Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Narstown Municipality Council work session for Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. Have a moment of silent or excuse me, a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance. Madam Secretary, roll call, please. Liam McCoy, Madiraa Robinson, Natalie Coulson, here. Jasmine Griffin, here. David McMahon, here. Dustin Queen,

here. Rashad Bates, here. Uh, council have a motion to approve last meeting's minutes. So move. Second. All in favor? I. All right. Uh, council did have an executive session on personnel matters. Did I miss anything? Okay. Uh, Vice President Quina, do you have any announcements?

Yes. Uh this s Saturday, April 25th, uh NAACP is having a Narstown community forum uh from 12:00 p.m. to 400 pm. The meeting place is 318 West Main Street in Narstown. And the contact number is 48477490. And also, you're invited Saturday, May 2nd. Uh, the Blessing Shop located at 3:20 and 3:18 West Main Street from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They're going to have free hot dogs, hamburgers, drinks, snacks, fun and games, live music, and you can win prizes. A day of fun for everyone. That's all I have.

Council, any more announcements? Councilman McMahon? Uh, I just want to announce my next uh town hall event will be May 7th, Thursday, May 7th. Um, we'll be at the um the Hancock Fire Company uh hall. Um, and you know, if the weather's nice, they got the big doors there. Maybe it's indoor, outdoor, something, but come talk about your concerns. Um, want to hear from you all. Um, we have a lot of public comments tonight. We don't always have the opportunity here to kind of engage in conversation around those issues. So come to this event and uh yeah, let me have it. So uh council, any other announcements.

All right. Uh we do not have responses to questions from the last council meeting. Please bear with us during this transition and we will get that back up and running. Um before we move to public comments, I do want to make a motion uh to add a zoning report to the agenda. Um, so yeah. Second. So move. Yeah. Second. All right. Um, and madam secretary, have a roll call, please. Hi. Dear Robinson, hi. Ali Coulson. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates.

Hi. All right. You guys have it. And then Jen, you could explain. Um we're asking council or rather recommending council send the solicitor to oppose the following um zoning applications that are slated for April 28th and May 7th when it's continued. These are properties that are going to be subdivided into apartments. That being the case, we're asking or recommending to council that they send the solicitor to oppose. I shall read the addresses for the record. Uh the first one is 705 Chain Street. Uh this is for an application for uh a duplex. Uh the next is 721 Violet Street. That's an application for a triplex in that district. The next is 1314 Decal Street. That's for an application for nine residential units in the OCR district. The next is 1316 Decal Street for an application to permit nine residential units in the OCR district. The next is 404 East Main Street and that is for an application to permit a triplex. Uh the next is 401 West Logan Street uh to permit a conversion of a duplex into a triplex. And the last one is 541 Sweet Street uh for an application to permit a duplex in the town center district.

If council wanted to make a motion to send a solicitor to oppose these applications in a second, then you would allow public comment. Council, do I have a motion to send a solicitor to read the last part again? Opposed? Oh, to oppose those um the the uh zoning. So moved. Second. Uh Madam Secretary, I have a roll call, please. No. Oh, that was coming afterwards. Gotcha. Thank you. Uh so, uh do we have any public comments? like to open the floor to just specifically about the zoning hearing.

Yes. No. Okay. All right. Then I'll do the roll call. McCoy. Hi. Robinson. Hi. Allie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Todd Beats. Hi. You guys have it.

Now we'll move on to public comment. Patty Griffin. Hello, council members. My name is Patty Griffin. I live on the 1300 block of West James Street in Norristown. I am here today to talk about the issues of speeding on my street. It is out of control. I live on a corner and I watch daily as people fly from one end of West Jane Street to the other, never stopping. I have personally witnessed people going as fast as 60 m an hour or more on a 25 mph uh residential street, maybe even faster. Um we have small children, pets, and families that live on this street. We also have a park with a playground on our block. There is no police patrol or trafficking in my neighborhood. I very rarely see a police officer drive through my neighborhood. Um, last week my neighbor's cat was hit and killed by a driver in a pickup truck who never even stopped. Um, they knew that they hit something because they heard the screeching of the tires. Uh, I watched as people try to outrun the trucks at Katagonist Scrap Metal um when the trucks are trying to pull in at the end of the day. Monday, I called public works and spoke to Danielle. I wanted to get information on what we had to do to get speed bumps put on our street as no child should ever have the same fate as my neighbor's cat. I was told that the speed bump policy has been changed and they were announcing the decision tonight at this meeting. I have since found out that that decision is bumped back to the following meeting next time. Um, however, I'm going to ask where are the police? Why isn't there anyone patrolling our streets? Parking

enforcement drives up and down our street every day and make sure that they ticket all of us residents, even if we are parked in front of our own houses. My husband got a parking ticket two months ago for parking in front of our house. And he was too close to the stop sign. Quotes. This is the same place we have parked for the 24 years we have lived in our house. We were not too close to the stop sign. We left ample room but still got a ticket. If we can afford parking enforcement that writes bogus tickets, why can't we afford to hire enough police officers to patrol the traffic in our town? I would like to see more traffic, more police enforcing the speed in our residential streets. I would like to see public works fully functioning so that we can get the speed bumps that we need for our street. I am frustrated and angry that this has gotten to this point and everyone passes the buck. We pay more money in taxes than almost anyone in Montgomery County. Yet, we can't even get the police to handle traffic.

KR Pop.

Good evening everyone. My name is Cayer Propat. I'm a local Nortown resident. am also a local Norristown business owner. Um I'm here today to speak about the adoption of ordinance 26-01. Um I did a lot of research, a lot of due diligence trying to understand exactly what this um what's being amended here and I have to be honest with you guys. I'm I'm completely confused because it doesn't talk about anything like, you know, is somebody grandfathered like in our case where we come we came before the council and got our exemptions and everything done to get the facility approved. um nor does it speak about uh different types of enforcements and you know there's just it's it's very vaguely written and when I called to try to get some information about it I was told that the gentleman who wrote the um exceptions to the uh to the ordinance, Mr. Leonard Lightner, he's no longer part of the um association. So he wasn't able to speak to exactly what they were trying to accomplish or or do with this. So, um I'm here to speak that we I don't feel that that adoption should be passed tonight. Thank you.

Anam Gupta.

Good evening everyone. My name is Katam Gupta and I'm a small business owner in Narishan. Uh like my partner said, we really depend on these uh gaming right now in our business and that keeps our business survive. All right. Thank you,

Tony Patel. Mike Patel, Mike Patel, Melvin Fast. Good evening, council. Um, it's been a while since I've been here, last three months or so, but um, I come back with that singular issue of mine to speeding on West Street. And I echo the young lady back here that was talking about speeding in her neighborhood. Well, on advice of um Fire Chief O'Donnell on the last meeting that was here in November, I went around to our state rep. I talked to Mr. Buck Jones. He gave me a map of all the Pendot um streets in Nortown. And guess what? West area street is not a part of Pendot. So is under the jurisdiction of Narstown, the burrow. So you guys know, I've talked about it number times that so many accidents that I've witnessed and I mean still going on and on and on. I' I've sent pictures to Kevin. So he has those pictures, too. I mean, we've had sometimes two and three accidents a day on West area and some. So again, I ask you guys, can we do something since now we know that it's our job. It's Nortown. It's not Pendot. It's Nortown. Can we do something about that? Can we again, we don't want to put the burden on them on the police because manpower, but it's got to be some type of way, something that we can put some or enforce some

speed traps. Can we do some speed bumps? Can we put yellow lights? Can we put some type of signage that slows the traffic down because we're going to have more and more fatalities not only on West area in Selma but all over the burrow. That's what I have. Thank you.

Not sure the first name begins with a C and it's Falco or Kaitlyn. Yeah, Kaitlyn. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Caitlyn Falco and I'm a home homeowner on the 1300 block of West James Street intersecting Matselma. I'm here tonight to ask for a simple but urgent safety measure, the installation of a speed bump on our street. West James Street is not a highway. It's a residential road where families live and children play. Yet, on a daily basis, drivers treat it like a shortcut, speeding well over the posted 25 miles per hour limit. It's not uncommon to see cars traveling 40 miles hour or more. Even more concerning, we have personally witnessed drivers go through the stop sign at about 50 miles per hour without even slowing down. It's not just frustrating, it's dangerous. There are many children living on our street. Not only that, the 1300 block is home to AIS Park where I personally see hundreds of kids a week. They ride bikes, play outside, and wait for school buses. At the current speeds drivers are reaching, it only takes one mistake for a tragedy to occur. We should not have to constantly fear for their safety just because some drivers choose to ignore the law. The issue has already had a painful impact recently. My pet cat, who was extremely cautious crossing the street and greatly loved by the whole neighborhood, was killed by a speeding car. We watched it happen. The driver didn't slow down at the stop sign and didn't stop afterward. While some may see this as just a pet, to us it represents a larger problem. If a careful animal doesn't stand a chance, what about a child? A speed bump is a practical, proven solution. It forces drivers to slow down regardless of their intentions. It doesn't rely on constant enforcement and immediately makes the street safer for everyone who lives here. We're not asking for something excessive, just a reasonable step to protect our neighborhood and prevent future harm. Please help us make West James Street a safer place before something even worse happens. Thanks for your time and consideration. Dim Chung Isaac Argues. Argues

on me. Uh, good morning ladies and gentlemen of the council. First time being here. Um, I came here because of ordinance 26-02 about window signage. I'm a store owner myself and signage provides both privacy and protection for us. Uh, we don't want any prize. You know, not everyone has the best of intentions. I understand that, you know, we want to see more commercial inside, but for us, it's it's a matter of safety. And for that, I I would like you guys to consider not helping us. Thank you,

Jose Vargas. Good afternoon. Jose, my name is Jose.

I live here inst. Um, I am not with you with the ordinance that you're trying to pass. Um, I feel like it's my culture that I'm trying to show and a little bit more of my business and I feel like it's just a little bit of privacy towards our business, too. And I'm not with you to pass in the ordinance. and I am not okay with you guys taking a decision without talking to the business owners in the area. It also helps me with privacy because I have my register near the windows and I feel like it's safety for me and for other people. And I feel like you should take us more in consideration to making decisions with other ordinances because we pay taxes too and we own businesses and we also live here in the community.

Thank you. Thank you,

Denise. Hi, good afternoon. Um, I'm Denise at 335 West Marshall Street. Um, I'm here as a representative of Nortown Latino Business Coalition is a Latino Business Coalition who go to we work together. So many of our um business owner cannot be here but we I bring the message that they say it. So we have our meeting last week and after we saw the ordinance number 26 that's O2. So we into very disagreement because we discuss the education piece. So, and also communication, you know, or um 40% of Latino population here, we don't um have the honor to have a um support our language. So, nobody from the municipality come out and talk to us or even talk to our business owner in Marshall um commercial district at all. So, they don't know about this. This just come in Facebook and we start to do some research around. So I talked to um David about it a little bit but I don't have the whole information even though I can do my own research. I can inform them them but it's not the same. So I asking you to stop this both today because we need more information and also our community need more information education and at least have um town hall something like that or with soning people and come out and say what is this

for? um because it's not clear, nobody communicate them. So it's kind of you know frustrated for us to give them the info that we are limited. We don't talk with any of you guys just David but not like for real like you know this is the proposal I talked to um the chamber Hispanic chambers of Philadelphia that we are part of and they explain this to us. They send some information that I'm able to send it to you if you need it so you can read from that. I understand some of this um what is this behind this but I think it's complicated for the owners as well for the business owner so and you see our um commercial district is very diversity so we call this is the living room of norish town and you can see so you walk you go there and the restaurants and everything I think it's not like you know 25% is like kind of a little space in the window so we need to I asking you guys to stop today and if you can show us with some research or talk to the chambers of commerce and so like that and we able to maybe sit and discuss this and make some amendments. So that was my um that is coming from the northern Latino business coalition. Right. Thank you Ashish.

Good afternoon gentlemen. I'm a Ashish Pula. I'm from a small business owner in Ntopa and I'm here today for that gaming what you're doing today. The that's why I've showed up here. Thank you. Looks like SAR. S A HR. I have uh did anyone else who did not sign up for public comment have a public comment? Okay. All right. Moving on to police. Uh resolution number 26-33 request for municipal council approval to promote an officer to rank corporal.

Members of council uh before you um we have previously discussed in executive session uh a list that was certified by civil service in the beginning of this year for the promotion of corporal. We promoted a corporal uh earlier this year um who will be sworn in tonight but between the two meetings we actually had another corporal depart the department. So, I'm here before you tonight to ask you to uh promote to the position of corporal from patrolman, officer Edward Todd. It's my goal to have him once he's appointed, we'll get him sworn in next meeting. Um, and that should get us back to staffing at the corporate level.

Council, any questions? All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion uh for resolution 26-23 to request municipal counsel for approval to promote an officer from rank corporal? So move. Uh madam secretary McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Allie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. Hi. Rashad Bates. I The eyes have it. All right. And then we'll move on to administration oath. Excuse me. administration of oath of the officer of officer police corporal promotion struggle today.

Um so before you hear on those motions the actual swearing in of Corporal Klinger who was promoted on the 17th again um we'll work to make sure this process gets a little cleaner as we move forward but this gets us back to the corporal staffing level for right now. So I thank you and uh with that I'll bring forward Officer Klinger and his family. So Josh What an honor it is to be here tonight to one of my f offices. I say that to the most.

Well, no, I say it to you more, right? Because you're in my office more. But I am here to administer the oath of office to to you. And I'm asking that you repeat after me when I what I'm about to say. Raise your right hand. Bible. Hand on the Bible. Um, I your name I, William Clar do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support obey and defend 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

and I will enforce the laws of this commonwealth and and in Nortown of this Commonwealth and the municipality of Nortown and that I will discharge the duties of my office and I will discharge the duties of my office as a police corporal as a police corporal for the municipality of the Nortown Police Department for the municipality of the Northtown Police Department with honor and fidelity with honor and fidelity. I do further swear I do further swear that I would uphold that I'll uphold obey obey and enforce the law and enforce the law without consideration without consideration of a person's race person's race color sex color sex religious creed religious creed sexual orientation sexual orientation age age

national origin national origin ancestry ancestry handicap handicap and us disabilities and us disabilities congratulations Congratulations. This is his copy.

Would you like to sign this and I will I will seal it and I Thank you. All right, moving along here. Uh, planning and municipal development, uh, public, uh, excuse me, public hearing to request the adoption of ordinance 26-01, amusement device amendment.

Oh, you would need a motion to open the public hearing, Mr. President. A motion to open the public hearing. I have a motion to open the public hearing. So move what? I can do all all in favor. That's fine. All in favor? I thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh uh Mr. President, I am going to do uh take care of some administrative matters first. Then Miss Misier is going to give an uh an explanation of the amendment. Then there will be an opportunity for public comment uh on the amendment uh and we already heard some actually during the regular public comment period. Uh then council could either uh close the public hearing or continue the public hearing to a later date and then vote on the ordinance or not vote on the ordinance uh this evening. One thing I did want to uh clear up as I'm sure it'll be a question council would hear before we begin is uh one of the issues raised uh was uh grandfathering. Right. So, if someone had an a a legitimate zoning use that was grandfathered and then council went ahead and changed that, they're they're grandfathered, right? So, they would have to abandon that use, meaning they would not continue that use uh for a year and then they would lose that. But other than that, this would not change existing uh existing lawful uses. So, just wanted council to understand uh that. Uh so, uh I'm going to go ahead and mark some exhibits for the record. M1 municipal one is a is a copy of the advertisement of uh this ordinance and this hearing schedule that was in the Times Herald or newspaper of general circulation on April 6th and April 13th as required by law. Uh M2 would be a copy of the ordinance itself. M3 would be a a copy of the Montgomery County Planning Commission review letter as is required by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Clo dated March 18th um 2026. And now I will turn it over to Miss Msier uh with any kind of uh with an explanation of the ordinance amendment.

Thank you um solicitor. I'd like to uh point out to council in the audience that uh uh there's a history to this particular ordinance amendment. So I'd like to read that in the um in the public record so that you're aware of how this came about. Um municipal council approved a previous amusement ordinance because it was actually under independent court not under the zoning in 2023. In August of 2025, we took this matter to the planning and zoning staff and we attended a meeting with members of council and the solicitor to discuss the amusement device amendment. Uh in February of 2026, council approved the authorization to advertise a public hearing for the ordinance 26-01. On March 18th, 2026, the Montgomery County Planning Commission reviewed it and sent a letter as a solicitor uh mentioned. Uh it's important for us to know how we came about this. Uh Pennsylvania basically passed the skill games and slot machine like games and said that they were allowed and to be owned and operated in commercial buildings where the primary use is not related to casinos or gambling. That's how this whole ordinance amendment came about. Uh when we adopted or council adopted the ordinance in 2023, the following districts allowed for this use as a primary use, meaning the the main use. This is four machines of amusement devices were permitted as a special exception in the following zoning districts. The main street mixeduse district, which is also known as MSMU. The neighborhood commercial district, also known as NC. the downtown riverfront which is also known as DR.

The town center also known as TC and the town center 2 also known as TC2. It also allowed these uses are primary use as in the limited industrial mixed use that is the also known as LIMU district. In this um adoption, permits and arcades of businesses with four or more amusement devices um were allowed by special exception. However, with this amendment, uh it's going to actually eliminate those uses in the districts that that I just mentioned, Main Street, neighborhood, downtown, town center, town center 2, and limited industrial. Now I must clarify if you have three and less those can be permitted as um uh accessory use. So it's not eliminating everything per se. It's just for and above which would only be permitted with what we say conditional use. Meaning if you wanted to do to have this use in the districts that are permitted and in this ordinance the only district that will be permitted to have this use as four and above would be the commercial retail district and that will be by council approval. So you'd have to apply it to council and council would then have a hearing as we're having right now and council would vote on it based on of course all the information they'll receive both from the applicant as well as the public. So in this particular amendment uh it also references that we would require at least 1,000 ft separation of this use from schools, child care facilities, parks, religious institutional uh institutions, hospitals and similar child oriented uses.

uh would also require in this ordinance that there be a 1,000 ft separation from another arcade or amusement device use. And there will be hours also associated with this use. And that is there will be limited hours which would allow this use from 10:00 a.m. to 11 p.m. And all these are issues and conditions that would be considered during the conditional uh hearing process. This uh amendment did not come about lightly. We had hired a planning uh specialist who did a survey and basically came back with recommendations to council. Council heard those recommendations. Council had public uh hearings and in fact uh as I mentioned before uh presented council earlier on I think was about two meetings ago uh with the issue of whether we can go ahead and advertise. Council gave us that permission. We advertised this particular um amendment and that's why we're here tonight for council to uh approve this amendment. Uh with that that concludes my visitation.

You want to see if there was public? Yeah. Um now is time if you have a public comment you can come up now. Last name is Popat spelled P O P A T. No address or anything needed.

Okay. Um, thank you again. I'm sorry. We weren't told that uh there was Again, like I said, it was very hard to get any information on this at this time. So, we weren't told that. Um, again, I appreciate the fact that if you're grandfathered in, that helps us with with one of our uh establishments. The other thing I I what I could understand is limiting from 11 to 10. Like if you're a 24-hour gas station or if you're, you know, if you're a convenience store that's open 24 hours, um, in our case, we're grandfather, but we would have had a problem because we're open till 2:00 on Fridays and Saturdays till 11 o'clock on weekdays. That was fine. Um, again, so I think there's a lot of good and I do agree with most of what I what what what was written in there. I think just with a few uh changes, I think it's something that is positive that could be helpful. Um, again, a little bit more understanding that if they don't have an exception right now, how would they have to get that exception if they already currently have more than, you know, those machines in there, but and they never applied for an exception, but nothing was done. like is there any chance that you can go back and get an exception now or and then who's going to determine who's first? Like if you get a a license, obviously your next door neighbor can't get it. It's 1,000 ft, which is actually a lot further than I think we realize what 1,000 ft is. Like if you walk it, that's pretty far. So, um that'll really limit who would be able to and not be able to partake.

I will repeat what the solicitors did say. When you have whatever you have at this moment, you are grandfather of what we call a non-conforming use, meaning you are protected as it is. So the new laws cannot affect you. So you can continue with that use. Um, however, if you want to increase start from now or start from again, you'd either if you're in a district that was not mentioned that I just mentioned, then you'd have to go for a variance to the zoning hearing board unless you are going to go to the commercial retail district. That's when you would go for conditional that you'd come in front of the board uh the council.

Sounds great. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Hello, my name is Kaden Beagle. K A D N B E G L E. I'm a resident of Norristown and I was not preparing to speak tonight. Uh but this is something important that I feel I should put my my voice to. Um when it comes to um uh skill games, games games uh amusement games to this degree, um it it it is thinly veiled gambling. um cashre reward uh skill games or games that incorporate some kind of gambling and a reward of financial uh output uh take advantage of uh human biology to elicit a reaction of reward within the brain and cause addiction is just the same and important to acknowledge the advantage what it takes advantage of people's uh brain chemistry um just as alcoholism, narcotics, all sorts of things like that. It is important to identify the fact that um businesses that you implement these sort of programs, these sort of uh devices are taking advantage of people within the community. Uh people who are vulnerable, especially people who do not understand how this can harm them. uh when it comes to this, I've seen this directly and negatively affecting people personally and just in my happenings around the the town. Namely, there's a business on the corner

with the gas station that has to my understanding completely uh given up on its business of being a corner store with uh products and has turned into a gambling site. It is a casino and as you may know the saying goes the house always wins. These uh devices are used for profit. They are they benefit the business because they are taking advantage of people. Um I just want to say that thank you.

Are there any other uh public comments? And uh Mr. President, just be uh just before uh council decides to close the public hearing or continues to, I just wanted to be clear what council is doing tonight is severely limiting skill gains in Norristown. U you're required by law skill games are a lawful use for better or worse or whatever, but what you're doing is you're restricting the areas in Norristown where it could be and putting much tighter parameters on that. You can't totally abolish that because that would be unlawful. But what staff has done and council is considering to do is narrow the places where skill gain new skill gains can come into Norristown. Just to be clear so everyone understands council's action or potential action.

Thank you for that. All right. Uh council, do I have a motion to close the public comment? First question.

Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I just had a question just to clarify just to clarify grandfathering so that I'm understood. Uh can you clarify for us uh for the record that when and where grandfathering comes into play? And I'm specifically asked that in essence prior to my time on counselor before this ordinance were there measures taken by those said business owners to have applied or gotten some type of use for the the items that they already have in space? So, I just want to clarify that grandfathering means that you already have uh permission under some clause to do it, not that you just went and got some and no one has said anything about it.

You would have to have some kind of permit or sanction by Norristown and that's when grandfathering would kick in. Uh if if Norristown goes ahead and changes this tonight and if you're continued to be grandfather and you're continuing that use, you have the right to go ahead and do that. But if you abandon that use uh say your vis business goes vacant or something like that for a year then it then it would fall under this new these new requirements. That's how it works. Thank you. Now if it if they if someone went ahead and put skill games or anything else in without permitting then this ordinance applies. It only kicks in if there was a lawful previous lawful use. Thank you for that clarification.

No further questions. No problem. Anyone else? No one. Okay. All right. Council, um, can I have a motion to close the public comment? So, move. Second. All in favor? Okay. And then now I ask um for a motion uh to adopt ordinance 26-01, amusement device amendment. So, move. Second. Uh, Madam Secretary, William McCoy, I. Dear Robinson, hi. Alley Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi, David McMahon. Hi, Dustin Queen. Hi, Rashad Bates. I The eyes have it.

All right, moving along. Uh,

Yep. Okay. Should I do that before?

Okay. Thank you. Uh council, do I have a motion to open open up the public hearing for uh ordinance that 26-02 of the window signage amendment? So second all in favor.

All right. Again, M1 will be a copy of this uh advertisement of this ordinance in a newspaper general circulation, which is the Times Herald, on the 6th of April and the 13th of April as required by law. M2 will be a copy of the review of the Montgomery uh county planning commission. And M3 will be a copy of the ordinance itself. Like we did previously, Miss Misier will now give an explanation of this ordinance. Thank you, solicitor. Uh, so I'll give you a little history and then I'll get to the facts and issues. Uh, in June 2025, planning staff uh created a booklet that explains ordinance requirements and provides practical examples to help businesses owners remain without within allowable limits. We had a little pamphlet that we gave our code enforcement officers. gave us uh zoning enforcement officer to drop off as many pamphlets as they could and they had it both in English and Spanish. Uh so we we were reaching out to the community to let them know uh what the sign ordinances basically included. In August of 2025, uh we attended a meeting with council and the municipal admin uh solicitor basically to look at the ordinance and see what we needed to amend because we were seeing excessive signage that basically was not in keeping with the signed ordinance. In February of 2026, council approved us to authorize advertisement of the amendment uh for ordinance 2020 2602. And in March 23rd, the uh Montgomery County Planning Commission did their review and they gave us their comments. On April 6th and 13th, we published the

notice in the um Times Herald u letting the public know that this amendment was coming to council for consideration. Now, to hear the facts and issues, the the current zoning as it is permits only 25% of window coverage for signage or commercial storms. A review of businesses across the municipality found that many of these uh establishments actually exceed that limit and it's been so for quite a while and uh the planning uh department as well as council understands that this has been going on for a while. So in the rolling out of this amendment, I think this was brought up during the council meeting when we were asked for the advertisement, we would be moving this uh amendment slow implications of uh basically adopting it a little slower than normal because we want to educate the public on what is correct and what isn't. Uh while we were doing that, the uh police department actually approached the planning department and uh brought to our attention that the excessive window signage was actually a public safety risk. Uh the public um risk is that the the police officers cannot see in this establishment. Neither can the people in the establishment see actually what's going on outside and it pose a particular risk. Therefore, when we brought this issue in front of council, uh we made sure that that information was uh brought to to to their attention and the police chief in fact um had some comments on that issue. So obstruction of or visibility of this commercial space can also hinder an emergency responses if the public does not know what's going inside an establishment and it may compromise the safety also of the law enforcement as well as the occupants of the store. So this amendment is actually to regulate the placing of um

uh shelving as well because we noticed a lot of establishments were also using their merchandise to actually block the window so that you could not see inside and this obstruction have been an issue as I mentioned with with seeing what is going on in the establishment. So this amendment is looking to uh have the merchandise pushed inwards uh at least 5 ft. There have been concerns by uh some of our council members uh namely I want to name Councilman Med who is very concerned understandably uh and as we talked a little more about this we thought maybe we should start this way and maybe we can look at it a little further as we go along but we have to have a start somewhere otherwise we still have the issues of windows being totally blocked and the safety issue being uh out there. So um the current ordinance as it reads that is section 328 317 any sign mounted affixed or painted on a window or a sign inside a building which can be seen from outside the building window or door. Window signs may be permanent or temporary shall not exceed 25% of the window area. I want to emphasize that's the law right now. uh and now we're looking to uh not only amend because of the merchandise issue, but we're looking to also educate and start implementing the enforcement of that law. Um and tonight I want to reassure you it still remains at 25% of the glass area and it's not being changed and we ask council to approve so that we can start the process of enforcement. But as I had mentioned to council before, we're going to use as uh uh many of the um municipal employees, code enforcements, police officers,

whoever we can that reaches the establishments to be able to educate them and also let them know it's not only for their safety, but it's also for the public uh service safety. That's why we're asking you to consider this tonight.

Okay? And then this time will be for the public. If you have a comment or a question, you can come up and talk about this. Jose O J. Okay. Uh once again I feel like I am against this ordinance just um I know she explained a little bit of what it is about but I feel like uh we are not doing any bad or harm with our signs. A lot of us have it in our businesses already. And I feel like she said, police officers actually need to come over more to our businesses and check what's inside, talk to the business

owners and see that everything is fine in in the place. And like I said, I do have businesses in the area. I have a second one where the register it is next to the window. So that it's going to have to make me move that to the back of the store so that I have a little bit more privacy on what I'm doing there just because I'm going to have to off the window. Also, we do this a lot just because we need to keep an eye around the business outside and inside in case anything happens or we need to do anything um in case there's an emergency. In my opinion, I don't think there's any issues with what we have in our windows or um it shouldn't cause any harm to anyone.

We are always cooperating with the police officers. We do have a button where we can call right away to the police, but I don't think there's any harm other than them coming and talking to us.

Thank you. Good evening, Councilman, women. Great to see you again. Uh, Isaac Aguas. A I S A C. Uh, last name A.

Isaac. I acco Ru E L L E S. Thank you. Uh, I think that, uh, police being able to see inside of the store for safety makes a lot of sense on paper. Um, I think it's different for business owners that spend the majority of their time at these businesses, eight hours plus. We know about our safety. We believe that privacy gives us safety. And I mean, I for one, I have a my mom and my sister that work there, too. And I surely would not want any harm coming their way. I don't know what the right percentage would be. Um I do think that 35 is too little. I think that um we need to I don't know discuss have have officers come to the to these businesses and and really see how many like really need this new ordinance. Thank you for your time. already in place. Correct. So, I just want to make sure you understand this is not a new ordinance

and as a business owner myself, I'm just curious. What type of safety would that bring you that someone can't because I have a storefront that's wide open and I see it from a different standpoint. Yeah. I mean, like a lot of businesses, we want to sell our merchandise. We want it to get to the customer. So, right, obviously there's we're not going to cover everything. Um,

for for me personally, our the way our grocery store is, our back is to the window and like someone could sneak right up on us if like we didn't have that. Ours is like a sticker that like we can see outside but you can't see inside,

right? It's uh it also like shows all of our products and everything on it. Um and I'm sorry I didn't know it was a standing ordinance. We didn't actually get any notice this. I found out today from my mom because um she help the committee lady for the Latino businesses. She came to our store. She told us that you guys were having this today and it was very last minute for me. Mhm. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

And um Denise D. D E N I S E. Ato. A G U R T A G U R T O. Ato. T

T Okay. Um my comment on this is um when we talk about safety at this time with this administration. So I'm afraid that I we need safety and the way that some windows need to be covered. ICE is all over. I think I can see many of the community when I see is on our streets we go into the business for our safety. So for them to you know be inside on a business is like escape from there they are really you know trying to take them out of the communities. So I think when we talk safety we need to think more than just you know you the police can see. So we have now working with the police and they are doing a good job going out and talk to the community members. But I think at this time is different for ice in our streets and our uh all the windows with this coverage is have a you know sense now that makes sense. So we need to worry about something else like not just seeing about talking about police going inside but it's eyes too. So we always go out in our commercial district and do an outreach with the business owner and we give it some you know information about ice all over and we just saying put like don't enter you see do not enter in this business and also we advertise we tell them to trying to cover some spaces for that situation if there are in the street and they need to you know the customers get in and be safe inside there. So we need to think more than just because these times you know it's hard is every day here is all over and we need to be you know to talk more like not just this type of ordinance going to keep our um our neighbors or community members not safe at that way if you just take all of this out of the windows and

and also uh for us as culture so we need to respect that too it's a cultural thing is you know diversity um we bring up pattern or traditions or a culture So it's more than just I know um uh you said this is something in Nortown already but thinking more we are 40% so I want to continue repeat that 40% of the population with Latino and the census show that we are a hu population here so Latino here so we need to really you know like thinking more and I think education is a good piece that you need to incorporate in every single ordinance for our community because not everybody um ever I can see Latin you know, um, you have the education, the piece of that we need. So, I think that was important. So, thank you.

Hello. How you doing? Good evening. Jen Jen, J I N C H U N G.

Yeah. Um, good evening. Um, I didn't want I didn't have any plans to, you know, come in here and uh, uh, talk to you guys, but, you know, I'm the owner of the, uh, one of the stores on the, uh, Main Street, 500 West March Street, as you guys know, it's a Splain uh, beauty supply discount stores. And, uh, we've been there for like uh, opening for about two years. And um I just heard uh from one of uh the friends over there uh told me about the this coverage of the you know uh the banners and stuff and I found that out um I feel like that uh exposed from the outside is more dangerous uh for us to feel like because of there's many transaction of the monies and uh you know stuff like that and if it's being shown from outside doesn't make us feel that much comfortable and uh feel safe about those being shown outside. And you know most of the stuff that it actually protects us is uh because we have a great camera systems inside of our stores. You know that's how we get you know uh catching up and you know all those uh thieves and you know other um un approp appropriate uh situations you know not uh exposing to you know outside you know so um and also at the same time if it's 5t uh from the window that takes us a lot of spaces that we could display the products and that actually impacts our uh advertising and uh display spaces too. So it also at the same time affects our uh businesses and also makes us and my employees feels like it's more we're

like naked outside on the street which means that you know uh the street right now um and the north sound and the you know in the world right now is not that uh not makes us feel that safe. That's why we are sending a lot of uh pepper sprays and the stun guns you know. Um, I could only say that it's not that safe outside right now. So, uh, if it is too open outside, uh, we feel like it's going to be more chance to get us attacked or, you know, giving us more, you know, uh, seeing from, uh, I would say more bad people to be seen outside from outside. So uh I don't think that 25% or you know those kind of stuff are uh that good for us to keep run our businesses and you know produce our products to my customers you know they also have their monies and if you know some bad people sees more transaction of the money you know who knows you know what's going to happen so uh with that reason I think it will be more I would like to have you guys more concern of whatever that you're actually trying to you know amendment yeah spot thank you kia k i a boring b y n so I'm hearing a lot of protection and they're fearing and I just want to know how many of any of these businesses been robbed or you know what I'm saying you know, with the protection. How many have been, you know, violated already since, you know, cuz all I'm hearing is like the protection and, you know, protection. But if you go up Marshall Street and you and you try to go in some of these establishes, me personally, they don't even they don't even service

me. They won't even let me in. The old Walters is all covered up. We go in there to go eat. Oh, no, no, no. We don't serve you. So, what's going on here? I'm part of this community, too.

Any other public comments? Okay. Council member Coulson question. Did youble to compare this ordinance to other townships or municipalities around um I thought Yes. Okay.

Thank you. Um so I I will reiterate this uh the 35% uh law has been in existence really since 2016. It's just the enforcement is not really uh happening. However, the setback of the merchandise, we did compare that with many municipalities and one of the municipalities we actually looked at which has been impacted with very similar issue. I know it's across the country but it's very similar and that is in California. There were other municipalities as well. Um I don't have them right here but we did compare before we made that proposal. But as I mentioned before, uh we did get feedback from a councilman who said, "Well, you may want to consider maybe reducing the setback because of the size of some of the stores might be too small and might affect the businesses." And some other issues about creativity, which I do not dismiss, but as I said, um we have to start somewhere so that we can get to where we need to be. And perhaps that's a conversation we can continue with the business community and any other communities that are impacted. We have to sell somewhere.

Understand. Thank you. Uh Jane, I had a question. Uh the one gentleman, I think it's Jose came up. He's talking about or someone about cash register. So I guess while they're running business, their window is behind them and they have a cash register. Does that change anything with that ordinance? Like it's not it's not an actual um merchandise or anything like that. It's a person. Would they be able to do anything to block that? that would block them from people seeing them like putting cash in and out of their register. How does that how would that work? Well, it's it's how you strategize where your sign is going to be at. Okay. Okay. So, uh if that's if you're considering safety and maybe that's the sign that is going to shield you. Mhm.

Uh rather than shield the particular machine, maybe that's what you should consider. Okay. But that's that's the only answer I can think of at this moment unless there's anything else. Oh, Councilman McMahon.

Um, yeah, the the piece that's new is is the five foot setback and it's pretty clear that senses of vulnerability and exposure cut both ways um in these situations. Um, but I do want to address the um the five foot setback in particular and maybe make a suggestion that we do one more concerted effort to do community and business outreach on this because here's the thing. Uh what we're doing here um is you know if if you know like window shopping is is literally a thing. Uh businesses have storefronts to show their wares. Um one example would be we're telling a store that could have four mannequins in their window that we're only going to permit them to have one. Right. Um so I just you know I I think we need to get a little more that would be the 25%. That's where the see. So if if you had four mannequins and we would be saying the 25% rule would only permit you to have to have one. Yeah. Because the 25 if I'm am I reading that correctly? Like if if you know your window can fit four, we're saying you can only have 20.

Now this is also about displays. This would be

Yeah. But but the the new part of this is that you can't have um anything in the range in the window fiveT from the glass and back. Am I reading that correctly? That's correct. You're correct. Okay. Because this is the this is the piece that I find the most concerning in ter in terms of um having unique places um eye-catching places that bring people to Norristown. Uh that kind of thing. Um I'm just wondering if we can uh do one more round of um community input. Um make it, you know, make this get get more support and buy in for it. Um I I would make a motion to table this for one month while we review make sure we have some more uh targeted meetings around the question. Um solicit a little more input to the concern some of the concerns we've heard here tonight. Um so that would be my contribution to this conversation hopefully. Um,

so, uh, then what if that's what council wanted to do, I would suggest you continue the public hearing until, uh, whatever the council meeting is in a month. Uh, whatever. Let's see what that would be. Maybe give us two months or two months, but you you thinking two. Okay. Well, it's up to you. whatever council wants to do. I mean, I'm open to recommendations of of people whose expertise is in planning and and what's realistic as well. Um, so yeah, you're Yeah, there was a council meeting on May 19th, which roughly I just want I just want to make a comment.

Um, as being a business owner, I do want to say Nortown is very lenient compared to other municipalities. Um, for example, when I had to do my for display, I had to hire architect. Um, I wasn't allowed to submit plans without an architect. I don't know if you guys know architects cost, but it's costly. Um, once again, she stated this was in effect since 2016, has been enforced. So, that means we're willing to work with the business owners because if we weren't, you wouldn't have nothing in your window right now or you know, we we would have been. So, it's not that we're not willing to work with you. It's not like they're going to rush to start finding everybody and things of that nature. They're just want to start this is the foundation that we could start going back to quality of life. There's certain things we have to put in place. We do get a lot of complaints, you know, like we're not enforcing this, we're not enforcing that. It's not that we're going to run out because we won business. So, we're not going to run out and say, "Hey, here's your tickets. Here's your tickets. Here's your tickets." Because we could have been doing that since 2016. I think what the municipality is trying to do is like, hey, this is the law. We're gonna conform with what everybody else is doing plus a little bit more lenient because I'm pretty sure do we have a law where you have to use an architect for your floor plan to submit paperwork

unless it's a code building issue.

Okay. So, like I said, NASA has been very elite. I don't think that's the case. I think it's granted we do want to have that communication. We want to start talking to education. understand like you say it could be cultural but we haven't had a heavy hand in North Central for businesses at all that I know of you know so like I'm I have a business in Bridgeport you can't put nothing on your window and I get it for me I everybody's different I like being seen because if I'm getting robbed don't want someone walking by to be say hey he getting robbed and I do look I I was born and raised in our town if pe people that are criminals they don't want to be seen So, if you're blocking that, believe it or not, you're increasing your chance of being robbed. I understand what you're saying about ICE. That's another thing we could talk about because I'm not sure they're allowed to walk into uh private businesses without a warrant, if I'm correct, unless someone runs in to your store and we can talk about that. The solister could do this research. I'm not a lawyer, so we can get back to you about that information. Um, but I just want to make sure everybody fully Oh, Councilman Dustin Queen, I'm sorry. I just want to make sure everybody understands this is not something we're going to just start hitting you with. We want to work with it. We're just trying to lay a foundation and work from there. And if anybody says we haven't been working for people, please let us know. But I I think we've been like since 2016, we really haven't enforced.

There is no council meeting on the 19th. This is the primary election. There's a council meeting on the 20th. So Okay. So, I I just want to get that that across what we're trying to do. Yeah.

And I appreciate your point which uh Dustin um most of most of my consideration um has been on the the five- foot rule and the display portion of it, what what that means. Um but then actually I had not considered the fact that you know um people actually in this moment in time and during this administration are actually using uh businesses kind of as places of refuge as well. So I that's why I'm thinking maybe we talk a little bit more about this. Um and again I'm just offering it as a proposal at the table. It's it's up to the rest of you. But these are kind of I I think that there's been some things brought up tonight that um are worthy of consideration and not in an open-ended way that we put it that tonight we also put a a target end date for a discussion on it as well. But that would be my proposal.

Just question what would you propose that might change in your mind? The um the the uh the setback from the window. See that's the thing that's new like so like in Philly there's a 25% window rule. don't have that extra piece of like you know where you can't like display your wares like more fully in the window that that kind of goes in with the 25% rule like you can't block 25% your window that's with displays for but if if I'm not mistaken for example in Philadelphia and nearby towns that that's applying to the the glass they don't have that the distance setback is the thing that's more unique in our area to this ordinance

can I make a sorry because I have to steal his like mic. So, um I just I feel like there's still a lot of questions. Um, and I don't think it would hurt to have that end date of the next, not the next, May 20th, just to have all of them answered and to have the the education piece and everything just so it's made clear because it feels like it's not very clear to everybody. And I think it wouldn't hurt just to have that time just so everything can be clear. there's a genuine understanding and then when that date hits everything's like there's a full scale understanding of what this means both with the window the five the five foot set back everything because I just think at this moment we're being asked to do I guess more due diligence in speaking with people and getting people to understand and I just feel like it wouldn't hurt to take that time to do that.

Sorry. I agree with you there. Um, but can I make a com I agree I agree with you, but I'll be curious like is it we want something to change because what if nothing changes? I I just want to see what what like if we come back and we all talk about it and it's still the same thing. I'm just curious like what would the next step be? But then we would have done the time taken the time to ensure that's that's really all it is to ensure that because what if we come back and it has to change like what if something we f find out something and it needs to change. It's just taking that amount of time to really just dig into it. So the only

Yeah, that's the part. So and and for me, maybe it's just maybe it's less distance, maybe it's, you know, two or three feet or in a way that things can could still be seen around. Um, but again, I we're kind of um I just want to make sure that we're not, you know, we're not doing something in an unintentional way that we're going to very definitely say we're going to limit the exposure of what you can put in your windows overall, including the things that you're trying to sell, including establishing establishing the identity of your store. And just be a little more clear about that because this the the five- foot rule is the new piece. Um, so I would just like to um, you know, just make sure that everyone's going in with a fuller conversation. Um, and I don't know, I guess I'm repeating myself at this point, but it's just to be clear about just to be clear about that. Um, but again, I don't mean it for it to be an open-ended thing. I think we have the conversation um, if we do uh, vote to uh, to pass this at a future date that we have some kind of like tracking on the success or not of it and sort of do that. Can I y

after public comment? Okay. Yeah. M. Oh,

Sanita Griffin. S Y N I T A Griffin. G R I F F E N. I'm just listening to all the council and I get what you're saying, Dustin. I get what you're saying, Dave. And I understand what you're saying, Jasmine. The thing that I'm hearing is that this law is already in place. It just Narstown never enforced this law. Nartown is now trying to take all the laws and the ordinances that were already in place and now enforce them. So I get that. Yes. Okay. we go answer these questions, make sure everything is clear from all the questions of the public so that we can satisfy the public by saying we did not ignore their questions and their concerns. But once we satisfy the public with all their questions and concerns, then we move forward with this ordinance and saying that the law that were already put in place just continues and then they just have to abide by the rule because it was already there. is just now enforcing a rule that was already there. That That's my thought.

That's a good thought because we we do want to seem considerate. We do want to work with our businesses of that nature. So, we maybe like you said, if it's a cultural thing, we can sit down, have a conversation, clear the air, and make sure we're all on the same page. And I understand what you're saying, Councilman Griff. Councilwoman, my fault. Yeah,

my name is Kaden Beagle. K A D-Ne um I wanted to pose a question. Hopefully this is okay. Um, I wanted to, excuse my ignorance, but I wanted to understand is there any current ordinance, zoning, anything like that putting in put in place that defines that a business must have a glass front or is there anything blocking them from being able to change from glass to something obstructing the sight into the business? Question. isn't uh law that I know of unless it's listed on aware of that I'm aware of. So it doesn't dictate could be wrong but maybe

possibility being that the business owner wants to have obstruction in the front of the business and currently does not wish to expend the money to to replace window with a wall but could technically do so. Yes. And that would be within the law. So I don't know about the code issues and building issues pertaining to that. Yeah. So there might be some issues in that end. At the same time, if you want to advertise your business, even if you block it, you're still confined to the 25%. So the 25% does not apply to only window. It is the face of the business.

Actually, it applies to windows. But then there's a sign ordinance that also dictates the size of the sign whether it's window or not. Okay. But the number of signage on the front could be infinite. It actually of the sizes. It's actually limited. Depends on the district. Certain districts will permit uh 35 square ft like in the town center. Okay. Uh there's certain residential districts. Even though you have like some bodeas or corner stores, it's limited to two square feet. So it depends. It's all about impact. Yeah. How you impact the neighborhood. If you're a commercial district, clearly we allow for more. If you're semi, a little less. If you're residential, even more less.

Okay. Yeah. So, uh based off of that, council, I would propose consideration as well. Um, an ordinance that's being enforced for 25% coverage only for windows may encourage businesses or force them to want to replace that window with a opaque wall to um make changes to their business storefront to allow for that privacy or that that preference. And as of right now, it's just leaning towards obstructing a window because that was previously ar built in and going in that direction.

Um something to consider. Um I think serious consideration for um businesses that just so happen to have their register by the window and wish to have uh privacy in that regard and businesses who are concerned about racial profiling uh whether that be on the federal or police department's level. Uh I think that's a serious concern as well. Um I I not sure which direction I would really uh ideally or prefer to move towards and obviously this is already an ordinance in place and just trying to amend and and implement this. Um I I can imagine as as you can imagine um businesses that are putting their product against the wall um that so happens to be a window u may not be also trying to uh display that product but may also be trying to uh optimize the space that they're operating to have the most amount of product available within that space. and restricting um space up to the window for that 5 ft requires many businesses that are operating right now uh to potentially have to move around product and have to uh store product that is currently out on display because uh it is that way. Um not to say that you know we shouldn't be enforcing the law that's already in place. um maybe some consideration for conditional uh uh arrangements for the the law to be more accommodating. I would actually propose it would be interesting to amend so that um requirement of window around a doorway might be uh a need to be uh transparent if the glass is already present so that it's safer to be able to enter and and exit the building so that you can see who's on the other side. if police are concerned about, you know, somebody uh being too close to the door and maybe attacking the police officer if they're

trying to enter on a call or something like that. Um versus the the generalized 25% and just kind of leaving it up to the business to try and figure that out. Thank you.

Um Mr. President, I see there's going to be a repeat comment. Perhaps you should ask if there are any new comments before someone is given an opportunity to repeat. Does anyone else have a com new comment before we have someone else come back up and make another comment? All right, guess not. Come on. So, he wants to show you guys if it's possible how he has his business display, how he has his register right next to the window that you guys are talking about being covered. Is there a way that he can show you that or he can hand something here?

There's a lot of sto. Yeah, he has the image.

His register is right next to the window where he wants gentlemen show.

So he's allowed to walk up to you. He shows you and then he goes back. You understand? The type the type of sign that he has during the night you can see inside the store but during the day it shows different because you can't really inside the store. But um that's the type of uh sign that he has on his business. It's just like a sticker that goes in the window and it just during the night it just since there's lights inside the business you can see what's from the outside to the inside.

But during the day you can't see at all the whole place you can't see it.

Yeah. He said you can kind of see it during the day too. So my window is kind of like that but not to that extent. We have tent at night. You could see in right there cuz the sun went down. You have to be a little closer, but you still can see in yours just you cannot see in there at all. That was that's a violation of the original ordinance. His question is just how is that affecting or how is that harming everyone? It's just a violation of the law.

He's been here for 15 years and he's never known of the law or and every business in the area has them too. So he doesn't know why. Yeah, that's not I hear what you I hear what he's saying, but like you know, he wants to know where is that law at written and where he can see it.

I just have a question. He wants to ask so that all the businesses know where it is at and where they can see it. They don't know where it is. They don't have the information on on hand.

Those are the kind of things that they need to know because that's money they're they're spending on their businesses to try and and better and they don't know exactly what the laws are in the area. and that's just something that he feels that shows their business that looks pretty and it's just helping their business out.

I just had a a quick question in regards to uh if you own the space or you rent and I asked primarily because I've been a business owner brick and mortar businesses here in Narstown and it can be uh complicated to understand all that you need to do um and to match it and I my business also was subject to the 25% signage. we had to get creative in order to make that work. Uh just trying to understand I didn't take the leap to make any exterior changes because at the time with my particular business I didn't own the building and I didn't want to put a lot more structurally into the space. Just trying to understand you where your concerns are are. Are are you a owner of your building or are you renting in a space that you did a buildout? A rent.

Okay. So it when you viewed the space it already had significant window and glass signage. The only thing he did was just change the the name and change the owner. That's all he did.

Thank you. I think that's uh worth considering and worth hearing. I don't think that it makes your plight any easier or or takes away your concerns, but I think that's something to think about as we're coming into uh business ownership in our community. A lot of times there are things that are beyond our control with the structure of the site of the business that would then require us to make different choices around our interior setup and things like that. Thank you. Last call for any more public comments. All right. Seeing none, council have a motion to close public comment. So move. Second. All in favor?

I. All right. Um, and then I guess we're seeing the concerns and you know what David brought up, I'd like to make a motion to table this uh adoption of ordinance 2602 for our May 20th meeting. So move. Second. And at the same time the do you want do you want any more public comment or no? That's the kind of the question on No. Okay then. Just do that. That's okay. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. All right. Did I get a first and a second already? Yes, you did. All right. Madam Secretary, roll call, please. William McCoy, Peter Robinson, no. Natalie Coulson, no. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon.

Hi. Justin Queen. I'll just do I'm going to do a I because I just want to make sure they feel as though they're being heard and that we're considering them. Will you do the roll call again? I checked wrong. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Start again. William McCoy. Hi. Dear Robinson, no. Natalie Coulson, no. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi. Dustin Queen. I. And Rashad Bates. I. The eyes have it. We'll move that to May 20th.

All right. Council, do I have a motion to open the public hearing request for adoption of ordinance 26-03, Smok and Bay Shops amendment? So move. Second. All in favor? I. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, Mr. President, uh, I'm going to go ahead and mark some exhibits for the record. M1, uh, Municipal One will be a copy of the advertisement, uh, twice of this ordinance and the Times Herald. Uh M2 will be a a copy of the uh recommendation of the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Uh M3 will be a copy of the ordinance itself. I'm going to turn it over to Miss Misier for some explanation.

Thank you, Solicitor. Um again, I'll give a little history for the record. Uh, in August of 2025, planning and zoning staff attended a meeting with members of council and the municipal solicitor to discuss our smoke and vape shop ordinance. In February of 2026, council approved authorization to advertise a public hearing for the ordinance. In March 18, 2026, minor county planning commission completed the review of the ordinance. And on April 6th and the 13th, we advertise this ordinance in the local paper. Uh, and these are the facts and issues. We wish to ask council to amend chapter 320 of the zoning to add definitions related to tobacco vape and ends nds in capital products. Uh this will create the definition using um to use significant tobacco retailers including smoke shops, vape shops and hookah bars. Uh this permits significant tobacco retailers only by conditional use in the commercial retail uh district. That means they anyone applying for this use would have to come before council have a public hearing and council will consider the comments both from the public and uh council. The conditions of this uh use would require 1,000 ft separation of this use from schools, child oriented uses, religious institutions, hospitals, and other significant tobacco retailers. There also limits to the hours of operation for this use. That would be between 10:00 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Uh this also prohibit this condition also prohibits amusement devices and alcohol on the premises. Uh it also restricts access to minors unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Uh those are the conditions for the conditional use. So they cannot have Thank you. They cannot have uh gaming machines or skilled machines and a vshop both of them at the same time. Correct. Um skilled machines. Yes. All right. Um it's time for public comment. If you have a comment or question, you can come up to the podium now.

All right. Seeing as there are no public comment, uh council, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So move of the 26-03. My bad. So move. And all in favor? I All right. Uh council, do I have a motion to uh adopt ordinance 26-03, smoke and vape shops amendment? So move. Second. Uh Madam Secretary, Liam McCoy. Hi. Deer Robinson. Hi. Natalie Folson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi, Dustin Clean. Hi, Rashad Gates. I The eyes have it.

All right, moving on to fire resolution number uh 26-31, request for council approval to provide health screenings for the fire department personnel.

Good evening, members of municipal council. Before you this evening for consideration is resolution 26-31 requesting municipal council to approve professional health services to perform health related screenings to members of the Nartown Fire Department in the amount of $35,661. This is a federally funded grant initiative. The benefits of these programs will include uh us being compliant with a national fire protection association uh consensus standard for emergency responder occupational health and wellness. Additionally, uh these tests are designed to uh provide early detection for health issues, reduce line of death uh or injury, support long-term firefighter health and career longevity, creates documentation and medical baselines for exposures, boosts organizational readiness and resilience, and promotes a culture of safety and wellness. Um, in total, each exam, it runs a little over $1,000 a piece. Uh, for fire department personnel. Uh, there was vendors on the vendor side. Uh, we solicited u input from four vendors. Only one, which is PHS, uh, replied back and provided us with a price quote. Hence why we're with them today. Uh, Mainline Health did not respond. Neither did Concentra and neither did Pen Medicine.

The total amount of the grant uh that we received is $61,500. The amount for the medical testing alone is $35,661. All right. So, you said it's $1,000 per Yeah, it's a little over um,50 per person. Okay. And how many firefighters or versus volunteers? It would be for 37 people. 29 staff and the remaining would be volunteers of our fire department. How many volunteers? I'm sorry. Uh I believe that's eight. Eight volunteers. Yep. Maybe I'm on math. So is that money left over or am I missing something?

I'm sorry. There there's there is money there is money left over. The remaining of the grant the grant's twofold. one to provide medical testing and the second part of the grant is for physical fitness equipment. Okay. Um that doesn't meet the threshold for approvement at this time. We're still waiting for a third price equipment to come in for that. Okay. So that grant is very specific to those. It's it's very specific to um the equipment and then the this testing and screening. It is. Okay. And so there's no pot money out from the public. We're not paying for. So there is 10% match which is 5,590 that we have to put towards the grant and that's already budgeted in our operating budget. So do we put that 10% for every single firefighter? No, just for the overall price of the grant.

Yeah. I mean like 10% over the budget, right? 10% or you said to match a 10% match 61,000, right? The match is based off of population, right? What happens to that 10% that we're that gets applied towards the in this case could be either equipment or the physicals. Um okay but it will be we have to demonstrate when the federal government comes in and audits the grant we have to show where that money and that's the requirement that's the requirement of the grant that okay so have we bought equipment in the past I'm sorry curious have we bought equipment like exercise equipment

we do have some exercise equipment this grant specifically in order to get the exercise equipment you have to have all your medical testing and all your mental mental evaluations completed before you can buy any of the physical fitness equipment that's condition of the grant itself. Right. And have we done it in the past? Only reason I'm asking because it sounds like after we do everything, we have money left over. What are we doing with the money left over? The money left over will be to purchase physical fitness equipment. Oh, okay. But we is this a yearly thing or is this just This is a onetime grant. Oh, it's a one time. Okay. All right. Who's uh So, do we know where we're going to put this equipment? Do we have space for it or So, we're waiting for a third quote. Uh, so far the the cheaper of the two quotes we got is a non- co-stars vendor. Oh yeah, I was about to say co-stars. We all know that's expensive.

Yeah, that's why I was wondering why we kept going back to them. We already had that discussion in the past that usually they're usually the higher. So, we're waiting for a third price quote and then we'll um Now, the question I'm going to ask and this ask for the benefit of the employees of the municipality. Is this strictly for firefighters or the the employees of municipality? Are you allowed to use that as well? The grant criteria is specifies is just for firefighters. All right. So, we're going to make some money after you guys get buffed and make a calendar. So, get ready. Thank you.

I just you answered it kind of, but I also wanted to ask um so you said that this is uh part of the grant because this is the way you have to get the equipment and everything. Have um have the firefighters do they get like yearly screenings at all? Great question. Is that part of it? Great question. So currently contractually only half of our firefighters receive annual physicals on a yearly basis and that is a contractual requirement. Okay. So the other half of the department does not get screenings done on a yearly basis.

Okay. And some of the in-depth screenings that they do um include uh cancer screenings, there's a mental health piece, there's immunizations, um overall physical including stress tests, EKG, and X-rays of their abdominal and of their chest. So, it's a really in-depth um medical analysis that comes in. Uh the company PHS, they actually come to us. We don't have to go to them, which is nice. They bring it's almost like a a bookmobile type of concept for health, right? They bring those resources to us and do all the testing at the fire station while uh while our firefighters were on duty and um so will be done over a two-day period.

Individual firefighter will get I guess will they get the report of yes all of it. Okay. And they have to comply with HIPPA. So each firefighter will get a the results of of their medical screening, right? And hopefully it all comes out great and there's no issues whatsoever. But um you know the good thing about it is is we're getting um examined by a medical team, right, that will provide each firefighter with their their own medical results for them to do the necessary follow-up if needed. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions?

All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion uh to pass uh resolution 26-31 request for council to approve uh prov or excuse me to provide health screenings for the fire department personnel. So second uh madam secretary William McCoy. Hi. Deer Robinson. Hi. Hi Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi Dustin Queen. Hi Shates. I the eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you chief.

Thank you. All right. Municipal administrator resolution number 26-32 request for municipal council to amend the storm water management agreement with the storm water authority.

Thank you, council president. Um the request is for council to consider an amendment uh in the management agreement between the municipality and the storm water authority. I'm to understand that the original agreement was uh entered into January 18th of 2022 and um the authority municipality have identified a need to clarify uh and update provisions within this agreement to better define roles, responsibilities and funding mechanisms. So generally speaking is um the issue is to have the be amended to clarify as uh I just mentioned a minute ago um the municipal authority to perform repairs contracts for upgrade and make improvements to the storm water system. Uh this amendment further establishes uh that costs associated with these activities will be paid for user rates collected by authority. the third is the one that establishes the rates and um I don't know if councilwoman uh Madira Robs would like to comment on that.

Uh sure. I think you you covered it pretty sufficiently. Uh ultimately it is reestablishing the agreement that is already in place but clearly defining that the authority can operate as such uh as an authority. So it doesn't really change any of the dynamics that are present and it already is how we operate but it's better to clearly define that this is the operation so that as we look to grow in our capacity people are fully understanding how that works. Thank you.

I'll just I'll just add though that this does not give license to the authority to make uh decisions absent of council. That still means the process that these things as they come through, repairs, uh, purchases or payments over the thresholds, all of that still comes to council as normal. This is just making sure that that is named in the agreement. Council, any other questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, uh, council, do I have a motion, uh, to approve, uh, resolution 26-32, uh, to request for municipal council to amend the stormwater management agreement with the stormwater authority? So move. Second, uh, Madam Secretary McCoy,

hi. Dear Robinson, I Natalie Coulson, hi. Jasmine Griffin, hi. David McMahon, hi. Dustin Queen, hi. Bates, hi. The eyes have it. Thank you. Uh, and we are on to parks and recreation resolution 26-37, request for municipal council to approve reclassifying of the American Rescue Plan Act, the ARPA funds to support the National Fitness Campaign Fitness Court Project. Hello, council. Hello. I fight with you mics every time, so let me know.

All right. So, can everybody hear me? Just want to make sure first. All right. Um so essentially uh what this is for is acting on the grant that was already approved back in January. Um it's part of the ARPA project. So essentially this was part of the parks and wreck uhou that was already approved. Um what we're looking to do is to reclassify certain funds um in ARPA. Uh what we're looking at are is items where the Roosevelt field demolition was completed under budget. So we have a remainder of 78,000 roughly. Um and then a masonary repairs project that was done for the rec center. Um that the work that was to be done was completed in another item like another line item. So we had funds there that we can move as well. Um when it comes to the ARPA funds, we can't move those funds. We can't touch them unless they're reclassified. But at the same time, since those projects are already done, we can't use them either. So, we're trying to reclassify it to this project in order for us to complete the fitness um center, essentially the fitness course uh and we don't lose the ARPA funds that are sitting unused.

So, there's $78,000 of ARPA funds that we're trying to rec correct that would go towards the fitness course and essentially that's under the uh Roserfield demolition item, right? And we you can't retouch it underneath that demolition. So, it need to be reclassified in order for it to be used. Okay. But essentially, if we don't move it, it'll be forfeited. And how much of our funds were we going to use for this project? Uh, essentially, if we reclassify, we wouldn't use any of our funds.

But what was the original amount? Um so the through the through the uh grant that was there it was 40,000 that was given towards the grant um through the to the project but we're still required to have the installation and so forth which I think is roughly comes up to like 192,000 roughly. Um so we're trying to ensure that we're using ARPA versus our dollars and this is one of the ways to do it. So we were going to get $40,000 but we were going to have to still spend over $100,000 for that. Correct. How many pieces of equipment we getting for that? Uh, it's actually a pretty big set. I think what's included in the agenda pack, an image of what was steered as well,

right? Cuz I was a little confused because I could thought there was three different ones we could choose from. If I'm I'm getting a little older, but I remember I thought we saw different ones we could choose from. I didn't know which one we chose. No, there's in in that packet there's a big set that was presented. Um, it included like lunging stations, a pull-up situp station. It's actually it's a 38. Was it just one set? It's a big 38 by 38 uh set. Yes, correct. We didn't we only I'm sorry. We only I thought there's different ones we could choose from. It was only one that we could choose from. It was so through the grant and this fitness program, they worked through a propriety type of um program essentially, right?

So what they have is that they have like this particular set that they include with this project, right? Um but it is a big 38 by 38 pad with different types of equipment stations and it's built as one unit. So, just in case people don't know, this is for you, you know, you can work outside. Um, you can work out without going to the gym. We're basically providing an outside gym for our residents, correct? That want to be healthy, uh, and don't, you know, want to go pace and want to go do it. So, this gives them the opportunity to still be, you know, healthy and be outside, enjoy the outdoors. Correct. And to add to that as well, so this is um something themed for older uh, you know, teenagers, adults, and so forth. Not. Yeah. I was about to say it ain't just for older people. Yeah.

Exactly. So, it's for older folks that want to stay fit, have a spot outside to work in. Um, and it's kind of built for that. Yes. One other question. Yes. Do we get to pick color or is it just going to be like navy green? I mean, army green like No. So, from my understanding, it's blue. So, it's like a like a Are they all blue? It's the the the big matte set is a blue. I'm not sure if the actual equipment per se any opportunity to jazz this up so I can be in a happy place while I'm out there sweating. I can ask. Yeah, we can ask about the color. I don't want to be looking at the same color cuz I'm going be like, "Yo, you know what? This is a drag." Yeah. Looking at the packet, it's a So, looking at the packet, it's like a like a royal blue mat and then it has like gray equipment. Um, but I can ask to see if this

I guess that could be done for maintenance wise. I guess if it's a standard blue if you got to touch up something. Correct. Touch. Okay. And there and there was a location already picked. What was the location? Correct. So it's Elwood Park. Um so right now there's nothing in that space. It's a pretty wide empty space. So it would be editing into Elmo Park. Now I know Elmer Park to be on a slant. Are we building it up so it could be like flat? Cuz I you know. Yeah. So it would be a leveled area essentially and then there's going to be a slab that's going to be built for it to be based on top of. So yes, it wouldn't be at a slant. It would be adjusted for that. Right. Okay.

So we are just certain that we're not using any of our any of our funds, right? Correct. This would ensure that we're not touching our funds and we're using the ARPA dollars. Better yet, the unused ARPA dollars that are just sitting and would actually be forfeited. So we're trying to All right. I might be a little slow because I want to make sure I got this right. So, we got 40,000 grant money plus our $78,000 that's covering everything. So, no, it's the because there's another piece there. So, within the um parks and recou that was originally there, right?

We have the pavilions that is part of that project, we have the outdoor uh fitness center that's part of that project. Um with the pavilions and everything else that's already coming out, we have about 85,000 that's left over. Um, so then we have the $40,000 grant, the leftover funds already in that line item, and then we're looking to reclassify the 78,000 and then the 28,000 of unused funds to complete that. Okay. Just want to make sure I Any other questions? Yeah, last one just to make sure I'm reading this correctly again a couple days ago. If we approve this, everything goes through. This can get done by end like beginning of July, end of June.

Correct. So, we're waiting on this essentially for them to give them the go. Um, they have a timeline that's already there. We're kind of behind, but part of that reason that we're behind on the timeline is because we want to reach out to our resources and make sure audit wise, we are actually moving the funds in a way that we can um legally essentially come to the ARPA funds. We got that clearance. Um, we already looked at Treasury guidance and so forth to to verify that and verify specifically on these this movement. Um because when it comes to ARPA, part of it is that the um there's certain projects we're limited on the type of projects we can actually move to and we're limited on the projects we can move from. They have to be within the same classification and so forth. So we made sure that all of that lined up before coming before you to ask for that. Um so now that we do have that, they are waiting on us to essentially give the go for them to proceed.

And I apologize, I lied. I got another question. Absolutely. Is are we able to make this available so our constituents can see what it looks like ahead of time? because I'm not sure if everybody knows what it looks like besides us probably. I'm a big fan of that. Um, essentially I'm a big fan of actually putting stuff out in the lobby. Put on the boards, put it as anywhere we can put it, put it on the sites, put it anywhere we can. But yes, I'm a big Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're curious to see what it looks like. Correct. Cuz I know I'm all out. I would be as well. So, yeah. Okay. I would love to.

Uh, council, any other questions or comments? All right. Uh, do I have a motion uh to pass resolution 26-37 request for municipal council to approve the reclassifying of American Rescue Plan Act funds to support the National Fitness Campaign Fitness Court Project. So moved. Second, Madam Secretary William McCoy. I Robinson. Hi. Natalie Coulson. Hi. Jasmine Griffin. Hi. David McMahon. Hi Dustin Queen. Hi Rashad B. I the eyes have it. Thank you, council. Thank you. And now we'll move on to departmental reports. Uh we'll start with uh recreation.

Good evening, council. Uh, I'm here because Briana uh had an emergency procedure done. So, I'm going to be the one that's going to present to you guys today. So, my name is Cody Jones, by the way. Just want to introduce myself real quick. Is this better?

Okay. Sorry about that. Um, if you guys didn't hear me before, Briana had an emergency procedure done, so I'm going to speak for her. My name is Cody Jones. I'm the recreation manager for the municipality. Which way? Which way? There we go. So, so far during the week, we have a few programs going on. Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have our girls group that comes in from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. We actually are partnering with Nike as well. They come once a week for an hour from about 4 to 5:00 and they introduce or help introduce and continue with play and specific things ideally for girls between the ages of 7 to 12. Uh we have a San Bonita soccer club. They come from they come on Mondays and Wednesday Wednesdays and Fridays between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. And they are here to help with the soccer program throughout the throughout Norristown. They have their own program. They are from the ages of goodness five to 13 or so. And they practice with their soccer club. And we've had them at least since I've been there for the past year and a half. And they've been pretty consistent with being in our gym from October and till about a couple weeks from now. We have pickle ball on Tuesdays with heyday from 6:00 to 8. bingo on Thursdays at 12 pm, 12 to 2 pm. And there's another one on the bottom. It's cut off, but we have uh the men's softball league at Latchaw Field from April until August. So, in February, we had our first Valentine's Day heart hop. It was an event that we're trying to continue to do um year after year. It was our first time having it. We partnered with Rotation Records to supply the music for

the kids and family and we had about 30 families participate in our first event. So, a really good turnout for us. We didn't have enough uh giveaways for the families because we were trying to see how it was going to go the first time, but it felt really good. And I love that a lot of the kids were able to bring their friends. Some were able to bring significant others that they wanted to bring. um we had juice and giveaways for the kids and stuff. So, I really enjoyed that and we hope to have it again next February. But to continue with the trend of this presentation, we're trying to have events every month throughout the year. So, once a month, we're trying to do something um to bring everybody to the community or to the rec center and have an activity to do. In March, we had our third annual ifar. So we were able to make salah break our fast or break their fast and connect and learn more about the Islamic religion. Um we've done this for the past three years. We have a coworker or I have a co-orker named Miss Nita who is Muslim and this is something that is very important to her and I don't know much about the Islamic community in Nortown, but this was an idea that she had that could actually bring them closer to us so we can learn more, especially me. um so I can get a better understanding of her. And another one of our employees, Hassan, who is a really good uh speaker and he's really good with the community, especially with the 24 and under. Uh he's really good at basketball as well. So, this is one of the events that we like to host and, you know, give them a safe space to feel comfortable with us and also get to know what we have going on. In April, we had our spring egg hunt. We, this is our second time, at least since I've been here last year. I'm gonna give you some insight. We didn't

have like an idea of how many people would come and participate. So, we purchased about 500 eggs or so. Um, placed them out and they obviously went very quick. So, we had to run back to Dollar Tree and get more candy and eggs and stuff like that. So, this year we had about 3,500 eggs that our team built and we still ran out in that time frame. We had about 12 golden eggs. Um, I don't know if you can tell which one is me. It doesn't matter. But I enjoy these events so much because I get to dress up. I get to be silly. I get to hang out with the kids, but they also get to be with their families. And it's another day of doing something on a weekend, on a weekday, what have you, just to come out and enjoy what we have going on. And again, we're trying to bring more exposure. Like, we are still open. And I know a lot of people drive past our building. It's easy to drive past, but we are doing something. We are open and we have things that we like to do for the community. Um, but yeah, the the 3,500 eggs was it took about three days, three or four days to fill and it probably went in less than an hour. So, it was a it was a really good turnout for for this event. Oops. And so for upcoming, we have summer camp going on. This is our busy season. And we have a few spots left. So if there's any families that are able or want to sign their kid up for our summer camp, I put a QR code up there and I put the ages that we have spots left for. So five, there's five. Six to seven, we have four spots. Ages 8 to nine, three. And ages 10 to 11, there's one more. And our spring basketball leagues is actually getting ready to start. We finished our evaluations last week and we have our games starting next week. We'll have games from April 28th to June 12th. With the partnership of the school, we're able to use Eisenhower and

the High if we're not able to use our space. We do have enough, but to have games going on simultaneously is the best thing for us to do. And yeah, this is our our busy season. We've been, you know, buckling down trying to get everything prepared, especially for summer camp. That's like the biggest thing that we usually have. And our basketball league is, like I said, is getting ready to get started. So, that's my favorite. I get to actually run the whole thing. And I I don't have to coach this year, thankfully. But, I I appreciate all of the community members that want to volunteer and help us out and, you know, continue to put the kids first. And, you know, something that makes me happy. And lastly, the thing I'll say is I really appreciate all of the team members that we have. I certainly will never be able to do this alone. So, I want to be able to give them a shout out uh and all the hard work that they do. I try to tell them in person, but I'd like to give them a bigger platform such as this to let them know that they are greatly appreciated and, you know, we just want to continue to do better and better uh for the next quarter and for the rest of the year. So that's my spiel. Tried to keep it short. Does anybody have any questions for me?

Yes, ma'am. It was it was money in the golden egg. So what we ended up doing was we came together as a team and we decided to chip in and was like, "Hey, we'll put in a few dollars. Some had more money than others. So there was some that had probably like $3. There was one that probably had like 20 or something like that." I couldn't give out 20. I had groceries to get. But I'm being honest, groceries are high. So um but yeah, we put money in the eggs. Any other

I just had a question. Well, actually I had a comment. So just um for next year, so you know, just because I know how it is uh stuffing eggs, you can buy them pre purchase, like pre- stuffed so that way or pre-filled. So then that way you don't have to do it because I know it is a lengthy process to stuff up 3,000. Believe me, I know you were there for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. So you can So you can do that. The only question that I had um Heyday and the soccer and um the men's is that all third party were they are they all coming in and setting up and doing that? Yes. Got it. Awesome. Thank you. I was thinking about where's the softball sign? Yeah. So they and heyday as well. It's all third party. So registration goes through heyday. Correct. Okay.

Thank you. All right. Cool. Please. Thank you. presentation, then we'll move on to police.

Okay, now that uh Cody's laid down the gauntlet. Thank you, Cody. PowerPoints, QR codes. Good evening, members of council, Mr. President, and the community. Um this is my first quarterly report that I'm presenting uh for the municipality. So, this is the first quarter 2026. Uh I actually worked to get this emailed to all of you today. Uh I don't know if you received a copy of it, but we're going to work to get it on our website tomorrow. Um I want to I want to delve into some of the things that we worked through in in the first quarter 2026. Obviously, we had goals, the departmental goals that were set. Um, in the goal area, we looked at putting together a community impact unit for community engagement and community relations to improve our delivery of community services and also to increase our ability to have constant contacts as we build trust and cooperation with the community. And we've done that with our community impact unit. We've staffed it with Rossi Cotaron who was um civilian support staff and one of our officers, Steve Soell, who's also an SRO. So, they're running that unit. In addition, that unit uh we talked earlier in the year and council approved. Thank you very much. Last month the contract for mental health co-responder program and I'm here to tell you that that program has uh been um brought online that individual actually starting April 28th. They're going to be starting within the police department. So you're going to see that mental health co-responder in uh the PD. Uh the beginning of the year we transition to a new records management system. This is going to help us better capture the work that we do every day in the community. Our legacy system was about 20ome years old and it really didn't allow us to drill down and get the the data that we need to make sure that we're giving the community the service that it needs and and um and we can track this because one of the things we've talked about uh is a workload analysis. We constantly are looking at how many police officers do we need? How do we best deploy them? You've heard me talk about resource allocation. You've

heard me talk about staffing the street and staffing our community uh at the times when they're most needed. So we don't have the same amount of officers on a Sunday morning when nothing's going on versus the same officers on a Friday night when we're very busy. So that uh that RMS or recommended system is going to help us do that. Uh and then also we've been really uh working to have a lot of community engagement efforts and I'm going to go through some of the community engagement we've done for the first quarter because I think it's really important. Our flagship slip flagship program that we began this year, it's it's kind of proprietary to Norristown. I haven't seen it anywhere is our girls in blue mentoring program which is a mentoring program that is geared to work with young girls young uh girls in our community who are dealing with the challenges and adversity of growing up and it teaches them life skills resilience and provides them with positive role models of mentoring. Uh we've had two uh two of those sessions. I'm here to report that they've been well very well received. If you go on our website if I could do a PowerPoint like Cody I would have pictures up there. Thank you, Cody. We'll have them next next quarter. Um, but here's some of the stuff we've done. We hosted four public service area meetings. We've attended uh two NAACP events. We attended two town hall events for uh folks here on council who have hosted town halls. We've hosted two coffee with a cop programs, one at Dunkin Donuts, one at McDonald's. We have been able to um put four new police officers on the street out of the field training program. We have begun the wellness training for officers, which is a valor, wellness, and resilience program that all officers in the Nortown Police Department to go through because we address we believe addressing mental health and wellness is really important. We have undertaken and completed a departmentalwide deescalation training that council approved last month that

has been completed. Um, and we've obviously engaged put our CS CSU unit in place and our mental health co-responder. I share this with you is because we've been doing a lot in the first quarter. We led the first quarter or we led January with a directive in the police department to increase our visibility. So, you may see a lot of our police cars that were unmarked are now marked. A lot of our cars or our cars that are on patrol, we implemented a high visibility policy in January to make sure our units are more visible. And I'm sure many members of council and many members of the community here can attest that during the day they see those red and blue lights on and they're really noticeable at night. So when you're you're walking around, you're driving at night, if there's a police officer three down three blocks down the road, you can now see them. And we think that that has um definitely had a significant impact on uh crime and safety in our community. Now, while I can't sit here and say empirically that has had an impact, I can tell you what the statistics look like for the end of Q1. Violent crime in Norristown is down 71% for the first quarter of 2026. Property crime, autotheft is down 73%. For Q1 of 2026, overall crime, when factor, all of our crime for Nortown is down 32% year-over-year. I would attest that to proactive policing that we've done, to higher visibility, to the men and women of the police department, working more diligently, increasing the staffing levels that are on the street, and most importantly, the support from the community and the support from this body. We will continue to make these improvements and adjustments as we go through quarter number two. Um, we have uh with your with your uh approvals been able to reconstitute some of our staffing levels. uh and we're going to work to make sure that continues. One of the things I'd like to do um that we haven't done and I am a big advocate of transparency. So these quarterly reports and the community know that are in the room tonight. These quarterly reports

that we produce are going to be up on our website for the community to view with our crime statistics. Um, we're also working with members of council who have talked about crime mapping because there's been some issues with a crime mapping website that were being used that were not we're not really being uh delivered in a way that we would like. We're going to we're going to work on that. But I delivered to you this report. Um, and thank you for your support and thank you communities for your support and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. We just had one question. Um, the SRO's the two SRO's when um schools out do they are they do they go back to patrol? We're going to examine that. Um they have in the past. Okay.

Um and right now we're having some some challenges right with at the patrol level. Um so that may be the case. In my former life, I would roll them into community engagement because the SRO, if you think about it, they're already in the schools all school year long and they see these kids and then come come May, they go back to patrol,

right? why not leave them in the community to continue to have followup with these kids to continue to have impact on these kids as they go through the whole year. So, we're constantly keeping tabs um constantly interacting with these young men and women as they work through the the uh the summer because a lot of the challenges that take place in the summer continue in the school year and a lot of issues or in the school year roll in the summer. So, why don't we try to marry that SRO, you know, 365 days a year. Thank you. Councilwoman Robinson.

Uh, thank you, Chief. Thank you for uh the report. I just had a a couple questions. First, I just wanted to acknowledge, thank you so much for the information on crime mapping. I'm interested to dig in a little bit more. That's a question I keep getting um from constituents. Uh but thank you for navigating that. I know that there's a lot in the transition and also assuming some of the data transition that we were doing as well. Uh my question was around you said that crime was down. I just wanted to make sure that I understood that correctly. In that rating, is that crime as compared to the the most recent quarter or is that compared to first quarter of a previous year? My apologies. Um, so we're doing a quarterly comparison. So this is the first quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter of 2026.

So it's that 90day window. We're taking the first Q1 of 25 and taking it compared to 21 Q1 of 26 and those are the reductions that we've seen. Thank you. Uh, in my last question, you mentioned that that report would be that that information or at least some of it will be available on the website tomorrow. Did I hear you correctly in that you sent it to council today? Uh, I I believe I emailed it up to someone in Well, I know I emailed it. I don't know if it got to you, but I did email it, but I'll make sure you have it. Okay. Because I know I didn't get my my text one day, happy Easter or something. So, I was wondering if I got caught off, too, because I didn't get that one. That's true. And that was my fault. I

Okay. Um, just to just to circle back, I'm going to work on getting in this on the website tomorrow. I will do my very best, but it will be there within a day or so. Thank you. I just wanted to declare declare that I would love to see it. Uh, so I'm sure we can get it from council and then when you're able to get it to website, maybe it's safer to call it by the end of the week. Um, you'll you'll have it. I'll get if you don't have it, you'll have it tomorrow. I meant for the website. Yeah, we're going to work on that. That's just I'm not really website savvy, so we'll figure out how to get there. Awesome. Thank you, Chief. Thank you. Appreciate it. And last but not least, finance.

Good evening, council. I just have a few things to report for the uh quarter. Uh the past month, most of the finance team has been working on the uh real estate tax collection, and the discount period ended up last week on April 15th. So far, we've collected approximately 75% of the taxes for about 7,700 properties. The face amount of real estate taxes will be due June 15th. So that's the next bump for 2025. We met with our external auditors last week, so they will be here in May to start the audit of 25. Preliminarily, the 25 2025 results show approximately a $2 million favorable variance, budget variance um primarily due to a uh collection, higher collections for earned income tax, business privilege tax, and real estate transfer tax of about 1.3 million. The rest of it is due to lower lower expenditures. Primarily, um police is about 300,000 under budget. So that's for 25. And as a preview going forward, uh I received a quote for a financial modeling system. Uh we need the system for long-term forecasting so we can plan out, you know, five years or more ahead. Uh long-term planning will also look good when we start to go uh to our rating agencies when we go out to get bonds for our um fire station and our rec center. So it'll look good for us. It'll provide council with multiple scenarios when we're doing our bud when we go through this budget process. And it also help uh to make the budget decision. So if we'll have certain selections for you and it also what my favorite part of the

scenario system is it will give you the impact to our B budget or bond rating for each of the scenarios. So, if you make decide to whatever rate increases for salaries or certain projects, it'll tell you how it'll impact your um credit rating. So, that'll also be helpful with the uh when we're going out to bond. Uh any questions on this thing? Councilman Robinson?

Yeah, I just had a question on the last part that you mentioned the long-term uh planning for through the financial modeling system. I'm interested to know more about like I guess the precedence for that or the impetus for that is being able to see data and taking that data into a more extensive view. We we need to go longer further out than year to year. Yeah. And also to give council the information of the impact of your decisions now, right? In the future and some scenario planning, I'm guess also comes into play there

with that system and and not to tie you to a timeline. I'm just trying to understand a little bit about in your view where are we in that? We're just like phasing and looking around don't vote from a company. Uh I'm going to have Jane do a see a demo of it and they can also come to council and give you a demo to what the what portion you'll see once we get to budget and they'll show you the graphs and and how it all works and what you'll see out of the program. And then in your ideal scenario of this progressing, do you find that this is something that might happen within this fiscal year to come? Next month.

Okay. I want for I'd like to have for this budget season. We're coming up to these big projects and we need to look at the grading agencies. So, okay. And I'm I'm going to guess you already accounted for that in your budget line. This is part of intentional planning. Yes. Uh, Councilman Griffin, did you have a question? Am I mistaken? In that moment, I lost it. So, I'll talk to later when it comes back to me. Council, any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you, Kathy.

Council, do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. Second. All in favor? I meeting adjourned.