[0:00] I barely recognize him.

[2:22] Evening. >> Evening everyone. Like to call the April

[2:26] 28th Litzboro Council meeting to order. I'll turn it over to the mayor regarding

[2:31] the invocation for this evening.

[2:36] Okay.

[3:00] Okay, the next thing on our agenda is the approval of the March 31st meetings.

[3:05] Has everyone had a chance to review those? And do we have a motion on those?

[3:10] » Move to approve. >> Motion. Do we have a second?

[3:13] » Second. All in >> favor? I

[3:15] » I >> next like to make an announcement that

[3:20] we had an executive session this evening regarding personnel that began at 6:15

[3:25] and ran until 5:07. Oh,

[3:31] next we're going to move on to presentations. We have community solar

[3:36] advocacy. I'm going to turn that over to member Gatis.

[3:40] » Thank you. Um, I want to invite Don Gallagher and Elizabeth Hoffman to come

[3:45] up the to the microphone if you would. Um, Don is a retired teacher who's lived

[3:50] in neighboring Warwick Township for 23 years. Uh, longtime volunteer in

[3:55] watershed and environmental groups. Thank you for your stewardship. And

[4:00] Elizabeth Hoffman who moved to Lancaster City in 2019 from Maryland where you

[4:06] served in the legislature. I believe that.

[4:08] » No, I worked for >> you worked for a state delegate. There

[4:12] you go. Thank you for uh for clarifying that. You worked at newspapers for about

[4:17] 35 years and for a state delegate um for five years, volunteering with Third Act

[4:23] for about three years. Um founded the Lancaster County Group and Don and uh

[4:29] Elizabeth are both local volunteers with the Elders Climate Action Group, Third

[4:34] Act. and they're here to do a presentation on a community solar bill

[4:40] that has been through the house and is sitting in Senate committee now. It's in

[4:45] the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Lensure Committee, I

[4:50] believe. >> And you will have an ask for us at the

[4:54] end of your presentation, I believe. I'll turn it over to you,

[5:02] » Mayor George, and members of the Burough Council. Thank you for welcoming us this

[5:07] evening. In my reading of HR 504, which is the

[5:13] Community Energy Act, the bill authorizes the

[5:18] state's public utilities commission to make the rules and then municipal

[5:24] officials will be able to decide if these projects will benefit their

[5:28] citizens and businesses. Right now, you don't have the municipal authority to

[5:33] consider community energy projects. The House has approved the legislation as

[5:39] Miss Gatis has mentioned, but the Senate hasn't yet. It's only been referred to

[5:44] committee. Those of us in third act stress the

[5:48] solar aspects of the bill, but it also includes language that promotes energy

[5:53] generated by gas from farmers min manure digesttors and also the bio gas from

[6:00] wastewater plants and from composting facilities.

[6:05] Um, when you get a chance to read through the 18 pages of the bill, uh, I'

[6:10] I'd ask you to concentrate on the findings and declarations that are the,

[6:17] um, the reasoning and the justification for them in the legislature and also the

[6:24] definitions are very important as well. There are also protections for consumers

[6:29] in the bill and for workers. And um we'd be happy to do any further research that

[6:36] you might need or answer on any questions that you or your your

[6:40] residents have. And I'll turn it over to Elizabeth.

[6:48] » Thanks very much for letting us talk about this. Um I will say a few numbers

[6:53] keep sticking in my head. 1% that's how much of its energy

[6:59] Pennsylvania gets from solar. 49th that's where Pennsylvania ranks

[7:04] among states in the growth of renewable energy.

[7:08] 60% that's how much of Pennsylvania's energy comes from fossil gas leaving us

[7:15] vulnerable to price hikes like that we're seeing now but also blackouts.

[7:21] 8.7%. That's the increase in uh residential

[7:25] rates that UTI has asked the PUC to approve. And that's on top of an 8.9%

[7:32] increase in revenue that the PUC approved last fall. And I testified

[7:37] against both those increases because uh like you, my income is not going up 9% a

[7:43] year. And that all brings me to community

[7:47] solar. In uh 2019, as you said, I moved to Pennsylvania from Maryland where I

[7:53] had subscribed to a community solar program. And one of the first things I

[7:58] did after moving here was to look for a similar program. And I was really

[8:03] mystified to learn that Pennsylvania doesn't allow community solar. It's

[8:09] available up and down the East Coast and all the surrounding states like New

[8:13] York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia. Um I actually have a map here

[8:20] with it's more than 25 it's 25 states have it but the other states um a lot of

[8:27] other pilot programs and things and there's

[8:31] only a handful of states including Pennsylvania that have nothing.

[8:36] So we are really missing out. And so all of this is why I'm working to

[8:42] get community solar here. So, what's so great about community solar? A lot of

[8:47] people cannot install solar panels on their house. Their house is too shady.

[8:52] They are renters. Their roof would need to be replaced to put up the panels or

[8:57] it just doesn't make financial sense. Community solar makes solar available to

[9:02] anyone who subscribes to the program. And so a farmer or business, even a

[9:08] local government or nonprofit, installs the panels and then the residents

[9:13] subscribe at a guaranteed savings which is set by the PUC. And these panels can

[9:20] be on brownfields like there's a a site in Pittsburgh that would like to do this

[9:25] uh landfills, parking lots, warehouses, and other big roofs. and also on farms

[9:31] on land that maybe isn't uh as usable or I know some a farmer in Erie who wants

[9:37] to have animals grazing under the panels. You know, with our summers

[9:42] getting hotter, shade can be a really valuable commodity for a farmer.

[9:51] Um,

[9:55] community solar is also quicker to install. It usually takes about 12 to 18

[10:00] months whereas a gas power plant would take at

[10:04] least 5 years and of course nuclear power plants take uh decades to put in

[10:09] and we just don't have that kind of time. So energy from these solar

[10:14] projects would reduce stress on the grid thereby lowering prices for everyone

[10:18] including people who are not subscribing.

[10:22] They don't need expensive infrastructure upgrades because they're close to where

[10:26] the energy is used. And of course, while we're getting that solar energy, we

[10:30] would not be getting the air pollution that makes our air unhealthy. I'm sure

[10:34] you've heard that Lancaster County keeps getting an F in air quality.

[10:39] And so that's where you come in. Um, we think that if local

[10:45] municipalities pass resolutions saying this is something that could help their

[10:49] constituents, then the Senate might be more inclined to pass it. And so far, we

[10:55] have 14 municipalities. um Alageney County, Pittsburgh,

[10:59] Sharpsburg, Carlilele, Lanster Township, Lanster City, City of Philadelphia,

[11:04] Erie, Westview, Lower Marian Township, Mount Lebanon, Bradock, Forest Hills,

[11:09] and Aleppo. And I really hope that lit can be number 15. I think community

[11:15] solar would give Pennsylvania another energy choice and lower energy

[11:20] prices. It's among the fastest and least expensive ways to get more electrons on

[11:27] the grid. >> Thank you, Elizabeth.

[11:33] » Thank you all for welcoming us. We'd be happy to answer any questions or do more

[11:37] research for you. Um, I guess my first question is, are

[11:44] you aware did you say there are no such facilities in Pennsylvania currently?

[11:52] » However, you participated in a community solar facility or program in Maryland.

[11:59] » What kind of a um system did they have? Do you know

[12:05] that? >> I really

[12:06] » You don't know. Okay. the people who were putting it up. I

[12:10] worked with a group there that was promoting solar also and so um we were

[12:16] helping advertise that you showing that people could subscribe to it but I don't

[12:20] know the details about it and it was actually pretty invisible you know you

[12:24] still get the regular bill discount shows up on the bill I just didn't have

[12:28] to think about it you know now every have to go look around for a supplier I

[12:34] try to get all renewable I know the one this year is some company in Ohio last

[12:39] year access really not help. >> Oh, I'm sorry.

[12:45] » Yeah, I was just saying that now, you know, we have to go look for a

[12:49] subscriber unless you use the default rate and this would just give people

[12:54] another choice. >> That's great. That's that was going to

[12:59] be my follow-up question was the difference between shopping for electric

[13:03] and choosing one of the um renewable you know a

[13:08] renewable mix whether you choose 100% or so forth how this might vary but it

[13:14] » right and I always look for the 100% I can always find one less than the

[13:19] default but I have to go looking for another one every year in Maryland I

[13:24] just subscribe to this thing and I didn't think about it Yeah,

[13:30] » the best example online that you that you'll find is Howard County, Maryland.

[13:36] They have a county program that's beginning to offer this to folks and I

[13:42] think >> yeah, it's it's the county government

[13:45] that's doing. >> Okay.

[13:49] » Does anyone else on council have any questions

[13:53] for the presenters? >> I I do. Just um just want to get some

[13:56] clarification since I've really never heard of this before. Um what what's the

[14:00] incentive for a farm? Let's say this is passed. What would the incentive be for

[14:04] like a farmer or a business that could just put it on their roof now and reap

[14:08] the benefits versus what would is there is there an

[14:13] incentive from the government to do this?

[14:15] » Well, a farmer who would put panels on their barn or in their field, they would

[14:20] be using that energy. So they wouldn't be selling it to anybody else, which is

[14:25] what this is. This is a a farmer would put up the panels and make it available

[14:31] for people to purchase. >> Would he get a benefit from that?

[14:34] » Yeah, because they're Yeah. And the solar probably the farmer would work

[14:39] with the solar company to put up the array, but the farmer would definitely

[14:43] benefit. Yes. >> Okay. But there are many there are many

[14:47] farms and businesses in Lancaster County that already have these rooftop arrays

[14:52] for their own use. >> Right. There's actually a farmer whose

[14:56] land straddles Pennsylvania and Maryland. He has community solar on the

[15:00] Maryland side. He would like to put it on the Pennsylvania side and he cannot.

[15:06] » Yeah. I believe the bill um says that the owner of the array can't reap more

[15:13] than 50% of the benefits um because it is a community solar event

[15:19] or uh installation. So, it's meant to be for the broader community to buy into.

[15:26] » Right. >> What um what u issues have you had with

[15:30] municipalities around zoning for the panels? Have you any any challenges

[15:35] about that? >> Well, in Pennsylvania, we don't have it

[15:39] yet. So, it hasn't come up. >> Yeah.

[15:46] » Commission has to write the rules before you get to decide what might be

[15:52] appropriate locally. So Jerry, about 20 years ago, the first

[15:59] um groundmounted solar on a farm went in in Lancaster County. And when that

[16:05] happened, the Penn or the Lancaster County planning department worked with

[16:09] municipalities across the county to adopt regulations around solar

[16:14] installations to protect farms largely. But some communities like ours um wrote

[16:20] those provisions into our own regulations.

[16:24] Um I don't know Elijah if you want to say anything more about that because we

[16:28] do regulate solar. It is already regulated.

[16:31] » Yeah. And we actually prohibit ground arrays here in the burrow in part

[16:35] because we're a growth area and that's not necessarily seen as the best value

[16:38] for burrow land. Uh we do allow them in uh on buildings and those kind of

[16:43] collocations. And as you may have heard, we're looking at changing uh planning

[16:47] commission is looking at changing the restriction to right now we have a total

[16:51] prohibition of solar panels in the historic district. Uh I have some

[16:55] concerns with that because it's treating it as kind of a unique case that any

[16:58] other kind of HVAC system isn't treated. So uh we're looking at scaling that back

[17:03] so that it if it's not visible like this roof that's right out here, um what's

[17:08] the impact on the historic district? And I don't really have an answer to that.

[17:11] So, >> and we are also working with the

[17:14] historic area advisory committee on um getting some recommendations on how we

[17:19] can allow solar in the historic district. So,

[17:29] great. Any questions from anyone in the audience for the presenters this

[17:34] evening?

[17:38] No. Okay. Well, we have resolution 1034 in front of us this evening. It's a

[17:46] resolution of the Bureau of L. It's calling on the legislature of

[17:50] Pennsylvania to pass legislation to allow for the creation of a community

[17:54] energy program in Pennsylvania.

[18:00] Would anyone like to make a motion on that resolution this evening?

[18:08] I will move that borrow council approve the resolution calling on the

[18:13] legislature of the commonwealth to pass legislation.

[18:17] Um it references uh the commonwealth calls on the Pennsylvania State Senate

[18:23] to approve House Bill 504. Obviously it will have its own senate

[18:29] bill and it is in committee now. um the Community Energy Act as proposed by

[18:35] Representative Peter Schwire, which passed 114 to 89 in the Pennsylvania

[18:40] House to provide for community energy facilities.

[18:46] » Do we have a second to that motion? >> Second.

[18:49] » All those in favor? >> I opposed.

[18:54] » Resolution 1034 passes. Thank you for your time this evening.

[18:59] Thank you all for coming in and for reaching out to us about this

[19:02] opportunity to help advance clean energy in Pennsylvania. Appreciate that very

[19:07] much and we'll be in touch.

[19:13] We'll make sure that our state senator knows about this as well.

[19:18] » We let him know that we were considering it. Okay, great. Yep.

[19:21] » Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to three

[19:26] presentations by the chief of police. First has to do with an ebike

[19:32] sponsorship that they have. >> I ask Jason and Bark if they'd be able

[19:37] to come up and join me. >> Sure.

[19:41] » I just have to bring something through a >> show and tell. I love it.

[20:10] Thank you. So, uh, up here with me, I

[20:19] » Branley, I know most of you from interactions with the bike shop and

[20:22] other uh, businesses, business ideas. Uh, we own Lotus bike works.

[20:26] » There you go. Uh Jason Burke holder the guy local.

[20:32] » So a lot of what our police department does both in terms of policing staffing

[20:37] special events involves putting officers on bikes whether it's in the downtown

[20:41] district parks trail systems etc. There's benefits practically speaking

[20:47] because the officers can get to areas that maybe they couldn't with a car. For

[20:51] example, a large special event where roads are closed, you can't get a car in

[20:55] or out. Um, one of my priorities when I became chief was to increase uh the

[21:00] visibility, the accessibility of our offic community, increase officer health

[21:04] and wellness. Uh, get them out of the car, get them on foot, get them out in

[21:08] the community on bikes. What we had was an aging fleet of bikes. We currently

[21:13] have one ebike. The rest of the bikes are traditional pedicycles. Um, they're

[21:17] aging. We had to put a plan forward to replace them. Um, so with that said, uh,

[21:24] Jason and Mark had collaborated and, uh, generously, uh, had donated two of these

[21:30] brand new state-of-the-art ebikes to the police department at their cost. Uh,

[21:34] there's no cost from the burrow. Uh and in addition to uh that with with Mark's

[21:40] assistance, we were successful in a grant award to offset the cost of a

[21:44] third ebike to ensure that our officers have the the latest and greatest

[21:49] technology with the ebikes to make sure that we are best prepared to handle the

[21:53] special events, especially those that a car just can't get into. It'll increase

[21:58] our ability to get officers out of the cars, out in the trails, in the parks,

[22:02] the the different neighborhoods. And of course, like I said, the health and

[22:05] wellness benefit of getting them out, getting them accessible to the public

[22:10] more easily. And then just again, the the the exercise, the cardio that goes

[22:15] with it. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to show what the bike looks

[22:19] like. And then again to recognize these two. Um, you know, we enjoy a ton of

[22:25] support from the community and we certainly appreciate this type of

[22:28] support as well. But I I think what's equally as important, maybe not quite as

[22:33] obvious as as the financial contribution, is it shows there's an

[22:36] alignment between the vision of the police department and that we try to be

[22:39] community oriented in so far as the community recognizes that and goes above

[22:45] and beyond to make sure that we can meet uh that mandate that we put on ourselves

[22:50] and what the community expects. So, I just want to take this opportunity to

[22:53] thank both of you. These bikes will serve the department and the community

[22:57] for many years to come. And again, it takes the burden off the tax base. And

[23:02] we appreciate the fact that they've partnered with us to make this happen.

[23:06] If there's anything you guys want to say, I don't want to steal all the

[23:08] thunder. I mean, really, the credit goes to you, too.

[23:14] » No, we just uh we just love the fact that that the Litzboro Police is so well

[23:20] loved and well respected in the community. You know, even in their cars,

[23:23] they're very well respected. But but realistically uh when they're out

[23:27] interacting with the public, everybody enjoys them and we'd like to see that

[23:30] happen more. So talking Jared and finding out there was a need just had an

[23:34] opportunity to fill it. About 30 years ago in um Eastn

[23:40] Pennsylvania, there was a perception problem mostly among teenage and youth.

[23:49] Guess that town teenager see a squad car and the

[23:56] instinct was to scurry away. >> So bike shop there called Genesis

[24:03] Bicycle that followed really active in the community also.

[24:10] They approached the their town and they said, "If we were to

[24:14] take officers off out of the cars and put them on bikes, would that change the

[24:19] perception?" They took a chance. They put about 10 officers on bikes with a

[24:24] program similar to what we're doing here. That completely changed how the

[24:29] teenagers saw the police officer. They started riding alongside them. They did

[24:33] community bike rides with them. At one point they had almost 50 kids on a

[24:37] weekly ride where the officers would show them safety and police quickly

[24:43] became friends and no longer this this scary boogeyman in the squad car with

[24:48] lights. And um I'm just happy that we

[24:55] on behalf of council I want to thank all of you for your generosity and your

[24:59] ability to work together and and to be able to pull this off. This is just

[25:03] wonderful. And on a second note, I wanted to welcome Mark and his business

[25:08] to the burrow. I believe you will be opening soon.

[25:11] » End of May. >> End of May. We're really close to that.

[25:14] So, so we will have a new bike outdoor shop right here in downtown Litz again.

[25:20] So, that's really exciting for us to have that here. So, so welcome.

[25:30] » Camping gear, bicycles, hiking. There you go.

[25:36] » He's open to suggestions. Make suggestions of what you want in the

[25:39] store.

[25:42] » So, thanks a lot.

[26:01] » Thank you. Thank you all. >> There's a question.

[26:04] » Oh, we have a question and a photo op.

[26:09] I got a picture >> now.

[26:38] point of view.

[27:05] Oh, your eyes are behind. I'm trying to photo.

[27:10] » I don't want I don't want to throw >> your halo. You're talking about your

[27:18] » Are we gonna see you on this bike, Chief? Okay. All right. Hold to it.

[27:29] Great.

[27:36] » I wonder if he was going to just ride it away and be like,

[27:40] » he has two more presentations to do. >> He's here for the duration.

[27:46] Hey.

[27:49] » So, yeah, that was all I had for the ebikes and again, thank you for allowing

[27:52] us the opportunity to recognize what they've done.

[27:55] » Okay. Should I take the next? >> Sure.

[27:58] » So, um part of the um police officer training, new police officer training,

[28:03] is that police officers go through a 12-month probationary period. And so

[28:08] tonight, Chief Han has an update for us on one of the officers who has completed

[28:13] uh the 12-month uh probationary training. Correct. Like Council Member

[28:17] Max said, Officer Joseph Giovano started with us beginning of last April 2025. He

[28:22] successfully completed uh all of our field training internal uh program,

[28:27] which is what we bring new officers into, even if they come with us from

[28:30] prior experience. It ensures that, you know, they're familiar with the

[28:34] policies, procedures, uh the way that the Litz police operates. Uh he

[28:40] successfully completed that. He's successfully completed the 12-month

[28:43] probationary period. He's met every benchmark that we've asked any new

[28:48] officer to complete. And he is at the point where he's eligible to be

[28:54] considered by council to be released from probationary status and eligible

[28:59] for regular full-time status as a police officer. Um he's integrated well to the

[29:04] community and to the department. He's demonstrated that he's an asset to both

[29:07] and it would be my strong recommendation that he be retained as a regular

[29:11] full-time officer.

[29:30] Genco

[29:40] Second. >> All those in favor?

[29:43] » I >> Thank you very much.

[29:46] » Thank you and congratulations to Gio. >> Thank you.

[29:51] » So, next we're going to have the 2025 Police Department report.

[29:59] » So, this is the annual report from 2025. It's a 30-page report. It gets very

[30:04] granular with a lot of different statistics and and outcomes and

[30:07] different initiatives and and a lot of storytelling from some of the successes

[30:10] and and outcomes from last year. I I boiled it down to just a handful of

[30:14] slides because I I realize you're going to hear me talk a lot tonight. So, I

[30:17] wanted to hit some of the high points. The full 30page report is available at

[30:21] litpd.org. It's pinned at the top of the website. It's also on all of our social

[30:25] media. So, I would strongly encourage everybody to take a look at it at some

[30:29] point, browse through the information. I think it highlights a lot of good stuff

[30:35] that the department has done with the community last year. And uh but for the

[30:39] purpose of tonight, I I've highlighted several areas that I I anticipated would

[30:44] be of interest and uh I'm going to go through these slides and certainly if

[30:47] there's questions on any of those slides or those topics or anything in general

[30:51] at the end, please just let me know. So this represents the the total number

[30:57] of police dispatched calls for service in 2025 and this is the number that

[31:02] comes from the Lanster County 911 center. So this this number is applied

[31:07] equally amongst all police departments in the county. So this is a call that

[31:11] gets called into 911 or the non-emergency line and then gets

[31:15] dispatched to uh the officers in the jurisdiction. the last year in 2025,

[31:20] there were just over 7,200 uh calls for police service in the burrow. Um if you

[31:26] average that out on a daily basis, it's about 20 times a day that there's a need

[31:30] for police service. And again, that can range from uh a domestic disturbance. It

[31:35] can be a mental health issue. It could be um an ambulance assist. Somebody fell

[31:40] and and the ambulance needs help. So it's the wide gamut of uh of types of

[31:47] service. So you can see if you look at the green trend line if if you look back

[31:51] to uh 2014 you know the demand for service has gradually been increasing

[31:57] and and this is specific to Littisboro. Those numbers that you see are specific

[32:01] to just Lisp and Lisbon. So, I wanted to highlight that uh again about 20 times a

[32:08] day the the police department is acting in some official capacity getting called

[32:12] into service for some type of reason. And this is a look back on the total

[32:19] number of reported crime just in Litzboro. So, this looks back to 2009.

[32:25] So, one of the things I'm proud of is if you look at that that green trend line,

[32:29] it's a very sharp downward trend. You go back to 2009,

[32:34] you know, we're above 400 crimes a year. That's more than once a day. We're you

[32:39] look at 2025 as 175. And you can see through that that that chart how the you

[32:45] know the numbers have fluctuated over the years. But that's certainly good

[32:49] movement in the uh the crime trends. And you know what's important is is

[32:54] publishing this information because the the actual rate of crime is equally as

[33:00] important as the perception or fear of crime. So we want to make sure that

[33:03] people have an accurate understanding of what the crime picture is. How much

[33:08] crime, what type of crime, and it's not detailed in this presentation, but if

[33:11] you go to the annual report, it'll list out every category of crime uh that was

[33:16] reported last year. you know what the crime was, whether it was solved or not,

[33:21] and you could really get granular in the exploration of the report to see what

[33:25] specific type of crime has been reported to us. So that's total reported crime.

[33:29] So that can be crime that somebody discovers or happens to them and they

[33:33] call us to report it. But it's also crime that officers through their

[33:36] proactive patrols may intervene. You know, for example, an officer on the

[33:41] night shift patrol comes across somebody who they suspected being a DUI driver.

[33:46] they pull them over, they end up being intoxicated. That's a crime that the

[33:50] officer discovered. So this represents any crime discovered regardless of how

[33:54] it's discovered. And I think what's equally important is if you look at the

[33:57] the bar chart on the right, those percentages correspond to the amount of

[34:01] crime that's cleared. And clear means you've identified a suspect, they've

[34:07] been arrested, or you've identified a suspect and they weren't arrested for

[34:10] some reason. Perhaps the victim didn't want to press charges. There's a number

[34:14] of reasons that that can happen, but I think the takeaway for people is that

[34:19] crime's been cleared, has been solved one way or another. So, if we look at

[34:24] the top bar in 2025, uh 80 almost 86% of the crime in the burrow was solved. Now,

[34:32] a little caveat to that, some of the crime that was reported last year is

[34:35] still under investigation. So, you know, there may be the possibility that number

[34:40] gets higher, but for the point in time that this was created, it was 85%. And I

[34:45] think it's important to compare that because when you look at the total crime

[34:48] clearance for Lancaster County, it's uh about 10% lower than what it is in the

[34:52] burrow. And then if you zoom out even farther and you look at the total amount

[34:55] of crime cleared in the Commonwealth, it's at 55%. So I think what I would

[35:02] suggest to you is you know this is a good representation of crime is going

[35:07] down. It's been sustained going down for 15 plus years and the crime that is

[35:13] happening here our team has been effective in solving at a higher rate

[35:17] than what you see at the county or the state level.

[35:23] Another area that that typically comes up in discussion is is traffic crashes.

[35:27] you know, traffic concerns. You know, we've adopted the principle of the three

[35:30] E, engineering, enforcement, and education. Any effective traffic

[35:34] management program has to incorporate all three. If you lean too heavily on

[35:38] one and exclude the others, you're likely going to be uh either ineffective

[35:42] or not as effective as you can be. So, in 2025, there was 147 reported crashes

[35:49] in the burrow. And again, if you look at that over the last 10 years, those

[35:53] numbers have been going down as well. the the rate of decline is not quite as

[35:56] sharp as what the crime is, but still a downward trend and suppressing the

[36:01] crashes. Uh I felt was important to share. If you look at the the top five

[36:06] reasons why crashes happen in the burrow, according to our crash reports,

[36:10] about 40% of the crashes are caused by uh stop sign violations, uh roadways

[36:15] lane for traffic. That's just simply meaning that somebody leaves their lane

[36:19] for one reason or another and it's not safe to do so.

[36:23] uh following too closely, careless driving, or limitations on backing.

[36:28] There's a lot of other reasons why crashes happen, but these five reasons

[36:33] account for about 40% of all the crashes that happened in the burrow last year.

[36:41] So, this is a heat map of where the crashes occurred in the burrow last

[36:44] year. You can see there's there's quite a cluster in the 501 corridor, you know,

[36:48] right downtown, north of town up by Lincoln Avenue, south of town as you get

[36:53] down towards like Wise, uh, Turkey Hill, Sixth Street intersection. Um, so all

[36:57] those plots don't necessarily represent a single crash. Um, the different colors

[37:02] and size of the dots are all like an intensity map to show uh what the

[37:06] clustering of crashes are. So, we talked about 147 crashes that involved uh 301

[37:12] people that were in those 147 crashes. Uh 24 of them were hurt. Thankfully,

[37:18] zero of them were killed and a total of 291 units. So, a car, a truck, a bike, a

[37:26] pedestrian were units in a crash. So, u what that tells us is we have the data.

[37:34] We know where the crashes are happening. we know why the crashes are happening.

[37:38] That allows us to be efficient with our resources to direct patrol officers or

[37:43] discussions about traffic safety solutions to put the focus and the

[37:47] energy on where the data tells us that needs to be focused instead of blindly

[37:52] trying to address a problem without the data behind it to support it. If you

[37:55] look at the pie chart, I'm sorry, below, um, reportable versus non-reportable

[38:00] crash. It's just what that indicates. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pendot

[38:04] only collects crash reports from police departments if it's reportable. So that

[38:08] would be a crash where somebody's injured, somebody's killed, or uh where

[38:13] a car is damaged to the extent it can't be driven on its own. Um so when you

[38:17] look at that criteria that PENDOT's interested in collecting data for, it's

[38:21] about uh half of the the crashes in the burrow are to that level of severity

[38:26] that Pendot's collecting crash data on them.

[38:32] I'm good, Rob. Thank you. So, again, in the 30-page report,

[38:37] there's a lot of uh kind of high level detail, but there's also some very

[38:40] granular detail. U if you look at the the icons to the right, it's just some

[38:46] highle data as far as number of times different things have happened in the

[38:50] burrow. But one of the things I wanted to call out is uh 99.99%

[38:56] of the official police citizen encounters that we had. So these are all

[39:01] official contacts. You got pulled over for something, the police got called to

[39:04] your home for something. You interact with an officer in official capacity.

[39:07] It's not, you know, you run into an officer at the coffee shop and you talk

[39:11] for a couple minutes. These are the official contacts.

[39:15] We estimate there's about 17,000 official police citizen contacts because

[39:19] some incidents have multiple officers that respond, some incidents have

[39:22] multiple people involved. Out of those 17,000 that we estimate, two require the

[39:28] application of physical force to achieve a lawful objective. And why I think

[39:32] that's important is yes, that the technical skills, the competencies are

[39:36] important, but that's not the only thing that we look for in our officers,

[39:41] especially in a community oriented department. So what this data tells us

[39:44] is that 99.9% of the time or 16,998 times the most effective tool that the

[39:51] officer possessed was their mind and their mouth. And I think that's

[39:54] reflected in our hiring decisions, what we instill in our officers as far as how

[39:58] we expect them to interact with the community, having the technical

[40:02] competencies, but also making sure that they have the interpersonal skills that

[40:06] our community requires. And that was one data set that I wanted to pull out

[40:10] because I think it proves that we're living up to that ideal. And um again,

[40:17] there's a lot that goes into deciding who you want to hire your police

[40:20] officers. And you know, we've made that a priority. And I I think this is the

[40:24] result of those priorities. >> Sarah, quick question. That's that

[40:28] should be 2025 overre. It was a typo. Okay. Yeah.

[40:32] » Just wanted to make sure. >> Correct. Thank you.

[40:36] So again it also details um you know the the the community oriented uh aspect of

[40:43] the department all the instances where the officers participated in community

[40:48] events whether it's the bike rodeos in town the special events in town the

[40:53] station tours and national night out you know there are 34

[40:58] formalized community events that we participated in so you know you average

[41:02] it out that's three times a month that our officers are engaged with the

[41:06] community in some sort of, you know, social non- enforcement way, building

[41:10] those relationships, getting to know people, business owners, neighbors,

[41:14] residents. Um, and that's important to me and and I see that it's important to

[41:19] our officers. Um, because policing is much more than just writing tickets and

[41:23] enforcing the law, especially in in a community like Litz. So these pictures

[41:27] demonstrate what they do and and I can tell you this doesn't even come close to

[41:32] the total number of things that they've done. I mean we've had people come and

[41:37] send us a message. Thanks for stopping by our lemonade stand. Thanks for

[41:40] shooting basketball the kids in the driveway. So so much of that stuff

[41:44] happens. It just just doesn't get captured in in a picture or in a formal

[41:49] event. So I'm confident in saying this is under reportporting those types of

[41:54] connections. But, you know, this is what I had to offer. And it was just

[41:57] important for me to share the proof that the officers are out there doing what we

[42:02] expect them to do as far as building and maintaining those relationships with the

[42:06] community. Thank you, Rob. This is going to be hard

[42:10] to read, but all this is in uh big font on the report. So, this is all feedback

[42:15] that we've gotten from community members. Whether uh no matter how it's

[42:19] collected, the this is all stuff the community members have reported back to

[42:22] us. I'm just going to read a couple of them because I know you probably can't

[42:25] read them, but I'm so thankful that we have a business in Litzboro. What care

[42:29] and kindness from the officers, thank you. Litz is fortunate to have the LBPD.

[42:34] The officers were professional, listened to what I was saying, and willing to

[42:38] help if needed. Thank you for all LP LBPD does for our town. We are so

[42:42] blessed to have all of you. Lis is the best little town because of you guys.

[42:47] Thank you for being the best friends, neighbors, and folks we can trust. So

[42:51] this is all feedback from community members that they have given to the

[42:55] department over the last year. So it's important to call that out because if

[42:59] someone's going to take the time to give us that positive feedback, we want to

[43:03] make sure that we receive it and that we share it where it's appropriate.

[43:09] Good, Rob. So that's it. That that's 30 pages of of comprehensive reporting

[43:14] boiled down to a couple of slides. Um if anybody wants to read the pool report,

[43:18] you can just click the QR code. it'll take you right there or visit our

[43:22] website. It's there. But, um, trying to be respectful of everybody's time, so

[43:26] I'm happy to answer any topics on question or any questions on topic or if

[43:31] there's something else that you want me to speak to, I'm certainly happy to.

[43:37] » I I also want to say I do appreciate reading your Facebook pages,

[43:42] especially when when you have events coming up, I just get a kick out of

[43:46] that. But keep it going. >> Thank you.

[43:52] I know one of your goals was to increase the community

[43:56] uh community policing activities. Your report reflects that. So, thank you for

[44:00] doing that. >> Sure.

[44:01] » Thank you.

[44:06] » I had I had opportunity to go through that report at length and I want to say

[44:10] that this also happens to be a one-year anniversary for our chief. Uh so he was

[44:14] installed about one year ago. So, I think it's appropriate opportunity to

[44:18] say commendations to you for incredible work that you do in this community and

[44:22] leading you officers. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate it. It's

[44:26] It looks easy when you have a great team and a supportive community and a

[44:29] supportive uh leadership uh like all of you. Um so, we appreciate it. I

[44:35] appreciate it. And yeah, it may look easy, but really it comes down to the

[44:40] hard work that I see our officers and our staff put in every single day. And I

[44:43] guess I'm the guy in this respect that kind of pulls all together with pictures

[44:46] and a report, but I'm always happy to highlight what they do. Thank you.

[44:53] » Thanks. >> Please express our gratitude to your

[44:56] team. >> Thank you. I'll pass that along.

[44:58] » Any questions from the public regarding the presentation?

[45:04] No. >> Well, thanks again for uh spending some

[45:09] time with us this evening. Thank you.

[45:15] So, now that we're done with presentations, we're going to move on to

[45:19] agreements. And I'm going to turn this over to Elijah to let him lead this

[45:24] discussion. >> Sure. I have quite a few notes on this

[45:27] actually. So, Lloyd was approached by, we're going to say, a very ambitious

[45:31] fence contractor. Both of these agreements are from the same fence

[45:34] contractor. Both of them are on uh East 6th Street, and both of them involve

[45:38] drainage easements. uh one is a private drainage ement between two houses. The

[45:43] other one is uh the drainage ement for butterfly acres uh before it was created

[45:48] into what's called a critical aquifer recharge area where essentially there

[45:51] are holes that let the water go in. Um our ordinances prohibit anything from

[45:57] being placed inside a storm water easement. So Lor's first answer was no,

[46:01] you can't do that. Uh they were persistent. They followed up and they

[46:04] said well our design is not going to incur any kind of issues with flow. Uh

[46:08] so Lori sent them to the engineer. They paid for the engineer to consult on

[46:12] site. The engineer is fine with what's being proposed and the engineer actually

[46:16] provided a template of a agreement that is the basis of this that was uh um he's

[46:22] using other municipalities that was shared with the solicitor. The solicitor

[46:26] has no concerns with this. Um so staff has no concerns. uh engineer has no

[46:32] concerns and the zoning officer has no concern or excuse me the engineer has no

[46:36] concerns. Uh so both of them very similar. They're only real changes the

[46:41] uh the property information between the two. Any questions?

[46:49] Elijah, I have a question about the extent of the

[46:53] um the the property with the the drainage easement on that intersects

[47:00] with Butterfly Acres. >> Yes.

[47:03] » Their property line goes all the way back to the middle of the

[47:09] » No. >> Okay. There's a separate that's a

[47:12] separate deed property. >> Yes. So, we actually own that swale.

[47:17] » When that was originally uh developed and I think that was in ' 03, there was

[47:21] actually a flood plane in that area. If you look at the old flood maps, there

[47:24] was one there because of the efforts um of Butterfly Acres and the improvements

[47:28] that have gone in, that flood plane has been removed by FEMA. Uh so, we don't

[47:32] know exactly where that drainage area is, but I can confidently say that it

[47:37] has changed from 2003 to the present. But the installation of the fence will

[47:43] not impede the water from moving through should there be a heavy rain or

[47:48] something. Correct. Based on based on current current site conditions and what

[47:54] is proposed. If for some reason there is an issue, this agreement allows that

[47:58] fence to be removed at the owner's cost. >> Okay. Thank you.

[48:08] » No other questions. Any questions from the public on these agreements?

[48:14] If not, I'd look for a motion first on agreement 584.

[48:22] » Motion to approve uh agreement 584 for 213 East 6 Street storm the storm water

[48:27] agreement. >> Second.

[48:31] » All those in favor? >> I I

[48:33] » opposed. We'll move on to 585. I move to approve agreement 585

[48:41] which is uh for 208 East 6th Street storm water agreement.

[48:46] » Second. >> All those in favor?

[48:48] » I I >> I.

[48:49] » Okay. Both agreements pass. Okay. So, the next thing on our agenda

[48:55] is the consent agenda. Are there any items within the consent agenda that any

[49:01] council members would like to pull out for additional conversation during I

[49:06] think we pull those out to the subcommittee reports. Is that correct?

[49:11] Yes, that would be them. >> I I would like to pull out the uh

[49:16] special events the number three the downtown lit second Saturdays. Just want

[49:19] some clarification. >> Oh, that sounds great. We'll pull that

[49:21] out to the streets and traffic report. >> Okay. Any other items?

[49:29] If not, I'd look for a motion to approve the consent agenda this evening.

[49:34] » Move to approve consent agenda. >> Second.

[49:37] » All those in favor? >> I

[49:39] » opposed. Okay. Consent agenda passes. We will move into the treasures report.

[49:45] Rob.

[49:49] » Uh, thanks Scott. Uh, everybody has the, uh, treasures report there in front of

[49:52] them, a hard copy. Um just one thing to pull out. If you look at the uh revenues

[49:58] in the general fund for the month of April, uh they outgainained our expenses

[50:04] and that trend continued down through all of our major funds, water fund,

[50:07] sewer fund, uh storm water drainage fund, etc. So, uh this is the first

[50:12] month that's happened. This is typical because of um taxes coming in, things of

[50:16] that nature. So, um nothing other than that to report um on the treasur's

[50:20] report. >> Thanks. Any questions for Rob?

[50:33] No. Think we would need a motion to approve one invoice that was separated.

[50:42] » Motion to approve the April DMA MS4 invoice.

[50:47] » Second. >> All those in favor? I

[50:50] » I recuse myself from that vote. approved. Next, we'll move on to council

[50:54] members forum. We have the first one, personnel and benefits.

[51:02] He has something for us on new officer hires.

[51:06] » Uh, thank you. Yes, the personnel and benefits committee conducted two

[51:10] interviews for two new police officers on April 21st, 2026.

[51:18] and Chief Han will provide more information about who they are and next

[51:21] steps.

[51:29] » Sure. >> So, uh the the two officers uh

[51:32] contingent upon council's approval would be uh officer Lewis Castillo. Uh he's

[51:38] technically a replacement for uh say recently retired a year ago Carrie Nye

[51:44] uh replacing that position. Then the second would be for Adam Webb who's

[51:49] would be a replacement for uh an officer who will be retiring at the end of this

[51:54] year who uh has completed by that point 27 years of service to the burrow. So uh

[52:01] both applicants have gone through the civil service process. They've been

[52:04] interviewed by civil service. They've undergone the written examination by

[52:08] civil service. They've completed all the civil service application procedures. uh

[52:13] they've uh successfully went through all the uh the PLA accreditation prehire

[52:18] standards that exist. They've gone through uh vetting by the subcommittee

[52:22] of personnel through interviewing. Um, so it's simply at the point now to um

[52:28] approve the the the offers uh with an officer starting uh first one starting

[52:33] June 1st of 2026 and with a uh a deferred hiring of the second uh

[52:39] starting around August 1st of 2026 as well. And again, they're not adding

[52:44] positions. They're simply replacing uh recently retired and soon to be retired

[52:49] officers.

[52:53] And these additions would have you at your full complement of officers then?

[52:58] » Correct. We uh I almost don't want to say this, but for the first time in

[53:02] about 5 years, we'll be back up to full staff. So, um I don't want to jinx it,

[53:06] but so this will get us back up to the uh the complement of authorized officers

[53:10] and back to full staffing after several years.

[53:19] Thank you for all the work that you put into

[53:22] bringing these candidates to us in addition to the work that the personnel

[53:25] committee and the civil service commission did. Really appreciate it.

[53:30] » And I just add, you know, both these officers uh have come to us with prior

[53:33] experience. You know, will be trained gone through our field training process.

[53:38] Um they'll have the probationary period. uh our team feels strongly that that

[53:42] again going back to what I spoke with in the report presentation they have the

[53:47] competency that the the technical skills but also they'll be a good fit for Liz

[53:51] they have uh personal and family connections to the community and uh we

[53:56] have every expectation that they'll fit in well with the department and well

[53:59] with the community.

[54:03] Yeah, I was privileged to be part of the personnel committee's interview with

[54:06] both officers and very impressed with who they are and their interest in this

[54:10] community. So, thank you for bringing qualified, capable people to us. So, I

[54:16] So, I'm uh making a motion to employ Lewis Castillo

[54:21] Castillo as a full-time Lisboro police officer detective June 1st, 2026.

[54:28] » Second. All those in favor? I >> I

[54:31] » opposed. Passes. >> I'm making a motion to employ Adam Webb

[54:37] as a full-time Lisboro police officer effective August 1st, 2026.

[54:43] » Second. >> All those in favor?

[54:45] » I passes.

[54:49] » Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you very much.

[54:55] » Our next subcommittee report is streets and traffic.

[55:00] Okay, I'm going to go back up to the um just

[55:03] wanted a little bit of clarification. Um chief

[55:08] on the down I shouldn't have let you sit down on the downtown lit uh second

[55:13] Saturday. I know there's three dates on there, but there's been some more

[55:17] information like a little update wanted to share.

[55:19] » Correct. So the history of this is the initial special line application was

[55:22] submitted with uh all the second Saturdays um but with only three of them

[55:28] that would request to close Juniper Lane from Broad Street here to about where

[55:33] Collusions front door. So it's a very short length of Juniper Lane. So

[55:38] initially what was presented in the application and what was initially to be

[55:41] considered under the consent agenda was only to close that small length of lane

[55:47] uh May, September, October. Uh since the agenda was published, there's been a uh

[55:52] a request for modification that would essentially include closing that short

[55:58] length of Juniper for all of the second Saturdays just for several hours during

[56:03] the daytime Saturday from May through December. So, um, the intent by pulling

[56:08] it off the sent agenda was not for the police department to signal any

[56:12] opposition for the request. Quite the opposite. You know, last year it worked

[56:16] well. There were zero issues. Um, it was simply just to make sure that council

[56:20] had the opportunity to to fully consider the the amended request and uh ask

[56:25] questions of either us or or I believe Jason's on the uh I don't mean to call

[56:29] you out, but the uh the committee for second Saturday is just to make sure

[56:33] that the conversations were happening uh to satisfy everybody's concern if there

[56:38] were any. >> Thank you.

[56:43] » Um anybody have any other questions about that? No. You said that last year

[56:48] there were no comments received, no concerns raised.

[56:54] Yeah. I have no >> nothing that made it through the police

[56:56] department and and you know there's a a lot of people that can tend to be in

[57:00] that area that sidewalk you turn on to Juniper Lane. So

[57:03] » really it one of the the main pieces of this is just a public safety piece to

[57:08] make sure that if somebody turns off at 501 on a Juniper Lane, they're not going

[57:12] to inadvertently encounter somebody. It's a narrow alley. um sidewalk space

[57:17] is narrow as well. So u that would be my position and the rationale for

[57:22] supporting it be matter of public safety and uh again last year it happened

[57:26] several times over the summer zero issues or complaint that made it back to

[57:29] us. >> Yep.

[57:32] I appreciate the opportunity to activate that space and get some more vibrant

[57:37] activities in our downtown.

[57:42] Make a motion for this because that separate

[57:44] » Yeah. on the on the the activity and then the closing.

[57:48] » Okay. I'd like to make a motion to uh approve the downtown lit second

[57:53] Saturday's Juniper Lane closures and um I don't have the all the exact dates

[58:00] » be May through December. >> Oh, that's right. Yes. May through

[58:03] second. >> Yes.

[58:06] » Second. >> All those in favor?

[58:09] » I I cares.

[58:13] » Thanks. maybe for a little bit.

[58:16] Stay close. >> You can get that bite and ride back.

[58:22] » All right. Um few things I wanted to share. So, as you recall last month, we

[58:26] discuss discussed the possibility of a traffic study on new and cedar. So, is

[58:31] it suggested that we looked uh the streets and traffic look at similar

[58:35] instru uh intersections to see if a bundled study would reduce could could

[58:39] reduce costs. So five were identified, but unlike New and Cedar, they have

[58:45] little to no crash history um and almost no public concern. So the only exception

[58:50] is Spruce and West Second, but PendOt uh Pendot has already selected this for

[58:56] pedestrian upgrades. And when was that going to happen?

[58:59] » So I think it's in the coming years. I don't have the exact date. Um but it's

[59:03] essentially it's going to be a lighted pedestrian sign that blinks uh when

[59:06] there's proximity to like a person going in. Um they reached out at the end of

[59:11] last year as seeing if we would support it. We indicated we would. Uh 28 sticks

[59:16] out of my mind as a possibility because of transportation projects take a while

[59:20] to move. Um but I can follow up uh with a status on that.

[59:24] » Okay. So given that and the cost involved, the

[59:28] bundled study doesn't appear to be offer any meaningful savings. Um it makes more

[59:34] sense to to most likely focus on the location where the there is a clear

[59:38] need. Um, as far as North Cedar Street, it's been a concern for years. We looked

[59:44] back at uh the residents raising issues at meetings um through direct contact

[59:50] with the burrow. Uh there was even letters to the editor about this this uh

[59:55] Cedar Street. So there is a history of also of handful of crashes um going back

[1:00:01] over 10 plus years. So the basics for the basics for a potential study would

[1:00:07] be twofold. to be an evaluation of the crash history and then the review of the

[1:00:11] intersection's geometric design which may present inherent risks to motorists.

[1:00:17] So with a combination of crashes, ongoing complaints, um near miss reports

[1:00:22] and part of that there's been definitely several times

[1:00:27] where I'm like, "Oh boy, that was pretty close." Um increased volume, cut through

[1:00:33] traffic. Uh it makes sense to move forward with the study to to better

[1:00:36] understand what if anything can be done to make this intersection more safe for

[1:00:40] our public. You guys have questions?

[1:00:51] Yes. So there's I know one of the concerns I believe last month was if

[1:00:55] there'd be enough justification for uh

[1:01:00] I don't even know call it I guess pedestrian improvement fourway

[1:01:04] improvement and think there's enough justify well

[1:01:10] we're just doing we're just looking for just a traffic study for the for the

[1:01:14] experts to tell us if there's any modifications that would if I'm saying

[1:01:19] this correctly um you know if if a four-way stop would if we meet enough

[1:01:26] criteria to to warrant that. So we feel at this point it's worth having

[1:01:34] a traffic study to tell to tell us >> okay

[1:01:36] » if there's any changes that we can do to modify that that whole inter

[1:01:44] asked the traffic and streets committee to come back to us with a recommendation

[1:01:48] on this and sounds like you have done that

[1:01:53] » I I work directioning

[1:01:58] Um, I have a question about the um the nature of the study. It says a four-way

[1:02:05] stop study study. So, if it doesn't warrant a four-way stop,

[1:02:12] will there be recommendations in the report for other things that we might

[1:02:17] consider doing in order to address the speeding

[1:02:22] um issue that has been brought to our attention, numerous near misses,

[1:02:29] increasing slight distance, things like that. or will it simply be a stop sign

[1:02:35] is warranted or not warranted? What I guess what's the extent of the the study

[1:02:41] that we're doing?

[1:02:45] » I mean the initial discussion was about stops but it can be something that could

[1:02:51] be part of the study is to look at is there traffic calming that can be worked

[1:02:54] into the into the immediate area or are there other ways to control your

[1:03:00] » we can request that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. >> It would be very similar to what was

[1:03:04] done on Sixth Street where there was a look at at what else might be able to be

[1:03:08] done there to calm traffic. >> Yeah. Okay. Is my concern is that

[1:03:13] because of the crash history as we've talked about there the limited crash

[1:03:18] history that we're spending money for a report that's not going to give us a

[1:03:24] warrant for a four-way stop. And so I'd like to at least have some additional

[1:03:30] recommendations or even combined with additional recommendations increasing

[1:03:37] the site distance there by extending the no parking zone perhaps. Um you know

[1:03:44] there are ways you can kind of chicane traffic. So you get parking on one side

[1:03:49] of the street and then switch it to the other side of the street. So it forces

[1:03:53] people to slow down a little bit. So, just other recommendations. I would hate

[1:03:57] to see us spend money to just find out that a four-way stop is not warranted.

[1:04:02] » Thank you, Mary. You put that better. That's what I was trying to go for. But

[1:04:08] » it sounds like we can kind of request what we're looking for. Yeah. Well, and

[1:04:14] I think also at the end of the day, the community is coming to us with issues

[1:04:18] and concerns and part of it is, you know, to your point, there's a cost

[1:04:23] associated with it, but >> we probably still need to do our due

[1:04:27] diligence and ask the questions if it warrants. And then then we can go to the

[1:04:31] community and say, you know what, there's not enough information to deem

[1:04:35] doing anything. And then we're at least doing our due diligence and uh

[1:04:40] responding, >> right? Thank you for looking into that

[1:04:43] for us. >> We have any questions about this in the

[1:04:48] audience comments? Anybody online?

[1:04:52] » There's one online. Yeah. Okay. It's uh >> it's Karen, so I'm going to unmute her

[1:04:56] here. Karen Wel,

[1:05:02] » you should be good. Karen, >> thank you. Rob, good evening, council

[1:05:05] members. Mr. Mayor, >> can you hear me?

[1:05:10] » Just a minute, Karen. I can't hear you. >> Okay, hang on. How about now?

[1:05:20] » Jeez. And I'm known for the loud voice. Ju just a minute.

[1:05:31] Try try something, Karen. Would it be now?

[1:05:35] » No. I hear it coming from somewhere. >> It's coming through the phone.

[1:05:43] Just a minute. You're coming through the phone with the camera.

[1:05:46] » Thank you. >> So, the audience can hear you, but we

[1:05:51] can't. >> Oh, for gosh sake.

[1:05:54] » We hear a little voice somewhere. Karen, >> this in the community that hosts rock

[1:05:59] lit. What's wrong with this picture?

[1:06:06] » Okay, Karen, we can hear you now. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor

[1:06:10] and council members. This is Karen Wyel, 202 North Cedar. Uh, as you know, we've

[1:06:16] had a bit of an event at our home this last month, and uh, things are

[1:06:21] progressing well. Um, I I do not totally disagree with a study for a four-way

[1:06:30] stop at Cedar and New, but I don't think it's going to bring anybody any

[1:06:33] resolution to those folks who think a four-way stop is going to be helpful

[1:06:39] here. And that is because of the amount of um

[1:06:43] people who roll through stop signs. Mary, you brought that up last month and

[1:06:48] I see it every single day. um people who are speeding in town. Two

[1:06:52] weeks ago, somebody actually actually passed me going south on on

[1:06:58] Broad Street, passed me in the turning lane to get across to get forward of

[1:07:05] three cars. It it boggles the mind. So, there are a lot of traffic problems in

[1:07:11] town. We cannot deal with speeding as effectively as we would like to because

[1:07:17] we quite frankly are con we're curtailed by the state legislature who will not

[1:07:22] let our local uh police forces have um radar. And so until that is is settled

[1:07:32] uh hopefully sometime in the future it will be although we've been working on

[1:07:36] that for 40 years as as far as I can tell. Um, there are there are things

[1:07:43] that we can do in town that I think might be a better use of money than

[1:07:48] studying this specific uh intersection. Friday morning, this

[1:07:54] past Friday morning, there was an accident a block away from here at a

[1:07:59] four-way stop. Great visibility. Accidents happen. This is the human

[1:08:05] nature. Uh, what I would suggest is that you take a specific portion of the money

[1:08:10] that you would be throwing at a traffic study that we kind of know the answers

[1:08:14] to already and you would put that with funds from

[1:08:20] our police department to actually create an awareness and education campaign that

[1:08:26] speaks to rolling through stop signs, excessive speeds, not paying attention

[1:08:33] to pedestrians. In a month and a half, the kids are going to be out of school.

[1:08:37] Tourists have already started coming into the community as they do every

[1:08:41] year. We have pedest pedestrian safety to be cognizant of and to try to help

[1:08:48] help those folks trying to cross the street uh cross safely.

[1:08:53] Every time I stop at blinking lights in front of the park,

[1:08:59] I put on my brakes and I look behind me to see if I'm going to get rearended by

[1:09:05] somebody in back of me who's not paying attention because I'm paying attention

[1:09:08] to pedestrians. So, we really need to address these

[1:09:13] problems on a burrowwide and communitywide basis. We should be

[1:09:18] pulling in Warwick and the Northern uh Police Department. We need to really

[1:09:24] make this a communitywide effort to get people to slow down, pay attention and

[1:09:31] drive really, you know, in a much better way. Perhaps this goes back to the fact

[1:09:37] that schools don't teach driver's ed anymore. That's been about 25 years. I

[1:09:43] think uh mayor probably knows. uh but really I think there are better ways to

[1:09:48] spend this money and to make it a more holistic uh approach and to be to the

[1:09:54] betterment of the entire community. That's it and I thank you very much for

[1:09:59] your time. >> Thank you Karen.

[1:10:04] » Can I take a minute and respond to that? Go ahead.

[1:10:08] So, I think that's what I was getting at in really questioning the use of this

[1:10:13] funding for a study is um Chief, you talked about education,

[1:10:19] engineering, and enforcement. We can do so much with engineering. We

[1:10:25] can, you know, put stripes perhaps on the pavement to get people to slow down.

[1:10:31] We can do better um uh the piano key crosswalks.

[1:10:37] We can do bumpouts. Some of the things that we're talking about doing over on

[1:10:41] Sixth Street. All of those things cost money. And we also know that some of

[1:10:47] those things do slow people down. Um there are um what they call paint and

[1:10:54] pole um treatments that they use. Uh you may

[1:10:59] see them if you go into Lancaster where they're putting them at intersections to

[1:11:03] keep cars away from the intersection, increase visibility.

[1:11:08] Um the other thing as Karen said is the education piece of it and honestly it's

[1:11:14] a culture change. It's getting people to slow down, respect other road users.

[1:11:19] It's not an easy thing but just raising awareness about that through education.

[1:11:24] I you know I would and and then there's the

[1:11:29] enforcement. I just looked up where we are with the there again there is a bill

[1:11:34] in front of the legislature about allowing local municipalities to use

[1:11:38] radar if we could get some legs on behind that.

[1:11:43] They haven't wanted to move with it. Senator Malone, I don't know if you

[1:11:46] talked to him about that re just recently, but you know there there is

[1:11:51] legislation in introduced every session to allow radar and one of these times

[1:11:57] they've got to they've got to move it in our favor. Um

[1:12:03] so personally I would be much m more in favor of using our limited dollars for

[1:12:09] something like that.

[1:12:14] that point.

[1:12:18] » Sure. >> So, I I do want to just highlight uh a

[1:12:21] lot of um those directed enforcements are already happening. We get quite a

[1:12:25] bit of grant stream funding to take officers and specifically detail them to

[1:12:30] traffic safety initiatives. So, these aren't officers that are working and and

[1:12:34] trying to split that responsibility with handling calls, whatever else is

[1:12:37] happening. Um so we do get quite a bit of grant funding. We do have uh quite a

[1:12:42] bit of participation in uh focusing on areas such as impaired driving detection

[1:12:46] enforcement, aggressive driving which kind of bundle stop signs, speeding, you

[1:12:51] know, aggressive lane changes, those types of things. Um as well as

[1:12:55] pedestrian safety and high visibility. So all that stuff already is happening

[1:12:59] and and again to go back to the annual report where, you know, there's a

[1:13:02] 10-year decline in crashes. I certainly would suggest that we're making headway

[1:13:07] on that to the point where I I I don't know that it's realistic to expect that

[1:13:12] you're reducing the crash crash risk to zero because there's always going to be

[1:13:16] the human element that you can't control. Um but I just wanted to make

[1:13:20] sure that it was understood just very generally that that through the state

[1:13:24] funding um you know we have officers participating in all the things that

[1:13:29] that Karen suggested which are all good things u because it allows the officers

[1:13:32] to dedicate their time to those activities as opposed to being something

[1:13:37] they're doing in a little bit of downtime on a regular patrol shift. So

[1:13:40] those directed enforcements have been happening. Um, again, we look at the

[1:13:45] data to tell us where the crashes are happening, why they're happening, so

[1:13:48] that we're making the best and most efficient use of our officers, and the

[1:13:51] time that we're putting into these efforts. So, I just wanted to highlight

[1:13:54] that just to make sure it was understood.

[1:13:57] Thanks for your feedback. Yeah, I think we have a comment. If you could

[1:14:04] come up to the microphone.

[1:14:09] » Hello. Uh, my name is Chris McIn. I live at 131 North Cedar Street. Uh so in

[1:14:14] between new and front street uh I I I personally support this type of study.

[1:14:20] Um I live there for a few months now. Uh I

[1:14:25] walk to the laundromat cuz I don't have laundry machines and it's perilous

[1:14:30] sometimes. like sometimes your laundry runs out a little late into the night

[1:14:33] and sun's starting to set and you're just like h but I I do support this kind

[1:14:37] of study just because of the high volume and hearing people rip down the street

[1:14:41] is not pleasant nor is it safe. I know that kids walk home from school on the

[1:14:48] street. I'm not saying I necessarily support a uh a four-way stop. I I'm I I

[1:14:54] support looking at the street as a whole. I've been on streets in New York

[1:14:59] City with le traffic that come down North Seer Street and like uh on the on

[1:15:04] the part of like the policing and stuff and education, it really just seems like

[1:15:09] people don't care. Anyone that's just and I I don't feel that my peace and

[1:15:13] safety should be up to people that are trying to shave a minute off their

[1:15:17] commute to get home. Um, I understand that enforcement is limited, but I also

[1:15:22] understand humans just the people that come down that street that don't live

[1:15:26] there do not care. And it it's it's pretty obvious. And it it I I don't know

[1:15:33] how else to relay it. They just do not care. Uh, so like checks or anything to

[1:15:39] like maybe slow people down. I I appreciate the police officers that roll

[1:15:43] down my street at the speed limit cuz it doesn't shake my house, which is

[1:15:47] fantastic. And I I think I think you guys can agree that nobody should not

[1:15:52] want to be in their house. Correct. Everyone deserves some type of peace. I

[1:15:58] work 10 to 11 hours a day. I come home and you know what I did yesterday? I cut

[1:16:03] grass in order to drown out the amount of traffic that rolls by my house. I

[1:16:08] don't want to cut my lawn, but you know, I do it. Uh, but I I guarantee you if

[1:16:14] any of you spent any amount of time in my house,

[1:16:18] you would find it unreasonable to just sit there and listen to what

[1:16:22] equates to a two-lane highway. I know I've said that before, but it does turn

[1:16:26] into two-lane highway sometimes, and people just do not care. My parents came

[1:16:31] to visit me last month and my mom had her hip replaced. So, we had to pull up

[1:16:35] to the house on the side of the street and she's getting out of the car. Some

[1:16:40] dude just whizzes by going well over 25. So, I I'm just trying to relay the point

[1:16:45] that the people that come down that road do not care. Uh, and I do support a

[1:16:51] study. Sorry. I'm very passionate about this.

[1:16:54] » Yeah. Thanks for your feedback. >> Thank you.

[1:16:58] Anybody else?

[1:17:03] » We got two more.

[1:17:14] I think of the three E that the chief referenced. I think there

[1:17:19] I don't know that a study is what's needed to get to the engineering part.

[1:17:23] whether it's just the police could could make recommendations as to what could be

[1:17:27] done that that section but I I think that particular intersection especially

[1:17:31] that that stretch of North Cedar some engineering changes need to be made

[1:17:36] in order in order to in order to reduce reduce speed and increase safety and so

[1:17:42] whether it's the study or whether it's recommendations from the police I think

[1:17:45] you know communitywide education is really important on speed we are seeing

[1:17:50] a reduc reduction of of accidents across the burrow. This is a particular hot

[1:17:55] spot and and the neighbors are very concerned and we need to demonstrate

[1:17:58] that we're taking it seriously and that and that m that there are mitigation

[1:18:03] efforts that we we can do. Just a question of how we get there, whether it

[1:18:06] needs to be a study or or or recommendations from the chief and you

[1:18:10] know between the between the committee and the chief, I'm sure you can work out

[1:18:13] what's the best next step. But the engineering of that intersection needs

[1:18:17] to be addressed as much as communitywide education about speeding overall.

[1:18:22] Thanks, Tom. Yeah. Do we have another hand in the back?

[1:18:37] » There's a there's a toolbox of traffic control, traffic calming measures that

[1:18:42] are out there. Those are those are one of them. There's pluses and minus to

[1:18:46] minuses to all of them. There's pluses and minuses to those. But I think what

[1:18:49] we've talked about tonight is is looking to authorize the traffic engineer to

[1:18:54] look at the intersection for for the geometric concerns and the safety

[1:18:59] concerns at it and to look at traffic calming measures in that area. how we

[1:19:04] might be able to that's again there's a toolbox that you can go to to pull out

[1:19:09] traffic calming measures um to to look at to help address the concerns that

[1:19:15] we've heard tonight and over the many months before this

[1:19:22] » and if we would do a traffic study uh the work that the chief has done with

[1:19:27] his officers would continue ongoing education so maybe the two

[1:19:33] wrong approach which would help solve some of the problems.

[1:19:36] » Sure. Yeah. I think all three all three of those those

[1:19:40] steps that the chief outlined in his study and what we talked about here, the

[1:19:44] three E are what we're looking at, not exclusive to one or two of them, but to

[1:19:48] try and utilize the whole the whole uh collection to get to where we have a

[1:19:54] safer condition. And um again, I think it was mentioned by one of the other

[1:19:58] members sort of the due diligence of of this group and of the streets and

[1:20:01] traffic to make sure that we we look at what we can do to address these concerns

[1:20:05] that have consistently been brought up about this this stretch of roadway.

[1:20:11] » Anybody else? All right. Make a motion. um like to

[1:20:19] make a motion to approve. We'll just call a traffic study um for the North

[1:20:24] Cedar and North New Street intersection. >> I have a motion. Do I have a second?

[1:20:29] » Second. >> Was in favor? I

[1:20:31] » I >> I

[1:20:32] » opposed. Passes. Thank you very much. >> Right. I just want to give you two

[1:20:37] updates. Um from streets and traffic. So, West Main Street, the water man

[1:20:42] replacement is finished. Um, public works is installing a new fire hydrant

[1:20:46] this week and they expect the road to be open by Friday. Don't hold us to it, but

[1:20:51] that's what we're going for. Um, so while the road is opened, the trench

[1:20:55] that they dug is going to be filled with stone top and that has to sit for some

[1:21:00] time and then the restoration of the trench will occur most likely the end of

[1:21:04] May. So, one more thing, streets, uh, front street paving. Just wanted to get

[1:21:10] an up give you an update on that too. uh contract indicates that paving cannot

[1:21:14] start until after school is out. So curbs will will be replaced first and

[1:21:19] then the paving will begin and the project is is uh needs to be completed

[1:21:24] prior to the school starting the end of August

[1:21:27] and that's all we've got from streets and traffic.

[1:21:30] » Great. Thanks for the updates. And maybe as a little clarification on West Main

[1:21:34] Street, this this patching and settling will be what we'll we'll have for the

[1:21:39] rest of 26. And then in 27, the road will be rebuilt. So, it'll be a little

[1:21:45] bumpy for a spell until until that all has a chance to to settle and and and be

[1:21:50] ready for some rework next year. You'll see a smooth road there. Great. I think

[1:21:57] » Oh, question in the rear. Oh.

[1:22:01] Um they're going to go from Cedar the whole way to the end by the school

[1:22:09] » township line. Yes. Sure.

[1:22:15] » No other questions. Okay. We're going to move on to uh buildings and grounds and

[1:22:20] we're going to have an update on our front desk hours by Rob

[1:22:28] » Derry. Sorry, >> confront that. Yes, there's been some

[1:22:32] transition going on in our receptionist u position and the staff has taken a

[1:22:37] look at uh the future of that position and deciding that that position can be

[1:22:43] part-time. Uh as a result of that, we're going to

[1:22:46] be changing the office hours uh for uh that area for people to come in. I think

[1:22:53] Rob can give us an update on what that would look like.

[1:22:57] » Yeah. Yeah. So, the um the reception the person who sits at the reception area um

[1:23:02] will be Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. um or someone actually

[1:23:09] being there at the desk. The offices are still open Monday through Friday 8 to 4,

[1:23:13] but for someone at the desk Monday through Friday, 10 to 1:30.

[1:23:22] Are there any questions regarding that change or update?

[1:23:27] No. Okay. Keep moving along. We have subcommittee report on storm water.

[1:23:36] Yeah. Thank you. Um what I want to present you with tonight is an

[1:23:39] opportunity to become a partner with the Lancaster Cleanwater Partners. The

[1:23:45] Lancaster Cleanwater Partners were formed uh probably almost 10 years ago

[1:23:52] now. Um they work under a um model of collective impact bringing together

[1:23:59] people from across the county who are wa working towards clean water. They

[1:24:04] mobilize collaborative partnerships, deploy countywide strategy for clean

[1:24:08] water in compliance with the Chesapeake Bay Agreement. Um acquire adequate

[1:24:14] sustained funding and share countywide progress.

[1:24:19] um to become a member is pretty simple. B or to become a partner. There's no

[1:24:24] cost involved. Um it's a pretty simple process of um filling out a form telling

[1:24:31] them why we're interested in becoming a partner. Um, in exchange as a partner,

[1:24:37] we receive communications consultation, promotion on their website, um,

[1:24:44] materials for promoting water quality work and involvement with the other

[1:24:47] partners, training and facilitation, which will be of value to, um, our

[1:24:53] environmental coordinator and the community as a whole. Um, and then, uh,

[1:24:59] just some regular updates and things like that. So, there's really no

[1:25:03] downside to doing this except for maybe full email boxes or m more full email

[1:25:10] boxes. Um, but it's a great um organization who is doing a lot of work

[1:25:16] at both the state and the national level bringing funding into the community to

[1:25:21] help with the many projects that we need to undertake in order to protect our

[1:25:26] local streams and waters. So, um I wanted to bring this to you all tonight.

[1:25:31] Um hopefully you've had a chance to look over some of the information and I would

[1:25:36] like to make a motion that the burrow become a partner um to the clean water

[1:25:41] partners and authorize um Elijah and Jordan to work on

[1:25:46] submitting the partner um sign up form. >> Thank you for bringing that to us

[1:25:52] tonight. So we have a motion. Do we have a second on that motion?

[1:25:55] » Second. >> All those in favor?

[1:25:57] » I I >> approved.

[1:25:59] » Thank you. Anything else on storm water this evening?

[1:26:02] » Um yeah, just real quick. Um this is storm water but um in a roundabout way.

[1:26:09] Um we are um as part of the Lancaster County Water Week um which is uh the

[1:26:17] first full week of June. We're offering um tours of the wastewater treatment

[1:26:22] plant to the public. I think I mentioned this last month, but you can sign up to

[1:26:27] take a tour of the plant. Um, and those are going to be offered at 10:00 a.m. on

[1:26:34] June 9th. I see lots of interesting reactions out there to this. Um, 10:00

[1:26:41] June 9th or um 400 p.m. on June 11th. There are only 10 spaces for each tour,

[1:26:50] so sign up quickly. go to Lancaster Water Week. Just put that into your

[1:26:55] search engine and you'll come up with a list of all of the activities happening

[1:26:59] across the county. You will certainly find other things you might want to do

[1:27:05] um to get out and enjoy uh our waterways and um the great quality of life and

[1:27:12] assets that we have here in the county. But the wastewater treatment plant tour

[1:27:16] is going to be the highlight. I'm just telling you. So, sign up quickly.

[1:27:22] Quite honestly, it's fascinating. I was I was blown away walking through

[1:27:27] that and and seeing the process. It's it's it's really neat to hear what all

[1:27:31] goes on and and what it takes to clean the water and keep us in in good

[1:27:37] standing and good health. So, it's awesome.

[1:27:42] » Thank you for that endorsement because I I saw some faces out there that I'm not

[1:27:46] No, seriously. Um yeah. So, thank you all. We'll be doing a little bit of

[1:27:51] social media probably about that to get the word out if you don't all take up

[1:27:55] all the empty spaces. We don't want to promote it if you've already all signed

[1:28:00] up. So, >> thank you. We're going to move on to

[1:28:05] reports by the mayor and the chief of police. We'll start with the mayor this

[1:28:08] evening. >> Thank you, President Hayne. Uh you may

[1:28:11] recall that in December, uh the council and the mayor at that time entered into

[1:28:16] a sister city agreement with Freeport, Illinois. Uh, it's my honor to invite

[1:28:21] Mayor Tim Snyder forward uh to give us an update on what's happened since that

[1:28:26] time.

[1:28:48] uh on um yeah that would be April 14th uh Tim Connor from our sister city which

[1:28:58] we approved back in December uh of Freeport, Illinois presented us with

[1:29:04] this key to his city. And so I propose that so that we can hold this up and

[1:29:11] people know what it's about, we could hang it on the wall here that uh the

[1:29:16] mayor and I get together and get a a plaque together and which I'll

[1:29:23] take care of and uh you can hang it on and we we know that we are sister cities

[1:29:29] with free Freeport, Illinois. Now just so you know what we gave them and what

[1:29:34] I'm going to send

[1:29:41] since we got together because they call themselves Pretzel City USA

[1:29:46] and uh we are the first commercial pretzel bakery in thei in America. Uh we

[1:29:53] made a a pretzel out of uh out of a pretzel

[1:29:59] » pretzel dough. So this is what we made. But I am uh we are what can I say? uh

[1:30:05] refining it to get it to be able to put on a plaque to send out.

[1:30:11] So, we'll get one that uh it fits a plaque and is

[1:30:16] a little bit flatter so to fit on the plaque. But anyways, that's that's

[1:30:21] what's going on. We had a very nice meeting with uh

[1:30:26] Tim Connor uh from Freeport, Illinois, and I plan on making another trip out

[1:30:32] there at some point. and they're getting through this whole thing. They're

[1:30:36] getting uh they have started up another pretzel bakery and uh so things are

[1:30:42] moving forward that uh we can help each other down the road. So that's all I

[1:30:48] have to say. Do you have anything else?

[1:30:52] » Uh the activities are not going to don't end with the exchange of keys. Uh we

[1:30:57] continue to work with the mayor uh to plan some activities for next year as

[1:31:00] well during next year's pretzel fest. This year's pretzel fest is actually

[1:31:04] this coming Saturday. Uh but that's not we need a little more time to get

[1:31:08] organized with Freeport Illinois, but look forward to 2027 pretzel fest with

[1:31:13] for additional activities.

[1:31:19] » Give something to the mayor. Uh we have some they made some uh t-shirts out

[1:31:23] already that had us called us uh yeah twisted sisters.

[1:31:29] So, we we have a t-shirt and I'll give that to John to show you the next time

[1:31:34] that comes in. >> Thank you.

[1:31:36] » Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you.

[1:31:40] » Um, on another subject, uh, you may recall a few weeks ago that the, um,

[1:31:46] Chief Smith from the War Education, I'm sorry, the War Emergency Services

[1:31:50] Commission, my education days, I put those behind me now. Um so from west uh

[1:31:54] made a presentation here uh talking about the uh and specifically the litz

[1:32:00] uh fire company at that time. Uh and I could tell speak for myself. Um I

[1:32:05] learned a lot of things on that particular presentation and one uh just

[1:32:09] the sheer um the amazing staff what amazing volunteers that we have here in

[1:32:15] our in our community. uh the amount of time and dedication they put forward uh

[1:32:19] to protect the property and lives of our residents is just phenomenal. Uh the

[1:32:24] amount of training they go through, incredible. Uh and the performance um

[1:32:28] that chief shared with us their performance statistics uh and I just sat

[1:32:32] here in awe listening to all that realize not realizing what a gem we have

[1:32:36] here in our community that sometimes I think is just taken for granted. Um, the

[1:32:41] other thing I think that stood out for me at that time is that this is a

[1:32:46] organization, the fire company, that's funded almost entirely on public

[1:32:50] donations. Um, not on tax dollars. Uh, these are volunteers, volunteers who

[1:32:56] give so much their time to keep us community safe. Um, and yet over years

[1:33:01] and years, it looks like the donations that come in from the community have

[1:33:04] been fairly stagnant. Uh and while the donations have been stagnant, the cost

[1:33:09] of those fire trucks and the equipment is just astronomical and increasing at

[1:33:14] rates that we can't keep up with. Uh so realizing that international I'm sorry

[1:33:21] national international firefighters day is actually May 3rd seemed like a

[1:33:26] perfect opportunity to pass or issue a proclamation declaring uh fire

[1:33:33] firefighters appreciation day firefighter appreciation week from May

[1:33:37] 3rd to May 9th and asking the public for two things. one to show appreciation and

[1:33:43] thanks uh to all these volunteers who give so much of their time for us to

[1:33:48] protect us. Uh and two um call upon our businesses and all our residents to see

[1:33:54] if we can have an increased contributions and donations uh for these

[1:33:59] folks. Um right now only about 25% of our community is making donations to our

[1:34:04] fire company. Um and that just seems low to me and I wonder if we can't get that

[1:34:09] number up. Uh so uh during firefighters appreciation week I'm call I hope

[1:34:14] everyone takes the time to realize you know what a amazing company we have here

[1:34:19] in litz and show them the appreciation that they deserve. Um and whether that's

[1:34:24] just a a simple thank you uh or more importantly perhaps open your wallet up

[1:34:28] and make those donations to keep these uh companies um doing the incredible

[1:34:33] things that they do. It just so happens also coincidentally the annual fund

[1:34:37] drive just kicked off this week. Uh so that wasn't coordinated. That's just all

[1:34:42] coincidence. So it just seems like all the stars are aligning uh for us, this

[1:34:46] community to make a push to help our fire company.

[1:34:49] » Thank you. >> It was a great report tonight.

[1:34:54] Going to have to ask the chief if he has anything else to say to us tonight.

[1:35:00] Last thing I promise

[1:35:07] couple items in the uh the monthly chief's report. Uh the next slide. So

[1:35:12] back in January of this year, we had an outside and independent team of

[1:35:17] accreditation assessors come and reassess our department to determine our

[1:35:23] eligibility for reacredititation. So, uh, a little bit of history. We've been

[1:35:27] accredited, uh, through the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission

[1:35:31] of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police since February of 2008.

[1:35:37] Uh, every 3 years, we're required to go through a reacredititation process where

[1:35:40] that team comes out, they examine a lot of different things to make sure that

[1:35:45] we're meeting the standards. uh back in 2022, so three years ago when

[1:35:50] we got reacreditited, uh we achieved the highest tier of accreditation possible

[1:35:55] in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is called premier status. Um at

[1:35:59] that time, we were the the first and the only burrow police department in the

[1:36:04] Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to achieve that top tier level of accreditation.

[1:36:08] So back in January, the assessors had came back in. They examined uh over a

[1:36:14] thousand different proofs of compliance that we'd offered them over the last

[1:36:18] three years to establish our policies, our procedures. Uh the way that we're

[1:36:23] doing business meets or exceeds the accreditation standards. They inspected

[1:36:27] our facility. They interviewed staff members and officers. Um, out of those

[1:36:33] approximately 1,000 roofs that we offered, they returned just one or a a

[1:36:39] minor uh adjustment to show what they wanted to see. It was adjusted within a

[1:36:46] matter of minutes. Um, so I think it's important to highlight that minus just

[1:36:50] one small adjustment. A thousand different proofs that we offer them were

[1:36:54] found to be fully compliant, meeting or exceeding the the accreditation uh

[1:36:58] standards. So last week, our leadership team went uh before the the commission

[1:37:02] of the Pennsylvania Chiefs. Uh unanimously, the the commission voted to

[1:37:07] not only reacredit the agency, but also to reacreditit the agency as a premier

[1:37:11] status. Um what I want to call out is that premier status designation

[1:37:16] is only bestowed upon about 4% of all law enforcement agencies across the

[1:37:21] Commonwealth. So depending on how you do the math and what you classify as a

[1:37:24] police department, there's,00 to,200 police departments in the Commonwealth.

[1:37:28] Uh and again only 4% of them have achieved that top tier level of

[1:37:32] accreditation. So I wanted to call it out. It couldn't have been done without

[1:37:37] the the work that our officers and our staff do every day. The support from the

[1:37:40] community, the elected leadership and and staff and everything that that goes

[1:37:44] into making the police department not only function effectively but

[1:37:48] efficiently. So uh accreditation has been a long passion of mine. uh

[1:37:52] maintaining this top tier level and getting reacredited again for another

[1:37:57] three years at that level is is something that we're all very proud of

[1:38:00] and I wanted to share that. >> Thank you and congratulations.

[1:38:05] » Thank you again. >> Well, thank you.

[1:38:07] » Yeah. So the last thing I had with this month's report, I I I just wanted to to

[1:38:11] put out u looking back at quarter 1 of 2026, doing a a comparative analysis

[1:38:17] that same first quarter of 25 and 24, looking at uh paid overtime and and some

[1:38:23] of the internal strategies that we've implemented to uh

[1:38:27] manage and and address the the overtime. Um if you look at the the last three

[1:38:32] years, the first quarter of the last three years, that bar chart on the left,

[1:38:36] you can see uh the data is visualized as far as uh the drastic reduction in the

[1:38:41] overtime for that first quarter. Um the trend line indicates that the the bar

[1:38:45] I'm sorry, the pie chart in the right, the the green shade uh represents

[1:38:50] overtime that is fully or partially reimbursed back to the burrow. So about

[1:38:56] 44% of the first quarter overtime for this year those costs have been

[1:39:01] recovered um minimizing obviously the the financial impact to the burough

[1:39:06] taxpayer. So if you move on to the next slide it just details some of the key

[1:39:10] outcomes. So if you look at first quarter 2026 compare that to first

[1:39:13] quarter 2024 uh there's about an 80% reduction. You look at first quarter

[1:39:19] 2026, compare that to the same first quarter 2025, about a 73% reduction. And

[1:39:26] then again to reiterate, about 44% of all that overtime cost has been

[1:39:30] recovered back into the uh the burrow. Um and how we did it, um staffing

[1:39:36] stabilization certainly played a key role in that. optimizing staffing. So

[1:39:42] identifying where uh shortages in the staffing

[1:39:46] on the schedule existed. Looking at ways to leverage uh other options within the

[1:39:50] schedule to fill those shifts without the use of overtime, lateral movements,

[1:39:55] temporary reassignments of functions on a short-term basis to fill those gaps.

[1:40:00] Uh internal management prerogatives. A lot of the overtime and the the

[1:40:04] employment and scheduling issues, if you will. um my hands are

[1:40:10] tied by collective bargaining by the federal fair labor and standards act.

[1:40:14] However, outside of that, there are management prerogatives that I can put

[1:40:17] into place, internal policies, internal procedures, and uh management

[1:40:22] prerogative decisions that we can put into place to um identify areas in which

[1:40:28] the schedule can be optimized, looking at efficiencies to be less reliant upon

[1:40:32] overtime and still ensuring the the adequate staffing that's needed to to

[1:40:36] protect the burrow. And again, any good system needs some sort of monitoring and

[1:40:40] tracking piece to it to make sure that the the policies, the initiatives that

[1:40:44] we put forward are actually in doing what we intended them to do. So, um

[1:40:50] monitoring um that with the the prerogatives, the the policies,

[1:40:55] everything that we've put into place over the last year to ensure that we've

[1:40:58] achieved the desired outcomes, coordinating with the burough leadership

[1:41:01] to make sure that our decision-m internally aligns with council and the

[1:41:05] burough's vision of of how the police department needs to be run from a

[1:41:09] financial standpoint. And uh I wanted to share the statistics because I I think

[1:41:13] it's important to highlight uh some of the efforts that have been done and show

[1:41:18] kind of a short history of um you know where we've come in the last three

[1:41:23] years. So that was it. I I know I spoke a lot tonight so I appreciate bearing

[1:41:27] with me but if there's any questions on this please let me know or anything else

[1:41:31] related to the police department.

[1:41:35] » Any questions? just one the 44% of overtime where was recovered where how

[1:41:41] was it recovered? >> Uh so uh pursuing grant streams um

[1:41:45] examining current uh billing and cost sharing agreements that we have with

[1:41:50] different entities providing police services. So those are kind of the two

[1:41:54] big buckets if you will and uh again looking at

[1:41:58] » data that accounts for almost half of the overtime that we can recover just

[1:42:02] using those two strategies alone. >> Okay. Thank you.

[1:42:05] » Yeah. And all this relates to one of our guiding principles. I keep bringing

[1:42:08] those up. We safeguard public resources and act by fiscally responsible. Thank

[1:42:15] you for helping us achieve one of the principles.

[1:42:18] » Thank you. >> Thanks.

[1:42:25] We have reports from our managing directors. Do either of you have

[1:42:29] something to add? >> Uh I'll just say the runabout line is

[1:42:33] moving forward. uh got the most recent uh estimate from Norfolk Southern and

[1:42:38] provided that to our state grant consultant. Norfol Southern wants to go

[1:42:40] to a pre-bid meeting and we just have to get the sign offs from the state to make

[1:42:44] sure we're reimbursed for it. So at this point it's waiting to hear back from the

[1:42:48] state consultants to see if they need any additional information. Um but it

[1:42:52] could happen this year. Great. >> So that's great. Uh the other thing is I

[1:42:56] want to put a plug that the Lancaster County's transportation improvement

[1:42:59] program is going to be uh public on Friday which is May 1st. It'll be open

[1:43:04] for public comment from May 1st to May 30th. I encourage everyone out there to

[1:43:09] go comment and in support the uh the tip because right now there is about a

[1:43:14] million dollars programmed for trail construction is my understanding. If you

[1:43:18] look at it on Friday and for some reason it's not there, then your comment should

[1:43:22] be why isn't there trail construction funding for let it on on the tip. Um but

[1:43:26] that'll be up for public comment. They'll be voting on that in June and

[1:43:29] that would be earmarked for uh 29 and 30. So, a few years out, so things are

[1:43:34] starting to line up. Uh, hopefully things keep moving in the right

[1:43:37] direction. >> Great, great news. Thanks for the

[1:43:40] update.

[1:43:43] » Um, on my reports, uh, page one, letter A, number five, I just wanted to call

[1:43:48] your attention to that. Um, we have, uh, identified seven properties that are in

[1:43:53] Warwick Township, uh, that dump into our sewer main. So starting in 2027 when we

[1:43:58] do our flow reconciliation reports um those .eduus will be subtracted off of

[1:44:04] our flow. It doesn't um have any impact on obviously the direct flow at the

[1:44:08] plant. It's strictly financial um for those seven properties um being

[1:44:13] deducted. >> Any idea what we're looking at

[1:44:16] moneywise? >> I don't because it's it's on flow.

[1:44:19] » Okay. >> So it'll it'll be in the flow rec

[1:44:22] reconciliation reports. Okay. >> Um I wouldn't think it'd be substantial,

[1:44:25] but it's something >> something.

[1:44:26] » Yep. >> Um the other thing that is not in

[1:44:31] report, but just want to make you aware of the week of May 18th, we'll be

[1:44:36] completing our final stage of the Northern Interceptor

[1:44:42] uh lining. That was the last part of our portion of the Langster County ARPA

[1:44:47] grant that we got three years ago. Uh so May 18th that'll happen. will be lining

[1:44:52] the sewer interceptor from basically Oak Street

[1:44:57] um back right parallel to Litz Run Creek over to the fish hatchery is where we'll

[1:45:01] be we'll be lining and then um the road will be closed too lit road will be

[1:45:05] closed there for a day or two while they're doing that work. That's it.

[1:45:09] Great. Hey, thanks for your report. Any questions on the reports?

[1:45:15] If not, we'll move on to our second to last item. Is there any public comment

[1:45:19] from anyone that's in the audience this evening?

[1:45:24] No. Okay. Any I have a comment here to my

[1:45:30] right. >> Um just want to uh bring up the April

[1:45:36] 30th regional partners meeting and Elijah are you able to give some quick

[1:45:42] details on that? Um >> beyond that, it's uh the it's the

[1:45:48] elected officials of the uh the three municipalities that make up our regional

[1:45:52] comp plan are invited as well as the school district. It'll be hosted at

[1:45:56] Elizabeth Township uh at 7 p.m. So that'll be Thursday night.

[1:46:01] » And I presume a um number of council members will be attending. I don't know.

[1:46:07] I do plan to go.

[1:46:12] » Okay. Anything else? I think we have one last thing to do

[1:46:17] this evening. I look for one more motion.

[1:46:19] » Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor?

[1:46:24] Okay. Thank you. >> Second. Wait. Read the second.

April 2026 Lititz Borough Council Meeting

Transcript