Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

Possibly. I'd like to call to order the NARS Municipal D, the Narstown Municipality Council meeting of Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. Can I have a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance? Madam Secretary, roll call, please.

William McCoy, present. Robinson, present. Nylie Coulson, here. Jasmine Griffin, here. David McMahon, here. Dustin Queen, here. Rashad Bates, here. Council, do I have a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting? So move. Second. All in favor? I All right. Next, we did have an executive session onformational. Yeah, it was anformational. Okay. Informational executive session. Uh, Vice President Quinn, do we have any announcements?

Yes, we do. Um, I want everybody know if you need a translator, uh, if you could wave, if you need a translator, we could get a translator for you back there. Also, Northsttown Recreational uh spring league 2026 is um you can sign up now. It starts from ages five to seven biddy ball uh 8 to 10, 11 to 13, and uh 14 to 18. Registration ends on March 23rd. And uh I think that's a pretty good thing. And um I know a couple council people have some announcements as well. Yeah. Yeah. council man.

Um this in two days Thursday u I'll be having a a town hall meeting one of my monthly town hall meetings. It will be at the Nortown Public Library. Um we will be discussing um the library renovations and uh very importantly um how community input can uh shape any future uh programming especially for our youth in Norristown. Um so I would encourage people to come out for that. Uh that will be from uh 6 o'clock to 7:45.

Council, any other announcements. All right. Uh responses to questions from the last council meeting. Uh well, uh our administrator Leonard Lightner is out today. You have them. Oh, there is none. Thank you, Chief. There are none. And now we'll move along to public comments. Roco Excuse [clears throat] me.

Hello everybody. How you doing? I think you guys know where I am, right?

I got a lot of problem with this town and I need more than 3 minutes. I live on country street. Okay. I live on 844. We got people in 846 a bunch of animal. They make a noise to one o'clock in the morning. They got boom box and everything. And the rental and they got social work three times a week, four people at a time. I want to know why it cost the township, the county, and the state over $5,000 a month because you guys pay for the rent, the social work, the minivan, and everything. And they take an event, they don't the parents, they don't control the kids. Okay? Now, got cars parked down the street on B Street. One person's got 11 cars parked down there. They got car park under the wall. It's a firehouse because they got a lot of bad kids in the neighborhood. They can put a fire on it. [clears throat] A whole neighborhood they can go up and flame. Okay. You So whatever you guys spend all that money for these people and whatever it is, you can't even paint a [laughter] blue line for my handicaps passing from my house. I asked George. GEORGE SAY, "OH, WE DON'T HAVE ANY BLUE PAINT." I have to do my own blue paint. Me and my wife, we both are handicapped. We both got bent knees. I spend so much money for the license for the handicap. Okay. So, what are you guys going to do about these people making a noise to 1:00 at night? They look like a bunch of animal in the stall like when I left it right now as a kid sitting the floor kick the front door and trim the house is shaking. My wife was watching the news and in the [laughter] kitchen she can't be here. SHE HAD TO TURN IT UP. IT'S IT'S GAME. NO, I've been living IN NARTOWN. I'M THE SECOND OWNER OF THIS

HOUSE. I'VE BEEN LIVING IN NARTOWN for the last 60 years till I was a teenager and never [clears throat] was this bad and this dirty. Okay? I don't know what THE HELL YOU GUYS doing giving privileges to all these people and they don't give a damn anybody else. I don't care if it's a black and white the population don't give a damn bars. Okay. I mean, you guys have to put your foot down and and do something about it. I called the landlord for the house. He never respond me back. Ke knows all about it. A lot of a lot of a lot of the cops know about it. Has a car parked in the corner. Georgia Beach. It's been there since the last night. 18 wheelb can't make a turn and nobody give the guy the police drive by I can't get they don't put them tickets on there's a band down the street of Georgia Alina Ham. Okay.

Good evening to everyone here tonight. Um council, uh tonight my comments are directed to you um and to the residents who are all here tonight uh who took the time to show up for Norristown, regardless of the reason that you are here. Um first of all, I want to thank you council. Um, in the 5 years that I lived here, this council has been the most accessible team. So, I just want to thank you for all of the town halls. Um, I'm not sure if that's what you wanted for us to reach out and touch you, but you guys were really accessible. So, I want to thank you for that. Now that I said something nice, I'm going to ask for a favor. Um, so the reason I'm here tonight is because I'd like to ask you council for a personal favor. Um, I'd like to ask if you can consider using your social media presence to help bring awareness to the rapid and concerning happenings in our neighborhoods. Family homes that should be the anchor to our blocks are being bought up by the same few humans and immediately split into duplex. These same individuals repeatedly appear before zoning hearing board and uh they're seeking variances and those variances add absolutely no value to Nortown. We do not need more houses chopped up into rentals, especially by people who do not live here. What they are doing is not an investment to Norristown, and they do not contribute to the stability of our neighborhoods. This pattern is eroding the character and safety of our blocks. Um, I understand that some of you up here may yourselves be uh owners. Um, and I do believe that responsible renting absolutely has a place in the community, but not at the rate that it's happening right now in front of zoning. So, uh, as you can clearly see the impact of the poorly man, uh, managed, uh, rental properties are having on our town. So, council and neighbors alike, you have no problem showing up for the big issues like the state hospital, the shelter, uh, storm water. Let me be clear, these zoning variances are a big issue. Um, and if we want to have beautiful Norristown in the future, this is not going to be the thing that helps us. Um, I just want to also point out that a small group of neighbors,

including myself, have tried to raise awareness on the local Facebook community pages, but the posts are being removed, making it very hard to organize and inform our neighbors. And let's be real, no one is reading the postings in the papers. So, council, I'm asking you if you can consider when you're out in the community, if you're posting, you know, very nice pictures with you being out here, can you also consider amplifying the importance of attending the zoning and planning commission meetings? your platforms have reached and the residents are listening to you. Thank you so much for your time. So, we're moving along to presentations. Before we start, I'd like to have a motion to table the uh DCED fire service study presentation. They were not able to make it tonight.

So, moved. Second. Uh Madam Secretary, roll call, please. McCoy, I Robinson, hi Alie Coulson. Hi, Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi. [clears throat] Dustin Queen, I dates. I All right. So, then we'll continue here with keep uh keep Pennsylvania beautiful and keep Northtown Beautiful. Present the Steward tomorrow Youth Award. Thank you.

It's at this time I'm going to ask if Grayson Anthony McCoy will come up and join me. Thank you, Grayson. Give this to you. On behalf of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, we are honored to recognize Grayson Anthony McCoy with the Stewards for Tomorrow Award. The Stewards for Tomorrow program recognize an outstanding young community member age 18 or younger who has demonstrated a strong commitment to keeping their community clean and beautiful. Over the past year, Grayson has gone above and beyond in support of Keep Nortown Beautiful. He collected more than 800 pounds of litter with over 30 cleanups along his adopted roads, West Freedley and West Warren Street. His dedication and consistency reflect an except an an exceptional sense of civic pride and responsibility. Grayson also volunteered his time to assist me with our newly watch or newly launched make your own rain barrel workshops last spring, helping residents build rain barrels to reduce stormwater runoff in our community. His willingness to support environmental education initiatives demonstrates leadership well beyond his years. Grayson, you're in third grade. Is that correct?

Yeah, third grade here. In addition, Grayson participated in our National Night Out event where he engaged his peers in a fun and educational fishing for litter activity, encouraging others to take pride in keeping Norristown clean. Grayson is truly a champion for a cleaner, more beautiful community. His enthusiasm, work ethic, and commitment to serve make him a deserving recipient of this honor, and I couldn't be prouder. Congratulations. [applause] [applause]

You want to say a few words, give a shout out to your mom? Um, thank you for like just helping spread. No, I'm want to shout out my mom Danielle. She has been helping me. [applause] Good job. [applause]

I just wanted to quickly say thank you so much Grayson. I think that your work is tremendous sir. Uh and we are super excited trying to make some eye contact with you.

I just wanted to say thank you for your hard work and your dedication. Uh it's been a pleasure to have you be honored here tonight. you are a classmate of my son and so I'm super excited to tell him what happened here tonight and it's really cool that he has a peer superhero that he can look up to that's right there in his own world. So just wanted to celebrate you sir. Very proud of you and congratulations. [applause] And now we're moving on to first responder and civilian life saving awards. Good evening, council.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Rich Alcart. I'm deputy chief of the Northtown Fire Department. I'm here with Chief Trail. And Chief Trajanski is here somewhere. Come on up, Chief. You're not getting out of this. Yes. Chief Trajansky is the chief of the Plymouth Community Amulance, who is our local EMS provider for Narstown. And we are here to recognize uh the efforts of those who helped out on December 2nd when one of the members of the public had a very serious medical event occur here at our council meeting. And we would like to award a couple folks with merit awards and police officers, firefighters, and also civilians that were involved in a very positive outcome of that event.

Mr. President, I'm worried about. All right. So, the first municipality merit award is awarded to Lauren Banto. Whereas during the regular meeting of Narstown Municipal Council on December 2nd, 2025, a member of our community suffered a serious medical emergency. While standing at the podium and addressing municipal council, the subject collapsed and became unresponsive. Whereas Miss Percanto was attending the meeting to witness the swearing in of a new police officer. Whereas Miss Panto, excuse me, Miss Panto saw the event transpire and immediately came forward and rendered aid. Due to her healthc care background, Miss Panto completed a quick assessment and determined the patient did not have a pulse or respiration and was in cardiac arrest. Miss Bcanto advised that the cardio excuse me the cardio preliminary resuscitation would not would would need to be performed. Whereas after CPR was initiated, Miss Percanto continued to reassess the patient. Miss Percanto also worked in the union with other strangers she never met before and was able to successfully guide them through the through the recitation effort toward the goal of saving a life. Whereas Miss Panto demonstrated the utmost professionalism by providing life-saving guidance under under incredible stress. Uh the team of first responders she has never met or worked with. The result of her action saved a life and that's for her. [applause] [applause] So um I'm going to be accepting this on behalf of Lauren. Uh you know as is a professional that she is she is actually working this evening. could not get away because she's she's continuing her service to others. So, um we'll be

making sure she gets a hold of us. Thank you. [applause] You want me to call members of Bleoon? Please. Can I have members of Baton please step forward?

Okay. All right. So, the next municipality unit, excuse me, the municipality of Narstown unit citation to Nartown Police Department, we have Sergeant Tyler North, Officer Alexander Wharton, Officer Jacob Drummer, Corporal Eric Gurgle, Officer Justin Rathky, and Officer Gerald Delgaso. Whereas during the regular meeting of Narstown Municipal Council on December 2nd, 2025, a member of our community suffered a serious medical emergency. While speaking at the podium, the subject collapsed and became unresponsive. Whereas the above listed members of the Norristown Police Department were in the audience and witnessed the event happen without hesitation and above and the above listed officers who are trained in CPR and first aid immediately went to the victim to provide assistance. Whereas Sergeant North, Corporal, excuse me, Corporal Gurgle, the officer Wharton began to assess the patient. Finding that there was no pulse and the patient was not breathing, Corporal uh Gurgle began CPR with the assistance of the other the other officers. Whereas, while life-saving efforts continued, Officer Rathky, Officer Drummer, and Officer Delgraso assisted with continuing CPR, assisting in retrieving and moving equipment for the EMS crew and assisted moving the patient to the awaiting ambulance. Whereas, the six members of the Narstown Police Department listed above worked as a team along with total strangers to assist someone in need. This unselfish act saved a life and allowed a positive patient outcome. Thank you. [applause] [applause] [applause]

Want to get a picture number?

Sure. just come up. You guys want to get in too or we just No, you guys in the back. He's got a wide angle.

[applause]

All right. Municipality of Norristown unit citation for Plymouth Community Ambulance. Up here we have Paramedic Cooper. Uh I can't see what that says. EMT. Oh, it says EMT. Wow. Thank you. EMT Karan Favors, paramedic Brienne Duteri and EMT Jason Harar.

Thank you. Whereas during the regular meeting of Nartown Municipal Council on December 2nd, 2025, a member of our community suffered a serious medical emergency. While standing at the podium and addressing municipal council, the subject collapsed and became unresponsive. Whereas immediate care of the patient was started by those in attendance and 911 was called to request the response of the local emergency medical service agency Plymouth Community Ambulance. Whereas paramedic Cooper, paramedic Dwarti, EMT EMT Favors and EM and EMT Harar arrived and immediately took over to take care of the patient and began advancing life support measures. As these as these life-saving procedures were being performed, the patient regained pulses and began to breathe with assistance from the responders. Whereas once the patient was stabilized, the patient was transferred to the litter and moved to the ambulance located in the front of the building. Whereas above listed members of the Plymouth Community Ambulance were working team, excuse me, sorry that again. Plymouth Community Ambulance working as a team along with others in attendance were able to demonstrate true poise under pressure and the utmost professionalism. The result of their action this evening um evening was a life saved. Thank you. [applause]

[applause]

tornado and Christmas. these two. Yeah. One's for Barb and one is for state representative Scott. Okay.

All right. Municipality of Narstown unit citation Narstown Fire Department, State Representative Greg Scott and Captain Anthony Barbado. Whereas during the regular meeting of Narstown Municipal Council on December 2nd, 2025, a member of our community suffered a serious medical emergency. While addressing the municipal council and standing at the podium, the subject collapsed and became unresponsive. Whereas in the audience that evening were state representative Scott, a long a long a longtime member of the Fairmont Engine Company number two, and Captain Barbados, who was a career firefighter for the municipality. Whereas both members quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and both being trained in CPR and first aid immediately came forward to render aid. Whereas Captain Barbado identified the patient was not breathing and become excuse me and beca began to use a bag valve gas uh to provide oxygen to the patient. Captain Barbado continued to provide the life-saving assistance until the patient was loaded into the ambulance. Whereas, state representative Scott took the initiative to direct the life-saving effort to the C. So, the CPR uh patient was uh seamlessly continued without interruption while directing others to clear the path for the responding EMS providers and move the furniture and other items in the immediate area for the responders to work. Whereas, the two the two members of the Narstown Fire Department listed above worked as a team alongside total strangers to assist someone in need. The unselfish the unselfish act saved a life and allowed for a positive patient outcome. [applause] [applause]

All right, moving along here. Uh, so we have appointments tonight. Administration of open office. Uh, promotion to Sergeant Corporal Matthew Wy. evening uh before the community and and uh the fellow officers to uh be here for this occasion of the promotion of Corporal Wy to Sergeant. Matt has served with the police department for 19 total years. He did his first 10 years in patrol and the last nine years have been a corporal on C platoon and he has been an exemplary leader and part of this organization. I'm honored to be here with him tonight as he makes his next leadership transition from corporal to sergeant and I have high expectations of his performance in the years to come. Thank you. [applause] You have your family. All right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, council. Good evening, first responders, and good evening, community. Uh, Judge Hakee Jones, and I'm honored to uh give Officer Wy the oath.

Right. Are you ready to take the oath, Officer Wy? Yes, I am. I state your name. I, Matthew Wy, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Charter of the Municipality of Nortown, the Charter of the Municipality of Nortown, and that I will enforce the laws of this Commonwealth. that I will enforce the laws of this commonwealth and the ordinances of Norsttown and the ordinances of Nortown

and that I will discharge the duties of my office I will discharge the duties of my office as police sergeant as police sergeant for the Mtown Police Department for the municipality of Nortown Police Department with honor and fidelity with honor and fidelity I do further swear I do further swear that I will uphold obey and enforce that I will uphold Obey and enforce the law without consideration to a person's race. that I will enforce the law without consideration to a person's race. Color color sex sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap or disability

handicap or disability Congratulations Sergeant thank you [applause]

[applause] [applause]

Thank you. I'll give you all a moment if you Oh, you're already leaving. Okay. Do they call while we transition? Uh, really quickly. Can I Can we get a picture with you, Grayson? I want to be able to show off the superhero when I get home. Can we get a picture?

All right. Municipal administrator aka chief uh proclamation declaring a disaster emergency due to winter storm Hernando.

Thank you, Mr. President. council for you with a application of a proclamation for a disaster uh local disaster uh declaration for February 21st to the 25th uh for hurricane I'm sorry for winter storm Hernando which is our last winter storm. Uh this is a procedural matter that is covered under the Commonwealth law that enables us uh you at local level elected officials to declare a local emergency. allows us in emergency services the ability to go out and do our jobs and to uh do kind of more of a wide purview of getting the job done and not have to come back before council for every little thing that we need. Um so this is a more of a procedural matter. Um again it's covered under state law and it's really just ratifying what we've already been has been done for the community. Council, any questions? Seeing Okay. Uh, seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the duct the proclamation declaration the declaring the disaster emergency due to Wintertorm Hernando?

So move. Second. Madam Secretary, William McCoy, I Robinson, I Ally Coulson, hi. Griffin, I David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen, hi. Beats. All right, you guys have it. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. And you're back up for fire. [laughter] Resolution 2616 authorizing the purchase of emergency management equipment to enhance public safety and municipal operations.

Thank you, Mr. President. M. Municipal Council again before you this evening is resolution 2616 uh requesting approval from you municipal council to purchase emergency management equipment totaling 193,0001 120 um 189,540 would be from Advanced Security Technologies. Uh this would be to purchase the V modular vehicle barriers that we currently have. Uh these are the yellow devices that you see at public uh gatherings. It's to protect the community when they're out enjoying themselves at our street festivals and community events. And then the second piece of that is for 3,580 for chariot graphics to put graphics onto the trailer. So totaling uh it's 193120 um and it will come out of capital improvement uh funds and it the funds have been uh confirmed by the finance director that we're good to go.

Council, any questions? I have my question answered already because I asked told me if we could do it. So, [laughter] so I appreciate you, Kath. Did you raise your hand, Councilwoman? I did. Council Oh, I'm sorry. Council uh Councilman McMahon. Um, so we already have uh some of these. How many lanes do we currently uh what do we have the capacity to cover now? I'm sorry, I didn't hear. How many lanes do we have the ability to cover? So, we right now we have the ability of shutting down 10 lanes. 10 lanes. And how how much would this add to it? Another 10. another chance,

right? But it's not the lanes that you always look at. It's the it's the vulnerabilities, right? So there's sidewalks if you have an area where there's a wide sidewalk where they can get a car down. So you have to be creative, right? We have a pre-eployment checklist that we utilize every time we we deploy these in in the community um to go out and making sure that we're looking at everything, not just at the roadways, but looking at those other areas that are vulnerable to people as well. Mhm.

Um often, you know, because we're the county seat, a lot of times, you know, the courthouse gets used uh for events. Um in those situations, you know, or let me lead off instead with what extra manpower do we actually often have to provide for for this kind of service to uh for events that may more properly be considered county events. So, so these it's a good question. What who usually installs these is public works. It's a labor labor intensive. Usually takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to set these these safety devices up and it takes the equal amount of time to break them down at the conclusion of an event.

Um it's not just the county that that that utilize these. In fact, the county uh went out and purchased a trailer as well, right? So they have one but um you know for for countywide municipal events. U but we also utilize this for Fourth of July out on Elman Park. We also use it for our Junth events down on Main Street. In fact, that's what realized that looking at our Junth event that we really didn't have enough that we had a lot of vulnerabilities. In fact, that if you remember Junth event, we had to utilize uh concrete jersey barriers in some areas that we had vulnerabilities along with public works assets, uh street sweepers, dump trucks, uh things that would, you know, try to make the street festival much more safer for for our visitors.

I'm sorry. I'm going to have a few extra questions about this because they're related to a few other things. Like I would personally like to see a lot more block parties happen easily, that kind of thing. Um what are easier to put into place? Some of the water fil kind of Jersey barrier um uh Jersey barrier style barriers or these, you know, I would I would go with these because these are ASM certified. So these are tested to a national consensus standard, right? uh the water barrels um barriers that you see they're time consuming to fill with water. Okay. In fact, for Kahaki and for the St. Patrick's Day parade next weekend, it takes them about seven hours to fill all the plastic barriers, right? So, it's labor intensive compared to this 45 minute or an hour operation.

Our public works team uh is second to none when it comes to installing this equipment. And really, they they've they really got a good, you know, plan in place when they deploy these. Um, they typically have somebody from police or emergency management there to to help them and guide them as to where exactly we need to to install them. But I like the portability of these monitor vehicle barriers, right? Because we can put them across the the sidewalks. We can put them on brassy surfaces where the where the rain barrels typically don't unless they're on a on more of a flat surface really don't do well when it comes to protecting protecting the community. And these are currently required at every block party.

Not every block party. Right. So, it's hard for us to have these at at every block party we have in the community. We have a lot of requests for block party. Uh these are typically deployed on municipal sponsored events or ones where there has a high probability of a lot of elected officials there where we're trying to, you know, reduce our our threat assessment. Okay. Right. Thank you. Yep. Counciloman Robinson.

Thank you, Chief. I had questions uh in a similar vein but I think um around just wanted to confirm some information. So when I was looking through the material it was stated that these devices can be deployed by one person. Is do you find that that is a true assessment of it and has it in any way reduced labor in setting up for these type of events. One one of the devices can be moved by one person. Installing the system takes multiple people. In fact, if we were if we were setting up a whole system like we typically do on Main Street, one person would take them all day to do this where when we bring a team in, it gets done a lot faster.

Gotcha. And this purchase is not just for the barriers themselves, but it also includes a trailer. Is that correct? The trailer is for Is that for storage at all times as well as for transportation? It does. It stores them on there. Um, it's deployable. It's it's hitched up. The the barriers are loaded onto this trailer. In fact, we buy the trailer, the barriers with the trailer together, right? And the trailer would to be deployed with an already assessed department vehicle. Like there's not the the thought of add another vehicle to the fleet for this. We have not to add another vehicle. In fact, we already have one trailer that is deployed now. We just need to increase our capabilities and that's essentially what we're doing now. I see. Um and then just in addition to that with the additional 3,000 plus that is for the signage. I know that that's to put the signage onto the trailer itself. It is.

When I looked through the brochure or through the catalog, it also had more incentives like banners and add-ons and things like that to build out. I didn't see that as part of this proposal, but I just was wondering is that part of like a longer game? Do you see that as part of something?

So, we already have the barriers. Um I'm sorry, the the banners already in place. Um the the one of that came with the trailer previously. It's like an engineering project to put it up. What we deployed now is more of the road clos signs uh that you typically see on road construction. They're a lot easier to deploy. uh they take up a lot less space and we found them to be more uh more signage better for our community. Um they're more visible where the other ones almost kind of look like it it it belonged to part of a like an advertisement. Um it didn't have that that color effect that high visibility orange that we typically see on road close signs. So we we switched to utilizing those those orange row close signs because they're just more effective.

Thank you. Um I also noticed that there was uh some capacity for like enhanced lighting that was on these as well. Um and then in total with this uh package offering it included equipment training. I was wondering if you could just tell me a little bit about what that training looks like and who who gets to have that training.

So uh everybody who deploys police, fire, emergency management and public works personnel have all been trained by the factory direct sales folks. So the folks from uh ASM that that certified this um and also the security company who sold us this actually come on site and train physically train our people to installing these uh it's a system right it has to in order for them to be effective they have to be they have to be connected together in a way that it provides a system so when a vehicle hits it it's the whole system that displaces the vehicle not just one device

I actually find that very comforting and the thought that sometimes we get tools uh you know we get things that can help a pro process process, but if you don't know how to use it, it doesn't make that tool as effective as it could be. So, I think that that's really great that training comes as a part of this. Um, and just my last question in regards to storage. I don't know where we keep everything. That's something I'm hoping to learn more about, but we have space and somewhere to put this trailer ultimately.

Great question. We do have space. We keep it at the fire station at Pine Freley. They have a large lot in the back that they allow us to store some of our assets in there. So, uh, when we had parking here was at Crunch and Public Arcs had no place, we had the landscape trailer out there. So, uh, the firehouse is very gracious to us and allows us to keep a lot of assets, municipal assets in that back parking lot. So, um, they're easily to deploy. As you know, here parking is at a premium most of the time, right? In fact, you know, so that's why we have to find other other places. But great question.

Thank you. I thought that was my last, but you brought up a good point that makes me just wonder. Insurance, is this something that we typically have to then extend some type of coverage to? It seems like a large piece of equipment. How is that accounted for and where do we typically kind of place that margin? So any municipal vehicle comes in or any large capital improvement purchase, we notify uh human resources and they add it to our municipal insurance policy. Okay. Thank you so much, Chief. I appreciate it. Thank you. I just want to say one thing um to basically back up what you're proposing. And uh me and myself and uh President Bates, we actually seen firsthand how this could uh protect our citizens. Like I think it was the last fourth of July

uh where people were driving past our barriers. um in just one incident could be covered the price of this uh for and so one it reduces overtime uh for people setting things up and it uh protects us from potential liability exposure when it comes to the insurance and increased safety for everybody. So I just see as a win-win and I made sure we had the money. I'm always going to check on that. So this is just a win-win all the way around and to see it firsthand. You can see it just takes a second for someone to get hit by a car and that would be the cost of this right there.

And and kudos to you municipal council, right? We were one of the first communities here in McGomery County to get these, right? So us and Ka Hawaken um were the first to buy them and now other communities are buying into the same product we have. Right? So we talk about interoperability, right? we'll never have enough to do large scale events, you know, in this county, but if we all buy a little piece of the puzzle, when we when we have these big events, we can all share these resources. So, the interoperability of of these where um if another community needed borrow, we have the solicitor's office wrote a a mutual aid agreement.

So, if they needed to borrow something, if something happened to it, they would be on the hook for, you know, repairs. And likewise, if we had to borrow a trailer from Ka Haken or another community, right, we would be able to have inoperability. So it's it's it's a huge capital expense. I appreciate you municipal council for doing this, but you know, we were one of the first, right? So seeing that we our our citizens enjoy our street festivals and and getting out in the community, right? We're we're we're a walkable community. Every, you know, that's how we're raised in this town, right? Everything we walked everywhere and and having the freedom to do these types of things, right? Wouldn't happen without council uh giving us the green light on these things. So, thank thank you to all for for taking the time and considering these these expenditures, right? They're they're they're they're not easy. I know that they they come at a huge expense to the community, but at the end of the day, makes us our citizens much safer

and potentially saves us a lot of money. Yeah. Cheryl, I mean, council, any other questions? You Oh, I did. Uh, seeing none, do I have a motion to uh approve resolution 2616 authorizing the purchase of emergency management equipment to enhance public safety and municipal operations? So move. Second, Madam Secretary McCoy, Adira Robinson. Hi, Natalie Coulson. Hi. He [clears throat] Griffin, hi. David McMahon, hi. Dustin Queen, hi. Rashad Bates,

I The eyes have it. Thank you. And then going on to resolution 2617, purchase of personal or excuse me, purchase of personal protective equipment. Thank you, Mr. President. Municipal council again before you this evening is resolution 2617. This is an annual expense where I come before you each year to purchase personal protective uh equipment for our firefighters. Uh we are requesting the purchase of seven sets of structural firefighting gear. This is the ensemble our firefighters wear to go into a burning structure. Um, the vendor is a co-stars vendor. The monies are budgeted currently in my in my operating budget for this year and we're looking for approval to go ahead and purchase those seven sets of structural firefighting gear. Uh, just so for for for your knowledge, our structural firefighting gear is only good for 10 years. Everything has a shelf life. So, um, every 10 years it has to be replaced. We have it on a on a purchase plan. So each year we purchase seven sets of structural firefighting gear and then it allows the firefighters who are wearing currently wearing their gear at age 5 years old. It drops down to their second set and then this spare set of gear that they have now is discarded because it no longer is certified to use. [clears throat] So this purchase here would would would allow us to again stay on top of u the safety aspect of our business and making sure our firefighters have uh the best certified equipment. um that we can provide to them.

Council, any questions? Councilwoman Robinson, I just had one question, Chief. Just I wanted to make sure that I was reading it correctly. In the seven sets, that's um pretty much like a base of the same kind of seven sets, but one of those sets at a rank level. Is that right? Just for spacing. I just wanted to make sure I understood the additional. So, yeah, one of them would be a rank. Uh one of them I believe it might be in a first assistant chief or something. Yeah. this this this PPE to personal protective equipment is all the same. It we have our own specifications um that comply with the national fire consensus standards. Thank you. I figured as much. I just wanted to make sure I was saying

thank you council. Any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve resolution 2617 with the purchase of personal protective equipment? So moved. Madam Secretary William McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi, Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi, Justin Queen. Hi, Rashad Bates. I The eyes have it. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Appreciate it. Council, do I have a motion for adjournment? Yes. All in favor? I meeting adjourned. Great job.