[0:25] Hello, and welcome to the September 2nd council meeting.

[0:33] First item is the approval of minutes

[0:39] for the council meeting on July 1st,

[0:44] 2026. Do I have a motion?

[0:46] So moved.

[0:47] And a second?

[0:48] Second.

[0:51] All in favor?

[0:53] Aye.

[0:54] Aye.

[0:54] Aye. Any opposed?

[0:56] It passes.

[1:02] Okay.

[1:04] Next up is public comment for items not on the

[1:10] agenda.

[1:13] Please. Oh, and just noting that it's now stated on our agenda that we have a

[1:18] three-minute limit.

[1:21] Steve?

[1:22] Yes.

[1:23] Good evening. My name is Wendy Hunsicker, 51 Oriole Avenue

[1:30] in Lima.

[1:32] I just wanted to make a quick announcement.

[1:36] You've seen me up here before promoting Trewood Senior Living.

[1:40] I am no longer employed there. I'm back with Piazza Dealership, so if anybody's

[1:45] interested in a car, I might know a guy.

[1:49] But I am still involved with Treewood Senior Living, um, and we are

[1:55] having our carnival coming up on October 3rd, 2026.

[2:02] This is a car show with a carnival theme, small

[2:06] midway with food, fun games, live music, and the

[2:12] Delco Cruisers come with about 20 custom cars.

[2:19] So I just wanted to put that out there, invite everyone to Treewood for our

[2:23] carnival, again, on Saturday, October 3rd, from 1:30 to

[2:29] 3:30 in the afternoon.

[2:32] Um, another note, uh, the township formed their senior citizens advisory committee.

[2:38] We had our first meet and greet. Another member of the committee is here tonight,

[2:44] Claire.

[2:46] So we just had our first meet and greet to discuss kind of what we hope to

[2:53] do for the community as a senior citizens advisory committee.

[2:58] Our first formal meeting will be in November, first or second week of

[3:03] November. So we're really hoping to figure out a way

[3:08] to reach out to the community. If you have senior

[3:14] neighbors living alone, they may need some resources.

[3:18] Get the word to them or to us that we can maybe help them out in

[3:24] some ways. Right. Thank you.

[3:27] Thank you.

[3:32] Anyone else for public comment?

[3:35] Thank you. Moving on to reports. First off is the chair's report.

[3:43] Wanted to pass along that the township has received an extension from the school

[3:49] district on the K-1 Center for the application through November

[3:54] 21st, 2026. And the next planning

[4:00] commission meeting is scheduled to review that application

[4:05] next week, Tuesday, September 8th at 6:30 in the lower

[4:11] level of the student union building over at Penn State Brandywine.

[4:19] That is it for my report.

[4:23] There was a committee meeting. The finance committee did meet.

[4:27] Yeah. Yes, the finance committee met briefly before this meeting.

[4:31] We discussed some real estate news within the township

[4:37] and our upcoming budget approval process and calendar.

[4:43] Oops. Excuse me. Thank you.

[4:46] On to the manager's report. Mr. Assosas.

[4:50] Before I do that... I'm sorry, I was doing something else.

[4:54] Were we able to adopt the minutes?

[4:57] We did.

[4:57] Yes.

[4:58] Yes.

[5:02] We're just cruising along.

[5:05] Sorry about that.

[5:09] The township has its annual food truck event scheduled on Thursday, September 17th

[5:14] at Longview Park. It's from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. Right now, we have five food trucks.

[5:19] We're looking to get some more, and Parks and Rec Department will have some

[5:23] activities for kids and some music.

[5:27] Uh, the township's codes and permits staff, they've been working diligently over

[5:32] the past two months to implement our new online payment software, excuse me, our

[5:37] online permit software. We do have tentative go-live date of October 13th, so we're

[5:43] all looking forward to that. Folks will be able to-- Contractors will be able to

[5:47] fill out all their applications online instead of filling out paper applications,

[5:51] which is currently what we're doing.

[5:55] In that regards, we are still looking for citizens' photos.

[6:00] Anything that you think represents Middletown Township.

[6:02] It could be family, it could be events, it could be scenery.

[6:07] We would like to put that on the new codes website homepage.

[6:11] So best way to do that is use your camera, phone camera with a pano.

[6:17] Take a pano picture and you can send it to the township, and we'll gladly

[6:23] put that on the codes page.

[6:28] One other item that the sewer authority will be televising the sewer lines in

[6:32] Riddlewood during September. They're just making sure as part of their infiltration

[6:37] and inflow program, that they will be making sure there's no cracks or

[6:44] blockages in the lines. And the work will be taking place during the hours of 8:00

[6:48] AM and 3:30 PM, and they will be

[6:53] putting notices out for what areas of the

[6:58] subdivision they'll be doing.

[7:03] No, that's my report.

[7:06] Thank you. And do we have anything-

[7:10] Yeah

[7:10] ...from state police? Yep.

[7:13] So the Pennsylvania State Police,

[7:16] just to fill in for Trooper Yen. We had

[7:21] 598 calls for service, so that is a little down.

[7:25] August is usually a little slower month, and our crashes were down for the month,

[7:31] 31 reportable crashes

[7:35] and eight non-reportables. So got some good news there.

[7:39] Less motor vehicle accidents.

[7:42] He's going to attempt to be with us

[7:46] hopefully later this month. Well, he's got called.

[7:49] So I do not have fire chief's report since we gave one last

[7:55] meeting. That will be at the next meeting.

[7:58] Just one update that I may get the engineer to also weigh in on is we

[8:04] do have

[8:06] energy transfer. We'll be conducting pipe inspections, which is called a smart

[8:12] pig inline s-inline inspections on

[8:19] their lines there along,

[8:22] in the area of Glenwood Elementary.

[8:25] So right away, as you well know, there was an ordinance a couple years ago that was

[8:31] put in place that no work preventive maintenance or anything will occur there

[8:36] during daylight, during daytime hours when school is in session.

[8:40] This is preventative maintenance. This is what we want to see happen.

[8:44] They inspect all those lines there, and that will occur, I believe Eric starting

[8:49] September eighth.

[8:50] Uh, yes, I believe that's correct.

[8:52] September eighth, and that work will be from seven PM to 5:00 AM.

[8:57] We did this last summer further down Panel Road, with very minimal

[9:03] disturbance to the residents, but I wanna make everybody aware that this will occur

[9:07] again obviously

[9:10] This is a good thing that they do their thing, but that'll be for six nights coming

[9:14] up here, our 11th permit meeting starting September 8th.

[9:19] Is there anything else, Vince?

[9:22] No. That's all I have. Thank you. On to the engineer's report. Mr. Sheka.

[9:28] Hi. Good evening, council,

[9:30] and residents. Things are a little bit slow, but we do have some activity, as I

[9:36] reported a couple weeks back at our park project on Lenai Road, Lenai Park project.

[9:42] So I thought we'd do just a very brief show and tell.

[9:49] The manager has some pictures up on the screen now that show kind of what things

[9:53] look like there. And again, this is really just more for your perspective, for

[9:58] those of you who can't make it out there.

[10:01] This just gives you a sort of view of what things look like.

[10:04] This is last week, or early last week, or perhaps, the end of the prior

[10:10] week. This shows the trees that were cleared out of the area that, if you're

[10:14] familiar with the park, if you're standing in the parking lot looking down into the

[10:18] park, there's a wooded area on the left-hand side that adjoins the properties on

[10:23] the rear of the properties on Lenai Road. That's where these trees were located.

[10:28] So that's the view without the trees.

[10:32] That's the pile of trees that were chipped from that area.

[10:38] Just to give you a perspective on the size of the pile and the heavy equipment in

[10:42] the background.

[10:44] This was from this morning,

[10:48] and I don't know if you could zoom out a little bit, Vincent, on that a little bit.

[10:51] Can that zoom out? Yep.

[10:56] That worked? Yeah. Maybe one more. Can it go down anymore?

[11:04] There you go. So this kind of

[11:07] shows the area where they're building the detention basin.

[11:12] It's very early stages of the project, it's a little boring right now if you like

[11:16] dirt work like I do. It's exciting to me, but here's another one.

[11:21] This is the view of the infiltration basin, which by the way, is working great.

[11:26] There has not been a drop of water that has come off this property since all those

[11:29] trees were cleared. It's actually hard to believe. It's almost unbelievable.

[11:33] But the dirt's really absorbing the water, and the contractor's doing a great job

[11:38] to keep the water on the property. Haven't had any issues with the conservation

[11:42] district. And then this is this morning after that heavy rainfall last night, and

[11:47] you can see there's very little water in the basin, which kind of wraps around to

[11:51] the left side of the picture. So that's all I got.

[11:54] I think that's all we have, right, Vince, for tonight? It is.

[11:57] That's all we got for tonight, but, um, I think the next time I report back to you,

[12:01] we'll have a lot better photos and more progress to report.

[12:05] And, uh, I think you'll start to see how things are taking shape.

[12:09] So that's all I have for tonight.

[12:12] Great.

[12:12] If anybody has any questions, I'm always here to answer them as well.

[12:18] All right. Thank you. Thank you.

[12:20] Yes, thank you. Next item is the public hearing for the amendment of the

[12:26] Darlington Valley PRD plan.

[12:30] Thanks, Mr. Chairman. At this time, we will adjourn this meeting and adjourn into

[12:34] the public hearing on this application of Andrea Scheller for a PRD

[12:40] or Planned Residential Development Plan Amendment pursuant to Section

[12:44] 706.3 of the municipality's planning code.

[12:49] Uh, just by way of background, um, the Darlington Valley, uh,

[12:55] PRD was approved by Resolution 1953, so I'm assuming back

[13:01] in 1993. So at that point in time, the entirety of that

[13:06] development, pursuant to it being a planned residential development, was approved

[13:12] as essentially one plan. So unlike a situation where you get plan approvals

[13:17] for one property here, one property there, sort of all of the properties were taken

[13:23] into consideration as being one large property, uh, for purposes of

[13:29] a planned development. And that's usually done in a way to offset the development

[13:35] with additional open space here or there and gives more flexibility as that

[13:38] development, um, is actually then developed.

[13:43] The downside of that is then whenever there needs to be a change to that plan to a

[13:47] particular property, the entirety of that plan needs to be amended because, again,

[13:52] one property is part of the larger plan, and that's what's bringing us here

[13:58] today. Uh, but that amendment of the plan according to the municipalities planning

[14:02] code must be done pursuant to a public hearing after due notice has been given.

[14:07] Uh, I guess at this time I'll ask Michelle if you'd like to maybe, I guess, come up

[14:11] to the podium, uh, just in case. The court board, I think, will be in a better

[14:17] position to hear you. But at the beginning of this hearing, I do have a few

[14:21] exhibits that I will mark. The first exhibit,

[14:26] T or Township Exhibit One is the proof of notice of

[14:32] this hearing in the Delaware County Daily Times, which was published on August 14th

[14:37] and August 21st, 2026. Township Exhibit Two, or T2, is the

[14:43] proof of mailing, um, to the impacted neighboring property owners

[14:49] of five properties listed and proof of mail receipts that were provided by the

[14:54] applicant. Township Exhibit Three is going to be the application

[14:59] itself by Miss Scheller. Township Exhibit Four is going to be the proposed plan for

[15:05] the amendment that is on display for counsel at this time, just to understand what

[15:09] is being presented. And Township Exhibit Five is a letter of support or consent by

[15:14] the Darlington Valley Homeowners Association, where they state that they

[15:20] believe it's reasonable and it will have no negative repercussions for this

[15:25] community. Um,

[15:30] as the applicant in this matter, uh, I will turn it over to Ms.

[15:35] Scheller in a second just to briefly explain to the board what she's hoping to do.

[15:41] By its understanding, technically it's constructing a swimming pool into the side

[15:47] and rear yard setbacks of your property at 22 Stephen Drive. Is that correct?

[15:50] That's correct, yes.

[15:52] And you submitted a plan, and that's the plan that I've marked as

[15:58] Township Exhibits Four. Correct?

[16:00] Correct.

[16:02] You had that plan reviewed by township staff?

[16:04] I did.

[16:05] And you've discussed your plan with your neighbors?

[16:08] I did.

[16:09] And you've discussed it and obtained approval from the homeowners association that

[16:13] you're a part of?

[16:14] Yes, I did.

[16:15] And it's your understanding that homeowners association, uh, is sort of the

[16:20] association that makes up that planned residential development? Is that correct?

[16:25] Correct.

[16:25] Um, do you believe that this amendment of the plan is consistent with the

[16:31] efficient development and preservation of the entire planned residential

[16:34] development?

[16:35] I do.

[16:37] Do you have any reason to believe this adversely affects either the enjoyment of

[16:41] the land abutting or across the street from the planned residential

[16:47] development?

[16:48] I do not.

[16:52] Uh, and do you have any more information that you'd like to provide the board at

[16:56] this time?

[16:57] I feel like it's very clear, unless I missed something.

[17:02] Um, I feel like the most important thing was making sure my immediate neighbors

[17:07] were okay with a

[17:09] new pool going in, um, and changing the backyard.

[17:13] I'm glad that they are, and the three neighbors across the street are.

[17:18] I feel like it's

[17:20] very clear.

[17:23] Before we proceed any further, is there anybody here in the public that's wishing

[17:26] to obtain standing at this hearing?

[17:31] Hearing and seeing none, um, any other testimony or exhibits you'd like to present

[17:36] for the hearing?

[17:38] I feel complete in what I've shared.

[17:40] Thank you. Does counsel have any questions for the applicant?

[17:45] Hey.

[17:47] Yes, if you wouldn't mind.

[17:52] Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you've produced here is true to the

[17:58] best of your knowledge and understanding? I do. Well...

[18:01] So Ms. Scheller, those questions that I asked you, if I were to ask-- Scheller, I'm

[18:04] sorry. If I were to ask those questions again now that you're under oath, would all

[18:08] your answers be the same?

[18:09] They would be the same.

[18:11] Thank you. Please have a seat just in case you're still-

[18:13] Thank you.

[18:14] At this time, we'll see if there's any public comment.

[18:17] Does the public have any comments on this application

[18:22] Hearing and seeing none, if there are no other questions or matters for the board,

[18:26] we will close this public hearing.

[18:28] This matter is now in a position to be voted upon by council,

[18:35] and it is later on the agenda for consideration of approval of that modification of

[18:40] the PRD. So thank you.

[18:48] Okay. Thank you. Onto old business,

[18:53] the Resolution 2026-24 Ratification of the 2026 Deicing

[18:59] Salt Contract. Do I have a motion?

[19:02] So moved.

[19:03] And a second?

[19:05] Second.

[19:06] Thank you. Mr. Soskis, can you write the comment here about the-- There were

[19:12] some details discussed at the last meeting.

[19:15] This is basically a housekeeping item.

[19:17] Council reviewed the bids, verbally accepted the bids at the last meeting, but in

[19:23] order to comply with the joint bid with the other municipalities,

[19:29] all of the municipalities must do a resolution affirming that.

[19:34] So this basically is in writing what council approved at your last

[19:39] meeting.

[19:42] Thank you. Any questions from counsel? Any questions from the public?

[19:48] All in favor?

[19:49] Aye.

[19:50] Aye.

[19:50] Any opposed? Motion passes.

[19:55] Moving on. Next item is the item that we just had the public hearing for.

[20:02] Resolution 2026-25 Consideration of Approval for Modification of the PDR

[20:08] of Burlington Valley. Do I have a motion?

[20:12] So moved.

[20:13] Thank you. And a second?

[20:14] Second.

[20:15] Thank you.

[20:17] Okay. Do we have any questions or comments from counsel on

[20:23] this?

[20:24] It seems very straightforward, but they did a ton of due diligence.

[20:28] If the HOA approved it and their neighbors approved it, I've got no concerns.

[20:36] I think we're all in agreement.

[20:37] Okay. Any questions from the public?

[20:42] All in favor?

[20:43] Aye.

[20:44] Aye.

[20:44] Any opposed? Motion passes.

[20:51] Moving on to workshop items. Presentation

[20:57] of the 2019 Bond Issue Refinancing.

[21:02] So this is with

[21:05] Jamie Schlessinger of TFM Financial Advisors.

[21:10] Yes. Thank you very much.

[21:13] I think everyone should have a copy of my presentation.

[21:15] Mm-hmm.

[21:16] I'm happy to answer any questions, but before I get started, I have a couple of

[21:21] positive news to describe related to this.

[21:24] So first, when I'm in this business, I work with local governments throughout the

[21:29] Commonwealth, so my role is to serve as a fiduciary to the townships when you

[21:33] consider debt issuance. Uh, this business, we do things like build new buildings

[21:38] and renovate properties and things of that nature.

[21:41] So I got here a little earlier today, and this particular issue is tied to the

[21:45] library renovation as well as the financing associated with the tax

[21:51] side of the renovations to the Wawa train station, which surrounds it.

[21:55] It was probably my favorite transaction I worked on over the last decade because it

[21:59] really did a lot of great things for our community.

[22:02] So getting here a little bit earlier and seeing what has been done, so kudos to the

[22:06] township for what you did. Then secondarily, and probably more important, we're

[22:10] going to talk about this refinancing and potentially borrowing some new money for

[22:13] some additional renovations tied to the buildings that you have.

[22:17] The good news is, uh, your township has done a fantastic job where we've gone

[22:21] through the credit rating process through Standard & Poor's, and we're pleased to

[22:25] announce that the township was upgraded to a double A plus credit rating, which

[22:30] means that, uh, because of the strong financial position, the work that's being

[22:35] done by the council as well as the administration, um, Standard & Poor's felt that

[22:40] you're doing quite well, and they increased your credit rating, which means that

[22:43] you'll get better interest rates when you borrow funds in the future.

[22:47] Uh, the best you can be is triple A. This is one notch below the best you can be.

[22:52] It's higher than the US government, as usually I like to tell people.

[22:55] Uh, and a very strong credit rating for a township of this size.

[22:59] So kudos to you, and we're looking forward to continuing that progress going

[23:04] forward. So I'll briefly touch on what we're trying to accomplish here.

[23:08] So first thing is, when we did the transaction back in 2019, given that it was a

[23:14] somewhat unique transaction where there's subsidies coming from the state for that

[23:20] project tied to the Wawa train station, we essentially borrowed funds in a

[23:23] reasonably short-term manner, where over 15 years, we're amortizing the payments

[23:29] and receiving funds to offset those costs.

[23:32] So we are doing a refinancing of that debt tied to that project as well as the

[23:37] library. So when we talk about a refinancing, the goal here is to take advantage of

[23:42] short-term interest rates where we are today and hope to save some funds because

[23:47] the interest rates are lower than what we had previously. So that's the first part.

[23:50] So this is a reduction of your interest expense, which would help your budget.

[23:55] Then in addition, we're considering borrowing an additional $2.5 million, which

[23:59] would be used for various capital projects of the township, much of which would be

[24:05] renovations to some buildings. Certainly, Vince can provide some additional details

[24:09] on that, and may have other projects coming down the road in the future.

[24:12] But how we would consider this, the structuring that we would do, would keep the

[24:16] debt reasonably short. This would be a seven-year amortization, and there would be

[24:21] very little impact to your budget even despite borrowing additional funds.

[24:25] So I'll run through what that means and how it works, but the most important aspect

[24:29] here is much of this financing is really tied to the refinancing of existing debt.

[24:36] So what we're asking you to consider will be at the next council meeting, where

[24:41] there's what is called a parameters ordinance that's going to be established, that

[24:46] we'll ask you to consider. So tonight's presentation is about the first reading of

[24:50] that ordinance, and that ordinance essentially will authorize the debt issuance for

[24:55] this particular transaction. It'll make certain that all the terms and conditions

[25:00] of the issue are met under state guidelines under the Local Government Unit Debt

[25:04] Act. It will make sure that we meet a minimum savings threshold on the refinancing,

[25:10] and it'll make sure that it manages the final maturity not going any farther than

[25:14] what we originally intended the borrowing to be.

[25:17] So all of those things will be pre-approved through the ordinance, and then we

[25:22] would go forward with bond financing that would ultimately issue the debt.

[25:27] Our job, being your fiduciary, would be to structure the debt, work on your behalf,

[25:32] and make sure that the bonds are priced accordingly.

[25:35] And if we don't feel comfortable with the market, or the savings don't fall within

[25:39] range, we would make appropriate adjustments to the transaction itself.

[25:43] So what we'd be asking you to consider at the next meeting would be that ordinance

[25:47] and giving us the flexibility to move forward with that transaction on your behalf.

[25:53] Turning to page three, and we'll just briefly describe what you

[25:59] have. So this is your existing debt portfolio.

[26:03] So this gives you an idea of what the township is currently paying in annual debt

[26:07] service, with related to the 2019 bonds, the 2019 As, and the 2020 bonds.

[26:13] You can see that you have various kind of amortizations on each issue, which

[26:18] essentially many of them are offset by other revenues.

[26:21] But as you can see, your debt goes out to 2049.

[26:25] This particular issue that we're refinancing is related to column two.

[26:29] We are paying about $970,000 a year in annual debt service, which is principal and

[26:34] interest, which will drop off in 2032.

[26:38] The bonds that we're talking about refinancing are actually past their call date,

[26:41] meaning that in 2024, when we were able to refinance the debt for the first time,

[26:47] the market wasn't good enough for you to do it. So we've been monitoring that.

[26:51] And frankly, since we're considering some additional borrowings, if you put these

[26:55] together for a consolidation, it saves on kind of interest expense and cost, and

[27:00] allows you to save money with this transaction.

[27:02] So it's a value of doing things together at the same time.

[27:05] Everything else on this page is really just a highlight of what you have

[27:08] outstanding. Turning to page four

[27:13] This is the plan of finance, and you'll notice multiple colors here.

[27:18] We wanted to appropriately show you what we're trying to accomplish.

[27:24] Where things are going is assuming that council determines to move forward at the

[27:28] next meeting with the ordinance. The

[27:32] finance team as well as your administration have been working forward with the

[27:36] plan, and if we find a time where the market works, we would lock up interest rates

[27:41] and we would essentially establish financing that would do the green section, which

[27:46] is the refinancing, and the blue section.

[27:49] It's one financing, it's doing two separate things.

[27:52] But as far as you're concerned, the payback would be broken out between the bonds

[27:57] that you already were paying and saving some money, and then we would borrow

[28:01] additional $2.5 million to cover the capital costs.

[28:05] How we structure the debt would be what is called a wraparound debt service.

[28:09] So if you look at column seven, it just means that while you're paying your other

[28:14] payments, we're essentially delaying some of the principal back and filling in the

[28:18] principal once some of the debt falls off.

[28:21] So what that really means is you have very little incremental payment on your

[28:26] overall debt service. It will be about $150,000 of

[28:31] additional payment. And one of the things to point out is, I'm not sure if it's

[28:35] finalized, but that you would potentially be receiving rental income that comes

[28:40] from the building that you'd be renovating, which would essentially help offset

[28:44] those payments. So from our perspective, between that and the additional funds that

[28:50] you've been collecting from the state for the TRID project or the Wawa train

[28:54] station, it's essentially covering much of your debt service.

[28:57] So there's very little impact to you, and you're able to do these projects in a

[29:02] fashion that makes sense for you.

[29:03] Mm-hmm.

[29:04] All that being said, the amortization would end in about seven years, and we expect

[29:09] that the interest rate would be around 3.3%.

[29:13] That would be kind of the average rate over the course of time.

[29:17] And the current interest rates that you're paying on your debt is around 4%, so

[29:20] those differences are where the savings comes in. I'll stop.

[29:24] Lots of colors, lots of things, but big picture here is very little impact to your

[29:29] budget, some savings from the refinancing, and a reasonably short-term instrument,

[29:35] so it'll be paid back pretty quickly.

[29:37] And the last thing would be you would have an opportunity to refinance in the

[29:40] future because these bonds would be callable.

[29:44] Whether we would do that in future, I don't know, but we would have that option in

[29:47] case you want. So I'll stop and see if anyone has any questions on how it would

[29:51] work.

[29:56] Real quick. What would make

[29:59] the environment favorable to call them? Is it just lower interest rates?

[30:03] Just if interest rates are lower.

[30:04] Got it.

[30:05] That or if you received outside funding.

[30:08] Sometimes when local governments receive grants for other things or

[30:14] contributions of some capacity, there may be value to take those funds and reduce

[30:18] your debt. So that would give you the option to do that.

[30:22] And last question, how do we get to the highest credit rating? What do we do?

[30:27] Or is it just sort of out of our control? Is it just...

[30:29] So, that's a great question. I would say you are probably

[30:34] at one of the best ratings for the size of a local government.

[30:39] So, the United States government has lots of local governments

[30:44] throughout the country, and Pennsylvania is a unique place where we have thousands

[30:49] upon thousands of local governments.

[30:51] So when Moody's Investors Service or Standard & Poor's compare you to the city of

[30:56] Chicago or a state or even a county, local governments of your size

[31:02] are considered small compared to those.

[31:05] When they do their credit metrics and review you, you fit into a different window.

[31:11] Where you need to get to V AAA is you need to have a significant amount of

[31:17] reserves. And I would say that you're in a very strong financial position right

[31:22] now. To get to triple A would take a very large change in where you are.

[31:28] And the value you get to be Triple A in this particular case probably wouldn't be

[31:33] worth it to you, in my humble opinion. Although we all want to be Triple A.

[31:36] Sure.

[31:36] I think because of the size of your local government, you'd need a little bit more.

[31:42] For what it's worth, when we come back at your next--for future presentations,

[31:46] there's a copy of the credit rating that we receive from Standard & Poor's.

[31:49] It'll show you some of the things that you could do or not do to benefit.

[31:54] But generally speaking, it's really raising your tax base even higher, increasing

[31:59] your fund balance above

[32:02] significant reserves that you already have, and a couple of odds and ends.

[32:06] But I think in general, you are in a very good place currently.

[32:10] Thank you.

[32:10] To add to that a little bit,

[32:13] since we got our last rating, we now have a rainy day fund, which we're adding to

[32:19] every year, which helps. We do have an extra year's balance in our

[32:24] debt service fund because the acquisition of the open space that we did with this

[32:30] 2019 bond took an extra year, and we do have

[32:35] substantial reserves in our general fund currently.

[32:41] And one unique aspect that we have that a lot of other municipalities don't have is

[32:46] we have a grandfathered business privilege tax, which municipalities are currently

[32:50] not allowed to collect anymore. We put that in in the '80s, so we

[32:56] have the business revenue stream as well as our normal real estate

[33:02] taxes.

[33:04] Thanks.

[33:05] Yeah, you guys are doing it right. I should point out, it's a good story here and

[33:11] getting involved in Double-A plus, we're very happy with.

[33:14] Well, we always want Triple-A, but I think this is quite good.

[33:18] Just turning onto the next page, I just wanted to touch on just the timeline here.

[33:22] I hit the high notes associated with your action here.

[33:26] If you look in the middle of the page, we've done a decent amount of the

[33:32] back office work to get us to this place.

[33:35] But through the next action item would be the advertisement of the

[33:41] ordinance, which would be done by your bond counsel.

[33:44] Then there'd be a presentation of the final ordinance approval for the meeting on

[33:49] the 16th. Once that occurs, assuming you decided to move forward with that

[33:53] ordinance, we would then be finalizing the preliminary offering statement, which is

[33:58] the document that the investors would look at to help determine to purchase the

[34:02] bonds, and we would find a time to sell the bonds, which would probably happen

[34:08] no earlier than the 16th, but probably somewhere closer to the end of the

[34:14] month. Somewhere in between that, and we'll watch the market.

[34:17] From there, we would settle sometime around November.

[34:21] You would be locked in on or around that, the end of the month at this point in

[34:25] time.

[34:26] Everything else would be handled by the professionals.

[34:30] The action of council would be the next action view.

[34:36] Thank you for your time. I know it's a mundane thing to talk about bonds, but I

[34:41] think the bright side here is the story is good, the thing we're doing is good, and

[34:46] ultimately, the work that you all done is being shown and seen by outside

[34:52] professionals that think you're doing a good job. Kudos to the township.

[34:55] Well, thank you.

[34:57] Okay. Thank you.

[34:58] Thank you. Any questions from anyone up here?

[35:02] Do we have an idea of what we might receive for rail income subsidies?

[35:11] There may be a one-time payment of $400,000

[35:17] or slightly more to go towards the improvement cost of the structure.

[35:23] Perhaps

[35:30] $2,600 a month in rent. Once the

[35:36] county considers the memorandum of understanding, then we would go the step further

[35:42] and actually do a lease for that. But that's the neighborhood.

[35:47] Okay.

[35:49] Thank you.

[35:50] For what it's worth, I did this exact same transaction for the City of Coatesville

[35:54] for their building on second floor.

[35:55] It's a very similar structure, so it seems to work quite well. Okay.

[36:00] Any questions from the public?

[36:03] What facility are you looking at?

[36:06] We are looking to move the district magistrate's office to the Township

[36:12] Campus from its current location on South Panel

[36:18] Yeah

[36:19] I have a, just not in sort of this, but what is-- obviously that building needs a

[36:23] lot of renovation. Do we have any idea what the timeline would be at all?

[36:29] I know it's... Maybe not, and that's fine.

[36:34] We would hope to get it done quicker than 18 months.

[36:39] And the

[36:42] county was originally looking at using the basement for

[36:47] additional uses. That would have increased the cost and increased the time.

[36:51] The county has decided that they just want to have the district magistrate on the

[36:56] first floor, so that will cut down the cost and cut down the time for construction.

[37:01] Thank you.

[37:04] Just for purpose of discussion, once the funds are received for the transaction,

[37:09] they could also be invested and earn while you're doing construction.

[37:13] You can't earn above what we borrow, but there's a good chance that you'd be

[37:16] earning pretty similar to what you're borrowing at.

[37:18] So from a perspective of the cost of it while you're doing construction, almost be

[37:23] offset.

[37:25] And why we added additional capital project, the ability to spend on additional

[37:29] capital projects is if for some reason the construction gets delayed and whatnot,

[37:35] we have existing capital projects that we can kind of redirect the money for, like

[37:40] for Lanai Park, and then use the money that we had set aside for Lanai Park to do

[37:45] the construction payments at a later date. So it just gives us more flexibility.

[37:53] Okay. Thank you very much.

[37:55] Thank you.

[38:10] Next is items for approval.

[38:14] We have a consideration of approval to advertise for the sale of the 2018 Case

[38:19] backhoe. Do I have a motion?

[38:21] So moved.

[38:22] Thank you. And a second?

[38:24] Second.

[38:24] Mr. Resciss?

[38:29] The township recently received a new backhoe that was on

[38:34] backorder.

[38:37] We are looking to sell our old backhoe on MuniCiv Bid, which we've

[38:45] been very successful in selling items on that.

[38:50] We would like to put a reserve on that, and with council's

[38:55] approval, if the bid goes over the reserve, if you would allow the

[39:01] township manager to go ahead and sign that to the...

[39:06] Allow him to sell that at the highest responsible bidder, that's what we're hoping

[39:12] for tonight.

[39:15] Okay. Any questions?

[39:20] Any questions from the public?

[39:23] All in favor?

[39:25] Aye.

[39:26] Any opposed? Motion passes.

[39:30] Next up, consideration of approval to advertise for bid the 2027 through 2029

[39:35] recycling services. Do I have a motion?

[39:39] So moved.

[39:41] Moved.

[39:41] Thank you. And a second?

[39:42] Second.

[39:43] Thank you. Mr. Resciss.

[39:50] Our current recycling contract is up at the end of the year.

[39:54] We are looking to get bids to continue the recycling services.

[40:00] It is basically the same provision of services that we have now,

[40:06] with an option if a provider would like to do

[40:12] toters for the recycling service rather than the small bins that we have now,

[40:18] it would allow that. So it is a recycling bid for the next three years,

[40:23] 2027 through 2029.

[40:28] Thank you. Any questions?

[40:33] Any questions from the public?

[40:36] Okay. All in favor?

[40:38] Aye.

[40:39] Any opposed? Motion passed.

[40:42] Mr. Chairman, before moving on final matter, just for purposes of keeping the

[40:46] record, um, meeting minutes clear, uh, we did receive that presentation by PFN

[40:51] Financial Advisors. But there's also after that, the introduction of the ordinance

[40:56] 874 would bond para- bound parameter for ordinance authorization advertised, um,

[41:01] which is very affili- affiliated, but a separate matter.

[41:06] Uh, just to see if there was a... Again, no action at this time.

[41:08] It's a workshop item, but wanted to see if there was a discussion or any questions

[41:13] from counsel related to that ordinance which is in your packet.

[41:18] Thank you for that. Yeah, I did miss that. We do have that.

[41:24] Um, that was the second,

[41:28] actually the third item in the

[41:31] paperwork provided for that presentation.

[41:34] Is there any

[41:38] approvals required at this time? Because that would come at the next meeting.

[41:44] That's correct. And as Mr. Subser said, this is something that's going to be coming

[41:48] before you for the re-advertisement of this ordinance.

[41:53] But if there's any questions on that ordinance now, it was put together by our

[41:59] specialized bond counsel on this matter reviewed by my office.

[42:03] But it is something, I think, to meet the timelines that are presented in the other

[42:08] packets, just to make sure that there's no hold up from counsel on these. Yeah.

[42:16] Any other comments or questions? Just calling out that this is part of, like, the

[42:21] normal workshop items that we would have normally had as a separate line item that

[42:27] will then be advertised and voted on in two weeks.

[42:32] Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

[42:36] Okay. Last item for approval is the consideration of approval for the

[42:42] August 2026 bill list. Do I have a motion?

[42:45] So moved.

[42:46] Thank you. And a second?

[42:48] Second.

[42:49] Thank you.

[42:51] All right. From the Capital Reserve Fund,

[42:55] $71,492. From the Escrow fund,

[43:00] $11,084. From the General fund,

[43:06] $339,785.

[43:12] From the Highway fund, $305,238,

[43:19] for a total of $727,600.

[43:26] Any questions?

[43:28] All in favor?

[43:30] Aye.

[43:32] Any opposed?

[43:34] Motion passes. We are adjourned

September 2, 2026 Council Meeting

Transcript