[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.