MINUTES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE MEETING OF THE MANHEIM TOWNSHIP BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, :30 P.M.

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1 MINUTES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE MEETING OF THE MANHEIM TOWNSHIP BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, :30 P.M. Roll Call: The administrative meeting of the Manheim Township Board of Commissioners was held at 7:30 p.m., Monday, November 26, 2007 in the Municipal Building. Members present were: Commissioners Simpson, Downing, Casselbury and Keebler, and Manager-Secretary James M. Martin. Commissioner Flanagan was absent. There were 8 people in the audience. Mr. Martin led all in attendance in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Approval of Minutes: Commissioner Downing moved, and Mr. Casselbury seconded approving the November 12, 2007 Regular Meeting minutes. President Simpson asked if there were any questions or comments from the Board or the audience. There were none. Motion carried unanimously. Payment of Bills: Commissioner Keebler moved to approve the November 26 th disbursements and to fund the appropriate accounts for the disbursements. She presented bills for the period ending November 26, 2007 from the General Fund in the amount of $95,009.55, from the Library Fund in the amount of $2,277.80, from the Golf Course Fund in the amount of $14,483.69, from the Capital Reserve Fund in the amount of $53, and from the Parks Capital Fund in the amount of $1,119.00, for a total of $166,485.95, and from the Highway Aid Fund in the amount of $87.60 for US Municipal Supply and in the amount of $4, for McMinn s Asphalt Company, Inc. for a Grand Total of $171, Seconded by Mr. Downing. President Simpson asked if there were any questions or comments from the Board or the audience. There were none. Motion carried unanimously. Old Business/Department Reports: President Simpson announced that December 17 will be the next Conditional Use Hearing on The Crossings to be held here at the Township office at 6:30 p.m., and then they will be scheduling from that point going forward. Sunday, December 2, is our annual Holiday Open House at the Stauffer Mansion. Commissioner Downing said that leaf collection continues; it has been a real problem this year because of the longevity of the leaves on the trees. He said as we head into winter, if anyone happens to see a pothole, they should call the office. Commissioner Casselbury said there is one at Koser and Weaver Roads. Commissioner Casselbury announced that there will be a field committee meeting this coming Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. here at the Township office. This will be their second meeting concerning money put into the budget to look at solving some field situations we have with all of our clubs; mainly our football club. The pool committee is continuing to meet next Monday at Stauffer Mansion at 7:00 p.m. Commissioner Keebler said they are having a special breakfast on Thursday at 9:00

2 a.m. for the volunteers for the library who helped move the library to the new location. New Business: Ordinance : Traffic Ordinance (to Post a Stop Sign on Stevens Street at the Intersection with Manheim Avenue) Commissioner Downing moved to adopt Ordinance providing for an addition to Appendix I-H (Stop Intersections), which is contained in the Township Code of Ordinances and is referred to in Part 7, Chapter 1, Article B, Section Seconded by Mr. Casselbury. President Simpson asked if there were any questions or comments from the Board or the audience. There were none. Motion carried unanimously. CarMax Store 7233 Preliminary Subdivision/Land Development Plan, Route 72 and Plaza Boulevard, Zoned B-4 Time Extension Request Commissioner Casselbury moved to approve the time extension request for the CarMax Store 7233 Preliminary Subdivision and Land Development Plan project for action by the Manheim Township Commissioners. The request will extend the time period in which to act on the plan to January 31, Seconded by Mr. Downing. President Simpson asked if there were any questions or comments from the Board or the audience. There were none. Motion carried unanimously. Crow Update Ms. Laurie Fuller with the Lancaster Crow Coalition said that last year at this time, we hadn t even started our harassment yet; they didn t get started until the middle of December of last year; and in about two weeks of intense harassment, we got the crows pretty much out of the city and other problem areas, and after that, they were in small groups that moved around pretty quickly and didn t stick to any one location for very long. She said that overall their efforts last year were considered quite successful. She said that this year starting in August they met with Dr. Margaret Brittingham from Penn State who recommended a zoned approach to dealing with the crows, in terms of designating places as either full, moderate or zero tolerance zones. The zero tolerance zones would be any place in downtown Lancaster City, along Manheim Pike and Fruitville Pike or any place where there are industrial parks and shopping centers and, of course, any densely populated neighborhoods, along with schools and that sort of thing. Ms. Fuller said with those locations in mind, the doctor s other suggestion was that we begin harassing earlier in the year so that as crows started to show up in smaller groups, we could alienate them from areas in the zero tolerance zones and prevent roosts from forming, and that pretty much worked in the city; we ve had virtually no crows accumulating in the city; and in a lot of the places where we had them last year, we don t have them. She said that right now we ve got about 20,000 crows and to put that in perspective, there are over a million Page 2 of 6

3 starlings in the county. They will be gone by February as they were last year. This year we have one large roost pretty much sticking to the west side of Manheim Pike around the Loop Road area. She said the scientists that she talked to last week felt that that was actually an okay area if we can nudge them away from roof tops and parking lots for the businesses there because there is a fairly barren area there by the railroad where they wouldn t be bothering anybody; so they had suggested we not really harass them there and she doesn t know if Manheim Township has been out there, but we have left them alone, the fear being that if we try to nudge them too aggressively, they could abandon the spot all together and then go to all the surrounding areas which are totally inappropriate. She said there are a couple of other roosts of like 50 to 200 birds, one somewhere in the city but they move around and we haven t had any calls on it, and the other one on Commerce Drive and again no calls on that one. She said that most of the calls they had earlier in the year turned out to be starlings. She said in the city they have had complaints about the noise because they haven t seen crows, so then they don t like hearing the pyrotechnics. Ms. Fuller said there is one new twist this year -- they are going to try on a limited basis the use of effigies; the sign is from Wild Life Services in Florida which used them in previous years on a real limited basis with some success, and they wanted to see us expand it a bit and they are going to be meeting on the 30 th to talk about exactly where to use them so that we re not putting too many in any areas, not putting out too many in total and not contradicting ourselves with some of the locations because they can become habituated to them. She said they will put them out in a conservative way, mostly in places where we re currently harassing and proactively in places where they have gathered before, and we ll come up with those strategies on the 30 th. Commissioner Downing asked if the effigy is a dead crow. Ms. Fuller said it is a Halloween decoration and one or two can be effective over a fairly large area. Other Business: Mr. Steve Geisenberger, 238 Heatherstone Way, asked about the budget schedule and whether it is in its final form at this point in time. President Simpson said they will be adopting it at their next meeting, December 10, which is their last meeting of the year. Commissioner Casselbury said they are anticipating it s in its final stage. Mr. Martin said the budget is at the front desk if Mr. Geisenberger has questions about it. Mr. Geisenberger said that a couple of years ago when he was asked to work on the projections for what was then the mailing that had to do with the library and the community center, he was asked to do a number of calculations and in those calculations, one of the things that he was asked to do was to go over with Valerie what the potential tax increase would be if we did one of those projects, and part of that calculation was not having the sewer surplus on hand, and his concern is that if we spend down those capital funds, he just hopes that we have an open discussion about what that s going to do to the future of the surplus and what that may mean in terms of Page 3 of 6

4 future and long range projections. He said he hopes somebody is doing those calculations, and with all of the openness that was required on that project, then to see all of a sudden all these large capital projects -- some of them not very much hashed out in public -- he is somewhat concerned about that just from the financial standpoint without talking about any projects specifically. Commissioner Casselbury said there is 15 million in the sewer fund, 5 was allocated to the library, none of which has been spent. Mr. Geisenberger asked if it is still you re going to raise the 2 before you spend the 7 for the library. Commissioner Casselbury said that remains unchanged. Mr. Geisenberger said if they go forward with the capital expenditures as budgeted, what will be the capital balance at the end of next year? Commissioner Casselbury said what they have in the capital budget for next year, if he remembers correctly, is if we went through with all of our projects which we probably won t and we usually don t, we would be short $820,000 and we would have to actually go into that. He said that would include the 3 million for fields at Overlook and would include the pool at Overlook but not Skyline. Mr. Geisenberger asked if the plan for the library is to raise the money next year and then build it the following year. Commissioner Downing said that s close. Commissioner Casselbury said there is a half a million in there for the library for this coming year. Commissioner Keebler asked Mr. Geisenberger if he would rather see a tax increase as opposed to spending the capital. Mr. Geisenberger said he would rather see a 3 to 5 year projection based on maybe a little bit less growth than what we have had, certainly not no-growth but maybe on a 4% to 5% growth instead of what we have been growing revenue wise plus the 10 between the earned income tax and the real estate tax the last 4 or 5 years. He said he would just like to see it projected out without -- if we spend all of the capital funds as anticipated over the course of the next couple of years with the library, how that would play out. He said he didn t realize they were only going to have to dip into the capital reserve $820,000. He asked how much would go into the general capital from the taxes next year. Commissioner Keebler replied 2 million. She said the debt on the golf course runs out in 2010 which is going to help replenish some of the investment income on the usage of the sewer proceeds. Mr. Phil Rule said he would like to follow up on Steve s questions and he asked if there is a plan; he sees a piecemeal approach to this. He said he means a plan for the sewer fund, a plan for capital expenditures for the next 5 to 10 years, what you intend to do with tax increases for the next 10 years. Commissioner Keebler said she would like to see a long term capital plan because something that we may want to consider doing during the fatter years that we re having now where we re having growth and development, we may want to increase that reserve for capital projects. Hopefully we will be having a new finance director come on board and maybe that s something we could get working on because it is important. Mr. Rule said he gets the feeling like we are shot gunning this thing and we need to lay out a longer range plan. Page 4 of 6

5 Commissioner Downing asked him if you have money in the bank as we do and you have the need for money for capital projects as we do, would you take the money out of the bank and spend it or would you increase the taxes? Mr. Rule said he would look at the interest rates, look at the projects, set priorities, set a long range plan for 10 years; if the sewer fund is not intended to be here 10 years from now, then what is your plan for replacing the interest that you lose? Commissioner Downing said he is afraid that it would be a tax increase. Mr. Rule asked if they might just swap out the lack of debt for the golf course. He said he would just like to see this whole thing on one piece of paper and as this moves forward, see what it s going to look like. Mr. Martin said in Public Works they have a long term plan and each year in the budget you will see amounts for road improvements and for storm drainage which are on-going projects. Commissioner Downing said they are challenging our boards with starting to do some strategic planning; the fire department has initiated that, the Police Department is initiating that. He said they have asked Parks and Rec which is a big part of our budget, 15%, to do the same thing, to give us a plan so we don t run into what we have run into this year with the lack of fields for sports. Mr. Rule said at some point you have to set priorities. Commissioner Downing said that first of all we need to know what we re going to need for 5 years or 10 years, and then prioritize based on how many people that those needs impact. Mr. Rule asked for a copy of the budget. Mr. Don Reed, 76 Glen Moore Circle, said he thinks we re headed towards the same problem as East Hempfield which is East Hempfield suddenly gets in the paper because they are projecting to go from 1 mill to 1½ mill, a 50% increase. He said that he would rather see a slow raise rather than deplete the sewer fund completely and then say now we re going to have to raise 1 mill over 1½ and we re going to go up 66-2/3% because 1 mill brings in 3.2 million dollars roughly. He said just to cover the fields, you would have had to raise it 1 mill this year. Commissioner Downing said he considers the sewer fund a rainy day fund. Mr. Reed asked how much money we go into next year with; we seem to slide money back and forth and therefore he is not sure we have a fund balance. Commissioner Downing said we do and it s in the budget. Mr. Reed said the previous Commissioners, when the sewer was first sold, promised, we will not use the sewer fund, but of course none of those Commissioners are still here. Commissioner Downing said a part of East Hempfield s problem as depicted in the newspaper was a golf course loss of almost $700,000, but he followed up on that and that s their debt service on the golf course, not the golf course losing money, and that was kind of portrayed unfairly that they had this huge debt all of a sudden. Mr. Reed said they certainly haven t come back and told the newspaper they were wrong. Mr. Geisenberger said the fund balance in last year s financial statement is pretty hefty; there s no problem with that. He said he knows that a couple of years ago when the reassessment occurred, it ended up that there was a significant amount Page 5 of 6

6 additional over and above what the county had originally projected. He said he knows for the last couple of years things have been fine but he just wanted to make sure that somebody is doing the long term projections as Valerie was doing and if she wasn t putting them out to the public, she certainly was doing them in house. Mr. Martin said our auditors said our balance sheet is the best in the county. Adjournment: There being no further business before the Commissioners, Commissioner Downing moved and Mr. Casselbury seconded that the meeting adjourn at 7:55 p.m., with all in favor. Respectfully submitted, James M. Martin Manager-Secretary Page 6 of 6