Commissioners - Regular Meeting

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NEW SPEAKER 31. NEW Why don't we go with Manny?

Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. Manny Fitzpatrick, Schuylkill Keep It Pretty chair and coordinator. I'm here to present an award, but before I do so, I just wanted to give a little update about Schuylkill Keep It Pretty. We were established in 1986, which means we're celebrating our 40th anniversary this year. We're very excited about that. We just finished our spring cleanup. We had over 30 cleanups done around the county, collecting over probably over 300 bags I'm still getting counts in. And those are just cleanups that were done through School Will Keep It Pretty. PennDOT's Adopt a Highway also had cleanups throughout the springtime. So if you're out and about, you are seeing cleaner roads in our county. So thank you to you all for your support and for everyone who's volunteered their time. Today I'm here on behalf of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and School Will Keep It Pretty. to honor and recognize our Community Partner Award for their outstanding contributions to help keep Schuylkill County clean and beautiful. Skip and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful are nominating Hidden River Credit Union for being a valuable partner for continuously cleaning up along their Westwood Road location for the past nine years and making many investments in Schuylkill County through donating time and resources to many organizations and projects. Their organization's efforts help spread awareness about the importance of cleaning up litter, and we are grateful for companies like theirs for their dedication, commitment, and exceptional contributions to advance our mission and strengthen community involvement improvement efforts across Schuylkill County and the state. We'd like to present Hidden River with an award and a certificate as an expression of our appreciation Today I have with me a few people. I have from Hidden River, Brendan, Mike, and Julia, as well as from Schuylkill Keep It Pretty, I have three, actually several of my board members. Commissioner Hess is the commissioner on our board, as well as my treasurer here, Chris Hughes, and the vice chair, Kyle Sweats from the Solid Waste Office. So on behalf of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, I am presenting this beautiful award hidden river as well as a significant appreciation so thank you very much thank you for what you're doing

Everything that Skip does is great.

You started out with a pitcher or a boxer? It's Google Connects took it on in 2024. 2024, that's when we started. Yeah.

Yes.

I started with the first, way, way, way back, my cousin John, I think that was a scout leader, went out with the Boy Scouts and took a beer bottle and a beer can. And it seemed like the one farm, he's a barn up away from, he hit this barn, he had to drink a beer and throw out the window. His farm out out by the old white church, same thing. it's X number of miles out of town. And I said to him, he said, listen, chef, I said, well, if the Boy Scouts pick these up, we'll turn for trans generation to understand that this does not have to be done. Four years later, we don't have near that company. We used to have 35, 40 bags of beer cans and bottles.

As the Boy Scouts got older, they themselves stopped.

They did do it. They told their kids not to kill themselves. It doesn't work.

And keep Pennsylvania or keep, Keep America Beautiful just released the national study that shows that litter is down. I can't think of the percentage, but this this report is showing a decrease in litter and a number of volunteers coming to the table and really making sure that Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania and America is being cleaned up and kept beautiful.

Again, I know 40 years. It's amazing that their organization and it's done a lot of things throughout Schuylkill County and definitely there little bit of a down period there and i appreciate the new board coming up and getting involved in meeting and also getting the youth involved definitely a lot of the students and stuff are doing different challenges and stuff and that's a great thing i've always said that when people are rolling through our county and maybe looking for a place to live or set up a business that's the first thing they look at is the appeal of what it is and we have a beautiful county especially as on the points where everybody enters. And we appreciate all your hard work and efforts. It does mean a lot and it's very effective. So thanks again, appreciate it.

We've got a price on the new system. That would be great. Yeah. The new system is . I know. It's crazy.

find out how to get What's that? It's the game and your thing. I don't know how it works. Or else I can go and go. Absolutely. Yeah.

That's a very good point.

That's a very good point. the aliens are down in our signaling okay

Let's see what feedback we get. Well, we priced the new system.

Oh, we're not done with that. Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning, Commissioner. Chris Golowski, your Regent Township. Of course, I respectfully ask that you maintain comments and hold comments until after my three minutes. Today, I would like to discuss the long-term financial condition of Schuylkill County and what many taxpayers are beginning to ask, is our county on a current sustainable path. According to employee wage salary information obtained through a right to know request, Schuylkill County employs approximately 671 individuals with a total annual wages of salaries of about $28 million. However, wages are only part of the picture. When you factor in healthcare benefits, pensions, social security, Medicare, workers' comp, unemployment compensation, and other employment related costs, The total taxpayer investment is substantially higher. The county owned adopted budgets show compensation and benefits totaling, the county owned adopted budget shows compensation and benefits totaling approximately 42.6 million in 22, 45 million in 23, 46.2 million in 24, 47.8 million in 25. In each of those years, employee compensation and benefits represent about 55 to 61% of the general fund expenditures. Simply put, more than half of the county general fund is devoted to personnel costs. At the same time, the county has repeatedly relied upon reserves and unassigned fund balances to balance the budget. The adopted budget show approximately 4.7 million from the fund balance in 22. 4.6 million in 23, 10.5 in 24, 6.1 million in 25, and another 5.8 million in 26. That amounts to nearly $32 million in reserve usage over five budget cycles. Reserves are important. They provide financial stability, protection during difficult times, but reserves are not a reoccurring revenue source. They are savings. So my question is this, what is the long-term plan? If compensation costs continue to rise, healthcare continues to rise, and fund balances continue to be used year after year, what happens with those reserves when they're no longer available? Will taxpayers eventually be asked to absorb another real estate tax increase? Will county services be reduced? Or does the county have a long-term financial strategy that avoids both? I am not criticizing county employees. I am asking for transparency and planning. Taxpayers deserve to know the current reserve balance, how much has been spent over the last several years, how much remains available, and what projections look like over the next three to five years. I respectfully request the commissioners provide a public financial presentation dealing reserve balances, compensation and benefit trends, and the county's long-term financial outlook. Thank you for your time. Sure.

So, yes, we use our $5.8 million balanced budget. But that budgetary, that reserve money is taxpayers' money. We saved a million dollars in our health care this year. And that all dovetails with everything I've been saying about tax revenue. And while some people are mad at my stance on data centers, if they're done in the right locations, the right stuff, and I have a whole bunch of information on data centers that I want to present to you.

With the right restrictions.

With the right restrictions. Correct. They will help balance our budget because they could generate one whole bill of taxes. So our shortfalls, just like you just said, were about $5 million a year. Right. Well, if I have $15 million a year coming in from data centers, taxes from data centers, just three compounds, now you have no shortfalls. Now you have extra money in the account. Now, like I say about the compensation, right now we're in union negotiations. We have to negotiate with seven unions. I now believe it's eight. So when they negotiate their union contracts, we're going through one right now that they are requesting pretty substantial increases, percentage increases in their base. And a lot of the services we can't cut.

Correct, they're state mandated. Right, they're state mandated.

I can't cut the courts. I can't cut senior services. I can't cut children and youth. I can't cut adult probation. I can't cut any of the domestic relations. I can't cut juvenile probation.

However, there are some tough, heavy, heavy salaries within the county. And I just think that we're in a position right now where we know we've been nipping at that fund balance.

The fund balance has about $22 million in it, and with the million we saved in our health care, we replenish money back into that fund. So the long-term strategy of the county, we're actually in really good shape compared to most counties surrounding us and bigger counties. We are in good shape financially. We are in good shape into the foreseeable future. But just like you're saying, we need new therapy. I'm trying. Correct. Let the state, let 65 counties, two counties in the state have an 8% sales tax. Philadelphia County has 8%. Allegheny County has 7%. The other 65 counties have nothing. Let every county have a 1.5% sales tax. Then everybody pays for that, not just homeowners. And if Schuylkill County had a 1.5% sales tax, that would generate another $15 million a year. That means we would be able to lower property taxes some, be able to do more for first responders, firefighters, community, and everything. But Harrisburg has to let us do it. This last budget cycle, we asked, can we do this? Can we do, nope, nope, nope. The only thing the state allows us to do is tax your property. which I'm an advocate. I don't think we should have to pay property taxes. I believe that we should own our properties free and clear. I think they should do like southern states and do it in the earned income tax and do it in sales tax. But that's way out of my privy as a commissioner. There is an initiative right now trying to get the counties a sales tax because then you can get some relief somewhere. We've been hearing it for years on school property tax.

Which is killing a lot of people.

And if we can do it on If I can save you money on the county, or you can save it on your school, do you care where it's at? As long as you're getting a savings.

Correct.

So we have long-term plans that I've been working on. I've been working with about five other counties now to help try to push initiatives for that stuff. And like I said, with our fund balance, everything that we save in our health care that we get, we replenish that reserve fund balance. So our reserve fund balance is sitting at about $22 million right now. And that's taxpayers' money. That's not money that the county... That's what it's there for. And we are healthy with our reserves. And plus, we're making money. We're going to be able to save some money with some other stuff that's coming up with refinancing, taking advantage of some of the lower interest rates that are starting to emerge. So yeah, we move money around to save money. But our long-term future is, at least the next three years, I believe, a really good bet. We do need new revenue. And every time, I know the data center is a big hot-button issue. but if we do it right, do it responsibly, it could have a major tax benefit for the residents of Schuylkill County to stabilize those shortfalls. School districts, if a data center locates in a school district, there's one going in Carbon County right now, the Panther Valley School District, I think will receive $7 million a year in new tax revenue. That saves that school district, the Panther Valley School District. That's what I mean. And if you take up farm lands, like with the data centers, people don't want them on farm lands. I want them on coal lands. I want them on lands nobody else would use. If you would do housing developments to get to that type of revenue source, you would have to develop half of your farms in Schuylkill County for houses. And it would probably take, what would you think, 50 years? Because we only get about $400,000 in new revenue a year from people building houses, housing developments, factories, you get about $400,000 a year. And honestly, the state pushes more and more on the accounts. Our prisons, we have to put a pod on for mental health. We have to have mental health services now. If a prisoner comes in and they're a drug addict, we have to provide some oxygen. We have to do all kinds of stuff now. There's all these new mandates coming down to senior services, children and youth, human services for the state that they don't give us more funding for. 9-1-1 is a perfect example.

Again, I know there's a lot of state mandated things.

And 9-1-1 is a perfect example. So, yes, there is a long-term plan. I'll show you the one.

I'm just trying to see if we can get that so that the public can have that investment and be able to see that.

I've been talking about data centers, and I know it's unpopular with people. But I've been talking about how the benefit is, if it's done right, how it would generate one bill of taxes. That means your shortfall is gone every year.

And again, my concern really is that reserve fund balance. We keep nipping at it. As long as we're replenishing it, I know though, if I'm not mistaken, it was close to 50 million five, six years ago.

It was always since I've been here, Hubbard, in the 22 to 27 to 20.

Again, we keep nipping at it. Then we're going to have to see how we're doing.

We're making sure now that we're replenishing. The savings on the health care, we just got a $950,000 check. for savings that we did through our wellness efforts to our health insurance. The biggest cost is just like anything else. It's healthcare and it's, you know, payments. It's union negotiations and sometimes pensions and unions.

And again, our wages aren't out of control when it looks at other counties. You're just saying, what are we getting for that? What's the bang for our buck?

And we agree completely. So yes, there is a long-term plan. We're trying. And I'm saying, if we don't allow new growth in Schuylkill County, You have to tax the same pool over and over again because we're not allowed to do anything else from Harrisburg. They say counties is the only source you have. So unless Harrisburg allows us to do something, there's creative ways out there. And Philadelphia and Allegheny County, they've had that sales tax. I don't even know how long. They have reaped the benefits of that for 50 years, 20 years, 25 years. They have reaped the benefit of that. And every other county is told, no, no, no, you just have property tax. So if you really want to help, contact your legislators, contact Harrisburg, and say, give the counties the tools they need to be able to help lessen the impact on a homeowner.

And we have a budget cycle coming up here shortly, so that's one of the reasons I wanted to bring that up. Something to be looking at for the near future.

And actually, we looked into the budget and we're in really good shape for next year.

I'm going to hold you to that.

Go ahead, Bruce. Please. With the ARPA grant we got from the Fed, we purposely put about half of it away in the reserve fund. Like I said, every year it's $4,000 of income. You're still achieving a dollar's worth of new expenses. We built that back up instead of handing money out to everybody. We did some great things with it, but we took a chunk of that in that same week. We were at a CCAP last summer, and when the budget overran, Chester County was already borrowing money in August. We got through it to a little.

We didn't have to borrow money.

We didn't have to borrow money at all. We are, yeah, we have a double A1 rating plan

Yes, sir. We also are over 95% funded on our The county is in excellent financial condition. It was left that way by my president's husband, their president's husband, and we continue to move forward. We have to be aware of our unfunded fund. You're correct. We need to be judicious with our monies, and we are. And we're doing an extra job.

Well, I interrupt. Last week, you talked about some parcels that weren't properly... Oh, Chrissy, do you want to address that? Yes. I'm not going to say. You worked with Chrissy in the... Sure. Did you report that to her at all or not?

I did. There were several of them prior to last week's discussion regarding the ones in Norwegian Township. There was one or two new ones. She reached out to me. I sent her the information, just waiting to hear any type of result back from those.

Okay. We've had this conversation prior quite a bit amongst a lot of us. Back when I first started here in 91, okay, we did have a computer system. It wasn't generated out to the public through a parcel locator yet at that point. So when new construction was done, it went into this drawer and you had to wait 30 days before you can even let it go anywhere because the public person had the right to know their assessment before anybody else. That has never changed, okay? So when a new house is generated in our office, we gotta send out a notice to the owner so that they have time to appeal it, okay? The thing with the system that we have now is it doesn't go on to the Visions website or any other one that we had prior, Matt, viewer did not either, until a bill is generated, okay? Last year, we're going through the reassessment. You all know my staff was over there. We didn't have time for field appraisers to be out there picking stuff up. November came, we started going back out. They started picking them up. We started taxing them. in most of them got taxed in March. Okay. But it wasn't because we did a change of assessment notice that the value would have pulled over. It was because we did a letter to the tax collector telling her to give an additional charge. So the people were taxed for their March bill, but you couldn't see it over on the system because the bill wasn't generated. You still can't see it yet because the July bills are not generated. Once the July bills are generated, the values will pull over. Yes, I get that there's an L1 on there, and I get there's a picture of a house. Nine out of ten times, if you can see the picture of the house, call the office because we got the house already picked up, but the info will not pull over until a bill is generated.

And so how many, what did we assess, 96,000 parcels? 24,000? I don't talk about that. 94,000, 96,000 parcels?

It might even be a little bit higher. Okay. Because we're breaking them apart with different developments, and it might even be 98 now.

Okay. And again, that's where I mentioned, I said, you know, I could understand if you had a shortfall with staffing or pushing that everybody should be looking at the Canvas system. Yeah. But there's those discrepancies. So as long as we get that clarification, we need to make sure, because we cannot be leaving money on the table. Little Maraca that's being taxed versus someone who has a half million dollar or million dollar home that isn't paying taxes, or it looks like they're not paying taxes. It's not fair to Maraca.

There was also one that you had on there, and I'm not going to say names or a thing. Those people, we have the house ready to go, but they did not receive an occupancy permit, so they're not living in the home yet. People got to realize, like, we tax them once they get into their homes. You know, we need these occupancy permits. The other bad thing was the township that you were involved in, they weren't getting us permits. So, I mean... That comes down on the township as well. I mean, I've got people that are driving their districts now, but it's on the township. They need to start getting these permits to us. I mean, it's the law. These townships are already getting onto us.

So in regards to that comment, what from the county aspect, if you're not receiving that, of course it's the law, that's what they should be doing. If you are not receiving them, what are you doing as a department to mitigate that issue with the communication between boroughs, townships, et cetera, municipalities to the tax assessment office.

We have sent out a letter to them telling them what the law states. We've also called numerous times to the point now we are going to the township. We now go to whoever does your permits together. So we'll kind of just bypass you now.

Okay. Again, what I'm looking at is, again, mom, pop, who's on a limited income, who's paying such and such. They go to look at a system that shows that there's no improvement cost, but we know somebody who's living in that property.

That's kind of where we get into the- Because you're making sure they are picked up, they are out through the, and yes, it's not updated on a system until the school district tax bill generates, then all that will update onto it. So- So July, that's correct. Then we looked in the last. Thank you.

Thank you guys. Thanks, Christy.

Good morning.

Good morning. The mission is Carol, who misses that Barnesville, Ryan Township, 1.5 miles from Mountain Valley Golf Course. First, thank you, commissioners, for not blatantly approving the infrastructure plan for data centers without sending it for further review to the Planning and Zoning Commission. We utilize wells and septic. We are not on public systems. Bruce City, Rush Township, they're on public systems. We are not. We are on wells and septic. The Mountain Valley Golf Course, the mountain, from the Mountain Valley Golf Course toward Locust Lakes Road. That house is a working farm. The cattle, chickens, it is a working farm. It's the Dante Farm. A short distance down the road from that farm is Locust Lakes State Park. So you have the residents, fishermen, swimmers, kayakers. You have the possibility for contamination with the data center. between air and water, that's what we are concerned about, and noise being a factor. We already entertain FabCon, a mostly empty warehouse not far from FabCon, and one inactive construction behind that. So we kind of feel that we are definitely, we have more than enough warehouses in construction. and commercial situations within Ryan. I am not against data centers. We need them with the ever advancing technology. However, they should not be dumped near residential or agricultural areas, even if they are partially zoned, if sections of the Township Borough Ordinance was partially rezoned other than residential and agricultural and or. Common sense for municipalities does not always apply. The state of Maine proposed a moratorium which puts a ban on data centers needing an excess of 20 megawatts. In Nevada, Amazon signed an agreement with an energy company to add geothermal, which would be carbon-free, power as a source. Locations such as mining reclamation sites, inactive co-gen plants should be clearly utilized. Already existed, not suitable for residential use should also be considered. If I am correct, in 2026, Schuylkill County received over $8 million in state and federal grants to reclaim coal mine sites. The county reassessment affected residents in various ways. Not all residents with increased taxes appealed. Some actually felt their assessment was just. Please do not hurt us by decreasing our property values, which is what data centers do. That's all I have. Thank you.

Yeah, I agree with that. We are working with and trying to get some of these data center companies like one client township i'm trying i'm working with uh to try to get them here to do a presentation from because now we know two entities one's amazon i can't say the one right in this is the other one that's looking at the property in the industrial one they told them i said let's start like talking to the public let them know what's going on they're saying with the water system it's a closed closed closed loop system Now they're talking about, some of them are talking about goose and mine waters. There's all these different aspects going on with this. So it's, and after everybody's talking, I haven't done time to comment. I have a lot of talk about the babysitter. This is all babysitters now. So I agree. If they're done, they're responsible, right way, the right location. They don't want them on farmlands. They don't want them next to residents. I don't want them to have the county give them a tax break. You want to come here? You're paying to come here. You know? So I agree with you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning, commissioners. Dr. Jillian Mullen, Schuylkill-Hagen.

I'm going to read this, hopefully I'm allowed it, maybe a little bit of a time deviation that's already happened here today to finish what I have to say, because it is important. I'm not sure whether all of you are aware of a recent change affecting the public access to the civil court records in Squiggle County, or how we got to the point where the public can no longer easily search civil court documents online. On August 24, 2022, this board approved county suite agreements with Teleosoft for the sheriff's office and the prothometary's office. County Suite was presented as a modernization effort intended to improve efficiency, expand online access, and promote government transparency. According to an October 29, 2019 Republican Herald article before becoming prothonotary, Bridget Miller stated, I plan to improve the online offerings and introduce e-filings better accommodating the public. In 2023, she further stated that County Suite would promote government transparency while expanding online access and document viewing. Then on February 2nd, 2026, the court approved an administrative order issued at the request of the prothonotary, authorizing fees for online non-confidential document viewing. However, what has now been implemented appears to go much further than an administrative order. As things currently stand, members of the public can no longer search civil court cases online without first purchasing a subscription costing approximately $460 for the first year, a meaningful comparison given that many, civil cases remain pending or acting for a year or longer in the civil courts. Without paying the public, cannot search civil cases, view basic docket activity, monitor hearing dates, track filings, or even determine whether a civil case even exists. This affects pro se litigants, taxpayers, journalists, researchers, and ordinary citizens seeking to monitor matters involving local government and issues of public importance. Many neighboring counties, including Dauphin, Berks, Luzerne, Lavellana, Northumberland, Cumberland, Lebanon counties, and more, continue to provide free public access to basic civil docket information. Some even provide access to the docket images themselves. Even more troubling is that members of the public can access federal court dockets, Pennsylvania appellate court dockets, criminal dockets through the Unified Judicial System, and civil matters at the Magisterial District level. Yet in Schuylkill County, the public cannot access even the most basic docket information for civil cases in the Port Ocala Police without first purchasing a subscription. Citizens already pay filing fees, including automation fees when cases are filed. The public deserves to know how the automation fund and automation fees already collected through filings are being used in relation to the annual county suite costs. Regardless of whether those funds fully cover the expense, requiring a paid subscription to access basic civil docket information raises important questions about public access and transparency. I understand that the court approved the fee schedule, But this county approved the original contract, funded the system, and continues to support it. Therefore, I respectfully ask whether the commissioners were aware that the basic civil docket access would be placed behind a paywall, whether the impact on public access and transparency was considered, and whether the county would support restoring free access to the public civil docket searches while limiting subscription fees to actual docket viewing as authorized by the administrative order and nothing more. Technology should expand access to government and justice system, not reduce it. Citizens should not have to subscribe to their own government simply to see what is happening in public court cases. Thank you.

I'll look into it. I know we have a software program, but I don't know all the details. It's completely shut down. The public has no access to any of the court documents.

The administrative order was signed. Not only the public, because I can no longer get in them either. And I was telling the schools to go on and check, because they all want to know how many are still up in court. And we can't tell anybody.

I'll be honest with you.

I have a pending case, and I can't monitor the docket for things that need to be done timely. There's certain filings, and the mail just doesn't complete.

I'm not commenting. Because listen, for what they do for the price of a stamp, put it in Pennsylvania, it goes to Alaska for the price of a stamp is amazing.

It's changed from document viewing to the administrative order into docket viewing. Let me look into it. Okay. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

It was between the sheriff and the DAA and All of that, if I'm correct on that.

I don't think my office was involved in the sheriff's office.

I think it was when someone comes in and files, I think. Proponentary. Proponentary.

File owners in the civil court. Yes. Well, like I said, let me know.

If you need more information, I can send it to you. Okay, we're going to just do it.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other public comment?

Yeah, go ahead.

So Mountain Valley, as far as I know, there's no thing on Mountain Valley for a data center.

that I know of, that I've heard of, or through many of our industrial things. And this is the one that in Fractville, I don't know where this one stands, but there's nothing official on this one.

It's not official, but the developer already filed a lawsuit against Newcastle, the developer that wants to build that data center. Oh, okay. That's the official part, unofficial.

Okay, that's what I'm saying. There's nothing official on any of these that I know of.

Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, everyone else. I'm here to discuss a data center, it's a preliminary proposal in Frackville. Oh, I'm Bernie Karpovich. I live on Laurel Street in Frackville, Butler Township. I'm an entire electrical engineer, worked in the nuclear power plant construction and operations for my 40 years experience. I'm here to present information. Newcastle Township Land borders Crackville on Laurel Street. Newcastle just passed this zoning ordinance on May 5th, last month. And what they have written, I know we're talking about data centers in the right place. This is not the right place because they built this, it seems like they built this ordinance for that data center to be built. I'll tell you why. If you go to page three, page four, at the bottom of page four, data centers and data center accessory uses shall be set back 200 feet from residential dwellings. So all the houses on Laurel Street, they'll be allowed to build this data center 200 feet behind their house. That's only two-thirds of a football field. It's not even the length of a football field. And right above that, with the yellow tab, they're allowed to build buildings 80 feet tall. That's eight-story buildings, 200 feet behind your house. And from the preliminary information, the developer wants to build four data center buildings, each building, 1,000 feet wide and 250 foot deep, and they're going to allow them to build it 80 feet tall. All the homes on Laurel Street and the rest of Frackville, it'll seem like our homes are in the middle of New York City in the skyscrapers. That's what it'll seem like if they build these large buildings 80 feet tall. This is, this is, okay. The next one is page five, orange tabs. I'd like to discuss that. They talk about noise in this ordinance, 60 decibels during the day, and then a maximum nighttime weekend, Monday to Friday, all day, Saturday, Sunday, decibel level of 55. This ordinance is allowing the developer to make 55 decibel noise all night long. And I did research on the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization recommends 40 decibels for nighttime. That's to allow 40 decibels or less for sleeping. But this ordinance, they're allowing them to make 55 decibel noise all night long. No one will sleep that lives on Laurel Street. And research from Virginia, there are actually windows vibrating on the residences that face the data centers. It's that kind of low, low volume hum that's 24 seven, all day and all night long. And then the last one I want to discuss is the map. This is very important. At the top of the map, you could see there's a lighter shade gray that says HI. They just rezoned all that conservation land. It may be agricultural, but they just rezoned in this ordinance to make it highly industrial, to build all industrial. And if you can see the map, I have Interstate 81. That's where 81 intersects the property. And there's, I drew the red line for Laurel Street. So all those homes on Laurel Street, they'll be allowed to build them 200 feet behind our house. And then on the other side, I'm on the other side of Laurel Street. I'll be facing this 80 foot tall monstrosity buildings every minute of the day that I look out the window or sit on my front porch. If this is allowed, if this ordinance is allowed to be processed as is, I'm hoping that they can make an amendment, Newcastle can make an amendment to protect the Frackville neighbors. As of right now, this is not really protecting Frackville. Newcastle is not protecting Frackville residents to allow these 200 foot, these buildings 200 feet from their house.

Yes, they do. Yes, they do.

Can you help Frackville?

Can you help Frackville to stop... Yes. It's a small piece of Butler Township, but 200 feet behind the house is your Newcastle Township.

No, but what I mean is if you're looking in the health and something, it's more of the Butler Township residents than the Newcastle. Then the Fractal residents.

Well, Butler Township residents are only a block and a half. Then the rest of them toward the nursing home is all Fractal residents. Elm Street divides Butler Township from Fractal. Newcastle is not helping us by allowing these buildings to be built 200 feet. Can you stop that? Can you change it to 1,000 or 2,000 feet?

Pennsylvania law, we cannot tell a municipality that has their own planning and zoning what to do or not to do. They send us what they're going to do, and we can comment no, and they can throw it in the garbage and say, we have our own planning and zoning. That's Pennsylvania law.

Can you send them a letter?

Oh, well, yeah, 200 feet is ridiculous.

200 feet is ridiculous? That would be great, because it's about 1,200 feet from Laurel Street to Interstate 81. If you say, if you can change that 200 feet to 1,000 feet, then there won't be a building on the side of 81.

You cannot restrict planning and zoning to hurt . Bill, you cannot set arbitrary boundary lines that says it's 1,000 feet. Because now you're making their property that they can't, you'll get sued and lose. Listen, that location, I don't really know what's going on with that. We've heard they were, then we heard they weren't, then we heard it was sold.

The developer filed a lawsuit with Newcastle.

Filed a lawsuit against Newcastle?

Against Newcastle for disordered.

No, wait. Hold on, I'm confused. They filed a lawsuit against disordered or to make disordered?

Against Newcastle.

because they don't like this ordinance? Well, no, the data center's not a loser. That doesn't make sense. If the data center, if they focus to let a data center come on.

I don't know the official reason.

But what I'm saying to you is, you can't make arbitrary laws against one industry and not the others, because you'll get sued and lose. But I would go to Butler Township, the Newcastle Township, Because they have their own planning and zoning. And go to their meeting.

But they just passed it on May 5th.

They just got under the county auspices. I know people won't like when I say that, but it's not under the county. It's their own planning and zoning.

We're at Newcastle's mercy. All of Fractville. Because noise, data center noise travels two miles. All 4,000 residents in Fractville will hear the data center.

We have a lot of stuff on data centers here that

that addresses some of these concerns. And this is the parcel number I have written down. Go to Butler and go to Newcastle.

We've been doing that the last six months and this is the ordinance they came up with.

I don't understand why the data center is suing Newcastle over this ordinance because honestly I think it's a very favorable ordinance.

The 200 feet is favorable to them. So I'll have to

I don't know enough about it.

The developer is KRNL from New York City, 152 Madison Avenue, 7th floor. And I talked to them as soon as I heard last July about a data center in Frackville. I called the number that I found on the internet. And the person, one of the two people in that company, that person said they bought that property on Laurel Street because it's a power line. That's the only reason I saw it. I said, did you look into the water? He said, no, we didn't even look into that yet. We just bought it because it was a power line. And they bought the land in September. Last September, we were asking them, I was asking them not to buy the land, but they bought it anyway.

Okay, but the land sold for what?

$600,000. $600,000. Two parcels. A Butler parcel and a Newcastle Township parcel. Both of them for $600,000. Like I said, I'll look into it.

How about the 200 feet? Could you press that?

We can't.

We cannot tell a township that has their own planning and zoning what to do. We would get sued. If they've done this planning, they get it to review it. They get it to review it, but they can make a comment. So they have the authority to just throw that comment in the garbage and do what they want.

Nobody reviewed this plan. The attorney wrote it up and they submitted it.

Once again, you've got to talk to your supervisor and talk with them. You can pass a township. I know you don't like that answer. I know. That's the law. You get the county sued if we try to, you know.

These three children have no control. Board of Supervisors, the PQN, brought them in and said, tell them to tell you a story then. Take a talk to them. Supervisor, take a talk to them.

We're already talking to them, but they're not.

Well, take a talk to them. You're paying attention. It's sensible. It's not, you know, unrealistic, but it's insane. Would you want to live next to a lady who's close? We've spoken to that. They're the guys you need to talk to.

And like I said, I have a ton of stuff here that I'm going to address on data center. So let's move on.

This affects all of Walnut Manor and the rest of Franklin, the noise, the water, the electricity. I have a ton of stuff to address this.

Okay.

Let's move on. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Hi, Claire Kempis, Northern Mannheim.

I just want to confirm that you received information that I sent, I forget when, last week, the Shemokin Township Ordinance Number 2026. I think what we need to do... Yes, this is a wonderful ordinance for anybody who is concerned about data centers, and it is approved by the Pennsylvania Data Center Accountability, and Shemokin Township got an A- in their ordinance. so i mean that's to me an a minus is a pretty good thing there are eight issues um that are on here no there are 11 issues eight of them got check marks being approved three still need a little tweaking but i will give this gentleman this information it is shamokin town court ordinance number 2026 it looks like it's a good guide thank you thank you yep we received it okay and there i have a ton of information on data centers okay that we've been doing research on that okay any public comment

I think we are at a tipping point in this county, residents and voters are increasingly becoming frustrated and discouraged. We are losing faith in many of our elected and appointed officials. Let's look at a little handful of examples. And I believe Mrs. Kempis just brought this up. An entity known as Pennsylvania Data Center Accountability Review recently rated the Butler Township Data Center ordinance as a D minus, very poor, for a myriad of reasons. No decommissioning plan. no expansion caps, 75 decibel noise limit. That's like listening to a vacuum cleaner in your ear 24-7. It is absolutely the weakest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. What lies below the North Point site, it's my understanding they've subsequently sold to another company, but the North Point site, which is located in High Ridge. What lies just below there? The little old borough of Gordon. Gordon will receive the stormwater drainage. They will receive the low frequency sounds coming from a data center. Does Butler Township give two hoots what the people of Gordon have to say? Well, obviously not, because the Butler Township supervisors at their meetings now, they're only accepting public comments from Butler Township residents or taxpayers. The middle finger to you, Gordon residents, that's essentially what they're saying. What we do in Butler Township is affecting you, But you're not allowed to come to our meetings and raise any sort of questions or concerns. Now, you would think that a township solicitor would advise against such an indifferent and extreme measure. Well, let's look at that. Who's the solicitor for Butler Township? It's Attorney Christopher Reidlinger. Well, he also happens to be the solicitor for the borough of Gordon. Which client is he actually working for? Hey, if it was me and I was on the council at Gordon, I'd start shopping around for another solicitor. But, hey, that's just me. Okay.

Let's continue.

Interesting. Let's continue on, who is the solicitor for Ryan Township? Well, once again, it's Attorney Christopher Reitlinger. In November of last year, he drafted four ordinances for Ryan Township, one of which was to rezone almost all of Mountain Valley Golf Course properties from residential to industrial. Credit to Kaylee Lindenmuth of Shenandoah Sentinel for that article. These ordinances were then later approved by the Ryan Township Board of Supervisors, led by Chairman Clyde Pullman, who is also a member of SEDCO, which had previously granted a LERDA designation with 10-year tax abatements to the Mountain Valley Parcels. Essentially, what was accomplished was spot zoning, which is illegal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Like I said, we are at a tipping point in Schuylkill County, and we do deserve better than a plethora of data centers, detention centers, warehouses, biosolids processing plants, massive landfills, sludge and textile waste facilities. Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Good morning. You said it for me. I forgot to say it. Seems as though a lot of corruption and backdoor deals are starting to come out slowly but surely. Let's see here. Six elected officials making roughly $100,000 with salary and benefits packages. Not here at 9.35 this morning. JUST SHOWS THEIR WORK ETHIC AND DEDICATION TO THE TAXPAYERS. MS. STEPHENS AT THE BOCCLE, WE'RE STILL DEALING WITH WRITE TO KNOW REQUESTS. MS. GAFFNEY STILL NOT HERE TO EXPLAIN HER FMLA CLAIM FROM WELL OVER A YEAR AGO. HER INABILITY TO WORK AND AT THAT POINT WAS WORKING LESS THAN 100 HOURS IN A SIX-MONTH PERIOD. WE DISCUSSED THE PAYS. ONE OR TWO DEPARTMENTS YOU SAID DRASTIC INCREASE THEY'RE REQUESTING THESE PAYS HAVE BEEN TEN AND TWELVE DOLLARS AN HOUR FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER JEFF SO YOU KNOW WE'VE GOT A REALLY GREAT AREA TRYING TO DO SOMETHING IS THAT IS THAT DEFINITELY GOING ON OR IS THAT IN THE PROCESS BUT THAT WAS ONE THING I'M SAYING IS THEY SIGNED A UNI CONTRACT THE UNI CONTRACTS FOR THREE YEARS

Okay, so we can't arbitrarily join the union contract. We're increasing this person's pay because then you have to increase everybody's pay across that entire union. So that's why we're in union negotiations right now. And we realize some of the difficulties that are going on. So we're going into these negotiations addressing a lot of those concerns because this is the first time they've opened up.

I mean, these people deserve a lot more than $12.20 an hour, which I know you agree with. But also, there were people at the 911 center I know they're up there now, but what I'm saying was it took years of fighting and arguing to get them to that point. I mean, you can ask some of these row office people how hard it is to get somebody in for $12 an hour to start. They'll tell you. That's why there's openings all the time. That's why some of the offices are slacking a little bit. You can't hire anybody at $12 to $14 an hour. It's just impossible. Gray area, you said, is hopefully being... Another option, because you're basically with this unassigned fund balance... It's almost like a tax anticipation loan is what they're doing. It's just floating money, paying it back. I am 90% sure at one point, I know Chris had mentioned 50 million. Maybe Sharon, you can fill me in. I know it was over 40 million at one time, correct? Well, I'm gonna say within the last 10 years, I would think. But from the numbers that I see, they're just slowly going down. They're in the ballpark, but they're slowly going down. So I don't know if they're not being paid back in full, or just be paid back with what you can. So that's another thing we have to keep an eye on. And of course, Horny Hal, he had a major impact on money going out of there as well. I get it, but it's still an impact that we're still feeling down the road.

I agree 100%, but that was the actions of him.

I get it. And we're still dealing with one that there's still.

There's nothing. Yeah, there's still one.

Right. Which a lot of people don't know. There's still another lawsuit pending from him. So. It's the gift that keeps on giving, and he's still receiving a pension.

Once again.

And I know it's out of your hands. 100%. But I want the taxpayers to know that he's still receiving a pension, and everybody else is struggling to pay their bills.

I asked if we could go after homeowners insurance. I asked them. There's nothing.

But has it been discussed at all about combining real offices that could be combined since 2008? The majority, the vast majority of the raw officers work part-time hours. Knock that down to part-time hours. There's plenty of counties that do it. So it's things that can be looked into because, you know, there's a half a million dollars right there that you could save by making some adjustments. Follow the lead from other counties to do it. Save your taxpayers money rather than keep upping their taxes to pay for people that don't show up for work. I'm just saying down the road, you're looking at ways to save money. These people don't show up for work. Pay them when they show up. You know, make him clock in. I know it's salary, but... Yes.

You made comments about... I talked about... It's not Mike Miller's property, but go ahead. I didn't mention that it was done on his property, but go ahead.

Around his property, yes.

Okay, yeah. And I'll believe that when I see it. Did you test it? He verified it. The paperwork verified it.

And it was tested? Pardon? And it was tested and confirmed?

Mike Miller actually was told. They actually talked to Mike Miller before they spread it.

So speaking of that, are you going to return the $1,500 and are you going to return the $250 to him that you took as campaign contributions?

You said, well, let me finish one. Maybe you should report your call. So Gary, Larry, and Larry tried to solve problems. People want to tell people that Frank's been biosolids. That's what you're creating a problem.

He's the biggest biosolids spreader in the county.

Yes, he is. I spent half a day talking to Frank Promise and to VB and to Mike Miller. Okay. Mr. Miller said, he'll check that he goes out of my business.

Is that what he said? Yes. Okay. That's good to know. So now my question to you is, now that you're done with your little spreal, are you giving back the $1,500 that you took off him? No, because he's not my biggest supporter. I'm saying, as a supporter, are you going to give the $1,500 back? No.

Okay. Yeah. So I, what you said that I called natural soil products because I went after them when this initially happened. Right. They told me right now, they will not give him any material to spread behind Mr. Miller's house. And he said, that has not changed. So I called him that day and said, you told us we were not going to spread behind that house. And as far as I know, whoever does this work for Mr. Graham has talked to Mr. Miller, explained what they were spreading on there.

And Mike was all- And my question is, was it tested? And do you have proof that it was not?

I'm just telling you what Mr. Miller told- Okay, I get it. And Mr. Miller told Boots that they had a conversation about this. that he was well aware of what was- That's fine if he's well aware of it.

What I'm saying is, was it tested and do you know?

No, listen, I can't answer that. Okay.

And neither one of you is giving the campaign contribution to us.

I looked into it. We did get $250. I didn't even know we did. So it's 250 bucks. I don't really care if we give it back to them.

Well, that's my question.

I'll make sure that there's no general contribution.

Okay. Thanks.

Okay. Any other public comment? So I just want to address some stuff here with data. Well, first of all, haven't even go chrissy down i just thought if somebody had another tax thing that you were going to answer it so first off we had a meeting with dep we have just a bullet point listings we went through natural soil products grads landfill and the detention center while dp secretary is here with the natural soil products we brought up the question about the board system since the board system was installed the moisture levels are too high And you're currently doing a second process because your system isn't doing what it's supposed to do and storing stuff on the pads like they used to. DEP said they're looking into all that. DEP encouraged everybody to continue to call and file complaints at the 570-826-2511 number and they are adding now They did. It was a month or two ago, but it's public knowledge now. They added somebody to the office here, the mine reclamation. They added a person there so they can respond faster to the area. So it's not like if you call, it's not three days later or a Wilkes-Barre person driving. It's going to be somebody here from the Potsville office. They are also putting some other stuff in place to look at with natural soil products about the odor. And actually, DEP will be soon be releasing both changes to buy a solid land application permit process in accounting for reviewable income.

As far as I know, it's...

They're looking at stopping PFOs and PFAs in it before it even gets to a processing plan. So that's what came out of me with that.

With the Brad landfill... Yeah, so if you're a municipality of the facility you have to go on without discharging. If you're a landfill like Brad's, has leachate, you'll be required to put a system on your property to collect more that goes to Scobar Valley. The crazy part is it's not technology available, but it's not cheap. So when it does go through, get ready to have your super bills But once again, public health is more important than whether you're going to spend the money. For me, this is PFOs, PFA will no longer be permitted long term. And the place that has them has to get rid of it. They can't transport it somewhere else. That way, if it doesn't get into the sludge, you won't have to worry about sludge being planted. Farmland to have it, have it contamination.

So now with the garage, landfill, go ahead.

Was the PFOA testing, that's at the wastewater?

That's at the source before it's...

Even if it's out of state?

Yes. As far as I know, yes. That, if it is, they can reject it. That's a thing. But that's going to be announced. We don't have all the specifics. They just told us a lot of structural information. And I think it was really about the meeting with the DEV secretary. Because we brought all the concerns out. We made sure... Dr. Aaron Portland, not a lot of rats. And with NSP, Shirley wrote some stuff and we made sure we handed it directly to the DEP secretary. Mrs. Portland, Dr. Portland gave us a packet of information We made sure they got to it. I asked Mr. Pascoe, I gave him the opportunity to send us some information if he wanted to. And he did, I guess, because I guess Dr. Portland covered, I mean, Dr. Portland really covered a lot of information. So I gave him, we gave that to the Aspen grads.

And the grads also, the bad news is that the Schuylkill Valley grads did not think we'd get agreements. It was quite long going there, but they had three on it. So what brad's doing they're gonna i'm i'm very upset about this brad's gonna continue trucking And also but they're gonna pawn the road.

Yeah, so but okay, let's go over those quickly There's the existing consent agreement with brad right now about the order issue and everything that's incorporated with their permit extension based on per permit daily tonnage Of 1500 tons per day landfill would reach full capacity. It would take 20 years So the earliest as of right now with their permit, they cannot ask for a permit expansion on the landfill for about 15 years. That's what DEP told us. They're looking into all of the odor issues. I guess the grads recently installed a burn-off system. So I don't know when that exactly went online and I don't know what effects it's having on them, but they recently installed a burn-off system. St. Clair, They're tracking the St. Clair issue about the waste from St. Clair. The only thing that can go through St. Clair that's going through Brad's landfill, if it's a local contractor or somebody from St. Clair. Like just Jeff, if you demo one of your houses, you're permitted, you're trapped to drive through St. Clair with Donald Brad's landfill. If it's a corporation or anything, they have to come off the main one down to Burma. And now, well, like Boone said, They ran into a maintenance agreement or a repair agreement for Burma Road. And then they're bonding it. And then with this leachate discharge, the only thing that Brad's Landfill has out there right now for permit modification is to continue trucking the leachate. Because they cannot reach an agreement, like you said, with Super Values or the Sewer Guard. They can't reach an agreement with them. So they're asking to still truck it. And we're going to send in a letter saying we're opposed to them still trucking because I honestly believe the pipeline to it is a lot more safer and there's not as many trucks on the road and the impacts on the roads and I think the lead chain and plus if they have to monitor for the PFO PFA it's easier to do it through that system than you get in a truck and dump it into a treatment So well, a set part of the ice already constructed. The lines already constructed right there and stopped.

So we I told DPM from Berlin to hook that line up and deal with their support.

You know, that's the only permit and modification they have. There's no expansion even with buying the land or any of that stuff. There's no plans for expansion. It would have to do within, it couldn't do it until 15 years ago. DEP said they have very strong concerns with Waze Connection Operator. I guess they're having problems with them down in their bathroom facility. They have a, they're asking for an increase in tons right now. They want to go to 3,000. It's in review. It's on a review. And they said, even though the comment period has technically expired, DEP encourages comments and accounting contends upon it. They're still accepting comments about the tonnage increase. That's not an expansion of the physical area of the plant. That is just on the tonnage they can take in a day. It's not expanding the landfill. It's just the tonnage of that. The Tremont detective facility, we did ask them about the orders issue for DHS and SCMA in Tremont receiving water and sewer. The same concerns that we have about water and sewer are exactly the same concerns that DEP has, but I do have to clarify, DEP, I asked them this because it was asked at our last meeting. They are, Big Lots itself, whatever they were as DEP, as Big Lots, they were allowed to have for 300, 400 employees. If a city would open that facility, they are allowed to have water and sewer that Big Lots have. They're not allowed to go beyond that. So if it was permitted for, thousand gallons a day and a thousand gallons a day out, that's what it's permitted for. It can't be expanded for. DHS and the state, I guess, are in a process of going back and forth over the order to not issue water and sewer permits for it, as far as we know. On the topic of the treaty bonds and censure facility, You know, I know a congressman user is talking to Bradway Mullen. Everybody you've seen that there's the inspector general is investigating some of these sales of these detention or the warehouses. So as of right now, nobody knows for sure if it's coming to Trigon or not coming to Trigon. We're trying. Recently, our solicitor, we just sent them an updated list to the congressman's office and everybody what we figured out exactly what the school district's losing, the county's losing because the tax bills are out now and the municipality. in the process of trying to make sure that whatever's going on this building i don't care if it's directing that they pay in lieu of taxes the municipality the school district and county should be out of money because of their decisions with that that facilitator that property so where that stands right now that's where it's at we're trying to get more clarification on what's coming forward as for data centers right now i'm not going to go through the whole thing there's two legislative There's two articles right now. There's two bills in the House on data centers about impact local community, noise, everything. I have those. One's House Bill 2150. Another one is House Bill 2151. I have all the stuff that the PUC is acting to protect rate payers, guide data center growth, the new large loan tariff on their framework. So if they put a large loan on it, they get tariff. and that they have to pay, that the rate payers want to pay increased energy ratings in Pennsylvania. Now, I'll be honest with you, I did not get through this whole thing yet. This is the PUC guidelines on data centers. I did not get through at all, but it is a pretty good framework. I know it might sound crazy. I know what Governor Figueroa is saying about data centers and what our treasurer, Stacy Garrett, is saying about data centers. I kind of think that we have to do it cautiously, make sure it's done right, and we need to have the protections in place that are needed. So if anybody wants any of these things, I have the house rules. Want this? I only have one printed out. Well, sorry, it's over 150 pages. So we're giving all that stuff to our client and zoning, and we're looking at all the information at data center. I still believe risk brought up about the tax base. I 100% believe that they're not right. the right locations in school county they could have a positive impact on your tax base you just got to make sure they're not in the right locations and what we have luckily in school county is lots of abandoned coins and those colons are discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of wastewater a death the one outside of tomahawk the one pole lens is discharging it's a hundred fifty thousand dollar gallons net it's discharging So they're talking about experimenting with a mine full of water. We have a unique opportunity in Schuylkill County that a lot of counties don't because we have the thing that we call the scar in a lot of Schuylkill County, we could turn into a positive for Schuylkill County. So that's what we're looking at. We're working diligently with all this information, but the information is changing daily on data centers, even their design, the amount of water. When I first heard about data centers, when I first come in, they were saying we're going to use 200 to 150,000 gallons a day. Now they're down to 60,000 gallons a day only on the hottest days because they're a closed loop system. And when it's super hot, say for 10 days, 20 days in Pennsylvania. And what I was told, the reason they're looking at Northeast states is because six months out of the year, they can just open the doors up and cool it naturally because of our weather change. It's not like Texas. It's not like down south where they have continuously hot weather. That's why they're looking at the entire Northeast. So I'll provide this information after the meeting, but that's where it's at. So if there's no other public comment, I'm going to move on. Whoa, you're staying.

You're too long.

That's not my problem. You're staying.

Way too long.

Now you're leaving.

I'll come back if you want.

Okay. Well, Robbie's still here. Hey, Jeff, get us lunch. Okay. Get a pizza or something.

You're going to be, well.

Yeah, that's what I did. I think that's where I'm going to go. Those people.

Yeah.

OK, so let's move on with children you. Sorry everybody for how long a lot of things are. No, no.

Say no for next time. So fortunately have that requirement to do annual contracts, but what we have is two items today. One is an item for juvenile probation. First we're requesting approval. with the term period July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. Central County's Youth Center, Belafonte PA, the detention services they offer with a per diem rate, $667 a year. Secondly, JusticeWorks Youth Care Pittsburgh PA for their in-home prevention reunification services with rates as follows. The Just Care program is at $85.51 per hour. Stop at $91.21 per hour. Plans of Safe Care, $73.43 per hour. Family finding at $73.43 per hour. Visit coaching at $85.51 per hour. Truancy remediation, $85.51 per hour. Triple P at $93.49 per hour. There are truancy prevention programs at $459.29 per DM at each of the county school districts. And finally, their transportation service program is at $30,000 per month on a program funded basis. with the $58.23 per hour rate for the transporter. I just got to add two things with regard to Justice Works. I need to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for the work that the company does down in children and youth. As some folks in the room right now know, we have a youth with us currently. for whom no other placement options could be provided. We're providing some direct supervision for her. The staff has really stepped up and been helping us out in this time. And so I just want to, as the occasion is here, give that nod.

Just a comment to you, Cori. On the weekend, on Saturday, I saw on the XRM with your volunteer friends.

Oh yeah, yeah. We're very happy with the results of the filming on that. We got some volunteers from amongst our foster parents, and we're happy to put them out there and give those opportunities to learn more about what it all involves. And that example I was just mentioning is a really great example of where we need help from the local community on being there for our kids in need.

Thank you. Thank you. Coroner's office, do you read that, Gary? I will. For approval of a contract with partners in specialty pathology at BC for specimen testing, the county coroner's office,

Terms of January 1st, 2026, and January 30th, 2026. Renewable and plenty of maintenance, otherwise terminated call for the fee schedule.

Thank you.

Good morning. John Whitley on behalf of Emergency Management. We have two items today. Item number one is the approval of the Federal Fiscal Year 2025 Emergency Management Performance Grant in the amount of $62,657. Um, this is the grant that reimburse, uh, some of the salaries within the office. Um, and due to the federal, uh, budget, uh, issues as well as the shutdown, we're asking that, uh. The grant is approved today.

I make a motion that we, um, PG. Second question. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

The second item is the renewal of our Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Agreement with Dauphin County. As you are aware, commissioners, yes, last year we did work with Dauphin County Hazmat Team to provide services here in the county as required by Pennsylvania Act 165. So we're just looking to renew that again through August 31st, 2027. And then we'll look at more of a formal four-year agreement based off of when they're, CERTIFIED BY PEMA. SO WE'LL ASK FOR A FOUR-YEAR AGREEMENT AFTER 2027. SO WE'D LIKE TO REQUEST APPROVAL. NEW SPEAKER WE SWITCHED LAST YEAR. NEW SPEAKER YEAH. SO THAT WAS DUE TO OUR COMMERCIAL HAZMAT TEAM GOING OUT OF BUSINESS AND WE WORK WITH DAUPHIN COUNTY AND WE'VE HAD A TON MORE SUPPORT WITH HAZARDS MATERIALS PROGRAMS WORKING WITH THEM THAN WE HAVE IN THE PAST WORKING WITH

They were for your LAPC meetings that we went last year, right? Yes, yes.

I'm really sure I put the people on. Yeah, it's working out.

I'll make a motion. We approve the hazmat emergency response agreement with Bob County. Second. Second. Commissioner Padora? Yes. Commissioner Hetherington? Yes. Commissioner Haft? Yes. Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning, Commissioner. Good morning, Cheryl.

Good morning, Commissioners. Cheryl Close on behalf of Grant Riders. First, it's approval of a contract in the amount of $30,370 to AAA Services LLC for a CDBG-88 project in Wayne Township. And next, it's approval to advertise for a public hearing for the 2026 ESG development.

Thank you. Human Services? Good morning.

Good morning. Sharon Mahoney, Health and Human Services. A RECOMMENDATION THAT THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS APPROVES THE FOLLOWING AGREEMENTS FOR THE PERIOD JULY 1ST, 2026 THROUGH JUNE 30TH, 2027. A RATE AGREEMENT WITH CULTURE TO CULTURE, POTTSVILLE FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES AT THE RATE OF 5737 FOR ONE-WAY TRIP. A RATE AGREEMENT WITH GOODWILL FIRE COMPANY NUMBER ONE MINERSVILLE FOR MEDICAL ASSISTANCE TRANSPORTATION AND HUMAN SERVICES DEVELOPMENT FUND TRANSPORTATION SERVICES at the rate of $143 per one-way trip. A rate agreement with Penn Cashier Potsell for after hours answering services for the Medical Assistance Transportation Program at the rate of $145 per month for up to 100 calls. Additional calls will be charged at 45 cents for each call and charges for long distance will be made at the prevailing rate for Verizon. And a rate agreement with Schuylkill Transportation System St. Clair For medical assistance, transportation, and human services development fund services, rates for MATP are 46.25 for one-way trip rate and range from 360 to 645 for a one-way senior shared ride trip. Escorts for MATP are also charged to 46.25 one-way trip rate, and HSDF rates range from 175 for a single-use bus ticket to $86 for a one-way trip for 25 plus miles with an S-Corp.

Thank you. Office of Senior Services?

Good morning, Commissioners. Good morning, Governor. Deanna Orlowski, Office of Senior Services. Approval of an addendum to contract number 2024-95 for fiscal year 2526 with Dahlia Klein Child, Family, and Community Ministries of Middleton, PA to increase the contract cap for senior community centers, senior center non-competitive grant, PA Medi, health and wellness, in-home meals, and volunteer serving seniors in the amount of $359,689 for additional funding through the Department of Aging. The contract cap revised will be $1,374,598.

requesting immediate approval motion for the cheetah services second the question commissioner pedora yes commissioner hetherington yes thank you good morning this is the liquid fuels department

I'm requesting approval for a purchase order to Signal Services in the amount of $37,936 to install a new cabinet and controller at Route 61 and 183 traffic signal due to recent issues with the traffic lights malfunctioning. This price includes the cost of the parts, labor, and the service vehicle, and the installation of a temporary box until the new one is built. This is the one right by the Mannheim Diner, and it's been malfunctioning usually on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. So we're getting that checked, and I wanted to make sure that it was not associated with the construction there. And it is not, yeah.

Faulted to make repairs necessary on the 61-183 traffic lane. Second. Question?

Commissioner Fedora? Yes. Commissioner Hetherington? Yes. Commissioner Hathaway? Yes. And on behalf of Coal Lands, I'm requesting approval of renewal of the Joe Cooper Average Company's restoration leases R07C2 and R8A. Both leases are in the reclamation phase with no active mining or future mining to be done on both leases. The fee will remain at $1,200 per lease for the year term. That'll be until DEP releases their bond.

Thank you. Approval.

yes okay attack claim on behalf of tax plan david rice assistant solicitor approval of the following five repository sales pursuant to 72 ps section 58 60.625 and the repository sales are set forth on the agenda finance office good morning commissioners we have three items uh for informational purposes only these are current year budget adjustments the commissioner's office 150

On behalf of Rev. Atwal, we ask for the immediate approval of supplemental budget appropriations and resolutions for the current year 2026-11 in the amount of $398,661. Second motion for 2026-11. So moved, sir. Second.

Second. Mr. Pandora? Yes. Mr. Heddington? Yes. Mr. Heddington? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Mayor Mrakas, Personnel. Mayor Mrakas, Good morning gracious and children, we have the promotion of Kayla board accounting piece worker to prepare a paper or one the rate is 23.7467 for the contract effective 61526. There are three appointments in the prison, all correction officers part-time, all effective 6-15-26. The rate for the leading contract is 26.4555. And the names of the chosen candidates are Hannah Krupenbach, Craig Sterner, and Daniel Walz. Two informational items. One in domestic relations, the appointment of Jeffrey Griffiths as secretary one, effective 6-8-26, rank is for the contracts. And in the district attorney's office, the appointment of Greg Stein, detective two per diem, effective 6-15-26. Call appointments pending drug, test, and physical or appropriate all actions involving salary or for positions being graded or pending salary board approval.

Okay, thank you. Any new business?

Yeah, I just want to make a quick comment. We get frustrated with some of the issues in the West End, and I'm sure Richard again today, he hasn't had speed to help. I say this is fine, it's going to be fine. But I felt the meeting was very productive. Commissioner has used his connection with the group office and with the governor. Larry's been working like a devil. And like I said, his concern here was huge. And it doesn't sound like a lot, but the fact that they hired a person. I worked with the state and the government. My daughter worked at DAP. Hire a staff person. It's hard to do it because they always keep cutting GGO money. But John Wojcicki, Roger Bellis, and the secretary said, we understand what's going on. We're going to try and make this work. There'll be a person that will sign the land office. It's going to be here. So if it's spelled, a problem occurs, they're there right away. So my mind went down huge. Also with President, what they've also negotiated with them was essentially the land was not going to be operating very much. They're going to cover it with an active covering. And so there's things that they're doing. It doesn't sound a lot, but maybe they are being paid. Kaczynski, Bellis, and their boss, Chesky Sherry, get it. You say, well, let's just shut the place down. Well, that would happen. They'd come out with serials. We'd wind up with lawsuits. That would be court judgments. We'd get no progress. At least now, some of these things, it has to be a little bit intentional, but there's progress being made. I commend Mr. Fedora. He pretty much took this legally, got the big commissioner on top. And also, I think Gary and Gary worked very closely with the governor's office to make sure we heard that. Like I say, that's a busy lady, but have her come with our town and sit down with us for three hours if we had her time. Yeah, three hours. Three hours, but the whole, 4-4-15, so I felt like we were being heard, we're getting, you know, surely one of these days I want to come to your place of visit and not have it smell bad, okay?

Sorry, I didn't catch that.

I said, I want to come to your house visit, it won't smell bad someday, so. I don't advise it. Well. But I still have a question.

I think it's a person in the Do you have a phone number that they can be contacted?

They still want to call a hotline. They still want to call a hotline.

The number I just ran off is the number they wanted to call. If there's a guy stationed here, you could probably call the line officer. Because everybody just thought that was line reclamation. It's a DDP officer. So they're adding a person there full time.

So you don't have them now?

I don't have his contact information. there directly just go through their normal thing and i guess you could ask to contact the top to him here at this office would you like to know um so bottom line is rather rather than personally working out of willisburg office or harrisburg they're here to me that was a huge step in the right direction because that's the problem and surely i asked they said they used their nose to smell it i brought up Well, do you survive somebody's nose that they can smell certain things? Some people think some smells are worse than other things. Some people go nose blood. You know, for COVID, there's people that have, you know. So I said, and I know they say it, but I said, when you say you realize it's somebody's nose, I said, you know, what's that mean?

COVID technology today, that's pretty well.

We can test SO2, we can test different things, but we can test heaven when we can. What has to happen is, person that calls in and says, listen, this doesn't smell good, the agent comes in and agrees, you're right, that becomes a violation. Now, if he gets there an hour later, it smells bad, or the person isn't available an hour later, but he gets there, having this person, to me, is a huge step in the right direction to get this thing on.

And I think this was in response to us trying to push to get Kyle, our solid waste guy, I was like, can't you certify somebody here to be able to expedite these investigations and they said because of legal reasons no because once again it's the state so this was their i think compromise because that's what we kept pushing for not that he has authority to do anything but he could show up and write a report and they said they couldn't do that so i think that's why they came up with this so because i said i said i agree with him said in an hour the wind shifts you get there in an hour the spell's gone so We're trying, I think it was a productive meeting, we brought every concern up about everything deep in Schuylkill County. I brought up the Bustamolas, I brought up just everything. You know, and the humanity of it in the left end of the county, when you can't enjoy your property, you can't have a picnic, you can't use a playground pool, you can't open your windows, you can't hang your laundry out. They said, you know, this is a real humanitarian issue that these people have a right to enjoy their property. And because of a company,

Now, I'm not saying shut them down, but they should be able to control their odor and keep it on their bummer.

You know, so like Luke said, I think it's a step in the right direction that somebody's only going to be 20 minutes away instead of an hour away. So just tell everybody to call. I know, Shirley, you and I talk about this all the time. You can get frustrated. Just keep calling. Every time I drive through Westman County, I file a complaint. Every time I'm up there, I call and file an order of complaint. I smell it, I call.

The sad thing is that people are tired. I know. After four years.

Well, we're trying to resolve it, even though, like I told Eric, you don't want to fix it, you must have the authority to fix it.

The response is the only way to get it fixed is to have the place to stop calling in and they'll say, well, they're doing well.

They're doing well now. So just keep coming in, tell everybody, keep calling in.

Have that solid, solid evidence.

Well, I love that. So how many, comes from two counties. Do you have any idea?

Oh, it's like 5%, 6% of their total.

That was my statement to them also.

99,000, over almost 100,000 tons per yard comes from two counties.

That was my statement to them. Why can't New York and New Jersey keep their own?

They can.

Well, that's why. And then we get it. The same with grads. And a lot of this construction waste comes from out of it.

But I'm sorry, that's a federal law. It's interstate commerce. I know. It's way above our pay grade, but we're trying to get some headlamps. So I want to talk about you.

Before you adjourn, Commissioner, for the record, Michael Payne, District Attorney, the appointment of Craig Stein, I noticed the effective date was June 15th. I would respect the request, Commissioner, if you allow him to start on June 8th. The only detective I have in house right now. Yes. The only detective I have in house right now is out for medical reasons. He was out all last week. He's going to be out all this week. I'm not sure he's going to be back. So I've had to solicit the Pennsylvania State Police. Minersville Borough was good enough to do some transporting for me. So I really need him sooner rather than later. If we can make that effective June 8th, that would help a great deal.

Okay. Okay, motion to adjourn. Promotes are salary board, board meeting, detective Satchman. Public comment for salary board.

Yeah. We have two items in the district attorney's office. Create the position of detective two for DM, perspective 6-8-26. Yes. And set salary for Craig Stein in that position. at $22.43 per hour, effective 6-8-26.

And so I need a motion to amend the start date from what was published for 6-15 to 6-8.

I'll make a motion to amend the entire time for 6-15 to 6-8. Second.

If I almost, on the question, if I also maybe heard on the salary, that's the one we talked about, right? He has another job. That's why this is only a per diem.

And if you fill it with a full-time position, eventually...

That's right. This will go away. Yes. But we talked about the salary. We're going to start it at the initial union rate of $22.43. He would not accept that. I can't get anybody to accept it at that rate. I had talked about it and the part was submitted at $29.32 an hour. We talked about getting the approval from the union. They have given that approval. So I'm requesting that the rate be at $29.32 an hour rather than $22.43.

So I'll make my motion. I'll present it. I'll make it start date of 6-18-16-26 and also the higher trial at 29-32. So I guess I'll move on here. Commissioner Fedora? Yes. Commissioner Hetherington? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Commissioner Yatensik? Yes. District Attorney O'Pate?

Yes. Thank you, Commissioner. That was a great deal.

Motion to adjourn.

I'll vote for it.