Municipal Council - workshop

There you go.

I'd like to call to order the Norristown Municipality Council Work Session on Tuesday, September 15th. Can I have a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Secretary, roll call, please.

Natalie Colson. Here. Jasmine Griffin. Here. William McCoy. Here. David McMahon. Here. Nadira Robinson. Present. Dustin Queenan. Here. Rashad Bates.

Here. Council, do I have a motion to approve last council's minutes? So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

And tonight we did have any, oh, I'm sorry, all in favor? Thank you, Jasmine. Aye. Moving too fast. Tonight we did have an executive session. Would that be on personnel?

Did I say that? Is that correct?

Just information? Okay. So, okay, information and personnel for our executive session. Vice President Queenan, do we have any announcements?

Yes. I want to make sure everybody's aware. If you need a translation unit, there's a gentleman back there with the door open. You can get that. I also want to make sure everybody knows we have a table full of announcements in the corner. I have some of them here, so I'll read off some of them. Northstown Fire Department smoke detector canvassing, I said canvassing, Wednesday, September 16th, starting at 6 p.m. with your Councilwoman Natalie Colson and Judge Hakeem at these blocks of New Hope Street, 800- 900 and a thousand blocks of new hope street and then 900 and a thousand blocks of coke and cedarwood lanes working smoke detectors save lives once again that's wednesday september 16th you can uh talk to miss colson afterwards if you want more information um also we have cityyear.org. One year here can build a lifetime of change. Actually, that's a really good program. I had a friend of mine who went through that. So you can go to cityyear.org. They're selecting leaders like you for the youth. City Year Philadelphia will serve full-time alongside teachers as tutors and mentors helping building learning environments where students can thrive academically and socially. Do you know about that, Mr. McCoy? That's by the way. I know I had a friend that went there. Also, Narchetown, our second annual fall festival, it's a free event. October 16th, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., enjoy activities included but not limited to pumpkin decorating contests, if you can make a pumpkin better than President Bates, making s'mores, apple cider, and donuts, and other activities at Narsetown Recreational Center at 340 Harding Boulevard, Narsetown. Once again, there are a ton of different activities on the table. One more thing. This is important. The police department. Community meeting, September slash October 2026. We invite all community members and residents to join us. PSA 2 was Sergeant North. Wednesday, September 16th. That's actually tomorrow. 530 to 730 at Halls Avenue United Methodist Church. That is 800 West Marshall Street, PSA 3, Monday, September 21st, 5.30 to 7.30. That's located at Norristown Church of God at 329 Wood Street. PSA 4 with Sergeant Wiley, Thursday, September 24th, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Location's actually here, Narsa Municipality, second floor. And PSA 1, Sergeant Rambo, October 20th, 2026, 6.30 to 8.30 p.m., St. Francis Church, Power Center, that's 601 Buttonwood Street. And all these are back at the table.

We have any public comments?

Yes, we do. The first speaker is Reverend Elijah Morris.

I'm here tonight to ask a couple questions. What in the world are you people doing? As a council, what are you people doing? Because I don't see anything that you're doing. You are... voting on stuff, motioning stuff, agreeing to stuff that was on the books before most of you came on board. What is your plan for Norristown? All of you ran or somebody put you up to run. I've spoken to a couple of you privately. I've spoken to people who've spoken to others of you privately. Nobody has a plan. What is the plan of this city council for this town of Norristown? Because you guys come, you eat, you come out here, and you just vote on stuff that we already know about. You vote on stuff that the township is working on. What is your plan? The state rep called you all out two months ago when a young boy was killed in this town and said you all do nothing about the violence with our youth. I kept looking. I wanted to lay him out. I wanted to blast him, because I'm like, these people do something. But I've been watching. You don't do anything. You don't have any plans. The Civil Service Commission, which I served on, gave back in last fall, City Council Norristown created a position, deputy Chief of police. Gave it a salary. Gave it to a person. Illegal. Wrong. We called you on it. After a lot of discussion, you backed it off. And we gave you, my minutes say June 9th, we gave you the deputy police chief qualifications. It's now September 15th. You haven't said anything in a council meeting about the position. But I guarantee the person that you had in the position who may not have the title right now is probably still getting the money. Illegal. Wrong. I asked the finance person two weeks ago. She says she didn't know. How is that? You all are supposed to run this town. If you did something wrong and you backed it out, thank God you did, and we did it right, but if the person's still getting paid, something's wrong. You have no individual plans for this town. I've been in politics almost all my life. I've never seen a politician run. Well, I take that back. There's one now. But I've never seen a real politician run without a plan for what he or she was going to do to make the town

The next speaker, Pat Singer and Omar Nakani.

Mr. President, member of the council, honorable assistants, good afternoon. I'm here today to speak about my chicken. It's been two weeks now. people complaining about our chicken. First we get complaints about rodents. Then code came over, inspected. They couldn't find anything. No violations. But we had to have an exterminator. We had one. And he got three visit for now. and no activity whatsoever. It didn't cause any, no activity whatsoever. People complained about roosters. I have two roosters and four hands. I said, yes, okay. It's understandable. People may be working late, sleep, they need to sleep, they may be annoyed, and We took them away. We still having complaints. People complain about smell. They smell, we cannot, and that and that. And our IC unit brings the air inside, which is incorrect. If you have air conditioning in your home, check. There is no air that going from the outside to the inside. That's not how it works. It means it's impossible. We have multiple neighbors on the block. They never complain. I have 1,000 square feet of backyard back into the park. My coop is 45 feet from any dwelling. If you come close to the coop and say, yeah, it smells, I will understand. You tell me the smell goes into your house, but it don't go to the neighbor's house? That doesn't make sense. Anything else? They say there is health issues. If there is health issues, health issues, you cannot live in the block. Everybody here live in Norristown, I hope. Everybody wake up in the morning, industrial smog. Early in the morning, toxic. Nobody talk about that. You have health issues, that's not where you should live. People talking about smell. Okay, let's go, let's smell. Let's go to Lafayette Street. All those people along Lafayette Street should be compensated then. That smell.

The next speaker is James Samuel.

Good evening, President, Council, members of the community. I just have a... Two things. Hamilton Street speed bumps. I briefly expounded on that before. It's just terrible. Did you get the pictures that I emailed? It was over a month ago. I had problems emailing, so I'll try to get them back to you again. But there was an accident in front of my house where a young boy was hit an hour after he got a bicycle. And it wasn't pretty. It was bad. And just not too long ago, I have two cats, one inside and one outside. But I watched a guy fly up the street, hit a cat, kept going. and his cat was in misery in the middle of the street, crawled to the side. But they raced up and down that street, mini bikes, dirt bikes, everything. I'm a bike owner, and it's not fair to citizens that do obey the law about the policies of the street. Whatever I can do to get speed bumps on that block, 500 block of Hamilton, I'd appreciate it. Any feedback, I definitely would appreciate that. And another thing, I would like to know when you're going to vote on handicapped spots in front of your house. I put it in. I had a hard time getting correct paperwork and things for myself and my mother. But I don't know. I checked today. They said it was waiting on council for a vote. It's been a little while for me, but I just appreciate the feedback, and thank you very much.

Thank you. And just so you know, we are working on Hamilton Street and the surrounding of West Area and Selma as well, and we are working with the handicapped spots. We started working on that a couple weeks ago, but we're still finalizing.

We're almost there.

Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll make sure we're looking at it.

Okay, the next speaker is Olivia Brady.

Good evening, council. I'm here today to advocate for the creation of an animal control officer position, also known as an ACO, particularly to address this town's significant feral cat population, as well as a burgeoning stray dog situation. An ACO would provide an essential coordination for existing feral cat colonies while ensuring public safety and enforcing local ordinance, such as the chicken ordinance that's being advertised. In addition, their key responsibilities would include rescuing stray or injured animals, managing nuisance animal complaints, investigation reporting animal cruelty, enforcing vaccination mandates, and providing public education. Norristown has many residents who are actively feeding feral cats, and we are fortunate also to have some volunteers to currently do trap, neuter, vaccinate, and release, currently known as TNVR or just TNR. TNR is a widely recognized... suitable, widely recognized as the most humane and cost-effective method for controlling feral cat populations. These volunteers also identified kittens and socialized cats suitable for adoption, a process that could greatly be enhanced by the support of an ACO. I know your budget process is coming up shortly, and in the past, there has been no money in the budget for an ACO. However, there are several grants, which I forwarded to Chief Trail, that could assist you in the appointment. Please understand that this position has been long vacant and is greatly needed in this town. I urge you to consider an ACO position in your 2027 budget. Thank you so much for your time.

Tracy Graham. Good evening, Council.

My name is Tracy Graham, and I work in operations at the Montgomery County SPCA. So following off of Olivia's statement here, I am also here to advocate for the creation and appointment of an animal control officer in the borough of Norristown. As a private nonprofit organization, the Montgomery County SPCA has accepted strays, abandoned animals and surrendered animals for Norristown for decades. Today, Norristown remains one of our most active areas for stray animal intakes, neglect and animal cruelty calls, as well as just general requests from residents needing assistance with their pets. The animal related challenges in Norristown are often symptoms of a much deeper community issue. And while the SPCA is dedicated to doing our part to provide vital support, including free vaccine clinics, trap neuter return services, as Ms. Brady explained, we've also been subsidizing spay and neuter programs. We run a pet food pantry and we provide humane education to our youth. We can't address the root causes of these issues alone. a designated animal control officer employed by the borough of Norristown would be able to respond to these animal-related calls. We've heard some of them tonight. These calls are currently tying up your police force. They would be able to establish trusted connections with the residents, they could assist with the community cat issues, and more importantly, they can address the stray and dangerous animal calls and situations that we are dealing with. The dedicated role would bridge a service gap. It would improve the quality of life for your residents and their pets, and it would significantly reduce the burden on an already overtaxed police force. The Montgomery County SPCA is willing and able and looks forward to working in collaboration with the borough of Norristown. We can develop a very coordinated, proactive and effective approach to improve the outcomes for both the animals and the people that live within your community and ultimately it would strengthen your community as a whole. So I respectfully request that you would consider the appointment of an animal control officer for the borough of Norristown. Thank you.

The next speaker is Melvin Faust.

Good afternoon or good evening, Council. I just want to publicly thank President Bates, Councilperson Coulson for personally coming out to see my block yesterday, the West Area block, 1200 block in Selma. I've been talking about it for over a year coming in, about the traffic and the speed of everything that's going around there. So I thank you guys for coming out to put eyes on And I agree with the brother that's right here. I live right around the corner from him. Hamilton Street is the same way. So I think if we can get you guys and the rest of the council just to take a walk. Ms. Griffin, you came around the first time. So I thank you. You were definitely on point from the beginning. But I think if you guys would actually get out and just walk your neighborhoods and see just exactly what the residents are saying and what we see, let you guys get your eyes on it so you can get from our perspective of what our neighborhoods look like and the things that are going on. That's all I have tonight. Thank you.

Next speaker is Jessica Mergen.

Good evening, council. My name is Jessica Mergen. And hello, council person. So I'm here to talk about a request for an animal control officer. We've heard a lot about that already this evening. And I only just moved to Norristown in 2020, and having lived in Montgomery County my whole life. But I have been rather shocked by the lack of animal control and just the poor behavior of animal owners and perhaps their lack of education and resources as well. What was most striking to me is that my neighbor had purchased a dog as a puppy who they then put outside frequently and this was a husky or malamute who proceeded to bark literally for hours at a time. And I don't know if we just have bad windows in an old house, but it would keep us up at night at 1 o'clock in the morning. And I remember also on the day of my birthday one year, the dog barked for the entire day. And I know because I was outside of my yard gardening and enjoying the outside fresh air in the summer. And I had to call the police many times for this. They would also leave the dog out in excessive heat with no water and no shade. And it really shouldn't be the job of a police officer to have to take their time away from actual crimes to educate people and to perhaps provide some enforcement of fines and other noise ordinances. In addition, maybe because I live across from a park, I have been a collector of stray cats, and one of whom now is my cat, but many of whom I have trapped and gotten checked for whether or not they have any sort of tags or RFIDs and gotten them adopted out because they're people's cats who were just abandoned. probably because they don't have the money to care for them or they leave them out. My house came with a stray, unfixed male cat who still lives in my backyard after I trapped him and got him fixed, and now he just hangs out. But this should not be the situation. It should not be the situation that my yard is a collector of cats. that people have to feed and house and take care of many, many kittens and cats because people let their cats out. They don't have any education as to dangers of this. We heard someone about a cat getting run over. I've seen videos and seen information talked about on social media where

The last speaker is Ryan Carlton Low council are you?

My name is Ryan Charlton. I'm a resident of Norristown for 11 years, and I'm also a local real estate agent. That will come into play with what I have to say later, so not just advertising. I'm going to read my notes, so I have a lot to say. I'm going to try to get in these three minutes here. So hello, my name is Ryan Charlton. I'm a local resident of Norristown for 11 years and a real estate agent for Norristown and the surrounding areas. I'm here to speak on the need for progressive new homes, new project, and I want to break it down into three sections. A personal experience, my professional experience, and a tale of two worlds. My personal experience. I have been a homeowner for three consecutive properties that Progressive New Homes has built over the past 11 years. 2015 at Arbor Muse, 2020 at Arbor Knoll, and again in 2026 at Arbor Place. I'll be moving in in eight days. In 2015, I bought my first home at Arbor Muse at DeKalb and Basin, where I had the opportunity to buy my first home at an affordable price. Some background, my parents both grew up here, met here, and married here. They moved to Coatesville, where they lived for 53 years. In the childhood home that I grew up in, my dad sadly passed away this past Christmas Eve, which then caused my mom to have to relocate. She made the choice to move back to Norristown, across from her childhood home at 1802 Arch Street, to Arbor Place, the same neighborhood that I will be moving in, that Progressive Homes has just wrapped up in selling. Da, da, da. I initially moved from Coatesville to Norristown myself in 2015, and I kept moving from development to development as she progressively, no puns intended, created more developments. These homes are quality builds, responsibly priced, and create community to fill the void for an affordable new construction market that is vacant. Progressive New Homes does not just build houses, they really truly do build homes. My professional experience, told you to come back to it. As a local real estate, as a local realtor, people ask for affordable housing, reasonable taxes, a safe place, and a good size. That's a tall ask in today's market. But if you look at it, that's exactly what Progressive Homes builds, is exactly that. Um, the project that are replaced is sold so well as there is a hole in the market. And now that that project is wrapped up as of this month in September, I'm the last to settle in the new neighborhood. Um, we need more. And this project that Sarah is working with, she's the owner of Parker's new homes. She's trying to get forwarded by getting some ordinances updated to allow. you know, new construction standards. We need these homes. Now, a tale of two worlds. Currently, with the developer that is in charge of this lot that Sarah would be taking it over from, what they are planning on building is 25 homes. They're going to be a lot smaller, only 18 feet wide, so they're very tight. That's not really the type of house people need today. but also these would be $150,000 to $200,000 more based on what they would need to sell them for to make back the money for what they bought it for.

That's the last speaker.

Thank you, we're good, thank you. All right, we'll move on to presentations. We have a presentation by the Markey Rehabilitation and Health Center.

Good evening, council president, council members, community members. My name is Bridget Franks. I'm the clinical liaison and community outreach coordinator with my coworker who is in the back row, Lisa Johns, who's the admissions director for Markley Rehabilitation Healthcare Center in Norristown. I wanted to take a moment to thank Councilwoman Natalie Colson for the introduction and the opportunity to be here to just share a little bit about Markley and to help you all know a little bit more about who we are, what we do, and how we really truly live to serve the members of our community. Some of you may be familiar with Mark Lee from being known as Regina. So one of my objectives for this evening is to make sure you know that although we truly love the relationship that many of you had to Regina and the beautiful reputation that it had within the community, The company that now has owned Markly is called Marquee, and one of the things that helps them stand out is the investment that they do to their facilities. So before I get started, I want you all to know that you're all welcome at any time to reach out to me for a tour. Lisa and I would be happy to do that. But yes, we just want you to know that we are very much wanting to be involved in this community and the investment that has been made into Markley for members of the community when they call it post-acute, so services post-hospitalization would be needed. A little bit about us. So we're a highly skilled, progressive leader to post-acute care, and we are specializing in short-term rehabilitation, long-term, and especially clinical services. especially services such as pulmonary, orthopedic, chronic kidney disease, and palliative care populations, with on-site specialists for each, which I'll go into a little further detail, with cardiology coming soon. It's a 121-bed facility, and if you do pay attention to Medicare ratings, we are five star for the quality measures. soon to be four stars overall, which is really great. We worked very hard for this reputation And so we're looking forward to that, and that will take place next quarter. It will go into effect. We're joint commission accredited. And another exciting piece is we just opened about a year ago an in-house dialysis unit with six chairs. So we can have three shifts. I'm sorry, two shifts, three days a week. We do in-house dialysis Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Next page, please, thank you. The people behind the care. Some of these physicians may be familiar to some of the members in the audience. Dr. Andrew Graff, Dr. Scott Yarmark, they're two physicians in the localish community. Dr. Haley Swanson is a nurse practitioner. She's our physiatrist. Dr. Ashanti Johnson is a palliative care physician affiliated with Jefferson-Einstein Montgomery Hospital. And Dr. Pandya is our pulmonologist. So just to let you know, at Markley, we have three specialty programs. Next page, please. Sorry, thank you. The specialty programs we have is OrthoWIN, which is a specialized orthopedic rehab program. We have the pulmonologist on site, which is our respira care, and then our renal X, which is the on-site dialysis that we have. And like I mentioned, we do have a cardiologist coming to the center very soon, likely before the end of the year. Real quick about OrthoWIN. OrthoWIN is led by a multidisciplinary care team. We offer therapy for these patients seven days a week. So we have an in-house therapy team with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and this would all fall under the OrthoWIN program that we have led by the leadership of Haley Swanson. Next slide, please. The RespiraCare, take back your breath, your confidence, and your life. Dr. Alok Pandya is the pulmonologist that oversees this program. I don't want to get into too many clinical things here, but just patients that have very high acute respiratory needs, we have the ability to meet those needs and care for them, but they are some of the services that we offer. So some may be familiar with maybe a BiPAP or CPAP if a patient has sleep apnea, which is a common diagnosis as one gets older. Some people may just have 24-7 oxygen needs. Some folks may have had a very kind of eventful hospitalization, a traumatic event, maybe need to have something called a tracheotomy. We have these capabilities within our center. Next slide, please. Renal X. This is something I'm really excited about. Dr. Francis McCusker is our nephrologist. He just came on board a month ago. He's very, very, very well known for folks that have renal conditions in our area. In fact, I was with him two weeks ago and we were in the dialysis unit and we were treating six patients and six of those patients, he knew four of them. So I think just in case any of your loved ones ever have renal needs, Dr. Francis McCusker is very well known in the renal community, and we do have an onsite dialysis unit at Markley. Next slide, please. This is the one I want you to really see, the investment. The investment in patient care, the patient experience into the community, all so very much important. I also live in Montgomery County, and I can tell you I've been in the long-term care industry for 20 years. The investment like this is very unique. And so the fact that we are, we're very lucky to have a company that have sought, you know, to do this investment for the betterment of the community and the patients who live here and the residents that we serve. So again, that's our family lounge, our gym, an example of a patient room, and then the smart car. There's actually a car Councilwoman Coulson can speak to that. There is a car in the rehab gym, which is actually part of the therapy program for patients to help with, they call it car transfers. So to really try and help the patient as well-rounded as possible to be better equipped to be more independent when the time comes to go home, which is all of our goals. Lastly, very quickly, I want to go over a program. It's called Urgent SNF. So this is called a direct admit program. This is a live line. It actually goes to my boss. This is more utilized in the emergency departments in the area, also some local home cares. But if someone has a need for what they call a skilled nursing service, and they want to avoid a re-hospitalization or an ER stay, which we all know the ED visits can be, I mean the wait rooms, I was in Delaware County earlier today, it's eight hour wait time. This is a program that we're able to offer and we can, you know, it's a program that's designed to be a stabilization program to help avoid re-hospitalization and ER visits. And then actually, I just wanted to, I don't think it's included on here, so I do apologize. We can skip this slide. Kevin, thank you. So on the back table, we're having a Medicare 101 event at the facility on October 6th. It's a free event. There will be a light dinner event. and Medicare 101 education provided to the members who attend. So I do have a flyer on the back table. I actually will have some in the snacks that we provided back at the table in the lobby area as well. And please reach out. And again, I cannot stress enough, we would love for the members of council, if you had the time, to reach out to maybe come see the facility, to see the transformation and the positive changes that have taken place. We would love that. So my name is Bridget and you can reach out to me anytime.

Thank you for your time Thank you Buildings in code requests to approve harp Coas

Good evening, Mr. President, members of council. As you know, the Harbor Committee meets monthly to review all requests for additions, alterations, or repairs of exterior properties in the historic district. The following COAs have been reviewed and recommended for approval by the committee and are now being presented to you tonight for your consideration. 412 West Area Street, 310 Stanbridge Street, 528 Sweet Street, and 635 West Main Street.

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

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy.

Aye.

David McMahon. Aye. Madera Robinson. Aye. Dustin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you. Planning and Municipal Development, resolution number 26-79, bid award for 700 East Main Street Historic Facade Project in a total amount not to exceed $31,525.

I think I could do it without the photo. All right, thank you, Council President, and good evening, Council. This item is Resolution 2679, to request approval to award the contract for 700 East Main Street, the Historic Facade Project, Treasure Sign Inc. in the amount of $31,525. The property is participating in the municipality's Historic Facade Improvements Program The work involves the historic dimensional lettering for the former Rambo and Raker globe knitting mills on both buildings. This is the Crazy Aaron's building for reference. Treasure Shine initially submitted a bid of $18,475 based on preliminary dimension assumptions about the existing lettering that's up there. It's very high up on the building. During pre-production, the contractor completed a drone-assisted field survey That survey found that the original letters are taller and substantially deeper than first estimated and appear to have been fabricated by hand. Based on those field measurements and that drone footage, Treasure Sign has given us a revision proposal of $31,525. The revised scope calls for fabrication of aluminum letters that more closely resemble the depth, dimensional appearance, typeface, and historic character of the original signage. We sent that over to our project architect LGA partners. They reviewed and revised the proposal and determined that it provides an appropriate match for the historic condition. So the main budget point is that this program provides up to $40,000, $35,000 of which are obligated through our ARPA funds. The revised contract amount of $31,525 remains within that obligated funding. So not asking for necessarily more than what the program offers. Because the revised contract amount exceeds the administrative approval threshold, Council approval is required. So we're asking for approval of resolution 2679 and award of contract to treasure sign in the amount of $31,525. Any questions? Council, any questions or comments?

Seeing none, do I have a motion to pass resolution number 26-79, bid award for 700 East Main Street Historic Facade Project in a total amount not to exceed $31,525. So moved. Second. Madam Secretary.

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

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you. And then solar planning. We have 600 East for Nance. Development update and request to advertise proposed zoning tax amendment for the R2 Residence District.

Thank you, Council. This item concerns a property at 600 East Fournance. As indicated, it is a vacant nearly three and a half acre parcel in the R2 residential district. Progressive New Homes is proposing a 48 unit townhouse and multiplex development as requested related amendments to the R2 zoning text. Council last heard the development proposal on August 18th. And at this meeting, council raised concerns over the parking. That was a lot on the property. The applicant has returned with an updated plan, we'll see shortly, that she will speak to. Tonight's request to action concerns authorization to advertise the proposed ordinance with one staff requested revision. The off street parking language and draft ordinance would apply municipality wide. The planning department did not support moving forward with the municipality wide change. So staff is discussed with that language. with developer and she was amenable to include in that language in the R2 district only and would apply only in that R2 district. Before I explain the zoning text and request a revision, I'd like to invite Sarah Peck of Progressive New Homes to present the updated plan.

Thank you, Vince. Good evening, council members.

Good evening. Good evening.

I'm not sure who's manning the, are you? Yeah. Yeah, okay, great. So I wanted to just remind everyone of the site in question. You just saw an aerial that located the site, and we're very pleased to be neighbors with Markley Rehab Center, which would be, if you go to the previous slide, There we go, yep, that's it. So that's the site there. East Fournance to the north, Tremont to the east, Basin to the south, and Markley Center is on our immediate west. I'm not sure what that is. Yes. Okay. Here's a close-up of the site. And the main defining feature that informs a lot of my requests tonight is the steep slopes. As you can see, those tiny dots, those very narrow lines signify steep slopes. So a good third of the site is really not buildable. It's steep slope. And my proposal tonight is going to be to introduce the concept of the Pennsylvania Law Uniform Plan Community Act, which allows for clustering of homes. And we can preserve steep slopes and woodlands and environmentally sensitive areas when we can cluster the homes. Next slide, please. The previous plan that was submitted and actually has been approved by your municipality, it's pending. This has been submitted by a previous developer. Takes up a good chunk of the site, including the steep slopes. You can see where to the far, to the left, where development's happening in those steep slopes, and it's being held up by retaining walls. Those lines up around the edges all the way up and circling at the top are all retaining walls. Could I have the next slide, please? Next slide shows it a little bit clearer without the steep slopes shown, but you can see the retaining walls on the left that are in the steep slopes Three different road, lots of impervious coverage here for 25 homes, which is rendering this site very, very expensive to develop, but also not very communal. There's no real central open space. And parking, the guest parking, which is off to the left of that circle, I think there's only three guest spots. And this met the letter of your ordinance under R2. And when I saw this plan, I thought, we can do better. Can I see the next slide, please? This is what I presented last time, and comments were made concerning the amount of visitor parking. We are making the homes wider in order to accommodate two car garages, but there was a concern about not having enough visitor parking. Next slide, please. So I came back with a new concept and I want to just emphasize this is not the land development approval process. That's going to come later and it'll go through the whole process of your planning commission and the county planning commission and you all will have another opportunity to comment. But I just wanted to show that we figured out a way to add more visitor parking. So now we have 19 visitor spots. and we're alternating the home styles to give it a little bit more variety, and we have a central common green space, and we still have views of the green space, which is, if you can see the parking, some of the parking anyway, to the right. So I feel that this is going to be ultimately a much better plan than the one that's been approved by this municipality. And in order to do this kind of thing, we have reduced the amount of impervious coverage per home, which is going to reduce the development costs per home and thereby make the homes more affordably priced. That's the key to making the feasibility of these homes and bringing people into Norristown. This is what we found at Arbor Place. The homes were priced at just the right spot in the market to encourage people who would otherwise not even consider Norristown to come move here to buy their first home, most of them buying their first home, and then they're growing roots and they're getting active in the community. So essentially what you're seeing tonight is proposed text change, which I think Vince has teed up for you in a hard copy of the changes. And if not, I have copies with me. In yellow highlight, these are changes to your R2 zoning. Do you all have that in front of you or will it be on the screen? It's in front of them, okay. And essentially what you're seeing here, I'll just try to boil it down. One, we're now allowing town homes to be permitted, because up until now, R2 does not even permit town homes, permits row homes. What's the difference? Well, a row home, by your own ordinance, can't be wider than 20 feet, and a town home is wider than 20 feet. Today's market wants a little bit more breathing room in the homes, especially if they're going to pay something significant, mid $300,000. That's a lot of money. They want three bedrooms. They want a nice presentation when they enter and so forth. And that's not really possible with limiting it to row homes. So we're adding the possibility of including townhomes and multiplex buildings in the R2. And the other main thing is we're allowing for Uniform Plan Community Act to be a defined term in your ordinance and that in term allows more flexibility in how the homes are allotted out and how they're configured. I'm not going to go through every single one of these, but those are the two main issues. And then, as was referenced earlier, we want to be able to do two-car garage homes side-by-side, which is very unusual in the market anywhere, but especially here. And that will... that will be very attractive in the market, and we want to make sure that those homes are not used for, those garages are not used for living space, which I know is a concern. So we've provided for some regulatory oversight. Can I answer any questions about what you're seeing?

Council, any questions or comments? I got a couple questions, because my eyes are bad.

You're what? I'm sorry. My eyes are bad, so I'm getting older. In the back of the houses, would there be like decks or anything like that, or it's just?

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to keep going. There's another slide that shows, there we go. Sorry, I totally forgot. Okay, so if your eyes are bad, Dustin, this isn't going to help, but hopefully you can get the idea. What we're looking at here is each floor. So the far left is the garage, two-car garage, side by side. The next level is just the living level with kitchen, living, dining, and a powder room, and a deck off the back. Because everybody's facing open space. They're facing the woods, they're facing open space, except for the people along Fournance and Tremont, and they have front porches. So we have a different type of home for that. They're gonna appear a little bit lower, but everybody in the back will have, outdoor living space. The next flight up takes you to your two bedrooms and your master suites on the very top with a roof deck. So you have two opportunities for outdoor living. Did that answer your question?

Yeah, exactly. Now, one other question. Yes. I'm just really curious. Why are there no driveways?

We have aprons, what we call aprons, which is about four feet in front of the garage, which is where you can put your condensing unit for your HVAC and some plants and things like that. But if we were to put driveways, just imagine, now we'd be elongated. We're back to what we had before with the previous developer, and we're pushed into the garage. into the steep slopes. We're trying to concentrate everything in a cluster. And instead of having a garage and a driveway, which is what we have in Arbor Place right now, one in front of the other, we have two cars, but they're side by side inside your garage. So you really don't need the driveway if you have two-car garage. And you can preserve the amount of disturbance. And then if I could just show the next slide just to finish up. So the four-story look might, this is completely conceptual, but this is an idea of how the two different model types might work together. And then the next slide, the Fournance Street would be three-story look with the front porch. It's not rendered, but, so that gives you some idea of what we're thinking. Of course, it's subject to change. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

No, no, you said the word, subject to change. That's all I need to hear. Okay.

Did you guys have a question down there? Councilman McMahon? I wasn't sure if you raised your hand. You did, okay.

Thank you. I just wanted to get a sense. Does there become any change in the difference of how... I guess, changing over to UPCA, the open spaces can be used a little differently? And does that require an HOA in order to manage that open space?

It does require an HOA, yes, which is a governing body elected by the homeowners and run professionally by a management company to make sure that all the rules and regulations are followed, including the parking. The way this is written is you have to have at least two acres of undeveloped ground to qualify for that. And there are not that many opportunities in Norristown because it's a very built out place. Which is the other reason why this, I think, is relevant. Because the R2 is extremely progressive ordinance otherwise. I have to say, I have to commend the municipality and the planning department for their thought. It's a performance zoning, which is to say it wants to look like what's around it. But what happens if it's two acres and there's nothing around it? What if it's not developed? There's no benchmark. And that's why this text amendment allows for creating a uniform community that works in an undeveloped situation. Does that answer your question?

Councilwoman Robinson.

Yeah, I just have a comment. No questions. I had a chance to look at this and look at it pretty thoroughly. I'm interested to see the dynamic, how you pull it together. I do think the two car lineup side by side is something I haven't seen before. It's an exciting approach to dynamic problems. Parking are very dynamic overall. And just in general to your work, you know, as someone who desires one day to be a developer myself, spend a lot of time paying attention to your work and to how you're able to not only grow these spaces, but also grow communities inside these communities. So I think that that's admirable. I want to speak to that. And to call into focus, it's not to be dismissed that each of your projects sell out every time. It's something to be said for the way in which it allows opportunity, homeownership, and continuity across these projects. I'm excited about the investment. I think you have a proven track record overall with this work. I do think that there's going to be some interesting phases that come along with this project, and so I'm excited to understand more about what your vision looks like. But you've been making progress all this time, and I think that's worth noting. Thank you. Thank you.

So just to be clear, we're just voting on the width of the homes right now, right? for this ordinance. Well, are we done for the whole plan?

No, no, not this.

I thought it was just David. Right.

Yes, the councilman. Right, the change in the ordinance. Go ahead. Vice President Queen. So I'll go through once, if anyone doesn't have any more questions for Sarah.

Councilwoman Kripp does. That's a problem.

We'll get the rest of the questions for Sarah, but then I'll go through exactly what is in the zoning tax change after that.

So my first question is, Can you speak more on the, assuming you have HOAs in your other community, can you speak about how your HOA has been operating in your current community?

That's a good question. There's an art to... creating community in a social sense, which breeds a good homeowners association board of directors. It starts with the developer developing relationships with the homeowners. And in the beginning, the developer controls the association. And that's me. And then as the community builds out, by law, the homeowners get elected one by one. And if this community gets off on the right foot, if it's launched correctly, if the developer provides the guidance and the education and the clarity of what's expected, the board follows through and it functions very harmoniously. It just so happens the person who spoke to you earlier, he was the president of this homeowners association twice. He's a glutton for punishment. But in two of the three communities he's lived in, he became the president. And that is really the key, is getting it off on the right foot and having a good professional management company, which is the second part. That's always part and parcel of how we do it. You want to build in enough. resources into the dues structure so that you have adequate funding for all the things that have to happen in the association. And anybody who buys knows right up front what those dues are. And in the case of Arbor Place, it's $195 a month. But that includes all of your snow removal, your trash, your landscaping, your professional management, your outdoor utilities, that kind of thing. So it's got to be planned right. But if it's planned right, it works. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. Thank you. And then my other, I guess, question slash comment. You brought up the previous plans that you said they're already approved.

Yes. In Pennsylvania, if your preliminary plan is approved, you're vested. And yes, you have to do some final work with the final plans. That's still to be done. And you have to get your stormwater permitting through the county approved. And that wasn't yet done. But the fundamental vesting is done. It's in place. They could build that if they wanted to, by law.

regardless they could build that?

Regardless they could build that. Okay. I don't think it would be advisable because I don't think they're going to, I don't think personally it would be successful, that's my opinion, because there's just too much expense for too few homes, but they could do it.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. We brought up about the number of cars. Have you figured out how to deal with that? Because you said basically, I was looking at the plan. You can't have three cars, more or less.

Well, no, you could. You could. It's a law of averages. So we have 48 homes, and we have 96 plus 19. How much is that? 105. 105? 96? 115. He's my math genius here. 115 total spots.

So you're including the two-car garages if they don't convert them into something else?

They're not allowed to. By deed, they're not going to be allowed to, and they'll be in this enforcement mechanism in the form of the Homeowners Association. And anybody who buys knows up front it's not a surprise. They're buying up front. They don't really have... a reason to finish the garage. Who would want to subject their car to the snow and the ice and conditions when they don't need to?

They do all the time, Sarah.

Well, I know they do if they don't have enough room in the house. Right.

Yeah. Right. So how many houses are being built again? Because I want to do your math. So you're adding the houses times 2 plus the extra.

48 times 2 is 96. And then you have 19 visitor spots.

OK. And we're hoping that they're not going to have three cars.

Well, not everybody has three cars. Some people have one. Some people have two. Some people, and you can't, it's law of averages. Not everybody has three cars.

I'll be honest with you. This is a different concept. And that's why I'm kind of like, it's not the normal build. No, you know, driveway. Two-car garage, not that many parking outside of that. Matter of fact, what you're seeing now is families are grouping together and buying houses because of the cost of houses. So usually it might be like three people moving in instead of the two. So I hear what you're saying, but I'll be honest with you. I know you sell it. I know you do good work. But this is something different that I'm seeing here that I normally haven't seen. And me, I don't know if you know my background. I've been in insurance for over 26 years. And I've been in a lot of projects. This is totally different and new for me to see. And so have we done any testing?

Honestly, this came about because at Arbor Place, most everybody has a garage and a driveway. in front of their, and it's a royal pain, because people have to move the second car out of the way, and they have to kind of figure out their lifestyle, and it's just a policing situation. We have to constantly police, no, no, no, you've got to be in your car. In this way, you don't have to police anything. Everybody can get in and out without any problems. Nobody has to move their car. That's where this came from. It was actually... Plus in the market. So it may be different, but it's better in terms of how people actually live. Think about it for yourself.

I think it's going to be tricky. I'll be progressive. Because you're going to have a man in a house. He's going to want a space. And one of those garages is going to be his space. And just the driving concept. So how far is the door going to be from the street? Because that also makes it... Because if you have kids, how far is the front door to the street as well?

Those homes that are fronting on Fournance, which you're seeing an example of here, or fronting on Tremont, they're 20 feet to the sidewalk. They're 20 feet to the sidewalk, and then from the sidewalk to the street is another five feet. So it's a pretty sparse setback. And then you enter through your front porch. That's your front door.

So these houses have 20 feet? Yeah, in front of them.

Right. The other ones, you're entering off of the street internally, and that's the ones that have the front door next to the garage door. So it's a different concept.

Okay, because maybe I looked at it like it was real close, because there was no sidewalk.

Well, no, no, it's not close. It's the same as the neighboring homes. It'll look like that. Same setback.

Can you go back to the screen? Because I just want to make sure.

Sure.

So you see, those houses look like they're, maybe that's the diagram, but they look like they're right on the street.

You're talking about the ones on Fournance to the right?

Yeah, I'm just talking about someone when the front door looks like the garage, you're right there on the street.

It's on the internal drive, yes. The garage and the front door are on the internal drive. That's true.

Okay, so that's what I was thinking. If someone has a child, there's no, like if the kid goes out, they're right in the street.

It's a different plan than the ones on Tremont and on Four Nance. Those, if someone didn't like that, they would enter right at their porch? steps up to the front porch, just like Arbor Knoll, if you remember that one.

I'm just talking about a child that just, you know, you open the garage door, boom, he's right out, he or she is out in the street.

They might choose a different plan.

And if you're coming out of your garage, you're right into the street as well. Because cars can be driving, like you're backing up basically into the street.

Yeah, but it's not a busy, it's not busy.

But in the garage, you can't see.

No, you would have plenty, you'd have plenty of sight distance.

Yeah, but I'm saying like if you pulled into your garage and then you're backing out, it would be hard to see. Can I make a suggestion? Can I make a suggestion, Dustin?

Come visit Arbor Place. This is exactly our condition at Arbor Place. Same thing. So come visit and you'll see how it works.

I'll come again. I've been there before. It's nice.

No, I'm talking about the ones that don't have driveways.

Okay.

The ones that don't have driveways just have aprons. People back out right into the alley, which is essentially an alley, and you can get an idea of how it works. And talk to the people who live there.

But like I said, this is a different concept. And there's nothing wrong with that.

It's different, yes. But there's plenty of examples of how it would work. I would love to tour you over at Arbor Place. In fact, Ryan here is living in the house just like that.

Oh, Ryan, I can't go by your real name, because you want to sell them houses.

Ryan has exactly this condition, so you want to see what it looks like. Do you want to continue, or do we need to?

Yeah. Oh, anybody have any questions?

No, I had a comment. I just had a comment. I just wanted to say that I live on Cedar Street and I have a driveway and I have a garage and I have a family of four who each have a car. And it is painful to constantly move the cars back and forth, someone in the driveway, someone leaving, someone going in and out. So it would be more convenient to have a two-car garage rather than constantly saying, oh, are you leaving? Are you pulling in? Wait, I'm leaving first thing in the morning. You have to make sure you park behind me. So that is definitely something that we struggle with every single day, with school, with work, with errands, with all the time. So I do understand that.

Not to go against you, but you said they have four cars? Well, technically, they don't live in this place. Yeah.

Well, we could have parking.

No, no, I'm saying they wouldn't be allowed to.

Yeah, that's true.

Because they're only allowed two cars because you can't park in the car.

Right, but what I'm saying is it is a pain to kind of navigate through whether who's parking where and everything like that. I'm just trying to compare. What I'm saying is with the driveway, having the driveway or not, it's not a perk. It's not such a perk.

I will add one more thing, which is that we only sell to people, we try to only sell to people who have two cars and then they, this came up last time, Jasmine mentioned, what happens if a third person moves in? What happens if somebody's child gets their license? So now we've planned for that possibility. On law of averages, we have plenty of parking. Believe me, this will be, this is a lot of parking. 2.4 spaces per unit, a lot of parking. We do limit the parking initially when we first sell the people, just to make sure we don't have someone coming in who tells us they have four cars. They don't have more than two cars when they buy. So that also helps to limit it. Do we need to talk about this? Any other questions about this?

VINCENT, DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING ELSE YOU WERE DOING? YES.

I'LL GO INTO THE DETAILS, THE SPECIFICS. ALL RIGHT. SO I'LL WALK COUNCIL THROUGH THE ZONING TEXT CHANGES, REQUEST IT IN CONNECTION WITH THIS PROPOSAL AT 680 FORNANCE. THESE SLIDES, YOU'LL, YEAH. These slides will compare the current R2 regulations with the language that is in the draft ordinance that you should have in front of you. So what this ordinance does is, at a high level, the ordinance does five things. It adds definitions for new housing development, planned unit development, and Pennsylvania Planned Communities Act, or the UPCA. It adds townhouses or metroplex or multiplex, rather, dwellings to the permitted housing types in R2 and adjusts several dimensional rules and creates tract-wide flexibility for qualifying developments of at least two contiguous acres. The final item is parking, which I'll cover later in this slide deck.

All right.

The current code does not define the three terms listed here. The draft defines new housing development as a residential development of at least two contiguous acres, functions as a self-contained neighborhood. The UPCA or the plan unit development is a new housing development created under the UPCA which governs HOA type development. And these definitions matter because the later sections use them to determine which projects qualify for the tract-wide lot foot calculations and setback treatments. Section 320-41 currently lists single-family detached twin duplex and row home dwellings as permitted housing types in the R2. The draft adds townhouse, or multiplex, sorry, dwelling as fifth listed option, or listed type, sorry. The current block-based test generally requires at least three existing residential buildings on the same type of block. The draft retains this approach, but allows zoning to waive the three building threshold for qualifying new housing development on at least two continuous acres, provided the proposed unit remains within the listed housing types. For a site bordered by vacant property on both sides, the draft broadens the attached housing category to include row house, townhouse, and multiplex dwellings. It sets a front yard range of 10 to 25 feet. The current row house range is 10 to 15 feet. So the principal change is increased in the maximum front setback from 15 to 25 feet. The drafts. applies the attached unit standards to row houses, townhouses, and multiplex units, removes the higher lot area minimum for a corner attached unit. Under the proposed table, both interior and corner attached units may have a minimum lot area of 2,000 square feet. The minimum width remains 15 feet for interior unit and 20 feet for the corner unit. This is the principle of new flexibility for qualifying new housing development. First, individual lot area may be calculated as an average across the gross tract area. Second, the draft states that the average lot area may be reduced by 1,700 square feet when at least 10% of the net tract area is in common open space. and third side and rear side setbacks may be applied to the track as a whole for development organized under the UPCA. The units would still need to comply with other standard identification or identified in section 320-42B, including applicable minimums, heights, and related dimensional requirements. Purview's coverage for row house, townhouse, and multiplex lots of 2,000 square feet or more The draft would allow maximum impervious coverage of 80% and maximum building coverage of 70%. Under the current row house table, those limits decrease for lots above 3,500 square feet. The proposed table will remove that step down for the attached housing types. The 60-unit building row house maximum would expand to cover row house units, townhouse units, and multiplex units. The current code also requires new homes to follow the size, mass, footprint, and height to width proportions of similar homes on that block. The draft permits a qualifying new housing development to deviate from those block matching standards. The porch or stoop requirement remains. If a majority of homes of the same type on the block have that feature, new homes must include it. Historical Architecture Review Board review also remains applicable where the board has jurisdiction. And for the off-street parking that I mentioned earlier, the current code requires two spaces for a single-family detached unit or townhouse unit exclusive of garage space. for townhouses in larger subdivisions with new streets or drives. The current text also states an additional visitor and overflow ratio of a quarter acre per unit. As written, the applicant's draft would amend the general parking requirements in section 320304. But as I stated earlier, because this section applies throughout the municipality, proposed language would have effects beyond the site and beyond that R2 district. So the Planning Department was not comfortable recommending a municipality-wide parking change through this application. So again, we discussed that concern with the developer and the proposal of moving the garage parking language into the R2 district. The developer was okay to make that change. Accordingly, if council authorizes advertisement, Staff is requesting that the advertised ordinance limit the parking provision to the R2 residence district and not use the municipality-wide placement shown in that draft ordinance. Under the R2 specific version, the two required spaces could include garage parking when the stated enforcement conditions are met. Recorded deed restriction would prohibit conversion of the garages to living space and require vehicle parking in the garage. Homeowners Association under the UPCA or another management company would be the authority to enforce the restriction and levy penalties. In summary, the amendment would add townhouse and multiplex dwellings as a permitted R2 housing type, create added Flexibility for the unified residential developments or tracks of at least two contiguous acres would modify the lot area setback coverage and block matching rules for qualifying projects. With staff's requested revision, it would allow certain garage spaces to be counted towards required parking in the R2 district when deed restrictions and an enforcement entity are in place. So those are the principal differences between the current code and the proposal before council. and that the action requested this evening is for council to authorize that advertisement of the ordinance amending the R2 residential district subject to revising the off-street parking language so that applies only within the R2 district. We are available for questions for me or for Sarah.

Council, any other questions or comments?

Councilman Queener.

So we're approving this particular plan that was set forth, or just the distance, these ordinance changes? Okay. Question for you. She'll clarify.

You're not approving this plan. That's got a whole other process. So you're approving the language to change so that she can come back with a plan. Okay.

Just out of curiosity, what would the required parking be? for this particular one if we didn't change it.

She mentions it.

Yeah, two spots for townhomes and multi-places. Okay, so she just put them in a garage. Under HOA, yeah, under that HOA. Okay, absolutely. That's where that language changed.

So she's just moving them inwards more or less. Yeah.

So it's a total of 115 parking spaces. Okay.

All right, Council, do I have a motion to authorize a request to advertise a proposed zoning text amendment to the R2 Residence District? So moved. Second. Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy.

Aye.

David McMahon. Aye. Nadira Robinson. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Sarah. Request motion by municipal council to approve the grant application for cop safer outcomes.

Good evening, council president, members of council. Along the list of things I have for you tonight, the first item that you have before you is a motion for council to approve a grant application that actually we submitted earlier this month. This is, I'll just take, we'll go back a little by way of background here. February of 2025, council passed a resolution that would allow the Lerner Center, the Lincoln Center here in Norristown to go out and seek grant funding for the municipality. What they've been doing is they have been going out and looking at different grants that support our plan. As your chief, when I came here, I laid out to you my vision and goal to create community engagement unit and to bring a mental health co-responder to the community. The Lincoln Center knows that because I've met with them and one of the things that they were able to identify is this 2026 Safer Outcomes Grant. This is a DOJ, Department of Justice grant that they cited for us and indicated they would make the application for. That deadline fell in the third before our council meeting, so I'm here after, ex post facto, asking you to approve this. What this grant application is, and I'm going to apologize from the outset, as I'm still working on some of the issues, the facts and issues within the statement, the transmittal, was quite lengthy, and I will be working to address that. And I also feel that after speaking with some council people, it misses the mark. This is a training program, this is a grant funding thing for up to $350,000. It's a two year grant, no match. And it's gonna allow us to bring targeted training here to our officers in mental health and wellness, so we can take care of the men and women. It's going to allow us to bring de-escalation training here, which we brought here in April to train our officers. But another thing why I like this grant a lot is it allows us to take this money to support our community co-responder, which this council approved.

And he was actually in the back of the room right now.

Obed, who's been on board with us, in bed with our patrol officers, and working to make a difference in Norristown. Why I like this grant is it's multi-faceted, multi-pronged. We can use it to train and help heal our staff from the traumas that they experience. We can also use the funding to help support the co-responder program because that was a $191,000 grant that we secured last year, but that grant will come to an end. and then we will bear those costs. So this grant funding here is, like I said, two prong. It is a little short on details. I will take that on the chin, so to speak. But really it's de-escalation of force, responding and supporting individual behavioral health crisis. I think that's a challenge that we have in this municipality that we can all recognize. And that's where our co-responder comes in. And positive outcomes. We need to have positive outcomes when we're dealing with people in crisis. We've had this conversation, I recall, back on Juneteenth. We had some challenges. We don't want to see enforcement action when we can have engagement and support for those in need. So it's for those reasons I request that you approve the application. Remember, this is just the approval of the application. You're not actually approving any individual programming or anything like that. You're just approving to say, hey, Go out and write it. If you're successful, I get to come back to you with a plan of action moving forward.

Council, any questions or comments?

I do have a question.

Go ahead, Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you so much for that, Chief. I'm just trying to get a little clarity. We've talked a little bit. You provided some already. I appreciate that. Looking at the grant cycle itself, So I'm clear, the application went in already?

Correct.

So there is at least some type of proposal on the table that's attached to this application?

That is true. I don't know the exact programming that we're gonna do, but it will have to fit within the four corners of the grant. So in other words, there's not a specific program we're looking at right now. First we need to get the money, then we gotta go out and find the programming that fits within the four corners, and then I will come back to you with that actual ask.

Only in my day jobs of looking at grants all the time, it's almost highly unlikely that you're able to get funding without some highlighted, this is what we'll do with the funds. It may not be specific program details. I guess what I'm really hopeful to see, and you have it, right, because you submit it. I'd just be very interested to understand what are the key things that you've outlined as a department where you'd like to target these funds. I hear the co-responder. I'd like to see a little bit more about how that takes shape. The application is in already. I think that there are great opportunities. I just would have loved a little more understanding about what this pursuit is. And we're in a time window where The pursuit has already been submitted, so.

So, again, this is not, and I'm sorry to cut you off.

No, you're good.

This is not us submitting this, this is the learning center saying, hey, Norristown Police Department, we think we can get you this grant. I would share your concern, okay, well what's the grant going to be used for, and is there an articulation to that? But this is what they've given back to us, so stay tuned, I guess, for round two. Okay.

Any other questions or comments, council? Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve the grant application for COPSA for outcomes? So moved.

Second.

Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy.

Aye.

David McMahon. Aye. Nadira Robinson.

Aye.

Justin Queenan.

Aye.

Todd Bates. Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you. All right, moving on to ordinance number 26-07. Ordinance requesting municipal council approval to advertise parking prohibition in the intersection of Linda and High Streets.

Mr. President, members of council, this is a prepare and advertise ordinance to create language to restrict parking in the municipality in the area of Linda and High Streets. Let me give you some background on this. Linda and High Streets technically is not an intersection. Linda and High kind of have an arc where they just go from one to the other. I don't know exactly where they switch, but somewhere in that bend, one transitions from Linda to High Street. On the southwest side of that roadway, we'll call it, is a park. And there's also a trail that leads over to Hancock Elementary. Now, for a number of years, and I don't know how long this has been taking place, there are no parking signs on that side of the street. And they have been enforced for many, many years. Last year, the municipality, the police department in particular, learned that although those signs existed, there is no language within our ordinance that actually restricts the parking on that side of the street. And I will tell you from my time in my previous life in municipalities, We're very old, right? So it's not unlikely that sometime in the past someone said, hey, put some signs up to restrict parking, but no one did the legwork of making it in ordinance and codifying that. So what you have before you tonight is just an application to create language regarding the restriction of the parking at Linden and High. I've been in that area. It's a tight area. And when cars are parked on both sides and we have children leaving the school at the end of the day or coming to school in the morning, It is a sightline issue, and for that reason, I wholeheartedly support the adoption of this language.

Council, any questions or comments?

I just want to add, I'm happy that this is getting addressed. You know that we get many complaints from constituents regarding this intersection right there, so I'm happy that we're taking action on it. So thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Council, do I have a motion to pass ordinance number 26-07, approval to advertise the parking prohibition and intersection of Linden and High Streets?

So moved.

Second.

Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy.

Aye.

David McMahon. Aye. Nadira Robinson. Aye. Justin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Aye.

Motion passes.

Thank you. Resolution 26-77, a resolution requesting the cancellation of services provided by Passport Labs.

Good evening, members of council. Again, this resolution 26-77. So currently in the municipality, in addition to coin operated metering and pay stations, we have an automated application on your phone, a pay app. And that company is called Passport. If you've been around town, you'd see the Passport signs telling you what zone you're in. Those signage, a lot of issues with those zones have always created some challenges. There's a lot of work to take care of the signs and all that. And the product, in my opinion, is not what I think the best product for the municipality of Norristown. So you actually have two ordinances, or one ordinance, or two resolutions related to this. One is to cancel in the current contract that we have with Passport for app-based parking system and then replacing it with ParkMobile. ParkMobile, I'm sure many of you have had this product. It's in a lot of cities. Philly has it. It's pretty widely used. But why we like ParkMobile is the maintenance of those signs and the posting of those signage and all that, we do that right now. If we hire ParkMobile, ParkMobile is part of the process. We'll take care of all the signage. They will repost all the zones. They will put all the signs up, you know, at their expense, obviously. And we just feel it's a better product. And parking in this town, as we all know, is a significant challenge. This is – I had a meeting last week with a small number of members of council to talk about our overall holistic parking plan. There's more to come. The reason this is before you tonight and not being included in the master plan is that the – re-signing a passport occurs in October. So if we don't cancel, we're stuck with them, and we wouldn't be able to go to ParkMobile. So we feel it's a better product, so first we need to cancel the passport parking app, and then we're going to, if council approves, adopt a resolution for the ParkMobile parking app.

Council, can we look at Councilwoman Robinson?

Thank you, Chief. I just had a question about the cancellation of the passport app and the timeline of it. So I think the cancellation came around earlier this month. What does it leave us in this window now with that cancellation? Are we in some type of pay-by-service, month-to-month, or are we just not covered? Do the machines work?

I believe that we did not. It's going to be canceled in October, not now. Okay.

I just want to double check that when I was looking through that cancellation letter and reading it, it was saying that their receipt of that constituted cancellation of services. I have it highlighted in my material.

Yes, and I see what you're saying, so I understand your question. In other words, is there a period of time where we will be without a system?

Yes, because based off that letter, it seems like as soon as that letter hit their door, we're canceled. So I just didn't know, where does that leave us on the interim?

And frankly, I don't know the answer to that question, because I don't know how fast we can get ParkMobile online. But the alternative is to let them renew and then have to wait a couple years before we can get out of the contract.

I understand wanting to beat the renewal date. I just now wonder, are we in limbo? Do we have this parking service?

There could be a period of time where we don't have an app, and then we just take care of that through enforcement. In other words, lax enforcement or warnings and whatnot where we're not penalizing our people. In other words, we're not going to create a situation where we don't have a parking app and we're going to go, hey, gotcha, now you're getting a ticket. We'll work through that.

Yeah, I'd love to just have that articulated. I think that's helpful to know and information for people to have, especially as they're not gonna be able to use the app to pay for their ticketing and anything that may be caught in the interim. Again, there may be something clarifying that in the contract that I'm missing, but just as what I've read, it seems like their services are canceled and we haven't yet signed on with the new provider.

So we're gonna, this is the 15th, that cancels in October. I can't say that we can't go to Park Railroad and say, hey, we're signed. We could do a social media campaign and plot out the different parking zones and get that out and then work on getting signage up immediately.

If I could, I mean, maybe the way I had read it, and we can maybe get clarity on this, the non-renewal piece would mean, I read it as the contract extending to the end of the year, but the notice to not renew had to be 90 days prior to the end of the contract, was kind of how I read it. But clarity on that would be really helpful, because I think there may not be a gap.

You're refreshing my memory. I just don't see it in this letter. I think I saw it somewhere in the other transmittal. But I think you're right. I think the committal is to terminate, not renew, not necessarily terminate the contract. But I can do that.

Yeah, I need clarification.

I don't see any other questions or comments.

I'm sorry. So we have the meters and posts are still around in places, and what's that process look like? Like removing posts and meters that still exist? That is a separate issue. That's totally separate.

This is just not renewing with this one and now adopting park mobile. That is another issue that will be dealt with in a later period. Got it.

That was in last month's packet, though, some of that info. Is that right? Yes. Okay. All right. We've cleaned that up. Okay. Thank you. Baby steps.

Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, Council, do I have a motion to approve Resolution 26-77 for the cancellation services provided by Passport Labs and approve Resolution 26-78 to enter in a service agreement with Park Mobile?

So moved. Second.

Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin.

Aye.

William McCoy.

Aye.

David McMahon. Aye. Madeira Robinson. Aye. Dustin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates. Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you. Moving on to resolution number 26-80, request for municipal council to approve the purchase of police vehicles.

Good evening, Mr. President, members of council. This is obviously a resolution for us to purchase police vehicles. This is obviously a common practice. If you think about the way we operate, most of the time our police vehicles are the officer's office, which they go out and work every day in the community. And we need to maintain a fleet that is modern, that is safe, and that is operable. So the ability to maintain that fleet, to make sure that we're taking care of the vehicles, that they're getting the proper maintenance and whatnot to run efficiently and be available when needed is extremely important. And we do that by regularly purchasing cars annually. And what we do is we rotate our fleet out. And there's some benchmarks that we use in the industry to determine when we should do that. One is years, another is mileage, and then the third is what we call unanticipated service. In other words, if we have a vehicle that is costing us a lot of money and breaking down constantly, that's a vehicle we're willing to look at to rotate out of our fleet. Right now, before you tonight is to purchase two new vehicles to replace two 2021 police cruisers. I apologize, I don't have the mileage on them in front of me. But I will tell you, miles necessarily doesn't always tell the picture because most of you will notice that a lot of the times these cars are idling. all day. So these engines get started up in the morning, and they get used all day. And for every hour of idling, I think it's 33 miles on the vehicle. So our maintenance windows are very short, so we have to do a lot of maintenance. And when you factor in those idling hours, let's say we have a car that's got 70,000 miles. Well that engine actually has about 130-some thousand miles on it because of all the idling time. So we need to look at those things. And I realize this is a big expense. And what I've done, I've been asked, I've been challenged by the municipal council and manager to look through, figure out ways that we're able to save taxpayer dollars. So I will tell you, for you tonight is a quote that we originally had quoted out at $50,000 per unit. and we were able to get a vendor to come in at $45,000 per unit. So we've saved from the initial quote that I originally had working from, we were able to save $10,000 there. And we're gonna continue that mindset as we move forward, especially when we go to upfitting and we go to equipment and how best to deploy these vehicles. So the last piece I'll add to this is we have signed a new labor agreement. We're moving to 12 hour shifts, which is a good thing for the department. One of the things that it will do with respect to our fleet is we're gonna have more officers on duty at a time. Normally we have about eight, officers on duty at any given time. We're now gonna have about 12 or 13 on at any given time. So our fleet has to be big enough. We have about 13, 14 vehicles in our fleet now. But we need to account for vehicles when they're down. We need to get preventive maintenance done. We need to account for the ones that break down. So we need to have a little bit of a capacity in that. So the total cost of the cars, and I'm gonna use some round numbers here, you have all the figures in front of you, is $40,000 per, $45,500 per car It's gonna cost us about $25,224 to upfit it, and then between putting the stripes on it, putting the computers in it, it's gonna take each card, probably somewhere in the ballpark, about $80,000. So total all in, this is probably about $160,000 purchase for the two cars. And unfortunately, in some sense, it's the cost of doing business at this point. But what we're going to work to do with our fleet department moving forward is identify which vehicles we can get some more longevity out of. But I still think in the end, we're still going to be looking at one or two per year on the annual. So based on all of the information, it would be my recommendation to council to approve the purchase of two vehicles. This will give us enough time to get the vehicles delivered and then also to get them over to be upfitted so they're ready to hit the streets in January of 2027.

Council, do I have any questions or comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion? Did you have one? Do I have a motion to pass resolution number 26-80, request from municipal council to approve the purchase of police vehicles?

So moved.

Second. Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Nadira Robinson. Aye. Dustin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates. Aye. Motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Councilman.

We do not have our public works mechanic here tonight, so council, can I have a motion to table resolution 26-76? So moved.

Second.

Madam Secretary.

Natalie Colson. Aye. Jasmine Griffin. Aye. William McCoy. Aye. David McMahon. Aye. Nadira Robinson.

Aye.

Justin Queenan. Aye. Rashad Bates.

Aye.

Motion's table to pass.

And we'll move on to departmental reports. We will start with fire.

Good evening, Council President, members of council. Good evening. This evening is your operational summary for the month of August. Year-to-date dispatches is 1,095. Our average response time is four minutes and 20 seconds. Our busiest timeframe during the month was Wednesday at 2 p.m. Departmental training classes held for the year was 1,385. Our departmental training hours is 2,208 for the year. We've had two firefighter injuries so far this year and five civilian injuries. Fire department personnel completed 93 commercial fire inspections, held 124 public education events, conducted five fire drills, visited 1,170 homes to install smoke detectors, of which we installed 274. We've trained the youth in our community on four occasions utilizing our fire safety house, and our fleet out of service time for the year is 2,035. And that is,

Chief, question about the injuries on the two firefighters and the five civilians. Were they serious? Are they okay?

No, they were all minor injuries, but that is year to date. So that wasn't anything that happened any time soon. That was just over the accumulation of the year.

Okay, thank you.

Of course.

I've got a question. Do we buy the smoke detectors? We do. Okay. might be worth looking into working with some insurance companies. When I used to work at Nationwide, we used to give them out for free. So I'll see if a partnership with an insurance company is a good publicity for them.

We did have many programs rely on donations. Unfortunately, it's like everything else, they just Plummet and go away and we can't fund use what you used to be able to fund yet one They're all free shows companies.

They need good publicity.

So you can get us hooked up. We'll take them Yeah, I'll talk and we even bring them out to install.

There you go Any other comments council or questions, thank you chief Next for departmental reports we have recreation

Take your time. Good evening, council. Brianna and I are going to tag team this. I'm going to go talk about the department updates for programs that she's going to handle everything else. And I'm going to talk about Q2 and Q3. Next slide, please. So we wrapped up our spring league this year. No, you're good. We had 108 participants across the league from five to 18. 50% of the participants were new this year. And I was happy and very pleased to announce that every coach this year was a volunteer. Next up, our Creative Minds Summer Camp. We had 123 participants this year, highest to date. We had 29 unique field trips across all of the age groups. We had weekly swim at the Plymouth Swim Club this year. We had five STEM programs throughout all eight weeks of our program. We even partnered with Nike KOP. They're Nike community ambassadors on Fridays for weekly sports activities. I don't want to take credit for any of that. Miss Nia works diligently from January until pretty much the first day of summer camp to get all of these things together. So I want to make sure that she gets her props for that. Next slide, please. So our summer concert series, as we do every year, we only had one concert canceled due to thunderstorms. We had 10 concerts in total. And we added an extra one on the 30th to make up for that cancellation. Summer movie nights, again, like we do every year, we had 10 scheduled. We only had two to be canceled due to the extreme heat this summer. But we continued our partnership with AMC and the public library. So right now we're implementing an after school program. It's kind of like our pilot. We have actually 25 participants registered this year. We have 15 active currently. And so currently what we do, a little bit of homework help, We're adding a little bit of program. So creative cooking, the 24 math challenge, STEM programs. And we have a creative space that we're almost done with our basement. So there we're going to do like podcasts and we're going to have a cricket machine to make T-shirts and stuff like that. So really trying to implement more programs for the kids to participate in. So upcoming for youth sports, we have a basketball clinic that we're going to try to implement. Starting October 17th, we're going to have every second Saturday, youth participants will learn various skills and drills to enhance their skills and abilities on the basketball court. So that should be coming really soon. So our monthly calendar, so for the past year I wanna say, we've been trying to have a program or something, an event for the community every month. So starting in October, because we're giving ourselves September to get acclimated with after school, we're gonna have A program for each month. As you can see up here, we have one from October up until June of next year. And we'll be able to post this with our PIO so everybody will be able to see. And every month we'll put out the flyers and stuff of what exactly that we're doing and all the details. And every event is free for everybody to participate in. Next, we have our NRPA conference. This is the National Recreation and Park Association. The city of Philadelphia this year is actually the host of NRPA, and we're happy to announce that all of our full-time staff will be able to participate. We're gonna do it staggeredly, so we're making sure that we're still handling our operations and programs will continue to run, but all of our full-time staff will be able to participate, go to trainings, network, this, that, and the third. And then also our director will be working as a member of the hosting committee. So, you know, Brianna has a lot on her plate, especially with NRPA. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people across the nation that need anything and everything, and Brianna's going to be a part of that hosting committee. So, you know, I envy her. It's going to be a big job, but, you know, somebody that can do it, and I know that she can. That's it from my part.

Good evening, members of council. So I'm going to pick up where Cody left off. I'm actually going to. So I'm gonna give you the updates in reference to our operations and special projects that we have going on currently. Before we move on to the next slide, members of council, several of you have not come to visit us in three years. So this may come as a shocker and a surprise to you what I am about to show you. So the next slide shows you the conditions that we've been working under for the past three years. Absolutely horrible, deplorable. This is our basement area. And with our basement area, just to be brutally honest with you, I have always been terrified to go in that basement. So when I come inside the facility prior to the next slide, but when I would come into the facility in the morning, I always got out of my car with a metal baseball bat because we've had our windows broken. We've had an unhoused population that lived literally in our backyard. By the grace of God, we've had strong members of our team from the fire department, public works, police, and municipal administration that work diligently to make sure that the unhoused population was removed from our backyard. But these are the conditions that we were literally working under every single day. We also did not have bathrooms. We've only had one bathroom that was inside of that facility. And these are the bathrooms that previously existed inside the basement. And having a facility of that size and operating when you have 123 participants inside of your facility for summer camp, you also run after school programs, you run a soccer program, you run a basketball league. To have one bathroom, that facility should have been shut down a very long time ago. if it was the perfect situation, if we were in a different city or a different state for that matter. Again, this is my fourth recreation department, and I have literally gone through this process several different times. The health department would have came to shut us down a long time ago. So I wanted to be very clear because, again, I know that you guys are unaware of the different things that we have been facing throughout the past three years. I came in in 2023, the remainder of my team came in in 2024. So we've all been in this struggle for three years together. So I wanted to point that out. The next slide will show you what our basement looks like currently. And this is due to the fact that I have complained for three years and I would not stop complaining for three years. I would not stop highlighting the conditions that we were under for three years. I would not stop fighting for three years that we have been under these conditions. My teammates have literally been behind me the whole time. Whatever we needed, however we needed to say it, even if I couldn't say it personally, my teammates were diligent and we all fought. We kept on fighting, we kept on fighting, we kept on fighting. With our teammates from the Public Works Division, our Public Works Division was able to put this all together for us so that we are operational and additionally, without us having working bathrooms, it was actually costing the municipality a pretty penny because we had to rent restroom trailers for the summer campers to use these restroom trailers and those restroom trailers are not cheap. So now we have working bathrooms in our basement and we actually have a safe space where all of us feel comfortable walking down the steps now. The top corner here is our creative space that my teammate previously mentioned. This creative space is going to be our computer lab, our podcast and studio, as well as our arts and crafts room. We also incorporated a small game room inside of the basement, so these are the different areas that you see here.

You can go to the next slide.

I will also like to highlight this event, Pitching for Unity. This is a combination event, a partnership that was established between the Norristown Department of Recreation as well as the George Washington Carver Center. We like to call the Carver Center our sister center. So what a lot of people are not aware of, this is not the first time that we have partnered with the Carver Center. We have partnered with the Carver Center in previous years. We had a combined yoga program. that was offered at the Recreation Center as well as the Carver Center. The Carver Center also supported us with our swim lessons for our youth participants for summer camp. And additionally, Erica Wharton also assisted us with training our lifeguards. So we are required, since we don't have our own pool, we are required by Pennsylvania law when you run a daycare or you have a summer camp and you are taking your kids swimming to another location You have to have certified lifeguards on your staff. So they were able to assist us with that by ensuring that our lifeguards were certified so that we remained in compliance with Pennsylvania law. So we have always been very appreciative of that relationship. And now that relationship has expanded to something bigger and we're looking to ensure that this relationship continues to grow. I won't take full credit for this. We have amazing members in the community that have supported us and literally facilitated what is currently happening between the Norristown Recreation Department and the George Washington Carver Center. So again, I'm truly grateful for those members of the community that have assisted us and have continued to push to ensure that we can come together as two organizations, but we represent one city. So there's no separation, but also making that clear to our community that we're fighting this together. We're doing everything that we can to fight this together. Next project, National Fitness Campaign. I know you guys been hearing me talk about this for a year now. So it has been a very long process. So going through actually the grant process, getting approved for the grant, going through all of the logistics, making sure that we have the equipment order, going back and forth to ensure that everything is paid for. working with our finance division, working with municipal administration as well. So now we are at the final stages. I know that this was previously mentioned, if you guys could actually see what it's going to look like. So this is actually giving you a full demonstration of what this project is going to look like. And we are scheduled for install on September the 21st. We will also do a ribbon cutting ceremony. So after the installation is complete, I will work with our public information officer to ensure that we are able to have a successful ribbon cutting ceremony. Our next public meeting for The Norristown Parks Master Plan, this is meeting number three. It's gonna take place October the 14th at the Norristown Recreation Center. In this public meeting, we're gonna discuss all of the parks that are in the municipality of Norristown. This has been an ongoing project. This project has been going on all year. If you guys can remember, we previously had approved the Elmwood Parks Master Plan. but this encompasses all of our parks as a whole. With this project, as well as with the Elmwood Park Master Plan project, there is a public survey. Those public surveys have gone out to the community. A lot of the community members, they have already completed the survey. The survey is also available online. The survey is intended to inquire about what the residents would like to see within their parks. Again, this survey has went out two different times already, initially with the Elmwood Park Master Plan and currently with the Parks Master Plan. We have great survey results that have come back, and with those survey results, we plan to implement the things that the community members are looking for. Additionally, with the Elmwood Parks Master Plan, We, of course, we hired Simone Collins as our landscape architecture team. We also have a consultant by the name of Kathy Muller. Kathy Muller is an experienced recreation professional. She has more than 40 years of experience within recreation. She previously worked for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. She now serves as a consultant for majority of the Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Associations. So she has been going out and she has been conducting individual interviews with several stakeholders. She conducted interviews with all of our staff, our summer camp participants, parents, stakeholders from the community, different organizations within our community and collecting all of that data and that data is also be important to this project as well. So our next slide, these are concept plans that we have come up with. So Aki's Park is the next biggest project that is going to take place with the Department of Parks and Recreation. And this is, again, keyword is a concept plan. The concept plan, it highlights what we currently have, which is a playground, and we have an existing pavilion as well as a basketball court. The playground is new. The pavilion is new. The basketball court needs to be resurfaced. So this is a part of the plan to resurface the basketball court, but also to add a multipurpose turf field. With the addition of this multipurpose turf field, we are able to service our community more. There are no turf fields here in Norristown. The only field that we actually have in Norristown is Latshaw Field. There are no athletic fields. So it is... painful as a recreation director, but as a recreation professional in general, when you work with so many athletes, you work with so many young people, and you actually provide a service, but when the weather breaks and they're forced to go outdoors, but you hear them say, we have to go to Plymouth, we have to go to King of Prussia, we have to go here, why? So it has to stop. And that was always my initial plan upon hiring, to make sure that this community was serviced the way that other communities are being serviced. So this is the proposed plan for Aki's Park. Again, we're going to incorporate a multi-purpose turf field. We're going to resurface the basketball courts, and we're going to keep the existing playground and existing pavilion. This will also come with upgraded signage, as well as increased lighting in the park. As you all are aware, the only park of ours that has lighting is MLK Park. We have no lights in our parks. So that also limits the access that our youth in our community has to utilizing our parks within Norristown. Let me go to the next slide. Another concept plan, and I actually have three for Thomas Barone Park. Again, we pulled all of this data from the survey results. So Thomas Barone Park, this is a concept plan for an open space park. We're not looking to do anything that the community doesn't want with the park. We're keeping this park as a passive park. So a passive park just simply means you have a park that's beautified. If you want to go sit and get some sun, you want to go and play chess and just enjoy being outside, being one with nature, that is what a passive park is. What we have incorporated here, as you can see on this slide, there are chess tables, there are park benches, there is increased landscaping by incorporating trees, and also incorporating a fountain, additional lighting, and upgraded signage. And I would also like to highlight that something like this in your community is going to raise your property value. So I would like to Point that out as well. Let me go to the next one. This is a second concept plan for Thomas Barone Park. This one is, it has a little bit more added amenities and it's just, again, just so that we can see what all of the different concepts look like before we actually move forward to actually getting the community to agree on a particular design. So this particular design here, It still has the same things. It still has the fountain, the upgraded signage, the chess tables, the park benches, but also it has a little dog area. It doesn't necessarily have to be a dog area. That could just literally be a fenced off area if you wanted to go to the park and do yoga. It's a little area where you can physically exercise. Design number three. And again, we're trying to keep them as simple as possible. But with this particular one, as you can see, this one has hammocks in the back. So incorporating literally just listening to all the ideas and putting all of those ideas into different concept plans to literally see exactly which one would the community want inside of their park. And again, all of this data was pulled from our survey results. Walnut Street Park, well, Walnut Street Playground is not a playground. It's an open space. It has grass, and it has trees, and it has a gate, and it barely has a walkway. It is something that could be turned, it's a park that could be turned into something beautiful. So these are different ideas, again, that we pull from the survey results, also pull from the meetings, and just developing a general concept plan. With this park, this would be a passive park as well. We did present this about two years ago and when we presented two years ago, it was to put a dog park in this area and that was shut down completely. So we went back to the drawing board, we listened to the community, we pulled those survey results and the survey results said, keep it as a passive park but beautify it. So this is the idea that we have for Walnut Street playground. And this is the second idea. And we also highlighted the different trees that we would like to incorporate. So just to beautify it, making sure that the park is as beautiful as everyone wants it to be, and ultimately a welcoming space. The last slide that we have here is our staff and facilities schedule. On the left side, we have our facility schedule. On the right side, we have our staff schedule. So you can see our operational days are Monday through Saturday. We are open to the public from 1.30 to 9.30 Monday through Friday and 9 to 5 on Saturday. We have a total of four full-time staff members. So that includes myself, Cody, Ms. Nita, and Steph. And we have four part-time staff members. It was very important for me to highlight this today because we have experienced several issues throughout the years with our department and primarily with our operational hours, but ultimately with the overstepping of boundaries that comes from council. And when I say overstepping of boundaries is council overstepping into operational areas, and that should not happen. That has happened four times. I can name each and every time that it has happened, from the basketball court rededication to the party in the park, down to where we currently are today with the upcoming event for October. There is a lot of overstep, and I literally think that we need to understand what we are working with right now. And if we are only open from A to B hours, to ask us to extend those hours and we only have two staff members that work during that time, that's a big ask of us, especially when we don't have the staff to support it. It's unfair to us. Um, it is also unfair to other members of the community. So when community members, when they come to us and they ask us for a rental or they come to us and they ask us for. a special event. If we literally give them the policy, but if they have a personal relationship with a member of council, they feel emboldened to approach council and then it turns into this whole circus situation. The softball league, that was the last one I forgot. It turns into a whole situation and it literally puts us in a position where our backs are against the wall and it also puts us in a situation where it's a hostile work environment. I have literally faced retaliation because of making literally following policy or responding in a way that wasn't received well from members of council. And that's unfair to be faced with retaliation for following the rules. So we cannot pick and choose when we want to bend and fold the rules for what suits your needs or what suits the needs of somebody else in the community that is closely tied to you. That's not fair. And we also have to consider that we have union workers inside of our department. That's something that we have to explain to the union. We can't force anybody to work. If somebody says they don't want to do overtime, you can't force them to do overtime. That's illegal. So that is my spill for today. That is all I have to say. Do you guys have any questions, comments, or concerns for me?

I have a question. Okay. Did you say, okay, you said an event in October? Yes. What's the event in October? Is it the fall festival you're doing? No, Trunk or Treat. Okay. Okay. So we did Trunk or Treat last year, right? Yes. Okay. So is it... What's going on with Truck or Treat this year? Is it bad or what's going on?

No, we haven't sat down and had our meeting just yet. Our meeting is actually scheduled for next week. We were actually going to have a meeting tomorrow, but unfortunately, all of our team members will not be available to make that meeting tomorrow. So that meeting is going to take place next week. The initial proposal and the initial application that came across my desk in reference to this event referenced the times from 4 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. on a Saturday, and we are open from 9 to 5. Additionally, with this proposal, it came... It was proposed that the organization was considering having a teen dance, and they wanted the facility to stay open until midnight. I would also like to highlight the fact that nationwide we can all see it on the news. There have been teen takeover events that have been happening across all cities. That is not safe. That is literally the most dangerous thing that you can do, considering the fact that these kids are going to have masks on. Where is the security? Who's going to pat them down? We have three floors in our building. These are things that I sit down when I see stuff like this come across my desk, and you've got to make it make sense to me. But this is where we are.

Council, any other questions or comments? I have a couple of questions. Sure. In the beginning, you had the basketball clinic. I missed the ages for that.

So our basketball clinic, the ages are from 8 to 18.

Okay. And anyway, I just want to say thank you because this is a really good report here. I like the vision you have. I like the fact that you are taking the constituents' ideas and putting it into the parks just as the concept plan. So I think that's really good. And, you know, for your perseverance for working under... Terrible conditions. Thanks for not running away and continue to do this And the other thing I did like was you have the programs out for the next year So people know what to expect to come here. So when they can't say we don't do anything we have everything lined up So I just want to say thank you for that you and your whole team. Thank you Well, thank you for your presentation or your report or someone else, okay, I

Yeah, I just want to say congratulations on your bathrooms. I know that has to be a huge weight off. So congratulations, and thank you for being a fierce advocate within the community. I think it's great work that happens, the ways in which our children, our families are served. And I think the support of that is something we have to figure out. and understand how to be in a good support. But I like the ways in which you're moving within partnership. I also think that there are dynamic layers that help our communities see how they can overlap and how they can work together. There will be obstacles in this work, in all of these type of works, in the ways in which that we advocate and support each other matter a lot more than the challenges that we face. So I just appreciate the way that you get the work done. But yeah, not most importantly, because you said a lot tonight, but very excited for your bathrooms. Thank you.

I was actually excited for the space, the opportunities there. And I like the t-shirt design. So we can get Mr. Bates down there with them to help out the kids design t-shirts. But yeah, there's a lot going on. We definitely seem like we definitely have a lot of things to talk about outside the chambers. But yeah.

I want to say thank you for coming up and giving an extremely detailed report. It's a lot of great things going on. And it's really great to see. It's great to see the transition from what the basement was to what it is now and what your hope is to continue the work you're doing. Congratulations on being on the host committee as well. That's amazing. And thank you for bringing things to our attention. that we might not have known about because that was something that I did not know about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And next up for departmental reports, we have police.

All right. Good evening, council.

Good evening.

I feel like I've been up here already once or twice.

All right.

Okay, so operations report for the month of August. I know it's long in the hour, so I'm not going to go too exhaustive. This will be made available to you tomorrow and to the public thereafter. Just going to dig right into it. So right now for the year, one of the biggest challenges that we all can agree is our reduction of our violent crime in this municipality. It's too high for too long, and we've been working really hard to reduce it. And tonight, I stand for you right now, on today's date, we're at 23% of our part one crime, which is our serious crime. We're down 23% year to date. August, we actually had a little bit of an uptick, and I think I talked about that in June. We were worried about the trend line starting to kind of flatten a little bit and whether or not it was going to turn up. It really didn't to a degree. Traffic accidents are down 13% for the month of August. One of the things that we've tried to do as we're kind of reconstituting the police department is deliver better service. I've always told you about my vision of building a good brand or a good quality police department where people can trust that when they call 911, there's going to be a caring, competent, capable man or woman to come there and help serve their needs. And one of the challenges that we had when I first came here was our response time. So we implemented some measures to make sure we're decreasing our response time. In other words, when you call 911, men and women are getting there faster. And year over year, they're getting their almost 8% reduction in calls for service time. There's some areas where on the lower priority calls that we've not been able to get to, but we've also been challenged with some significant staffing issues. So despite the staffing issues, we've still been able to lower Part 1 crime by 23%. I'm gonna talk about our violent crime in a minute. We've been able to increase our response time or decrease our response time by seven, almost 8%. But some of the numbers that are really remarkable and I wanna make sure we draw highlights to them is our robberies are down 73% year over year. Our aggravated assaults are down 25% year over year. Now in the month of August, we had some issues with auto theft that was up. A lot more people out in the summer, so you definitely are gonna see that trend line. Where we at, Kev? Am I with you or are you with me or where? Okay, let's move over to the next slide, please. Forgive me, I have to get my readers out because I can't see anymore. All right. Here we go. Year to date crime, part one crime, down 23%. Auto theft is down 49% year over year. Robbery is down 52%. I've already made comments about our murder rate being reduced, but it's still too high. The number's there for you to see and we'll comment on it. Down 9% in theft. We're making substantial changes in helping to make Norristown a safer community. And I thank council for your support. Things tonight like approving cars, approving the training that we've had. There are investments in your police department that are going to pay dividends, they're gonna reduce crime. You're gonna see, we had a presentation here earlier this evening about development. Norristown is a great place to come if you're a developer and build and you're seeing that. And our role as your police department is to make it a safer place to invite more development, to invite more economic investment and opportunity, to reduce the fear of crime and make people proud to be from Norristown. And I think we're having some progress. I'm not going to say that we've solved problems, but we're trending in the right direction. Simple assaults are down 38%. Drug violations down. We're definitely doing the work out here. And I want to take time to notice that the men and women in this department are phenomenal. They work hard. Are they perfect? No. But they come here every day, and I will tell you from reviewing them, I was out this morning on a crash. I was actually directing traffic out on DeKalb Street because we were tied up. And just to see the remarkable way they come together and work definitely makes me proud, and we're going to continue in that vein. August, we did see some increases in the aggravated assaults and the auto theft. We'll go through that. If you want to head over to the next one, Kev. Here's our heat map. And this is gonna use us to kind of plug our crime mapping. We had the crime mapping program. I know I've talked about it before. It's still on the back burner as far as what we were gonna do because we had the ArcGIS, the ESRA program that we were looking at some time ago. I probably will come to you in the next couple months and talk about adopting a very simple, small crime mapping plan that we can roll out to the community so people can go in there in real time and look and see what's going on on their block in a real-time way. This is nice because, the next slide, you'll see that this is not part of a one-off thing but a trend. This is a trend. Violent crime in Norristown is down 24%. in a 14 year trend for the first half of this year. Now we know that we still have a long way to go through 2026. We still have several months left. But all the indications are that we're on a trajectory where we're gonna come in significantly less than last year, and it's the result of the hard work of men and women. The goal is part of our 2026 crime plan, go through that, reduce gun violence. We continue to work with that. We continue to work with our community partners in making sure that we're getting out there and identifying individuals who are likely to engage in crime and interacting with them before they have the opportunity to get involved in crime. We have a community impact unit. It's established. We have our co-responder there. As soon as we get some more staffing later this fall, we're actually gonna put an officer, a uniformed officer, who's gonna be our community response person. And they're really gonna help us attack quality of life issues. One of the things that's in my, I've written up a strategic plan for the next three years in the police department. So I wanna bring it to you in the next couple weeks. But what I wanna do is I wanna create community response teams. There's a lot of challenges in our municipality that sometimes are in zoning, sometimes are in public works, sometimes are in policing. And what I want to do is I want to align our PSAs. So when the committee shows up and there is a problem on, let's say, at James and all the way at James and Forest. There's no street sign at James and Forest. So if a resident comes to me and says, hey, chief, I want to have a guy or gal raided in that meeting who we can identify and say, hey, we need to get that sign fixed. Or if it's a house that's abandoned and it's being loitered in and needs to be boarded up, okay, we got a guy here who can do that. We need to create these teams that can work together to get these crimes and things or these instances that occur what I call in the gap. It's not really police today. It's not really code today. But if we can close that gap, we can make real progress on blight and definitely help further improve in the community. Traffic enforcement unit, we're still working on that. Correspondents here. We have our new RMS. Traffic safety enforcement's huge. I believe that we need to make sure that we continue that. We did see a reduction in traffic crashes and collisions, but we still need to make sure we're continuing that effort. We had a crash today on DeKalb. There was a gentleman up here earlier tonight talking about safety in the streets because of speeding vehicles. We need to really zone in on that task. Community impact and engagement, we're doing that as best we can. We're out there, we're hitting the events. I think we have no less than maybe 25 events between now and the end of October with trunk retreats. We have PSA stuff, so we are there. And then lastly is our staffing snapshot. Right now we're 57 sworn. I will tell you that we are having interviews on the 18th and the 21st. For candidates, we have about 36 individuals sign up for interviews. And we're gonna continuously work to hire. And a note about hiring. I know we're short, and I know we need police officers. But I tell you tonight, and I say this to the community, we will not sacrifice quality for numbers. We need to hire the good people we can train to be police officers. And that is my ethos to you and my pledge to you that we're going to hire good, competent, caring, capable people. We'll train them how to do the job, but if they don't come in the door, and I said this in my town hall, if you don't come in here as a good person, I can't make you a good cop. So that's going to be our emphasis on that. And then there's a summary, and... I said I'd try to get it in quick, and I did. Any questions?

Councilman McMahon.

Sorry about this. The category of theft, it was like 260 or 270 cases, and I also noticed in the hot spot, that's kind of right around in my neighborhood. What are the categories within that, and how much of it is just the fact that people have cash and not bank accounts? I remember... like eight, 10 years ago, there was a similar situation. And the bottom line for some of that was just banking issues. So as far as an approach to think about that one category, first, can you kind of break it down into types of theft and see if what I'm saying rings any bells from previous experience here in Norristown.

So the theft is a very broad marker. So it could be theft from a vehicle. Someone leaves their car door unlocked, somebody goes through.

Is it separate?

Correct. Auto theft is the theft of the vehicle.

Oh, the vehicle. OK.

Theft from a vehicle would be you left your car unlocked, somebody goes in, rummages through, and gets some change. It could be theft of property. Somebody has patio furniture, they steal that. It could be a theft of a bike. It could be theft of money. Someone reports that their roommate took $50. So there's a lot of subcategories under that.

Is there a sense of what the majority is within that?

Listen, I can break the numbers down and give you the numbers exactly what I want.

Yeah, I'm just curious because it's so big income.

I think a lot of it's going to be theft of property. Okay.

people just stealing things, retail theft, bike theft.

Packages.

Packages. It's just going to be basically theft, what they call theft by a multitude.

Okay. Yeah, except in identifying the majority of it, maybe there's a way to address it.

And that's not where our community unit is going to play a role because we will crunch those numbers and like theft of packages. Where I came from in my previous life, we had what I call, what we invented was our package protector program. And it worked in Lansdowne because it was small. But if you were gonna get a high-value, high-dollar item delivered to your house, my solicitor over here is like, oh God, I don't know. We would let you deliver it to the police department. We had this area where we held it, and then you'd come pick it up with ID and stuff like that. I'm not suggesting that's something we're gonna do here, but it's something we did. But identifying the types of theft and where the need is, then we can put in what the response will be.

Council, any other questions or comments? Thank you, Chief. Appreciate your work. Thank you, folks.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Council, before I adjourn, I forgot to make two announcements earlier. I just want to say happy birthday to Councilwoman Natalie Coulson and happy birthday to Councilman William McCoy. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Younger.

I have a motion to adjourn. Yes. Oh. So moved. So moved. So sorry. So moved. Do you have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you.