1 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:53,040 This is the August 17th, 2026 New Garden Township Board of Supervisors 2 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:56,040 meeting. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. 3 00:01:56,799 --> 00:02:05,759 to the flag of America to the republic for it stands 4 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:11,280 one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all 5 00:02:09,119 --> 00:02:17,520 the board held an executive session at 6:30 prior to this meeting. Next we move 6 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:21,840 into the public comment stage of the uh meeting. So first we'll cover anything 7 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:26,239 that's not on the agenda. Again the uh there's a threem minute time limit. Does 8 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:32,360 any anybody have any comments they want to make regarding non-aggenda items or 9 00:02:28,959 --> 00:02:32,360 agenda items? 10 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:38,319 » Great. Moving into uh the minutes included in 11 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:43,120 the meeting materials or the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes 12 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,040 from the July 20th, 2026 meeting? >> I'll make a motion to approve the 13 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,800 minutes. >> Is there a second? 14 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,480 » Second. >> All in favor? 15 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:54,560 » I. >> Any opposed? Great. Treasures report. Uh 16 00:02:52,319 --> 00:02:57,560 we have unpaid invoices in the amount of $297,87146 17 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,879 and paid invoices in the amount of $498,69360. 18 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:11,680 Is there a motion to approve such paid and unpaid invoices? 19 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:15,360 » So move. I'll second. >> All in favor? I. 20 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:23,000 » Any opposed? Great. Um Chris, anything you want to 21 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:23,000 say in the monthly department report? 22 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:30,480 Uh, no. Nothing to brief in terms of um month overmonth changes for the monthly 23 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:36,400 director's report unless you have any questions. 24 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:41,040 » Okay, great. Moving into new business. Uh, first we'll talk about the zoning 25 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:44,159 hearing board application for 611 Hill Andale Road. I'll turn it over to Winnie 26 00:03:42,799 --> 00:03:48,599 for that. >> Thank you. I think Mr. Land is here. 27 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,040 » Good evening everyone. My name is Neil Land. I'm an attorney from Kennet Square 28 00:03:51,840 --> 00:04:00,120 and I'm here on behalf of your applicants to the zoning hearing board, 29 00:03:55,120 --> 00:04:00,120 Lisa [clears throat] and Ken Pratt. Um, 30 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,199 thank you. 31 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,560 » Thank you. 32 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,600 sir. 33 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:58,840 I have a plan. It's small. 34 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,800 » I have a small one. 35 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:27,000 That's right. 36 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:41,160 House right there in the second 37 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,720 Where you been, Tom? 38 00:05:47,919 --> 00:05:56,400 » Whoops. This is upside down. >> This is the existing. 39 00:05:52,400 --> 00:06:00,280 » This is existing. This is not here. The two proposal here. 40 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:10,680 That's actually the old house there. want to create another 41 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,680 purposed 42 00:06:26,639 --> 00:06:34,400 Um the reason for this 43 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:34,400 driveway 44 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,199 bunch of codes 45 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,319 need to be improved. 46 00:07:00,319 --> 00:07:09,599 Two variants both request that this not be an obligation. 47 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:13,360 They be allowed to create these two additional 48 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:18,039 addition without improving the broad 49 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:32,560 » but he notes that >> make sure we're speaking from 50 00:07:30,639 --> 00:07:39,840 microphones. Okay. Um the zoning officer notes that 51 00:07:36,479 --> 00:07:44,000 um that you're proposing to a lease to a cell tower company. 52 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,000 » Would that be using the same d the same driveway? 53 00:07:53,599 --> 00:07:56,599 » Okay. 54 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:16,520 if it's going to go in like 55 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:25,840 somewhere in that area. Again, this is this has not been agreed upon. What we 56 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:30,160 did I put in the application just so you all 57 00:08:27,599 --> 00:08:35,200 this property might be uh in a couple years. Um maybe where the the Pratts 58 00:08:32,399 --> 00:08:40,479 hope it is in a couple years. Um so but that is not part of our current 59 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:44,080 application and we do understand as does the the cell phone company that if they 60 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:47,120 want to move forward that they're probably going to be in front of you all 61 00:08:45,519 --> 00:08:51,360 getting whatever approvals they need at that time. 62 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:57,600 » The um the zoning officer recommended that the board support this application. 63 00:08:55,600 --> 00:09:00,240 I saw note that planning it also >> yeah has to support it. 64 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:04,320 » Yeah, >> it's a it's kind of unique because the 65 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:09,760 standards it's in the zoning ordinance but the standards are in the subdivision 66 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:14,880 ordinance but my view of the law is that the subdiv the zoning ordinance trumps. 67 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:18,000 So if you receive a variance from the zoning ordinance you do not have to 68 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:20,160 comply with the subdivision ordinance on this issue 69 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:22,160 » on this issue. That's correct. >> Your issue. 70 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:26,480 » Yes. And we understand there are other issues. We've spoken with Mr. where uh 71 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:31,279 that will be addressed through uh subdivision. Um and that is something 72 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:34,920 that we're aware of and we will address as it comes up. 73 00:09:37,839 --> 00:09:43,120 » So we should take a vote to approve the application. Okay. 74 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:47,680 » I'll support >> take no position or not support since 75 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:51,360 it's going in front of zoning hearing board 76 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:55,200 » for their final determination. So, is there a motion to support the 77 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:58,480 application for the property located at 611 Hillenddale Road? 78 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:01,200 » Yeah, I'll make a motion to support the application. 79 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,519 » All in favor? >> I. 80 00:10:01,519 --> 00:10:08,200 » Any opposed? Great. >> Great. Thank you very much for your 81 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:08,200 time. Thank you. 82 00:10:09,279 --> 00:10:15,279 » Next item is uh the data center curative amendment procedures. 83 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,440 » Yeah. >> So, I think Oh, you want to tackle this 84 00:10:16,959 --> 00:10:24,399 one or you good? >> I'll do this one. Um in July you adopt a 85 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:29,440 resol adopted a resolution in invoking the uh protection of the MPC curative 86 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:35,279 amendment provisions which required that within 30 days you say how you're going 87 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:43,120 to do that. So, this resolution 2026 outlines that requirement and 88 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:46,720 um concludes that um you you're going to authorize the township manager and 89 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:51,040 planning staff, the solicitor and the engineer to prepare a curative amendment 90 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:58,480 to zoning ordinance on the issue of data centers and um energy 91 00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:03,200 centers. prepared >> to cure the declared unavailability in 92 00:11:00,959 --> 00:11:06,959 your ordinance for data centers. So that's what this resolution does. It 93 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:10,480 says a lot of other things too, but essentially it is that's what we did. 94 00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:16,160 This is what the law provides and now this is how we're going to do it. 95 00:11:13,839 --> 00:11:20,079 » Add to that? >> No, this is just step two in the 96 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:23,279 process. So we had to adopt it saying that we have to go through this process. 97 00:11:21,839 --> 00:11:26,399 This is saying these are the specific sightings or findings within our 98 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:31,200 ordinance that we're going to have to curate here and then moving forward um 99 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:35,519 we're going to have a collaborative process over the course of the next few 100 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:40,000 months and we'll unfurl those details as they come closer. Uh but we plan to have 101 00:11:38,399 --> 00:11:42,800 uh some community kind of workshop potential there for people to come in 102 00:11:41,279 --> 00:11:48,399 and weigh in on the ordinance and the goal is to get kind of a draft document 103 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:50,800 in front of the public by midfall. >> We have late fall. 104 00:11:49,279 --> 00:11:56,079 » Yeah, we have to do it. We have to have adopted it within 180 days of July 20th. 105 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:59,839 So there is some time pressure. >> Clock is ticking. 106 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:04,440 » Yeah, it is. >> Any questions or any uh discussion? 107 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:13,440 » Okay. Is there a motion to adopt resolution 202616 108 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:17,600 citing specific findings of invalidity of the zoning ordinance within 30 days 109 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:21,519 of declarative curative amendment procedures? 110 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:24,959 Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve the resolution. 111 00:12:24,079 --> 00:12:26,800 » Second. >> All in favor? 112 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:29,920 » I. >> Any opposed? 113 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:35,600 » Great. >> Uh, moving on. Next item is the township 114 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:40,959 code of ordinance amendment. >> Um, so this one was found as we were uh 115 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:46,240 in the beginning of the year and currently going through um recruitment 116 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:50,560 for a specific uh position within our community development department. And 117 00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:56,480 it's one where by ordinance because of a and or or non-hand provision um we have 118 00:12:54,000 --> 00:13:01,279 to go third party for anything relating to doing building inspections instead of 119 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:05,680 in-house. Uh so this provides us the flexibility if you find the right 120 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:10,480 candidate who has all of the kind of UCCC certifications to do those 121 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:14,160 inspections in house. Uh we can we can do that but we would need to change our 122 00:13:11,839 --> 00:13:17,839 ordinance first. Um, so this is kind of a think of it like an administrative 123 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:22,560 check in the box in order to be able to be better operationally should that 124 00:13:20,079 --> 00:13:25,760 arise as an opportunity. So if you have any questions, let me know. But that's 125 00:13:24,079 --> 00:13:29,839 that's pretty much it. It's very minute change. 126 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:31,680 » So it's just a language change that we need to advertise for. And 127 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,880 » yeah. >> Yeah. What it says now is you have to 128 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:36,959 hire a third party. >> Correct. 129 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:40,724 » We would change it so that it could be an employee. So you could employ someone 130 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:44,079 with the proper credentials. And [clears throat] so the way we're 131 00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:48,000 thinking this is if we're going through a phase here where we might have an 132 00:13:45,839 --> 00:13:52,160 uptick in building kind of inspections related to development types of 133 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:55,279 activities still having a third party be here maybe twice a week with limited 134 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:59,519 hours during the week is going to be insuffic that customer demand. So we are 135 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:03,360 looking actively at candidates who might be able to do that as a full-time 136 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:07,040 service here five days a week. Um we can't do that though if our coordinance 137 00:14:04,639 --> 00:14:11,519 says we can't. >> That's what we do. I'll make a motion 138 00:14:09,279 --> 00:14:16,399 that we authorize a solicitor to advertise uh the draft amendment. 139 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,240 » I'll second. >> All in favor? 140 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:23,360 » I. >> Any opposed? Great. 141 00:14:20,639 --> 00:14:29,279 Next, we've got the fiscal year 2026 line painting contract. Kenny's going to 142 00:14:26,079 --> 00:14:31,519 take that one. Hillanddale Road is great, by the way, 143 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:35,240 Kenny. >> Yeah, that's what $436,925.32 144 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:39,760 gets you. That's it 145 00:14:38,079 --> 00:14:42,079 » for that just that section, not the section we did last year. 146 00:14:40,959 --> 00:14:46,160 » Right. >> Uh so what we have in front of you 147 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:50,240 tonight is the uh line painting contract as you mentioned. Uh we did send it out 148 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:55,279 to bid through the co-op twice earlier in the year. We did not get any biders 149 00:14:52,079 --> 00:15:01,279 either time. So per uh secondass township code, we can go with any vendor 150 00:14:56,959 --> 00:15:05,120 we choose. Um our previous vendor has they've been getting the low bid, but 151 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:10,079 they've also slacked off quite a bit. So, I'm going to try a different vendor 152 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:16,959 this year and see how how it uh how they do it versus the other one in the past. 153 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:25,040 Um there was a pretty significant uh increase in the cost. Uh I think it was 154 00:15:21,839 --> 00:15:32,079 12,000 $15,000 compared to last year's numbers. Um I'm sorry. 155 00:15:29,519 --> 00:15:36,959 » The budget? Yeah, I think it was nine over the budget, but it was like 12 or 156 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:43,519 15 over what was the actual cost of last year. Um, that is because the 157 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:48,720 white edge line increased by 50 cents per linear foot and the double yellow 158 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:52,480 increased by 33% over last year's numbers. 159 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:56,720 And then we also added a little bit with Hill Andale. Um, since we widened that 160 00:15:55,120 --> 00:16:02,399 second section, we're going to add white edge lines the entire length now. So 161 00:15:58,639 --> 00:16:06,440 that was another 7,200 linear feet by the time you go down both sides. 162 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:13,839 » And just to clarify, we have in our general fund line item, 39,000 budgeted 163 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:19,519 for this project annually. Um, and it usually comes in right at that amount, 164 00:16:15,759 --> 00:16:22,560 if not slightly lower. Uh, also driven by the fact that that's just what our 165 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:26,320 prior vendor charged us, although they were doing not the best job. Um, and so 166 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:30,240 with this one, we're going to blend the use of funds with some contingency 167 00:16:28,079 --> 00:16:34,000 coming from everything not being utilized for all of the paving budget 168 00:16:32,399 --> 00:16:38,639 that we had this year. If you remember, we had about 200 some odd thousand kind 169 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:42,639 of quote unquote contingency savings because we didn't get fully kind of 170 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:45,759 assessed for that contract price. Um, and so that would go into this one. So 171 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:49,759 if you want to roll it into that, it's essentially the full conditioning of the 172 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:54,000 roadway. >> Yeah. And this is also a more or less 173 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:58,000 thing. So we've had it in the past where Delot or Pendot have gone down our roads 174 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:01,920 and painted them right before we did. So then we don't have to paint them. So So 175 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:05,320 we get it for free. So they could be less than this. 176 00:17:06,079 --> 00:17:11,120 » Great. Is there a motion to award the bid for line painting services to 177 00:17:09,360 --> 00:17:17,839 Guidemark Inc. for an amount not to exceed $48,000? 178 00:17:13,839 --> 00:17:22,559 » I'll make a motion for that. >> All in favor? I. Any 179 00:17:19,919 --> 00:17:24,799 » opposed? Great. Next. >> Oh, are you are you here for the next 180 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:28,960 one, too? >> I can stay if you'd like. Sure. 181 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:35,520 » Fiscal year 2026 paving management analysis. 182 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:42,640 » Yeah. So, uh back in 22 24 and then again for 26 we had slated a um kind of 183 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:48,559 a AIdriven uh inspection of our roadways. Uh the 184 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:54,240 system that we used in 22 uh got bought out by Michelin. They changed names for 185 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:57,760 24 and then earlier this year they just did away with the service altogether. Um 186 00:17:56,559 --> 00:18:02,240 so we have to go with a different vendor. It is through Penoni uh our 187 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:08,559 regular engineer. So that's a good thing. We don't know exactly how it's 188 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:13,520 going to line up from previous information to the new system, but we're 189 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:18,799 hoping we can blend that in without too much of a delay in uh or too much of a 190 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:25,440 change in their numbering system and stuff like that. 191 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:32,160 » Uh the operating cost for the uh vendor, it's a company called Civil C YVL. Um, 192 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:36,720 it's essentially what look like a Whimo kind of car with a photo kind of driven 193 00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:42,000 device sitting on top of it. It'll go through the township's roadway systems. 194 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:45,600 It has a much broader depth of a base of comparables. So, if you remember from 195 00:18:43,760 --> 00:18:49,840 better roads or the better mobility were the two software ones, all they did was 196 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:53,520 essentially do a photo catalog of your kind of reviewing the roadway from end 197 00:18:51,679 --> 00:18:57,919 to end and doing some sort of condition analysis by taking those photos and 198 00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:01,360 lining those photos against all of your other photos in a category. So, 199 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:06,559 basically, your benchmark is based off of just who you have. This is a bigger 200 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:10,799 portfolio to go against and it does a more penetrative type analysis down to 201 00:19:09,120 --> 00:19:13,200 in between the cracks kind of thing. So we're going to actually have a better 202 00:19:11,679 --> 00:19:16,640 health assessment of what our roadway conditions really are. The issue is is 203 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:20,640 we have no idea how that's going to align with the prior prior analysis. So 204 00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:25,600 this is almost like a rebenchmark of the township. U but it's one where the 205 00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:29,760 software provider does seem to be more stable. Um so it's one where we hope to 206 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:32,720 have the service kind of by annually for the foreseeable future. 207 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:37,280 » How frequently do we do this? >> Uh we have started doing in 22 every two 208 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:42,880 years. Um, and that allows us to make larger chunks um out of the uh kind of 209 00:19:40,799 --> 00:19:48,160 we'll call them the priority list of roads that we've only been restricted to 210 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:52,480 maybe two or three segments. It's because they were the largest segments 211 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:56,400 with the worst conditions going forward. We'll be able to do more segments per 212 00:19:54,960 --> 00:20:01,520 year because the depth of the road repairs isn't a full 12-in type repair 213 00:19:58,559 --> 00:20:05,360 on most roadways. Um, so we can go through a lot more segments and the 214 00:20:02,799 --> 00:20:11,039 turnover the roadways should be higher. And how did we arrive at two years? Why 215 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:14,080 is two years the magic number? >> It can be every year if you want. It's 216 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:17,200 just however you >> or every five. It's just one where you 217 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:21,200 want to keep continuously showing progress and doing it in increments over 218 00:20:19,039 --> 00:20:24,960 time. Want to be able to measure it. >> What's changing so much that we would 219 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,679 need to do it every two years that we couldn't do it every three or every 220 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:31,360 four. >> And that's what I'm saying. So if the 221 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:34,799 roadways are addressed, these intervals could become less frequent. 222 00:20:32,559 --> 00:20:37,840 » Okay. Um it was because our baseline was so poor because there was a lot of 223 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:42,159 segments. So we wanted to measure it as we're investing 4x nearly more money 224 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:46,559 into our roadways over the last few years. We were hoping to see or will see 225 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:49,760 a kind of improvement in that investment as well. This is telling you that you're 226 00:20:47,919 --> 00:20:52,480 you're seeing otherwise it's just your eyeball seeing that the roadways been 227 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:55,919 repaired. >> Can we look at heavy trafficked roads 228 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:59,360 every two years like that we know that mushroom trucks are you know 229 00:20:57,679 --> 00:21:03,520 » for what specifically? If we can look at roads like that we know are heavily 230 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:07,280 trafficked with large trucks every couple years and then like residential 231 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:11,120 obviously like five or 10 even. >> Yep. 232 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:16,320 » Yeah. Like Chris said, we just went from spending a very small amount of money to 233 00:21:13,679 --> 00:21:24,080 a ton of money on roads within the last five years. I think in 202 234 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:31,360 when we made a major jump, the money that we received in 22 235 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:37,360 was only $100,000 more than what we received from 2013 all the way up to 21 236 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:40,799 combined. >> Yeah. 237 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:44,720 So with that, we decided to just just start doing it every two years so we can 238 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:49,120 see a a hopefully see an improvement which we did see an improvement on our 239 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:54,000 average number from 22 to 24 with all that money we spent in 22 or 23 and 24 I 240 00:21:52,480 --> 00:22:00,000 mean because we did it after we finished the road program program in 22. 241 00:21:56,880 --> 00:22:04,960 » Was the leg of New Garden as bad as Hillale? 242 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:11,200 The base repairs that you just did? >> I would say just as bad. Yes, it it was 243 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:14,640 fair but just about the same. Um the linear footage was longer obviously 244 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:20,320 because it's a different section of road, but we still did a six-foot path 245 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:24,480 just because by the time you come into the road, you're you're not picking up 246 00:22:23,120 --> 00:22:28,480 everything. So then you have to step out a little bit further to get where it 247 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:32,400 started rolling off. And I think a few years ago when we changed it from that 248 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:37,919 no from the eight ton weight limit to the no trailers over 45 feet then it 249 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:44,919 that's when we saw a huge decrease in the quality of the road and an increase 250 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:44,919 in potholes and stuff like that. 251 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:52,640 » While you're here, I just had a question. Uh what was going on at the 252 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:56,159 wheelhouse on 41 right at the intersection of um 253 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:57,840 » Sunnyale? >> Sunnydale. 254 00:22:57,360 --> 00:22:58,960 Delties. >> When was that? 255 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:01,760 » Morning. >> This morning? 256 00:22:59,679 --> 00:23:04,000 » Yeah. I know it's not your road, but I don't know. 257 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:06,799 » I don't know. >> Yeah. 258 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:09,919 » Uh I'm trying I don't remember any ambulance calls or fire calls or 259 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,520 anything down there, but I might have missed. 260 00:23:10,159 --> 00:23:14,640 » It was just road work. I was just >> Oh, okay. Yeah, maybe they were filling 261 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:18,496 that pothole there finally because that's only been there 262 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,496 » eight months. [laughter] 263 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:26,480 » Okay. Okay. Is there a motion to to uh approve the penoni scope of work for the 264 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:30,200 pavement management analysis at a cost not to exceed $15,500? 265 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:35,039 » Make a motion to approve. >> There second. 266 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,960 » Second. >> All in favor? 267 00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:41,440 » I. >> Any opposed? 268 00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:43,440 Making me work for my job. >> Thank you. 269 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:49,720 » Thanks, Jenny. >> Next, we've got the Smemedley Preserve 270 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:49,720 Master Plan update. Mike 271 00:24:16,799 --> 00:24:23,679 testing. There we go. All right. Good evening everyone. Um 272 00:24:21,919 --> 00:24:27,919 Mike with the parks department. Going to be providing a smely preserve master 273 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:33,360 plan update this evening. Um it's really an update involving three projects. One 274 00:24:31,679 --> 00:24:37,279 being the preserved entrance and parking lot, the second being the church road 275 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:41,880 pedestrian crossing, the third being the lawn to meadow conversion project. 276 00:24:41,919 --> 00:24:49,520 So back in 2024, the preserve master plan identified an entrance and a 277 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:55,919 parking lot as part of a phase 2 implementation at the preserve at a cost 278 00:24:52,240 --> 00:25:02,880 of just under $940,000. um we went after about 1.2 million in 279 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:08,880 grant funding and came back with 56,000 which isn't zero but it's not enough to 280 00:25:05,919 --> 00:25:12,880 implement a project on this scale. So, we kind of looked at our options, 281 00:25:11,039 --> 00:25:17,440 reduced the scope, and as we kind of previously mentioned in staff briefings, 282 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:22,240 we were able to identify an opportunity, kind of fasttrack the work in a 283 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:28,159 cost-effective manner, uh, using both grant dollars, open space dollars, and 284 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:31,360 public works labor. So, that that meant that we could build out the driveway and 285 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:36,080 the parking lot kind of concurrently with the township's 2026 paving program. 286 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:42,480 So in reality, the way that's been working is that Kenny and his team went 287 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:47,200 to do the site prep and as uh the Hill Andale road work was underway, they took 288 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:51,120 millings from Hill Andale, brought them over to Spentley Preserve and put them 289 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:55,600 in place for the driveway and the parking lot. 290 00:25:53,200 --> 00:26:01,440 the while the project is in progress. We don't have total costs, but the current 291 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:08,000 costs um are at 20 28,700 for engineering, about 2500 for construction 292 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:13,520 materials. Uh and then to be determined for the asphalt installation, the sign 293 00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:17,440 fencing, and the paint. So, even though it's to be determined, we have a pretty 294 00:26:15,039 --> 00:26:22,799 good idea of what those costs are going to involve. So the the total estimated 295 00:26:20,799 --> 00:26:28,559 project cost uh should come in right around $80,000. 296 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:32,960 So that $56,000 DCED grants is expected to cover all of the construction costs 297 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:39,440 as well as 10% of the engineering costs, leaving the township with $25,830 298 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:44,480 to cover, uh which will be funded by open space dollars. And then we do 299 00:26:41,919 --> 00:26:50,320 expect the the project to be completed uh probably late late fall, like all in 300 00:26:47,679 --> 00:26:55,520 late fall. Here we have on the left the 2024 master 301 00:26:53,279 --> 00:27:01,440 plan. You can see that uh this area down here is the entrance or was was the 302 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:06,400 proposed entrance to the park at the intersections of Sherwood Drive and 303 00:27:03,279 --> 00:27:11,039 Church Road. Then had a driveway that led to a parking lot. I think it's like 304 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:16,799 a 40 car parking lot. And then the driveway extended back to the park 305 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:22,559 garage and material yard where there was going to be another uh like repaved 306 00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:26,320 parking area. So what we did for 2026 in the revised plan is that the driveway is 307 00:27:24,559 --> 00:27:33,919 still at the intersection of Sherwood and Church. We've got uh a much reduced 308 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:39,520 kind of 200 foot drive here with a 20 car parking lot. Now, this section here 309 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:44,480 is an apron that needs to be um like the the first 50 feet or so needs to be 310 00:27:41,919 --> 00:27:49,760 paved per pendot uh requirements. Uh Church Road is a PennDOT road. So, after 311 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:56,440 we get that paved, the milling's going to start here and then uh go through and 312 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,440 complete the parking lot. 313 00:27:56,559 --> 00:28:04,159 This is the entrance that uh public works uh built out. There's currently 314 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:08,640 stone in there for construction vehicles to get in and out. This is the parking 315 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:13,279 lot area that was prepped. And here you can see they've started placing the 316 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:18,080 millings on the site. So, I believe that u most of the millings are in place, but 317 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:24,440 they need to be kind of leveled off um uh spots filled in and then uh compacted 318 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,440 down 319 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:32,320 after the parking lot is in place. So, we'll go into setting up some fencing uh 320 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:36,559 just to better define that area. People, for some reason, even when there's an 321 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:40,480 obvious parking lot there, always drive off the parking lot into the grass where 322 00:28:38,159 --> 00:28:45,919 they're not supposed to go. Um there'll be an area that's easily removed so that 323 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:50,480 we'll have um kind of flexible space for overflow parking as we start to host the 324 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:54,640 fence at the park. We'll install kiosk for general information. And then we we 325 00:28:52,799 --> 00:28:58,640 will uh there's an area you can see right here uh there's a pedestrian path 326 00:28:56,559 --> 00:29:02,960 that crosses over the driveway. So on that path where the road crosses we're 327 00:29:01,039 --> 00:29:07,200 going to put in paint markings and some signage and to round everything out. 328 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:11,600 Once all that's done we'll be installing a marquee sign very similar to this one. 329 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:15,520 I'm waiting to get back final designs from I believe Casey signs are the same 330 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:20,320 company that did the airport sign recently. Um, and then we'll have that 331 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:23,919 marquee sign at the main entrance as well as two smaller signs that define 332 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:27,679 the limits of the park. So that as you're driving along the queue, you'll 333 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:31,600 know that, hey, you've entered uh the the bounds of the of the Smemetly 334 00:29:29,679 --> 00:29:37,039 Preserve. And then same thing on New Arc Road, there'll be a Smellmetly Preserve 335 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:41,760 sign on that side as well. So moving on to the pedestrian crossing. 336 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:46,159 So, the master plan did prioritize the implementation of a pedestrian crossing 337 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:51,600 uh at church and mute roads with an estimated project cost of just under 338 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:55,760 $346,000. The planning for the pedestrian 339 00:29:53,120 --> 00:30:01,039 crosswalk uh was taking place in parallel to the master plan development. 340 00:29:57,919 --> 00:30:05,440 It was identified as you a top priority safety issue pretty early on. The 341 00:30:03,679 --> 00:30:10,960 project involved coordination between New Garden, West Marboro, and uh 342 00:30:07,919 --> 00:30:16,480 PennDOT. And that coordination all three groups continued through 2025. And then 343 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:22,640 because it's PennDOT, that continued uh until just recently with the concept 344 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:28,320 plans uh being finalized, we're pretty sure being finalized in early July with 345 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:34,080 cost being updated at the end of July. So the the current estimated total 346 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:38,000 project cost, it's coming in at $315,60. Now 100% of the construction cost and 347 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:43,840 10% of the engineering cost again will be covered by a $300,000 multimmoal 348 00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:48,880 grants, bringing the total project cost uh to the township to $57,150. 349 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:52,799 Again, that remaining balance is going to be covered by open space funds and 350 00:30:51,039 --> 00:30:57,200 construction will likely begin on that in spring of 2027. 351 00:30:55,760 --> 00:31:02,720 Here [snorts] we have an aerial view of all of the 352 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:08,880 kind of trapping calling measures that are be put into place. Um, this is a 353 00:31:06,799 --> 00:31:12,000 great point to kind of explain for those who don't understand where the township 354 00:31:10,559 --> 00:31:16,159 boundaries are and what's a pendant road and what isn't. 355 00:31:13,919 --> 00:31:21,279 This is uh this is Sherwood Drive. This is Church Road here. This is McHugh. So, 356 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:26,799 you take Mchugh Road. Everything to the left of Mchu or to the south is township 357 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:33,039 property with well Township the township land and then um this section of church 358 00:31:29,919 --> 00:31:37,120 road is Pendot State Road owned and maintained by them. Over here to the 359 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:41,519 right of McHugh to the north is West Marboro Township with this section of 360 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:45,039 Church Road being uh West Marvel Township Road. 361 00:31:43,519 --> 00:31:49,360 So that's that's kind of why we had to work with all those different 362 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:53,440 organizations to get get a plan together. 363 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:58,080 Now we zoom into the pedestrian crossing that intersection of a queue and church. 364 00:31:55,919 --> 00:32:02,880 See on the West Marboro side uh we're going to be installing uh speed hump 365 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:05,919 road markings and signage. When you get over to the New Garden Township side 366 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:11,279 that's going to be road markings, signage as well with the addition of 367 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:15,360 flashing signals here and here. And then because the pedestrian walkway also 368 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:19,039 serves as a maintenance access for both the east and west sides of the park, we 369 00:32:17,519 --> 00:32:24,559 do need to install uh we're going to install trail swing gates. Um so to 370 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:28,799 allow the vehicles to gain access when needed, but then also allow safe passage 371 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:32,960 for pedestrians to walk through there. That was one of the trade-offs of 372 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:37,840 reducing the scope of the parking lot is that we don't have a dedicated, you 373 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:41,519 know, um staff access point. We'll have to continue to use the shared point 374 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:47,360 here. And then uh in addition to those traffic 375 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:51,760 calming measures, we'll be installing uh additional physical traffic calming 376 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:57,519 measures here with two medians on either side of the park entrance. That is again 377 00:32:55,360 --> 00:33:01,760 just to alert folks that hey there's uh there's something ahead, there's a 378 00:32:58,799 --> 00:33:05,919 change uh there's a park. It should get folks to slow down at least through the 379 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:11,519 speed limit. So then you have, you know, if you come back here to this aerial 380 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:14,640 view, as folks travel towards the pedestrian walkway from the south, 381 00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:19,440 they're going to hit these medians first, slow down, hit the paint, see the 382 00:33:17,039 --> 00:33:24,720 flashers before they cross over the uh the crosswalk. And then coming from the 383 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:28,799 north side towards the pedestrian acrossway, you they're going to see the 384 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:33,720 paint, the signage, the speed bumps, all in an effort to make that intersection 385 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,720 safer. 386 00:33:34,799 --> 00:33:41,760 That's everything there. And we have the lawn to meadow project. 387 00:33:39,679 --> 00:33:47,440 This is kind of a recap of the update I gave uh maybe last month it was. But the 388 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:52,480 um the master plan we identified approximately 30 acres of meadow 389 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:55,760 installation at a cost of $225,000. the the meadow installations were 390 00:33:54,320 --> 00:34:01,760 originally scoped for kind of like a final phase in the master plan, but like 391 00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:05,760 all these other opportunities that seem to rain down on this Medley preserve, 392 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:13,440 this was another one where we were approached I think in late uh 2024 about 393 00:34:09,599 --> 00:34:18,159 a meadow planting project and in January 26, we found out that New Garden was 394 00:34:15,919 --> 00:34:24,159 selected to participate in uh Chester County conservation districts like long 395 00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:29,200 lawns of meadow conservation program. So the lawn to me program is DCR funded 396 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:33,839 and will convert nine acres from lawn to meadow at a total estimated value of 397 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:38,879 $65,392 which completes a third of the master 398 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:43,040 plan uh meadow areas at a 0% project cost to the township. So the only thing 399 00:34:40,639 --> 00:34:48,560 the township has to do to participate in this program is um provide the provide 400 00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:54,000 the labor to maintain the meadow after the meadows are established. Here we've 401 00:34:52,079 --> 00:34:57,359 got an aerial view of where the meadows are going to go. So we got nine acres 402 00:34:55,520 --> 00:35:02,320 here in the southwest corner of the preserve split up into a 4 acre section 403 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:07,520 here and a five acre section over to the right. And it's going to kind of create 404 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:13,440 this uh this this nice uh beautiful buffer of natural or native grasses and 405 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:19,760 wild flowers that should have a pretty good showy presentation from like spring 406 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:23,119 into late fall when established. This is a timeline for that project. So 407 00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:30,079 we already went through the kickoff meeting for that. Uh right now we are in 408 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:35,280 this stage here where the conservation district is working to identify um well 409 00:35:33,359 --> 00:35:41,040 they've put out bids for a contractor to come in and the contractor is actually 410 00:35:37,599 --> 00:35:45,920 going to uh to prep the site is going to you know kill off all the weeds and the 411 00:35:43,119 --> 00:35:50,960 seeds there do the planting and then when everything grows in uh in spring of 412 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:55,280 2027 that's when the parks department will will step in and pick up the 413 00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:59,280 maintenance process mowing the field two to three times a year and then uh 414 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:04,079 treating any uh you know weeds or invasive plants that are in the meadows 415 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:07,440 and we'll continue to do that. So we'll check in frequently with there's also 416 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:13,680 going to be some uh signage that goes out around this time period that 417 00:36:09,599 --> 00:36:18,400 recognizes the um the folks who funded the grants as well as u provides some ed 418 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:24,480 educational opportunities for the people walking through the preserve. And then 419 00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:29,920 the the grant kind of window ends in 2009 or at least the the active 420 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:33,839 participation of the the conservation district will end in 2029 and then I 421 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:38,880 think uh we're in like a 25-y year agreement or something like that to 422 00:36:35,839 --> 00:36:43,440 maintain the meadow as it is. And that's everything. Uh does anyone 423 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:46,720 have any questions about any of those projects? 424 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:50,079 » I have a couple questions. Yeah. >> If you can go back to where the Yeah, 425 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:52,480 that one right there. >> Yes. 426 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:58,800 » So, is there a swell between Route One and 427 00:36:56,560 --> 00:37:03,280 where the meadow grass would be? >> The concern, the concern is is salt 428 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:09,040 coming off the bypass. And I've seen this for years where that area, not only 429 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:14,160 that area, but many areas that fall off the bypass, they the grass is brown for 430 00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:19,760 the first two months of summer. >> Right. There is uh I wouldn't call it a 431 00:37:17,839 --> 00:37:26,960 I wouldn't call it a swale, but there's there's probably like a good 30 to 50 432 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:32,000 feet in some sections where it it the dips the shoulder one kind of dips off 433 00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:37,599 and then rolls into the preserve here. >> Um when we were on site with the 434 00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:40,320 conservation district and uh their their forester, they didn't identify that as 435 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:43,200 an issue, >> but it's one of those things, you know, 436 00:37:41,599 --> 00:37:46,960 we'll we'll have to keep an eye on. Yeah, most definitely. There there's 437 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:52,640 another area up around Jennersville where the brown falls off that way and 438 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:55,520 every year we get a heavy snow. It's brown. 439 00:37:53,680 --> 00:38:01,119 » Yeah, the the good thing Well, I don't know if this will help, but the existing 440 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:03,760 carp path kind of creates a a barrier. >> It does. Yeah, 441 00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:07,200 » between that section and where the meadow is going to be. The path even 442 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:11,599 comes around this way here. So hopefully that'll slow down some. And then the 443 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:18,800 other question I had was the map of the traffic the church road. So the Yep. 444 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:23,520 back to you where the medians are. Are they painted or raised mediums? 445 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:27,440 » They're going to be raised medians. Um and I did reach out. That's supported by 446 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:32,320 » Pendot. >> I did reach out to like uh emergency 447 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:36,240 responders and the kind of consolidated school district just letting them know 448 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:41,920 like hey this is coming. It's designed to uh not limit the type of vehicle that 449 00:38:39,599 --> 00:38:46,079 travels along this road, but rather make sure that people adhere to the speed 450 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:49,920 limit. Um the school district did not respond back to me. They did support 451 00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:53,440 this. There was a little bit of uh back and forth the speed bumps with uh with 452 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,760 PennDOT, >> right? 453 00:38:53,839 --> 00:38:58,960 » The school district and first responders originally supported the the speed 454 00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:03,920 bumps, the same style it's going to be in West Marboro. Then we then we found 455 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:09,599 we found out that Pendot actually does not support speed bumps. So, we pivoted 456 00:39:06,079 --> 00:39:13,440 to the these meetings here. Um, but any the first responders said that that that 457 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:16,400 was fine. Haven't heard back from the school district yet. 458 00:39:14,720 --> 00:39:21,680 » So, that I was going to say school buses, if they're rolled raised mediums, 459 00:39:19,359 --> 00:39:26,320 if they're curbed mediums, it's going to be a problem 460 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:28,640 for the school district getting in and out of that development offer with 461 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:34,640 » Yeah. >> with with a with a bus. the 462 00:39:31,359 --> 00:39:38,560 » it could be a problem with a 20 foot box truck, let alone a 35 foot bus on six 463 00:39:37,839 --> 00:39:43,680 wheels, >> right? The design isn't finalized. Um 464 00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,720 just kind of a footprint of where >> that's why we're talking about it now. 465 00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:50,960 » Yeah, it's why we're talking about it now. Um so I do plan to reach out. 466 00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:56,079 That's certainly something we'll discuss with uh with Bowman, traffic engineer, 467 00:39:53,440 --> 00:40:00,000 and I'll be sure to loop back with the u the traffic people at Kennedy. Ju just 468 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:05,440 looking at the picture, they look like they're 469 00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:11,440 set back far enough, but the buses don't turn real real sharp. 470 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:15,280 » Yeah, I I know. I can't speak for the the engineering that went into this, but 471 00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:21,680 I know they did consider like large delivery vehicles um and and buses. 472 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:27,359 » No, but I like I like the parking lot. I go I use Church Road and I've seen Kenny 473 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:32,160 over there. Um I think that's great that we're able to do that and and even 474 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:37,440 repurpose the millings when he gets it graded and tamp down. Um I think it's 475 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:43,839 going to be a wonderful wonderful resource for a good start for the park. 476 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:50,640 So thank you. And just to clarify, this detail was provided by Bowman with 477 00:40:47,359 --> 00:40:54,160 a scant delivery of invested time to get it rendered out because they didn't want 478 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:58,000 to overspend on putting these concept plans routinely in front of Pendot who 479 00:40:56,319 --> 00:41:01,359 apparently internally had a very difficult time kind of rendering a 480 00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:05,040 decision and sticking to what we were proposing. Um, and so that's why when we 481 00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:08,240 were constantly going back to well and kind of shuffling the design concepts 482 00:41:06,720 --> 00:41:11,760 around, we didn't want to spend an order amount of engineering expense. So we did 483 00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:17,200 these very kind of high level surface level plans. So the level of depth of 484 00:41:13,839 --> 00:41:21,359 detail on the 60 100% design plans will be in full consideration of all the 485 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:24,640 factors turn radi everything coming in and out of developments and stuff for 486 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:29,319 all types of uses. So I would expect that to be folded into the final design. 487 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:37,400 » Good. Anything else Mike? Any other questions? 488 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,400 » Thank you Mike. 489 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:55,440 So the plan so uh bridges are expensive >> and we we do plan to restore those in 490 00:41:53,119 --> 00:42:01,359 the future. So after all this work is complete that's going to knock out 491 00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:06,400 probably a majority of what we do to um to achieve the master plan. Uh but we're 492 00:42:04,240 --> 00:42:11,920 still going to work on grant funding for the bridges uh for uh 493 00:42:09,599 --> 00:42:16,640 for a restroom on site for repaving the trails, but it's going to be kind of 494 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:22,680 like a you know, we're not going to move forward with those projects until we we 495 00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:22,680 secure the grant funding for them. Yeah. 496 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:35,040 » Right. The the the preserve is far from um like ad accessible right now. bit bit 497 00:42:31,359 --> 00:42:40,319 more for the uh local adventure. Yeah. But we we do have plans to address those 498 00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:42,160 bridges at some time in the future. >> Hey Mike, question. 499 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:48,079 » Yeah. >> What defines a preserve? 500 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:52,640 » A preserve it's usually like a it it's uh when you conserve like a piece of 501 00:42:50,079 --> 00:42:58,720 land usually has like high like ecological value. Um it's it's then you 502 00:42:56,880 --> 00:43:03,040 then make the commitment to have it be more of like a passive recreation area 503 00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:08,319 that's open to the public than something that would be um you know an active 504 00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:14,240 recreation site. Yeah. It's a very very light touch pretty much what we're doing 505 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:18,079 here. Just pathways, parking lots, um no like playgrounds or anything like that. 506 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:23,119 » Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. 507 00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:29,480 And the last item on the agenda is the uh presentation on the fiscal year 2026 508 00:43:25,839 --> 00:43:29,480 state of the township. 509 00:43:36,079 --> 00:43:43,040 Hope everybody saw this in their agenda packets. It's only 75 slides. I'll try 510 00:43:41,359 --> 00:43:47,280 to get through it as fast as I possibly can. 511 00:43:43,599 --> 00:43:51,920 » It was like 87 last year. What happened? >> Yeah. 512 00:43:49,200 --> 00:43:55,839 as a former member of the military, I guess 513 00:43:53,839 --> 00:44:01,400 still active, but um yeah, death by PowerPoint has not lost me. So, I'll try 514 00:43:57,359 --> 00:44:01,400 to make this as painless as possible. 515 00:44:02,160 --> 00:44:06,359 If I can get my screen to share. 516 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,200 Okay. 517 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:28,400 water out here. This is for all the people at home, not 518 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:32,880 me. Um, so good evening members of the board, residents, staff. Chris, township 519 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:38,640 manager, and tonight I'll be briefing the updated state of the township. This 520 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:44,240 is now marks was we started this in 23 uh 24, so fourth year. Um, and with 521 00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:48,079 that, uh, as a precursor to going into your annual budget planning cycle, I 522 00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:51,920 found it, and it's kind of a best practice across localities across the 523 00:44:49,599 --> 00:44:56,400 nation to render kind of an update on how you've been honing in and achieving 524 00:44:54,480 --> 00:45:01,200 certain elements of your overall goals and priorities that you set forth as we 525 00:44:58,720 --> 00:45:06,880 have done also, which is essentially a um, uh, kind of a capture of goals and 526 00:45:04,720 --> 00:45:10,240 priorities as it has been filtered through the comprehensive plan. And 527 00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:13,520 that's also one where you see these goals and priorities like and you wonder 528 00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:16,640 what's going on in the township. This is what's going on. This is what staff is 529 00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:19,839 working on outside of our operational duties. This is the progress we're 530 00:45:18,079 --> 00:45:24,800 trying to make on behalf of the community. So it's kind of like showing 531 00:45:21,680 --> 00:45:28,960 the full alignment but also within each goal that we have and the priority also 532 00:45:27,359 --> 00:45:32,160 understanding the constraints, the restrictions, the obstacles that we have 533 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:36,560 in front of us because a lot of these things have a lot of kind of we'll call 534 00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:41,200 them difficult paths to achievement. Uh so we'll start at the very top. Uh we're 535 00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:44,560 doing this brief uh two weeks early and that's two weeks that I was hoping to 536 00:45:43,359 --> 00:45:47,920 have to do this brief in the first place. So the last week or so has been 537 00:45:46,079 --> 00:45:50,640 putting together a lot of information. Uh but the reason we did that 538 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:55,599 adjustment, if you remember this special meeting on August 3rd, it was about 539 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:59,119 review of the potential joiner of Oxford Bureau uh with the Southern Chester 540 00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:03,839 County Regional Police Department. So the web shop, excuse me, the um workshop 541 00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:06,400 that we have for later on this month is going to tenatively be used for that 542 00:46:05,359 --> 00:46:10,880 one. So that's why we're doing this tonight. Uh and of course the rest of 543 00:46:09,119 --> 00:46:14,319 the um the schedule for the budget planning workshops are all there as 544 00:46:12,319 --> 00:46:17,440 well. And we've been advertising these pretty routinely since the beginning of 545 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:20,160 the summer. Uh real quick on the agenda, not going 546 00:46:19,119 --> 00:46:22,960 to go down through it, but essentially we're just going to walk through these 547 00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:26,079 categories. Just some updates. A lot of the stuff you'll see is familiar 548 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:30,079 information in terms of what we've done in prior states of the township with 549 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:33,280 some updates. And uh really it's kind of showing that year over year we've 550 00:46:31,599 --> 00:46:36,720 actually remained consistent in kind of areas of focus that we've been working 551 00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:40,640 on. Uh so why do we have these priorities? 552 00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:44,240 And I stated earlier, it's because these are the priorities that have been 553 00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:47,839 highlighted out of the comprehensive plan on these are the things that we 554 00:46:46,240 --> 00:46:51,920 need to work on the most to get to where we want to go as a community. Uh because 555 00:46:50,319 --> 00:46:55,920 if you've read the comprehensive plan, it is a comprehensive plan by intent. It 556 00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:59,200 is a lot of stuff. It's a to-do list that is a very very long to-do list. Uh 557 00:46:58,079 --> 00:47:03,040 so you need to kind of pick your winners, if you will. uh these were the 558 00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:07,200 ones that were kind of identified both through the finalized PR priorities and 559 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:10,480 the residential inputs through some surveys with that and we've gone through 560 00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:14,960 this a little bit in terms of how we've chosen ours. Uh we've kind of pulled 561 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:18,560 elements outside of here to create what the board has said these are the 562 00:47:16,079 --> 00:47:21,920 priorities within those categories. So economic development breaking it down to 563 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:26,319 kind of certain projects and areas that we want to do for that uh infrastructure 564 00:47:24,240 --> 00:47:29,599 investments and regionalizing our public safety services. uh you can kind of, you 565 00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:33,440 know, walk down the rest of the remaining part of the list, but 566 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:37,760 year-over-year, this is our updated focus areas, if you will. Um, and we did 567 00:47:36,079 --> 00:47:40,560 this as an exercise over the course of the beginning of the summer, over a few 568 00:47:39,119 --> 00:47:44,720 months, kind of updating these and prioritize wise, um, to kind of come up 569 00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:48,160 with what we're talking about as our our scored tier one priorities, our tier 570 00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:52,160 two, and and of course our tier threes as well. That's not to say this is a 571 00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:57,119 restrictive list. We do other things as well, but in terms of kind of larger 572 00:47:54,160 --> 00:48:01,359 kind of movements on um priorities, these are the ones that are still at the 573 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:05,359 top. Any questions about this? That's how we arrived to it. Uh so we'll go 574 00:48:03,359 --> 00:48:10,000 ahead and get started. So uh if you remember last year, u we kind of had 575 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:13,520 some updates about what it meant to achieve economic development type 576 00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:17,119 outcomes in our community. What does economic development mean in New Guard 577 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:20,240 Township? Uh for most people, it's kind of what is economic development? It's 578 00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:24,559 very broad spectrum of types of outcomes. So generally uh obviously you 579 00:48:22,720 --> 00:48:28,400 want to be able to write out a comp plan nurture diverse economic opportunities 580 00:48:26,319 --> 00:48:31,760 that create sustainable and stable tax bases. Do all the things that you want 581 00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:35,200 to do. Promote the community that complement the character that we have 582 00:48:33,119 --> 00:48:39,599 here. Optimize existing infrastructure. All those kind of really you know I'll 583 00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:43,599 call them like highlevel uh uh subjective types of outcomes. But really 584 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:47,520 when you think about it and you apply that to a secondass township in 585 00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:51,119 Pennsylvania, your authority and your ability to enact quotequote your will 586 00:48:49,359 --> 00:48:53,839 upon your community is heavily limited. So you got to kind of pick where you're 587 00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:57,599 good at and kind of leave the other things to the market and because you you 588 00:48:55,760 --> 00:49:02,079 don't really have that full breadth of capabilities to you uh like you might 589 00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:05,680 have in other states. Um you know coming from a state like the Commonwealth of 590 00:49:03,599 --> 00:49:09,119 Virginia, you have very strong local governmental economic development 591 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:12,160 programs where here it's all state driven for the most part. some at the 592 00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:16,240 county level even though the county really partners with profit which is a 593 00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:19,599 Chester County Economic Development Council. It's also why you don't have 594 00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:23,599 economic development departments in a secondass township departmental 595 00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:29,440 organization. Uh so we identified these as kind of uh catalysts catalysts if you 596 00:49:26,319 --> 00:49:32,800 will zoning our airport development zone um coordination our own networks and our 597 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:35,839 abilities to understand kind of local owners and stuff because at the end of 598 00:49:34,079 --> 00:49:39,440 the day you have to own the land to really be able to kind of steward that 599 00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:42,960 type of outcome. We've kind of looked at the land in terms of what is our 600 00:49:41,119 --> 00:49:47,520 regulatory type of environment and then what do we have that we can use and then 601 00:49:45,119 --> 00:49:51,599 from there on it's really just kind of stewarding the plan through by helping 602 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:56,160 people out kind of understand what they can do that can align with what we're 603 00:49:53,520 --> 00:50:03,359 looking for as a township. Um in terms of regional uh uh understandings of how 604 00:49:59,359 --> 00:50:10,319 to have that we'll call them natural organic type of uh um I'll call it like 605 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:14,000 pros that you as far as things are working against you, those those things 606 00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:18,640 that help uh where we are as a township. You know, even though we're um in 607 00:50:17,119 --> 00:50:21,920 Chester County, Chester County is located in the Philadelphia MSA. The 608 00:50:20,319 --> 00:50:24,800 Philadelphia MSA has just a certain amount of gravity to it. It's a 609 00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:29,520 different situation than if you were in like the middle of Iowa. Uh so with that 610 00:50:27,839 --> 00:50:34,240 um our region location makes us strong in terms of uh availability of workforce 611 00:50:32,559 --> 00:50:37,359 more towards those density centers kind of in those kind of more urban areas 612 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:41,359 that we're at least within somewhat of a close proximity to um as well as just 613 00:50:40,079 --> 00:50:44,079 the transportation and movement of goods. You know we have a lot of 614 00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:47,119 throughput through the town of Route 41 connects all the way down to the port of 615 00:50:45,359 --> 00:50:51,760 Wilmington kind of connects you all the way up through Lancaster County into the 616 00:50:49,359 --> 00:50:55,760 turnpike kind of area as you get towards um excuse me uh Harrisburg as well. So 617 00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:00,720 we're just kind of an area where you're close to a major quarter 2 or 99 I95. Um 618 00:50:59,119 --> 00:51:03,599 and so with that we have a lot of availability for those types of 619 00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:07,760 industries and naturally some of them exist here in the township because of 620 00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:11,280 that. So the reason for why that's why um local demographics, population and 621 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:14,960 housing density, we know that our current existing density within the 622 00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:19,760 township is not very dense. Uh we're about a third of a unit per acre. That's 623 00:51:17,599 --> 00:51:24,160 a very non-dense metric. But as you kind of expand out in our residential kind of 624 00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:27,839 footprint in southern Chester County and northern Delaware, if that density 625 00:51:25,599 --> 00:51:32,000 construct goes up because within our larger region, you know, we're not as 626 00:51:30,319 --> 00:51:36,960 sparse, if you will, as a residential buildout. Um, so it goes beyond the 627 00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:40,000 township boundary. Um, income levels close around here. I don't think anybody 628 00:51:38,319 --> 00:51:43,599 would be surprised that a lot of very affluent people live in this region. Um, 629 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:48,079 that kind of balances out as you go more towards expanding your regional look. uh 630 00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:52,400 as you look into areas that have less median strong median incomes. Um, and 631 00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:58,640 what that means is is okay, well, if I have um high density and low income, 632 00:51:56,240 --> 00:52:01,680 what are the types of natural uh uh market forces that are going to be 633 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:05,920 incentivized to move into my community? Or if I have no density and high income, 634 00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:09,599 what is that going to provide for? And my no density, high incomes, but in an 635 00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:14,319 area that's close in proximity as a regional kind of u location, you know, 636 00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:17,359 you so you start kind of putting the vin diagram together and when you kind of 637 00:52:15,599 --> 00:52:20,720 put them all in, you find out what works the best there. And usually that's what 638 00:52:19,119 --> 00:52:24,240 an economic development department would focus on to say we can actually support 639 00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:27,520 that industry. We'd be competitive in that industry. That's kind of what all 640 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:31,839 this is saying in terms of strengths and weaknesses. 641 00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:35,680 Uh a little bit from our community survey that we had last year. Um it's 642 00:52:34,240 --> 00:52:39,440 not one where economic development is taboo. Shocker. People like to have 643 00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:42,800 close proximity to amenities. When I say amenities, it's not like everybody 644 00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:46,319 always has that kind of same anecdote. Oh, you can shop in taxfree Delaware. 645 00:52:44,559 --> 00:52:49,359 Okay. that like if I have a good dining option in Pennsylvania, I'm not going to 646 00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:52,319 go to a worse dining option because I save a couple cents on my fries kind of 647 00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:55,520 stuff. But yeah, if you're going to go buy bulk furniture and those types of 648 00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:59,119 items, those larger retail centers, yeah, that would make sense, especially 649 00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:03,920 since we're right on the border. Um, so that's kind of a a a common 650 00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:06,319 misunderstanding of why we don't have commercial in the township. The reason 651 00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:11,119 we don't have commercial is we don't have rooftops in the township. Um, and 652 00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:16,880 so we would look to see if we wanted to have uh more mixtures of uses, kind of 653 00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:20,400 build the density with the commercial simultaneously. That was the focus for 654 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:24,160 the zoning, especially along the corridors, Baltimore bike, uh, to a 655 00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:28,160 lesser extent, Newark Road and obviously Route 41. Uh, so you can have that 656 00:53:26,319 --> 00:53:31,520 little bit of a commercial buildout with the actual residential type buildouts 657 00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:35,520 included on the roadway. So the roadway gets enhanced as well. Um, of course, 658 00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:38,880 some of these other ones, uh, you can kind of go into how to make those 659 00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:42,720 happen. Uh those are much longer briefs and stuff, but these are just areas of 660 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:46,079 highlights for um what the township had sorted out during the community survey 661 00:53:44,559 --> 00:53:49,200 responses. Uh that's basically another hit on where 662 00:53:47,839 --> 00:53:53,839 we are as a I think everybody knows where we're located. Um why that's a 663 00:53:51,599 --> 00:53:58,800 benefit to us in terms of just kind of being a factor. Um one that's not in the 664 00:53:57,359 --> 00:54:02,000 slide deck that I actually just kind of added, it's kind of giving you that kind 665 00:54:00,319 --> 00:54:05,200 of same understanding of the regionality. You know, you have a red 666 00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:11,839 band here that basically is your 10-minute drive time. um and associating 667 00:54:08,319 --> 00:54:15,200 that with your more retailbased uh market standards for we'll call them 668 00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:19,440 like commercial square market supportable square footage. So if I'm 669 00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:23,200 going to have this amount of density they can support this much market 670 00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:27,119 supportable square footage. So if I have a thousand homes versus 100 homes and a 671 00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:31,040 thousand homes I could support maybe 50,000 square feet of commercial. With 672 00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:34,800 100 homes I could support maybe aund like a 500 if you will. It all depends 673 00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:39,440 upon how much density you have in that bubble. And as you know, as you go from 674 00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:44,000 what traditional market retail looks at, it looks at kind of concentrical circles 675 00:54:41,119 --> 00:54:47,520 from one, three, and five miles, um, five miles is within this 10-minute 676 00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:51,200 drive. And so, it's one where you would need a lot of density in here in this 677 00:54:49,359 --> 00:54:54,480 bubble area in order to have strong commercial type outcomes. So, you need 678 00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:58,400 to look at your region and say, well, what else is kind of supportive for 679 00:54:56,160 --> 00:55:01,280 large or better commercial outcomes? And that's where you start looking at your 680 00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:06,000 net worth. you know, the dark purple area. These are your higher net worth or 681 00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:09,680 higher median income households. Um, and it's one where you don't start just 682 00:55:08,319 --> 00:55:14,319 looking at the one, three, and five, maybe look at the drive times. And we 683 00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:17,760 say, okay, so for us from an economic development standpoint, we're very 684 00:55:16,400 --> 00:55:21,760 strong when it comes to things associated with drive time connectivity 685 00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:25,680 rather than immediate kind of density within a smaller market area, if that 686 00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:29,119 makes sense. Uh, so this is just another way to look at that. So with this, if 687 00:55:27,920 --> 00:55:33,520 we're looking I think we would be looking commercial anchors that are 688 00:55:31,599 --> 00:55:39,280 looking for a larger 30 minute region drivable 689 00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:43,839 distance that has high kind of affluent households associated with that one if 690 00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:47,200 that makes sense. Uh so why are we looking at economic 691 00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:52,640 development? Uh because at the end of the day uh it helps drive revenues which 692 00:55:50,079 --> 00:55:57,119 pay for services. Uh so the goal since we had that initial conversation back in 693 00:55:54,960 --> 00:56:01,599 uh 23 was the need for the township to to 694 00:55:59,599 --> 00:56:05,839 continue to diversify its revenue streams because right at that point we 695 00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:10,799 were really heavily reliant on mainly property tax and somewhat of the act 511 696 00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:15,200 specifically earned income tax. This would add into that base on the earned 697 00:56:13,359 --> 00:56:19,040 income side as well as some of these other ones we don't get a lot of uh that 698 00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:23,760 have larger readables with them. I keep on uh forgetting hotel tax in there and 699 00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:28,880 that's one where they can scale as well. Um, and of course using that to be able 700 00:56:25,599 --> 00:56:33,119 to kind of distance yourself of being reliant on not necessarily tax base 701 00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:36,960 increase, but tax rate increases, specifically the property tax. And 702 00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:41,040 that's where we want to avoid. Um, you want that development to go into areas 703 00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:45,119 of of where the state corridors are to improve upon capacity, safety, and 704 00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:48,880 character. Um, you want to make sure that your transportation network is 705 00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:52,799 getting built out that works for you as a community. Um, currently right now, 706 00:56:51,200 --> 00:56:57,839 it's not doing that great. So that's why we're trying to incentivize some of 707 00:56:54,480 --> 00:57:00,799 these projects. Um and then obviously the uh the missing middle housing 708 00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:04,240 opportunities we'll go into here in a second here. But just in terms of like 709 00:57:02,319 --> 00:57:08,000 can anything done be done to steward some more affordable type of outcomes in 710 00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:11,040 the township uh because it is one where it's not necessarily just a new garden 711 00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:15,680 problem. It's a nationwide problem. But it all depends upon your market. But 712 00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:19,839 we're not immune to what is considered to be a pretty steep affordability price 713 00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:23,280 tag for living in New Garden Township and elsewhere as well. And we're going 714 00:57:21,839 --> 00:57:27,839 to talk about that why in here in a second. Um, understanding your 715 00:57:25,680 --> 00:57:31,520 demographic is very helpful um in terms of like not necessarily what the AMIs 716 00:57:30,079 --> 00:57:35,599 associated households are in our community, but um the ages of those 717 00:57:33,599 --> 00:57:40,160 people, what types of family constructs lived here. Um, and so when you looked 718 00:57:38,559 --> 00:57:43,920 back in time and you saw New Garden Township population really during the 719 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:47,520 90s and the 2000s, that's when you got that like growth spurt, if you will. We 720 00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:51,200 really bumped up between those two census measurements. It was kind of the 721 00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:54,319 late 80s going into the9s. if you want to think about it that way. But we 722 00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:58,640 basically pretty much more than doubled in size. Um, and with that, you had a 723 00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:03,839 lot of new builds and families that moved in and families that then stayed. 724 00:58:00,720 --> 00:58:07,520 Uh, it's very beneficial to have a lot of equity in your household and then be 725 00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:11,040 a retiree in Pennsylvania and not get taxed on your retirement income in 726 00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:14,880 Pennsylvania. And we kind of assume that. And then the 25 survey told us 727 00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:19,760 that 76% of our residents tend to kind of stay put. Um, so you have a bit of a 728 00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:24,079 stagnant population base. And what that leads is kind of an everinccreasing 729 00:58:21,599 --> 00:58:27,200 average age of person here. So then you're looking at that going, okay, 730 00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:31,200 well, if I have high net worth outcome out households here that at some point 731 00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:34,559 they're going to go into retirement, how long can I rely on my earned income tax 732 00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:38,480 to continue producing like it's producing or scaling as it's going to 733 00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:42,960 scale. At some point it might plateau or even descend um with that level of 734 00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:47,359 stagnation and kind of locking in uh kind of the same base that you that you 735 00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:51,839 have. Um and at the same time I got a common question. Why did the township's 736 00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:56,319 population go down from 2010 to 2020, not continue up? And a lot of reasons, 737 00:58:54,319 --> 00:58:59,839 but one of the biggest ones was all those families that had kids, their kids 738 00:58:58,079 --> 00:59:04,000 graduated, and nobody was having kids again. So with that, during the same 739 00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:10,000 time frame in the last 15 years, because obviously that's 23 going into 26 now. 740 00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:15,599 Um, your children population went down by 50. Your young adults from 25 to 44 741 00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:20,720 dropped by 25%. And yet your residents over 60 increased by 135%. So that kind 742 00:59:18,799 --> 00:59:23,599 of correlates. All this kind of adds up. And so when you say what do we are as a 743 00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:27,920 community? Well, we're generally older in age. We're increasing in age. Um 744 00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:31,760 we're kind of stagnant as a community. So there's not a lot of turnover of 745 00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:37,359 properties. And so what do you do to build a long-term revenue strategy off 746 00:59:33,839 --> 00:59:41,680 of that given the fact that you have a basically a a cap on earned income tax? 747 00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:44,960 And we'll go to some of the even further restrictions on that one. and property 748 00:59:43,599 --> 00:59:50,400 tax. And that's kind of that's kind of it. That's the bread and butter that you 749 00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:54,640 have to fund all of your local services. Uh and it's also one to understand that 750 00:59:52,720 --> 00:59:57,440 uh the affordability thing kind of happened overnight. We say not a lot of 751 00:59:56,160 --> 01:00:00,240 things happened overnight. This was a very sudden exercise as a country. 752 00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:06,000 Really was obviously during hyperinflation. It's really exacerbated. 753 01:00:02,319 --> 01:00:10,400 But um the the construct of being able to live in the 754 01:00:08,079 --> 01:00:17,920 township fundamentally changed in the last 10 years specifically within the 755 01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:21,920 last um uh was it 20 from 2019 to 2022 and things went up about 65% pretty much 756 01:00:20,400 --> 01:00:25,920 across the board. Some of them a little bit higher than that. Uh and that's one 757 01:00:23,839 --> 01:00:29,280 where obviously if you were in a moment in time where you were planning to come 758 01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:32,720 in the community the price tag to do that drains dramatically. I need double 759 01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:38,079 what I used to have in order to live in this township again. Uh so what does 760 01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:42,160 that mean? Well, who is abil excuse me who is trying to live in your community? 761 01:00:39,599 --> 01:00:45,920 Well, um we have work centers here. You know, we have workforce associated with 762 01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:50,799 the mushroom industry with the trucking industry. We have large school system 763 01:00:47,839 --> 01:00:54,480 here. We have a lot of uh uh need for those who are kind of like seeking their 764 01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:59,280 entry level home that would like to live closer. And it's also one where as you 765 01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:03,200 associate your workforce of being further and further away, the harder it 766 01:01:01,119 --> 01:01:08,079 is to retain and and maintain those those um uh that that excuse me that 767 01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:11,520 specific workforce as well. So it's a recruitment and attrition issue for your 768 01:01:09,760 --> 01:01:15,599 local industries as well. So I kind of think of it as like it's a larger 769 01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:22,480 ecosystem of of you know what this impact entails. U but yeah and that's uh 770 01:01:19,839 --> 01:01:25,280 every time I see that it's it's this isn't a new garden issue. This is a 771 01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:30,559 national issue. the price kind of went up across the board. This is just what 772 01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:34,400 it means for New Garden specifically. Uh so with that, you know, what are we 773 01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:38,480 trying to do? Well, we're trying to and what we targeted with the zoning 774 01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:43,040 ordinance was, you know, you know, as a township, we are not conditioned to 775 01:01:40,799 --> 01:01:48,319 really wholly shoulder and support kind of a true like a workforce housing type 776 01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:51,920 of construct. It's very difficult. um you need kind of land banking 777 01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:56,160 capabilities, you need housing authority capabilities, you need a lot of capacity 778 01:01:53,839 --> 01:01:58,960 to drive that ship and we have partners that can support that. But for what we 779 01:01:57,920 --> 01:02:02,480 were trying to do, we were trying to focus more on what are those kind of 780 01:02:00,880 --> 01:02:06,400 missing middle types of products through a zoning lens that we could put forward 781 01:02:04,319 --> 01:02:11,119 for to be able to get market rate development that can build at levels of 782 01:02:08,799 --> 01:02:15,200 all types, not necessarily because cost of construction is so high, you get the 783 01:02:12,480 --> 01:02:19,920 quote unquote, you know, oneacre lot kind of McMansion type outcome that you 784 01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:24,000 normally associate with the area. Uh so that's what we did. Um, and we were 785 01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:28,559 looking specifically in these two areas as kind of those are the bands to focus 786 01:02:25,839 --> 01:02:32,400 on because the building of those types of products would meet the AMIs of those 787 01:02:30,480 --> 01:02:36,000 types of buyers essentially. So, we're going to try to get some buildout to 788 01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:40,079 meet the buyer demand in these different bands if that makes sense. And those are 789 01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:43,839 normally associated with younger buyers, young families, you know, kind of young 790 01:02:41,920 --> 01:02:47,680 dual income type households that can afford that starter home, if you will. 791 01:02:46,160 --> 01:02:52,000 And what that starter home means today is a two over two condo, an attached 792 01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:57,040 house, like those types of products. The days of two over or single family 793 01:02:54,319 --> 01:03:02,960 detached starter homes under 400 grand are gone. Like that's a bygone era at 794 01:02:59,680 --> 01:03:07,119 least in this market. Um so going into some of the projects 795 01:03:04,960 --> 01:03:10,880 that we have so economic development as a function of what white clay offers and 796 01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:14,960 this is one where it went into the discussions about what we were looking 797 01:03:12,720 --> 01:03:19,680 at as a community and and the board's discussions on the settlement agreement 798 01:03:16,559 --> 01:03:25,599 is how many boxes can we check with this project to help what we are looking at 799 01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:29,440 which is we need more diversity and affordability. We need some significant 800 01:03:27,920 --> 01:03:34,240 transportation improvements along Route 41. Um, we have within all of our 801 01:03:33,039 --> 01:03:38,400 documents kind of an underlying greenways, open space and trails 802 01:03:35,680 --> 01:03:42,559 connectivity type of uh, uh, value as a community. Um, we like to preserve 803 01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:46,720 historic structures. Uh, and outside of that, you know, we have some other 804 01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:50,880 infrastructure issues. And if you look back at what White Clay offers, it 805 01:03:48,559 --> 01:03:54,160 offers essentially improvements to all of those categories. We're checking a 806 01:03:52,240 --> 01:03:58,559 lot of boxes with this project. Specifically, 27% of units. And 27% is 807 01:03:57,119 --> 01:04:01,760 normally like you know you can make a percentage off a small number large 808 01:03:59,920 --> 01:04:05,200 number but it's nearly 200 homes 200 units are going to be less than that's 809 01:04:03,680 --> 01:04:08,000 what's been stated by Stonewall. So I'm representing what they've been 810 01:04:06,079 --> 01:04:11,440 representing basically starting with the number with the three. Now whether or 811 01:04:09,280 --> 01:04:17,200 not that's $399.99 or not um that's currently $184,000 less 812 01:04:15,119 --> 01:04:22,880 than the average and that's the average because if you remember the average is 813 01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:25,680 based off of all four and the tough canon zip code kind of bringing that 814 01:04:24,319 --> 01:04:28,559 down. So the average is actually much higher that if you're talking about 815 01:04:26,720 --> 01:04:32,960 Landenburg, Aenddale and and Kennet Square zip codes. 816 01:04:30,720 --> 01:04:37,920 Um so that's that's one where we're helpful in targeting like a missing 817 01:04:35,359 --> 01:04:42,079 middle housing type product there. Um you know the route 41 segment along uh 818 01:04:40,480 --> 01:04:45,119 White Clay project takes care of about a third of the length of the road segment 819 01:04:43,440 --> 01:04:50,160 in the township. It's a big chunk of that project which number was number one 820 01:04:47,760 --> 01:04:54,480 response by a community uh during the comprehensive plan survey. fix route 41 821 01:04:52,720 --> 01:04:58,799 was essentially the summary statement. This does a lot to do that. Um encourage 822 01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:01,520 development offers walking and biking. You know, we always talk about 823 01:04:59,839 --> 01:05:05,359 previously the St. Anony's in the hill master plan and you know not necessarily 824 01:05:03,599 --> 01:05:08,880 understanding how to where to start with it, but it always made sense that since 825 01:05:07,200 --> 01:05:12,240 St. Anony's kind of caddyy quarter right into White Clay, you know, maybe you can 826 01:05:10,559 --> 01:05:16,480 achieve some outcomes there by having the kinetic energy of White Clay fold 827 01:05:14,480 --> 01:05:19,440 into improving your site plan or your master plan for your park. And of 828 01:05:18,079 --> 01:05:22,960 course, the gateway entrance down into the park improves access. you're going 829 01:05:21,039 --> 01:05:28,079 to have pedestrian shared use pass kind of fold into the park as well and it 830 01:05:26,079 --> 01:05:32,079 provides public access walkability to an open space property. That's an alignment 831 01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:35,760 of the goal there. Um and then obviously the Taylor Barn and Rowan House, the 832 01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:39,839 back side of the barn there. Um their ability to do adaptive reuse of renewing 833 01:05:38,319 --> 01:05:44,319 those structures, revitalizing those structures for the purpose of actually 834 01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:47,920 having those active sites um falls in line with what the goals and priorities 835 01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:51,680 are for historic outcomes, historic property outcomes in our community. Um 836 01:05:50,240 --> 01:05:55,280 there's some other and these are still kind of projections but enhancements to 837 01:05:53,359 --> 01:05:58,640 sewer, some significant enhancements to storm water as the site is the 838 01:05:57,039 --> 01:06:02,160 headarters for the broad run going down into Somerset Lake. And of course with 839 01:06:00,640 --> 01:06:06,480 that at the end of the day the buildout expects about $1.5ish million dollars in 840 01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:10,319 terms of sustained revenues and that's without local services tax, transfer 841 01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:13,359 tax, building fees and amusement tax if you get some partners to be able to do 842 01:06:11,920 --> 01:06:17,920 some of the refurbishment of those structures inside the park there. Uh so 843 01:06:15,680 --> 01:06:22,400 overall an economic kind of win uh for the community here. 844 01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:26,799 Uh continuing on down the line in terms of types of outcomes and we alluded to 845 01:06:23,760 --> 01:06:30,319 this in prior meetings as well uh but should come as no surprise anybody. We 846 01:06:28,400 --> 01:06:35,039 own an airport. The airport has uh property north of it that is owned by 847 01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:39,119 the township de dedicated for potential buildout of furthering the master plan 848 01:06:37,039 --> 01:06:44,240 for the airport which is subject to a potential renewal here soon. Um as well 849 01:06:41,839 --> 01:06:47,599 as uh just kind of open acreage. So how do you leverage this property to seek an 850 01:06:46,079 --> 01:06:52,000 outcome? And that's kind of currently what we're looking at right now is is 851 01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:55,839 what can be done to prepare this site to incentivize more traditional economic 852 01:06:54,079 --> 01:07:01,280 development, somebody to come in and have an incentive to uh uh locate site 853 01:06:59,200 --> 01:07:04,640 select to your property. Well, the biggest issue for this site is going to 854 01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:08,079 be a lot of site prep type work. Um because it's requires a significant 855 01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:12,000 amount of grading and improvements, storm water redesigns, all of that. Uh 856 01:07:10,079 --> 01:07:15,599 the grading of itself, the the rock material there um is going to be a 857 01:07:14,079 --> 01:07:18,880 significant lift there. But if you're going to be serious about trying to get 858 01:07:16,960 --> 01:07:22,960 something actively done here, it's going to take that type of commitment in terms 859 01:07:21,039 --> 01:07:26,960 of understanding what the township should be responsible for in terms of 860 01:07:24,799 --> 01:07:32,000 investing versus what it's going to be left to the open market. But it's one 861 01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:37,200 where that's that's a long path because it's not necessarily one where if you're 862 01:07:34,960 --> 01:07:41,920 trying to recruit a recruiting pitch, it's not kind of what we currently have 863 01:07:39,039 --> 01:07:47,920 there. We have to kind of do some more um to to stand out. I that's the way to 864 01:07:45,280 --> 01:07:51,440 put it. Um, and then just another alignment. So, 865 01:07:50,160 --> 01:07:54,960 we're talking about the zoning and the zoning kind of alignment with the 866 01:07:52,720 --> 01:07:59,119 existing infrastructure specifically for sewer. Um, it's just kind of another way 867 01:07:57,200 --> 01:08:02,799 to highlight the fact that obviously where we're looking for in terms of more 868 01:08:00,640 --> 01:08:06,160 mixed use type outcomes along roadways really kind of segus to where all of the 869 01:08:04,559 --> 01:08:12,079 existing sewer infrastructure is. And that was by intent uh and aligning those 870 01:08:09,440 --> 01:08:15,760 zoning districts accordingly. Um and then with that, you're talking 871 01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:21,679 about future growth initiatives that comes with the um kind of refunctioning 872 01:08:18,960 --> 01:08:26,080 of the east end plant to convert it to a drip infiltration to increase the 873 01:08:23,759 --> 01:08:28,719 capacity specifically around the one property that's on the north central 874 01:08:27,359 --> 01:08:33,199 side of the township, the develop property, which is an aquaowned property 875 01:08:30,880 --> 01:08:39,759 to continue to build out capacity there. Um so there is uh existing albeit an 876 01:08:36,799 --> 01:08:45,120 nominally so capacity and then there is potential for future capacity based off 877 01:08:42,640 --> 01:08:50,640 of the fact that we have larger spray fields that can be converted into a more 878 01:08:47,279 --> 01:08:58,000 we'll call them optimal more effective and efficient type of um sewer effluent 879 01:08:53,839 --> 01:09:02,480 disposal process if that makes sense. Uh so moving right along into 880 01:08:59,440 --> 01:09:05,279 infrastructure. Um, the way I like to start this conversation is is it really 881 01:09:04,159 --> 01:09:08,799 starts with how much money you're putting away to actually fund 882 01:09:06,640 --> 01:09:11,520 infrastructure first. So, normally you'll have your capital fund, but your 883 01:09:10,239 --> 01:09:14,159 capital fund has to be funded by something. It's usually funded by 884 01:09:12,719 --> 01:09:18,640 revenues and that's a replenishable revenue stream that right now for us is 885 01:09:16,400 --> 01:09:22,080 currently on a projected path of nonsustainable. 886 01:09:20,159 --> 01:09:27,279 Uh, and we've been talking about this. So at some point in our budget plan, the 887 01:09:25,440 --> 01:09:31,359 replenishment of our capital reserve position and continue funding capital is 888 01:09:29,359 --> 01:09:35,759 one of the reason in FY29 we had that need to kind of uptick revenues and 889 01:09:33,679 --> 01:09:40,719 that's where we decided as a board and community in these public conversations 890 01:09:37,359 --> 01:09:44,799 was grow revenue through additive tax base. So we did the zoning, we catalyze 891 01:09:43,199 --> 01:09:48,080 economic development through White Clay Point. Like we're doing we're also doing 892 01:09:46,960 --> 01:09:51,679 other things and we'll talk about them later. We're doing some uh kind of 893 01:09:50,159 --> 01:09:57,120 restructuring of our public safety services. We're we're basically creating 894 01:09:53,359 --> 01:10:00,480 bandwidth. So that future uh uh windfall moment for increasing capital 895 01:09:58,719 --> 01:10:04,320 investments as transfers from our general fund, we have to be a we will be 896 01:10:02,719 --> 01:10:10,800 able to meet that demand with just naturally occurring revenue growth from 897 01:10:06,320 --> 01:10:14,719 new uh new sources, excuse me. Uh because right now we transfer about 243. 898 01:10:13,120 --> 01:10:18,480 We did a one-time transfer here, but that was with surplus. Um, and so really 899 01:10:17,199 --> 01:10:22,320 per year, if you think about it, if it's just coming from your property tax, 900 01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:27,199 current residents at 186,000 assessed value property are basically giving $17 901 01:10:24,800 --> 01:10:31,840 a year to your road paving program. You know, that's not necessarily adding up 902 01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:36,239 to a lot of dollars. Uh, and the reason we have that cash plan we have is we're 903 01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:40,880 we're in a position where we would like to avoid recommissioning like a debt 904 01:10:38,640 --> 01:10:46,239 service fund as well. We want to stay away from long-term debt if it's just 905 01:10:43,199 --> 01:10:50,480 for the purpose of capital. Uh but yes, you primarily your general 906 01:10:48,480 --> 01:10:53,280 fund supports your strong operational services. I think of these as kind of 907 01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:56,239 our public safety services because public work, community development do 908 01:10:54,800 --> 01:11:01,040 add into that. But we are heavily operational towards public safety in 909 01:10:58,159 --> 01:11:03,920 this township. Uh so what we do for infrastructure really comes from 910 01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:10,400 interest income. It's our number one funer. So the sewer sale proceeds are 911 01:11:06,719 --> 01:11:15,920 still in a fund investment account. Um, it's producing based off of what we have 912 01:11:13,280 --> 01:11:21,120 in terms of available rates right now. It's averaging somewhere just south of 913 01:11:17,760 --> 01:11:24,480 4% to right around 4% right now. Um, we were forecasting it to be lower this 914 01:11:22,640 --> 01:11:28,480 year due to forecast rate cuts that were on schedule at the beginning of the year 915 01:11:25,760 --> 01:11:35,040 and and the end of last year. So, it is over um producing at the moment, but 916 01:11:31,760 --> 01:11:40,000 anything can happen. Macro geopolitical types of outcomes. Uh, good luck. If you 917 01:11:37,679 --> 01:11:43,840 could predict that, I wouldn't be here. Um, but with that, uh, that is the 918 01:11:42,159 --> 01:11:46,880 primary source of our revenue, but is a non-sustainable revenue because it's 919 01:11:44,960 --> 01:11:49,520 based off of investments at rates. Same thing with our capital fund balance. 920 01:11:48,239 --> 01:11:52,640 That's just the amount of money you put in your savings account. Have use it on 921 01:11:51,199 --> 01:11:56,239 capital projects. The savings account balance goes down. You have to put money 922 01:11:54,239 --> 01:12:00,080 back into it. So, that's And another one is obviously it's a state commission 923 01:11:57,920 --> 01:12:06,800 resource, liquid fuels. it can really only be used for paving and it obviously 924 01:12:02,719 --> 01:12:09,840 with the popularization of EVs uh and also the potential siphoning of some 925 01:12:08,480 --> 01:12:14,080 funds over more towards like state police. It's just one where the 926 01:12:12,080 --> 01:12:18,320 sustainability of the liquid fuels fund I wouldn't you know bet my weight on it 927 01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:21,520 for being the same level into the future as well. So just know that your capital 928 01:12:20,239 --> 01:12:26,960 fund is completely funded by non-sustainable revenues. 929 01:12:24,320 --> 01:12:31,920 That's the good news. That's the fun news. Um 930 01:12:29,840 --> 01:12:36,719 so with that uh you know kind of the main the main source if you will of 931 01:12:34,560 --> 01:12:39,360 expenditures has been road paving and we kind of talked about it a little bit in 932 01:12:38,080 --> 01:12:42,880 terms of what we're doing for our paving management analysis. Uh but I won't go 933 01:12:41,679 --> 01:12:47,280 through this slide too much other than to say that this is a continued priority 934 01:12:45,600 --> 01:12:50,480 for the township based off of feedback from the community survey the condition 935 01:12:48,880 --> 01:12:54,239 of township roadways. We're trying to do everything we can to kind of make up for 936 01:12:52,159 --> 01:12:59,040 lost time if you will. And the problem is is we have a lot of deferred projects 937 01:12:56,880 --> 01:13:02,239 as it relates to pavement improvements because it's not necessarily just a 938 01:13:00,480 --> 01:13:05,679 resurfacing. It's like a full depth and repair and a rebuild. And we're working 939 01:13:04,159 --> 01:13:08,080 our way through that. And hopefully people can see kind of the ones that 940 01:13:06,960 --> 01:13:11,760 we're still going through in the next several years. We're going to stick to 941 01:13:09,440 --> 01:13:17,120 this strategy as long as it financially can be executable based off of the level 942 01:13:14,000 --> 01:13:21,360 of resources we have. Um that's the new civil platform. So 943 01:13:19,199 --> 01:13:24,320 that's kind of the new updates it'll provide rather than the kind of more 944 01:13:22,640 --> 01:13:30,080 scan map. So, it's going to be a lot more detailed and in depth. Um, 945 01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:34,480 uh, so you can see what Kenny was alluding to in terms of just prior years 946 01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:38,159 to what we spiked it up to. Um, the only dip this year was because we just did 947 01:13:35,840 --> 01:13:41,760 phase one only of Hillenddale Road. Um, but with that, we tried to keep it 948 01:13:39,440 --> 01:13:45,040 consistently within like a 1.2 to 1.5 million annual investment in the paving 949 01:13:43,440 --> 01:13:50,000 and it pulls a lot of bandwidth from your capital program. Um, but the, you 950 01:13:48,239 --> 01:13:53,040 know, put your money where your mouth is. It's one where the township has 951 01:13:51,520 --> 01:13:55,840 invested considerable funds over the course of the last several years towards 952 01:13:54,239 --> 01:13:58,960 paving. Uh some other infrastructure projects of 953 01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:02,640 course everybody wants to know when the pendot Baltimore Pike New York road 954 01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:08,239 intersections coming along. Uh so the last update publicly was in December of 955 01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:13,040 last year. Uh project start date based off of uh kind of the next year or so 956 01:14:10,800 --> 01:14:19,520 being dedicated towards permitting um will be 28s. I think their freeze period 957 01:14:16,880 --> 01:14:22,719 uh going from the winter of 27 into 28 kind of creates that delay. They 958 01:14:20,880 --> 01:14:26,000 couldn't get all the permitting done uh to do anything in the fall, I guess, if 959 01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:29,520 you want to think of it that way. So, it's just naturally pushed to 28 as a 960 01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:32,719 start date. And of course, that's a two-year project. If anybody has any 961 01:14:31,360 --> 01:14:37,440 questions about that, it's obviously mostly a pendot one, but because Bowman 962 01:14:35,199 --> 01:14:41,600 Engineering, which is also our engineer, is the dedicated contract engineer for 963 01:14:40,159 --> 01:14:45,520 the project, we do get a lot of information about it. Um, and of course 964 01:14:44,239 --> 01:14:49,120 we can go through the history of how that project came to be, but that's a 965 01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:52,480 separate briefing in and of itself. Uh, the Newark Road interchange at Route 966 01:14:50,880 --> 01:14:55,199 One, if you've been following along, kind of the daisy chain of project 967 01:14:54,000 --> 01:14:59,280 improvements along the Route One corridor is continuing from basically 968 01:14:57,199 --> 01:15:02,560 Kennet Square all the way down to the Maryland state line. This is the one 969 01:15:01,040 --> 01:15:05,840 they've deemed for our township. Essentially proposes two commercial 970 01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:09,120 grade roundabouts on the north and south side of the interchange there, but it's 971 01:15:07,600 --> 01:15:11,840 still TBD. We're gonna wait and see when that one's going to come along, but it 972 01:15:10,400 --> 01:15:15,840 will be coming along sometime in the near future. Uh, and then of course the 973 01:15:14,159 --> 01:15:19,280 project that wouldn't go away, the tough penman sidewalk project. The good news 974 01:15:17,760 --> 01:15:23,360 is this is actually happening. They're going to start construction here in a 975 01:15:20,480 --> 01:15:27,280 few weeks. That came from a DBRPC grant that was awarded to the township. I 976 01:15:24,640 --> 01:15:31,520 believe it was like 21 or 22. Um, there was a long rideway period in terms of 977 01:15:29,520 --> 01:15:35,600 acquiring the needed amount of take to get the project kind of commissioned. Uh 978 01:15:33,760 --> 01:15:39,679 but moving forward uh we're basically only on the hook for some remnant amount 979 01:15:37,120 --> 01:15:43,520 of engineering cost at like 30 some odd thousand remaining. But the full grant 980 01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:48,159 fund is actually going to be for the total updated cost of construction which 981 01:15:45,520 --> 01:15:53,120 is about the actual cost is going to be $648,000 for the construction. It was 982 01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:56,880 approved for $965,000 total soon. So it came in under bid or 983 01:15:55,760 --> 01:16:01,520 it's going to be under the projected estimate. 984 01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:04,880 Uh so with that um another thing about infrastructure, everybody wants to talk 985 01:16:03,040 --> 01:16:08,560 about intersections. I hate that one. That one doesn't work very well. You 986 01:16:06,480 --> 01:16:11,440 know, the queueing times here. Um so what we did over the course of the last 987 01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:14,239 several years, and if you were involved with that one, you probably have a lot 988 01:16:12,640 --> 01:16:19,199 of understanding, but we enacted an act 209 uh transportation impact fee. Uh 989 01:16:17,280 --> 01:16:22,880 that was per the 28 comprehensive plan recommendation. And essentially the good 990 01:16:21,280 --> 01:16:26,239 part about that is is that's one process that gives you a lot of depth of 991 01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:30,239 understanding of how to do some significant transportation improvements. 992 01:16:28,480 --> 01:16:34,400 Brandon, one limitation is is your study area for those improvements is limited 993 01:16:31,600 --> 01:16:39,120 to seven miles. So we created our Jerrymander reviewed area because I 994 01:16:36,560 --> 01:16:42,719 think it's 6.99 miles total um to basically do the where are we going to 995 01:16:41,199 --> 01:16:46,480 get the biggest bang for our buck. So we looked on 41 Baltimore Pike and New York 996 01:16:44,800 --> 01:16:49,360 roads um because those are the most heavily traffked areas in the community. 997 01:16:48,239 --> 01:16:53,199 So you wouldn't want to focus your energy on the heavily traffked areas. Um 998 01:16:51,760 --> 01:16:56,960 so when we finally got all of these documents, the big one now is is okay, 999 01:16:55,120 --> 01:17:03,600 now not only do we have the impact fee, so when developer comes along, they pay 1000 01:16:59,520 --> 01:17:06,960 the fee for their cost of uh impact for generative new trips created by their 1001 01:17:05,520 --> 01:17:11,600 development. So we get money into a transportation fund um or work with them 1002 01:17:09,280 --> 01:17:14,800 to do certain improvements uh for the actual land development plan. But the 1003 01:17:13,520 --> 01:17:19,360 other one was is a transportation capital improvement plan because we 1004 01:17:17,760 --> 01:17:22,880 never had a depth of understanding of all the potential projects and all the 1005 01:17:20,960 --> 01:17:26,960 prices associated with those projects and what those types of improvements 1006 01:17:24,400 --> 01:17:30,880 entailed until basically this last summer. So the biggest question then was 1007 01:17:29,040 --> 01:17:34,880 is well what's the priority? What project should we start with? Uh so 1008 01:17:33,040 --> 01:17:39,199 looking at the transportation capital improvement plan you had 24 identified 1009 01:17:36,960 --> 01:17:43,679 intersections just a small price tag at about $60 million total. Uh so the good 1010 01:17:42,080 --> 01:17:47,760 news is is well you already have some projects that are taking a big chunk out 1011 01:17:45,600 --> 01:17:51,280 of that particularly the Baltimore Pike the I just looked at it the route one 1012 01:17:49,360 --> 01:17:57,440 interchange and the New York road ramps and white clay point. So out of that 1013 01:17:54,000 --> 01:18:01,280 59.6 million 37 is coming off the board already. So it's that's good. That's why 1014 01:17:59,360 --> 01:18:04,080 those projects are a significant lift because they're taking a big chunk out 1015 01:18:02,640 --> 01:18:07,520 of your transportation capital improvement plan. So really the question 1016 01:18:06,239 --> 01:18:11,440 remains what do we do with this last remaining $22.5 million and all the 1017 01:18:09,840 --> 01:18:14,320 projects associated with we did this during a manager report time. We kind of 1018 01:18:12,880 --> 01:18:18,400 looked at those intersections and the guidance to the board back was to uh 1019 01:18:16,880 --> 01:18:21,840 work with Bowman to come up with a recommendation plan and kind of 1020 01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:26,480 strategize that into a multi-year capital plan with all of that being 1021 01:18:24,320 --> 01:18:29,360 unfunded capital. So just prepare for that exercise there because these are 1022 01:18:27,760 --> 01:18:35,760 some big ticket projects. But at least it gives us in the right uh kind of 1023 01:18:33,040 --> 01:18:41,440 ability to understand how to to kind of chunk out those projects over time. And 1024 01:18:39,120 --> 01:18:48,080 uh I'll alert you now is going to require a lot of a lot of grant money. 1025 01:18:45,520 --> 01:18:52,480 Um another one infrastructure- wise, storm water. Storm water is a big factor 1026 01:18:50,560 --> 01:18:56,320 here in the township and that's mostly because we live within the boundaries of 1027 01:18:54,480 --> 01:19:00,800 two major watersheds that border our eastern western boundaries. And so what 1028 01:18:58,640 --> 01:19:06,400 that means is is not only do you have a significance when 1029 01:19:03,199 --> 01:19:10,800 it comes to your permit cycle for MS4 because you you're just, you know, 1030 01:19:08,640 --> 01:19:14,400 you're too inundated with the issue. Uh so there's that. Um you should have 1031 01:19:13,120 --> 01:19:19,840 within your infrastructure a lot of asset management uh kind of resources to 1032 01:19:17,280 --> 01:19:23,120 funnel all this water. To come as no surprise, we actually don't have as much 1033 01:19:21,520 --> 01:19:27,280 as we probably should have based off of legacy development. Um, and then of 1034 01:19:25,679 --> 01:19:31,760 course the amount of labor that goes into maintaining the things that we have 1035 01:19:29,280 --> 01:19:35,679 to maintain currently over a 16 square mile rate area. And this is only one 1036 01:19:33,679 --> 01:19:41,440 facet of our labor from our roads and streets division versus storm water. Uh, 1037 01:19:37,840 --> 01:19:45,600 we're a very busy crew. Um, and so with that, you know, why is this a big 1038 01:19:43,679 --> 01:19:49,920 problem? Well, it's because storm water can create big issues. Um, and I've 1039 01:19:48,480 --> 01:19:53,520 lived in some of these communities and seen it kind of firsthand. And these are 1040 01:19:51,440 --> 01:19:57,040 just examples that I like to pull for. Um it's one thing when you have 1041 01:19:54,880 --> 01:20:01,120 flooding, it's another one when you have insufficient capacity of your 1042 01:19:58,880 --> 01:20:06,239 infrastructure. So it creates kind of a very large funneling or sheeting effect 1043 01:20:03,520 --> 01:20:10,239 as water is going from one point down to a bottom equilibrium point and it takes 1044 01:20:08,640 --> 01:20:15,199 everything with it if it's a significant enough of a rain event. This rain event 1045 01:20:13,040 --> 01:20:21,600 here was in Pensacola, Florida. I was living there at the time. It took uh I 1046 01:20:17,920 --> 01:20:25,440 think about 26 inches of rain in less than 48 hours. And it was only in one 1047 01:20:23,920 --> 01:20:29,679 specific section. It wasn't spread out across the entire city. It was in within 1048 01:20:27,199 --> 01:20:33,120 like a onem radius. So basically someone just took a bucket of water and dumped 1049 01:20:31,040 --> 01:20:37,520 it on this point in Pensacola and it basically just lifted up the roadway and 1050 01:20:34,800 --> 01:20:41,760 took it into the bayou. Um same thing with Elicate City here. It's kind of 1051 01:20:39,520 --> 01:20:44,480 that channel area. So this is at the if you've ever been to Oldtown Elicate 1052 01:20:43,199 --> 01:20:48,320 City, you have kind of the top of the hill and it's basically just serve as 1053 01:20:46,000 --> 01:20:51,040 like a waterl all the way down. Um and basically take everything with it. And 1054 01:20:49,840 --> 01:20:54,000 that's because when you look at it, you know, we have high point in the middle 1055 01:20:52,239 --> 01:20:57,600 of ridge and we have two watersheds. So anytime we get a at some point, you 1056 01:20:56,159 --> 01:21:01,600 know, Murphy's law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. A storm will come 1057 01:20:58,960 --> 01:21:04,960 along. It will emphasize water on one part and that water will have to go 1058 01:21:03,199 --> 01:21:08,800 somewhere and likely it will take everything with it. Um, and that comes 1059 01:21:06,800 --> 01:21:13,679 at a pretty specific cost. So that's why we're trying to figure out where to best 1060 01:21:11,280 --> 01:21:17,679 invest our resources in terms of asset management and build resiliency towards 1061 01:21:16,080 --> 01:21:21,760 these types of events into the future. But it comes at a price tag. And right 1062 01:21:19,280 --> 01:21:24,960 now we're not nearly where we should be at in terms of funding those types of 1063 01:21:23,520 --> 01:21:28,560 improvements. So it's still I would consider to be the township's biggest 1064 01:21:26,400 --> 01:21:32,960 risk from an infrastructure perspective. And I just hope it doesn't rain as much 1065 01:21:29,760 --> 01:21:37,440 when it does rain. Uh another one is uh we do have some 1066 01:21:35,440 --> 01:21:42,480 projects. Uh so the Mercer Mill project has not been kind of lost. It's still 1067 01:21:39,679 --> 01:21:46,719 out there right now. It's in a joint D review permit cycle right now. Um, for 1068 01:21:44,960 --> 01:21:50,080 those unfamiliar with where Mercer Mill Road is, it's a kind of unnamed 1069 01:21:48,400 --> 01:21:53,440 tributary that eventually goes out to the White Clay Creek because the White 1070 01:21:51,840 --> 01:21:57,520 Clay Creek is federally protected. It takes about 10 years to get a permit 1071 01:21:55,280 --> 01:22:00,159 reviewed or no design set plan reviewed uh because it has to go through the 1072 01:21:58,560 --> 01:22:04,239 National Park Service and the US Army Corps of Engineers. So, it just creates 1073 01:22:01,920 --> 01:22:07,679 a lot of kind of administrative delays with that one. So, it's finally through 1074 01:22:05,760 --> 01:22:12,239 that. It got the kind of recommendations to proceed forward and it was submitted 1075 01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:17,360 for D approval for the review of the of the permit. um that can take upwards of 1076 01:22:15,440 --> 01:22:22,000 eight months and it was submitted in July. The likelihood that it will take 1077 01:22:20,719 --> 01:22:25,199 that long, that's like kind of at the long end. It could come in before then, 1078 01:22:23,840 --> 01:22:28,800 but even then, if you're doing that, you're going to go right into the winter 1079 01:22:26,480 --> 01:22:31,600 time frame, uh hidden bog turtle season. So, you're going to have to kind of jump 1080 01:22:30,239 --> 01:22:35,199 it into the next year. So, it is looking like early 27 will do that. And the 1081 01:22:33,760 --> 01:22:39,040 reason for that project is because it's an undercapized culbert pipe that goes 1082 01:22:37,360 --> 01:22:41,920 underneath the roadway. And so, when you get a large flooding event like we just 1083 01:22:40,480 --> 01:22:44,960 talked about, that water's got to go somewhere. Historically, it's just been 1084 01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:48,320 sheeting down the roadway going into this gentleman's front porch and inside 1085 01:22:46,400 --> 01:22:51,840 of his house. Goes around, blows out the stream and at some point, if you get 1086 01:22:49,920 --> 01:22:55,840 enough of event, and this was mostly exacerbated by the hurricane events that 1087 01:22:53,600 --> 01:22:58,239 we had back to back, um this has all been kind of replaced with rip wrap, but 1088 01:22:57,199 --> 01:23:01,280 you'll just get a blow out of the roadway. So, the top of Mercer Mill will 1089 01:22:59,920 --> 01:23:06,800 end up at the bottom of Mercer Mill Road. Um and we don't want that to 1090 01:23:03,520 --> 01:23:09,760 happen. Um unfunded wise, uh that's the one where we've been talking about just 1091 01:23:07,920 --> 01:23:14,480 kind of general flooding issues ongoing and tough Canaman. Um the storm water 1092 01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:18,000 infrastructure there is completely at its kind of depleted state. Anytime we 1093 01:23:16,400 --> 01:23:23,280 put a scope underneath the ground there, we find some new surprises, not the good 1094 01:23:20,560 --> 01:23:27,440 ones. Um and so this was one where the township had partnered with the former 1095 01:23:25,440 --> 01:23:31,440 storm water commissioned engineer, which was Cedarville Engineering back in I 1096 01:23:29,360 --> 01:23:36,000 think it was 22 time frame. They finally gave us the report in 23. And so during 1097 01:23:34,480 --> 01:23:40,639 that same time frame with the Baltimore Pike intersection getting reviewed for 1098 01:23:38,480 --> 01:23:44,400 going into contract design with Bowman who is our engineer, we also said to 1099 01:23:42,560 --> 01:23:48,719 Bowman, here is the storm water plan for the Cedarville um review of Tough Kenan. 1100 01:23:47,199 --> 01:23:53,600 Can this be folded into the Baltimore Pike project? And that required PENDOT 1101 01:23:51,360 --> 01:23:56,480 review. They did. They authorized it. It got folded into the recommendations. 1102 01:23:55,199 --> 01:24:01,120 They're going to be doing these storm water improvements. And so this 1103 01:23:58,800 --> 01:24:04,159 potential expense of roughly 800,000 to four million dependent upon how much 1104 01:24:02,400 --> 01:24:07,520 you're going to be doing comes at zero dollars to the township. So that was 1105 01:24:06,000 --> 01:24:11,440 just kind of a natural organic type of outcome and very pragmatic way to say 1106 01:24:09,679 --> 01:24:14,480 you know can we achieve someone else to do because also it made sense for 1107 01:24:12,960 --> 01:24:19,040 PennDOT to do these types of improvements because the Baltimore Pike 1108 01:24:16,400 --> 01:24:24,080 intersection um doesn't have a lot of area up around the actual intersection 1109 01:24:21,520 --> 01:24:27,199 to do retention there in that area. So they actually needed to leverage this. 1110 01:24:25,679 --> 01:24:31,440 So, it was actually helpful for them as well. Uh, but that was um and you'll see 1111 01:24:29,840 --> 01:24:34,320 it in some of their design plans as they come forward where they're going to be 1112 01:24:32,719 --> 01:24:38,080 routing the pipes underneath the the roadways and stuff, but overall good 1113 01:24:35,920 --> 01:24:41,199 outcome for us. Uh, last but not least, Mike talked 1114 01:24:39,600 --> 01:24:45,920 about the Medley Preserve, but that was a big implementation that went through 1115 01:24:42,719 --> 01:24:50,800 last year. We had yet at the time when I was here in the early 23 to fully 1116 01:24:47,600 --> 01:24:54,880 implement our MS4 uh best management practice which for us was for anybody 1117 01:24:53,040 --> 01:25:01,199 applied for the excuse me was eligible for the permit around uh sediment 1118 01:24:57,600 --> 01:25:06,159 reduction. Um we had to remove in a project a lot of sediment 330,000 1119 01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:10,960 pounds. Uh so at the same time frame we had full acquisition of themedley 1120 01:25:08,320 --> 01:25:16,000 preserve. Uh, and that's one where they needed a site because we partnered with 1121 01:25:12,800 --> 01:25:22,800 PennDOT on a kind of collaborative um, investment into an MS4 joint project 1122 01:25:19,520 --> 01:25:26,639 with them. Um, so we studied the uh, the park site there, found enough linear 1123 01:25:24,880 --> 01:25:30,719 stream segment to do it all in one kind of fell swoop, if you will, which kind 1124 01:25:28,320 --> 01:25:35,120 of achieved a little bit of efficiency and they got to work uh, last year and 1125 01:25:33,679 --> 01:25:39,280 finished it the very beginning of this year. Uh, so you can see kind of turned 1126 01:25:37,280 --> 01:25:44,800 into a very kind of like you know, like a canal, if you will, for 1127 01:25:42,800 --> 01:25:49,679 along a golf course into kind of what we see today there, which is that kind of 1128 01:25:46,320 --> 01:25:53,520 restored kind of vegetative uh channel. Now, that's kind of helping remove 1129 01:25:51,920 --> 01:25:57,600 everything out of the stream, but also slowing the rate of volume of stuff 1130 01:25:55,920 --> 01:26:01,040 going down through that area as well. So, overall pretty good outcome for the 1131 01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:04,159 township as well. And of course, this one was funded for prior use of ARPA 1132 01:26:02,960 --> 01:26:07,440 funds. So, another kind of if you think about it as zero dollars from the 1133 01:26:05,440 --> 01:26:11,920 township. So there alone two significant storm water projects for no money coming 1134 01:26:09,120 --> 01:26:15,040 from the township. Uh another one uh this one seems 1135 01:26:13,760 --> 01:26:17,679 relevant if you've been reading the news or Facebook recently about what's 1136 01:26:16,639 --> 01:26:21,600 happening with the Southern Chester County Regional Police, but also with 1137 01:26:18,960 --> 01:26:24,480 Southern Chester County Fire Rescue. Uh but this slide's been put up in the 1138 01:26:23,040 --> 01:26:28,480 past. I won't kind of say it other than the fact that we have three primary 1139 01:26:26,159 --> 01:26:32,800 public service agencies uh that we contribute a significant amount of uh 1140 01:26:30,560 --> 01:26:36,320 funding towards uh based off of those different we'll call them percentage 1141 01:26:34,320 --> 01:26:40,960 funding contribution formula models for each agency and it was one where the one 1142 01:26:39,040 --> 01:26:43,840 that was working the best shocker was one that was the most regionalized with 1143 01:26:42,480 --> 01:26:47,840 the most amount of people involved with it and that was a southern county EMS 1144 01:26:46,159 --> 01:26:50,400 and since the township within its own comp plan had already talked about 1145 01:26:49,199 --> 01:26:53,679 regionalization benefits of regionalization benefits of 1146 01:26:51,440 --> 01:26:57,280 regionalization Um the goal was to continue these types of discussions from 1147 01:26:55,040 --> 01:27:00,400 a policing perspective as well as a fire company perspective and this one kind of 1148 01:26:58,800 --> 01:27:03,679 being the biggest emphasis because it was the most sudden cost increase to the 1149 01:27:02,400 --> 01:27:08,800 township over the course of the last several years and we're basically other 1150 01:27:06,880 --> 01:27:12,080 than Aenddale Burrow which doesn't come close to the township's investment like 1151 01:27:10,719 --> 01:27:16,080 we're we're funding it ourselves essentially from a municipal 1152 01:27:13,280 --> 01:27:19,520 perspective. Um, so with that, just looking at police and of course most 1153 01:27:17,920 --> 01:27:22,480 people can understand kind of the length of duration of the Southern Chester 1154 01:27:20,719 --> 01:27:27,920 County Regional, the benefit to the community has been slowing the eventual 1155 01:27:24,880 --> 01:27:32,880 rate increases uh for the uh excuse me, the cost increases through the kind of 1156 01:27:30,480 --> 01:27:36,960 we'll call them the gradual cycle of collective bargaining outcomes 1157 01:27:34,320 --> 01:27:43,199 associated with policing unions. Um, and so your policing service is really one 1158 01:27:40,400 --> 01:27:46,960 where every three to four years you're going to have these types of cycles and 1159 01:27:45,280 --> 01:27:53,280 you can kind of get into a position where if you ever were thinking we can't 1160 01:27:50,639 --> 01:27:57,360 negotiate a common outcome, then you move into arbitration. Arbitration is 1161 01:27:55,760 --> 01:28:02,719 one where by law, I think it's Pennsylvania Act 111, a rendering judge 1162 01:28:00,159 --> 01:28:06,800 decision cannot cannot use the township's financial 1163 01:28:05,120 --> 01:28:09,840 situation in rendering a decision for the arbitration outcome. So whether or 1164 01:28:08,320 --> 01:28:14,080 not you're a very impoverished community in terms of like your tax base or you 1165 01:28:11,920 --> 01:28:18,000 can that factor doesn't go into what the judge renders to. So you're kind of up 1166 01:28:15,760 --> 01:28:21,600 against the wall with that one. So with that, you want to avoid that because 1167 01:28:20,159 --> 01:28:24,960 regardless of what's that awarded, it's awarded. You know, that's that's a 1168 01:28:23,199 --> 01:28:29,600 basically it's an unfunded mandate coming towards you. Um, so luckily, 1169 01:28:27,520 --> 01:28:34,320 we've been in a very strong relationship with the Southern Chester County uh 1170 01:28:31,679 --> 01:28:37,520 association. Um, and we continue to kind of understand that, you know, we want to 1171 01:28:35,840 --> 01:28:41,360 make sure that our policing organization is strong. But with that, it comes with 1172 01:28:39,199 --> 01:28:44,880 the reality that over time this cost increase eventually goes up. So with us, 1173 01:28:43,600 --> 01:28:49,280 we've been looking at, well, who can we partner with to kind of shoulder that 1174 01:28:47,199 --> 01:28:51,760 regional cost? Well, it's great if you're in a place that every township 1175 01:28:50,480 --> 01:28:55,440 has a police department, but that's not the case in Southern Chester County. In 1176 01:28:53,199 --> 01:28:59,040 fact, it's very much not the case. We are islands of policing organizations 1177 01:28:57,360 --> 01:29:02,080 surrounded by an ocean of nocost policing services through the 1178 01:29:00,159 --> 01:29:05,679 Pennsylvania State Police. So that makes it very, very difficult to partner 1179 01:29:04,320 --> 01:29:09,120 through regionalization when you're just very limited with the amount of options 1180 01:29:07,040 --> 01:29:15,040 that you have. Um, and so that's one where as the cost continues to kind of 1181 01:29:11,920 --> 01:29:18,719 go up and this number stays zero, the decisions become very easy for these 1182 01:29:17,120 --> 01:29:22,960 communities saying, "Okay, do I have to or not pay $3 million next year or not?" 1183 01:29:21,040 --> 01:29:26,080 And that's going to be a no. And of course, that's what happened in Oxford 1184 01:29:24,320 --> 01:29:29,520 as well in terms of policing studies. And that was a pretty predictable 1185 01:29:27,520 --> 01:29:36,159 outcome. Uh so with that um having police and 1186 01:29:32,880 --> 01:29:42,080 having uh uh earned income tax with a population base correlates to your 1187 01:29:38,159 --> 01:29:47,120 property tax uh rate. Um those that have uh policing agencies um that have higher 1188 01:29:45,199 --> 01:29:50,400 earned income taxes tend to have kind of lower property taxes. The kind of the 1189 01:29:48,800 --> 01:29:54,159 economic strength of a township is obviously larger than the economic 1190 01:29:52,080 --> 01:29:58,080 strength of a burrow. Uh but when you look at kind of the counter to that, if 1191 01:29:55,920 --> 01:30:01,520 you have economically kind of strong townships with no policing, they're 1192 01:29:59,840 --> 01:30:05,520 going to be orders of magnitude lower in their property taxes. That's kind of a 1193 01:30:03,440 --> 01:30:08,239 very easy thing to correlate here. Um and then it's going when you look at 1194 01:30:06,800 --> 01:30:10,719 terms of expenditure level, and I like to use London Grove because they're our 1195 01:30:09,520 --> 01:30:14,560 neighbor right next door, and they pretty much do the exact same thing we 1196 01:30:12,480 --> 01:30:19,440 do service-wise. If we were to remove our policing cost from our budget, we 1197 01:30:16,719 --> 01:30:22,880 would spend about $600,000 less than London Grove in our general fund. Um, 1198 01:30:21,280 --> 01:30:26,639 and so we're we're basically doing everything a secondass township does 1199 01:30:24,800 --> 01:30:31,120 plus police and of course that drives up the cost. So always kind of uh something 1200 01:30:29,440 --> 01:30:35,280 that people need to consider is this is just the reality of the services that we 1201 01:30:32,960 --> 01:30:40,239 provide as a community. So within that framework seeking regionalization is the 1202 01:30:37,520 --> 01:30:46,080 best consideration for us given all of these factors. Uh so with that we I 1203 01:30:43,840 --> 01:30:49,840 presented this at the August 3rd meeting um for the special meeting. Uh I I 1204 01:30:48,320 --> 01:30:53,360 accidentally looked at five years or excuse me, six years, not five. So this 1205 01:30:51,280 --> 01:30:56,880 is corrective for five years. Um and as you go up in years, it continues to 1206 01:30:55,440 --> 01:30:59,760 continue that savings because you're always projected versus what you are 1207 01:30:58,480 --> 01:31:04,800 spending versus what you would be spending. There's always that gap. Um, 1208 01:31:02,239 --> 01:31:08,000 but with that, uh, by having them join the regional in this new balanced out 1209 01:31:06,480 --> 01:31:12,639 formula because we're at 80 and we're going down to 47, you know, we project 1210 01:31:10,239 --> 01:31:15,679 to have about 1.72 million in savings over the course of the next five years 1211 01:31:13,920 --> 01:31:18,560 based off of what you are spending or what you would what you will be spending 1212 01:31:17,120 --> 01:31:22,719 versus what you would be spending, if that makes sense. Um, and that helps 1213 01:31:21,040 --> 01:31:25,600 because that creates bandwidth, that creates capacity that doesn't have to 1214 01:31:24,400 --> 01:31:30,239 shift that funding towards that direction. You can slow that and maybe 1215 01:31:27,440 --> 01:31:34,159 shift it towards something else. Um, same thing for fire services. Uh, there 1216 01:31:32,639 --> 01:31:38,880 was a lot of factors that went into why costs went up. Uh, losing a regional 1217 01:31:36,880 --> 01:31:42,239 partner initially in 21, London Grove leaving and joining the Westgrove Fire 1218 01:31:40,880 --> 01:31:47,360 Commission full circle. They're coming back through the newly established fire 1219 01:31:44,480 --> 01:31:50,320 rescue service. But that was a factor. Um, at the same time frame, 1220 01:31:49,040 --> 01:31:53,840 Pennsylvania, I guess, was one of the last states that was heavily relying on 1221 01:31:52,080 --> 01:31:58,320 volunteers until finally all kind of volunteerism is basically is dying. It's 1222 01:31:55,920 --> 01:32:02,000 decaying. So in order to keep the same level of service, you have to hire 1223 01:32:00,159 --> 01:32:05,280 full-time people. And mostly right now it's medics because the most amount of 1224 01:32:03,440 --> 01:32:09,840 your call volumes demand shifts on apparatuses ambulance apparatus. That 1225 01:32:08,159 --> 01:32:13,760 comes from having to have full-time medics on staff there. And of course 1226 01:32:11,679 --> 01:32:18,159 when you go from zero cost volunteers basically to fully staffed people, your 1227 01:32:16,080 --> 01:32:20,639 cost is going to ramp up pretty quickly just so you can have an ambulance show 1228 01:32:19,360 --> 01:32:25,840 up your house within a certain amount of minutes. Um and on the other side of 1229 01:32:23,199 --> 01:32:31,040 that too, apparently only one company owns all fire apparatus in the world 1230 01:32:28,480 --> 01:32:35,440 essentially. Um and that's one where supply demand, you know, especially when 1231 01:32:33,040 --> 01:32:38,880 you have a central provider too. So with that the rising cost of apparatus from a 1232 01:32:37,360 --> 01:32:42,880 capital standpoint has ballooned in the same time. So all of these provide 1233 01:32:40,880 --> 01:32:45,440 upward pressure on your cost for and of course we were not immune to that. You 1234 01:32:44,400 --> 01:32:51,120 want to continue to be able to provide ambulance services. It comes at a it 1235 01:32:47,199 --> 01:32:55,520 comes at a cost. So in 24 we sat down with Aenddale Fire Company leadership 1236 01:32:52,719 --> 01:32:59,040 and we kind of had kind of a a almost exhaustive review of what was happening 1237 01:32:57,199 --> 01:33:02,719 with the township and it was a great conversation. It was one where they were 1238 01:33:01,040 --> 01:33:07,040 continuing to sustain service levels even though their funding levels weren't 1239 01:33:04,320 --> 01:33:10,480 where they needed to be. Um they understood that they were the largest 1240 01:33:08,800 --> 01:33:13,440 representative increase in our general fund over the course of the last several 1241 01:33:11,920 --> 01:33:18,960 years and that was on an unsustainable path. We couldn't keep up with that 1242 01:33:14,800 --> 01:33:22,719 rate. Um there's other things happening. Uh so the lack of our regional partner, 1243 01:33:21,040 --> 01:33:25,840 the replacement rate, we couldn't keep up with that one. The significant cost 1244 01:33:24,239 --> 01:33:28,880 savings for apparatus we talked about. And then another one that wasn't 1245 01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:32,480 relevant in 24, but it was relevant when it went into effect in 25. But you're 1246 01:33:31,040 --> 01:33:37,280 going to have a potential impact on your EMS building revenues future wise due to 1247 01:33:35,120 --> 01:33:40,400 forecast cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, nonreimbured ambulance runs essentially 1248 01:33:39,280 --> 01:33:46,000 is what you're thinking about. It's a loss of revenue. Um so with that you 1249 01:33:43,440 --> 01:33:50,080 know they went forward with a uh discussions with Westgrove after this 1250 01:33:47,840 --> 01:33:53,120 meeting positive outcomes you know they kind of said on the other side hey we're 1251 01:33:51,600 --> 01:33:56,000 looking at the exact same thing you know everyone can kind of see the writing on 1252 01:33:54,400 --> 01:34:00,480 the wall you know what do we do about this and so they sought support from all 1253 01:33:58,639 --> 01:34:06,320 of the participating municipalities in those two fire companies in October 2024 1254 01:34:02,880 --> 01:34:10,400 we adopted resolution 24020 to support their plan because they're both 1255 01:34:08,000 --> 01:34:15,199 nonprofit entities they can do this uh to go through an explorator 1256 01:34:12,080 --> 01:34:19,760 kind of process to look at merging. And of course, 18 months process goes by and 1257 01:34:17,760 --> 01:34:23,360 they're now full into effect as a merged entity, one single entity now, Southern 1258 01:34:21,679 --> 01:34:28,080 Chester County Fire Rescue, effective January 1st to 27th. And concurrently 1259 01:34:26,159 --> 01:34:32,239 with that, the township is participating with the new nine neighbors or I guess 1260 01:34:30,320 --> 01:34:37,360 eight neighbors, seven I guess considering West Marble is with us right 1261 01:34:34,159 --> 01:34:40,800 now as well, but um to recondition how this thing is going to be governed. So 1262 01:34:38,960 --> 01:34:45,360 that is ongoing. It's more likely going to be in the near term kind of like a 1263 01:34:43,120 --> 01:34:49,600 intermunicipal type agreement for whatever it's going to be in terms of 1264 01:34:47,120 --> 01:34:54,000 expectations and outcomes. Long term, who's to say? It just depends on the 1265 01:34:51,600 --> 01:34:58,159 kind of uh the the political leadership in terms of kind of what policies people 1266 01:34:56,400 --> 01:35:00,960 want to enforce upon their fire departments or not. And then also just, 1267 01:34:59,840 --> 01:35:04,880 you know, what kind of governance structure based off of maybe a few years 1268 01:35:03,120 --> 01:35:08,400 worth of understanding operations and stuff like that with the new entity. So, 1269 01:35:07,040 --> 01:35:11,199 we put this up before, but this basically becomes your new fire 1270 01:35:09,679 --> 01:35:15,120 territory for Southern Chester County Fire. It's now the largest in the county 1271 01:35:12,800 --> 01:35:18,719 or one of them. Um, 100 square miles plus. Uh, so it's just that's the 1272 01:35:17,280 --> 01:35:23,440 construct of putting together a new regional function is as you you kind of 1273 01:35:20,800 --> 01:35:26,239 achieve economies of scale. So, what does that mean for us? Well, similar to 1274 01:35:25,040 --> 01:35:29,760 the policing thing, looked at it similarly for a fire because fire does 1275 01:35:27,840 --> 01:35:33,840 have a funding formula. It's the third third and third is based off assess 1276 01:35:31,280 --> 01:35:38,719 values, property values, and call service. Uh so we just plugged in our 1277 01:35:36,320 --> 01:35:43,120 numbers into this larger regional model. Uh so we were at 83% we now dropped down 1278 01:35:41,280 --> 01:35:47,280 to 27% of the kind of quote unquote impact to 1279 01:35:45,679 --> 01:35:51,199 that organization because we're not partnering just with one other entity. 1280 01:35:48,880 --> 01:35:55,600 We're partnering with eight new entities at the same time now. And of course that 1281 01:35:53,040 --> 01:35:59,280 was forecast. So with that of course we get a significant reduction from the EMS 1282 01:35:58,000 --> 01:36:03,920 side because that's where our numbers go down the most. And fire kind of stays at 1283 01:36:01,520 --> 01:36:08,560 a similar level which is understandable. Um so with that because of that you know 1284 01:36:06,000 --> 01:36:12,159 we achieve about $2.81 million in net savings over the course of the next five 1285 01:36:10,000 --> 01:36:16,800 years. Uh and that's forecast you know this subject to the final agreements but 1286 01:36:13,920 --> 01:36:21,360 we're applying the math to the projections that they're providing to 1287 01:36:18,239 --> 01:36:25,360 us. But that's what we see. Um and so of course when you add that up 1288 01:36:23,040 --> 01:36:29,280 you know 2.81 1 plus 1.72 you have significant savings over the next five 1289 01:36:26,960 --> 01:36:33,040 years of what you would not have what you would have had to spend if things 1290 01:36:30,880 --> 01:36:37,280 were continuing on the st on this the the same path versus creating a more new 1291 01:36:35,600 --> 01:36:40,960 stable path for both if that makes sense. Um that's why it was such a high 1292 01:36:39,520 --> 01:36:43,920 priority is like we need to figure this out and that's what we've been working 1293 01:36:41,840 --> 01:36:48,480 on pretty explicitly over the course of the last few years and conversations 1294 01:36:45,440 --> 01:36:52,239 with our safety providers. Uh going through real quickly to some of 1295 01:36:50,960 --> 01:36:55,760 the other priorities. these are a little bit quicker. Um, but overall when you 1296 01:36:54,320 --> 01:36:59,040 have a community that has a lot of different things in it and a lot of 1297 01:36:57,040 --> 01:37:03,280 different service needs, that creates a lot of capacity needs in terms of what 1298 01:37:01,520 --> 01:37:06,560 departmental structure we need, how many people within those departments do we 1299 01:37:04,880 --> 01:37:11,840 need in order to render sufficient services to our community. Um, and 1300 01:37:09,119 --> 01:37:17,440 that's one where when I first uh got here in 23 and we finally did it in 25 1301 01:37:15,440 --> 01:37:21,040 was what is the what is the residential perception of the service levels we 1302 01:37:18,960 --> 01:37:24,400 currently provide? And of course any feedback we got, we kind of already knew 1303 01:37:22,880 --> 01:37:29,280 what was going to be said because we knew kind of where our our um our gaps 1304 01:37:27,199 --> 01:37:32,800 were. Another one is is we weren't going to wait on that when we're going to try 1305 01:37:30,800 --> 01:37:36,880 to address it immediately. And then of course from a community survey 1306 01:37:34,080 --> 01:37:42,080 perspective, perceptions change slowly over time. So the goal is is as we kind 1307 01:37:39,119 --> 01:37:45,840 of fully build for purpose our departmental organizational structure 1308 01:37:43,840 --> 01:37:49,600 and staffing levels, we're going to keep asking the community how we're doing. 1309 01:37:47,280 --> 01:37:54,639 And then hopefully also the goal is to see that we have more people out 1310 01:37:51,679 --> 01:37:58,880 affecting outcomes, um policing, paving, responding to emergencies, 1311 01:37:56,960 --> 01:38:02,800 um you name it, across the board, doing more uh zoning inspections and property 1312 01:38:01,280 --> 01:38:07,679 code enforcement, things of that nature. Basically, things that help improve the 1313 01:38:04,239 --> 01:38:11,440 community. Um so this is what we look like today. As you can see, it's it's a 1314 01:38:10,000 --> 01:38:15,520 I'm excuse me, this is what we looked like yesterday. And then I'll go through 1315 01:38:14,000 --> 01:38:18,239 some of the additive things, but we knew this organizational chart was not 1316 01:38:16,960 --> 01:38:20,880 sufficient enough to meet the township demand. And the community survey proved 1317 01:38:19,679 --> 01:38:24,320 that because the community survey results were pretty much reflective of 1318 01:38:22,320 --> 01:38:26,560 this level of staffing level as a township. And we looked at other 1319 01:38:25,360 --> 01:38:33,520 townships and everything else like that, but we were well under capacity. Um 1320 01:38:31,199 --> 01:38:38,400 so in the community survey we looked at some of the high and very high 1321 01:38:35,360 --> 01:38:44,320 priorities from pertaining to um our uh excuse me our um 1322 01:38:41,520 --> 01:38:48,080 ways that we could affect changes. Uh so we looked at the admin stuff and this 1323 01:38:46,320 --> 01:38:53,280 should say public works excuse me on the um the the very high and high priorities 1324 01:38:49,679 --> 01:38:58,480 there but um we added more capacity for improving communications and content. We 1325 01:38:56,639 --> 01:39:04,880 added capacity from our technology footprint to get better information out 1326 01:39:00,320 --> 01:39:07,920 there in a more uh uh capable uh fashion in terms of like pushing out 1327 01:39:06,239 --> 01:39:13,360 communications, housing all of our information, more intuitive to be able 1328 01:39:10,239 --> 01:39:17,520 to navigate to information. Uh we made more transparent kind of uh improvements 1329 01:39:15,520 --> 01:39:21,840 towards our documentation that we put online, aligning everything to our 1330 01:39:19,360 --> 01:39:25,520 social media platforms uh to basically allow for more community engagement or 1331 01:39:23,600 --> 01:39:28,800 participation. So it was really heavy focus on just process improvements 1332 01:39:27,600 --> 01:39:32,239 around what can we do, what are the lowhanging fruits to kind of build on 1333 01:39:30,639 --> 01:39:35,440 the perception that we're not giving enough timely, accurate and available 1334 01:39:34,080 --> 01:39:39,600 information. So those are things that just required a bit of like a refresh if 1335 01:39:37,520 --> 01:39:43,280 you will in terms of high priority and like I said this should be public works 1336 01:39:40,800 --> 01:39:46,080 not admin. Um a few years ago we had a completely understaffed public works 1337 01:39:44,560 --> 01:39:50,800 department. So if the condition of the is reflective on inment and labor we 1338 01:39:48,880 --> 01:39:54,560 were negative on both accords. we were not there for our labor force and we 1339 01:39:52,560 --> 01:40:02,080 were not investing the fullest amount. Um so we did a kind of a market study or 1340 01:39:58,800 --> 01:40:05,760 market look on what a public works labor rate was for Chester County, Southern 1341 01:40:03,679 --> 01:40:09,600 Chester County region. We were I think at the time listed as the worst in 1342 01:40:07,840 --> 01:40:12,480 Chester County amongst the consortium of surveys. So there's a reason you're not 1343 01:40:11,199 --> 01:40:15,679 getting recruited for public works workers because you're orders of 1344 01:40:13,920 --> 01:40:19,440 magnitude lower in what you're offering. So we corrected for that one and of 1345 01:40:17,440 --> 01:40:22,719 course over that time frame we were able to easily spool up a full labor 1346 01:40:21,040 --> 01:40:27,679 department. So we went from five to now nine which is where we should be. 1347 01:40:26,080 --> 01:40:30,800 Um and of course we're investing in our infrastructure as well. I think we hit 1348 01:40:29,119 --> 01:40:33,920 the nail on the head on that one. Uh additive patrol. People want to see more 1349 01:40:32,480 --> 01:40:38,400 visibility police and neighborhoods and that comes with capacity. So when we had 1350 01:40:36,400 --> 01:40:41,920 some change in leadership we didn't backfill some of the positions that were 1351 01:40:39,840 --> 01:40:44,800 formed with patrols. Uh then we added another one and then through this merger 1352 01:40:43,360 --> 01:40:47,760 we're actually adding another one at that regard as well. So we're building 1353 01:40:46,159 --> 01:40:51,840 more capacity and we'll continue to do so over time. Um and that's a priority. 1354 01:40:50,239 --> 01:40:55,199 And then of course Mike just highlighted a little bit too but we haven't lost 1355 01:40:53,199 --> 01:40:58,639 sight on our parks and open space and connectivities and trails. There's kind 1356 01:40:56,880 --> 01:41:02,880 of a double-edged sword with that one. You know we have current spaces where 1357 01:41:00,480 --> 01:41:08,159 we're currently trying to albeit slowly implement master plans but then also the 1358 01:41:05,920 --> 01:41:11,280 open space preservation process is slow. It requires two to negotiate. So, you 1359 01:41:10,000 --> 01:41:15,520 have to have the right property owners that want to value their property enough 1360 01:41:13,119 --> 01:41:19,760 to preserve it and us having the funds on hand and the availability of 1361 01:41:17,520 --> 01:41:22,960 resources to be able to absorb that new asset. So, it's a bit of a back and 1362 01:41:21,600 --> 01:41:26,639 forth, if you will, but it's not like those conversations aren't happening. 1363 01:41:24,960 --> 01:41:30,000 Um, and in fact, they're actually moving forward, I believe, with another 1364 01:41:27,760 --> 01:41:34,639 property here soon. Uh, so that's what we look like today. 1365 01:41:32,320 --> 01:41:38,320 Uh, quickly on open space and trails, I don't have to go too far into this one 1366 01:41:36,159 --> 01:41:43,440 other than we have a lot of it. uh in terms of other townships as a percentage 1367 01:41:39,840 --> 01:41:46,719 of its overall uh percentage of land use uh and we have that through not 1368 01:41:44,880 --> 01:41:51,760 necessarily fee simple purchases but also a and conservation easements. Um 1369 01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:55,679 with that these are the types that we can have in terms of acquisitions. This 1370 01:41:54,000 --> 01:41:59,199 has been a slide in repetition here for quite some time. Uh we're also 1371 01:41:57,520 --> 01:42:02,960 leveraging our open space fund to help and assist with maintenance and 1372 01:42:00,320 --> 01:42:07,199 implementation. Um, and then with that, a lot of that is being stewarded towards 1373 01:42:05,440 --> 01:42:10,480 uh some of the projects that we have on hand. Mike gave the update on the Meth 1374 01:42:09,040 --> 01:42:15,920 Reserve, so I don't have to go into that one. And then for White Clay Point, um 1375 01:42:13,119 --> 01:42:20,639 the New Garden Hills master plan will be looked at in terms of public access to 1376 01:42:18,159 --> 01:42:24,719 to open space there in terms of some of the park improvements that we can do to 1377 01:42:22,320 --> 01:42:27,600 build out that site. Uh but with that we're currently in a state right now 1378 01:42:26,000 --> 01:42:31,760 where we're trying to stack capital funds because the open space fund is not 1379 01:42:29,600 --> 01:42:36,080 sufficient for doing like a what is it nearly you know five two and a half to5 1380 01:42:34,000 --> 01:42:39,440 million build out of that site area specifically the 2.6 six million which 1381 01:42:38,159 --> 01:42:43,600 is associated with you remember that revised master plan that kind of where 1382 01:42:41,360 --> 01:42:48,159 the castle is that kind of hub area if you will. Um, so we sold two cell 1383 01:42:46,159 --> 01:42:51,440 towers. That was part of that as not necessarily earmarked for this one, but 1384 01:42:49,840 --> 01:42:54,320 supportive if need be. And then of course we worked with White Clay Point 1385 01:42:52,639 --> 01:42:58,400 the settlement agreement to secure a commitment of funds as well as kind of 1386 01:42:56,480 --> 01:43:01,840 build a boulevard into the site itself. So we're getting investment dollars from 1387 01:42:59,840 --> 01:43:05,840 the developer as well. So we'll at least have the resources ready for whenever 1388 01:43:04,080 --> 01:43:10,800 the projects are ready to move forward, if that makes sense. Um, it does also 1389 01:43:08,719 --> 01:43:14,639 dovetail off of the um kind of the development buildout. you know, we'll 1390 01:43:12,960 --> 01:43:18,159 have to wait for those access roads to be built first before we can put stuff 1391 01:43:16,320 --> 01:43:22,560 in the park there. So, it'll be a phased approach, if that makes sense. 1392 01:43:20,800 --> 01:43:25,199 Uh, new garden flying field. I talked about it quickly from an economic 1393 01:43:23,920 --> 01:43:29,040 development standpoint, but just building and continuing services. This 1394 01:43:27,040 --> 01:43:34,400 includes the um the pathway for the additive projects, but all it's to say 1395 01:43:31,360 --> 01:43:39,520 in the last 15 years, uh, nearly $20 million in federal and state funding to 1396 01:43:36,880 --> 01:43:44,000 $1.7 million in local matches. So, a pretty good ratio and that's why the 1397 01:43:40,960 --> 01:43:49,440 airport has been able to achieve kind of a consistent uh ability to accept and 1398 01:43:47,119 --> 01:43:53,040 absorb big projects to help build capacity at the airport is because of 1399 01:43:51,280 --> 01:43:57,280 that relationship through the Bureau of Aviation and federal funding coming in 1400 01:43:55,119 --> 01:44:00,560 through that as well. Uh very strong economies of scale when the federal 1401 01:43:58,639 --> 01:44:04,400 government subsidizing the build of your airports. Um and then with that we 1402 01:44:03,199 --> 01:44:08,480 talked about our economic development growth goals. These are kind of like a, 1403 01:44:06,080 --> 01:44:12,480 you know, a TBD if you will, but it's been purchased as a site to anchor these 1404 01:44:10,880 --> 01:44:18,400 types of functions into the future. It's just what that is that correlates to our 1405 01:44:15,600 --> 01:44:22,400 regional proximity, our site selection, uh, kind of incentives, you name it, 1406 01:44:19,679 --> 01:44:25,360 that we talked about before. Uh, I don't think I need to go into this 1407 01:44:23,840 --> 01:44:28,960 one. Kind of continues to be the same. Energy efficiency. We're continuing to 1408 01:44:27,280 --> 01:44:32,480 look at things that we can do to maybe build some more capacity for those that 1409 01:44:30,560 --> 01:44:37,760 might be interested specifically around EV stations located in public facilities 1410 01:44:34,719 --> 01:44:41,280 in the township um unless uh dictated otherwise. But at the end of the day, 1411 01:44:39,600 --> 01:44:44,880 these things don't come along free. They're kind of cost for services there. 1412 01:44:43,199 --> 01:44:48,560 So, it's just is the value ad necessarily there for based off of the 1413 01:44:47,199 --> 01:44:52,800 ultimate priority when we're talking about all available capital funds. how 1414 01:44:51,199 --> 01:44:57,600 much does it make sense for us to siphon off to do these types of implementations 1415 01:44:54,639 --> 01:45:01,600 around the township? Uh, and then we'll kind of comb through 1416 01:44:59,840 --> 01:45:04,719 the financial management. Remember, we kind of took this off the top tier one. 1417 01:45:03,199 --> 01:45:08,400 We kind of made it omnipresent. I would be remiss to not at least mention kind 1418 01:45:06,320 --> 01:45:12,080 of how we're managing all of these kind of progress and the goals and outcomes. 1419 01:45:10,560 --> 01:45:15,440 Um, so I'll start off first. We talked about it about enhanced community 1420 01:45:13,440 --> 01:45:19,760 services, but since the residents did say they had a 40% satisfaction level 1421 01:45:17,520 --> 01:45:24,239 with availability of information, all of this information is readily available on 1422 01:45:22,320 --> 01:45:27,920 our website. It has been for some time now. So hopefully that perception 1423 01:45:25,920 --> 01:45:31,840 changes over time. Every time we do anything that talks about financials, 1424 01:45:29,679 --> 01:45:35,440 budgets, agendas, everything, we link it through our social media so eventually 1425 01:45:34,080 --> 01:45:41,679 people will understand where this information is and how to access it. 1426 01:45:39,440 --> 01:45:46,159 Uh this is just the long range plan as of the FY26 adopted budget and that's 1427 01:45:44,159 --> 01:45:49,600 what we talked about. Uh the you know $950,000 1428 01:45:47,920 --> 01:45:54,560 kind of structural deficit that's built in is basically because you have a 1429 01:45:51,840 --> 01:45:58,480 $500,000 increase in capital transfers to do two things which is sustain your 1430 01:45:56,880 --> 01:46:02,080 funding levels for capital and rebuild your capital reserve balance at the same 1431 01:46:00,239 --> 01:46:05,199 time. Um and so that's kind of the windfall moment in the in the future. If 1432 01:46:03,920 --> 01:46:08,159 you don't do that you're kind of more on a normalized path. And then if you think 1433 01:46:06,800 --> 01:46:11,440 about it, if you're on a normalized path with those reductions in public safety 1434 01:46:09,679 --> 01:46:16,480 services, these turn into structural surpluses, not deficits. And we'll 1435 01:46:13,760 --> 01:46:21,040 actually show that here in a second. Um, so this is our pie chart of revenues. 1436 01:46:18,400 --> 01:46:24,639 Uh, so we are more inclined towards act 511 revenues than we are real estate 1437 01:46:22,880 --> 01:46:27,440 taxes. So if anybody asks where my property taxes are going, they're going 1438 01:46:25,920 --> 01:46:31,040 to about a third of our overall funding operations. We get more from earned 1439 01:46:29,360 --> 01:46:33,920 income tax. And the growing one has been through our permits because when we 1440 01:46:32,400 --> 01:46:37,360 added capacity on our community development department, permit fee 1441 01:46:35,760 --> 01:46:41,840 revenues went up. Shocker. If you get more people processing permits, you're 1442 01:46:38,719 --> 01:46:46,000 going to get more money from it. Um, in terms of our capacity from expenditures, 1443 01:46:44,719 --> 01:46:49,760 we talked about it before. I kind of referred to as the Pac-Man sea of 1444 01:46:47,920 --> 01:46:53,840 safety. So, that pie chart is heavily skewed towards public safety types of 1445 01:46:51,520 --> 01:46:57,679 outcomes. And then really it's just you have a lot of covering ground to uh to 1446 01:46:56,080 --> 01:47:00,639 look at when you're talking about all the different compliance things that the 1447 01:46:59,040 --> 01:47:05,040 normal township has to do in terms of just adjudication of general fund 1448 01:47:02,560 --> 01:47:09,360 operations. Uh so with that, this is the Pac-Man of 1449 01:47:07,280 --> 01:47:13,199 property taxes here and it's skewed significantly towards schools. Uh so it 1450 01:47:11,440 --> 01:47:16,320 should come as no surprise if you're a resident of this township and you don't 1451 01:47:14,560 --> 01:47:21,679 know that your property taxes primarily go towards your school tax. Um I got bad 1452 01:47:18,800 --> 01:47:26,239 news for you. It does by 82%. Um, and that's but what we've been talking about 1453 01:47:23,679 --> 01:47:30,800 here in terms of just this is kind of like a an artificial ceiling, if you 1454 01:47:29,040 --> 01:47:33,840 will, on the township's property tax because you don't want to go up in your 1455 01:47:32,320 --> 01:47:37,199 tax rate because they're already overburdened from the schools tax rate 1456 01:47:35,760 --> 01:47:41,040 perspective. So, you try to use every other lever before you have to touch 1457 01:47:38,880 --> 01:47:45,199 this one. Um, and that's to kind of keep things on a, you know, kind of a 1458 01:47:43,119 --> 01:47:48,400 comfortable level for our township residents. 1459 01:47:46,880 --> 01:47:51,840 Um, it's good to know where your land use is and what primarily it's used for. 1460 01:47:50,639 --> 01:47:55,199 We've used this several times in the past, so I won't go too much in detail 1461 01:47:53,440 --> 01:47:58,639 other than to say we're primarily residential with commercial related to 1462 01:47:56,960 --> 01:48:01,679 mushroom agriculture. That's kind of what the township is. And you can do one 1463 01:48:00,159 --> 01:48:06,080 lap around the township and yes, that's exactly what you'll see. Um, and so with 1464 01:48:04,000 --> 01:48:11,119 that, it's also good to understand is it based off of total usage of acreage and 1465 01:48:08,719 --> 01:48:14,320 its accessible value. Is it a positive thing or a negative thing? And that's 1466 01:48:12,800 --> 01:48:18,080 another thing to associate when you're talking about economic development types 1467 01:48:16,080 --> 01:48:21,360 of outcomes. Hey, do I want to continue supporting this kind of mushroom 1468 01:48:19,760 --> 01:48:24,320 agricultural type industry when every time it builds out more, we're not 1469 01:48:22,960 --> 01:48:27,679 necessarily getting the biggest kind of quoteunquote bang for a buck. Plus, you 1470 01:48:26,080 --> 01:48:30,800 already have a lot of it. So, maybe diversify against that because it's a 1471 01:48:29,199 --> 01:48:34,560 single industry. So, those are kind of things that you factor into when you're 1472 01:48:32,080 --> 01:48:37,600 making those types of decisions. Um, and also one where, and we've talked about 1473 01:48:36,000 --> 01:48:41,679 this several times in the past, too, you know, that that smell of money is not to 1474 01:48:39,440 --> 01:48:47,520 the township. uh it's going somewhere else because in terms of property base a 1475 01:48:44,480 --> 01:48:51,600 tax base overall the amount of percentage of land towards those types 1476 01:48:49,360 --> 01:48:54,960 of uses doesn't return a ton back to the township in terms of the service levels 1477 01:48:53,199 --> 01:48:59,679 that we have to provide to support those industries in the first place. Uh so 1478 01:48:57,280 --> 01:49:03,040 with that it's it's kind of better understanding where the bulk of your 1479 01:49:01,280 --> 01:49:07,600 revenues are coming from and for us it's from residential and that should be no 1480 01:49:05,760 --> 01:49:11,199 surprise we have a lot of subdevelopment in the pro in the excuse me in the 1481 01:49:09,199 --> 01:49:15,600 township. Same thing for earned income tax you know it's one where it has a lot 1482 01:49:13,840 --> 01:49:20,320 of constraints. The biggest one is the fact that that 1% for everybody who 1483 01:49:18,320 --> 01:49:25,119 lives in the township half of that goes to the schools. So all of your 80% 1484 01:49:23,199 --> 01:49:28,239 residential base, half of that is towards Kennet Consolidated School 1485 01:49:26,639 --> 01:49:32,080 District. So anytime you have a new resident come and they have a high net 1486 01:49:30,560 --> 01:49:35,840 worth or affluent types of outcomes, it's a great but we're not getting the 1487 01:49:33,360 --> 01:49:39,199 full return on that one, 50% of that funding level is going towards Kennet 1488 01:49:37,360 --> 01:49:43,119 Consolidated School District, which may I remind you their total amount of 1489 01:49:40,480 --> 01:49:46,480 earned income tax between the sliver of East Marorrow Township, Kennet Township, 1490 01:49:44,880 --> 01:49:52,080 and Kennet Square and us equates for like five or six million on like a $110 1491 01:49:49,440 --> 01:49:55,679 million budget. So a little to them would be a lot to us. But of course 1492 01:49:54,080 --> 01:50:00,000 that's not the case because why would it be? So with that um it's also good to 1493 01:49:58,960 --> 01:50:03,679 understand when you're have the non-residential these is your workforce 1494 01:50:01,679 --> 01:50:07,040 earned income tax our levels are relatively low and they're definitely at 1495 01:50:05,360 --> 01:50:12,000 the highest levels not associated with like a related industries and it makes 1496 01:50:09,760 --> 01:50:17,280 sense those are non high wage types industries. Um, and so with that, if you 1497 01:50:14,639 --> 01:50:20,639 add that up in terms of our total real estate and our total earned income tax 1498 01:50:19,040 --> 01:50:24,159 revenues for all of our commercial and mushroom agriculture, what's here 1499 01:50:22,320 --> 01:50:28,639 equates to about 13% of our total revenues. Um, so not a lot of money 1500 01:50:26,320 --> 01:50:32,800 coming from those sources. Uh, we kind of already beat the dead 1501 01:50:30,480 --> 01:50:37,280 horse with this one, but yes, if we continue on our capital funding plan and 1502 01:50:35,119 --> 01:50:42,159 our capital require capital revenue requirements to source from future 1503 01:50:39,840 --> 01:50:45,920 revenue increases, um, that's the biggest impact on our general fund over 1504 01:50:43,760 --> 01:50:49,360 the next five years. Um, and of course, this is kind of if we can't do that, 1505 01:50:48,159 --> 01:50:52,880 then we're going to have to consider other factors. So, if we can't grow, if 1506 01:50:51,520 --> 01:50:56,560 we can't continue our interest income, if we can't kind of figure out how to 1507 01:50:54,320 --> 01:51:00,560 redo the plan, um you're going to likely have to increase taxes or cut services 1508 01:50:58,560 --> 01:51:03,760 over that time. And luckily, we're likely forecast to not be in that 1509 01:51:02,159 --> 01:51:09,280 position based off of actions we've already been doing. 1510 01:51:05,840 --> 01:51:14,639 Um so, with that, I talked about how 80% of our capital expenditures are towards 1511 01:51:12,000 --> 01:51:18,159 paving, liquid fuel, part of the paving, public works equipment acquisitions, and 1512 01:51:16,320 --> 01:51:22,880 storm water. We're investing it into the highest priority infrastructure items 1513 01:51:20,000 --> 01:51:26,800 over the the and in the past and in the next five years. But also too is we need 1514 01:51:25,199 --> 01:51:30,480 to build back our balance too because we're using our cash plan which is this. 1515 01:51:29,199 --> 01:51:33,600 It's one where every time you use a little bit of cash, you replenish it as 1516 01:51:31,840 --> 01:51:36,960 much you can. You put it back into the starting balance position and you kind 1517 01:51:35,040 --> 01:51:40,480 of just walk the dog down there. But at some point we're going to need to 1518 01:51:38,239 --> 01:51:44,239 increase that amount coming from the transfers from general fund revenues 1519 01:51:42,159 --> 01:51:47,360 because this is still forecast to somewhat go down. As long as that's 1520 01:51:46,080 --> 01:51:51,520 going down, something else is going to need to go up. It's it's just kind of 1521 01:51:49,040 --> 01:51:55,840 the the lever effect there. And that's to continue a sustainable cash plan for 1522 01:51:53,599 --> 01:52:03,840 your capital. Uh so this is what if you if we put this 1523 01:52:00,080 --> 01:52:09,040 into ah I went too far out. If we put this into a line chart, you know, it 1524 01:52:06,400 --> 01:52:12,560 would look like this. Um so right now based off of we're showing in those 1525 01:52:10,639 --> 01:52:15,920 projections, it makes sense. you know, your revenues eventually at some point 1526 01:52:14,639 --> 01:52:18,960 even come down because some of the revenues right now are coming from 1527 01:52:17,360 --> 01:52:23,040 permits associated with the build out of the Bankro and Thompson properties. Um, 1528 01:52:21,360 --> 01:52:26,320 so those are likely to decrease. Transfer taxes from those properties 1529 01:52:24,719 --> 01:52:29,840 will decrease if you don't do additive builds there because sales aren't going 1530 01:52:27,760 --> 01:52:34,400 to be you're not going to build and buy a new house and then sell it the next 1531 01:52:31,280 --> 01:52:38,560 year. Um, so with that, um, you're going to have kind of flattening out revenues 1532 01:52:36,159 --> 01:52:42,400 if you're not necessarily, uh, adding to that are growing. And then with that, 1533 01:52:40,080 --> 01:52:46,800 because of the bump up increase in the capital future outlays as well as just 1534 01:52:44,320 --> 01:52:50,800 cost increases for primarily public safety because it's roughly over 50% of 1535 01:52:48,719 --> 01:52:54,480 your budget for fire and police, you know, that's where you get yourself into 1536 01:52:52,239 --> 01:52:58,400 a projected $954,000 structural deficit. So the reason the 1537 01:52:56,880 --> 01:53:04,000 priorities were in the first place to attack public safety and um you know 1538 01:53:02,159 --> 01:53:07,440 attack economic development was to basically come up with a different 1539 01:53:05,280 --> 01:53:11,599 outcome. So if we just applied the white clay point projections and that sands 1540 01:53:10,000 --> 01:53:17,199 only two years of that because it's subject to come online around 29 and 30 1541 01:53:14,560 --> 01:53:21,440 u if it's approved at a future meeting um and not even including the 31 and 32 1542 01:53:19,360 --> 01:53:24,480 because that's a fouryear buildout if you will. So you're only using a portion 1543 01:53:22,880 --> 01:53:28,639 of these not the full amount in those first two years. um not even including 1544 01:53:26,960 --> 01:53:33,040 local services tax, transfer tax, building fees, and amusement tax. If you 1545 01:53:30,800 --> 01:53:38,880 also factor in the uh savings, if you will, from uh public safety services, 1546 01:53:36,320 --> 01:53:44,480 you get kind of a a diverging chart here. Your revenues kind of continue to 1547 01:53:41,280 --> 01:53:49,760 outpace your your expenditures. And over time, that adds up to turning a $954,000 1548 01:53:47,440 --> 01:53:53,040 structural deficit into a $700,000 structural surplus in the next five 1549 01:53:51,280 --> 01:53:59,040 years. That's the plan. That's the benefit of that. And that gives us room 1550 01:53:56,239 --> 01:54:03,760 and breathing room to do other things to continue to look at that. Uh do we want 1551 01:54:01,280 --> 01:54:08,719 to reassess our capital improvement plan? Do we want to uh uh also 1552 01:54:06,560 --> 01:54:12,080 monitoring it? Are we seeing the slower rate of growth of public safety 1553 01:54:10,080 --> 01:54:15,040 expenditures? Um you know, can we sustain our tax rate, grow our earned 1554 01:54:13,520 --> 01:54:18,960 income tax base revenues? Because that's the one as a percentage goes up over 1555 01:54:16,800 --> 01:54:23,040 time. You know, how are you able to fund all your services and live off your 1556 01:54:20,800 --> 01:54:28,400 earned income tax? Uh, so that's kind of a good projection as well. Um, and this 1557 01:54:26,719 --> 01:54:30,960 is just one I always kind of show our overall fund balance positions right 1558 01:54:29,840 --> 01:54:35,280 now. And I like to think of fund balances is really your kind of liquid 1559 01:54:32,880 --> 01:54:38,239 unrestricted fund balance. So overall that's kind of between general fund and 1560 01:54:36,880 --> 01:54:42,480 capital fund. But we're in a stable position right now with this. Um, and so 1561 01:54:41,040 --> 01:54:45,599 in summary, kind of breaking it down here, I like to do a little SWAT 1562 01:54:43,760 --> 01:54:50,239 analysis. This hasn't changed that much, just a little bit. Uh, but strengths, 1563 01:54:48,000 --> 01:54:57,199 you know, we're implementing stronger plans. Um we're managing our cash uh to 1564 01:54:53,599 --> 01:55:00,400 a down to the penny. Um and we have strong core services. That's those are 1565 01:54:59,119 --> 01:55:05,280 really good things to have for your community. Um weaknesses, our own codes, 1566 01:55:03,040 --> 01:55:10,320 secondass township code is is not very conducive to uh doing outcomes. Um 1567 01:55:08,239 --> 01:55:13,599 Chester County reassessments for kind of rebasing. That's a political function. 1568 01:55:12,320 --> 01:55:18,000 That's probably not going to happen sometime soon. um our overall density, 1569 01:55:16,400 --> 01:55:21,599 even with white clay being built out, we're still going to have low overall 1570 01:55:19,599 --> 01:55:26,239 density within the township because it's 600 homes in 16 square miles. That's not 1571 01:55:23,920 --> 01:55:31,599 going to make a dent on that.3 units per acre. It's going to be like 38 or 1572 01:55:29,440 --> 01:55:34,480 something like that afterwards. Um we're always going to need to replace 1573 01:55:32,719 --> 01:55:37,920 infrastructure. We're basically fighting an uphill battle in that one because we 1574 01:55:36,159 --> 01:55:42,480 have 16 miles of infrastructure that probably hasn't been touched in decades, 1575 01:55:40,080 --> 01:55:46,320 if not even longer than that. um opportunities. You know, we have 1576 01:55:44,880 --> 01:55:50,560 strong growth quarters. We could be somewhere that's not connected at all. 1577 01:55:47,840 --> 01:55:54,159 Uh so, the good news is is we're we're by where all the things are happening 1578 01:55:51,920 --> 01:55:58,960 and things are driving through. Um we do have a core village, so we do have areas 1579 01:55:55,920 --> 01:56:03,679 to do some of those kind of uh housing types of improvements in terms of not 1580 01:56:01,679 --> 01:56:08,480 even just affordable or equitable homes, but also workforce as well. Um we do 1581 01:56:06,159 --> 01:56:12,080 have township owned property and uh we have an open space fund that we're fully 1582 01:56:10,080 --> 01:56:15,599 leveraging to kind meet that demand as well. So that's helped. Threats are 1583 01:56:13,840 --> 01:56:18,719 always going to be uh nimism that's a that's a large one. Just that kind of 1584 01:56:17,119 --> 01:56:23,360 sentiment towards we don't want this make it go somewhere else. Um our high 1585 01:56:21,840 --> 01:56:26,639 cost of construction and loss of planned developments. That can always happen. 1586 01:56:24,639 --> 01:56:30,800 That's a windfall type moment. Um a threat is also you know township earned 1587 01:56:28,800 --> 01:56:34,320 income tax and township property taxes. the least of your worries if you're a 1588 01:56:32,320 --> 01:56:38,560 rateayer or a taxpayer because we're at the lowest spectrum of that impact. Um 1589 01:56:37,360 --> 01:56:42,480 and so we have to think about residential's other cost impacts. U 1590 01:56:40,960 --> 01:56:46,320 macro and economic things that we can control, you know, geopolitical types of 1591 01:56:44,719 --> 01:56:51,679 environments and things that impact cost for services, tariffs, you name it. It's 1592 01:56:48,320 --> 01:56:56,719 just we are a consumer of whatever that outcome is. Um and of course we talked 1593 01:56:54,159 --> 01:57:00,159 about to extreme weather. Um, and it's one where we are not immune and because 1594 01:56:58,560 --> 01:57:04,719 of the county hazard mitigation plan, which I'm sure everyone has read all 700 1595 01:57:02,000 --> 01:57:09,280 some odd plus pages of it. Um, it's going it's a trend that's going up. So, 1596 01:57:06,560 --> 01:57:12,239 more extreme weather events over time. Uh, so that's just another way of 1597 01:57:10,800 --> 01:57:15,760 putting it, but that kind of ends everything. If you have any questions, 1598 01:57:13,760 --> 01:57:21,599 let me know. But what this will dovetail into coming in the next few weeks is uh 1599 01:57:19,199 --> 01:57:25,599 kind of the preliminary capital budget, the preliminary general fund budget, 1600 01:57:23,520 --> 01:57:29,440 some of the restricted fund budgets as we walk through those in the month of 1601 01:57:27,040 --> 01:57:33,280 September. Um but just making sure is this on the right track and is this kind 1602 01:57:30,880 --> 01:57:37,480 of continuing to kind of reflect the guidance provided by the board. 1603 01:57:38,080 --> 01:57:45,960 » Any questions from the board? Any questions from residents? Any 1604 01:57:47,520 --> 01:57:51,760 uh comments from the board? General comments. 1605 01:57:50,239 --> 01:57:55,679 » Excellent job, Chris. >> Good job, Chris. 1606 01:57:52,800 --> 01:58:01,440 » Thank you, Chris. >> I like to talk about all like the the 1607 01:57:58,880 --> 01:58:04,800 non fun stuff. It's like these are the >> It's reality. 1608 01:58:03,280 --> 01:58:08,400 » It's good. >> Well, if there are any questions and 1609 01:58:06,159 --> 01:58:14,000 I'll see if anybody put anything into the chat. No. Um so, otherwise, no. 1610 01:58:12,560 --> 01:58:18,639 That's it. That's the last briefing item for tonight. 1611 01:58:16,080 --> 01:58:22,920 » Is there a motion to adjourn? >> I just wanted to thank um 1612 01:58:23,520 --> 01:58:32,080 John Martin for doing a great job at the air show uh weekend before last. So, 1613 01:58:29,679 --> 01:58:37,360 always a great time speaking of airport expansion and all those good things. So, 1614 01:58:35,760 --> 01:58:45,560 uh but then other than that, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. 1615 01:58:40,480 --> 01:58:45,560 » All in favor? I any post 1616 01:59:13,280 --> 01:59:16,360 What about 1617 01:59:31,119 --> 01:59:33,599 me?