blue bottom bar is what the township gets. The dark blue bar at the top is what the district gets

and the little middle portion is the county. So again, as you see, the township gets a very small piece of the total real estate taxes that the residents are paying. This is a history of the assessed property values in Middletown. So, we had a high in 2007 and if you see it's kind of been around the same level, little higher, a little lower, but the average is was around 530 million. Um, this doesn't really increase that much when we have new development as some people might think it does. Um, new houses come in, but then businesses and some other larger prop properties submit appeals to have their tax assessment lowered. And the Oxford Valley Mall has actually they now pay 78% less in taxes now than they did it 15 years ago. So that's millions of dollars in tax revenue that we don't get because they had an appeal and they reduced their tax base.

Specifically since then, it's a $7 million loss to the township and a $28 million loss uh across all three taxing jurisdictions. And if I might add to that as well, I think just one of the things we want to part of why we put this chart together is, you know, we've heard a lot through just the public comment, especially in the land development space, is there's all this building. Surely there's all, you know, we're adding adding adding to the tax base. And while a portion of that is true, we're not talking about the other part that's actually falling off of the tax base. And so this chart here shows, and there's a a physical copy in the room here, that in a 17 18year look back, it's actually gone down by about 3/4 of a percent. This is just a breakdown of how the taxes are allocated amongst the different funds. So the general fund is our operating fund. That's where most of the expenses for the township come out of. Um there are portions that are earmarked for our other funds such as the ambulance and rescue fund, fire protection, debt service. So those other funds each get a piece of the total real estate tax that the township collects. Our next tax is the earned income tax, also called the EIT. Middletown has a 0.5% earned income tax. It is charged to residents and some non-residents. This is withheld by your employer, usually where you work, um, and then they remit it to where you live. So, if you live and work in Middletown, your 0.5% comes to Middletown. If you live in Middletown and work somewhere else, and they have a higher EIT than Middletown, a portion of that tax is going to the township where you work and not where you live. So here we kind of show that for every $100 you earn,50 cents goes to

EIT and that's only about $260 a year for every $1,000. But it may not all come to Middletown. So here's a little graphic that kind of explains it. Um if you work in Middletown on the left, your employer withholds your percentage for EIT. Middletown gets the whole thing on the right. If you work in another town, middle town only gets 50 cents and the other town gets the other 50 cents of it. So that you're paying that tax, but your township where you live is not bene benefiting from the full amount. So I just want to emphasize that. Go ahead, Lauren. Did you No, go ahead. Y please go ahead.

This is just one more uh slide kind of showing where you work in different townships. So if you work in Falls, they have a 1% EIT. Again, half goes to Middletown, half goes to Falls. If you live and work in Middletown, everything comes here. And if you work in the city of Philadelphia, we get nothing. That's just the way it falls. One of the questions there. So, I know we did a resolution a while back on the Sterling Act because I think they were bringing it back up in the state legislature. Do we know where that is? There's a lot of work to be done there.

Frank, it passed through the House in June and it still hasn't been listed in the Senate. They bring it up every year. So, passed in June of this year and now they're waiting to bring in the Senate, but it can still get vetoed by the governor, which he probably will. The So, we talked about the taxes. The other source of revenue is fees. So, we want to make sure that our fees cover the cost to deliver that service. So, we're going to go back and look at those police service reimbursement contracts, as I mentioned, with Sesame Place and the mall and the school district. We want to make sure that the fee that they're paying us actually covers the wages for the officer's time to be there. We're also going to re-evaluate the zoning hearing board fees to make sure those fees and permit fees cover the cost of having legal and engineering involved in those proceedings. Right now, the credit card processing fees, if anyone swipes a credit card here to pay for zoning fees or anything else, the township absorbs that cost and it's I think about $20,000 a year and it's going up um as more and more people choose to use the credit card because they don't have to pay the fee right now. We do. Lastly, the program fees, as I mentioned, are park and wreck fees. We want to make sure that the fee that people are paying isn't fully subsidized. That it covers the cost to offer those programs. All right. Current budget. Again, here's our 2.8 million deficit. All right. I know this may be a little tiny for you, but we have the budget general the budget for the general fund on the left, the projection through the end of 2025, and then we have the variances dollar and percentage-wise.

But if you look the total operational revenue line, we're projecting 24.5 million, which is less than 200,000 off of budget. So, we're 99.3% of budget projected through the end of the year. Uh, which is pretty accurate on a $25 million budget for revenues. This slide again is the projection, but on the left, it's the 2024 actual numbers for the general fund. So, revenue was a little bit higher in 2024. We did see a decrease in real estate taxes, real estate transfer taxes in 2025 along with EIT. As other townships have enacted EIT, we've seen our EIT portion go down. So, that's mainly what's driving the difference here year-over-year. This one has the 2024 actual 25 budget 25 projection and a 2026 budget. The these budget numbers for 2026 include no tax increases, no fee increases. This is if all all of our percentages stayed the same, just what would that be on the next year's projected revenue numbers? So this year projection is for 2025 is 24.5 million. It would go up to 24.7 million if we changed nothing. This is the summary looking at revenue to expenses. So in 2024 we had a deficit of a million dollars. 2025 we budgeted a deficit of 2.8 million. We're projecting a deficit of 2 million. Um and to note in 2024 our budget was a deficit of 1.8

8 million. So, we seem to be doing uh $800,000 better every year. Um less of a deficit. And we've just been spending down our fund balance. Correct. For the deficit. Yes.

So, when we talk about the deficit, one of the things that I would want to hear from township staff and thankfully we do hear it here is, you know, it when you think about a deficit, people often quickly will go, "Okay, well, we need more revenue." Well, part of the equation has to be, well, are we cutting expenses? And as you can see here, we're doing that actively, right? So, even though the budget was adopted with a $2.8 million deficit throughout the year, you know, the department heads, the leadership of the township are sharpening their pencils trying to figure out ways to try to narrow narrow that down, which is why we're looking at a $2 million uh end of the year um deficit. So, while 2 million is not great, certainly a lot better than 2.8. And the staff, I think, deserves a lot of credit for that.

Yeah. And I'll just say as elected officials, we see that. I mean, that is tangible. That is something we see township staff doing all the time. I mean, the the the change from when I started on this board to the current situation given the revenue situation that we are in, it's um it's it's really remarkable the amount of effort that staff puts in to try to reduce costs. So, it's it's absolutely appreciated and noted.

So, the flip side of that, and while I think they deserve all the credit, and I'm glad we're giving it to them, the budget is a planning tool, right? is a policy document for the board of supervisors who is saying to the community this is our plan for the next year that is you know theoretically in line with a comprehensive plan with the different master plans we have and ultimately with your policy priorities. So when you adopt a budget unless revenues are performing better or maybe projects are coming in under budget but they're still you know performed to the thought and to the manner that you plan for them. Short of that the question becomes well what aren't we doing? What did we plan to do? what did we commit to do uh you to the community that we're all of a sudden not doing? And a lot of times, not saying that that's happening here, sometimes it's deferred maintenance. Sometimes we only do a portion of the project. Sometimes we push something out to a future year. Maybe we cut back on some of our infrastructure maintenance or development. And that really concerns me because to me that's pushing, you know, things that need to be done now into the future and that can really build up which can create problems in the future. So we sort of have to look at it from both sides.

Yeah. And I think one thing is undeniable is to some degree we've already started that. We've scaled back a lot of things. Yeah. And we've been doing that. So, so looking forward to 2026. So, we saw we have that deficit. There are a couple options that we can use to adjust things to help uh bring down the deficit and build back up the fund balance. We can reduce services, which again just reduces the amount of money we're spending in the township to keep things up. We can raise fees only. Fees are not going to cover the deficit. That only covers a small portion, maybe a couple hundred,000. You could raise fees and an EIT. As I mentioned earlier, with EIT, mo a lot of people are already paying the full 1% to other places if they don't work in Middletown. So, that's an option to look at that. uh real estate taxes, raise real estate taxes and fees, or you could do all three of them. And we'll be looking at all of these options and analyzing them as we continue to build the operating expense budget and we look at capital. Um these are just different tools that we're going to be evaluating on how to proceed.

Where do we kind of feel that this is going to land? Like do we think the option is going to be, you know, reduce services and fees? like where do you guys as a staffing look to see this landing ultimately? Like how much are we going to have to increase in order to kind of get to a place where we are no longer deficit spending?

That's a great question. So, this is a process. Um we're going to be in this room every Monday night in October talking about different areas of the budget. Tonight's revenue. I think next week is operating. We do capital again and then there's sort of a wrap-up process. Um, so as we get closer and closer to the end of the month and to the beginning of November, it'll sort of hopefully come sort of into light to all of us. Um, because one of the things that we need is feedback from the community and from the board of supervisors of what do you want to see, right? Which option do you like? Do you want to reduce services? Are you interested in some of the revenue levers that are there? You know, how does that shake out with the budget? Um, you know, with capital requests that we've heard and then we'll hear again. Same thing on operating. Um, you know, as we go through that process, it sort of kind of flushes out. we can hopefully not have surprises in the beginning of November when we present a proposed balance budget to the board for consideration.

Okay. And the last slide is just showing our next two dates. The meetings on next Monday the 13th and again on the 20th in this room at 6:00 discussing more budget. Do you have any questions?

No, I just want to thank you again. Like I said, this is um something that's been important to me um because I've seen the deficit spending and I and I've, you know, voiced my opinion. I mean, again, we've continuing to increase services, but haven't had any type of ability to increase, you know, what we're bringing in. So, it's just been kind of this kick the can down the road um that's happened over the past couple years. You know, it's raising taxes is extremely polarizing, especially in Middletown, right? it's, you know, polic politics have gotten into it. So, it's one of those things where it's going to be a really hard decision for this board to make. It's a decision that it this board has not made in I I think probably since 2014 when the EIT was initially push pushed through. Um there's been small tweaks to the fire texts. Um but other than that, it has stayed remained the same. Um so, it's it's really important. Well, our goal with the presentation tonight was to make sure that residents were aware of what different revenue sources come in, how they're calculated because taxes are just a big word and it's confusing. So, we were hopefully able to communicate that and residents will understand what the options are. Yeah, I think you know the one slide really hit on what is the the the neverending question or problem that we have to tackle as elected officials, which is residents don't want services decreased. And in fact, what we generally hear from residents is they want more or better or improved services than what they currently get, but they also don't want their taxes to go up. And so, I'm proud of the fact that as long as I've been on this board, other than the fire fund, we have not raised taxes a single time. and we've been able to for the most part maintain services at this level and even in some instances I think increase services but I mean we're feeling it. Um I know the township staff are feeling it. Um and we've over

the last few years we've been dealing with it by scaling back on projects or maybe delaying projects. Um we've transferred money from the investment fund but I agree with Miss Kane. We've we've reached the point now where what we're doing is not sustainable um and not in the best interest um of the township. And so we have some very difficult decisions ahead of us. So I do think um it's valuable that we're laying all this out now and and sort of getting us the starting point for the next couple weeks. So thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Any comments from any other supervisors? Thank you for that presentation.

Thank you, Miss Alebridge. All right, so um we just have other business left. I'll start with Mr. Valor. Nothing. Thank you, Mr. Kesler. Nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Espazito. Just want to announce that the board held an executive session prior to tonight's meeting to discuss personnel matters. Minister Ratliff,

a couple things. Thank you to the budget team and all the department directors who uh have made sort of the budget development process and the presentation process possible. It's a lot of work internally. It is a lot a lot of work. um they're starting to say things like we're going to trap each other into a room until we get things like these poster boards and these presentations and the style of the presentation uh figured out. So, they're doing a great job and I think it's making this process a lot better. Uh and two, uh check out your local fire company's fire prevention activities. Uh we have the expo this Saturday, which we heard about at the beginning of the meeting. Uh next week there are a few uh events of the various volunteer fire companies. They're on their social media pages as well as ours. Um go out and have a nice time. Great. Thank you, Mr. Riff. Um, Miss Corpal, nothing. Thank you.

Miss Kane,

I'm sorry to keep you guys here just a little bit longer. Um, I know it's a late night. Um, but I wanted to invite residents to a county event that's happening tomorrow in Middletown at 11:00 a.m. Um, Bucks County Bridge 304, um, on Silverlake Road will be dedicated in honor of First Lieutenant Lee Fulton Clickner, a Lavattown U Langghorn resident who was killed in action on October 25th, 2069. Um, unfortunately, partisan politics and my affiliation as a Republican led the county to remove and replace me um, in the speaking schedule. So, in honor of first lieutenant, I would like to read a short words from the speech that I had prepared to deliver at the dedication just steps from where I grew up. Um, first lieutenant Clickner served in the US Army during Vietnam. His name appears on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. Um, I'd like to share two remembrances that I found online. Um, first from uh Lieutenant Steve McNall. Lee and I served in the fourth brigade 82nd Airborne Division 8 68 to 869 before we both went to NM. He was executive officer and I was third platoon leader. I think of Lee often and with the great times we had parachuting and working together. I've always remembered Lee and his wife as wonderful friends to me and Marilyn. I I was terribly saddened to learn of his death. We all lost a terrific American. God bless Lee and his family. Airborne all the way. Richard White recalled, "I knew Lee when he was an echo platoon leader. He was smart, aggressive, and a fine man. I recall the sadness all of us felt when we learned of his death 38 years ago. I drive over that Silver Lake bridge on a weekly basis and growing up down the street in Silver Lake development. I have fond memories throwing rocks over the side and waiting in its creek. I'm grateful for the weekly reminder that I will now have going over that bridge for all of our fallen heroes. and I'm proud that his

legacy will live on in Middletown Township. Thank you, Miss Kane. Uh, Miss Hannah, nothing. And I have nothing further, so I can accept a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. We're adjourned. Thank you everybody. Have a great night.