Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Nartown Municipality Council work session of Tuesday, February 17, 2026. I have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Secretary, can we have a roll call, please? McCoy, Robinson, present. Natalie Coulson, here. Gerffin here. David McMahon here. Dustin Queen

here. Todd Bates here. Council, can I have a motion to approve the minutes? So move. Second. I guess all in favor. Thank you. Motion pass. All right. Executive session. Today we had an executive session on personnel litigation. Um, also on February 4th, February 5th, and February 9th, we also had um executive sessions over the phone and they were due to personnel matters. Okay, thank you. Vice President Queen, do you have any announcements?

How everybody doing? Um, glad to be back, but I did enjoy my vacation. Uh, for anybody who needs a translator, I see Lucy back there today. Uh you can ask Lucy uh if you need uh a translator. Um selfishly, the only announcement I particularly have is on Monday, February 23rd, I'm going to have my secual second annual cupcake cupcakes with Councilman Queen at uh our library which is located at 700 Markley uh suite 116. Council, any other announcements? Yes. Councilman McCory.

Good evening. Um, this Sunday I have our second annual, well, my second annual blackowned business expo at the George Washington Carver Center. It'll be from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. all local black businesses coming together and you can support them by buying the items that they sell. In addition to that, just getting their information. You can exchange business cards so that you can have them at your future events. And it's going to be a great event. Nice music, good food, and uh, Black History Celebration. Thank you. Councilman Robinson. Councilwoman Robinson, pardon me.

Hello everyone. Good evening. I just wanted to uh again highlight XOXO Monaco's variety show that is on stage now at Theater Horizon in Narstown. This particular show highlights community members. Um the stars are featured from the McGomery McGomery County area and particular from the Narstown area. I won't call them out, but some of the stars of that show are in the room tonight. So, if you want to see them in a whole new way and see the gifts and the talents that exist in this community, I invite you to please join us for XOXO Monkos Variety Show at Theater Horizon in Narstown. This weekend is the closing weekend, so we will have shows on Thursday through Sunday. If for any reason uh a ticket is not something that's within your budget, please reach out to me. We'd love to have you uh as our special guest. But I often think Narstown gets a bad rep. We get different kind of headlines. We get a lot of different stories. I hope that we also can be in the room and be present for some of the beautiful things that happen and all the ways that our community shows up and their greatness. So, I hope to see you there. Uh, and I hope that you are getting your chops ready and I'm prepared to be in the show next time. I'm looking at all y'all.

Thank you, council. Any other uh Councilman McMahon? Um, I just wanted to announce I'll be uh having my next town hall March 5th. Um, I am attempting to set up for the library again. Um, but we that uh the actual location is TBD, but it will be the uh continuing uh series first Thursday after the first council meeting of the month. Okay. And um I will councilwoman Griffin.

Um I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for attending um my first town hall. It was a great event with great communication and partnership. um in the room. There was a lot of information provided to the community, including committee vacancies. Um if you have any questions about that, please contact any of us or please contact uh municipal administrator Lightner. Um and they can give you the uh information regarding that in the application. Um I also wanted to say thank you to uh the council members that were able to make it. It was wonderful for all of us to be able to lean on each other. Um there was lots of information I didn't know. So it was great to be able to lean on them for the information that they were aware of. Um and I want to thank Chief Trail and um the municipality for their assistance in getting the information as well as the fire department for bringing um lots of information especially surrounding smoke detectors and how to get those. Um, and thank you also to planning for coming out and explaining the economic development plan, but also showing it through the website and showing people just how to access the website as well. Um, and thank you everyone that came out and they were engaged. And I also wanted to give a shout out to the Vance Center. I was able to go last week, my mother was able to go this week. Um, but they have a lot going on. Podcasts, drone certification. I'm sure there's a couple more missing. Um I remember there was music as well. Um so what was it?

Art and photography. Art and photography. Thank you. Um so yes, please if you can get down to the Vance Center, that'd be great. It is on Cherry Street. What's the address? What's 214 Cherry to Okay. Yes. Monday's 5 to 7. Okay. And um go ahead, Councilwoman Coulson. Um and I also just want to um extend my condolences to the Scott and West family um on the loss of their loved one, Larry West Jr. Um so and also the entire Mount Zion Church. I know this is very hard for the community. So I just wanted to extend my condolences to their families. So

yes, Northtown lost a champion there. So thank you. That's all the announcements. Administrator Leonard, responses to questions from the last meeting. Uh, there are no questions at this time. All right. Thank you. On to public comments. John's,

good evening. Good evening. First, I want to thank council um, Northtown for and also the chief, which I said for taking action quickly. with what happened. The room was filled with a lot of people coming want to answer, but now the room is empty when we're looking for solution and that's a problem within Nortown. Um, also I told these fellas to come here because we've been looking for a spot in Nortown to build and spot is already here. It's already here. Um, the van center which I took I participated in yesterday. um T who always is instrumental in bringing the kids together and brought them to this facility. I watched six kids that I've been mentoring um throughout the years get this certificate yesterday to become certified drones and um what is drones.

All right. Yeah. Rec recreational service. I mean, so the things are here. How do we make it better? How do we come together and make it better within the town? And um these fellas have the the building here already. How do we come together and make things happen? So I think councilwoman just spoke about it. She was there. Um I think somebody else went there. One another council member McMahon went there also. So I mean um let's get the work done. I mean there's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of possibility here. So let's get the work done. Thank you. Thank you.

Seria Mayo. Good evening, council. Good evening, council. Um, just picking it back off real fast. Um, yes. Um, I do like to thank Chief Trail um for all his um quick um understanding on the situation, but I also got some feedback also from the meeting the other night and um I watched it via Zoom. It was a lot a lot of people that wasn't happy when they left this room. Um they didn't get a lot of time to speak. They felt like they were shut down. They felt like they didn't get to talk. Mike's was cut off on people. Um they felt like um Councilman President Bates, I talked to you about this already, that he was very unprofessional with the situation. We just got to address that a little better. Let people in the room feel like they're in the room. The comments wasn't supposed to be the way they was. It was supposed to be an open mic situation and people felt like they didn't get to get and express what they wanted to say. So, we have to stop shutting people off because people have a lot to say about this community and what's going on, not just this incident, but other incidents that have happened. But when you cut people down and limit them to the one minute, it's hard for them to really express theirel. So then guess what? The room becomes empty again and people become quiet and nothing gets solved. Second of all, I do want to thank everybody and I'd like to thank Mr. Jay and Mr. Vance tonight for coming down. Um, and I'd like to thank Madera. Um, Madera, um, your the play was awesome and I was able to, um, get Mr. Vance and them to come along and we're going to try to come about 20 25 of us on Friday night at 7:30. So, I'm going to get with you after council meeting. Also, Jasmine, wonderful town hall. Very, very expressive. Um, it was really good atmosphere in the room. I wasn't feeling too good, but you definitely did your

thing and I and I really appreciate you that for that. And also just to say this that the Vance Center is growing each and every week. People are knowing via social media. We have stations. We did really well. Yesterday we had about four or five stations running. Hakee Jones and Mr. Jay is downstairs doing the drone certifications. We had a table with business with kids getting set up for LLC's. Mr. Vance's son, he has his own art studio. He had a table of kids, the youngest was four at the table, autistic to to 20 years old at the table learning art. They loved it. Upstairs is Mr. Ben. He has the photography and podcast. And then Mr. Brad is the one that does the music room where the kids can learn different or orchestra and things like that. But the Vance Center is just not for kids. Mr. Vance is also there to certify Mr. J. He's a professor to certify adults also. And also the good thing is he has private eye detective if you want to become he can certify you in that also. So just to get to the van center 214 Cherry Street, 216 Cherry Street, 212 Cherry Street. Thank you.

Thank you.

But Tariq, before you go, I just want to say because I wasn't here, I want to thank you Trail. Thank you to community and also want to say I want to thank the council. Um we appreciate your feedback and um community's feedback because you know we could talk all the time and when we don't when we make missteps in your eyes, let us know so we can proof upon it cuz this council has made a dedicated effort and a a promise to try to bridge that gap. You as a leadership and M Vance, I know you've been here for a while. We appreciate you what you're doing as well. We definitely invite feedback and we definitely will act on it. So I want to let you know I appreciate you. Appreciate you, Mr. Vance. The council appreciate you in the community. So thank you. Moving on to municipal administrator. Motion to approve the settlement for pending tax assessment appeal for 409 West Marshall Street.

Turn over to solicitor.

All right, Patrick. Uh uh good evening, Mr. President. Good evening, council. So, on your agenda tonight, you actually have three uh motions to approve three different uh settlement uh tax assessment appeals. Um they're for 409 West Marshall, 413 West Marshall, and 417 West Marshall. Um the reason I'm mentioning them all collectively is because they were all purchased collectively and they're all next to each other. So, it's a essentially a property that is a commercial multi-use space. Then the next one is the parking lot and the next one is another building with multi-use commercial space. So really you look at them holistically as opposed to individually although I need you to motion individually because they're separate settlement agreements. Um but the background is is as a tax assessment appeal the school district typically takes the lead. This is actually an appeal where the school district was looking to increase the value of the assessment as opposed to decrease the value of assessment which is good for council. Um here this is a property appears to have been purchased in 2023 for $1.6 million collectively. Um when I did the math based off of the information that was provided to us, the fair market value in 2025 was about $1.108 million. So the school district was able to negotiate an increased assessment that would result in a fair market value of approximately $1.35 million. So getting us closer to what their actual purchase price was. um the school district has already signed off on it. The next step in the process is to have you guys approve it and sign off on it. Um and then once you do, we send it up to the court. The court blesses it and then they have to pay back taxes and then going forward they will pay on the increased assessment amount. Council, any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the settlement for the pending taxment appeal of 409 West Marshall Street? So move.

Madam Secretary, roll call, please. McCoy, I Robinson, I. Ally Coulson, hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates. I. The eyes have it. Moving on. Uh, council. Do I have a motion to approve the settlement for pending tax assessment appeal for 413 West Marshall Street? So move. Second. Madam Secretary William McCoy. Hi. Ver Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi.

I. The eyes have it. And council. Again, motion to approve the settlement for the pending tax assessment appeal for 417 West Marshall Street. So move. Second. Madam Secretary. Le McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. I David McMahon. Hi, Dustin Queen. I The eyes have it. Thank you, council. Thank you. Moving on to police resolution 26:15, request for municipal council to approve, excuse me, municipal council approval to promote a corporal to sergeant. Chief Trail.

Good evening, Mr. President. Uh members of council, um due to some personnel changes uh and a recent um retirement resignation, um we have a vacancy within our patrol unit for a sergeant. Sergeants are the supervisors of our patrol squads and uh as a result, we need to fill that. On the 14th of January this year, the Narstown uh Civil Service Commission certified a list of eligible candidates who are currently corporal who could be promoted to the position of sergeant. Um they are Corporal Wy, Corporal Gurgle, and Corporal Stwell. Uh based on my review of the performance, um it is my recommendation that we promote Corporal Matthew Wy to the position of sergeant for the Norstown Police Department. Council, any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve resolution 26:15 of promotion from corporal to sergeant for WY? What's that?

Can you please elaborate more on the um uh the promotion from corporal to sergeant for us, please? Sure. So, um the way to structure your police department is you have patrol officers and in the first level of supervision are corporals. There are two corporals assigned to each platoon. There are four platoon. Each platoon is led by a sergeant. Um so you have four patrol sergeants and there is language in the collective bargaining agreement that requires us to have a certain level of supervision on each platoon uh when they work. Therefore, with the the um the removal of a sergeant last or two weeks ago now, uh we have that open sergeant position. So, we're filling that position. Uh it's a budgeted position. It's not it doesn't impact the budget in any way, and it just makes sure that we're having the proper level of supervision on the street uh for the police officers.

Thank you, council. Any questions? All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion to uh excuse me, do I have a motion to pass resolution 2615 to request municipal council approval for promotion from corporal to sergeant? So move. Second, Madam Secretary. McCoy, I Robinson. Hi, Emily Coulson. Hi, Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi, Dustin Queen. I dates. I The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to planning and municipal development ordinance 2601 requesting authorization to advertise ordinance 2601 for amusement device amendment. Hello Jane.

Good evening council members. Thank you. Before you this evening we are requesting authorization uh to advertise the amusement device amendment. U just go through a little history of this item so you'll know why we're back before you. Uh so um Pennsylvania skill games and slot machine games are allowed to be owned and operated in commercial buildings and I believe there was a recent um law that actually I think uh our solicitor will be able to speak on that a little further. Anyway, it allowed us the skill gains to to be allowed in the zoning districts. So we came before council and asked council to um adopt an ordinance which was in ordinance 23-06 which allowed uses uh of these skill games in various zoning districts. We asked council to approve and actually there was a planner who actually came and did a study on it and made recommendations and council actually approved it. But then we had allowed this uses to being in the main street mixeduse district, neighborhood commercial district, downtown riverfront district, town center district, town center 2 district and LMI which Limu which is the limited industrial mixed use district. We also had asked that um the use be allowed as an accessory use as long as the property was used as a commercial. So you wouldn't have it in residential per se. After we had that adopted in 2023, there was a proliferation of these uses all over the municipality and uh the community as well as council reacted negatively towards that and said we we need to contain this use. So uh we

brought back the use and reviewed it as um professionals and we are back to try and basically um give a recommendation to council members where we think it'll be more restrictive. So that we are now recommending this use only be allowed in the commercial retail district. Um and even then the accessory uses uh will still be the same and that is only to be permitted in commercial districts but this way you won't have these uh uses all over the municipality. Um I do believe council had some council members and most of you are new to council had an opportunity to meet with some of the u staff members and the solicitor and then we came up with this solution and that's where why we're here tonight asking him to uh approve this. I must add that chief trail also had an interest in this use because he feels and he believes that it's become a little bit of a nuisance if you will people hanging out in stores and all that. So we need to address it and by us addressing it is by limiting it to the commercial retail district and only permitted by conditional use. Meaning if someone wants to put in now this this type of use they would have to come before you as council and council would approve and would have to advertise uh in all the appropriate manner before we said yes to that. But meanwhile, keep in mind that the ones that were already were approved under the 2023 are, for lack of a better word, grandfathered. Until that juice goes away, it's a it becomes a non a legal non-conforming use. Is there anything you'd like to add, Si?

I would I would just add um Jane that uh to be clear, this is with regard to it being a primary use. Uh when council had previously adopted it, there were essentially a primary use and accessory use. Um there are some conditions associated with each but I think the brightest line is a primary use is when you've got four or more devices and accessory use is less than four. So the idea would be is if you've got a corner store and you've got one device there, this isn't going to impact you. But if you've got a corner store and you want to have an entire bank of them, this is a problem and you would not be allowed to do it anymore if you were in one of the districts that per the ordinance it's going to remove it as a permitted primary use. Um, so it's really trying to impact the primary uses. We're still trying to provide a reasonable accommodation or reasonable ability for those who want to use it to be able to do it. I don't want there to be a misperception out there that we are trying to prohibit it in the in the municipality. That would be against the law. If it's a legal use, you have to provide for it somewhere within the within the jurisdiction. And if I may um just to let council know there are provisions or standards for having this which I shall read so that you are aware of it. So for instance one cannot just bring the um machines and plug them in into a store and you're you're good with it. You need to have a permit of course and some of the standards that have been uh set is this. It can uh let me see um it requires a 1,000 foot separation from schools, child care facilities, parks, religious institutions, hospitals, and similar child oriented uses. Uh it also requires the minimum for primary use a 1,000 foot separation from one another from another arcade or amusement device. If you notice this sometimes you go to some of

these stores and you'll notice that they have pushed maybe four five machines in some corner as accessory. These standards are actually set so that you you have to manage that. So instead of trying to jam six, um you'd have our uh zoning enforcement and code basically go and measure where this machines can be. So it limits how many you can have if it is permitted. Any questions? Council, any questions?

Councilwoman Griffin. Uh, Councilman uh, McCoy and I were wondering for because we see there's a limit on the hours of operation. So, what about um, because I know you said like certain stores or certain places can have them, how if the stores like open later than the time that it's saying, how will that like be monitored or impact or So, that would be a violation. hours for operation would be between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. So they have to stop. Yes. Otherwise, you'll be violating this ordinance. But like who who would monitor that? Like how would that be?

So that's excellent question. So we have various ways to monitor this and that is the police are out there and they have they're very keen on making sure that this is enforced. We have our code enforcement officers who are going about their own business during the day, maybe looking for other issues, and then they see these violations, they report that to us. Um, and we also have a zoning enforcement officer who when we get a complaint, he will go there and he'll look at it and he'll measure, do whatever he needs to do. And usually we all work in tandem, the police, code enforcement, and uh the planning department. So basically, if we see um a store operating at ours, we call a non-emergency number. Yes. Sure.

So Jane's right. Um I spoke with Jane couple weeks ago about this. Um and in to to narrowly comment the officers who go out to disturbances in our stores and our carry outs or bodeas where we're seeing a lot of these machines which are actually driving the people to that location. Uh they're going to go out there, they're going to monitor it. And if it's after hours, let's say it's midnight and there's 10 machines in here and we know the people are gambling or using the machines, they're going to write a report. We're going to forward it over to code enforcement. Next day, code's going to send the folks out to uh do an investigation and they can issue the citations. Councilwoman Robinson,

thank you. I thought that was a really good question. I I had a followup on it because I just want to make sure that I'm understanding correctly about the business hours of a lot of time. Does that mean that those become the business hours of the business or do they become the business hours of the machines? Yes. So, if I can help out here. Yes. Keep in mind we're talking about it as a primary use.

So, theoretically, it would be the business hours of the operation if it is its primary use. So, if I open up a Sorry, there's a lot of verberation. If I open up a store or in a location that all I have are just banks of these machines, which I could do in the CR commercial district by conditional use, that would mean that coming in I would have to present to you my hours of operation will not exceed the time frame that's in there as a primary use. As an accessory use, that's a different story. But again, if you're thinking about it, and this is what we were trying to capture the last time with the planner, is a accessory use is of a different nature than as a primary use. I don't know, and the chief could probably speak to how many times he's getting called out to a place that only has one. I think the concern here is the place that has just banks of these machines. We're talking seven, eight, 10 machines. In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, Jane, we had an application come in where all they wanted was just essentially correct. We won't call it a gaming parlor because the law says that these are not these are games of skill, not games of chance, but essentially that's how a lot of people see this. It's like you're creating like a mini casino with them. And that's what we're trying to address is the concern of it being a mini casino. Does that help answer your question? That does help, but in some ways it just creates a little bit of a gray area that I'm trying to work through personally in the sense of if primary use is defined by four or less or accessory is four or less. Primary is four or more. Let's say I own a pizza shop,

I get five machines, what are my hours of oper operation? Well, first of all, you might have a problem because you might not be allowed to have two primary uses at your location. Okay? So, you might have issue number one, which is you can't have both a pizza shop and a primary use of of the games of skill games. Um, assuming that you do are allowed that, let's assume hypothetically, then the response from the zoning office would be your games of skill need to be shut down at this time. Correct. You can keep operating your pizza store, but you got to shut down the games the games of skill. Thank you. I just want to clarify because those do, right? There are not calling out anybody, but there are facilities that have a use. You can go in and get this, but there are also four or five machines in there.

They try to morph as they go along. What we noticed is yes, they'll start off as an accessory and if you don't keep an eye, they'll slide in one or two more. But as zoning officer, I can send the zoning enforcement officer to say you're in violation of the zoning ordinance and the police or code can also inform us and we can follow up on that. Thank you. Are we monitoring those pizza shops or um places to make sure that they um are not sliding another machine in or two? Are we doing that or is that only if there's a complaint filed? It's not only a complaint, it's actually I must say the police have been pretty active. Okay.

They've been very active in uh letting us know. Um, but that's something in the course of a code enforcement officer's duty or the uh police officers when they're out there because we're only one zoning enforcement person. The combination of us, we always get either a complaint or we're told, hey, there's something going on over here. Then we follow up with a letter of violation. Thank you. Thank you. One more question, Councilman. Do we have a number of how many um businesses utilize these devices as a primary use? At the moment I don't, but it's something I can get for you.

Okay, thank you. Other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve ordinance 2601 and the amusement device amendment? So move. When just to be clear, when you say motion to approve, you mean motion to approve advertising. Oh, thank you. I will repeat that again. Motion is to approve the advertisement of ordinance 2601 for the amusement device amendment. So moved. Second. Madam Secretary. Wayne McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. Dave McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. The eyes have it. Thank you. Council President, if I may.

Yes. Um I had someone who's to present the window sign. He's not here yet. Can we He just got here. He just got here. Oh, yeah. He did. Right on time.

It's okay. So, um just to make this a little more entertaining than me lecturing you on zoning matters. Uh we do have this request to also authorize ordinance 26-2 window signage amendment. Again, for the council members um who are not aware of the history of this um item, we noticed over the years that signage, even though we regulated, it's out of hand. It does two things. Um first of all, and it's aesthetically not the the best look for town, but secondly, and most importantly, it's a safety issue. Uh again, we were working closely with the police department. The police department is concerned that uh they're not able to look into businesses and see what's going on if the sign if the windows are completely blackout, if you will, for lack of better words, the signage everywhere as there's no sight. You can't see what's going on. So, uh the police brought this to our attention. We understood that and it's actually in violation of our current zoning ordinance. So, um, we've sent out letters and we we've followed through. People will remove them for a month or two and before you know it, they will put it right back. Uh, so we realize this is really an educational issue as well. It's a little bit of a cultural issue in the sense that there are folk who don't know that uh for us to manage scientists for those very reasons, aesthetics as well as safety uh but mostly safety which is critical. So we feel that we have to educate them and so we put together um presentation and we want to start educating businesses so they understand that it's safety for not only for them as business owners but it's safety for our police officers. So we do have uh you're ready who can present what is

permitted, what is not, what it looks like, and what we're proposing to um send rather to educate the public. One other thing before I move on, um we've also noticed that when we enforce the signage being removed, uh some of the business owners have found another way of advertising. They'll use merchandise basically to cover their windows. So they're kind of doing two things. Advertising still, but it's still violating this the the signing um ordinance rather than signage ordinance. So in this amendment, we're basically saying, hey, um we're going to include the merchandise being removed so that the visibility is there for the police as well as the passengers and and the safety of the business owners. So, um, Stevens is going to walk you through this and you will see what what we're going to, uh, basically or we're asking council to, uh, to amend so that we can educate the public and we can make our town cleaner, safer, and and look in need and being safe. Uh, council, while this is getting set up, um, I believe the presentation that's going to be made um, includes what is already in your existing code. So, I want to emphasize to you that before you tonight, the draft ordinance that we're asking you just to allow us to advertise would only address the visual obstructions that Jane referenced with regard to merchandise being located within 5 ft of a window face. So, the idea is if I've got a bunch of Campbell soup cans stacked up, we would consider that advertising and by this clarification that we're trying to do with the ordinance, that would now make that not permitted within 5T of that window or I should say it

will count towards your window signage total that is authorized. So when this presentation is done, he's going to go over what's already in your code, uh, about how it's calculated. But I want to emphasize for your purposes tonight, we're just looking at the visual obstruction component of it, which would be putting things in the window that essentially act as a form of advertising. But that's why we

Good evening everyone. Sorry if I make mistakes. It's my first time in front of an audience. So as Jane said as a planning department, we reviewed our ordinance and we put together a presentation which is actually this one. It's a printed copy and uh after the ordinance get demanded we will have more copies available to the public and we also will go out to the businesses and start presenting uh basically our ordinance. Uh the presentation itself has the agenda which basically it's talk it talks about what's the law the the key requirement what counts as a window signs how to comply compliant and non-compliant examples what happened if you violate the law uh if you want to avoid a fine and uh more information regarding the ordinance itself. So we have uh captured the most important things of the ordinance, the essence of it and uh we have tried to put a presentation together which is clearly readable for the people but also uh we have visualized uh the ordinance itself. So if somebody didn't understand the law exactly what the law is saying then they can refer on the images also and it can be easier for them to understand. Now as you see the example here we have put a store frontage as an example and uh uh we we have two windows and one door. The ordinance is referring on the glass uh surfaces

and uh it limits uh the area that you can cover with window signs. Um it explains why we have this ordinance in place and uh the the key uh topics of it is for better safety, more inviting storefronts, more light, more trust, community support and the success matters. And it explains also that we as a planning department and as a municipality of Norrisan, we are not against the businesses. We want them to thrive and we want them to do it in a secure way. So all the parties are like happy. Uh in the next sheet, the key requirement of the window sign ordinance says no more than 25% of any individual window or transparent door may be covered with window signs. This rules applies to both temporary and permanent signs. And as you see there on the left we have a compliant uh examples and on the right we have non-compliant examples. Uh

and again that's the current law. What's before you tonight is not changing that. That is the current law about the 25%. Right. We have an explanation uh about what count as a window sign in this page and we have some compliant examples on the right of it. The next sheet uh discussed about how to comply.

If we can go back one slide, I'm sorry for interrupting. Trying to emphasize this is the one area where we are asking for the change about what constitutes a window sign. We all know that putting a sign on the window is a window sign. The one thing we're trying to address here are the things that you would put in the window area that essentially act as a form of sign, but are for practical purposes merchandise, some sort of stocking thing. That's what we're trying to address with this proposed ordinance. The or near a window or glass door. That is what we're referring to. Again, I apologize for interrupting. Just trying to emphasize.

As we jump on the next slide, we have a how to comply guide. Simple rules. Measure each individual window or glass door facing the street. Do the math and find the 25% allowance. and keep all individual window and transparent doors at or under 25%. We are giving some tips also because sometimes the window signs cannot be regular shapes. So in that case uh like individual letters, logos or custom designs the area is still counted and it gives some tips of how the zoning officer will do the measurement of the sign. Again we are keep repeating what is compliant and non-compliant examples. So uh we emphasize that uh I want to note something here all the measurements are done in a professional software uh program which means everything there if somebody goes and counts the actual uh uh picture here everything is compliant and everything is 25% it's on real scale This is again another compliant examples. Before we had just a window. Now we have again a full storefront including a glass door and two big uh glass window uh windows. The next one is what we shouldn't do a non-compliant example. And as you see the the glass door is covered 72.9%

which is non-compliant with our ordinance and also the windows are non-compliant. So we are giving tips on uh how to say to stay within the law and what our saying here says what happened if you violate the law. So you may receive a zoning violation notice. Fines may apply and you are responsible for fixing the violation which in some cases uh you might get suggested to remove the the exceeded signs. If you want to avoid the fine, follow the steps. Keep all the window signs below 25%. Apply for permits when required. And also ask the zoning officer if you are unsure on or you need more information about it. And in the last sheet we have uh our department's details. So everybody get confused or need more information can send us an email or call our office and uh for sure the zoning officer or even us the the planning members will be able to uh explain the the ordinance and what is required.

Thank you. I'm sorry. You're okay. You came in right on time. Thank you. Are there any additional questions? Council, Councilman McMahon,

in some way, I'm not clear on um maybe what is a a window display and what is a signage? Um if you have like four mannequins in your window, can you only have one? You know, if you want if you have, you know, a display of all your baked goods in a window, do you have to drop that down? Um if some of these store stores are quite small um say they need you know what happened you know can they can they paint that glass and back shelves up against it and reclaim wall space.

So if I can help out here um two things. One, per the draft language, any merchandise, shelving, screening, fixtures, or other simil similar physical objects or displays that are located within five feet of any first floor glass area shall constitute a visual obstruction and shall be considered a window for sign window sign for purposes of this chapter. Meaning it would have to be within five feet of a first floor window and then that would count towards the measurement. But this is zoning. So, if let's say I had a business where I needed to display cakes

or I needed to display mannequins or I needed to do something, you would file a zoning appeal to the zoning hearing board and you'd ask for relief from the zoning hearing board. And that's perfectly fine. That's what the whole process is there for. It's to allow for a release valve for those unique businesses that need that additional

signage. That's what they would go and do. They would get that relief from the zoning hearing board. But what it's trying to do is eliminate the zoning office, whether it's the zoning inspector or the code inspector, to have to make a judgment call as to, well, I think these cans are not okay, but I think this mannequin is okay. What it's trying to do is is to eliminate that judgment factor by the zoning office and really put it back on the applicant to say, you know what, if you need to display those cakes, that's great. Here's an application. Just file with the zoning hearing board and you'll probably get your you may get your approval from them.

Right. Yeah. because there's the potential to remove a lot of, you know, uniqueness and creativity in some window displays because, you know, a window display is necessarily within five feet of a window. Um, and so, but if there's a a means for people to specifically work to get something done, I mean, I've made many window displays over my my years, you know. Yeah. Um, and you know, it's there's a whole, you know,

Yeah. And I suspect Jane would encourage people to be like, if you got a great idea, I want you to go to the zoning hearing board because the idea from a zoning hearing board perspective, where I represent a lot, I sit on my own zoning hearing board where I live. Um, the zoning hearing board has the ability to basically put restrictions in place to make sure what it is that you're saying you're going to do, you're going to be obligated to do, and it becomes a mini zoning just for that property. Sorry, Jade. Can they can they can they um uh uh paint the glass and put shelves up against it then? like if they need if they need additional space in their store. No, I'm just saying because it's a real con, you know, some of the stores are very small. Wall space, shelf space is a real I I think what we're trying to not lose sight of is the safety issue.

Yeah. Which we are really alarmed about. If you go to a lot of those these stores right now, you can't see anything. You don't know what's going on in there. And that's why the police brought it to our attention and saying you're if you if you paint it all and and the police officer or someone who's passing maybe you're getting robbed in there. No one can see it. No, that's that's the So we're trying to the law right now as it's as it is. It just says 25% for that very reason, right? To limit it. So that that's that's the thought. Okay. Council, any other questions? I don't have a question. Councilwoman Griffin.

Um I just wanted to know um if so I see like some of the p the violations like can incur uh oh my gosh incur fines and like um violation notices and I see you can keep getting them until it's resolved. But what about people that they resolve it then they do it again then they resolve it then they do it again like repeat offenders like what I guess would the consequences be? So, I'm happy to help out again. Yes, because that's because that would be our office probably doing it.

So, keep in mind that we're talking about zoning enforcement. Zoning enforcement is civily enforced. It is not criminally enforced. What that means is the way the process works under the municipalities planning code, if Jane's office is made aware or they determine that there's a violation, they have to send a written notice to the property owner. The notice has to contain certain information and it has to give them a period of time in which to come into compliance. If they come into compliance and then a month later they do it again. Unfortunately, under the law, we have to send them another notice. There's no way to get around the process. We have to do the same thing over and over again. Restarts it.

It restarts it over and over again. Now the only thing I would do in that instance is if we ultimately so so once we send it not as a violation they have a right to file an appeal to the zoning hearing board at which time Mr. McMahon they could ask for relief from the zoning hearing board as a hey can you let me do this as an alternative to the violation. Um if they decide to do nothing then we have to go to the magistial district judge in order to seek civil penalties. It would be at that point if we had somebody who was a habitual offender, we would probably represent to the MDJ, hey, this property owner, this is the fifth time we've had to do this. Can you please impose the maximum amount of civil penalties against him for the violation that occurred, but it's up to the judge as to what they want to say. Council, any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to advertise ordinance 2602 for the window signage amendment?

So move. Second. Madam Secretary. Lean McCoy. I dear Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates. Hi. The eyes have it. Okay. Moving on. Resolution 2612. Recommend award of contract to Environmental Decisions Inc. in the amount of $469,000 to provide environmental professional services to implement the Municipality of Norristown's United States Environmental Protection Agency, the US EPA, uh communitywide brownfield assessment grant project.

Thank you, Council President. As I might have explained to council before, um, in towns like ours or citizen dispatches like ours that had, um, uses in the past that were industrial and and basically contributed to the contamination of uh, properties. It's been a hindrance in in uh, having development occur because there's a cost to dealing with contaminants. If if you own a property and uh maybe a developer approached you and wanted to buy it but wants to have a phase one to make sure they're not buying a contaminated property. Uh that of course that depends on the value that you're selling your property. Now uh the federal government has recognized that that is a hindrance to development. So they have made funds available especially for um municipalities like ours that were industrial towns in the past to shake up if you will people who have been afraid of selling their property or having very low value of their properties. So they make these services available through these EPA funds as grants instead of the property owner paying for that environmental phase one or phase two. uh the municipality hires a consultant who will be doing that on their behalf. This makes uh the property more viable for development. So um as a municipality we've been very fortunate over the years. We've received over 1.5 million. a lot of uh properties that have been have gone through this process including five saints uh the main and decal street um uh property most of the riverfront properties quite a number of the properties along uh Markley Street in the light industrial uh area they have that phase one so if they want to sell their property if they want their property developed at least they know

whoever is buying it knows what they're dealing with and the good news is that uh by having this type of service already provided or yeah I guess it's a service provided it also helps in opening up the probabilities of getting grants at either federal or state level uh or state or even the county because that's now making the property available for development. It's making it easier. It's removing obstacles and therefore trying to make it more attractive to developers to come. So right now um we went out on an RFP. I shall read this in the record. Um request for proposal was issued. First of all, we received a $500,000 uh dollar um award in September of 2025. And in so doing, we went out and on a request for proposal. And um just let council know this is for the to identify have an inventory characterize rank and ex select existing groundfield sites contaminated with hazardous substance within the municipality of Northern that was the grant was for and the grant uh will be used to develop liability management and remedial strategies that allow for safe and viable monitoring. So we have of course to have a consultant who is an expert in this field. Not too many out there. And as much as that's the case, we put out an RFP on September 29th, 2025. And um we had a proposal of a deadline of October 27, 2025. The RFP was advertised in the Times Herald and also on the pen bid online bidding system and it was also sent to over 60 consultants nationwide during

the RFP process. Um we actually we received 17 questions and we answer those questions. um we ended up receiving 11 proposals which were uh received by the extended deadline of October 27th uh 2025. So I do have uh up there the I have the next slide Kevin. Yes. Just so that you'll see these are the uh proposals that were received. We could go to the next slide so you have an idea that from um I think there were 11 next slide as well. So we have evaluated the proposals. Could I have the next slide and the following slide? So um the the left you would see the name of the firms and the price for of what they would do for um for this service and the other on the right it actually ranks uh in order of the price and points actually. So we evaluate it and the points basically are given based on the criteria we set in the RFP. That's how we evaluate them. Took us a long time to do that. There were a lot of proposals and we had to go through them thoroughly and that's actually the end result. Uh the end result was AMO environmental decisions. They came up with a very strong project um demonstration of EPA grants. In fact, I think they were the only group that had over uh nine. Most of them of the consultants had maybe two or three. But you need you need consultants who know

this uh APA process very well. It's a cumbersome process and it also requires a lot of handholding to property owners who are usually nervous about having the federal government come on land to do it. So you do need experts who are able to basically convince them that this is a good thing to do and it's not going to put them in in in a negative light. So um the this group has also had prior experience in Nortown. Uh they're the ones who have done a lot of the work that I just mentioned before. Their cost of course is at 469,000. Uh the their proposals um or rather they provided um references. We checked them out. Uh they all came positive and we basically said that we're recommending AMO environmental decisions to be the awarded this grant. Um and we're asking council to approve this grant tonight so that we can begin work as soon as possible.

Council, do I have any questions? Do we have any questions? Excuse me. Council Coulson, do we know or did you might have already said this. um how many brownfield sites we are looking to target with this or Good question. I actually wrote it out. So, we're looking to do at least 20 phase ones and about 10 phase twos. Okay. Yeah, that's pretty good for that price. Thank you.

I just had a question on the point scoring process. I if I remember correctly from the notes that AMO also was involved previously in previous years with our brownfield browns fields work and potentially as well as in the grant process to get this far. Just wanted to understand a little bit more about the point system how it was created and what things was it measuring.

Uh it's c it's actually the RFP that we have attached in your package. It it shows each criteria and how many points we are assigned to that criteria. So it includes things like the personnel in your firm. Who are they? Do they have experience? They have to be engineers. They have to have experience in EPA. You can all be engineers but you it does not mean you have experience in EPA per se. So they that's the type of criteria we look at and we also check the references. We just don't accept the word for it. And when we check the references and it checks out, they get certain amount of points. That's how you add up the points. That's what what we do in evaluating them. Thank you,

council. Any other questions? Counciloman Mc Griffin. Um, not not a question. I just want to say thank you for showing um the proposals the way you did like visual. That was amazing to see. Um, especially because we always ask to see those. So, thank you for showing that in that way and so that the public can see it as well. It's really appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, council. Any other questions? Council McMahon. Um, as far as the the site assessments go, what how are sites chosen? Is it a voluntary thing of property owners? Um, does the municipality play a role in sort of like seeking out, you know, certain areas.

So, that's a really good question because um remember most property owners are not too keen on for coming on their land. But then we have um we have development strategies. We know areas that we want to develop. For for instance, the riverfront, we've been wanting to develop for that forever. We know uh the the properties along the limited industrial district. We know there are lots of properties that have just been sitting idle. So it's a mixture, but mostly it's us contributing based on our studies and analysis. So as we engage this consultant, we say, "Look, these are the areas. This is our vision. These are the areas we've had developers in the past ask about it and walk away when they would think it's a little shaky, but here is an opportunity that we can basically unlock for developers. Council, any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to uh approve resolution 2612 to recommend the word of contract to AMO Environmental Decisions Incorporated for the amount of $469,000 uh to provide environmental professional services to implement the USPA communitywide brownfield assessment grant project.

So move. Madam Secretary, McCoy, I dear Robinson, I Coulson. Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen, I The eyes have it. Moving on. Ordinance 26-03 requesting authorization to advertise ordinance 26-03 for smoke and vape shops amendment.

Thank you, Counc. It's a lot of talking. I'm sorry. I should have thought of having some water. Um before you council, we are requesting authorization for to advertise ordinance 26-03 uh for smoke and vape shops. Um we've received a lot of um push back from the community uh basically saying there too many of these shops that are disappearing everywhere. Um and as as the ordinance is right now um they are permitted in a lot of the commercial districts. Um we did have a conversation with council some council members some of you are new and the council members did agree at that point. They said yeah there's too much of these vape shops. We need to push back. uh we need to have a healthy mix of businesses in our commercial districts so that it's not all one type of business and I see some of you nodding because you you have let me know that's the case. So that being the case we need to do something about it and make it a little um have to choose my words carefully. Thank you so much. Um we have to make it just a little more streamlined if you will uh so that we just don't have things popping up everywhere. So in that case uh we're recommending council to just permit uh this use in the commercial retail district and in even so uh it is to be done by uh conditional use meaning you council members would be the ones to make the decision whether uh this use can be allowed in that um commercial retail district. So they would become before you. It would be advertised like we advertised in the zoning and all, but

you'd be the ones making that decision, not the zoning officer. Right now, as a zoning officer, if they come in some of these districts, I have no choice but to say, "Okay, go ahead and do it." But of course, we've gotten feedback. Not everyone is happy about it. Council, any questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve ordinance 2603 requesting authorization to advertise ordinance 260 to1 for 2603 for smoke and vape shop amendment? So moved. Second. Madam Secretary William McCoy. Hi. Peter Robinson. Hi. Nie Foulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi.

Dustin Clean. Hi. Gates. I. The eyes have it. Thank you. Resolution 2613 recommend award, excuse me, recommend award of contract to Mie. Merge M. Okay. Merge in the amount of $69,810 to develop a comprehensive wayfinding signage and gateway improvements master plan and implementation implementation study.

Thank you. Uh, council members, if you recall during the budget uh, season, we talked about this. Um, the last time we had uh, the wavefinding system done in the municipality was in 2004. We're long overdue. Um, there's a lot that has happened since since we implemented that wavefinding system. A lot of the um, we've experienced growth and redevelopment. have also experienced major changes in in in um developments, trail expansions, parking facilities, civic investments uh have also increased and the complex complexity of navigation is necessary for us to now upgrade it and make it uh not only inviting uh but logistically make sense. So this is both for uh motorists and as well as pedestrians. Um in order for us to receive proposals for this we went out on request for proposal and uh we went out on request proposal on August 21st 2025 for a consultant to it's basically assigned to help with the wayfinding signage and gateway improvements uh master plan as as you'll recall I did say during the budget tested that we would have it planned but we'll also try to do the first phase so that we just don't have a plan there that sits on you know on the um shelf and not being implemented. So we want to to be able to to get this plan in place and we have some money that's set aside of course in um capital improvements so that we can at least start the first phase. So we were fortunate to receive

seven proposals. They were actually very interesting proposals. Uh and merge uh emerged uh right on top. They're very interesting. Uh these are the firms that responded. If you could have the next slide. And the next one please. And the next one. There we go again. uh we have proposals in in in terms of price and we also have proposals in ranking order according to uh criteria that we evaluated them for. Now with professional services unlike construction you don't have to give it to the lowest bidder uh because this is a professional service. It's it's how best do they meet the request for proposals that you put out there because you're dealing with professionalism and you're dealing with creativity. Sometimes it's difficult to measure creativity but once you read their proposals and you see how close uh the consultant understood your your your ask what are you looking for you that's how you measure to see if they're going to deliver what it is that you want to do. Again we look closely to see who are the personnel that they recommended to work with us. We look to see what other cities have they done. What what does it look like? And the proposals that we um put in your package. You can see that this particular uh group has actually done over 200 cities. Extremely impressive. And I hadn't come across them before, but I'm very familiar with their work. Didn't know it was them. And I'm pleased to say they came in actually at a very good price. We were actually expecting a little higher than that. So, uh, we're recommending council, uh, to approve this so we can move ahead with this our new way of finding. It's a branding system, so to speak. Good work. They've done all over. I'm sure you some of you are aware of some of them.

And as I said, in your package, you'll see many more examples. So, we're requesting if you could award this so we can get to the good work of changing all the time. Council, any questions? Counciloman Robinson. Uh, not a question, but just a comment. I wanted to say thank you uh for bringing this forward. I know during the budget season, I in particular give you a hard time about this process because I don't want to see another study on the shelf, but I wanted to see action and in a very short amount of time. It's very nice to see that you've moved forward, been able to identify some actionable partners and it does look like that movement is happening. So much appreciated from my end and excited about the work. Thank you very much.

Any other questions? Uh Jay and I do have one or maybe two. Uh so I did look at wayfinding. They're great company from what I've read about. Uh so I noticed there were uh six locations that they were going to be doing the way finding signs. Is that how does that translate to how many signs they'll actually make for us? Is that is there a limit to that? Um, it depends on the budget we have. Okay. Okay. And I know I noticed one was the um the bike trail which is walking to Narstown. They they can do that and the zoo one like at the same awesome. All right. Yes. Thank you.

So we will bring you progress reports so that you'll know where we are. Uh so we don't want to be in a situation where we might be stuck and then we have these beautiful pictures. We're not moving along. We'll definitely let you know where we are. And of course uh you as a council and a coun and community, you'll be involved. They're not doing it on their own. They're going to make sure that they are you're involved in the process. Thank you. Any other questions? Uh seeing none, do I have a motion to recommend award of contract to MGY in the amount of $69,810 to develop a comprehensive way finding signage gateway improvement master plans and implementation study. So move madam secretary

William McCoy I dear Robinson hi Coulson. Hi Jasmine Griffin. Hi David McMahon. Hi Dustin Queen. I sav. Thank you. All right. And then moving on to resolution 2614. Recommend award of contract to Simone Collins Landscape Architecture in the amount of $96,200 to provide professional service to implement the municipality of Narstown's park master plan.

Thank you, Council President. Again, we come before you asking you to award this contract to our very own uh Simony Collins. They have their office in in Nortown, a very experienced firm. I've actually been familiar with this firm for the last 37 years. Uh we've worked in many other capacities. They've done work for the county. They've done work for private industry as well. But I think uh the the great thing I can say about them is that they believe in Nortown that much. So they brought the basically the their office is the headquarters in Nortown right across uh Lafayette Street. Not too many firms. I mean I would have to say the uh solicitor's office who moved into Nortown. So they really believe in Nortown. We believe in consultants who believe in Nortown and they'll see Nortown moving forward. Um anyway as you might be familiar with Simony Collins because they are the ones who did the master plan for the uh Roosevelt field if you recall where we had received some funding from the state and they did that whole uh master plan. They're very familiar with the community. Uh they're outward looking as well. As I said, they believe in Nortown. Not only do that, uh they're more than qualified. Uh we went out on an RFP request for proposals uh on August 21st and uh they were advertised in Times Herald pen bid as well as the website. Um we received questions that we responded to as we required to. uh we then received six proposals and the deadline of these proposals was September 22nd, 2025. Uh we evaluated and on the screen again you do have the firms that responded. Those are the first three firms. the next three firms and then we ranked them in price uh order as well as in rank order according

to the criteria that we had set aside and they emerged uh as the the lead consultant for this grant. Um one other strength I have to say about this uh firm is their um involvement in community activity as well. So they know the municipality well enough and and they do make sure that they know what's going on. Not only that, they have also provided us with many uh hints and and not hints but rather recommendations on grants that are out there. So they're always looking out to see how can we fund these improvements that they're proposing. So it's not only coming from our um general fund, but where else can we get this money to make our our uh projects work. So um as as I said the greatest thing they had was their grasp of the community engagement as well. They're very good at that. They they have provided us a proposal for 93,870 and uh they are very familiar with the Nortown park system and also with the Montgomery County trail system as well. So we recommend them highly.

Council any questions? Seeing none. Okay. Seeing none, do I have a motion to recommend the award of contractor Simone Collins Landscape Architecture in the amount of $96,200 to provide professional service to implement the municipality of Norristown's master plan. So move second. Madam Secretary McCoy, I Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David Kan. Hi. Justin Queen. Hi. Sean Daves. I have it. Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Long night for you, Jane, huh? I know. Collapse.

Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. All in favor? Meeting adjourned. Thank you.