Municipal Council - workshop

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the Narsetown Municipality Council work session of Tuesday, July 21st at 6.30. Can I have a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance? Madam Secretary, have a roll call, please.

William McCoy.

Here.

Adira Robinson.

Present.

Natalie Colson. Here. Jasmine Griffin. Here. David McMahon. Here. Justin Queenan. Here. Rashad Bates.

Here. We did have an executive session tonight on personal matters. And that was it, right? Cool. Vice President, do you have any announcements?

Actually, I think a pretty cool one's coming up with the Library of Comic Fest. Sorry if I'm stealing your thunder there, young lady. August 2nd, it's from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reading is fundamental, so I think everybody should take their kids or themselves out there and explore and see what it's about, because they've got a nice little program going on. Also, I don't know if Jess is back there, But I don't see her, so I'm not going to announce that. But that's it for me.

Council, any other announcements?

Council Member McMahon? I'll be having my next town hall event August 6th. That month will be at the First Presbyterian Church at DeKalb and Airy Street. We'll be starting at 6.30 p.m. That way folks will have the opportunity to use the drawer parking lot for parking. Yeah, and we'll go on till 6.30 till 8, 8.30, something like that. So we'll have a good conversation.

Okay. Any other announcements? All right. Moving on to public comments.

Michael Petriga and Denise Avery.

All right. Good evening, Mr. Council President, members of Council, Michael Petriga, 1800 block of New Hope Street. As you can see, I'm not alone. I'm here with members of our Northside community who stand together as a family for Monte, who's no longer with us, asking Council to respectfully honor one of their own, Monte Curtis Atkins, a son, grandson, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, born and raised here in Northstown. and born and raised in a family of veterans. Montae, a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps, who served in the Persian Gulf and honorably discharged as Corporal Atkins. Following in her brother's footsteps, Montae's sisters of Corps are proudly serving our country in the Army National Guard. We thank you for your service. Monte enjoyed spending quality time with his family and friends. He was an enthusiastic gamer who loved to sing and dance, a hobby pursuing and becoming a tattoo artist, and had a passion for cooking and grilling. Known for his fashion and unique socks, Monte would brighten up a room with his million-dollar smile and give his attention to everyone. Now is that time that we give that same attention back to Monte. The Municipality of Northstown Hometown Heroes Banner Program, a living tribute created for the community to recognize and honor Northstown veterans. Monte deserves that same recognition and honor. We would respectfully request that it would be taken into consideration when placing Monte's banner, it should be placed near the intersection of Main Street and Hamilton Street. This location is close to the home where Monte grew up. where Monte's grandfather, aunt, and uncle currently reside. What an honor it would be to have Monte's banner displayed in the neighborhood not only where he was born, grew up, raised to be a Marine, and where his family still calls home, Norristown. Council, I thank you for your time and consideration concerning this matter. Eternal rest grant it unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Hi, my name is Denise Everett. I just wanted to add what honors he received while he was in the military. He received the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, two of them, Certificate of Accommodation For a unit award, two of those. Certificate of Appreciation, Letter of Appreciation, Expert Rifle Qualification Badge, Expert Pistol Qualification Badge. In addition, we also received a letter from President Biden commending his services in the armed forces. And as mentioned, Monte was a corporal of the Marines, the United States Marine Corps. We thank you for your attention to this matter. Thank you.

Have you already applied for a banner? Yes. Thank you.

Olivia Brady? Sorry.

Good evening, Council. Olivia Brady, Sandbridge Street. Council, thank you for letting me speak this evening. I don't need to tell you that we just completed a record-setting heat wave, one that will become commonplace as climate change goes on. A recent study by the USDA Forest Service found that U.S. trees removed 17.4 million tons of air pollution. Trees can prevent mortalities and prevent thousands of respiratory issues each year. In addition, there have been numerous studies that link urban tree canopies to reduction of crime. Narstan has a shade tree commission, one that I was appointed to, and we've never had a meeting since I was appointed. One that another person I know of tried to submit their application and hasn't been appointed. One that could be working to reduce crime and helping our residents deal with oppressive heat. Maybe you didn't know the benefits of trees. Maybe you feel that the Shea Tree Committee is not a good part of this town. Or maybe you just feel that it's a frivolous committee. Whatever it is, I ask you, get your act together, appoint members to the Shade Tree Commission, along with some other committees that need to have members, and start the necessary work so that we can start to improve air quality and prevent crime. Thank you for your time.

Melvin Faust.

Good evening, counsel. A year ago, yesterday, a man died on West Erie and Selma, motorcycle accident, July 20th, 2025. Came to you with that issue last year, nothing has happened. The same thing is still happening right now. Thank God we haven't had any fatalities, but there's an accident every week. We can talk to the chief and you can see the records and see just exactly where the accidents and everything have been. It's falling on deaf ears, guys. What are we doing? I mean, talk. I've come here. You know the issue. So why can't we get something done? You guys wanted to be on council. Nobody's forced you guys to be on council. So I want you guys to help us. Help your communities. Mr. McMahon, you're having a town hall. Ms. Colson, you've had town halls. None of our other council people have had town halls, at least to my Recollection. I mean, pardon me? Yeah, and you're my council person. 1200 Bacavera Street. I want you to come to my block. Bring Kevin with you. Bring everybody. I wish you can really get media out there. I want you to walk the neighborhoods. I think you guys should walk our neighborhoods. See what's going on in our neighborhoods. Look at the properties. Look at the parking. Look at all the issues that surround our neighborhoods. Again, you guys wanted this. Nobody forced you to be on council. So act like leaders, lead us, come out, and do what you're supposed to do. Thank you for your time.

Mr. Faust, I do want to say, so I've been to that block.

Yes.

And I almost got clipped coming out. I have... sent previously emails about a study for Selma. I haven't received anything back yet. So hopefully within the next couple weeks, we can hear something back. But I did send out for a study. But yes, I do understand. Because as I expressed to you, that was horrible. Driving, parking, anything. And watching the children walk, that was absolutely terrible. And you shouldn't have to keep dealing with that. And I apologize.

I mean, it's not only my neighborhood, but it's everybody's neighborhood. It's around here. Speed, that's what kills. So I'm hoping that you guys hear me. It's on record. Let's do this. Let's have a town, especially with you, Mr. Bates. Come to the neighborhood. And I request you come before September so you can see yourself. Walk the neighborhoods, man. You guys grew up here. You know what's going on. Let's do what we got to do. Absolutely. Let's do it. Let's set up a date. Like I said, bring the rest of the council people, bring the media. Let's put this out here so everybody can see.

Let's make this happen. We can make that happen. Thank you, Mr. Fowler. Thank you, sir.

Samita Griffin.

Hello. I just want to come up here and just express, which is something I expressed to you guys before, about the streets and about the danger that's going on with the people that are doing the pipes in the street and the negligence that is happening around how they're caring for the neighborhoods while they're doing it. I know it's a job to them, and they get paid for it. But they're causing quite a bit of danger in our neighborhoods. They're causing people to go one ways. They're not shutting down the streets right. the streets back together, right? They're sinking. It's a terrible, the streets are terrible everywhere because of it. And now you have people, you have the kids going up on the bike one way and cars going the wrong way. Nobody's running stop signs. And the trash truck won't even come pick up the trash if they have the things up. um to stop them from coming down the street so then that causes a delay so it's a lot around this what's happening in this construction and i know that i i know that public works we're looking for somebody for public works and that's a gap in it um i just hope that it comes together a little sooner than later because winter is coming up and the streets are really really bad and it's getting dangerous what they're doing thank you

One question.

Mom.

I just had a question about the affected area. Are you seeing this kind of problem?

Well, I live on Basin Street, you know, but I have road on other streets where it's being affected everywhere. I can speak on what I watch on Basin Street, but they're doing it everywhere. So I'm sure if it's happening there, it's happening in every street.

But the sinking streets are you're noticing at least most definitely you're seeing in Basin Street.

Oh, definitely. Yes. Could I add just a little more information to this? As you said, we don't have a public works director. In the meantime, our engineer is acting as a consultant on these issues in particular and trying to enforce the standards that we do have for the quality of the work that's getting done. But with that missing piece, that follow-up sometimes I think is not as consistent as it should be. There has been a little bit... particularly in the conversation with our engineer, I did talk about the stretch of Main Street, and there has been a little bit of additional patching to deal with the sinking there. But personally, I feel offended that the contractors who come in here think that they can get away with the low quality of work on the filling.

They're taking a lot of parking away, too, just putting their equipment all over the place.

We do want to address it, and hopefully we have... And people are getting tickets for that, so... to really address this going forward very consistently. But we do have the standards. We have to work on the enforcement.

All right. Thank you. Amber Queen.

Good evening, counsel.

Thanks for having me this evening and for the opportunity to speak. So I'm here tonight regarding ordinance 26-4 with the data centers and the heavy industrial district. First, I want to thank Vincent Papa for bringing this forward and thank council and my neighbors for taking a proactive stance on an issue already impacting municipalities across Montgomery County. Caring about how this affects Norristown both now and for future generations is vital leadership. I've seen comments from previous council members suggesting this ordinance is a waste of time. because our industrial zone is currently occupied. I want to be clear, proactive protection of our community, environment, and quality of life is never a waste of time. Parcels change hands quickly. Waiting until a developer is at our doorstep to create rules is too late. While we cannot legally ban data centers outright, we do have the power to enact smart safeguards that shield us from environmental harm and ballooning infrastructure costs. I strongly urge council to accept the proposed additions and adopt this amended ordinance this evening. Time is of the essence. This ordinance creates an essential framework for energy efficiency, grid protection, and defense against defunct facilities down the line. Most importantly, it ensures these massive infrastructure costs are not passed down to all of our residents. who are already struggling with cost of living. You cannot control everything, but this is something you can do right now, tonight, to leave a lasting positive impact on Nardistown for generations to come. Thank you very much.

Andy, is it Laudison?

Hello, good evening. I also wanted to speak on the ordinance 2604 in regards to data centers. Actually, I'm delighted to see such an encompassing data center ordinance put forward on this agenda. As data centers continue to pop up in township after township, many places are leaving communities on defense. So I'm really excited to see this. I don't live in Norristown, but I live three miles down the road. I work, I volunteer, and I spend a lot of my time in Norristown. And so I'm really excited to see this ordinance on the agenda. We need ordinance like this to protect our communities from industrialization, surveillance, bankruptcy, and our environment. And I'm looking forward to council passing this ordinance and bringing what you've created forward to my own township as well. So I just want to thank you for your time and your work on this pressing matter. Thank you.

Council, do I have a motion to approve last meeting's minutes? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to presentations. We have a motion to approve the PRDC properties escrow arrangement for land development review fees related to the state hospital project.

Good evening, everyone. It's been a little bit since I saw you. I will be seeing you a lot in the coming months. We are on for the Planning Commission and your Design Review Committee in August. Tonight's request is fairly simple. The ordinance as written would require about a $250,000 or $260,000 escrow. It's not a flat fee. It's not a capped fee. We are just proposing most other townships would have a $50,000 fee. We hit $10,000. We have to replenish it. You have all the authority. If we don't pay, you stop reviewing, and the project can't move until the bills are paid. That's not going to happen, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for you to hold $200,000-plus that you can't get interest on and me to have money sitting there that isn't doing anything. So the request we've discussed with the solicitor and your planning department is to reduce the required escrow to $50,000 along the lines I suggested. Thank you. And if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

Council. I just want to say thank you for being on time. The schedule was moving right along, so I really do appreciate that. We got a lot of projects I'm going to get behind, but you're right on schedule, so thank you for that.

Thank you.

Council, any other questions or comments? All right, seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the PRDC's properties escrow arrangement for the land development review fees related to the state hospital project? So moved. Madam Secretary.

William McCoy.

Aye.

Madeira Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Aye. Aye. Savage.

Thank you all. Have a great night.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to proclamation honoring Ms. Roseanne Santangelo, the municipal clerk. She's not going to do a song. One second. I got to get up and do something here. All right. Thank you. Is this on? Can you guys hear me? All right. Whereas the Municipal Council of Norristown honors the people, community, organizations that have excelled in endeavors that have enriched the Norristown community. And whereas Roseanne Santangelo has been a lifelong resident of Norristown and an integral part of the administration government by serving as clerk of Municipal Council of Norristown. And whereas the clerk counsel serves as the secretary of counsel, shall keep the minutes of the meetings and its records, and shall perform such other duties counsel may prescribe. And whereas official meeting minutes are a summary of, excuse me, official meeting minutes are a summary that includes the substance of all official actions and a record by individual member of the roll call, votes taken, the names of those who appeared, appear to provide public comment, and whereas Santangelo has attended and provided minutes for every municipal meeting since January 22nd of 2009. That's awesome. and has provided minutes for the meetings of the Municipal Planning Commission, the Norristown Waste Authority, and the Norristown Stormwater Authority. And whereas Sant'Angelo's last meeting as clerk of the Municipal Council is of June 16th, 2026, through her service of the community, continues to prepare the start of the 18th school year as a school crossing guide, and now therefore, the Municipal Council of Norristown recognizes and honors the achievements of its residents and municipal officers, and hereby proclaim July 22nd, 2026, Roseanne Santangelo Day. Proclaim this 21st today.

Is this gonna get me?

I just wrote a couple things down. I knew I couldn't do ad lib it. Let me put my glasses on. Thank you everyone for your recognition. It's hard to believe this day is here. When I started in 2009, Jane and Sean were here on staff. I'm going to miss the front row seat to the happenings in Norristown. I'm going to miss sitting next to Kevin. We always had a good laugh. I wish Beth good luck as the new clerk. Good luck to council. You have a lot of heart and determination. I wish you all the best. Thanks again, and now I have to take my final council minutes.

All right. Now we'll move on to appointments. We're going to do the administrative oath for our entry-level police officers.

to present to you our three new police officers. They're currently in field training with the organization. Our goal is to get them through that and hopefully hit the streets sometime in the fall. And tonight we'll square them in and welcome them officially to the Norristown Police Department. So thank you for being here and family members who are here. When we get done, we'll get you up here, get some pictures and all that. And here to officiate, Judge Barnes. I'm sorry, Judge Jones.

Yes, all good, all good. Yes, yes, good evening everyone. Judge Jones, Hakeem Jones, District Judge here in Norristown. Officers, are you ready to take the oath?

Yes, sir.

All right. All right, we need to repeat after me. I state your name.

I, Derrick Spedic.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support, obey, and defend. the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Charter of the Municipality of Norristown, and that I will enforce the laws of this Commonwealth and the ordinances of Norristown And that I will discharge the duties of my office.

And I will discharge the duties of my office.

As a police officer for the municipality of Norristown Police Department.

As a police officer for the municipality of Norristown Police Department.

With honor and fidelity.

With honor and fidelity.

I do further swear.

I do further swear.

That I will uphold, obey, and enforce.

That I will uphold, obey, and enforce.

The law without consideration to a person's race. Color, sex, religious creed, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, handicap or disability.

Congratulations.

All right, we're going to change the agenda up just a little bit. I would like to have the Carver Center, if you guys want to come up for your presentation. So we're going to do Planning and Municipal Development, the George Washington Carver Community Center, and next project presentation.

Are they ready for us?

Are you going to do another one? Okay.

No, he's taking a picture.

You ready?

Hello. Good evening, council. Good evening, everyone that is in the audience. We are the George Washington Carver Community Center. We've been around for 66 amazing years. are the reason why the George Washington Carver was built, because back on July 5, 1944, there was two African-American kids who drowned because African-American kids didn't have accessible swimming resources, and they were not permitted to swim with the white children. So kids used to go up in the vicinity of like the, Farm Park and Northstown State Hospital, swimming in the sinkhole, and two kids drowned. So on this 66 years, we've been doing a lot of programming. Our vision is amazing. We do events, activities. We try to keep the kids engaged as much as possible. We do things for senior citizens. We do things for all ages. So we are coming here just to present to you guys and make you guys aware that we're gonna go in front of the zoning board. We would like to have an annex building in addition to our current building to where it's not just a gym. It's gonna be meeting rooms for anyone in the community to rent and then we're also gonna have different like a computer and library, things like that for our kids. So it's not just a big gym. Sometimes the gym is just too big. So now we need an addition to have different classrooms. It's going to be two stories. We have an amazing architect and project manager that we're working with. Anybody else want to say anything?

Hello, council. I am Charmaine Bazemore, the executive director at the Carver Center. So through the community facilities fund is where the money is going to come from, the grant money for us to do the annex. What we have on the screen right now is a rendition of our current property. I'm sorry, it's a rendition of what our proposal will be. So in the picture, you're going to see the black, which is going to be the addition. Initially, we wanted it to be a freestanding building at the end of the lot. That way we could separate, like Erica said, the items that are happening in the gym, the stage, things of that nature, and the classrooms that were going to be in the addition. We did send a use form that was denied by the engineer. So we did go back to the drawing board to just look at a footprint that would be more appealing to the zoning board and more appealing to the municipal as a whole. We did have letters placed in mailboxes to the community that is going to be directly affected by construction once it's time to do that. So this will give us more parking spaces than what we currently have. Right now we have about 19. This will bring us to 27 but it is going to allow us to add an additional building to the west side of our building that is going to be, and the next slide should show a rendition of what we would like to see in the inside. Yes, if we can enlarge it. So downstairs we're looking at two classrooms that would be separated by a partition. That way if someone comes in, right now we do Explorer Scouts after school every other Monday. Right now we have to give them the entire gym, so we don't have the ability to do an after school program and do Explorer Scouts. So this will allow us to rent one of those two classrooms on the lower level of the new building if it's a small space that is needed. But with the partition, it's going to allow us to open up the room, so if we needed to do something larger. The next slide is going to be the second floor, which is also a room that's separated by partitions with the same concept. So right now, if somebody comes in and they want to do a 30 person birthday party, we're giving them the entire gym. This will give us the opportunity to do banquet style, you see there's a kitchen there, banquet style events on a smaller scale. The biggest thing with community facility was we also are going to open this up to other organizations who would like to utilize the space. And there will be a shared calendar that's gonna be available to everyone in the municipal who would like to rent the space. So they can see what's available, but what also other entities are doing. So for example, prior to this happening, we have already started to share our space. So Family Services is having an event in August that they're going to bring into the gym. But this will just allow us to have multiple things going on at one time. and it'll allow us to be able to serve the community in a better capacity. I think that was the last exhibit. This is what the rendition of the building would look like, the 3D rendition attached to where it currently is, and we are using a local architect to help us with the renditions, and he is here today.

Is there anything you would like to say? I don't know. You got it all covered. You're hired. I know, right? What's the pay?

So we just wanted to come forward before we go to the zoning board to let you know what we were doing. Again, we placed letters in the mailboxes of the neighbors that are around us because we're looking at tentatively breaking ground in the spring of next year. Part of this is also going to allow us to add an ADA entrance to the front because right now anybody who's been to our building knows you have to go all the way around the block to come in through the parking lot to be able to access the building if you need ADA accessible spaces. So we are looking to put an ADA ramp in the front of the building. There will be additional ADA spaces in the parking lot. And then just as far as planning is concerned, if we do have individuals who reach out, that will be one of our questions on intake for who wants to utilize the space. That way we can ensure that they are given downstairs rooms as opposed to upstairs rooms if need be. We appreciate your time today.

We are the board.

My name is Erica Wharton. This is Trina Allison. This is Laura Smith also. So we're part of the board. We just look forward for your support. We know you guys come out to the Carver to support anyway. We just wanted to give you guys an update and talk about what we plan on doing. 66 years is a long time. We kept it strong. They kept trying to take our building. I said, not while we're here. That's right. Not while we're here.

I just wanna say, I appreciate the, Carver's been part of my life since I was a little kid. It was the first place I actually scored a basket on organized basketball. That was only two years ago, but.

Times.

It has so many children and kids have gone through the Carver system, and they see that, I think it's long overdue, because yes, we have very talented, athletic kids, but the library, the educational piece that could go into our community, I'm just excited about the opportunities that could take place. I'm going to be written out for a lot of different things once it's done. I'm glad you're going into the ground next year because we, the educational piece, I'm glad I see that library. Everybody, if you have children, they should be reading two books at least a month. Education, I used to live in a library. And that lets you explore the world without leaving where you're at. It doesn't mean how much money you have, if your parents have money or not. You can change your life through books.

Absolutely.

And I'm excited about that. So I appreciate you guys. I know you guys do so much over there. So thank you.

Thank you. Sorry to get the parents to support, but that's another story. Anybody have any questions?

Council, any other comments or questions?

What's that? I said, if anybody has a question, that's your job.

No, he said everything I wanted to say. I'm very proud and happy for you guys, because I love the Carver Center. I'm there all the time, as you all know. So this is exciting to see an addition there, because I will also be using some of those rooms. And yeah, I just hope you guys can add some extra parking spots, though. Say that again. Just some extra parking spots. Oh, OK. I missed that part. I did not hear that at all. You said that right now? I apologize.

I didn't even hear you say that. Okay. We got it.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right, and we're going to continue with planning municipal development, and we are going to move to the public hearing of ordinance 26-04, data centers in the heavy industrial district.

Thank you very much. I know it's being led by the planning department, but what I'm going to do is I'm just going to mark some exhibits for the record for this public hearing. Exhibit number one will be a copy of the ordinance that will be considered. Thank you. Yes, this is Sean Kilkenny, the municipal solicitor. I wanted to go over some exhibits we're going to mark for the purposes of this public hearing. Exhibit number one, which will be municipal one, will be a copy of the ordinance that was originally put forward to be advertised. M2 will be a copy of the advertisement of this public hearing in our newspaper of general circulation, dated July 6th, 2026. And three will be a copy that actually we just received yesterday, July 20th, a recommendation from the Montgomery County Planning Commission, which was will couple that also to the recommendation of our Norristown Planning Commission. So everyone's familiar with the public hearing process. When you amend the zoning ordinance, it's a little more extensive process than just passing an ordinance. You have to send it both to your county planning commission. You have to send it to your local planning commission. And I think the county has been, as we know, data centers has been a hot topic in Norristown and everywhere else in Montgomery County in the country. So I think the county took their time, which is good, in reviewing this in our own planning commission and had extensive comments for this. So they reviewed that as such. You have to hold a public hearing. And then there is an ordinance on the agenda this evening Staff will get into it a little more, but it's kind of be our recommendation to perhaps take your comments, hear what public comments there are, and perhaps not move forward this evening. Hold another hearing on this and revise the ordinance a little bit to reflect the Norristown Planning Commission comments and the County Planning Commission comments on something so big we wanna make sure we get this right and we incorporate everyone's input, but I'll be quiet now. Oh, sorry.

And I'll lean on the solicitor a little more because for those who are concerned that we're not moving fast enough, we are protected by the pending ordinance doctrine.

Yes.

So it does not mean that we're in danger. The point that it was introduced and we're working on it, we're protected by that, if you wanted to speak to that.

We are, yes.

On that note, the Assistant Planning Director is going to go through various points that were actually revisions of the comments that were received both from the public through letters to the Planning Department, also the local Norristown Planning Commission. They did a good job. They went deep into it, made very good suggestions, which we are incorporating. Of course, Councilman McMahon and Councilwoman Griffin had also pointed out certain language that they thought would be helpful. And of course, we have incorporated that. And as the solicitor said, we had a long discussion with the county planning commission and they had very good comments as well. And so all those comments cumulatively I think makes the ordinance stronger. So what Vince will do this evening is go through some of them and if you have questions or feedback, this is the opportunity and we'll hear from the audience as well and we'll incorporate that and we'll advertise it again so the public knows that changes are being made and then we'll have another public hearing and then council will have the opportunity to adopt.

Good evening, Council. So after that, I will give sort of a brief history of how we got to where we are right now, just the process. And then, yeah, Vincent Papa, POPPA. And then I'll give a brief description of the ordinance just for those who haven't heard it or read it yet. So for the history of how we got where we are, so we had meetings going back to last fall in November that started sort of our conversation in earnest with staff and our solicitors and council. In May of 2025, during the first read at that council meeting, council approved the request to advertise the proposed data center ordinance. The notice for the data center ordinance was published July 7th and July 14th for tonight, and the ordinance was taken to the planning commission last week, July 14th, which it was recommended for approval. And just sort of a brief description of what the ordinance has in it, and then the next public meeting will go. Kev, could you? It's a little bit lower. Thanks. Could you go a little bit lower on this? Thanks. It's a little hot. So the ordinance establishes definitions for data centers, data center accessory uses, data center campuses, and definition for sensitive receptors such as homes, schools, and churches and such. It allows data centers in the heavy industrial district only through conditional use process, which means the proposal will require council review. And it also establishes standards for setbacks, building height, coverage, architecture, energy use, water use, noise, air emissions, emergency response, electrical waste, decommissioning, and public information. So we went deep with this one. So to go over some of the MCPC recommendations, which is why we're asking for another public hearing later, as these are pretty substantial, which would require the new version of the ordinance. The first comments were for our definition section. Our ordinance distinguishes data center from servers and computer equipment that are only incidental to another use, such as an office. MCPC recommends making this distinction clear so there is no uncertainty about when a property is operating as a data center. For setbacks and site feasibility, the ordinance requires at least five acres for data centers over 100,000 square feet. 250-foot setback from the property lines, and the MCPC recommends testing those requirements. We know that the three parcels along that district are about 15 acres in total. Only two of those acres kind of fit the requirement for those five acres, so this is something that we just need to tweak and go back. Also, those setbacks from those sensitive receptors, because there's housing right across the tracks over there, When we spoke to the county last week and maybe kind of measured it out, it just wasn't realistic to get any kind of real data center on those properties. So because of that, because we're making it almost impossible, this could be something that would be challenged later down the road in court and we're trying to avoid that. This is also a reason why we're going back and kind of double checking our work here to make sure that we're in compliance. For coverage, our ordinance proposes maximum building height coverage of 40%, maximum impervious coverage of 50%. They just want to confirm that those limits are appropriate for this type of use. There's also a mixed-use overlay on that district, so we just have to make sure that something's not getting triggered by that. Just double-check on that. And then just buffers and berms, our ordinance includes screening requirements for certain equipment and substations, but does not establish a comprehensive PERIMETER BUFFER STANDARD, MCPC RECOMMENDS ADDING LANDSCAPING, SCREENING, AND REQUIREMENTS TO REDUCE VISUAL AND NOISE IMPACTS. AS WAS MENTIONED, THE PLANNING COMMISSION ALSO HAD A RECOMMENDATION FROM LAST WEEK TO to recommend requiring data center applicants to pay for utility infrastructure upgrades necessary by the project where the costs are not already imposed by state law, regulation, or utility provider. So those are just a few of the sort of changes that we're looking to make in the new version. And that's why staff believes that comments should be reviewed. But we obviously would like to have public comments as we will also take that into consideration as well as your own. So with that,

Oh, I'm sorry, yes So I always screw this up do I need to make a motion to have the public hearing or we just Already here they can come up. Okay. So now is the time for a public comment If you have a comment, please come up Come on down, sir.

Yes, my name is Kaden Beagle, K-A-D-E-N-B-E-E-G-L-E. We'll cancel. I'm sure you already know that I support ordinance putting in place any kind of definition and restrictions on data centers. I prepared something here just to make a statement, just if anybody might be on the fence. I am a resident of Norristown and I have 12 years of experience in IT technical services. I have been researching the growing impact of data centers across the US over the past couple years now. For anyone who may be on the fence as to necessity of such an ordinance, I am here to provide my input and support of an ordinance proposal for defining what a data center is, applying appropriate requirements and restrictions, and appropriately requiring important impact studies to be completed for any proposal of such facility. Regardless of how little industrial zone we currently have or its current occupancy, it's important such ordinances to clearly define what a data center is and how to handle them to protect the people of Norristown and our surrounding areas. Without such ordinances, investors and developers with deep pockets, venomous legal teams, and shady connections may target our borough to build such facilities under false pretenses, misrepresentation, and aggressive buyout practices. This is not hyperbole. This has already been happening nationally and in our neighboring municipalities. Data center proposals have been introduced for Upper Merion, Limerick, Conshohocken, and Plymouth Meeting, some of which have attempted falsely categorizing themselves as warehouses or office buildings. Data centers may appear to be heavily polluting, data centers may not appear to be heavily polluting facilities based on their facade. But these are industrial scale data processing plants that generate a lot of heat, noise and pollution that contaminate both air and water and demand a lot of water and electricity to operate. Due to their power demand, these facilities also commonly operate as power generating plants that have extraordinary resource demands that widely affect the region, the entire region, not just communities that host them. So like I said, not just our municipality, but every municipality around us surrounding will be affected by any data center proposed and built here. excuse me, they consume absorbent amounts of fuel, water and electricity and other resources that will drain local service providers and drive up water and electricity bills as well as drive down property values. If we do not clearly define data centers and their requirements, then we leave ourselves vulnerable to misrepresentation and legal attacks in the event of a proposal being denied. Thank you for your time, consideration and approval of this ordinance.

Good evening, Council. Olivia Brady, B-R-A-D-Y, Norristown resident. I want to applaud Council for bringing this ordinance forward. As you know, I chastise you for not doing it quickly enough, but I think I wanted to applaud you for being fairly complete in the ordinance. I didn't have a chance to read every word of it, but it's out from the description that a lot of things were covered. I do want to bring something to your attention, though, and that is I was privy to some of the information that was presented to the Upper Marion Township from the developer who wants to put a data center or data centers there. And one of the comments that he made was that it would bring employment and dollars to the municipality. Aside from the actual construction of the data center, once it is in place, there is not a whole lot of employment that is going to be available at that center. So if a data center proposal is given to you, I want you to think that in mind and maybe question that developer as to what exact jobs might be available for this facility. Because as I understand, once it's complete and up and running, But the only employment that would happen would be the security guards that are taking care of the data center in the hours that it's in operation. So I just want to keep that in mind. And again, applaud you for bringing the ordinance forward and for making it as complete as possible and for including all of the comments from the public and from the zoning and from the county that will make it a very tight ordinance that will make developers think twice about bringing it here.

Thank you.

Are there any other public comments? Okay. I guess we will close the public comment. Oh, I'm so sorry, David.

Go ahead. Just a question on how to proceed. While there are some contradictions within our ordinance, some of our definitions and requirements are stricter than the county's recommendations and I would like to work to keep them while clarifying them. That goes to the energy generation piece as well as the definition of what a data center is. We can talk about that later. My concern is that a proposal comes in nine o'clock in the morning tomorrow that none of this applies. None of the decommissioning, none of the extra plume studies, none of that would apply to a proposal that came in tomorrow. So my question about proceeding with this, can we proceed as is and amend? Does that open this up to... difficulty. Vince was mentioning that the degree of our setbacks preclude a realistic proposal from even happening, and that's a potential risk. So that's the one risk. Now, some of the other things apply to defining how complex some of the assessment situations are going to be, especially in the energy generation piece. But my question is, What is the risk in passing as is tonight with the intention to amend?

A couple things. One is, as Ms. Messonnier talked about, this falls under the pending ordinance doctrine. So if something has been advertised to do this, you're going to receive a certain amount of protection under this ordinance. As was pointed out by Vince, The problem with the setback issue is that potentially could be a validity challenge issue.

But that's the one, right?

Yeah, but that's the big one.

No, I understand.

That's one of the reasons why you want to fix it. Because if it's ruled unconstitutional, then they get to put it wherever they want. So that's what you absolutely do not want to do. So what I would reckon, I think you'll be better protected if we go ahead and, you know, close this hearing and make a motion to re-advertise the ordinance with changes, right? And also, at the same time, you are obviously going to want to table the ordinance that's on the agenda.

Correct. Okay. I definitely have opinions on the county recommendations that I'd like to pursue when the time comes, because I think there's other solutions than just following some of those county recommendations.

Oh, definitely. And it's a shame we just got them yesterday, so they didn't give people a lot of time to chew on them.

But I've been nervous. You know, we've been nervous since, like, February. A lot of this has been blocked out for a long time. All during that window of time, any proposal could have come in. We wouldn't have the decommissioning plan. We wouldn't have the extra plume studies. We wouldn't have a lot of these protections that we're about to put in place here. So there's definitely some urgency about this to me.

So President Bates, then what I would do or suggest is I would make a motion to close the public hearing and authorize staff to advertise and amend an ordinance 2604. And obviously we have the comments from the Planning Commission, both of our Planning Commissions. We've heard some comments from Mr. McMahon and some from the public. What we'll do is we'll try to extrapolate those all as quickly as possible, incorporate this, come up with our best recommendation, forward it out to Council, make sure you're all good with it, and then re-advertise. That would be the plan.

All right, Council, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second. Madam Secretary. Do a roll call for this too?

Or can I do all in favor?

No, I can do all in favor then? Aye. Thank you. And then as for administration to advertise, so I don't have to open, I don't have to do a motion to advertise ordinance.

I would do a motion to table ordinance 2604 and authorize staff after proper input from council to re-advertise.

So as we all just heard Sean's motion.

Should we advertise it anyway? Because you always come here. You're going to re-advertise. That's what you're doing. But when you put that extra in there, like, until our input, I was like, we should advertise it then.

We want to make sure everyone looks at it before that was the reason.

So do I have a motion to...

Whatever everything is Sean said table And and re-advertise with amendments, thank you so move Second now madam secretary William McCoy Nadir Robinson Allie Colson Jasmine Griffin David McMahon Dustin Queenan Rashad Bates

All right, so now we're moving on. Wait, didn't we just push that back? We still have fits up here. We can do resolution 26-62. So we'll do resolution 26-62, request for council to approve preliminary final land development for 1520 Arch Street extension project for Hancock Elementary School.

all around. There you go. So this is a request for council to consider the approve the resolution 2662 for the prelim final land development for Hancock Elementary, their extension project for the school. Just a little bit of the process of how we got here. The Northtown Area School District submitted an application for prelim final land development back in April of this year. I received zoning approval on May 7th, 2026. Municipal engineers submitted their review back in May. The application was reviewed by the MCPC also in May, and the application appeared before the Planning Commission in June as well as the Design Review Board in June and was recommended for approval. So for the zoning that was received, at least part of it, it was continued use, obviously, as a public school. The impervious coverage was approximately 47%, and it got a use within the floodplain conservation district. So we have, and what this plan is, is an expansion of the existing elementary school building, an additional eight classrooms that are being added, and some flex learning spaces as well as some supporting amenity spaces. We have here Jeffrey Cardwell of the NASD as well as his engineering team. So if you have any questions for them, they'll go through a short presentation here. And then we ask for your approval for this prelim final land development project so they can get started. Do you have any questions? Just ahead of time.

Okay.

I know it's been in front of you before, so. Excellent.

So we're not going through the presentation? Unless you guys, unless you want to see it, that's fine. So council, do I have a motion to pass resolution 26-62, request for council to approve preliminary final land development for 1520 Arch Street Extension Project for Hancock Elementary School.

So moved.

Second. Madam Secretary.

William McCoy.

Aye.

Adira Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye.

Rashad Bates. Aye. The ayes have it. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so we're back to appointments again. So we're going to do resolution number 26-60, appointment for municipal clerk, Beth Scott.

is a resolution to appoint a municipal clerk, Beth Scott. Since we require consistent and professional documentation for council proceedings, we have included in your package the resume and the background of Beth Scott to serve you as the municipal clerk. These are the facts and issues pertaining to this position. The municipal clerk will attend all council meetings from July 21st through December 31st, 2026 as required. The municipal clerk is responsible for recording and preparing accurate professional meeting minutes. Finalized meeting minutes must be submitted in PDF format within one week following each meeting. The agreement may be terminated by either party 30 days with written notice or immediately in event of material breach. Just a little background that we do have a letter of agreement, but some background and experience. Ms. Beth Scott has great experience from 1986 to 2020. She worked in the public school districts within the state of Pennsylvania. She was employed by the Ben Salem Township School District as the Director of Pupil Personnel. She was promoted to administrative assistant to the director of business operations. In this position, she started preparing agendas for business sections of the school board meetings. And she took minutes for monthly meetings that the director held with the financial staff. In 2000, she started working for the upper Moreland Township School District in the business office. The director of business operations served as board secretary for school board. She began taking the minutes for the board meetings during her tenure at Upper Moreland School District. She was then promoted to executive assistant to the superintendent at Upper Moreland and continued to complete the minutes for school board meetings. When she moved to Central Pennsylvania in 2005, she became the executive assistant to the superintendent of South Middleton School District, and she continued to complete the minutes for South Middleton School Board meetings until her retirement in 2020. When she initially applied for the reception position in the municipality of Norristown, she was very interested because she felt that her experience working in school districts was very similar to the structure of municipal government. She looks forward to serving the capacity as municipal clerk. And on a personal note, she wanted to add she's widowed and she lives in King of Prussia. She has one daughter who lives in Philadelphia, and her hobbies, I have to add in, are baking, walking, exercising, and reading. She's a huge Phillies and Eagles fan. So we welcome you. That's all I have, Counsel. I think she's well experienced.

Counsel, do you have any questions or comments?

Welcome. Welcome.

Yes, welcome.

Thank you very much. What are you currently reading?

What am I currently reading?

I'm in between books, but I had read the correspondent. Excellent book. I recommend it highly.

All right, council. Do I have a motion to approve resolution 26-20, the appointment of municipal clerk Beth Scott? So moved.

Second.

Madam secretary.

William McCoy your Robinson Natalie Colson Jasmine Griffin all right David McMahon Dustin Queenan all right, I beat all right yeah, I said it Moving on to building in codes our request to approve farb Coas Good evening council

The Historic Board has met this month, and they have approved the following COAs for your consideration. 208, DeKalb, 53, East Chestnut, 408, West Main, 513, 515, 517, Sweet Street, and 1114, West Derry Street.

Council, any questions or comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the HARP COAs? So moved. Second. Madam Secretary.

William McCoy.

Aye.

Nadia Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye. Shad Bates.

Aye. Guy Savage. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. All right, back to municipal administrator. Resolution 26-59, request for municipal council to authorize the annual Microsoft licensing subscription in the amount of $47,480.40. Thank you, Council President.

Before you is a request for authorization to get into the agreement for... the licensing for 165 licenses that we need to operate. Actually, the license has expired on July 16th, but we're going on a PO, so that's why we're asking Council to approve this. A question was asked of IT if we went directly to Microsoft or we went through something else. And I was given additional information to that effect where it was made clear to me that we went through Dell for these licenses for a cost of about $20.50 per license on a yearly payment. for a total of $41,984.25. If we had gone directly to Microsoft, apparently it would have been $27.30, which then would have taken it to $54,054 per year. So we got a discount, so it appears. So we ask the council to please pass this expenditure so that we can continue the license and operate as we do daily.

Oh, did I say that all? Oh, no, you're good.

So, Steve will answer any other questions. Yeah, you were on a roll. I didn't want to interrupt.

Council, any questions or comments? Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you, Administrator Jean, and thank you, Sian. I'm just wondering, this is a planned expense. We knew that these licenses were going to be expired. Does this already account for in your budget?

Yes, it's already accounted for in our budget. So we were under our previous IT MSP previously. And because they prepaid ahead, we stuck with that because they still gave us a discount rate to match what we would have had. But that's just already factored into the budget. The biggest difference is that typically we're on a month-to-month basis, and we found that there was an opportunity for even more cost savings by switching it to an annual rate. So when we were looking at that and the fact that our licenses were expiring and everyone operates off of this access essentially, we made the decision to move forward with that, but we wanted to bring it before you for awareness to show that we did this in the lump sum versus doing monthly.

And my only question with that in regards to just like how it lands in your cash flow, switching from month to month to a yearly asset, it feels like that's going to be okay with the quarter?

I want to say thank you for showing us and actually breaking down how we're saving money, because going directly to Microsoft, they don't give any breaks. And I guess they got two or three providers, and Dell had the cheapest rate of everybody. So I appreciate you sending that in a packet, breaking it down so we could see side by side. And that was answering the question, do we go directly?

So it made it real simple and easy to follow.

So thank you.

You're welcome. Also, any other questions or comments? Awesome. Seeing none, do I have a motion to pass resolution 26-59, request for municipal council to authorize the annual Microsoft license and subscription, the amount of $47,480.40. So moved. Second. Madam Secretary.

William McCoy.

Aye.

Deer Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Dustin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates. Aye.

The ayes have it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are moving to police Oh Sorry about that Chief, just give me one second here. As most of you have seen your agenda, I just want you to know that item, where'd it go? Item B for the municipal improvement payment parking for mobility transportation consulting will be pushed to our special meeting on Thursday. To now continue with police here, resolution 26-55, request for municipal council's approval to hire five entry level police officers.

Good evening, Council and Mr. President. The resolution for you tonight is for the conditional hiring of five additional police officers. This process began back in January of this year when this body approved the testing process. We had a test on the 14th of January. We've done additional testing and interviews and background investigations since that time. And the Norristown Civil Service Commission earlier in July approved the final list of eligible candidates. Now, there were a number of candidates who took the test. However, when we did all the testing process, completed all the interviews, the background investigation, five individuals remained on the list. Today we operated about 55, 54 officers is the count. If you're doing the math, this is gonna get us somewhere near 60. We have three in FTO right now, which is gonna put us about, 63, 59, or 62, 63. So we're getting back to where we need to be. Remember, our budgeted strength is 69. Most departments don't ever operate at full strength, so we'll always be a percentage discount to the budget. So this hiring tonight is going to help us pretty much get us back into the 60s and then we have a testing process that's taking place on August 1st where we'll find hopefully get the last couple bodies to really reconstitute our ranks. So these folks have been through a vigorous and rigorous testing process. They've been found to be fit and suitable for conditional offers and it's my recommendation that we extend five conditional offers for the position of police officer for Norristown.

Council, any questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion to pass Resolution 2655, Request for Municipal Council's Approval to Hire Five Entry-Level Police Officers? So moved.

Second.

Madam Secretary.

Sorry.

William McCoy.

Aye.

Theo Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Thank you.

That turned off. Resolution 26-56, request council's approval to purchase protective helmets from Whitmer.

Good evening, Mr. President, members of council. Before we recognize resolution 2656, this is the purchase of protective helmets for our police officers. You'll see the title ballistic helmets. This provides the officers ballistic protection to, let's face it, the most important part, right? The brains and their head if they're involved in situations. This is really in today's day and age, unfortunately, standard issue stuff that we should be issuing our men and women. It's an investment in their safety and it's an investment in providing them the tools necessary to do the job God forbid we ever have to ask them to go in that situation, that they have the capability to protect themselves. And it's my recommendation that you review and approve this proposal from Whitmer Public Safety Associates, CoStar's vendor, in the amount of $63,300. And this will outfit each one of our police officers in Norristown with this much needed safety equipment. So it's my recommendation and request that you approve this purchase.

Chief, I have a question. So I know in the packet you said that these haven't been replaced in like 10 years or something like that?

So I don't know if you've ever provided this. These are not crowd control helmets that you may see with the shields for the guys with the batons. These are ballistic protection. If you recall the tragic events at Uvalde, Texas. This is the kind of protection that we need to offer our men and women if we ever have to ask them to go into an active shooter situation, that they have that ballistic protection so they feel confident and capable to go in and engage individuals in these types of situations. It's a baseline piece of equipment today in our profession.

Okay, and then how often, since we're buying this for the first time now, is this going to be like every five year, ten year?

My understanding is they have a ten year. I want to say they have a 10-year holistic rating, so they are covered for 10 years.

Oh, that's great. Okay.

And what we would do is, at some point in time, we'd start phasing in the helmets, so we're not going to be doing one purchase at once. And as new members come on and old folks leave, we will never have a mass purchase like this again.

Okay. Council, any other questions or comments? Councilman McMahon.

They don't come stocked with cameras, is that correct? They're just the ballistic helmets? There's no cameras. Thank you.

Thank you, you addressed some of this already, but if you could just for my own sake help to clarify, when would these helmets be used? When would they be considered standard protocol or standard use that an officer would have these on?

These would be used in a situation with an active shooter. So if officers respond to active reports of gunfire, this would be a safety protocol that they could don. Much like the ballistic vest that each one of us wears, this would now protect our head.

And you had mentioned that this particular purchase would be a phase process. Of what you're purchasing now, would this cover all of the active officers currently?

These 60 will cover what we have. There are officers in the department who already have them because they were on our tactical team, and our tactical team has those, so we don't need to buy 69 helmets. We know that based on what this purchase is and what we already have in inventory, this should cover the amount of all the officers that we have.

And just, again, for clarity, I was able to pull up a picture to take a look at it, but I just wanted to clarify, there's no shield or anything that would obstruct the visual of the face of an officer?

This quote does have a shield. It has a ballistic piece of glass. Obviously, bullet here, bullet here. They have ballistic protection in the shield. But it's not a, you've seen some shields and some helmets that are actually mirrored or tinted. That's not like that. These are not riot control helmets. These are ballistic protection in active shooter situations.

Council, any other questions or comments? All right. Do I have a motion? to approve resolution 26-56, approval for the protective helmets for Whitmer, from Whitmer, Whitmer. So moved.

William McCoy. Aye. Chair Robinson. Aye. Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Dustin Keenan. Aye. Scott Bates.

Aye. Yai Sabat.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Moving on to departmental reports. We are going to start with finance.

Good evening, Council. Good evening. In front of you, I have the detailed list of the March financial status by department. And just to list a couple of the highlights, real estate taxes in March, we just began to receive real estate taxes towards the end of March, so they don't look, it looks kind of low. But through June 15th, We've collected 86% of our real estate taxes, which is equivalent to last year. Parking revenue, that seems a little bit low, partially due to low revenue in boot revenue. That may be offset in expenditures. General insurance, we expect that to be a little bit higher this year. Most of the expenditures are spent earlier in the year, so that looks very high on your sheet, but towards the end of the year, that'll come into play. And one other thing that we have outstanding is a police union contract that will have an impact on our budget. ANY QUESTIONS ON THE FINANCE UPDATE FROM MARCH? OKAY. NEXT IS THE ARPA UPDATE. OUT OF THE $20 MILLION WE RECEIVED, WE HAVE APPROXIMATELY $3 MILLION OF ARPA FUNDS REMAINING TO SPEND. THE LARGEST PROJECTS REMAINING ARE THE SKATE PARK. WE HAVE $1.3 MILLION REMAINING FOR THAT PROJECT, WHICH INCLUDES CONSTRUCTION, ENGINEERING, AND CONTINGENCY COSTS. FOR 548,000 IS SET ASIDE FOR THAT PROJECT. THE SEWER EVALUATION CAME UNDER BUDGET BY 342,000. WE'RE LOOKING TO REALLOCATE THOSE FUNDS TO THE SAWMILL COVER PROJECTS. PUBLIC WORKS, THE REC CENTER ROOF, THAT IS $218,000 UNDER BUDGET. WE'RE LOOKING TO REALLOCATE THOSE FUNDS TO THE BAND SHELL. Public works beautification has $432,000 remaining. We're still working down those projects under that MOU. And then lastly, park upgrades, we have $214,000. They're under contract. Council has already approved those contracts. Our 2026 capital budget. We have, we're revamping the, updating the budget and we're gonna have a revamped CIP project list for you in August. We'll send that out earlier prior to that meeting. We have about $3 million of unrestricted funds for CIP projects, so we'll still be able to cover all our projects this year with those funds. Part of those funds we had moved at the end of 24 out of the general fund into the CIP fund from our savings from ARPA. So rather than going into debt, we're still using those cash funds. The 2027 budget packages will go out at the end of next week or this week. So we'll begin that project and come to council with initial proposal at the end of September. And finally, our 2026 stormwater bills are being reprogrammed to include the 2025 delinquent amounts on the bill. So they should go out by the end of next week. Any questions? Those are the major projects.

I have one question. Sure. I see here, the rec center roof is $218,000 remaining. We're looking to reallocate those funds to the band shell.

Yeah, when we got insurance from the band shell, it was a hundred and some thousand was deducted for depreciation. So not all the funds were covered. Plus we did security upgrades and things like that. So we're hoping to reallocate those funds rather than using our CIP balance.

What happened to the insurance? We use that all now. Yeah, but the insurance didn't have it for like, we didn't have, well we do have.

It paid for what it's worth, but they deduct depreciation. Yeah.

Right, so that means the type of insurance policy we have, there's insurance policies that you can have that will cover whatever it costs through your construction.

Replacement value.

Yeah, so we didn't have replacement value?

I didn't look at the insurance policy. I just get the money.

I'll look at the policy. Yeah, because I was looking at that like, hold on, we have insurance. We shouldn't have to be able to move money around unless the insurance policy we have is a little bit inefficient. Right. So that's why I'm like, hold on, why do we need to even move money around? Because replacement value, you're replacing it.

It's the depreciation that they deducted is what.

Yeah, that don't happen on buildings. That's like depreciation on the assets, like if you have clothes or something like that. You don't depreciate buildings when you have insurance on them. We need to look into that, because that to me is not making sense unless it's some type of policy that there might be a gap in there that it shouldn't be.

Okay.

Okay, yeah.

I'll get those details.

And that's not on you, because you're not the insurance. That's on the insurance guy, yeah. I just saw that, like why are we reallocating money? Because that should be 100%.

That's what I sure it's for make you all we do have security upgrades as well.

Yeah, we had to put in Okay, but yeah, that was it for me that's Any other questions the councilman McMahon The the stormwater bill is going out. How are they being affected by like the recent rulings about the? That their attacks like they're gonna affect the properties differently now throughout the township. How is that? How is that affecting how these bills are being calculated?

It's still the same word. It's...

So it'll still be the same, it'll still be, it'll still go out with the same formula, we just may not be getting them back from certain... Yes. Properties, okay. All right. So there'll be a difference in received revenue, basically, potentially, based on that.

And nothing's changing with those bills.

And next for departmental updates, we have Public Works.

All right. Hello, Council. As I believe there was a Public Works monthly report that was provided previously. There were some numbers in there that I wanted to kind of call out that are important to, I guess, us and the residents. So, last month they filled 55 potholes bringing the year-to-date number to 942. With the street cleaning they did last month, did 764 miles, bringing that year to a total of 3,243. And last month they had 100 stormwater inlets that were cleaned, bringing that year to date to 650. Another thing that I wanted to bring up, within Mascaro, I actually demanded, well not demanded, but we requested reporting on our trash and recycle bin replacements. Last month, we had 34 bins that were replaced between the trash recycling. And then with repairs, we had 101 repairs that were done. All right. Is there any questions for that? Yes.

It's about how some of the streets being blocked off are affecting trash pickup and things of that nature. I think if we could figure out what's going on and have some wraparounds, we definitely need to get back to them about that. Because that is true. I drive down streets that are blocked off, so how are they picking up the trash? And we definitely need to solve that, because people ain't trying to drag that back in their house.

Right.

I might, this might be for a later conversation. I definitely want to look out, because I'm getting an uptick in complaints about Mascaro. I don't know if anybody else is. I definitely want to take a look at that. It could be because of the roads or not. And also, I know we, I think we posted it when some of these streets are supposed to be repaired. that we could definitely, like, you know, people could tell us that we're still on schedule, just to keep letting constituents know, hey, this was going on, not just to throw it out there once and then they don't hear anything from us again, because I'll be honest with you, I was shocked when I saw, I never saw, just me personally, I never saw NARSA, especially in District 3, Baser Street, all the way up to Johnson Highway, all over, like, the roads were cut off. I had to revert a couple times myself, so that would be appreciative.

Thank you. And to speak on some of the issues and things like that, especially for our residents, there was mailers that went out recently. One of the things that we changed is that for the main primary point of contact, it's now Public Works that don't reach out. Poles are trying to reach out to MassCarroll directly. That way we know when there's issues coming in, and we can track when those are being resolved. Additionally, on that mailer, we also have the new email address, which is residentialtrash at norristown.gov. So that email is monitored by us, and the minstrel receives that email as well. So when a complaint comes in via phone, via email, we know and we can track on those. So really, if someone is experiencing, a resident is experiencing an issue, just reach out, and we're reaching out and holding them accountable. And we're actually tracking that now. So we're creating new reporting as well to make sure we follow up on that. And that's something we want to address monthly.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilman McMahon. I just wanted to follow up a little bit more on when the contractors come in to do the gas lines or the water service and that, and when they fill in the cuts that they've made in the street and everything. I know I had a conversation with Cal Hassan, who's kind of filling in as a director in lieu of that for the supervising of this. Does Public Works need more help in monitoring and enforcing the standards around that? Because they're like, it's a compaction issue. When they're filling and not compacting correctly, Layer by layer there's a process and the standard for doing that and then when it's not done properly you get You get that some of the massive depressions that we're seeing I know on Main Street I don't know who came back to sort of fill in you know some additional patching happened there I don't know if that was carried out by us But we have to make the contractors come back and fix substandard work because I I frankly feel a little offended for our town that, you know, Donella and whatever can come in here and do substandard work. And, you know, it's not good enough. And so it's something that we need to address because it's a really kind of basic day-to-day experience for people here. And there are the standards in place, and people just, you know, the contractors need to be held to account to do better work.

I agree with that. And I guess to answer your question as far as do we need more support, I would always say yes. One of the things that we do have, we have the right-of-way expector position. We have another one that was approved via budget. So that role is open that we need to fill as well. So we would then have two right-of-way expectors, which will help assist with that. I do think part of that also is the way things were done previously, so process changes as well. I know one of the things that we're looking to do to help hold the contractors accountable is that they can't be granted a new permit to begin new work until the previous work they've done has been fully completed and up to standards. So there's different ways we're trying to tackle that to help improve. You're welcome. Any other questions? Sounds good.

Thank you, Seattle.

You're welcome. Thank you.

Council, do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Aye.