City Council

Thursday, January 8, 2026 7:00 PM Williamsport, PA Council President Eric Beiter brought the Williamsport City Council meeting to order on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM.at Trade & Transit Center II, 144 W. Third St, Williamsport, PA. This meeting was duly advertised in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. Council members present: Also, Present: Eric Beiter, Council President Derek Slaughter, Mayor, absent Mr. Willia Vincent Pulizzi, Vice President Valerie Fessler Liz Miele, Councilwoman Sam Aungst, Fire Chief, Adam W Jonah Milliken, Councilman, Justin Snyder, Police Chief, absent Adam Yoder, Councilman Solicitor Austin White Jon Mackey, Councilman, Janice Frank, City Clerk Bonnie Katz, Councilwoman Jamie Livermore Absent: Scott Livermore, S&P Jon Mackey Kris Black Liz Miele Bill Scott Members of the public Approval of the Williamsport City Council minutes of 12/4/25, 12/11/25 & 1/5/26 approved upon a motion by Mr. Pulizzi and second from Mr. Milliken. All were in favor with a vote of 5 to 0. Limited Courtesy of the Floor There were none. Mr. Joseph Pawlak Resolution #9990 . Resolution to Honor Chief Mr. Sam Aungst Joe Pawlak The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Gary Knarr Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second Mr. Tom Cillo C. Dean Dave Young, Police Chief Chief He Mr. Milliken made a motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Sol. J. David Smith Mr. Beiter: And we are going to jump down to item number nine andJanice this is a City Frank, very and Clerk, one for us. I know this is absent something that we talk about a little bit at the end of last year when Todd we had ourFire Heckman, final Council meeting for the year, but it Chief , is important that we do this at the city level, because this individual is very important to us. So, this is a resolution News Media honoring chief Sam Aungst. Motion? M. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mr. Beiter: How many more days do you have left? Four? I cannot believe you're counting down! I do want to read this into the record, because this is something that is very deserved and so whereas Sam Aungst has served with Members of News Media distinction with the Williamsport purifier since March extent, 1992 through Members of January of 2026 and where Sam Aungst has the news media provided invaluable leadership to the Williamsport city firefighters as a firefighter, journeyman, conventional engineer, fire engineer, fire inspector, platoon chief, active deputy fire chief and then in 2022, Fire Chief. He has been in the debarment for over 27 years whereas chief Sam Aungst will be remembered for his efforts and dedication to all aspects of the city, particularly matters pertaining to the infrastructure of the city of Williamsport and through his service leadership on numerous roles within the city of Williamsport whereas chief Sam Aungst has served with the best interest and welfare of the citizens of the city of Williamsport as his goal and whereas as a result of the services of chief Sam Aungst the city of Williamsport, a city with a proud past is left with a more promising future. Now, therefore, at our meeting, assembled this day, this eighth day of January, 2026, Williamsport city Council does hereby acknowledge and express on behalf of the citizens of the city of Williamsport our deepest appreciation and gratitude for his substantial contributions to our community. Both as a citizen and as a city firefighter and chief. And our best wishes for his future endeavors. Chief, thank you very much for everything you're done for the city. We greatly appreciate it and hopefully the folks that are meant to pick up the slack in your absence or up to the task. Thank you very much. I will open the floor to any other members of Council. Mr. Milliken: I just want to say as the new guy up here I aspire to your level of service and commitment to the city and I appreciate everything you have done. So, thank you. Mrs. Katz : Chief, I just want to say thank you for everything you have done, you've been such a good friend and I want to miss you and maybe we'll see you at the retiree dinner which I hope we do and I am looking forward to seeing what the next part of your journey will be, because you have put a lot of effort into what you've done so far and I can imagine that you'll be doing fun things at this point, also. So, thank you and please do not be a stranger. We will talk to you all later, chief! Mr. Pulizzi I: Chief, Sam - thank you for everything you have done. The service and dedication to the city, obviously the words that we say tonight, they are never going to be enough to express the gratitude and leadership that you have put forth. Everything from the phone calls that we have had trying to figure out issues with the city and talks about potentially regional lysing the fire department and just a better and brighter future. I will miss having you around. And I just hope that whoever picks up your position and carries on the legacy of that level of service is as qualified and able to grow such an amazing mustache as well.) So, I wish you all the best in the next chapter of your life. Thank you. The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent. Mr. Beiter: Yes. Motion passes five and zero. Again, well-deserved, chief, thank you. We will jump back up to item number five and will have a presentation and award from the Pennsylvania autobahn Council.  Presentation & Award from Pennsylvania Audubon Council Scott Good evening, counsel. I am great and I am extremely excited about this next item. And so just about a year ago, counsel passed a resolution stating that the city would seek to get designation as a Audubon bird town and my department has been working for the past year on meeting those requirements to get that designation. So, there is a big application that has to be filled out and we also needed to create a bird town advisory committee. So, I will now invite (NAME) who is our committee chair to say a few words. Heidi: Thank you, Scott. And thank you to counsel for bracing bird town could much appreciated. I want to introduce the members of the committee to start. Sitting back here with me is Jim Green in the back, he is one of a bird town committee member. He is a master - he is an expert at native plants and gardening. Linda Shram, very active in the community and I'm sure many of you know her and Jenny Piciano and I don't think she made it tonight, she is that she planner for the county and they comprise our committee. Ted Lloyd is here, the vice president of Lycoming Audubon and I happen to be the president at the moment and in a minute, I will introduce you to Heidi Shiver. We are committed to doing everything that we can to make bird town an asset for the community that brings a level of togetherness and enthusiasm for the outdoors and our parks that you know we want to enhance. And so towards that end, our chapter has allocated $1000 you know a small amount, but $1000 toward whatever we can do to help this bird town initiative and we will help it move forward from there. I want to introduce Heidi Shiver who is the director of bird town Pennsylvania and thank her for driving up here from Bucks County. So, thank you very much, counsel. >>HEIDI SHIVER: Thank you, Bruce and Scott and counsel for having me. I'll just take a moment of your time to share a little bit more about the program and let me just get that ready for you. Here it is. Is everyone able to see that? Is it possible to turn on the lights down a little bit so everybody can see better? I guess you can see it on the screens. Okay, let me get started. So, I like to start with our mission. Bird Town Pennsylvania works in partnership with local minister Palace and like-minded organizations to promote community-based conservation actions to create a healthier, more stable and farmer for birds, wildlife and people. We have been actively engaged for 14 years now with no 97 programs across 16 counties paid we are under the umbrella of the Pennsylvania Audubon counsel and partnering with various conservation groups including we can serve Pennsylvania as well as the state of natural lands and other Audubon chapters like Lycoming and also the bird city network. Our department is very much expanding when I took the program over we are 34 programs and now we are up to 97. That includes three cities and so Harrisburg, Houston and now Williamsport and we are very excited about that. And we are also part of the bird city network and that includes 275 communities across 13 states and four countries. So, there is bird towns and bird cities struggled all over the US. This program is supported by the American Bird Conservancy and the environment for Americas. This program unites and connected up in a bird cities and towns through the atmosphere of working together with local communities to envision and complete bird friendly actions. We are one of the founding members of the network and now the largest program in the network. A little bit about PA Audubon counsel. There are 21 chapters and we serve the chapters and advocate for conservation and preservation of birds and wildlife and also to share resources and ideas about how to collaborate to address conservation issues. We are under the corporate umbrella and they are a 501(c)(3) and we are working with their network to establish bird towns across Pennsylvania. A little bit more about Lycoming Audubon, this is your local chapter like Bruce mentioned and they are a member of the national Audubon society and they are also a 501(c)(3) peer they hold monthly chapter meetings at the Tabor Museum which is open to the public and the provide numerous burning events and programming such as field trips on the Susquehanna River walk and tabling events at festivals like the Juneteenth and kids day at the sensory garden. They provide educational programming for students and Williamsport and other school district and participate in many citizen science program such as the great backyard bird count them up Christmas bird count for students and Williamsport and other school districts. They also have an amazing program called advocate for conservation. That includes bird friendly blooms which is a demonstration product out the ways a garden to enhance habitat also participate in PADOT … Highway cleanup program and a lot more. So, I really encourage you to get involved with Audubon and again thank you to Bruce and the chapter forgiving $1000 towards this initiative. So, I just want to explain a little bit more about why we are interested in birds. So, why protect bird publishers? So, there is six good reasons, one is pest-control. They help keep our insect populations down as appropriate when we are dealing especially with harvest and so on. They also very important for seed dispersal, Blue Jays surprisingly, they store a lot of nuts and they remember most of weather but them, but they also regenerate the forced and important for re-pollination and scavengers helping keep carcasses down and they also lay down biodiversity support. They also bring us joy and beauty appeared I always like to mention you know I'm literally impressed with the little red not, that is a shorebird and they actually travel 20,000 miles a year all the way from the Arctic Circle all the way down to South America and back again. It is the size of a Robin. That is so impressive to me. They are also everywhere appeared 100 Billy birdwatchers are in the US now they are spending $108 billion. But, birds are also very important to let us know if the environment is healthy. Birds are sensitive to toxins and pollutants and can serve as an early warning sign that something is wrong in the environment. And so there is an issue if bird populations are declining. According to breeding bird service, population subject line from 30 to 77% since 1970 and the numbers are still falling according to the re-support last year, the 2025 stay of the birds report. So, the little red not that I mentioned, the population is down by over 90%. So, this is the reporter. The key findings are showing that one third of US bird populations and species are high or in moderate conservation concern including 112 tipping point species that their population is down by more than 50% and that includes the evening grow and their populations are really down. What are these causes for bird decline? Warners loss of habitat. That is a big one peer just thinking about loss of habitat you think about 40 million acres of lawns across the US with 2 million here in Pennsylvania and lawns provide no eco-services for birds and there is no place for them to hide or to eat and there is no water or food. So, that is a big issue. Cats. Cats are another big issue, 2.4 billion birds per year are killed by cats every appeared window collisions, that can be very confusing for birds and over 1 billion birds per year are killed by window collisions and pesticides are huge issue on landscapes, climate change and invasive species and also plastics. So, what we do to address these issues is engagement, education, encouragement, support, inspiration and then promoting awareness about these issues. These are some of the different activities that a bird town can choose to do and if this is up to the municipality to decide what you want to do to address these different issues, but it can include holding a native pop-up garden, installing a native plant garden, developing and passing proper missions, resolutions and ordinances to address things like invasive, native plants and pesticides and supporting and running citizen science programs and reducing bird window strikes and pesticide use and so on. So, what we provide for your municipality is statewide structured program with goals. Concrete resources and achievable actions, framework for community networking with other bird towns and conservation partners, free training and workshops for your bird town leaders and more opportunities and success in obtaining funding. I am still figures crossed I applied for a CTP to grant through DCN are close to $70,000 and hoping to her by next week and so fingers crossed we will do that and if we do get that we will be offering $31,000 mini grants for the Bird Town. We also have an amazing website, this has a two-minute amount of resources available to your residents and homeowners and lots of conservation partners and programs and there is a special Backpage that is only accessible by the Bird Town committee and is provides contactless, workshop and meeting recordings and supplemental materials and a sample for proper missions, resolutions and ordinances. We also have a number of touch points with her bird town, we were bird town flyer this is our bimonthly newsletter for exam and this is to inspire in a former residence at what they can be doing to support birds and then finally Arbor town form, this is the private Facebook page with about 280 members and this is a place where Bird Town leaders can share material. And we are shifting a little bit and we are integrating more fully with bird city network this year and our current strategy is going to be moving to the ones on the right and our focus now will be not so much whether work is being done, but what is needed to be done. And so the first two creating and protecting habitat addressing threats to birds and these are threads that we already had within our goals and activities worksheet that will be focusing on these now more as strategies including educating and engaging people and promoting sustainability. So, he discovered reshuffling all of the suggested activities under new strategy headings. This will be our four tier program and this is still a draft and we are still working on this but these are the different certification levels and currently the green level you have a year to move up to bronze, silver and gold. You can use these different requirements to move up to these different places. And these reports are due every year on General 31st and obviously will not be for you this you because it is right around the corner, but we really feel like annual reports are important to provide accountability and transparency. Last year we had over 29,000 volunteer hours for Arbor town leaders. This is our new strategies, goals and activities worksheet. It is numbered and color coded. And finally this is a welcome packet that I went through with your committee of all of the different perks that you get by being a new Bird Town. So, Williamsport, the city of Williamsport, congratulations on being a new Bird Town and we are here to support you anyway we need and a nice round of applause. Congratulations. Again, thank you to counsel and I would like to present you a certificate, as well as a photo if that would be okay. Mr. Beiter: Absolutely. Heidi Shiver: Okay, great. I should've opened with that, do you have any questions for me about the program? Mr. Beiter: The question I have for you is personally and so if you are involved at this level yet to have a bird that you would absolutely love to see in real life. So, what is Leopard for you? Heidi, That is a tough and because I usually say it is the burden frenemy. That is a good thing to say, but actually an evening grow, they are supposed to have an eruption this year and I'm waiting and hoping that my birdfeeder I will see one. I'm really hoping for one. How about you? Mr. Beiter Myself, I am really happy to see the explosion of the bald eagle population here in Lycoming County, specifically. I remember being a kid growing up and they were nonexistent and now we have quite a few and I would not even venture to guess how many, but there is not a day that goes by that I'm not driving around and it is commonplace now and my kids really have no idea the impression and you see them on the side of the road when you're driving sometimes and so on so it is really neat to see that that has made a comeback as a desperate. Heidi, : I am glad for the bald eagle population. Do you have a nickel and eagles that come through here? Mr. Beiter: We have. A couple years ago we had some Peregrine Falcons nesting on the bridge. We have had a lot of activity and obviously the Rose Valley Lake, there is a huge habitat and there are several ospreys out there, as will appear. : That has exhausted my bird knowledge. 325 anybody else having more questions before I head out? Yes, go ahead. Heidi, : There is a lot of different ways, it depends on the building and where it is located and if it is a home window, a lot of closures take place at home and we always think that it is like skyscrapers and so on but a lot of collisions happen in our homes and so by keeping a screen on the outside of the window and keeping her curtains down and keeping her lights down low at night, especially during migration and anywhere from April to the end of October you really want your lights down by 9 o'clock. That is usually when they take off and they are traveling if they see a light on, they'll be drawn back down and down to where your house is and into your neighborhood and the morning is the real problem when they left off and they are not in a safe space and then they'll hit the window. So, you really will take about lights down so they can continue on and a lot of birds migrate at night especially the songbirds. Another thing is to put little docs and so you can purchase materials it that should be 2" x 2" and birds like to dart through small spaces and some people are like you know that will cost me money and I use soap and you can use just a bar of soap and just to got on your window that way. It works really well and I have been doing and it is very effective. Thank you for the question. And congratulations. Anything else? Thank you so much for having me tonight, it was a pleasure meeting you all and I appreciate your support pure thank you. Reappointment Veterans Memorial Park John Markley is reappointed to the Commission for a 5 year term commencing 1/1/26 & ending 01/1/31 Mayor RVTA Board Max Moore is reappointed to a 4 year term commencing 01/08/26 & ending 01/01/30. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. Mayor said: Congratulations President Beiter and Vice President Pulizzi on the new appointment pure good evening to the rest of the Council and administration paid what you have before you as was noted are two reappointments, John Markley who has been a long-standing member of our veterans Park and has done a tremendous job up there and we have talked a lot about that in the past and if you have not been there recently, there is always new things going on in the park and we appreciate John and the continued work there and so he is up for reappointment and then Max Moore, he has done a great job with his first term on the Board and talking with the folks up there. They were happy and they were happy that Max is looking to do another term on the board. Those other two reappointments before this evening and I will turn it back over to you, President Beiter. Mr. Beiter : Thank you very much Mr. Slaughter. Any other reappointments on the agenda for this evening? Mr. Yoder: If I may, to my comments, first, nothing John is here, but he does a lot for the Veternans Memorial Park group and has for a number of years. A very good group there and I'm excited to still see him there and if you have not been over there, please go, it is immaculate and fantastic and one of the best in the state and I see some heads nodding and so John, I'm really grateful that you are still there and then with the RVTA Board, you know I don't know Mac a lot or personally and you know I have heard good things about him. And I think for the group moving forward I think it could be wise for future aye one appointments that we do a little bit of an interview process there and even if they are reappointment, that is a new authority and I do think given the intricacies that we have been dealing with over the past number of years, it would be a valuable conduit and exchange of information and dialogue to understand kind of what is going on with forward thinking things from a Board perspective. That is hard to do in this timing with reorganization and committees and stuff. But, both of these are good in my view. Mr. Beiter : Excellent. Seeing and hearing nothing else, Mrs. Frank? The appointment was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The voted was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent. Resolution # 9991 Resolution Approving an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement & MOU by and Among the RDA & the Williamsp0ort The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second M. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Yoder Mayor Yes, good evening again. And before you this evening is a MOU between the RDA city County and school district and the land bank has been working through and one of the properties you know this MOU and I apologize, is solicitor Grimes with us this evening? : Okay, anyway, this is between them and one of the main things that this MOU does is allow the RDA land bank to capture some of the tax revenue that is generated on the property that is now coming back onto the tax rules up to five years and real estate taxes. From the county, city and school district. And so that is one of the main things that is a part of that. And so yes, that is a part of the main part of it. I will turn it back over to you, President Beiter. Mr. Beiter: Thank you very much, Mayor. Do we have any questions from members of Council? Mr. Yoder: Skip, if you don't mind me asking, outside of and in general how are we looking over the next few years in terms of dispersing and getting through that funding that we have allocated to you? I know that there was pretty substantial - and so what do the next couple of years look like at the RDA? Mr. Memmi: We are moving forward and we have completed - we are in the midst of completing the third project that should be done in the next 30 days. We have three more properties that are working through the litigation and they should be acquired by the land bank within the next 30 days and then we have five more properties that we are evaluating and hope to acquire before the end of the year. So far, we have spent about half of the allocation and we anticipate that by the September timeframe that we should have the majority of the balance spent. And in the recapture of those funds and this intergovernmental cooperation agreement will allow us to make up some of the loss that we are going to encounter as we move these projects forward, because if they were all profit-making projects, we all would be glad to have the private sector take them on, because there is limited to no profit and most often a loss of funds I will give you an example. The Vassar Avenue project past the RDA of proximally 185,000 and we were able to sell it for 165 and so you eliminate the commission and those closing costs and we probably lost $25-$30,000 on the project and that is probably going to be for almost every project that we do. And so there is not a profit gain at all and this recapture of tax dollars for five years at 50% will allow us to offset some of those losses and just to let you know the school district will be looking at it at the meeting on Tuesday evening and the County commissioners will be reviewing it for their vote at Thursday's County commissioners meeting. Mr. Yoder: Are the properties commercial that are in the pipeline? Mr. Memmi: The majority are residential and were looking at one commercial and we are doing a due diligence before we make the commitment into taking it. It has some substantial environmental issues that need to be addressed and so that is something that we have to take into consideration, also. Mr. Beiter: Thank you very much for your hard work on this. Mayor, we appreciate your work on this as well. And hopefully we can see some action on this as the year continues. Mrs. Frank? The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent. Bill# An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Williamsport Placing a Government Study Commission Question on the 2026 Primary Election Ballot & Designating the Number of Members to Serve of Savid Commission (first reading) The City Clerk read the ordinance. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second. Mr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Yoder: Yes. This is getting on the ballot for May and setting the composition of the commission to seven members. And so I think the five of us present and participating in the meeting tonight are pretty well aware of a lot of the dialogue from the last year surrounding the concept of home rule. This is really the big recommendation that is coming from PFM in their financial study that has been going through in the past year. So, this is really good to see. This starts that process to be candid with you. I did not write this. Austin and the legal team wrote this and so in terms of questions related to the actual question being on the ballot, why don't we refer to Austin and I am really excited to see this and I will put out to the public and to the group here that may is coming up quickly and we need people to serve on the commission, because if you read the ordinance, the people that would serve on this commission are on the ballot at the same time and so time is of the essence in that regard. And so I would encourage all of us to reach out to folks and I think you would be wise of us to potentially do some kind of a Townhall info session for interested parties and just the public in general and it notably, because look, we have gone through this what, eight or nine years ago? It was not successful and speaking frankly I think we are doing this for much different reasons that I think are very good. There is a lot of good things that I hope will come out of this that I am excited about and I think there is a good opportunity to the public more directly through some kind of engagement and so just some food for thought for the group. And that is what this is. I also know and I believe Austin, correct me if I'm wrong, there was some dialogue with the county in terms of initial prep and timing for the ballot and I believe timing what we are seeing here is based on guidance from county elections and if we wait much longer it will be a big challenge and we don't want to put a lot of pressure on our elections team and frankly it will hinder our ability to do this in May, as well. Mr. Beiter: Thank you very much, Councilman Yoder. Anything else that other members would like to add? Go ahead. Mr. Milliken : As a new guy, I'll keep saying that, this is a complicated concept and I have been sitting in the audience for a year now and so anything we can do to better inform the public on what this is and what the process looks like and how people can get involved in the commission, I am all for it and happy to help. Mr. Beiter: We will get this information out to the public in the best way. Mrs. Frank, it is probably going to be a point of contact person as we move forward and we should probably get some handouts together if we can have them available and obviously things on the city's page and whatnot and in the meantime, please reach out if you do have questions and we will get them answered for you as best as we possibly can. Mr. Pulizzi: And if you're interested in serving - : More portly if you have an interest in serving that is what we are looking for and Austin, please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a process where the individual has to go out and obtain signatures just as you would if you are running for a elected office for the city and then you have to be elected for that and I believe it is 100 signatures - I believe. Mr. White: Those questions you know this is one of the reasons why we got this in front of counsel as quickly as we could was because they do need that time and they will be able to answer it and everything you have said sounds correct. Mr. Pulizzi: Whoever volunteered to take on this service, they know exactly where they can come for these four signatures right now! The ordinance was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent. Resolution #9992 Resolution Authorizing an Amendment to the Subrecipient Agreement between the City & Redevelop0ment Authority of the City of Williamsport The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second Mr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mrs. Katz. Ms. Livermore This is a resolution authorizing in a minute to the sub recipient agreement that we actually just talked about with Skip. So, we currently have a agreement for the ARPA funds that we give to the RDA. This amendment just gives us the ability to give the RDA funds upfront to purchase the home. And so currently everything is on a reimbursement basis. And so they do the work, pay the bills, send in the receipt for reimbursement, but for the larger purchases like the actual properties, we spoke with our UHY representative and we spoke with Skip and we had a meeting with some of the Board and it is important that they are able to purchase these properties with this money up front so they don't have to wait longer, because we have a time limit on our money and this just gives them the ability to purchase the property upfront. The expenses that go into the properties will still be reimbursement based, but this is for the actual Purchase. I worked with Nick on this and I worked with UHY and it is all compliant through ARPA and I do believe that it passed through the board. And so next step is you guys. Mr. Beiter : The obvious question I have is we give the money to the RDA, the purchase falsely because somebody else came in or the person that owns the property decides that they are going to fix it up and get her act together, whatever it may be. What is the mechanism to get that money back? Ms. Livermore: I would assume that we write the check for the purpose and so directly to wherever they are paying for the property. Mr. Beiter: Okay. Any other questions? . The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Resolution #9993 Resolution Accepting a Contract Agreement with Civic Plus for Right to Know Software The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second Mr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mrs. Katz. Mr. White: Leaving Council President and Vice President Pulizzi, you have a resolution for an agreement with civic plus which is the right to know software that the city has used for quite some time and I know the software is critical for Janice and her use and to be able to field retinal requests and actually get the responses and extensions and all of the documents out the door. This is for one year and it is for $6032.88. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Mrs. Katz : I do. Austin, you are doing the right to know - who is this going to? Or four? Since Janice has this, is this going to another department? Mr. White: So, this software is what Janice uses to administer the right to know system. So, it is in charge of taking requests and it helps her track them and get the responses out and goes through her email and things like that. So, it is really critical, because there are procedural steps whether it is days or things that need to be set in ways and responses the way they need to be sent down that are really virtually impossible for somebody to do without some sort of software and this is what she uses to accomplish that. Mrs. Katz : That is what I want to clarify with Janice, because I know since she has had this program it has made our life a little bit more comfortable in dealing with the public with this and so thank you. Mr. White: Correct. This is Janice 's software that she uses. The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Resolution #9995 Resolution to Appoint Sewage Enforcement Officer & alternate SEO for City of Williamsport The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second Mr. Yoder made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken . Mr. Scott , this is for appointing a enforcement officer and alternate sewage enforcement officer and every year Pennsylvania of the permanent production requires that the city appoint a SEO and honorary SEO and we did this last year and we are going to appoint the same people and that is Mike McLean and John G was the main SEO. And John works at old Lycoming Township and Mike is at the Hepburn Township and they will be paid a fee of not less than $58 an hour and not more than 60 dollars per hour. Mr. Beiter: And to refresh my memory, this is because of the septic systems that are on city - or within the city limits? Mr. Scott: That is correct and we only have one that I know of which is at Elm Park. Mr. Beiter: And will that be going away with the new bathrooms? Mr. Scott: It stays. And the bathrooms were just installed, by the way. Mr. Beiter: Wonderful. Mr. Scott: This is about the only one we know of. Mr. Beiter : Any questions from numbers of counsel? Mrs. Frank? The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Resolution #9994 Resolution Authorizing the Purchase of 3 Pursuit Rated Police Vehicles & Related Upfit Equipment The City Clerk read the resolution. Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Yoder Mr. Ottaviano: This is for three vehicles from new Holland along with upsetting from emergency services and this is allocated from our police city vehicle budget and for the record the contract number 012 E 2259. This is vehicles replacing older Durango's. Mr. Beiter: You say this is coming out of the regularly scheduled budget for vehicle purchases. Is this anything out of the capital project budget? Mr. Ottaviano: No. And these vehicles are ready to go they just need to be outfitted. And so a month or two months. Mr. Pulizzi: And we will be selling the vehicles? Mr. Ottaviano: Yes, it will allow us to sell those vehicles. Mr. Pulizzi: And they have to go up for auction, correct? Mr. Ottaviano: It gets bedded out, not by indeed - Mr. Beiter: Any other questions from members of counsel regarding the purchase of the vehicles? Mrs. Katz: I have a question. How many miles are on the cars would you say? Just for the heck of it. Mr. Ottaviano: I would say mid 60s. Mrs. Katz: But the wear and tear is unbelievable, right? Mr. Ottaviano: Yes, but they idle and they get used hard and so it is not like a civilian vehicle. Mrs. Katz: And a lot of it is going on the street there, isn't it? Are you using that? The resolution was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Subdivision – Lot Add on City of Williamsport – Veterans Memorial Park Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and second. Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi Mr. Knarr: Good evening. Before I go into the presentation I want to read the letter that we recently received from the Lycoming County planning and community development. They are the ones that review the act 247 reviews of the planning and subdivision and this letter states Lycoming County Department of planning and community development finds itself in a position where we can no longer reliably review the act 247 plans and generate a comment letter with the confines of the review period. And while this is discontinued, we hope to resume in future years. Basically just to give you a background, the Pennsylvania municipal planning code grants Lycoming County the right to review all of the subdivisions so you would normally see a letter and a packet saying that the review comments - it is an additional set of eyes and they review it first and actually the city and stormwater reviews the plans and we require them to send them to County and the county reviews and they have a period of time that they review them and that comes back to planning and the city planning then reviews it and then we bring a before you for your approval. And at this point in time, they are waving that and they will no longer be in that review process. So, we did speak with Austin and we are going to revamp our time. As far as middles -- submittals in the process and does take an extra set of eyes off of this as far as the review, but what we are doing is Scott Williams is going to start to review this, as well and they will provide a set of eyes and it will be myself, Bill Scott and the storm water Authority so that way we can kind of keep their eyes on it as far to make sure that it has got all of the documents and requirements that we need. And so I just wanted to make you aware because normally my presentation would tell you that you have a copy of the planning from County you will no longer see that. Any questions on that? Mr. Yoder: I was making a note for something and so I may have missed this - why are they pulling this back again? Mr. Knarr: My understanding is because of the moving - moving staff around, they just cannot do it in that required timeframe and take a fee to do that. And again, the county has been doing it for us as well as many other municipalities probably for at least 40 or 50 years again and they will be stopping at this time. Mr. Yoder: And they are stopping across-the-board? Mr. Knarr R: Correct. Any questions related to that? Okay, moving on to the subdivision lot add on, the review is the subdivision lot add on and the -- and they will subdivide lot number one containing .1362 acres and it will be added to the city of Williamsport tax parcel 67026 101 point eight. To give you the background, back in 2007, Highfield donated for a dollar and it went through counsel a resolution for them to basically provide us with this parcel of land to expand veterans war Memorial that John Markley and his commission worked on. And so unfortunately it was never followed through and it was never recorded that this is part of our parcel and as John Markley 's continuing efforts to expand, we really need to make sure that is done so they have confinements of the zoning laws and requirements. So, we are bringing this before the Larson design group and they have been working extremely hard on pulling this together and this will merely just be adding that and something that is approved by Council in 2007, but just never brought before and got recorded. We will make sure within the next week providing counsel approves it that will be recorded in OBD that will allow John Markley and the commission to continue their efforts on what they are doing up at the board. The subdivision was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Lot Consolidation Church Street City of Williamsport Mr. Milliken made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Pulizzi. Mr. Knarr This is a lot consolidation and this is hopefully, knock on wood, this is one of the last piece of the puzzle with the separation between RPT and the city of Williamsport. This parcel was located down at the corner of church and market Street and there is currently a bus station and a parking deck that is down there on these parcels. There is four parcels. Parcel 630-0111 containing 7800 ft.² and parcel 63001 110.8 that will contain 18,000 square feet and lot number one containing 8531 ft.² was formally the SR nine 4011 which was abandoned by PennDOT back on November 5 2023 in order to move this project forward. There also is another vacated part of this parcel which is 4855 ft.² dollars vacated by the city of Williamsport in 2009 and then lot three containing 4593 ft.² is vacated by PennDOT, as well on January 13, 2010. This, however was never brought forward and got recorded and so this is merely combining these parcels which will allow them to have a clean deed with a building on one parcel without going over all four. This is the last review that you will get from County. County did provide comments and a vicious merely cut and dry. This is just merely cleaning up some final last stages. Mr. Beiter: Thank you very much for that. It seems like we have got a lot of things just hanging out there. But, you talked about the last bit which is a bit off-topic with RVTA and so where are we with the park subdivision? Mr. Knarr: We are still working with Elm Park to get that done. And the other thing as well is that probably if you're referring to the right a way that is going through their, that will also be going probably next month for a finalization and with that what it will do is provide all of that documentation for that. Mr. Yoder: What is the hold up with Elm Park? Is it is because of the tedious long process? Mr. Knarr: It was already completed and you already voted on that, the only thing was is on the recorded plan, it did not show a legal right away, one of the legal right of ways on there even though it was on there, they just want to make sure that it is done and that is what we are bringing it forward at this time. The subdivision was accepted with five yes roll call votes. The vote was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent Accept for filing Controllers Report 10/25 Mr. Beiter asked for a motion and a second to accept these for filing. Mr. Pulizzi made the motion and it was seconded by Mr. Milliken. The minutes were accepted for filing with five yes roll call votes. The voted was 5 to 0. Mr. Yoder voted yes, Mr. Milliken voted yes, Mrs. Katz voted yes, Mr. Pulizzi voted yes and Mr. Beiter voted yes. Mr. Mackey and Ms. Miele were absent. Announcements The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting will be held on Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 7:00 PM, Trade & Transit II 144 West Third St, 3rf floor, Williamsport, PA. Upcoming Meetings: Thursday, January 15 10:30 AM Zoning Hearing Board Tuesday, January 20 6:30 PM HARB Wednesday, January 21 10:00 AM Blighted Property Thursday, January 22 7:00 PM City Council Meeting Comments: a. Members of the Public Mr. Beiter And I just want to acknowledge the Scouting USA Troop 14 from St. John's United Methodist Church that is here for a Eagle Scout required citizenship in the community merit badge and we do appreciate you being here paired with that being said I will open it up to comments from members of the public. Just come on up to the podium and say your name and address for the record. : Hello, I am Ron Lombardo and I live at 1118 Hepburn Street and in regards to the outgoing chief, I would just like to let you all know on his resume that you read us, I met him through scouting. He was a den leader and he was a cubmaster and hopefully he has not grown up yet. And all of the good things that were said about him and the only thing wrong with him that I can think is that he is a Yankee fan! Thank you, Sam. And thank you for the counsel for having us. Mr. Beiter: Absolutely peered hopefully we did not keep you - hopefully we kept you from falling asleep back there, because I did not see too many phones in faces and so well done on that! With no other comments from members of the public, any comments from numbers of counsel? Mr. Pulizzi : I have a question for all of the young people at the back of the room - you are here for an Eagle Scout? Mr. Beiter : Eagle Scout community merit badge. Mr. Pulizzi: Okay peered by a show of hands, how many of you are going for this merit badge? Several of you. All right. Okay. By show of hands, how many of you like tonight's meeting? Okay, even better, so we are going to see you guys are more meetings, right? All right. All right. Excellent. Well, thank you all for being here. b. Council Comments c. Administration d. News Media Adjournment Meeting adjourned upon motion by Mr. Yoder and a seconded by Mr. Pulizzi Meeting adjourned at 8:01 PM with unanimous ayes. Submitted by: Janice M. Frank City Clerk