Commissioners - Regular Meeting

I would call on the board to pledge 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.

Before we begin the session, can our help be of great completion? I propose a bridge in the place of the project.

My name is Andrew Marr. I'm from the Law Firm of Stevenson Lee. And to begin discussion of the bridge project, I'd like to discuss kind of an overview of what the P3 Act does and kind of give you a timeframe of how the project is approved. We proceed with getting the funding in place and the project in order. Then more specific questions will be answered by my colleagues over here with the specific project in mind. But in 2012, the General Assembly passed Act 88, which is the T3 Act, which enables local government units in Pennsylvania and their authorities to bundle transportation projects in a cost-effective manner and to enable more rapid, more efficient repair and replacement of transportation infrastructure. And what we would like to do is for the county to publicly support the initiative we're going to be discussing further. That will enable us to have firmer footing when we go before the P3 board later this month. What's going to happen is, should the county commission approve proceeding with the project as outlined, we would proceed with an application to the P3 board...

Excuse me. Classical music. Could be like hard rock. That's right. Actually, that would be better.

So we're going to be meeting pending your approval with the P3 board informally on September the 24th and go over the specific bridges we would like the P3 board to approve refinancing. So the idea would be is we would take about 28 bridges that are in very poor condition and allow for private entities to come and fix them within a five-year plan. What normally happens in the case of Schuylkill County is you have a financing plan that improves one bridge a year, one bridge every two years, which puts you behind the eight ball more and more and more. So you have an ever-growing number of poor bridges, which is an economic problems, public safety problems, and what this project I think will allow us to do is improve, within a very brief period of time, bridges that will help public safety, public economic development. What will happen is we will go before the P3 Board with our application, and the P3 Board will conduct a high-level analysis of the project. They will determine whether or not the project complies with the P3 Act, which it does. the project, whether or not the project will improve or accelerate public improvements, which we believe it will, it will reduce the use of public funds. So the financing for this project will be done through a municipal authority, and it will be done through a certificate of participation structure, which Raymond James will discuss in greater detail. But the fact of the matter is, rather than spending a great amount of money over 30 years to repair these bridges, it will be a five-year spending of money for the same number of bridges. Is there private sector competence to do the project? There definitely is. It will improve risk sharing and provide wider economic development impact for the county. So P3 board gives us a pass on the high-level analysis. They will begin discussions with the team on a specific detail level review of the project. There'll be public notice, which will be 60 days in life. And then assuming everything goes well, the P3 board, we anticipate approving the project in February or March. And then we can move ahead with an RFP process to select the actual contractors, the engineers. And then with that in place, we can begin financing and construction by the third quarter of next year. So with your approval, We'd like to move forward, and my colleagues will answer specific questions about the project in detail. Thank you for your attention.

So the genesis of this project was talking to Secretary Mike Carroll, who was here at the airport authority when he came in. He's really big on fixing bridges, the secretary. A bridge lasts 100 years. When you put a cat in a row, it lasts five years. So he's really big on fixing bridges. So that's where the genesis and the starter dog come from, was conversations with the Secretary of Transportation. And more and more counties are looking at doing P3 projects now as a way to fix their deficient bridges.

All right, thank you. Good morning. Tim Venner, CDR McGuire Engineering. I'm going to cover the bridges that the county has. Currently, the county has an inventory of about 62 bridges. And every two years, they go out and inspect all these structures, and they rate the superstructure, substructure, and combine all that. It comes back in, and you get ratings for these structures. It's basically good, fair, poor. Think of it like a stoplight. Green, good, fair. You've got to do some more. Poor is where you really need to address a lot of these structures, right? And as you get further down in that poor section, you get the load posting structures, and then you get the closed structures, and you've got a real problem. So currently, the county has about a third of their structures in that poor category. And that's not necessarily a function of the county. It's aging infrastructure, limited resources to address all these structures. And like we said before, conventionally, you go out and you find funding, whether that's county funding, state funding, federal funding, to do a bridge. You get about one or two a year, and that's about it. That's very competitive when you get trying to pull in state and federal money into that because everybody, every other county, every municipality, even the state is in that same boat. Limited resources, but a lot of aging infrastructure. So what I'm presenting here today, is a tranche of about 28 structures, about that third of the worst of the worst structures that we can attack, repair them, replace them, get them off that poor list into the good category, and put this county on a better footing moving forward. So the P3 allows us to do that in a more efficient, cost-effective manner. So if you go to this sheet, there's a lot of information on there, but we have identified 28 structures, again, across the county. 23 replacements that we can get to. Two extra removals to get off the county's list. These are currently closed structures. There's three rehabilitations in there as well. Structures that aren't necessarily that old, but we can address deficiencies, get them off that, more or less get them in that good condition. This is the list that we came up with. If we move forward with the P3 format here, the county would be in charge of identifying exactly which structures they have in here. But this is the list that we had come up with. One of the big things to note here is when you see at the bottom of the list, we're addressing about 50,000 square feet of bridge deck. That's a big chunk of the inventory for the county. The other thing here is we're not only addressing structural deficiencies of these structures, we're addressing geometric deficiencies. A lot of the aging infrastructure out there is very narrow, single lane. When all these get replaced, we replace them to current standards, which is two lanes wide, improving the safety at all these sites. And they are spread around the county. The map there, you can kind of see there are 28 structures that are all over the county. There's a need in every corner of Schuylkill County, and we were planning to address that. Some of the big benefits here. Obviously, as structures deteriorate over time, you get into that load posting range. Once bridges get load posted, you can't get trucks across, and that means you can't get fire trucks across, EMS, school buses. The deliveries, whether that's fuel oil, coal, gas, things like that, you can't get there. So once they get into that poor condition, you start load posting, you have real problems getting services to people on the other side of that structure. So there's a real need to address that. And again, as you get past posting, you get to a certain point where you've got closed structure just from a safety standpoint. And the county does have a couple of closed structures I haven't mentioned before. So there's a real need there. We talked about the width, the geometric deficiencies. There are some narrow structures. This will address that as well. And just generally provide better infrastructure reliability for the county. Taking that big tranche of poor structures, getting it back into that good care category. So when we replace a structure that's good for at least another eight years, that puts that structure back into the next century. It really opens up an ability for the county to focus on the minimal number that would be left after that and get back on a better footing from a financial standpoint. And doing this program would also not preclude the county from continuing to seek those state and federal monies to address other structures that may be coming down from that, you know, that could be fair for them because structures don't get better over time. They get worse. So you've got to stay on top of these things as well. so one of the other things here that goes into the uh the benefits from the financial standpoint is uh inflation those inflationary pressures are real that dollar the county spends today doesn't go as far as it did last year certainly not five years ten years ago uh if you address all these structures here in this window this five-year window it's a big difference that money goes a lot further than it would if we did picked off one or two structures over the next 30 years it just gets more and more expensive that's what we go so that's one of the benefits here as well so the other cost savings initially is when you bundle a lot of structures together now you get economies of scale even on design side construction side uh it's just like think of it like buying a boat right you get if you're doing the same thing over and over and over it gets a lot less expensive initial cost drive down here as well and especially if you're going to p3 this goes to an rfp process There's the bidding process. Competition drives prices down. So that's a benefit to the county as well. One of the other things in here is there is a maintenance component to this as well. So not only would the entity build the design and build the structures, but they would be responsible for maintenance for that first maintenance cycle, say like 10 years down. First 10 years. That's what we're proposing in the first 10-year cycle. And again, we talked about exposure to escalating costs and things like that. So that's the engineering piece. I'm going to turn it over to the formatting and financing piece.

Thank you. Good morning. Scott Kramer with Raymond James. I'm going to talk very briefly about the financing structure and the path forward and some of the action items the commissioners will need to take. As the folks before me mentioned, there's significant savings for commissioners picking off roughly the first 20 or so bridges. We estimate that savings from the bridges that we identified at about $320,000 per bridge or about $9 million of savings by pulling those bridges forward and fixing them over the next five years. As the folks before me mentioned, it eliminates risk of construction cost inflation, transfers construction and performance risk, and it creates a great deal of budget flexibility. Page seven of the handout very quickly, In order to affect the transaction, the county will be forming a municipal authority to transfer ownership of those bridges, of those 28 bridges, to the authority. The authority would then be the issuing body for the debt. We're estimating that to be about $50 million for the payment of the bridges up front to complete the financing over the next five years. The financing through the authority is completed through what are called certificates of participation. It's actually not direct general obligation debt of the county. It's a certificate, which makes it an annual appropriation to budget for the payment to the authority for payment on the bridges. Because it's a certificate structure, the county's current rating of AA2, we will also have a very high rating for for the certificates, and the debt is likely to be structured over a 30-year period, but we also have the flexibility to prepay that debt over the first seven or eight years should we need to restructure or refinance that debt if rates move lower. So that's very briefly the process for issuing the debt needed to pay for the bridges should you choose to move forward. Thank you.

Do you have any questions? No, just a comment, you know, God bless her and her Lisa. She's going to feel money every year. It's 1 bridge once 1, big 1 or 2 small 1 and then they talk about how many scales. It's very real on my conscious. We used to pay. 1012 miles a year and the baby cross it off and the liquid fuel is going down. So if you bring a contractor in and pay 2 or 3 miles. It costs almost as much as you can pay five or six. So our township not only pays every two years. The idea that when you move equipment and have personnel, what they're talking about is economy scale is very real. And other kinds have done this, right? They take such on this as saving by doing it. We had once down in West End, there was two bridges in Black Grove. We tried to do it once, couldn't get the money. Well, we end up paying twice when we should have because we had to do it one one year, one the next year. So what they're saying makes sense. And we're being forward thinking. If you fix one bridge a year and get three more on a list, what happens, Larry? It gets worse and worse and worse, right?

So this is just a way to make a massive infrastructure improvement to Google County at one time. Get us caught up that our fair bridges don't slip into the poor bridge category. And like I said, it's just economy scale, like a home builder. They build their homes one right after another because they're buying all the functions, all the beams, everything all at one time. And that's what I understand. This would be that you would standardize the 23 bridges that are being completely replaced would almost be standardized to beam length, deck length, everything. So that when they go to order the pre-made beams, that you will go in and order for 23 bridges, not a bridge here, a bridge there every year. So from what, talking to the secretary and his P3 guy down there, Mike, What was his last name? No, Mike Bonino. They're really starting to push this for other counties. I know Allegheny County is looking into doing this too for their bridges. They have a lot more bridges than we do. And they're looking into doing this. This is a way to be able to fix the bridges, hold the debt that doesn't affect the wrong rating. It doesn't affect, it's held off the books basically, but it doesn't affect the wrong rating for the county. And it's a way just to fix bridges. If there's no detours, there's no narrow bridges. And it's just something I think it's good for the county. Just have to see how the process really plays out. But we wanted to start the discussion today. So at our next meeting, we can vote on this stuff. So thank you. Just a few questions.

You said there's a five-year construction phase to get all these bridges done, roughly, on that. And also, you talked about the... Uh, so state funding or federal funding, we still can apply for state funding for the other bridges that we've already worked upon and actually there's maintenance and so forth yearly maintenance. That's going to happen. We need to make sure. That they're taking care of that. They don't fall and disrepair right away. So that's still available to us. Right? Right. And also you said the enlarge the bridges, I guess we'd have to go and that would be worked on with easements if it's where the bridges are. What the current right-of-way is. So it's already locked in there, or we'd have to go and get that?

It's site-specific. I'm not sure how much width you would have if you site.

Yeah, I know one or two of them. I know they're very small bridges, like you mentioned. That's what I was just asking. That project would go after those? Is that...

It would be part of the project, yeah. So if we widen the structure right now, if it's only like 18 feet wide, we'll widen it to 24 feet wide. We do have some extra width in there. It depends on what the current right of way is. Yeah, it's 50 feet already. You should be good.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

And this also includes, in some cases, bridges that are not effective because it is an alternative. So we're not fixing every bridge. If it was not, it doesn't make sense economically, we could eliminate it. Okay. All right.

WHEN THEY SAY REPLACEMENT, THAT'S ABUTMENTS. WHEN THEY'RE COMPLETE REPLACEMENTS, THAT'S EVERYTHING REPLACED. REPLACEMENT WOULD BE EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING REPLACED. AND THEN THERE'S THREE THAT CAN BE REHABILITATED. NEW DECK, NEW PLANNINGS, ALL THAT.

WHAT I'M SAYING IS WE'RE ALSO GOING TO NEED TO MAKE SURE IT'S IN THE BUDGET FOR THE CURRENT BRIDGES THAT ARE THERE.

YEAH, THE ONES WE'RE WORKING ON. I'M TOTALLY GOING AWAY. I THINK WE CAN ALSO APPLY FOR GRANT FUNDING FOR THE BRIDGES THAT ARE BEING REPAIRED ALSO. as part of the P3 project. So we can even, we can apply even for bridges in that five-year period that we're repairing, we can apply for funding for those bridges too, through the process, the normal process. That's what the secretary told me, that it's no fun. That's correct. Okay. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for them? Thanks, Joe.

Okay, thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners. Chris Molesky, Norwegian Township. I ask that you refrain from any interruptions until after my three minutes. Commissioner Hetherington, I want to respond directly to your comments that were reported in the Republican Herald Friday, September 11th of 2026 edition. When I questioned any immediate approval for requests for $714,230, you said, come into my office before the meeting and ask. I'll tell you what it is. Then you suggested I stood here to try to embarrass somebody. Commissioner, respectfully, you have it backwards. Taxpayers should not have to chase elected officials for information about public business. You work for them. Commissioner Padora works for them. Commissioner Hess works for them. When an agenda asks for immediate approval of $714,320, asking where it came from, where it is going, and why immediate approval is not embarrassing, Those are just reasonable questions. And the answer is not come into my office. The answer is clearly transparency. Putting the supporting documents online, put the explanations with the agenda, give every taxpayer the same information before the vote. And Commissioner, since you told taxpayers to come into your office, let's address that. County payroll information that I personally retained From my right-to-know request, list your annual pay salary of $62,701.81 and a 60-hour per pay period. With the 26 periods, 60 hours of pay represents 30 hours per week. That works out to approximately $1,205.80 per week, or $40.19 per payroll hour on that calculation. That is before benefits. So here is a simple transparency question. What are your regular hours? If your answer to the taxpayers come into my office, then publish when taxpayers can reasonably expect to find you there. Are those hours posted? Are attendance or office hours records maintained? The payroll record I obtained has not proved you physically sit in the office for 30 hours every week. So show the taxpayers when you're available. Publish it. That's transparency. You're a businessman and a strawberry farmer, Mr. Commissioner. If customers ask what's in your soil where their food is grown, confidence comes from providing the information, not making every customer track you down individually. Government should operate the same way. Taxpayers should not need a private conversation with the commissioner to understand public expenditures. Wednesday proved my point. I want to thank Director of Finance Glenn Geisinger, answered publicly, He gave the public information, and he explained it. Thank you. So why wasn't the information available, though, before the vote? That's my concern. Transparency is not to blame. Accounting is not embarrassment. And public scrutiny is not a personal attack. And transparency is not telling every taxpayer which office door to knock on. Publish the information. Publish the supporting documents. Publish your office hour availability. This is our money. This is our government, our county. It's our voice. our county, our voice, Schuylkill County, and remember who government works for, the people. Thank you for your time. Any other public comment?

Good morning. Good morning. Laura Krasnowski, Potsdam, Pennsylvania. After 20 years of trying to sort out a problem. I'm sorry.

Closer to the microphone.

It's taped.

Yeah, you get close.

There you go. I'm sorry.

I don't think so.

You can just lean it. You can lean it. There you go. There you go. There we go.

Okay, Laura Krasnowski, Pottsville, Pennsylvania. After 20 years of attempting to sort out a problem which involves both the county, the city, the school district, and the court system, I am forced to file a UCC code official's complaint form against all of the taxing authorities. As you know, I have been here over the years talking about the issues of somebody not following codes, and every single entity that I've gone to has basically said there's nothing we can do about this. The problem becomes when I went to the tax assessment appeal hearing before Goodman J, the school district didn't show up and the city didn't show up. And yet the county's position over the years has been that they cannot interfere with the city. The problem becomes your tax money is as I understand it, as connected as is the city and the school district. When you choose, or when the county failed to file an action in mandamus to require building permits to come up to this entity, you were basically saying that not all taxes have to be collected. So for 20 years, no taxes were paid when building enlargement and additions, which the county actually, when I filed this complaint in 2008, came out and measured. So no improvement, no taxes were collected for 20 years because there was no tax assessment. No one has bothered, and it was before Judge Woodman, he basically held up the papers and he says, there's a lot of papers here. And I said, excuse me, Judge, but they're actually documents. It was county documents, county records, it was surveys, it was records. And it was absolutely ridiculous for the courts to say that they were gonna take assessing taxes under advisement when not one tax assessor in the county could touch it because of all the encroachments and the damage that has been done. So now, I'm going to leave you with this copy because the actual state, federal, well not federal, but the Commonwealth complaint requires me, on your back, to state, describe any actions you've taken to resolve this matter prior to contracting with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Ministry. I'm sorry?

Give us a date.

You know, I have to tell you, this law office responded to a right-to-know request, which basically stated that there was no law on the books that supersedes the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution, First Amendment, says that freedom of speech cannot be abridged. And yet, with knowing and having filed these and filing a right-to-know request and putting it in writing, that there's no law that allows this three-minute garbage so that people can be fully heard. Because what the government is saying is, we don't want to know what you're talking about. We don't care. Give us three minutes and get out of here. That's the bottom line. And that's why we end up with all of these complaints and suits and nonsense. So with all my grief in this, I guess the lawyer. Thank you. And he was, by the way, he was the only attorney in court to stand up for the county. If the county had no way to involve itself with the city or the school district, those two entities chose not to show up in court. And my question is, why do I owe them any taxes if they didn't show up in court? Have a good day.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Go ahead, Ms. Callahan.

Lyle Wiskamp, Sremont. Commissioners, once again, I have a message for Congressman Dan Neuser. Dan, you've been in Congress since 2019. While you've been in Washington, people back home are putting $20 at a time in their gas tank because that's all they can afford. They're walking out of the grocery store with two small bags wondering how they just spent $150. Thousands of Pennsylvanians have dropped their health insurance because they can't afford it anymore, many of them by nieces and nephews and family members. And Dan, you voted for H.R. 1. Because of that law, almost 18,000 people in your district will lose Medicaid coverage and over 8,000 more will lose SNAP benefits, which helps put food on their tables. You voted yes to that, Dan, remember? Those aren't numbers, those are your constituents. And while you've been in Washington expanding your wealth, let me tell you what life looks like back here in Tremont. At 8 o'clock in the morning, young parents are standing outside waiting for the school bus. They're holding little babies in their arms. They're getting their children off to school, getting ready to go to work, and just trying to live their lives. And most mornings, they're standing there smelling the stench of human waste. Think about that, Dan. Parents with little children standing at the bus stop breathing that in. That's life in a community that you represent. And while you've been gone, your constituents have been fighting detention centers, landfill expansion, natural soil products, and massive detention centers. Where have you been? Now you finally agreed to debate Rachel Wallace on October 20th. Good. It's about time. You better be ready to answer some hard questions, because calling Rachel Wallace the Democratic Socialist doesn't lower someone's electric bill, Dan. It doesn't buy groceries, it doesn't pay for their health insurance, and it doesn't clean up the air families in Tremont are breathing in. You've been our congressman for nearly eight years. This is your record. Own it. While you've been missing, Rachel Wallace has actually been here. She's attended town halls, she's listened to residents, she's talked to Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. My husband and I have been out talking to those same people, and I can tell you what we have personally heard. Every person we have spoken to who has met Rachel Wallace has told us they intend to vote for her, and a lot of them are Republicans. They know she's gonna actually fight to improve their lives. So Dan, calling Rachel Wallace political labels on October 20th won't erase your record. We are living with the consequences of your decisions every single day. And you've had nearly eight years. Again, You voted for a law that will leave almost 18,000 of your constituents without Medicaid coverage and more than 8,000 without SNAP benefits. You voted for that, Dan. That's your record. So don't waste our time at the October 20th debate calling Rachel Wallace names. We are not in middle school anymore, Dan. Answer for your record.

Any other public comments?

Good morning. Good morning. I'm following up what Melinda was talking about last week. Natural soil products, they built three additional buildings. When you guys were doing research in your opposition letter, does the county have permits from these buildings? Were any permits submitted?

Hardly not. For someone they did something they haven't told. this week, the 19th, to respond to our enforcement.

In the event that they did construction without permits, what can the county do? What are our options? That's what we're looking into, to see what exactly the options are and what we can do to them. Can they be fined? Can it be shut down?

I don't know if the county has the ability to shut them down. I still think that's DEP. So we're looking at all the options. We've got to see what their response is on the 19th.

Do you know that if it were my next door neighbor, because they are my neighbors, but if it were my next door neighbor and they built three buildings without county permitting, without electrical permits, what would the county's reaction be in that situation? The same.

It would be the same process. They'd be fine? It would be the process that we're following. Like I said, they would get a notice of violation, it would have to a certain date to respond, and then it would go from there. Okay.

Um, because we did, I did mail a right to know to the zone. It's going to have a zoning and ordinance. We want to we want to know what was submitted and what was on the right way and what was done illegally and what we can do with that.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment.

Good morning. I am reiterating the offer from several concerned citizens, including me, to you, the Board of Elections, to sort out mail-in ballots whose outer envelopes weren't filled out properly. That would mean that those voters wouldn't get the misleading ballot-received message that lulls them into thinking that their vote will count. Instead, the staff would be able to immediately inform them through the state sure system that their ballot will be discarded, but that they'll still have a chance to vote provisionally on election day. Waiting to inform them on election day itself gives them hardly any notice at all. And for various reasons, they could very well not be able to get to the polls. And I want to respond to Commissioner Hetherington's comment in the Republican Herald today. Sorry, Commissioner. I can assure you that we volunteers would undergo any training necessary, although I have the utmost faith that we're already capable of determining whether an envelope has a signature missing and a kind of off-the-wall date before we'd hand it over to the election bureau staffer to deal with. And we would be doing it at the election bureau office. We're willing to give up some of our time to the Election Bureau because we strongly believe that every vote should count and that people shouldn't be disenfranchised for minor mistakes. And because we don't want our county to have the dubious distinction of wanting to, we don't want our county to have the dubious distinction of being one of the very few that refuses to follow state guidance whose purpose is making sure that every vote counts.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Hold on. Go ahead. Okay, thank you. Wendy, I'll have to hand you the microphone. Good morning.

Good morning. My name is Jessica Semcolet. I'm a United States citizen and a resident of Segal County since 1998. In November 2025, I was elected to a four-year term as judge of election for my district, West Brunswick Township South. I share that information to be fully transparent. However, today I am not here as an election judge, but as a decades long registered voter who uses mail-in ballots and believes in their integrity. My understanding is that Schuylkill County does not officially cure mail-in ballots until 7 AM on election day. Even though I work at the polls for 15 plus hours every election day, I vote by mail as does my husband. I deliver my completed mail-in ballot in person to the Schuylkill County Election Bureau. The front office staff has always been very receptive and professional. They take the few seconds needed to confirm that I have signed and properly dated the outer envelope. With that reassurance, I know my ballot will be counted. I'm one of the lucky ones. I can physically make my way to the Election Bureau to hand deliver my mail-in ballot and and at that moment receive assurance that my vote will be counted. Many others are not so lucky. This is my understanding of the current county policy. Mail-in ballots will not be cured until a starting time of 7 a.m. on election day. Those ballots missing a signature or unacceptable date on the outer envelope will be set aside with an attempt to reach the voter. If the voter receives the message and wants to have their vote counted, they must find their way to their designated polling place by 8 p.m. that day and request a provisional ballot, which may not be opened for up to seven days. Again, I am one of the lucky ones. Many people who vote by mail do so because of employment restrictions or physical disabilities. Many of these people are seniors like me. To receive a phone call on election day saying your ballot will not be counted And the only option you have is to report to your polling place by 8 p.m. Disability, be damned, is totally unacceptable. If other counties in Pennsylvania can find a way to help their residents vote with convenience and confidence, why can't we? Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any other public comment? Wendy, Tony, can you just hand Wendy the microphone? She keeps getting, Wendy keeps going to stand up. Morning, Wendy. Is it on? Turn it on.

Yeah, there batteries in it.

There's a light just came on.

You know how to turn it on.

Did you want something to disinfect that then?

Wendy Maidenford, I live out in the dumping grounds, the West End, in Good Spring, Porter Township. I just wanted to tell you that this morning we woke up again about 6 o'clock to stench in our house. I tried to cover my head and bury my head. It didn't work. So I don't always want to just get out of bed and deal with DEP in the morning. So I did get up, though. I did make a phone call. It was 6.35 a.m. I got a call back a little after 9 from Jacob. I don't know. I forget his last name. I think it's Stavros Baker. I don't know. Anyways, he had called and said he did an odor patrol, and he did not get any odors in front of our home, which by then was dissipated. I just wanted to know, I remember you saying at one of the meetings that They were supposed to put someone on that would be able to, in a close proximity, that they could be out there within a half an hour. That's what I'm told. Okay. Do you have a name? Do you have a phone number?

I don't have their name. I just know he's stationed right here. Who's the person? I don't know. I was stationed at the mining office over here in D.C. That's what we were told. So I have to call the mining office? Well, we'll find out what they're doing exactly. Because they said they stationed somebody over there. And I don't know who, and I don't know if it has to go through there will start an office and then they get them. I don't know that information that we'll get. We'll see if we can get clarification on that today because we did bring it up last night to DP about natural soils products and put a complaint in and that they're going to have a hearing on their modification and everything that they're doing that the county is opposed to anything they do. We asked if there was. They didn't respond.

We were at the meeting last night. We approached them and said, listen, we've got to do something out of this case.

Okay.

So we brought it up to them again last night. So would you, should I just call the mining office and find out? I don't, let me find out when they don't get a hold of you. All right. You can try to call the mining office and ask. I don't know. I don't know if they have to be dispatched through the Roxbury office and they dispatch the guy or if he's not taking practice. I'm not sure. Okay. They didn't clarify.

He is an employee of the Wilkes-Barre office, but he's stationed.

Yeah, he is an employee of the Wilkes-Barre office, but he's stationed supposedly in the mining office across the street.

We had the same issue yesterday. Yesterday morning, Tremont had it. I called first thing in the morning, and Jacob didn't call back until like 2.30. He never did. Yeah.

Well, we'll look into it. That's what we'll do. And you're sure his name's Jacob?

They're not alive. I talked to Jacob yesterday pretty much. Do you know last name? Conchetta.

Conchetta?

Conchetta is the lady you talked to first. Conchetta. It is?

Conchetta is the, usually she's the one that takes the link.

Do you think his last name was?

Stauber? Is it Stauber? Or Staber? Staber. Staber.

I think it might be Staber. I mean, I have it on my phone.

Because that's what I thought he said that he, he was living somewhere in potsville and he would be able to.

That's what it was explained to us. So, like I said, we'll look into it after today.

It's 2 hours.

That's what I keep saying that to TV. People are saying this, you're getting the complaints, you're getting the data. He said, I've been out there, I've smelled it. Who's smelled it? Gary's smelled it. We've all put complaints in. But by the time somebody gets there, the wind shifts, or it warms up or cools down, and what do they call it, the inversion?

We walk in treatment all the time, and it can smell really bad one street, and then down the other, like different parts of the town, you get it much stronger.

And that's what is a non-property. Sometimes you have it out the back, then you don't have it down the street. It's like it's and I explained that and they said it's the wind direction, the wind pattern.

So we have just surely as a secretary, the problem is, once again, there's no meter machine to do this. You have to have the complaint person and the agent standing side by side. Both agree. You may spell it. Maybe that's not what we said to the secretary. By the time the person back dries up, the shift is gone. And I've been told too, I have an 81, I smell it, well, 81 doesn't count. I've been told that 81 doesn't count, and when it shifts all of a sudden, so if an 81 smells bad, it's going to shift and when it's going to smell bad, it's 31. So, I mean, this business, I mean, being told that 81 doesn't count, I think is totally balding. If it smells bad in your area, it's going to smell bad in your area. The whole idea was, and this was a joke on the city, said, let's put a person, I mean, adding people to government payroll is tough right now because of the staffing. Let's put a person that's in that office that could be out there in 15 or 15 minutes at the most. That's what we need to maybe get some more details on, but that's the plan to get them. To get there faster, because that's what I said.

So I tried to drive down from Wilkes-Barre or drive from anywhere, and I said, the windshields. I said, like, you could technically be standing there in the windshields. You know, and I asked the question, some people think some stuff smell really bad. Some people don't. So how do you differentiate that? How do you, you know, let's just kind of live there. That's one of the things. So sure. Sorry.

We have our solid waste guys. Well, there's legal plans without him working for the county. It's been the issue. So we're trying. We keep offering suggestions and not getting together. But this was, to me, was called the idea that the person's got to be close by. But if he's not getting through to the person or he's not asking calls, that's a problem. Yeah, that's a problem.

Well, the thing is, when an RV needs to go home and it dissipates outside, then you have to open your windows to air out the home because it's that bad in your home. It's like religion of necessity.

You drive through on 81 and it gets in your car. Yeah. You've got to put the windows down and let it... get out, turn your air conditioner off, and let it get out of the car.

But then we shoot our windows and everything else to air out our house to get it out. Well, then you have the sewage trucks going by, and then you get the stench from them again. So, what do you do? I mean, you get the stench all the way around. You're impacted by everything.

Well, like I said, we'll reach out to the UP to see about this office, see if there's a quick way to contact the person in the office, and how they handle... The calls, do they call them instantly? Do they route it through other people? We'll see if we can get some answers on that tonight.

I think the most interesting one for me was talking to Mrs. I used to put a plastic in my window to keep the house warm every time. I don't want to take it down. I mean, that's not fair.

And nobody should have to live like that.

And the kids should be going to bus stops, you know, so. Well, I'm not going to pay taxes. I have to keep bringing that up. I pay my taxes, but I'm about ready. Hopefully, let's see what happens in the county. Like I always said, we only have the power that Harrisburg allows us to have. That's the problem. We can only do what Harrisburg allows us to do.

And they do have to have a smaller case, but then they try to shut it down. Otherwise, the state gets sued in the litigation.

So you said they have the 19th to respond to the complaints that were filed by our planning and zoning officer. And then we'll go, we'll follow the proper procedure from there.

Not what you're saying, but I'm going to tell the block. I think we the people should just get together and follow class action again from the top to the bottom.

That's how I feel. I agree. If you pick one of the class action groups, do that. I would love for them to take that on and do that out there. So I'm sorry that I don't have the solution today, but we're still plugging away with it. Every time we see the people bringing us about it, we make sure every time we meet with them, we give everybody the opportunity to give us information, to pass it on to them. We'll try and start speaking. I know that's not the answer you want to hear, but we will. Any other public comment?

Morning. Good morning. I just want to say that I agree with Jessica With all the distrust being stoked about mail-in voting, we still have mail-in voting in Pennsylvania, and the people who do so ought to be assured that their vote can be counted, and that they will, if there is a discrepancy, they are notified ahead of time so they can go in and correct and get their vote counted.

Okay, thank you. Any other follow-up comments?

Jeff Donkel Palo Alto. I just want to start off. Thank you Larry and Gary for attending the 9-11 event. It's a great turnout, honored great man and everybody lost on 9-11. So I just want to thank them for coming and speaking. Just to follow up on what Mr. Wiscount said. If I would build three properties or go to remodel three properties, I don't have any permits. Any municipality that I'm in would instantly shut down or issue a stop work order. So I'm not sure how this long these properties are standing without permits or occupancy permits. And you have workers in there. Nothing was approved. So I don't understand how the county, which hopefully is looking a little further, maybe the solicitors can. But any municipality that I work in, I can't have anybody in a rental or commercial property without an occupancy permit. Approved by the county, so hopefully something can be done there to help those people in the West End. Moving on, Ms. Gaffney is finally here at the meeting. Happy to see you, Teresa. Maybe you can come up here and explain your FMLA comment from a long time ago. For those of you here that don't know her, because she's really never here, she's a registered will. She's making about $100,000 a year in salary and benefits. I guess since the first deputy is gone now, we're going to have to show up a little more to work. A lot of big shoes to fill there to relieve them. So maybe you'll at least be here during the transition. But again, I think the taxpayers deserve an answer on why you claimed you were on FMLA when it was 100% illegal for an elected official to receive that. So I think that today's the time. He stood right at this podium and claimed it. Also, there's a $4 million bond issue on the agenda today. No rates, no terms, no payoffs, no details, nothing online. It's non-electoral, which means there's no referendum, no vote. I don't think this just came up since last Wednesday and needs to be voted on by next Wednesday. I think this should be something that can be discussed by the taxpayers. Again, transparency, transparency, transparency. The more details, the better. So maybe Glenn can expand on that later. Also, an update on the tax sale debacle. Okay. I know there's a stay apparently for one property when it was requested to stay all of them. I just want to give some more information since we have two of the solicitors here. Past precedent for the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania regarding the Zurn County. A sale can only be rescheduled without brand new ads or service if the original date was fully legal to begin with. Again, past precedence, Commonwealth Court, Zurn County. Clearly this date was not legal for September 10th. Under Lackawanna County tax plan, the higher courts ruled that non-statutory compliance leaves the tax plan bureau without jurisdiction. Statutory non-compliance leaves the tax plan bureau completely without jurisdiction, which in turn leaves the local court without jurisdiction to give the blessing to move forward with the tax sale at a new date. The stay for one property, which was issued two weeks after those property taxes were paid and taken off the list. I'm not quite sure. What is the stay for? Can anybody give us some insight on that? I know there are some one-sided emails and conversation with people in the courthouse and not people filing paperwork. And again, anybody that's potentially going to lose their property tomorrow, I don't know if it was 600 properties, I highly encourage them to look into contesting it. getting an attorney. Maybe everybody can partner together and get an attorney. Again, the original date was 100% illegal. You cannot then go and use that date moving forward. And again, past precedents, Commonwealth Court regarding Missouri County and Lackawanna County. Hopefully you guys look into this before tomorrow before 600 people are appealing for tax hit. Thank you.

Dave, do you want to address that?

Yes.

Because we did look into it.

Yes, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. David Rice, Assistant Solicitor. We received yesterday, with respect to the 2026 tax upset sale, we received correspondence from Samuel A. Falcone, Attorney for Elite Revenue Solutions. It was addressed to Paul Dottie, County Solicitor, and C.C. Toomey. With respect to the 2026 upset sale continuous, there is Solicitor Dottie. As you are aware, Elite Revenue Solutions LLC continued the 2026 Schuylkill County Tax Paying Bureau upset sale from September 10th, 2026 to September 17th, 2026. Section 601 of the Pennsylvania Real Estate Tax Sale Law, also known as RETZL, permits an upset sale to be continued. Section 601 states, quote, the sale may be adjourned, readjourned, or continued. No additional notice of sale is required when the sale is adjourned, re-adjourned, or continued if the sale is held by the end of the calendar year. A motion for continuance of the 2026 substance sale was filed on September 4th, 2026, and the Court of Common Pleas granted the continuance by court order dated September 11th, 2026. I have attached for you timestamp copies of the motion and order. The change of date of the upset sale was posted on Elite Revenue website and on the website of Bid for Assets Incorporated. Bid for Assets Inc. is the third-party company which conducts the online tax sales on behalf of Elite Revenue Solutions and the county. In accordance with the Pennsylvania Real Estate Tax Sale Law Section 603, all property owners with delinquent taxes whose property is to be exposed for sale at the 2026 UPSA sale, where provided additional time to prepare their delinquent taxes. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Samuel A. Falcone. Commissioners, the September 11th order reads as follows. And on this 11th day of September 2026, upon consideration, of the motion for continuous of the petitioner for an order to reschedule the upset sale originally scheduled for September 10th, 2026, and is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed as follows. Number one, the motion is granted. Two, the upset tax sale shall be continued on September 17th, 2026, and the Tax Claim Bureau and Bid for Assets Incorporated shall notice the change of sale date on their websites. And lastly, All property owners with delinquent taxes shall have up until the time of the rescheduled upset sale to pay their delinquent taxes. So commissioners, in essence, there's no harm incurred due to this continuance. In fact, delinquent taxpayers provide additional time to pay their delinquent taxes. So if there was anything, it was a benefit by postponing it. The reason why it was continued is under Retzel. There's a provision that states that no tax sale shall be held before the second Monday of September. And that's why it was continued because the second Monday was held would have been before that. So it was pushed off to a week to make it legal under Retzel. That's the reason why it was continued.

Okay, with all due respect, according to Retzel, if you look into that, again, it was our county, past president's commonwealth court, You can only continue it if the first date is legal. The first date is 100% illegal. It was well known that it was 100% illegal. And moving forward, there was another ruling on the 14th that you didn't read that stays a property. They requested the whole tax sale, but they only stayed one property.

Attorney Falcone, we discussed it with him, and he said this is 100% legal. This adjournment is 100% legal.

Did anybody look into Luzerne County and Lackawanna County's rulings? Have you guys looked into anything like that? I raised a concern last week. It's going to be a shit show for you guys.

It's our contention that it's legal. The continuance was legal.

Doesn't Elite Revenue represent Luzerne County?

Yes.

Elite Revenue represents Luzerne County.

They're in Luzerne County. And same attorney, Simon Falcone. So,

Get ready. It's a common law court issue. It has to be satisfied.

And with respect to the other issue you brought up, Jeff, about the property that had been removed, there was an injunction filed by an individual with respect to his property to have it removed. In the meantime, that person paid their delinquent 2024 taxes, which put the property on the tax sale list to begin with. So that filing was moot.

The stay was issued 12 days after...

The judge had entered the order this past Monday, but only relates to that particular parcel. It doesn't relate to the whole tax sale at all.

The initial request was for the whole sale.

No, the original request was under the preliminary injunction was only for that property. There was a subsequent filing that asked for everything, but the original preliminary injunction dealt with that specific property. And we received clarification from Judge Serena, who had entered this order this past Monday, the 14th. And I read to you that order. And now this 14th day of September, 2026, upon consideration of plaintiff's emergency petition for preliminary injunction and stay of property tax sale, it is hereby ordered that the plaintiff's petition is granted. All action on the above caption matters. is stayed pending the outcome of the hearing scheduled for October 26, 2026, at 9.30 a.m. in courtroom 6 at the Schuylkill County Courthouse.

Can you tell me who was all cc'd on that day?

Pardon?

Who all received that email?

The petitioner, Mr. Falcone, and the Tax Plan Bureau, pursuant to Rule 236. And we followed up on this yesterday, and we received this from Judge Serena Chambers, Just following up on our phone conversation around noon today, that's Attorney Falcone on behalf of Elite Revenue Solutions had contacted the judge's chambers. Judge Serena confirmed that the September 14th order, this past Monday's order, which I read, on docket S-1810 of 2026, only applies to the petitioner's property tax sale being stayed. He will not be doing an amended order because the current order does say all action on the above captioned matter has stayed, referring specifically to petitioner's property and not the tax sale as a whole.

Was the petitioner included on that email?

Yeah, it was sent to him by Mr. Falcone. Okay. And any other questions, please reach out. And this is from the chambers of Judge Serena. So... The tax sale that's going on tomorrow is legal and it will go forward.

I'm not looking at a debate. Is that information going to be readily available to the taxpayers possibly so they don't have to do a deep dive for transparency purposes? On the website that he has just read from a lead revenue.

That's what I was asking.

So we can make sure that possibly that's placed for those. So they don't have to teach because we looked into it.

So this just came out and we looked into it. I'm not trying to go back. I'm just saying, we looked into it with the lead revenue. Our solicitor's office looked into it. They looked at other counties. A FEW OTHER COUNTIES CHANGED THEIR DATES, TOO, BECAUSE I GUESS LAST YEAR, THE 10TH OF SEPTEMBER WAS THE SECOND MONDAY OF THE YEAR LAST YEAR. I GUESS THEY JUST MADE A MISTAKE. AND NUMEROUS COUNTIES MOVED THEIR SALE FROM THE 10TH TO THE 17TH. THANK YOU. IS THERE ANY OTHER PUBLIC COMMENT? IF NOT, WE'LL MOVE ON TO THE MEETING.

Good morning, Commissioners. Albert Kosky, Election Bureau of Cooper County. We're here to ask for several approvals for as we prepare for the upcoming election on November 3rd. We're asking for approval to hire 12 election rovers to start immediately for the purpose of office preparation and logistic and accuracy testing for the November 3rd, 2026 general election. At the rate of $12 per hour, rovers are to be paid mileage at the rate of $0.25. 72.5 cents per mile, traveled only on Election Day to assigned polling sites or where needed. They are Michael Anasconich, James Irby, Carol Kennedy-Systek, Paula Warnkessel, Tim Wood, Gary Kiefer, Cindy Drazenowicz, Daniel Wachter, David Briggs, Julie Zangari, John Geers, and William Schwartz. We also ask approval to hire the two following subcontractors as needed within the office, Carol Coney Systek, and Paula Warnkessel. We also ask approval to hire 11 drivers to deliver election day supplies and equipment in preparation for the November 3rd election. They are Mr. John Hayes for $360, James Zerbe, $350, Denise Wallace, $360, Darren Phillips, $310, Steve Quirngasser, $360, David Briggs, $300, William Klinger, $310, Jay Tobias, 320, Delmar Phillips, 360, Gary Keefer, 340, and Robert Corcoran, 320. We ask approval to hire five subcontractors for the election day machine delivery and preparation of the November election that go directly to the polling sites at the rate of $14 per hour as needed. And there were Mr. Delmar Phillips, Mr. Dennis Praseck, Jeff Kovach, Gary Goodman, and Mr. John Hayes. We ask approval for entire four resolution board members for the election day at the SDS building for the general election on November 3rd. They are Mr. Jerry Bowman, Mr. Edward Barkett, Mr. Rene Buchanan, and Bob Bailong, each receiving $100. We ask for approval to hire the following seven subcontractors for the computing board at the rate of $75 per day beginning Friday, November 6th, after the election, in the Election Bureau office to begin the 2% computation and canvassing of returns from the general election that was held on Tuesday, November 3rd. And they are James Clark, Ann Dowder, Don Dudash, Ann Kompowicz, Joan Dudash, Ann Avalo, and Sharon Scheidel. And finally, we ask for approval for a change of polling site in the Minersville 3rd Precinct, number 44, from the Minersville Public Library, located at 220 South 4th Street, Minersville, to the Zion Lutheran Church at 4th and Lewis Streets in Minersville. Thank you.

Can you please explain the process that you go through with the mail-in ballots, what you get them, and how things, if that outer ballot is not signed?

Yes. Well, how we do it is that I know there is concern, but I have talked to Ms. Van Laan, and others with regard to the way that we proceed with processing our mail that comes in. With the absentee mail-in ballots, they come in bulk to us and we process them and we scan them to be acknowledged that they were received by our office. If we happen to see one at that time that does not have a signature or a date on it, it's not something that we're looking for, then we are required by law to put it into the SURE state system to give notification to the voter. However, we do specifically look for that according to the law and the way that the procedures are to be under the acts that we follow, which would be Act 88, under one of the grants that we have states that we cannot pre-canvas until seven o'clock on election day morning. So if we happen to see one prior to, we put that into the SURE system, but we actually look for them on election day for any discrepancies that they do not have a signature or a date on it on election day. And then we also, on that day, send out notification to the SURE system that the voter may vote provisionally. Even if they are notified a week ahead of time, provisionally ballots are only given on election day itself. So it's not like they're going to be able to come into the office and do a correction to that. Yes, there are counties that do call them. Voters that didn't make a mistake on their balance, but we are not 1 of those counties. We're not alone in that. There are several counties throughout the state that do not do curing of balance. So it's a decision by the board. And it's also a decision, and we're following all laws and regulations like the voting.

Lisa, you are not following state guidance.

Yes, we are.

I mean, I read it last week that they're supposed to. that according to the state, we're supposed to enter the proper code that would show, you know, that would inform, that would lead to the voter being informed that their ballot is deficient at the time that it's received. I read that last week.

If we happen to see it, we do do that. But as we're going through dozens of them, we're not looking for it to do that. But if we happen to see it, yes, we are in compliance.

Okay.

Can you just get clarification again? I know we've got it from the state that we're okay to do the process.

Sure. We're following the lawsuits to compliance.

But I would check in on that if you can. I would appreciate that if you could do that.

Sure.

Yes. Thank you.

The last selection, how many file bill amounts came in?

The last election, we had sent out, I think, 7,200, 7,500, and we had received approximately 5,500, 5,600. How many did we have?

I believe there was 22. How many thousand?

Out of the 5,500, 6,000.

There was 22 of that, and seven of those had a...

Make a valid what's considered a naked ballot that somebody did not put their ballot within the secrecy household. So we must place that to the summer county. So it might have been 15 that did not have the proper signature date. Less than 1, 10 to 1%, correct? So, 1515 is what we had that point. yeah what happened in the days that you didn't have a key ballot you went and voted in person and remember everybody explained that down here it's a big deal to go home the only other way to make it all compliant all across the state would be talk to your legislatures because they would be the ones that would kind of have a common law for everybody to follow right now the way that the rule it some of it is to be determined by interpretation But right now, we do follow all the laws and guidance from the state.

The other difference in the good old days, an absentee ballot went to the precinct, but now the absentee ballots come to your office. Correct. So the election judge at that precinct decided that was a ballot, and then if that person came in, they could spoil that ballot then? That's correct. Now all absentees, whether they're for reason or for just mail-in ballot, all come to the election bureau. Right.

So all 22 on election day were put in the insurer system. That's correct. And those 22 people had the ability to go in and cast the provisional ballot.

I assume that we send that into the insurer system.

The insurer system notifies those 22.

They get an email, right? They get an email. They get an email. Okay. Unless they don't have a... Thank you. Okay.

Where's Nat? Good morning, baby. Good morning. Good morning. John Blickley, Emergency Management. A motion today to approve the federal fiscal year 2025 Homeland Security Grant Agreement in the amount of $1,443,653 for the South Central Task Force. That includes the counties of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, Schuylkill, and York. Dauphin County acts as the fiscal agent for the South Central Task Force, so no actual monies come through Schuylkill County. These funds are used to support planning, training, preparedness, and response to acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events. The Solicitor's Office has approved the agreement based on reform and legality. The motion is requested today due to the quick turnaround of this grant. THIS PROCESS STARTS TWO YEARS PREVIOUS AND WE'VE HAD ALL OF THESE ISSUES WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, THINGS LIKE THAT. SO TODAY WE'RE PLASTICALLY INCREDIBLE. NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

Morning morning. We're on sermon grant writers office. We're looking for approval to advertise for a CDB G, 88 project and client townships. Bids will be done via pen bid and must be submitted by 9 0, 0, 0, 1, Wednesday, September 23rd. We're also looking for the same thing for the borough for carbon same type of project. Uh, next 1 approval of a revision to the 2023 program, moving 1068 dollars and 50 cents from the Shenandoah Jordan street improvement line item to the Shenandoah demolition line item. Approval to enter in a cooperation agreement with Butler Township for a demolition project that 992 fountain street approval to enter into a cooperation agreement with Porter Township for a demolition project that 405 teacher Avenue and tower city. Also, just for note, there was a bid opening for 3 demolition projects this morning. along with a bid opening for Gerardville Community Center ADA current project. Things will be reviewed and possibly awarded at a later time.

Thank you. Office of Senior Services.

Good morning, Commissioners. I just wanted to say thank you for attending our volunteer recognition event yesterday. Our volunteers really appreciate that, as well as our office. Nice event. How many were there? 219. Wow. Yeah, so I think it was the highest in a long time. Yeah, approval of an addendum to extend the contract another year for the period of October 1st, 2026 to September 30th, 2027 with service access management and possible for fiscal management services and the amount of 186,000 and contract capital remain the same as prior fiscal year.

Yeah, that could explain what. These seniors, actually seniors and other seniors.

Oh, the volunteers that were there yesterday, they perform various tasks throughout the county, whether it's to help to deliver meals on wheels, stream water monitoring. They have hands of love, which they crochet or knit different things to give to the nursing homes. Just so many projects as special products to sometimes for our office We might have things that we need delivered out to our consumers and we'll create a special special project where they will deliver them to the consumer So there's various things that they can do and offer their time.

Supposedly see yourself exchangers today.

Definitely. Yes, I

We're not going to give anybody's age limit. What did you say? It's not going to give anybody's age limit, but they are seniors helping seniors. They help with the food banks. It's just a ton of stuff.

Yes, and it's a savings to the county when you think about it, if you would pay that cost.

They're very committed and they're a fun group too. They are definitely a fun group. They do keep track of their Volunteer artists. Yes. What was the one?

The one was 30 years as being a volunteer. So our volunteer program starts at the age of 55. So that was a long time to be volunteering. Yes. At one time we had a... a driver. I think he was 97 years old as a volunteer.

Some people did 4,000 hours. It's a really nice organization. They do a lot of good, and like I said, they're very fun. They like to jump around and have fun. It's a very nice event.

Well, thank you so much for being there.

Thank you.

One of those volunteers includes my mom. Thank you. Volunteers are the biggest shock for the hospital. I'm looking for approval of the land development improvement agreement to be substantially in the form of the county standard development agreement between the county and the applicant for the Dennis Moult Act Operation Final Land Development Plan dated April 24th, 2026. And last revised on August 3rd, 2026. This is located in Washington Township. And to authorize execution of this agreement by the Board of Commissioners, the land development plan was conditionally approved by the County Planning Commission at their September 10th, 2026 meeting. And I am looking for immediate approval.

Is there a motion? So moved. No second, but I have a question. Why are we approving it so quickly?

The applicant is looking to get the building constructed this year.

Whereabouts is this located?

I don't have the exact location on the phone. Are you wearing it around? It's in Washington. I'll talk to you later. It's a poultry operation. Yeah, the legals are the last thing up development agreement and the financial security are the last pieces of the plans. Otherwise. He's compliant. Yeah, he wouldn't be here if he needed to.

So everything needs to go through the entire process.

He is. These are the financial security and the land development. Yeah.

And this is not in Wayne Township, right? You're sure it's in Washington.

I'm positive it's in Washington Township. Yeah.

go is there something going on right around the corner from my house i just want to make that clear because i didn't think it was the county doesn't govern the zoning or subdivision in that town it's in washington yeah is that the same one that you're talking about it's near frog hollow yes okay that's what i was i thought this was not together that's why i'm not aware of that okay no motion i second it on the question yes

Commissioner Hetherington?

Yes.

Commissioner Haas? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Public Works?

Kevin Mayhall, Public Works. Good morning. I'm here for the approval to advertise for bids on Saturday, September 26, 2026, and Tuesday, September 29, 2026, for the cleaning of the County of Schuylkill 911 Communication Center and the Children and Youth Buildings. Bids will be received by the Comptroller's Office at 4 p.m. Monday, November 23, 2026. Bids will be publicly opened Wednesday, November 25, 2026 at 9 a.m. in the Commissioner's Boardroom. The proposal will be reviewed and awarded Wednesday, December 9, 2026. Solicitor's Office.

Commissioners, good morning again. David Rice, Assistant Solicitor. On behalf of the Solicitor's Office, approval to appoint the following individuals as members of the Board of the Schuylkill County Solid Waste Authority to replace the original members of the Authority who are deceased... and a remaining member whose term has expired, and to establish the respective terms of the appointees as follows. Kerry Martinidis for a term to expire on December 31st, 2026. Neil Goodman for a term to expire on December 31st, 2027. Glenn Geisinger for a term to expire on December 31st, 2028. Andrew Smarkanek for a term to expire on December 31st, 2029 and Glenn Wiest for term to expire on December 31st, 2030. It is the intent to amend the articles of incorporation of the authority to revise the purposes of the authority by eliminating any existing references to solid waste projects and establishing its purpose as a general purpose municipal authority for the county, to establish the number of authority board members at five, to extend the term of the authority to December 31st, 2075, and for such other reasons, the city authority board may recommend to the commissioners.

Thank you. Treasurer's office.

Thank you, County Treasurer. The Treasurer's Report for August 2026, any balance in all accounts, $103,542,086.85. Thank you. Finance Office.

Uh, good morning commissioners on 1st, item is the approval to adopt an ordinance, authorizing, directing, incurring of the knowledge of death to the issuance of a series of general obligation, refunding bonds with the county in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed 4M dollars for the principle of currently refunding portion of the county's general obligation bonds. So, the series of 2019, and the county's general obligation note series B of 2020, and paying such cost and expenses at issuing these laws and for information purposes only. We have 5 budget adjustments, county administration, 500, human services, block grant, Matt P at 1200 parks and recreation, 2000 veterans affair, 2000 and economic development. Want a background on the 1st part certainly for the purpose of information that this is an item we are looking at strictly to. improve the county's financial situation, free up additional cash as we look at the 27 budget to ensure that we do not need to look at decreasing taxes. We are looking to work for the benefit of the taxpayers in this issue, and the final terms of such a note are not yet available.

So these are basically looking at refinancing or debt management to get a more favorable save money.

To save money, yes, sir.

Okay, thank you.

So on the question on that one on the budget adjustment, It's coming from contingency and I know you have a brief thing. What is that for again? Since it's coming out of contingency, I'd like that.

And so commissioner, the money was originally budgeted for the community economic development study. and all of the items that are pursuant to that study. That money was placed in contingency at the time of the creation of the 26th budget because we were not sure what the bid would come in at, and we were not sure of the extent of the necessary parameters of the project at the time that we were considering it. So the money is not being removed from savings or spent out with money that was budgeted.

We simply put it in. You didn't have the number at that time. We didn't have the number, correct. Okay.

Good morning, Commissioners. I'm seeking approval of a rate increase of the Benistar Retiree Prescription Drug Plan number 2197. Monthly premium for Plan 2197 will increase from $320.10 to $341.50 per person for the period January 127 through December 3127. This is a 6.68 increase for plan year 2027. Also approving a rate increase for the Benistar Retiree Prescription Drug Plan number 6591. The monthly premium for this plan will increase from $218.40 to $233 per person for the period January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2027. This is a 6.68 increase for plan year 2027. And personnel actions. In the prison, we have the transfer of Brian Dugan to correction officer full-time from correction officer part-time. The rate is per the contract. That rate is $26.4555. Effective 9-21-26. Two informational items in the register of wills, the appointment of Wendy Griffiths, first deputy, effective 9-21-26. And in the coroner's office, the appointment of Beth Ann Clark as a clerk typist one, effective 9-21-26. That rate is per the contract. All appointments pending drug test and physical where appropriate. All actions involving salary or for positions being graded or pending salary board approved.

Can I have a motion for the prison board transfer? Prison transfer? So moved, chairman. Second. Any new business?

Yeah, I'd just like to say thank you to the two commissioners. We had the honor of hosting Penn State's Ag Dean, Dean Ott, on the two tree farms. One of the first was Pinecrest, which was owned by Brian McDonald, and he's also a daughter. She's a cuck, Carol, one of Buddy Cuck's four daughters, and then went over to CJC Hill, tree farm and a very impressive tour. But most folks don't realize that Christmas trees are agriculture, considered to be part of the agricultural operation. And for many years, Indiana County was the top producer in the state. We spoke with them a couple years ago. And the interesting part about that was that a couple people there at the Christmas Tree Association, including Paul Sheeler, who's a Auburn native, And they've had several White House Christmas trees. What they do is at the Farm Show, there's four varieties of Christmas trees displayed. People go to the Farm Show and vote all week, and they pick the grand champion of those four. And then that person is the state winner, and they put a tree into the national competition, and then that goes to the White House. And so the Sheilas several times have had Christmas trees out of our county. So we're the top producer of Christmas trees in the whole state. The best major stoppers for the United States, and we've had 3 White House Christmas tree. So I want to thank her by the way that our stops commissioner showed up. So they are under a lot of great product. My 2 colleagues, the host of the Dean, and he was very impressive for the, I think, for great operations. It takes what up to 10 years to get a. We got his Christmas tree, so it was a lot. And then we showed how the guys take the blades on, trim them, they have to fertilize them, they have to spray them for bugs, spray them for insect, fruit disease. It's a very, very, very intense process. And we also saw people digging trees. In some cases, instead of cutting a tree down for Christmas, people buy what's called a bale and ball tree, stuck it on the ground, they put it in the burlap, and one tree, when Christmas is over, they plant that tree in their backyard. Trees provide oxygen, they eat carbon dioxide, so they're a renewable resource. So like I say, we're very proud to be able to attend that. Also discussing my office hours. No reflection, Mr. Crisp. I don't have office hours, I'm not a doctor, but I do, if you call in, call in 628-1200. I'll try to be there for employment. Or my office number is 628-1201. MY HOME PHONE IS 889-3197. AND WHEN I RAN FOR ELECTION THREE YEARS AGO, PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT ME IN THE COURTHOUSE. I'M A 24-7 COMMISSIONER. I'VE BEEN IN MY OFFICE AT HOME. I GOT CALLS FROM PEOPLE ABOUT CLEANING GREEN PROBLEMS, ABOUT PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS. I'VE DRIVEN UP TO MACADOO TO TALK TO A FAMILY THAT HAD A MAJOR SITUATION THERE. I ACTUALLY MAKE HOUSE CALLS IF I HAVE TO. But I said, I'm not here every day of the week, but every minute, but I am available. I know that Gary is. And so is so Larry, but we have all, all have cell phones. They can pick out him and Linda. I ain't been all. So it's a situation or issue. My intent was that if you have a question, you can ask us. Okay. It didn't mean to be any disrespectful. There's a question about a situation. Just ask us and we'll try our best. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So we'll return.

SOVERIGINAL REPORT OF ANY EXECUTIVE SESSIONS? NONE OR A COUPLE.

Chris Molesky, Norwegian Township. Of course, I ask any interruptions until after my three minutes. Gary, I just want to thank you for opening the dialogue before the voting process regarding that planning and land development improvement and you guys also supporting some of those questions and asking those questions. Let's thank you for that sincere dialogue that you just provided and the information that you gave with telephone numbers. So thank you.

You're welcome, sir.

As for Glenn, Glenn, thank you for providing some information regarding that debt obligation. Just a quick note, since this work session, and Jeff also mentioned it too, it's something that probably did not arise since last week's meeting that's going to be voted on next week, when I'm referencing the bond that the general obligation refunding bonds classify as non-electoral debt. So I just want to make sure the people out there have an idea of what's going on here. And I know Glenn did go into some details. So for the public listening, what does a non-electoral debt mean? It means that the debt can be authorized first without receiving approval from the voters through a public referendum. Pennsylvania law permits counties to incur non-electoral debt within statutory borrowing limits. And that makes public disclosure right now especially important. And it's not simply just a $4 million new project. The county's purpose is to issue the new debt to refinance portions of the two previous borrowings. So I don't want to say let's follow the money. There is the 2019 series bond. Some of that money was refinanced or to funding the voting machines and related other equipment that I had been able to research. The 2020 general issue general obligation note series A and B originally totaling the $6.11 million. And then there was the 911 and communications broadband project and other building upgrades, et cetera. So I don't want to go into a lot of detail there. That's something that Glenn had mentioned. My concern and my rhetoric that I'm here every week about is the transparency, guys. Of course, what Jeff had said, I don't think this came up just last week. I hope it didn't. I think this is something that this was in the long-term stage that we were looking to do. But again, an agenda item really doesn't tell the taxpayers how much of the obligation is going to be financed. The anticipated new interest rates, I know this was done as an ordinance authorization. It doesn't disclose the cost of issuing the new bonds. It doesn't tell the repayment dates, when they will be extended. And mostly important, it doesn't tell the taxpayers the net dollar savings. after every fee and expense is paid. Of course, we all want to make sure that we're saving money and the county is saving money, but of course, the citizens of the county want to know that as well. Again, Mr. Hetherington, thank you for your explanation regarding the office door procedures and your office hours and to the rest of you guys too. So for everyone listening at home, it's not about the information that's just particularly on the agenda. It's about taxpayers working during the day, getting the transparency out there, residents who may not ever walk into this courthouse. And I don't want to say they should have to knock on a person's door, since we already went through that. So before the ordinance advances, I just ask for a little bit more transparency, just showing the debt, the new debt, the interest rates, what the cost savings are to the public, and of course, really reiterate the importance of the website and having that information available. But again, I think we're making some improvements, and I see that with the discussions on the immediate approval and some of the agenda items. And again, thank you, Gary, for initiating that, and to the rest of you guys, too, as well.

Thank you. Any other public comments or side work?

Any other resource thoughts? We have one item. The Register of Wills set the salary for Wendy Griffiths, first deputy, $46,486.35, effective 9-21-26, no raise in January 2027. Is there a motion? I'll make that motion, Mr. Chairman.

Second. Any questions? Commissioner Padora? Yes. Commissioner Hetherington? Yes. Commissioner Hess? Yes. Controller Utensic?

Yes.

Register of Wills Gaffney? Yes. Any new business for Santa Barbara?