[0:00] so we're running a little late I apologize but I'm going to call to order

[0:04] the February meeting of Rose Valley burough Council we had an executive

[0:09] session before the meeting to talk about a tax appeal and a few other real estate

[0:15] issues uh and with that we will start with the Pledge of

[0:23] Allegiance conations the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:28] Republic for which it stand one nation under God

[0:33] indivisible

[0:38] andice all right first on the agenda is approval of the minutes for our January

[0:44] meeting Paula has I can try there's some open seats up

[0:51] here too if you want to move up so first up is approval of the

[0:57] January meeting minutes which Paul distributed uh via email earlier are

[1:03] there any comments questions or corrections to those

[1:07] minutes is there a motion to approve those minutes so is there a

[1:16] second all in favor please vote by saying I I any opposed that carries

[1:25] 70 so now that brings us to public comment for anyone in the audience that

[1:30] would like to address the board on any items either on the agenda or off is

[1:35] there anyone that would like to make a public

[1:45] comment Neighbors

[2:02] about okay um we're neighbors neighbors to the

[2:07] school looking anly forward to hearing uh the response to the complaint

[2:12] that we made about schooling and as

[2:22] Asal sure so the mayor and I met with the president of the board of SRV as

[2:30] well as the head of school at SRV a couple of weeks ago at this point um to

[2:37] find out particularly their plans for two Roy en coft they conveyed to us that

[2:42] their plans were to keep it as single family residential which it is currently

[2:47] zoned and to rent it out um we suggested that they put that in writing to the

[2:54] different residents that have reached out to them I don't think they have done

[2:57] that they have told us that they are planning to have a meeting with all of

[3:03] the residents um somewhere in the burough has that been

[3:08] scheduled yes it's next th okay at the school at the school great um so I would

[3:15] certainly not hesitate to voice your concerns about both two royland coft and

[3:20] the parking at 15 School Lane at that meeting um we have looked at our zoning

[3:28] ordinances and are deciding what to do about the

[3:32] parking at school Lane and I think part of what we do is going to depend on how

[3:37] that meeting on Thursday with the residents go whether they can allay your

[3:41] concerns or not Larry Larry C night school Wayan uh we

[3:47] have a communication from them yesterday um regarding that meeting um

[3:53] they are not planning to discuss any or disclose any of their plans

[4:00] they just want to hear our concerns that is what they told us they said they

[4:04] wanted it to be a listening session which the mayor and I both conveyed we

[4:09] thought was not the best course of action but it's their meeting to run

[4:14] so we would prefer to be a listening part agreed understood and I did invite

[4:22] them to come to this meeting and tell us what their intentions are regarding uh

[4:28] to ring C but they said they they refer to wait till after they meet with the

[4:36] Neighbors Bar 19 school and it seems like what they intend to do with 15 I I

[4:44] don't understand why the bur is not enforcing current Z coordinates so that

[4:50] seems to be decoupled from what they plan or what they want to do so I'm here

[4:56] to kind of understand what is burrow doing

[5:04] 15 well option A is we wait until after you have your meeting and see if you

[5:10] guys can come to some agreement because the bureau

[5:13] doesn't take anybody to task if the neighbors don't complain like let's say

[5:18] you have a shed it's in within 20 feet of your property line the burough is not

[5:22] going to go after you if uh your neighbor's not complaining and I think

[5:28] after during the pandemic they started parking some cars there and it was a

[5:33] little noise back then but it kind of calmed down and we neighbors haven't

[5:39] complained since then so that's why we haven't take but hold on that's why we

[5:45] haven't address the issue of the parking because we haven't really gotten any

[5:49] complaints now we've gotten a complaint we could wait until we have

[5:56] this meeting next Thursday you guys have this meeting so if you can work it out

[6:01] you can tell them the the bureau council is just waiting to see how your meeting

[6:06] turns out otherwise they're going to say this is not an acceptable

[6:11] use uh that was our thought we could say tonight that you know we're going to do

[6:18] something but we thought it's always better let people try and work things

[6:21] out first before we

[6:28] uh so good with that meeting they did not invite the burough

[6:35] just the uh residents on the Lan they ask us if we would like you and Matt you

[6:42] or Matt they ask I'm happy to be there if

[6:47] you want me there you want to be there sure all right mat okay should I come

[6:56] too can I get invited to

[7:03] you're I feel left out but we believe the meeting will be

[7:08] on school R it will not be any person

[7:15] okay

[7:22] Kelly The Roosters um just to see if there was anything that

[7:32] um

[7:37] and um so at the burough council's meeting

[7:43] in January in December we had a draft ordinance that I

[7:50] had prepared and circulated uh there was an expressed

[7:56] interest uh that some people had they had not had a sufficient opportunity to

[8:02] study the ordinance and comment on it

[8:09] and one representative of the community said they would be willing to

[8:14] invite the chicken owners and rooster owners to uh get together and see what

[8:20] their comments were at the December burough council meeting we agreed and I

[8:27] among them to defer a decision on publication of the draft ordinance

[8:35] because the way it works bro Council first has to decide whether to publish

[8:40] an ordinance as something they intend to adopt and then there's approximately a

[8:45] 30day period for the public to see the published

[8:50] document and then at the meeting that that allows after that opportunity for

[8:55] study of the published document then the community can come and oppose support it

[9:00] and B Council can vote on whether to adopt it or not or to defer adopting it

[9:05] or to amend it and republish it so instead of voting at our December

[9:11] meeting to decide to publish it in its present form we decided to give an

[9:17] opportunity for chicken owners foul owners to comment on what they felt were

[9:24] best practices now the draft ordinance had four substantiv sections one section

[9:31] banned roosters outright with a twoe notice for removal of the rooster and

[9:40] then a penalty section if that was not done in a timely fashion with escalating

[9:46] penalties that's how that ordinance that section was

[9:51] drafted the council and I can't speak the sense of the meeting from my

[9:57] perspective was invite comments on three other sections not on the section

[10:03] regarding roosters the position that I certainly expressed and will Express

[10:09] again right here we have heard a great deal of comment about

[10:14] roosters and that's speaking for myself only a political judgment balancing out

[10:22] noise issues and um ownership issues of your property and

[10:30] where to draw the line and we've heard a great deal of debate and comment on that

[10:36] and I I'm always eager to hear more but I personally have made up my own mind on

[10:41] that and I think many members of burl Council have so we were not inviting

[10:45] further comment on the rooster band component of the ordinance but we were

[10:51] receptive to again I was and I think other members of council were as well to

[10:58] getting comment on the three other components of the ordinance draft which

[11:05] I'm going by memory here is number of foul per

[11:09] acre the best practices for enclosure fencing and a coupe and best

[11:17] practices for uh pollution runoff and on that issue the draft

[11:23] ordinance was which I drafted was mostly pattern on existing

[11:30] ordinances from Media or Swarthmore

[11:36] and it it seemed appropriate in my judgment to allow further comment from

[11:42] rooster owners if they felt instead of X numbers of foul per acre it should be X+

[11:48] one or xus one or X plus2 the the primary issue brought to

[11:54] council was the rooster issue not best practices in the the absence of roosters

[12:01] so the theory was that at this meeting we would get a report from chicken

[12:06] owners with their views on best practices for those things but not

[12:12] acknowledging the freedom to raise again the issue of roosters if they so

[12:17] choose and then there was a request that they have additional time until our

[12:22] March meeting and you know I I think a reason position

[12:27] could be that we started this in I think June uh at a burough council meeting

[12:35] and we decided in December to give people until February and then we got a

[12:41] request for an additional month and is that a reasonable request or not on the

[12:47] other hand we've had a burrow that's survived

[12:51] for over a hundred years without a rooster ordinance and we're all trying

[12:56] to get along my understanding is there no present roosters to be dealt with

[13:01] except perhaps one or more at the school but no residential

[13:07] roosters certainly if there are any I'm happy to hear about it but I I'm not

[13:14] ising they get their chickens and their things like that but what one of the

[13:19] things I wanted to bring up was that um I sat at that EAC meeting and I loved

[13:24] what you proposed and then the other things were coming up about how there's

[13:29] some houses that have quite a few foul in their yard and so it evolved from

[13:34] there my problem is roosters but then listening to it and saying that you know

[13:39] we should have some kind of ordinance for people moving into Rose Valley and

[13:44] knowing that okay we're allowed to have chickens it needs to be by this much by

[13:50] this much by this much and you can only have this many and I thought that was a

[13:54] great plan I had a friend in Todd called and

[13:59] who on your lane is causing all the problems with the chickens I just had

[14:04] somebody come to my house telling me that you're that someone on your lane is

[14:09] trying to ban chickens and roosters and or no just chickens and I started to

[14:14] laugh and I said that's me so what do you want to talk about but you're

[14:19] noted but you're not trying to B chick no I'm not but I said my problem was the

[14:23] roosters but what I have a problem with that somebody's going around

[14:29] up all the chicken people and be like oh they're doing all this stuff you need to

[14:34] come out you need to do this they're trying to you know make it so you can't

[14:38] have any like how did that get to that after

[14:42] the nice EAC meeting I sat with with you I and then all of a sudden you know you

[14:48] put it back into bur first bur counil pled it to you and now it's beinged back

[14:52] to bur Council and we're still waiting sorry well I I I know it's you I

[14:59] I I can't explain how uh um things get described by other

[15:06] people uh but I can tell you that the the draft ordinance is and I if I

[15:14] haven't sent it to you I'm happy to send it to you but it's very simple it says

[15:18] no roosters with penalties under certain time tle it says X number of chickens

[15:23] are foul per acre it says yes enclosures and a coup and it there no polluted

[15:31] runoff yeah and and so why is someone going around somebody and I can

[15:38] tell well I I I don't know the word riling people up

[15:45] is I'm not the goal is to give people an opportunity to be heard at least that's

[15:51] my personal goal it's been going on and and I I'm

[15:57] I'm I hesitate to say this but I think maybe I've spent more time on roosters

[16:02] than any other human in the burough so I have written back to I

[16:07] think I hope everybody who's emailed me and I've gotten emails and I've attended

[16:12] meetings and so on and drafted the ordinance so I'm well aware of that I'm

[16:16] also aware that this is a matter of of to

[16:22] my I was not anticipating this a

[16:27] greatly a huge amount of energy energ and investment is held by some people on

[16:31] this issue and out of respect I I personally am prepared to give them

[16:37] another month I've said that on March 2nd or March 3rd which is a Monday I

[16:42] need a written report with any proposed changes in the ordinance and the reasons

[16:47] for them and then I will take that into consideration in what I redraft for the

[16:52] buau at our March meeting so as far as I'm concerned this is going to be voted

[16:57] on or at least it's going to be on the agenda for a vote at our March meeting

[17:02] with a specific content prepared and taking into consideration what people

[17:07] had shared on March

[17:11] 3rd sorry for the long comments any other public comment David

[17:19] David I think mat mentioned theol that if

[17:24] they they rent it out does the B have any shortterm Ral

[17:29] are there any restrictions for to become an Airbnb or some other sort of rental

[17:34] facility no you have to have long-term rentals like years like years so there's

[17:39] not it's not an it's not an

[17:44] near yes Hillary H 19 schooling um I just had a quick question

[17:51] you mentioned earlier that um at the meeting with the school we could advise

[17:56] them um of sort of what I believe we're likely to hear later um and regarding

[18:04] their use of 15 and I'm just wondering they had a surveyor out today uh

[18:10] surveying a lot so I'm wondering if that has

[18:14] been has been communicated to them otherwise I'm sorry if what has been

[18:20] communicated to them um the Burrow's position on the use of it has not

[18:27] because we just got the solicitor opinion on it um I I'm it's conjecture

[18:33] but my guess is that the surveyor was out there in connection with they're

[18:37] doing some campus Master planning right now so perhaps it was related to that

[18:42] but I I don't know thank you sure all right if there's no other

[18:48] public comment I'd like to take um something out of order here and move it

[18:53] up from finances which is the Rose Valley folk Amusement tax relief request

[18:57] since we have represent pres atives of the folk here tonight so let's uh let's

[19:02] turn to that item now uh G you were here last month to make a request for um

[19:09] relief from the amusement tax that the buau assesses the folk every year um and

[19:16] I know you provided some information to us so do you want to walk us through

[19:25] that speak loudly we can't hear you sure sure is this louder I just so we just

[19:32] handed out our um email and and actual versus our budget versus actuals over

[19:38] the course of two years from 2023 through 2025 in our

[19:45] budget also from

[19:51] 20224 account balances so what we're looking for

[19:58] so um so just as a statement during Co we solve

[20:05] um first of all we were basically shut down from rentals um we also saw a

[20:11] decrease in our account balance and so what we've learned from that lesson is

[20:15] is that uh we need to have a proper account balance in case another

[20:22] epidemic occurs or there's some catastrophe or some reason we also know

[20:27] that um we have a lot of competition with

[20:31] other wedding venues um as well as uh we're not seeing the same um return on

[20:38] rentals like in the hot summer months is either so we're seeing some Trends

[20:42] happening um that we have to consider for the future for uh the sustainability

[20:47] of the mill so um if not um a uh one year we would like to um

[20:58] actually uh for the future have uh an ordinance such as the pool does um so

[21:05] that we can continue on um with doing these projects that we shared um

[21:11] projects that are uh to bring us up to coup projects that are going allow us to

[21:16] be uh competitive with these wedding venues such as we had to put off the men

[21:21] room as just a small example um because uh you know just

[21:28] but now we know that in order to stay uh competitive and uh you know have all the

[21:34] you know have all the communities come here we need to have the up here so

[21:39] that's what we're looking for so you'd like to be

[21:41] permanently uh yes basically you're one's left we got hedro got out of the

[21:47] amusement tax years ago when they came at five on C3 the pool got out last year

[21:52] because they have they don't make money they need to replace their pool and

[21:57] you're having less rental income more expenses you have a lot more competition

[22:03] yes and I know I used more expensive I used to be the rental chair the folk and

[22:07] during the summer we would rent it out every mon every Friday Saturday and

[22:10] Sunday every weekend all summer long and I was talking to Kelly Coffield who's

[22:16] the new now the rental chair and you have like two

[22:20] rentals in July and August a is the Saturday every

[22:25] Saturday there we're finding that the reason they're

[22:30] not R in July and AUST is because people don't want to get married in churches

[22:35] anymore they get married outside and nobody wants to hold wedding the middle

[22:40] of July and August in the right it's too hot that's why it's too hot so that's

[22:44] why we're not renting as much that's what the our says she's finding it

[22:50] harder to get rental and we've even given a discount what about what about

[22:55] the total number of rentals for the year does that does that mean people are just

[22:59] moving into the you know shoulder month all mayed all June all seped all

[23:07] October Fray

[23:13] and yeah like all the Saturdays in August and maybe a couple Fridays buts

[23:19] but not everyone used to but it also was

[23:28] w we can do a lot of it outside and then of course we can't move

[23:35] too far far into the winter because the weather gets cold and no win gets

[23:39] married in December January February or

[23:43] March is there any questions you well I was going to ask you know one of the

[23:48] things that was raised by different members of the board at different time

[23:51] was that a lot of the sense was that a lot of the rentals are from out of

[23:59] burrow

[24:06] residents a a month MERS up to a year and a lot of

[24:18] them

[24:21] rich I don't think it's so much the rentals it's we're talking about 100

[24:26] some year old building here vle need to be updated

[24:31] to we have weend the Pavilion out there needs to be re or

[24:38] walls going to fall down we're taking down the air rate s we're looking at

[24:43] between 80 $100,000 in additional expenses just to maintain this building

[24:48] for the next couple years uh the back wall the shed is falling

[24:53] off the bridge across the matter needs tol

[24:59] so I don't think it's so much what's coming with Ral I think it's what we see

[25:03] going out just to maintain the building that's this old and you know we can do a

[25:09] little bit increase rentals that's not going to help us to take care of

[25:14] maintain building so that a lot of people

[25:17] use the bur Offices here EAC the bur council's here the voice Scouts are here

[25:24] in addition to the weddings and everything else I think it's not so much

[25:28] what we anticipate over the next four to five years just going out just to

[25:32] maintain this building so itn't fall down and that's what we shared y we did

[25:36] get that via email does anybody have questions sure I'll

[25:44] ask what our ms100

[26:06] reason try again and even with the the MERS only $25,000 year

[26:30] a lot1 of

[26:43] people I've also inreased the M amount when ment the old if you're not

[26:50] a m of the old you pay $5500 for Saturday just to rent doesn't include

[26:56] theat or anything members were playing a lot less but I

[27:01] raised that the boarded it last year um to help to we we were not weren

[27:11] M now at least breaking even are

[27:17] m onday

[27:22] 2 stretch here indicate you guys did well last

[27:28] but like

[27:45] notating every year would that be every year those projects a lot of them are

[27:51] onetime projects that would happen you would hope as soon as possible or this

[27:56] year Okay so do you have an a copy that we Shar uh no in the email no I don't

[28:02] have a PR out of that so you'll see that there are projects that are scheduled

[28:07] that are the highest priority from 2025 throughout

[28:11] 2035 okay I we'll look at it more closely and they're based on um when was

[28:17] the last maintenance done on those items and when is it coming up again okay

[28:21] thank you sure and then we have a c that's the and then we have a category

[28:26] of what can we do to improve the facility to stay competitive okay and

[28:30] those projects are also mixed in there and to come up with the annual uh needs

[28:36] yeah okay thank you sure Matt

[28:42] yeah so I'm sorry I'm trying

[28:47] to sort of do my homework quickly I just got a copy of the revenue profit a loss

[28:52] budget uh versus actual for uh fiscal year July 23 through June 24 and then I

[29:01] guess a separate one for July 24 through January 25 and I

[29:08] apologize in advance if I've missed because I mean I just got these when I

[29:12] sat down here but is there a provision in either of these budgets to set aside

[29:18] money for Capital

[29:24] Improvements Jim hi Jim how are you so I'll do my best to try and answer of

[29:31] that question so you'll notice if you look at our our

[29:37] income we have more in bank we ever had before HED up there said on

[29:44] the build

[29:52] grounds on the board so we knew after last year study cre that long datal list

[30:00] that we had needs greater than we could actually need matter of fact we saving

[30:04] our money this year not really doing a lot of one or two things like planting

[30:08] flowers in the gardens or doing a significant amount of painting on the

[30:13] walls we would like to be more competitive this year cater we have

[30:17] things planned like we have some coom issues for electrical Bic carpet put a

[30:23] wood dance floor in the facility things are going to hopefully help us rentals

[30:28] year on a regular basis we do not have a dollar value to set aside every year

[30:34] other than we're trying to work out of that budget and our savings that minimum

[30:39] value of one year we learn during which was about $150,000 our just in case if

[30:45] Pro it for failure that we would lose a year or flood or another Co or some

[30:51] other component for income so that we would not have to as an organization

[30:56] either out or find a way for

[31:03] us come Sol so I hope that ansers the

[31:09] question so if I heard you correctly there is no

[31:15] provision in the budget for a set aside for Capital

[31:19] Improvements and there is this list of projected Capital Improvements that add

[31:25] up to approximately a million dollars in r round numbers over the next X number

[31:30] of years the amount of taxes that we're

[31:35] talking about is $113,000 we had the same debate with the

[31:40] pool which resolved itself in a manner of

[31:46] speaking I guess um I'm just trying to understand what I

[31:53] think you're trying to lead us to the answer and I think we would already say

[31:56] we've already seen the answer we know our membership dues have to go up we

[32:00] just raised them by 20% we know our rentals have to go up our income stream

[32:04] has to go up and our costs have to go down so we have been moving to move our

[32:07] income up we're also asking at the same time to see if we can get relief from

[32:11] you help some of our cost come that okay and and in

[32:16] turn we had this debate with the pool my memory is imperfect the pool basically

[32:21] said they they can't afford to pay the amusement tax they're going to have to

[32:25] replace the pool and I asked as I recall like well will you commit to putting

[32:33] this money that we're waving for taxes as a set aside for Capital Improvements

[32:38] and at least in my memory which is imperfect the answer was well no we'll

[32:42] take care of it just don't charge us the money and we decided to say okay to that

[32:50] I'm not I didn't feel that was that that seemed to me like asking

[32:56] for a tax break with without committing to using the savings for the things that

[33:01] were needed so that's why I was asking about a budget line item for paying for

[33:06] these Capital Improvements and and whether or not the money that you're

[33:11] asking to be forgiven

[33:14] for some period of time will actually be used for the things that you have

[33:22] planned for improvements and if there's no wide

[33:25] align item in the budget already that that it's like I'm I'm confused by

[33:31] that with with all respect so there because I mean this is a million dollars

[33:34] you're planning to spend over the next eight nine

[33:37] years and we're not seeing a set aside in the last two years so Leonard there

[33:43] there is a line in the budget for interior exterior maintenance and repair

[33:47] of 20,000 but that's not improvements that's maintenance and repair which is

[33:51] most of what they're talking about on okay that's that okay that

[34:09] sorry I say again I'm sorry bud our budget year on top of operational Bud

[34:17] well that I would have again would I mean you guys we I'm not this is I'm

[34:23] just asking mean like I'm just trying to understand why that wasn't there already

[34:27] for the last forever years because I mean you always have to set aside money

[34:33] for Capital Improvements that's like depreciating your asset because there's

[34:38] always expenses I think that the money they make I think that's what there're

[34:44] trying to set aside like last year they made her what $22,000 or something

[34:48] that's going to go towards Capital Improvement

[34:53] and the world is full of organizations that engage deferred maintenance because

[34:59] they need the money today I get that so I guess I'm really looking to the Future

[35:04] I'm not trying to debate the past but the plan for the future is to have a set

[35:09] aside for these necessary Capital Improvements of which this money for the

[35:13] amusement tax would be

[35:20] included I wanted to really start off by

[35:25] thanking you folks

[35:41] owns what is

[35:46] their The Rose Valley folk owns the property is that your question that is

[35:51] my question know that that's the right answer it is the right answer they own

[35:56] the proper

[36:13] well we regard you're talking about the burough office rent the folk was the

[36:18] folk was kind enough in the

[36:22] past more money yes well the folk and the burrow entered into an agreement

[36:29] where you agreed that the folk would the bu would help you I think acquire

[36:33] esteric Furniture if you forgave the rent for 10 years and that was like five

[36:38] years ago yes so we have that agreement in place that's right when that

[36:41] agreement SP expires then it says something about what the rent's going to

[36:45] be but that is kind of set in stone for until that agreement

[36:55] expires question I think um

[37:01] now the revenue that the fol generated the bur 13,000 Sal if

[37:11] that's set aside how do we make up that

[37:17] ,000 said differently doesn't every taxpayer commun have to

[37:25] generate I guess High tax uh to make up for that Rue I think

[37:31] that's true we have to probably raise taxes or I'd say a large number of

[37:37] people in the burrow are members of the Rose Valley folk so it's it's benefiting

[37:43] them and we really want this the folk and this building to flourish and

[37:49] survive and be here for the long term we want like the pool we want and hedro we

[37:54] want to help these survive and do so it's the residents who are benefiting

[38:01] they can have voicey Scout meetings here they can have Valley boices concerts

[38:05] they can have the variety show so they get a lot of benefits from having the

[38:08] folks their taxes might go up but the folks going to be

[38:15] okay yeah there there are times when I try and reconcile you know

[38:32] any other questions for the vote we get a copy of

[38:44] sheet well this is kind of the this is has their balance sheet and here's for

[38:49] last year and there's a p&l is that what you that's the end of

[38:55] June 30th I'm sorry you probably said this before

[38:59] but I just want to make sure I I got it right the set aside that you want for

[39:02] your reserves for emergencies not the reserve for Capital Improvements your

[39:08] target number for that is I'm sorry one more time how much do

[39:13] you want to set aside for emergencies in terms of a reserve we did figured about

[39:19] $150,000 150 and does this say you have 187

[39:24] now is that that number at the the that's as of

[39:31] 63024 okay now I just wanted to make sure I heard it and yeah see if I got

[39:36] that those numbers right so so you're good in terms of your reserve you have a

[39:41] little Surplus there to go towards as a first step to go towards either you know

[39:46] your Capital Improvements that's correct great I I I heard some adjustments are

[39:51] being made in like I think you said plantings and some other things to try

[39:55] to bring some costs down this year um what about your member events um it

[40:01] looks like a pretty big a pretty big line item you know are you asking the

[40:06] membership to uh you know contribute by uh asking a little less of the

[40:11] organization things there so we have an entertainment

[40:16] committee and we have volunteers from the membership that also help out with

[40:20] parties so we establish a budget so we're

[40:24] much more aware that um we try to find uh the best way

[40:30] to entertain but on a budget now okay so before we would blow the budgets that we

[40:37] were given for the events and now we're like we're no we can't we can't do that

[40:41] anymore we have to stick with what we're planning okay that's number one number

[40:45] two is then we don't have to use the cater that's here let's say Okay so

[40:50] we're now this is new we are now venturing out trying to bring different

[40:56] caterers costly for the events so that's one initiative that's made this past uh

[41:02] six months to a year um so that's how we've focused on member events okay

[41:08] besides raising the membership all right appreciate that also you no on the two

[41:13] bu on a year-over-year basis

[41:16] member admission fees budgeted 25% increas

[41:27] to say you know for members that have been members a long time you know some

[41:32] of that was a rud Awakening I'm sure I'm sure but we had to navigate that and

[41:41] just explain ourselves you know because after Co things were just really just

[41:46] sort of a wall you know as far as what expenses

[41:52] and supply chain and whatever the things that we came up for and then when the

[41:57] difference between Donald catering and then our new caterer too was a big

[42:01] change for the numbers thank

[42:11] you

[42:20] sh or occasions but anyway it seems that there was a change in the weather when

[42:25] theator yes is that generated plenty of Revenue

[42:30] to keep this place moving not a question

[42:47] that's I apprciate although you know seeing it

[42:51] from this angle I understand takes Revenue to keep this place running

[42:58] so it seems to me that the caterer brought in

[43:04] lately is not as effective as Don Conor but you're telling me differently that's

[43:09] fine I just feel like this is maybe next to

[43:18] Valley Place Philadelphia to get married so let's get some marketing cater Market

[43:25] this place

[43:35] the walls are falling down and it Tak that to keep it

[43:44] moving

[43:51] seems second question and then I'm so Aon let me can I just address that

[43:55] question there so of Hearts actually has multiple locations and you know this

[44:00] isn't about Donald but because he was great but U they have more uh like

[44:05] networking across the Philadelphia Val so I think that that's helpful so I

[44:11] think we're seeing that come

[44:17] to I don't know how much so I've heard 13,000 a year tax leave for for this

[44:24] facility how much was

[44:34] well I'll just mention that hedro basically stopped paying the taxes they

[44:40] just weren't making they weren't even paying us

[44:44] and so but they legally are now oh yeah now they now they have they there's no

[44:50] legal obligation to pay taxes because they're qualified as a charitable

[44:55] nonprofit so we couldn't collect taxes from them even if we wanted to is my

[44:59] understanding right okay okay so there was no Revenue there fine and the pool

[45:06] doesn't matter now all three of our facilities

[45:12] are 5000 we're thinking it might have been

[45:17] 5,000 for the

[45:21] pool theast they

[45:27] releas the last five years so yes and now they're permanently Exempted

[45:33] what you would you would like me again not not to I quibbled on this at the

[45:38] last meeting they're Exempted by current ordinance right they're not permanently

[45:43] Exempted right there's a difference if we change the ordinance

[45:47] they won't be Exempted that's right right so the question before us and I

[45:53] know we just got a bunch of financial information we just got a bunch of

[45:56] information verbally and I want a bit of time to process it but the decision that

[46:02] we need to make and I hope to make it at the next meeting is one do we Abate the

[46:08] folks um Amusement tax for this year and two do we Abate it permanently do we

[46:16] amend the ordinance again or do we just repeal the amusement tax ordinance so I

[46:20] think those are the decisions before us um this is not on our agenda for Action

[46:26] tonight so I would like to do that either next month or the

[46:31] following and it might depend on snowfall I mean it we were hoping for we

[46:36] a year like last year where we had very low snowflower and salting

[46:40] expenses but this year looks like it's not not trending well sherff that

[46:47] that was my question where will the money come from we this you know just

[46:51] it's an unfortunate timing that the budget was just passed in December and

[46:55] this is coming up after the budget for this year was already passed with all

[46:59] the things you know we're expected income and expected expenses now we do

[47:04] can we can hope that we don't have to pay a lot in plowing and salting because

[47:09] that's a big expense for the Bro really I was surprised how big it is um but

[47:14] it's a little out of our control because because there just has to be money to to

[47:18] pay the bills so I I see it we hear as of two parts one is this year and then

[47:24] the second part to that is one that just how toig how to figure it out

[47:33] so okay thank you all right so moving back to the

[47:39] agenda as before you we'll go to environment in

[47:44] EAC can I repeat everything I said about roosters yes please please that was a

[47:51] joke um excuse me that we don't want to parp the rest of our

[47:57] you're welcome to go yes you're welcome to stay but you're also

[48:02] welcome sure yeah it's like a fol meeting when everyone leaves after the

[48:06] people

[48:10] V

[48:21] sure all right so um as regards um the dear Management program for hunting in

[48:29] Todd Morton Woods preserve um this year uh one individual

[48:35] who's authorized a hunt was uh authorized only for the month of January

[48:40] we didn't address the issue for the two weeks in the past that was allowed

[48:46] between Thanksgiving and Christmas uh one buck and five dough were uh

[48:52] harvested by our hunter um there is um I think some consideration being given by

[48:59] the EAC to author to recommend to bro councel that hunting be allowed also in

[49:04] Chadwick preserve next year um the Harvest of six deer does is a drop in

[49:13] the bucket in terms of the number of deer that are here in our burrow and U I

[49:19] had six walk across my yard this morning and I'm pretty sure they stuck their

[49:23] tongue out at me

[49:27] i' I've counted 12 on my neighbors lawn across the way at any one time uh last

[49:33] year so I mean they do migrate to be sure

[49:38] but the number of deer is hugely out of balance from an environmental

[49:44] perspective which is why the environmental advisory Council supports

[49:48] this as a minimal effort to uh balance uh things out so that's just an update

[49:56] on on that um the um eac's annual native plant sale is scheduled for May

[50:04] 10th um and we've coordinated that with the folks so that the parking is not a

[50:11] problem and we're not going to be interfering um we have uh what we call

[50:16] the annual it's now an annual free the trees weekend um this is an interesting

[50:23] experiment of uh governance or uh community ation or education we've been

[50:29] talking about removing English Ivy from trees at the EAC for five or six years

[50:34] now we've been doing the announcements in the burrow I see wonderful neighbors

[50:39] and people all over the burrow have ivy on their trees then I see other people

[50:43] who are spending thousands and thousands of dollars to take down trees that have

[50:47] IV on them because the trees have died and we're just going to keep at it we're

[50:52] happy to come on people's private property and cut down the ivy we're

[50:57] making incremental progress each year we've done like a 100 plus trees and

[51:03] once the ivy is cut down for the most part the deer prevent The Ivy from ever

[51:08] growing back at least in Todd Woods I know

[51:13] this from living next to it we cut down Ivy off of every tree that we could find

[51:19] in The Preserve and there it's never come back so and on your own properties

[51:26] there Ivy when it grows up the trees it create it sets berries there's no

[51:31] berries on Ivy when it stays on the ground it has to go vertical in order to

[51:36] go to seed birds eat the seeds and then it repopulates

[51:40] everywhere and it's better for your trees if the ivy is not on them because

[51:45] especially in the winter they hold ice and snow they have a huge amount of

[51:49] extra weight that's greater than leaves would be and then that puts them at risk

[51:53] of blowing over and if the I tops the tree it kills the tree so we're going to

[52:01] keep at it every year for the indefinite future and hope someday that our burrow

[52:06] uh and it's also an invasive plant it doesn't provide any nutrients or

[52:10] anything in except the deer um so anyway that's uh scheduled for April 5th and

[52:17] 6th we have a workday and tree planting scheduled for May and um a variety of

[52:23] other things but I certainly encourage everyone to participate in native plant

[52:27] sale it's a revenue producer for the burrow of around5 to 7,000 it's the best

[52:32] deal anywhere I know of in Delaware County for three bucks you can get

[52:37] native plants that are suited to this area they Thrive they're great they're

[52:43] terrific and it's a lot of

[52:46] fun okay uh highways insurance and Technology T so nothing on highways and

[52:52] insurance this month um however uh techn ology abounds we've been busy uh since

[52:59] last month um we got a scanner for the burough office which uh allows Paula and

[53:06] Lisa to get rid of the giant fax machine uh so that should uh with a little bit

[53:12] of a a learning curve on the software for all of us uh we should be in good

[53:16] shape um we just switched over literally this morning we switched over the phone

[53:21] system to uh a service called Uma which is voiceover internet uh it drops our

[53:29] monthly spend on phone service from about 160 down to roughly

[53:35] $62 um we got the phones from them for 30 bucks each and they're you know

[53:41] perfectly nice office phones uh and then all of this uh

[53:46] Contraption here is our new uh live stream system we are testing it tonight

[53:51] there's only a couple of people uh watching it um I'm already seeing some

[53:56] things I'm going to have to adjust a little bit um but all in including uh a

[54:02] refurbished uh laptop uh these lovely tabletop mics that I got from a guy on

[54:08] Craigslist um we are all in for less than $1,000 um there's maybe a couple

[54:14] hundred extra dollars that I'm going the camera may have to be upgraded it

[54:18] doesn't capture everybody so sorry it's only Bill in this way we need to move

[54:24] Leonard down further yeah yeah out the room um so we might have to do a little

[54:29] something with that I need to get a case just to put things in so that I'm not

[54:32] carrying it a cardboard box um but functionally it seems to be working my

[54:37] uh my uh my reviewer on the other end says we are Audible and Vis and visible

[54:43] uh so starting next month um you know we now have a YouTube channel for the

[54:49] burough and starting next month we should be live good job that's great

[54:53] thanks for all of that great

[54:58] all right Library Cather um yeah I'm going to make it short I handed a

[55:05] handout to everybody and um that is uh from the board of directors meeting that

[55:10] was in January that is all on the website so if anybody's interested um go

[55:16] to Helen Kate furnace and on the website is listed the um encapsulation of

[55:23] everything that we did there last year for the library and um just shortly also

[55:31] quickly um Delco Gibbs Day last year was incredibly successful for everything

[55:39] that was in the buau um hedro did it the museum did it Helen Kate did it and so

[55:46] the um Helen Kate actually ended up and getting over $32,000 in funds and the

[55:54] Delco Gibbs day unlocked an additional

[55:59] $7,200 so it's a lot of money that private individuals are giving the way

[56:06] they want to give when they want to give um which is really a terrific way for

[56:12] all of the entities to make money and then um very quickly the um board of

[56:18] directors meeting was held on January 28th that review is on the website you

[56:23] can see it the virtual author talks are coming up again this month there will be

[56:28] one on February 18th um two in March one on March 12th and one on March 20th the

[56:35] gal who was giving the talk on March 20th is a Woman by the name of Clara

[56:40] bingan and I went to summer camp with her as a

[56:44] child that's my personal plug for Clara but um they are all really terrific um

[56:51] author talks it's engaging it's interactive if you have questions to ask

[56:55] the authors you can send them in ahead of time and if you miss the time they

[57:00] are all recorded so you can go back and see them and the annual appeal is

[57:05] getting ready to go out and that is a paper letter and that is the library's

[57:09] biggest fundraiser and that will be um mailed out next

[57:15] month great thank you uh Public Safety Sher mine's going

[57:20] to be even shorter it's a competition now what it's a competition for brevity

[57:25] everybody got a lot of stuff I don't have a lot of stuff actually and so

[57:28] we're missing some things um we still have one traffic camera um I got the

[57:34] number of the person that um Deb deasi used to be in contact with at all

[57:40] Traffic Solutions I've left a message and sent an email and I resolve to do

[57:44] that every other day until somebody just says we're not going to do it we're

[57:49] never going to what is the problem so um I was glad to get thank you Paula for

[57:56] with that information um there's no updates for uh

[58:01] Town watch we have last month we had a police

[58:06] report but no fire report and this month we have a fire report with only one uh

[58:12] EMT visit so nothing nothing really happened nothing to report we don't get

[58:18] any more information than what's show shown there um but with the change of

[58:24] our state assigned state trooper at uh retiring um we have not been given a

[58:31] contact name and it seems that the messages that I'm sending um to the

[58:36] barracks are just going just I expected to have the reports I should have

[58:42] contacted them earlier during the last few days but Deb deasi said she used to

[58:47] just go to the barracks and just show up and introduce herself so I think that's

[58:51] maybe what I I need to do is just to go over and say hi you know small But

[58:57] Mighty keep in touch that's it all

[59:02] right uh planning Shannon yeah so we have a u just a bit of an update on the

[59:08] uh pathway that uh Bill and Matt are going to walk uh with pico um along the

[59:16] path to talk about timing and the trees and and their projects there because

[59:20] it's a pretty big um part of the timing for the rest of the path Construction

[59:26] uh there are ongoing talks with the neighbors along the path and about their

[59:31] concerns and about adjustments to be made to the plans um so that's

[59:37] progressing bill you have a couple of things that we need to approve for

[59:41] advancement with mattman right so uh there are subdivision plans and some

[59:48] conservation easements Construction Construction

[59:51] easements so we need Bureau Council to approve the preparation of subdivision

[59:58] plans for the SE Cedars they're going to give us a small amount of land that uh

[1:00:04] the Boy Scouts actually built the trail on they don't want to own that property

[1:00:08] because it's a liability for them it's a relatively small amount of land but we

[1:00:12] have to do a subdivision uh plan for conveyance of that little bit to the

[1:00:17] burough Rose Valley and the uh we've talked to the Thomases they don't want

[1:00:22] to own the burrow right of way it's going to have this is path on it that's

[1:00:27] a liability the rest of it is pend Road that's a

[1:00:31] liability um so we're going to do a another subdivision plan for the

[1:00:35] conveyance of the burough right of way to the burough Rose Valley and uh the

[1:00:41] burough engineer usually does those things we

[1:00:44] need approval from Council to have those subdivision plans done you want to do

[1:00:48] that first yeah so is there a motion to approve Matt hootman to prepare those

[1:00:53] subdivision plans is there a

[1:00:58] second too slow I sure

[1:01:05] Call

[1:01:09] It Whatever the plan is be made the plan is for it to be Madam so wouldn't it be

[1:01:17] a that would be would it just be like more simple to call a sidewalk instead

[1:01:21] of like telling everybody it's a right when we go out for bid you know we

[1:01:28] go out to get grants the grants we have gotten are Greenways grants and they

[1:01:33] want it to be called a trail so our plans show say it's a trail a grand

[1:01:37] application said it was a trail we've called it a a walking path and U yeah

[1:01:46] just quick question would the bu be responsible for grass cutting or shy

[1:01:53] maintenance or whatever associated with

[1:01:59] well the cedar property is doesn't have any grass it's all um English ivy and

[1:02:06] pakistaner and and its path so Cedars know the Thomases it's basically going

[1:02:11] to be the road a little and it's across the street from

[1:02:16] Pew Park if there is grass the people who across who cut Pew Park we

[1:02:21] just go across the street and maybe cut the little um dividing

[1:02:26] area of grass between the edge of Rose Valley Road and The Madam Trail and

[1:02:33] that's about it's not very but but just to be clear if the burrow owns it no one

[1:02:39] else is going to it it's going to be us it's going to be us okay so the answer

[1:02:44] to the question was yes yes we wanted to shovel

[1:02:51] that we would do it these two properties are easy because they'll be on burough

[1:02:57] property Pew Park is a real burough property so we approve the sub Mission

[1:03:04] no so it's motion been made and seconded any other comments or questions all in

[1:03:10] favor I you oppos carries 7 Z koser

[1:03:18] okay I just wondered um is so pend is Pico coming what about P do they know

[1:03:27] about this well pic's coming on on February 24th Matt Paul and I are going

[1:03:33] to walk with them and they're going to talk about which trees they plan to take

[1:03:36] down but this is also because they're putting big poles down out they have new

[1:03:44] wires they have new wires that they want to and so they're coming to walk the

[1:03:51] road because we want to see where these are going to

[1:03:56] and and what trees are going to

[1:04:02] be do it's a very good question and we've been advised all along try if you

[1:04:10] can possibly do it stay out of the pen do right away because once you get

[1:04:14] involved with pend do it's a whole another kettle of fish they used to

[1:04:19] be we've heard stories where we would go to a meeting with pendot and they would

[1:04:23] show up with 24 engineers and technicians

[1:04:27] and we've been told by our consultant that it's gotten better pend out has

[1:04:31] realized that pass are a good thing and they need to get with the program but

[1:04:35] fortunately for us on the advice of Matt we are staying out of the pend dot right

[1:04:39] away so no

[1:04:44] problem Rob is is there a map of the trail yes publicly available right and I

[1:04:53] have a copy right back here and only goes from Woodard Road to Buttonwood

[1:04:58] Way that that we got funding for but I can show you active meeting we

[1:05:04] have the

[1:05:09] Teresa from question pend does not know about the

[1:05:16] proposed well pendot knows about it but they don't need to review

[1:05:19] it we're not because we're not in their right

[1:05:23] right so can I is what you just Ved on what is

[1:05:30] the people to Comm the assessments that are how much is hootman subdivision plan

[1:05:38] going to cost is that the question well you know that you're having you

[1:05:44] know it's totally

[1:05:49] unrelated to Cedar and to Thomases and the purchasing that what is the we're

[1:05:56] we're not purchasing it they're giving they're donating those Parcels the cost

[1:06:00] to us will be the engineer preparing the subdivision plan what does that

[1:06:08] c less than a th bucks I mean I don't know what he's going to really charge it

[1:06:13] probably less than 500 because we've already prepared the plans for the trail

[1:06:17] he's just taking off simplifying it down to bound many

[1:06:25] mat Matt

[1:06:31] hoopman no no but the first one was 20,000 no the consultant that we hired

[1:06:37] that we had grant funding for I think Bill Thomas was a total of 20,000 I

[1:06:42] don't know what we've spent on hootman I'd say a hopman's 12,000 or something I

[1:06:47] don't

[1:06:53] know us the burrow the county reviews it gives us

[1:06:58] advice but our Planning Commission will look at it and advise buau Council and

[1:07:04] then bur Council renders a

[1:07:10] decision okay the next items uh did we vote we did we did so the next items are

[1:07:18] conserv no construction easements temporary construction easements to make

[1:07:23] it safer and and easier for us to do the work instead of working from Rose Valley

[1:07:29] Road Cedars and the Thomases are agreeing to let us work from their house

[1:07:35] side of the property and uh The Cedars are letting us come in and we have take

[1:07:40] down some trees regrade the hillside um so they're going to give us

[1:07:46] a temporary construction easement and

[1:07:52] um it enables us to work in the path that's in the adjacent

[1:07:56] rideways or the adjacent Pew Park property and um regrade install

[1:08:03] Landscaping so there's a construction easement for the Cedars and also for the

[1:08:08] Thomases the Thomases are going to give us a construction easement for the 15

[1:08:13] ft towards the house from the uh burrow RightWay to do to help with construction

[1:08:21] and regrade andant the Hedge and they want a hedge they want uh

[1:08:26] replacement hedge planted and some uh trees replacement trees so we're uh

[1:08:33] we've already work with gy Smith to prepare the uh construction easements

[1:08:39] which are pretty straightforward but we need approval to enter in an agreement

[1:08:43] with um the property owners so is there a motion to enter those two temporary

[1:08:50] constructions let's let's get a motion on the floor let's get the motion on the

[1:08:53] floor mve okay is there a second

[1:09:04] second well it depends on how many which trees Pico take you

[1:09:11] down to ask that question differently is the funding for these construction

[1:09:20] easements come from the grants or does the B

[1:09:26] you mean for the preparation whatever mediation work has

[1:09:31] to happen construction there's no cost associated with the Construction Grants

[1:09:37] the easement the construction uh construction easements temporary

[1:09:41] construction eement system no C no C other than preparing them which G Smith

[1:09:46] but if you taken I'm sorry I'm sorry you Tak trees down

[1:09:50] anding those part those cost I just was asking that the gr yes yes lard so I

[1:09:59] have a question so I would expect that the easement

[1:10:06] obligates the burrow to indemnify and protect the landowner from any fer

[1:10:11] damage that occurs if some if if a fire is started

[1:10:17] on the as a result of the work on the easement and it burns down their house

[1:10:22] that's going to be on the bur now that is

[1:10:26] of a remote risk obviously but my point is we we presumably have

[1:10:33] to alert our insurance carrier that this is an expanded scope of

[1:10:39] liability that the burrow is accepting by entering into these easements so I

[1:10:44] would think we need to have this covered under whatever policy we

[1:10:49] have I will just say that we've done this many times the latest being time W

[1:10:56] drive for a construction easement from alessie to fix up the

[1:11:00] embankment we're also not the ones doing the work it's going to be contractors

[1:11:03] and it'll be contractors that carry the insurance so long right so long as

[1:11:07] somebody has the cover insured we increase tell our insurer because it's

[1:11:14] kind of Elsewhere well I it depends if if the if the contract if the

[1:11:19] construction company has the coverage and covers the burrow that's fine I just

[1:11:23] wanted to have that clarified I I think to the extent that our

[1:11:29] insurance is implicated most uh general liability policies include coverage for

[1:11:36] things like Indemnity that you take on under contract so you don't have to

[1:11:40] specifically notify the insurance company I just wanted to make sure I'm

[1:11:43] just I'm I'm I'm just explaining so let me explain you're telling me that that I

[1:11:49] know that's typically the case I wanted to

[1:11:52] verify when we put this out to bid one of the requirements for the biders will

[1:11:57] be that they carry the appropriate insurance and naming the burrow as an

[1:12:01] additional Insurance correct okay Rich what's the construction for thearer said

[1:12:07] for Thomas 15 what's it for the cedar property well it's about it it goes up

[1:12:15] their driveway about uh 75 feet into their property whole driveway now we're

[1:12:22] going to repave the first like 80 feet of their driveway

[1:12:25] the driveway being done so their EAS going all the way up their driveway to

[1:12:29] almost their house no not almost their house it's going up 80 ft that's not

[1:12:33] even close to their house and it's also 70 ft wide towards the Thomas' property

[1:12:39] so it's actually a very good space for for the construction people to work in

[1:12:44] you know they can lay down equipment they can bring in cranes if they need to

[1:12:48] or um things to raid the Hillside and it's a very nice work area they're very

[1:12:54] uh I'm very happy they're letting us work

[1:12:59] drive because we're going to tear that driveway up that's the whole understand

[1:13:04] yeah okay I'm ask an oddball

[1:13:09] question we're going to have a trail I'm I don't the only picture of a

[1:13:15] trail that I have in my head there's there's the one down near uh down toward

[1:13:21] the mill here right outside of the entrance and then the other is near the

[1:13:25] train station those two trails that I'm aware of my question though is in the

[1:13:33] buau creating a trail is there a liability created to the buau for injury

[1:13:42] vehicular or otherwise will these Trails be close

[1:13:47] enough in the line of sight are people going to be able to safely pass one

[1:13:52] another are bicycles going to be Etc is there any liability that's anticipated

[1:13:59] in that

[1:14:04] regard you want to handle that well we we have insurance

[1:14:10] for there's a an act it's called the municipal subdivision tort claims act

[1:14:17] and that act sets forth the limitations on people being able to sue the burrow

[1:14:23] for any topic any issue any

[1:14:28] damage and we have insurance that covers everything within the municipal

[1:14:34] subdivision tort claims act so we're covered for everything everywhere that's

[1:14:40] lawfully brought against us so this Trail won't change any of

[1:14:48] that we're covered it's not going to raise our rates for example or it's just

[1:14:53] not going to change anything okay you understand my concern I mean I

[1:14:58] do you're creating a new a new throughway but people invting people to

[1:15:04] uh travel in a different mode I will be glad to give you a copy of the municipal

[1:15:09] subdivision tort claims act which is many pages of

[1:15:13] garbage but the bottom line to it is it sets forth each and every one of the

[1:15:18] things that people can sue us for and a lot of the stuff that people think they

[1:15:22] can sue you for they can't in addition to that there's a cap on what they can

[1:15:27] recover from us depending on the kind of injury or the damage that was caused so

[1:15:33] we're covered two ways by the act and we're covered by our insurance under the

[1:15:39] ACT did I get that clear sure okay yeah as long as you know the bur oh it's a

[1:15:45] good question everybody these days everybody worries about people being

[1:15:50] sued for the dumbest stuff uh but yes well we're on top of that all the time

[1:15:56] Paula and I talk about it regularly our insurance people talk about it with us

[1:16:01] regularly and counil whenever we have a project that might cause some of these

[1:16:07] things we address that with the insurance companies to make sure that

[1:16:10] we're we're covered so I know we are thank you okay you're welcome Teresa

[1:16:16] just question on that you said we cover I can't hear you oh you're the first

[1:16:21] person that ever told me you can't hear me because my voice carries that's just

[1:16:24] anyway um you said that we were covered can you

[1:16:28] provide Clarity on what amount we're covered up

[1:16:31] to the amount that's not the amount that we can be sued for under the municipal

[1:16:37] Tor claims act right so that's a ceiling insurance for our insurance but the

[1:16:41] insurance covers up to that amount and the law precludes any recovery beyond

[1:16:46] that amount right but what is that amount I think it's

[1:16:49] $500,000 if 500,000 is the maximum anybody can sue us for on under the most

[1:16:55] egregious claims there are other issues at smaller levels with smaller coverages

[1:17:00] but 500,000 is the big one okay and and we're we're covered for that and because

[1:17:07] it might be multiple people involved rather than one person we have insurance

[1:17:12] covering the multiplicity of people so our limit is not 500,000 our limit is

[1:17:19] 500,000 per person but we have insurance coverage in the Millions for that

[1:17:23] wonderful thank you that's so we're we're nowhere near anything

[1:17:29] that would cause that kind of number but but we

[1:17:32] are this is one of Paula's real strong suits here that she pays close attention

[1:17:38] to all of these insurances so we know exactly what's going on thank you that's

[1:17:43] really helpful you're welcome and if anybody has any questions about that

[1:17:48] email me anytime G guysmith aol.com I'll answer any questions about

[1:17:53] insurance I can send you copies of of the acts I can send you copies of our

[1:17:56] insurance Poli anything you want to see you're the people that we B Council

[1:18:03] represents and I work for Council so if you tell me you want something get it to

[1:18:09] council and they'll tell me to get it to you or get it to me I get I have to get

[1:18:13] the president's approval to respond to those things so when we get an email

[1:18:17] saying guy do this I get a hold of Matt say Matt people want me to do this Matt

[1:18:21] says go ahead and do it I get back to you that's really than any any time okay

[1:18:27] so the motion's been made and seconded all in

[1:18:31] favor I any oppose that carries 70 so is that it for

[1:18:38] planning so okay thank you that takes us to finances status of funds report is in

[1:18:44] your packet the treasurer reconciled the Five bank

[1:18:51] accounts as at the end of January balance

[1:18:56] a large dispersement out of improvement fund which just taken

[1:19:01] our balance and all accounts down to 283,000

[1:19:06] the uh income report is in your packet very small amount for this

[1:19:15] january8 to speak large assume the tax revenues are

[1:19:21] just starting to come in right right

[1:19:27] Bill bills for approval they come from two

[1:19:52] FES not this

[1:19:58] we actually before I go further the checks get

[1:20:04] Beed not sign so what we're trying to do is get

[1:20:09] approval

[1:20:12] tonight okay so what what were the what's the

[1:20:19] $130,000 road Improvement fund dispersement

[1:20:24] that's from last year's uh road work to Innovative construction they did for tax

[1:20:31] purposes they wanted to put their incoming this year so they held on of

[1:20:34] the check for like four months so we approved dispersing it months ago

[1:20:39] they're just finally okay

[1:20:47] a so we'll we'll have to keep an eye on the spend out of that fund as it's

[1:20:53] measured

[1:21:02] the second batch goes for approval from the

[1:21:07] general fund so the bigger ticket items were

[1:21:12] quarterly payment library and also a payment to arit for

[1:21:20] Building Services

[1:21:33] and otherwise the rest of the ills

[1:21:43] are okay is there a motion to approve the bills for February of

[1:21:50] 2025 is there a second Leonard you got it

[1:21:56] any comments or questions on the bills I just have one just to understand on the

[1:22:02] um the bills for approval for the salting M it seems like you know when

[1:22:07] there's one date it's you know like about $1,000

[1:22:12] 1,300 so for removal on 116 2527 but then for two dates it was the

[1:22:19] first uh item in the list is

[1:22:25] 7450 it's probably plowing in addition to salting thank you okay so the other

[1:22:31] ones were just Sal probably salting days all would you say that's true all right

[1:22:38] okay okay all in favor of approving the bills any opposed that carries

[1:22:46] 70 uh we dealt with the Rose Valley po Comm using tax earlier so that takes us

[1:22:51] to manager's report I have

[1:22:57] mayor's report I also have nothing to report on you're losing the brevity

[1:23:02] battles here takes us to solicitors report we

[1:23:06] dealt with the SRV issues earlier but is there an update on the fence ordinance

[1:23:12] um I've received nothing from anybody about anything on the fence ordinance

[1:23:17] except the mayor stopped by my office earlier and we had a talk about whether

[1:23:22] or not we should have penalty provisions and where they should be and um section

[1:23:27] 3231 of the state code says that we really should if there's going to be a

[1:23:31] penalty for whatever we should have a penalty provision in the ordinance which

[1:23:34] I don't have so I feel like we should if if we're going to do that we need to put

[1:23:39] put a penalty provision in there covering the amounts s by the our other

[1:23:43] ordinances which I will do but the question is now what does council want

[1:23:49] to do with the fence ordinance I I thought where we left it there were

[1:23:53] Provisions that you were taking out but you were going to add the deer fencing

[1:23:57] part out and I don't think we've seen a draft with the deer

[1:24:01] fencing I thought I sent that if I didn't I'll send it I didn't see it then

[1:24:06] I have to send it okay I I okay I'm positive in my own false

[1:24:13] little way that I did that but I didn't apparently so I will do it so we'll

[1:24:17] carry that over next yes and I I'll get it out and I'll get the U penalty

[1:24:21] revisions in there okay all right so that brings us to the end

[1:24:26] of the agenda is there a motion to adjourn lard question oh sorry go I

[1:24:31] would like to hear what the solicit report is on SRV kind of alluded to

[1:24:36] earlier I didn't get I'm sorry the uh School in Rose Valley uh they they're

[1:24:43] parking cars on the lot at 15 School Lane and we talked about waiting until

[1:24:50] they have their meeting with the public on the 17th 18 on the 17th 18 18th to

[1:24:58] see what they're going to do about that and see if they reach a consensus with

[1:25:02] the neighbors the position of burough

[1:25:06] Council informally is that Council if there's no further agreement with

[1:25:12] anybody in the neighborhood if there's still objection to it that Council will

[1:25:17] get in touch with the school and deal with it directly with them in terms of

[1:25:20] how Council believes they should or should not be parking there the second

[1:25:24] one which is the acquisition of two roiling Tru they they already did

[1:25:29] acquire that and that has a house on it and they intend to rent that out which

[1:25:33] they are entitled to do and so the question there is only one of whether or

[1:25:38] not that will remain a tax ratable or whether it will be an

[1:25:43] exempt property because they're an exempt school um we've taken a position

[1:25:49] on that in our discussions that it's if they rent it out not use it for school

[1:25:53] purposes still a tax rable um I have agreed that I will get in touch with the

[1:25:59] Delaware County Board of assessment and make sure that if there's any possible

[1:26:03] change to that they will notify us before the change is granted so we would

[1:26:06] have an opportunity to object or or participate in the

[1:26:10] decision thank you back to 15 School Lane okay is it the bur's assessment

[1:26:18] that that is a nonconforming use of that lot for residential lot it's a it's a

[1:26:26] it's um violation they parking cars on their parking cars on property zoned

[1:26:31] single family residential correct parking cars on a single family

[1:26:36] residential use is an accessory to the residential use which is the primary use

[1:26:42] if there's no residence then the question is can they have an accessory

[1:26:46] use without having the primary use my belief

[1:26:50] is although we don't have it directly addressed in our ordinance either

[1:26:54] prohibiting it or approving it if there's no primary use as a single

[1:26:59] family residence there's because there is no residence then you can only have

[1:27:03] accessory uses subject to the fact that you have the primary use so that

[1:27:08] suggests to me that this use would be improper under uh the the code because

[1:27:18] there is no primary use there's no residence on that property it's been

[1:27:21] torn down so there's nothing but a vacant lot with cars parked on it

[1:27:26] there's no um there's no coverage issue and we have perious and impervious

[1:27:33] Provisions that say you can only have a certain amount of impervious cover on

[1:27:36] your lot that's not the question most of it is gravel or grass so that's not a

[1:27:42] question the only question is can they use the accessory use without having the

[1:27:45] primary use uh that's in my opinion necessary to allow them to have the

[1:27:51] accessory use so we're going to wait and see what happens at the meeting with the

[1:27:56] with the people in the surrounding properties if they reach some sort of a

[1:28:02] satisfactory consensus with everybody we stay out of it if they don't then

[1:28:08] Council will direct me as to how they want me to proceed the the councel and

[1:28:12] the

[1:28:15] mayor Kell number two did that ever come up

[1:28:20] for sale no how even like know that it was so what they

[1:28:27] told us is that the they have contacts with that owner that owner sort of a

[1:28:33] member of the school Community their kids went there or something and they

[1:28:36] reached out to the school to say we're going to put this on the market are you

[1:28:41] interested in it and so they came to agreement before it was ever listed with

[1:28:44] a realtor so the bur would never I hope allow that c to be torn down and then

[1:28:51] there be like

[1:28:55] so the it's

[1:28:59] not so royland royland coft is not a dedicated street so they would not be

[1:29:06] able to do that is the advice that we've been

[1:29:09] given because that was my primary concern one of my primary concerns as

[1:29:13] well sure are there are a number of properties

[1:29:20] that get sold without ever going on the public um domain you don't see them in

[1:29:25] ads or whatever a lot of Private Sales take place the way we find out about

[1:29:30] those sales is we get our share of the uh transfer tax so we know the property

[1:29:34] was sold because we get money out of it right that's how we know yeah I was

[1:29:44] just more and more of them are being sold sort of Word of Mouth privately um

[1:29:51] property prices are are are way up all around here and so always okay but the

[1:29:59] but the people know that if they get in touch with certain people privately and

[1:30:02] give them an opportunity they get their own little bidding work going on the

[1:30:05] inside and they make money sove on the real

[1:30:17] rights longterm plans in development for property no

[1:30:27] correct why they just Reserve survey both

[1:30:32] properties I'm sorry if you're buying a house to uh set up as a rental

[1:30:39] property why would you need the I have no idea they are could they seek

[1:30:45] resoning they could and they came asking at one point to rezone 15 School Lane

[1:30:51] and we told them we're not doing that because it was only they need two at

[1:30:55] least and that's what two Roy makes it well they could do a they could do a

[1:31:01] reverse subdivis and take even 15 School Lane and take it in with the other rest

[1:31:06] of the school property it doesn't change the zoning on 15 School Lane though well

[1:31:11] even what it doesn't change the zoning the zoning is partial by partial

[1:31:16] throughout the burough so just because they create that you know if they were

[1:31:20] to merge that lot back in it doesn't change our zoning map

[1:31:24] it's still going to be Zone single

[1:31:31] not what enforcement mechanisms do does the bur have I'm sorry for the parking

[1:31:37] on 15 school so the bureau can send them um

[1:31:43] you know a zoning violation we can site them for being in violation of our

[1:31:47] zoning ordinance what does that mean is that a fine a fine he goes in front of

[1:31:53] the district magistrate uh and that the magistrate deals with the decision of

[1:32:00] what the penalty would be for the

[1:32:04] violation which might be I'm going to just say maybe $500 a

[1:32:09] day but for every day there's a violation it continues so but it's a

[1:32:13] it's a pain in the neck process so you know our hope is that it gets resolved

[1:32:18] amicably but if not then the buau will need to decide what action to take we we

[1:32:25] could write them a letter we could contact them in person we could uh issue

[1:32:29] the citation first not do those things I would think because of the school's um

[1:32:36] importance to the burrow and the Burrow's importance to the school we

[1:32:39] would probably try to get in touch with them in in person and have some kind of

[1:32:42] a face-to-face meeting and go over all of this to give them a chance to uh

[1:32:47] avoid what Matt just referred to is the complicated process of taking this to

[1:32:52] court if you get to court court on this regardless of what the magistrate does

[1:32:57] that takes anywhere from 30 to 75 days to get decided and then all they have to

[1:33:02] do is file a notice of appeal and we're in front of a judge in the Court of

[1:33:06] Common Police they're running about a year before they get the case heard

[1:33:12] about a year so that's a

[1:33:17] mess we prefer not to gets to the building here if you're 500 bucks a day

[1:33:22] though just saying me again you could pay for a lot of

[1:33:27] building repair here at $500 a day as long as that's outstanding but we would

[1:33:33] have to file a citation we would have to file a

[1:33:39] citation every day each day in other words we're paying him to do that if

[1:33:43] there's a violation on Thursday we file the violation if they violate on Friday

[1:33:48] we file it again the viol we so by the time we would get to court on the first

[1:33:52] violation we'd have more running along the trail right

[1:33:56] behind it that's a real pain and and judges

[1:34:02] tend to make their own decisions about how they're going to handle this and

[1:34:05] whether they're going to agree to allow us to get the $500 a day in the

[1:34:10] violation or $200 a day or or wave the fines on the other ones if

[1:34:15] it it is a nightmare and whenever you whenever you go to court what people

[1:34:22] don't realize is it's not asking for what you want that's

[1:34:27] important it's knowing that somebody you don't know is going to make a decision

[1:34:31] you may not like that's important so you you have to present yourself in a way

[1:34:37] that you keep out of the downside risks and the downside

[1:34:41] possibilities first of all and secondly there's an expense to all of this you're

[1:34:45] going to need to bring people in and have them testify and prove that there

[1:34:49] was a violation and sometimes it means we need pictures every day that we need

[1:34:54] somebody to go and take the picture so we can prove our case in court it's not

[1:34:59] a question of me saying well I saw cars there we're going to need proofs and

[1:35:04] that the the the more complicated it gets and the more serious it gets the

[1:35:09] more proofs you're going to need because they're not going to roll over and give

[1:35:12] us $500 a day because they like us they're going to fight

[1:35:16] us so we would prefer to do all of this amicably and get it resolved in a way

[1:35:22] that's satisfactory to all the burrow residents because that's who Council

[1:35:25] represents the people in the burrow if that's not

[1:35:30] possible across that bridge when we get to my my grandfather said it this way

[1:35:34] I'll be as nice as you let me be and I'll be as mean as you make me be you

[1:35:38] pick and that's kind of where we are with things like this and we always I've

[1:35:44] always felt that Council takes the position of trying to be as nice as

[1:35:47] they'll let me be and still solve the problem for the people that Council

[1:35:51] represents and this council is is very good at being uh a true representative

[1:35:58] body there is no secret going on behind the scenes here for anything as I said

[1:36:04] in Prior answers anything you ask of anybody they'll give you you know a

[1:36:09] complete answer including the ones that say we haven't done it yet but you'll

[1:36:13] know where we stand and you know where Council stands you heard Leonard give

[1:36:17] that wonderful explanation about what's going on with the roosters and the

[1:36:20] chickens and things because that's exactly what's going on there's no

[1:36:24] secret to that so everything you ask my job is to provide everything that

[1:36:28] Council lets me provide to the people and and give good answers to these

[1:36:33] things and and study the questions so that I do them real hard and that's

[1:36:37] that's my job did I hear you ask for a motion to

[1:36:41] adjourn I did ask for a motion to adjourn is there Joe second second all

[1:36:48] in favor we areour

[1:36:54] okay we be done

[1:37:00] get I

Rose Valley Borough Council 2/12/25

Transcript