[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