TOWNSHIP OF NORTH HUNTINGDON, BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION MEETING, TIURSDAY,ULYI, 2024, 7:00 P.M. 11279 Center Highway, North Huntingdon, PA 15642 Presiding Officer- Jason Atwood, President, Board of Commissioners  CALLTO ORDER  Commissioner Atwood called the meeting to order at 7:00E P.M.  ROLL CALL  Commissioner Hempel - Present Commissioner Haigis = Present Commissioner Gray - Present Commissioner Zona - Present Commissioner Bevan - Present Commissioner Gass - Present Commissioner Atwood - Present PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE CITIZENS INPUT  Also Present: Manager Faulk Solicitor Dice Ryan Fonzi  Diana Steck - 850 Linmore Drive = states she is here because she is concerned about fracking in the' Township and would like clarification regarding where the fracking will take place. She states she heard there was aj possibility at) Indian Lake and/or Oak Hollow Park to be given lateral access fori fracking. Ms. Steck: states she walks her dog: at both parks several days a week and has personal experience with the effects of fracking. There have been numerous studies that have documented eveni ifthe fracking is done in al lateral aspect that the wastes and chemicals used still contaminates the area and air quality. Shej petitions the Board to take al Iong hard look at this and that the citizens deserve better as the economic benefits do not outweigh the harm that could be done. Tom Pike - Environmental Policy. Advocate with Protect PT-3 3344 PA 130 Ste. A, Harrison City, PA 15636 = states a resident from the Township alerted him about plans to lease the sub-surface rights to public lands to. Apex Energy. He states Apex has logged one hundred thirteen violations with PA Department of Environmental Protection. He states Allegheny County residents sorely regret leasing their park to a private corporation for profit. Mr. Pike states that if the Board approves this lease the community, members present today will not go away and will remain an issue for years to come. He then reads al list oft the violations against Apex Energy. Katie Forsythe - 1441 Guffey Road - states she is here to voice her concerns in conçern of the consideration of having the parks being drilled. Both parks are beautiful areas and are heavily used by the residents. She hopes the Board will reconsider or consider the petitions of the community speaking out about this and to not disturb the beautiful jewel in the parks. She states the chemicals used alone in the fracking process do nots stay in the earth and rise to the surface and  cause health problems.    July11.2024  Patricia Oliver - 10220 LaVonne Drive - states she agrees with everything the previous speakers spoke about and Apex Energy is not going tol bring anything good into the community.. Ifthel Board feels the small amount of money that would be contributed, then it should be put on to the voters and puti it on al ballot. She states she could come up with aj petition with twenty thousand names if  that would sway to vote no. RESPONSE TO CITIZENS INPUT  Apex Energy Lease- - Commissioner Atwood states this is on the agenda and will be discussed at  that time.  Work Sessions Discussion Topics  1) Sports Complex Ground Lease  Manager Faulk states Josh Zugai and his associate are here tonight to go over the lease with the Board. Solicitor Dice states he would like to make some initial comments. He states in the past fifty plus years hel had only one occasion where ai municipality leased a ninety nine year lease toa baseball association and the only time he has ever seen a lease of this length assigned. He states he has not spoken with any of the Commissioners or Manager Faulk. He wants to make sure everyone is on the same page and that everyone likes the idea ofhaving a sports complex. He too likes the idea, but with that being said, if the Board enters into a private lease there is no requirement to go through public bidding. However, if you sell the property, you have to go through public bidding. Mr. Dice states in this case is talking about ai ninety year lease and may be arguable thati iti isa areal transferc ofownership ofthe property and could bej possible that someone will argue that you cannot go through this process without going through a public bid. He feels that the Township needs to be transparent in this matter, Mr. Dice states he has gone through the lease three or four times, made notes and copies and states it would be simple ift thej property was deeded over: and go through public bidding after the property is appraised which at that point would be in compliance with the municipality's planning code. He states it is important to know this ninety year lease is a very long time, but have to recognize this commitment is substantial and he feels the Board would be well-served to go through thej public bidding process. He also states he gets the impression that we are in a hurry and even ift the property goes to bid does not mean the Board has to accept them. The: next backdrop is that this is represented as a ground lease and this document has a series of things in it that he would take out and is one oft the more complicated leases that hel has seen. He suggests meeting with the applicants and their attorneys to try to come up with a document that satisfies and also wants everyone to know how he feels about what he Commissioner Gray thanks Solicitor Dice for his comments, but first he made it clear and voted against the original agreement. He states there is one correction referring to a ninety year lease, whereas the lease would actually be at twenty nine year lease with aj possibility ofthree extensions, totaling one. hundred sixteen years. Commissioner Gray states he too read through the lease and without going into details about the agreement, feels there is zero benefit to the Township. He  sees in the lease agreement.    July 11,2024  states at this point, although the Township already signed the exclusive agreement to negotiate, he would like to see on the agenda next week for a formal vote to terminate negotiations. Commissioner Zona thanks Solicitor Dice for his input and states he is still ok with moving forward, but would like both sides with theirattorneys to get together andt trim down the agreement. He feels ift the complex is builti in the Township that there will be al lot ofbenefit from it. Commissioner Haigis states he would be open to keeping the discussions going, but he was taken aback with the agreement not having one thing that benefited the residents. The agreement also does not state that the Township would have access to the facilities on certain days of the week or seniors having access for programs. Commissioner Haigis also has an issue with the amount of years for the fact that the property is being leased for almost nothing and the business will make a Commissioner Hempel agrees with Commissioner Haigis and states al lot ofresidents reached out to him saying the deal was done. He feels nothing has been discussed yet and nothing in the agreement benefits the residents. He would love to see something in writing first and discussed Commissioner Atwood states at this point would be beneficial to have Mr. Zugai and Mr. David Ponsonby - 2482 Myers Lane and Josh Zugai - 140 Charles Drive = state the lease agreement was sent on. June 1gthandr received zero comments back. He states they would also love tos scale the lease back and feel this willl benefit the Township, but without any comments from the Township they are not aware oft the expectations. David states the lease is for twenty nine years withi renewal options. He: feels moving forwardt theira attorneys are expecting to have conversations with the: Township and Solicitor to clarify what the expectations are. Mr. Zugai states during the original meeting and the presentation of the LOI, the main criticism was that it was a full lease with not enough information on how it would be structured. He states he has worked in commercial real estate for nearly twenty years and feels there was nothing in the agreement that was outside of commercial bounds for this type ofarrangement. He did not find it tol be excessive and had al lot of detail. He too states iti is a twenty nine year lease with renewal options which the banks require to raise money to build these types of facilities then go to the market to raise tens of millions ofdollars which would bel brought into the community tol build thei facility. Commissioner Grays states he understands that, but it also gives the guarantee ofrenewing thel lease ifthey choose, not if the Board chooses. Mr. Zugai states the lease renewal has to be negotiated. Mr. Ponsonby is asking for a redline request from the Board at the end oft the month and they can submit a new lease agreement. Solicitor Dice states throughout this event, there has been pressure to get this done. He feels no pressure to get it done quickly, given the fact this leaves the property in their hands for over a hundred years. Another concern is ift the Board decides to do this, do they go through public bidding to lease the land which would bet the cleanest way to do this or just sell the land to them. Mr. Zugai states the only push on their end was the Board gave them one hundred twenty days, but he would prefer to do this right and not try to push this. He also addresses Commissioner Haigis' comments about not benefiting the: residents. He states they are here to  profit off of our residents.  further.  Ponsonby answer the Board's questions.    July11.2024  negotiate the ground lease and sub-tenants will negotiate the operations, fields, entities, who gets access, etc. Mr. Ponsonby states this is still draft one oft the lease and feels al lot of time is being wasted on the first draft without any redlines back from the Board. Commissioner Atwood states the public forum is the correct space to have this discussion and this ist the appropriate time tol have these dialogues in public for transparency. Solicitor Dice states this will be a several hour task to go throught the lease. The Board agrees to work together with the attorneys. Commissioner Atwood asks who has the final say on the development oft the land. Mr. Ponsonby states it could be structured in the lease. Commissioner Gray asks if the agreement is public. Solicitor Dice states the agreement is not public until it is executed and signed. Commissioner Gass feels this is something everyone in the Township wants and the only matter of concern is light and noise. He asks why something can't be built fully for Township residents only with fields where they wouldn't have to pay anything or something very minimal. Mr. Ponsonby states their thought process was how would they do the fields and their commitment is tol have aj public field within  eighteen months dedicated to North Huntingdon residents. 2) Lease Agreement with Apex Energy  Manager Faulk states at last month's meeting this lease was tabled with questions about whether tor negotiate more money. He asked Zane Kessler from Apex Energy to be present to answer questions. Manager Faulk states back in 2013/2014, Oak Hollow Park and Braddocks Trail were leased to Huntley & Huntley. Commissioner Gray asks if the leases are forever or do they ever expire. Commissioner Haigis states normally the leases expire within five to ten years. Commissioner Zona calls for point of order and states last month this was tabled and hel believes  amotion is required to remove it from the table. Motion: Commissioner Haigis Second: Commissioner Hempel  Motion to remove from the table. Motion carried 7-0-0  Commissioner Gray asks ift the lease was looked at by somebody that specializes in gas leases. Manager Faulk states it was not. Commissioner Gass feels it is important to publicly speak about the concerns of gas drilling. He clarifies the drilling goes down eight thousand feet and the average well waterisi no more than five to eight hundred feet which would not be affected with gas drilling. Commissioner Gass asks if gray water is pulled out. Mr. Kessler states high pressure water is pumped first but when it comes back out is contaminated and for every one million gallons of water that is pumped down there only five percent of it is frack fluid with toxic chemicals. Commissioner Zona clarifies where the proposed drilling would be is not in North Huntingdon Township but in St. Edwards church in Herminie, Sewickley Township. Commissioner Atwood states the portion of land would bel between Park Meadows and Falcon Ridge where there would be no visible wells and no way to know drilling was occurring. Commissioner Zona asks for clarification of the financial terms. Mr. Kessler states leases usually have a clause in them that keeps the lease alive for years sO they can come back and drill the Utica Shale that is thirteen thousand feet below. Commissioner Gray asks why they were told they had until June 30th to sign the lease. Mr. Kessler states it was because he knew there were monthly meetings and wanted to havet their leasing done by. July 10th. Commissioner Atwood asks ifthel Board votes no, will it stop    July 11,2024  the drilling. Mr. Kessler states it will not stop the drilling, but would stop the drilling right before the property line. Commissioner Atwood asks if the surrounding property owners all signed off  on the lease. Mr. Kessler states they have signed.  3) New Hope Drive and Isabella Drive Road Dedication to the Township Manager Faulk states these roads are. ready to be dedicated to the Township and will be on the  agenda to advertise next week.  4) Intergovernmental Cooperation during disaster with neighboring municipalities Manager Faulk states Sherry Martino, Manager Irwin Borough, brought this to the manager group with Trafford, Penn Township, Manor Borough and North Irwin trying to gauge some interest from those municipalities whether or not to negotiate ai multi-municipal agreement. For example, ifthere is a disaster and al bunch oftrees are on thei road, what type ofhelp each municipality could assist with and what type of reimbursement or compensation would happen and outlining insurance. Commissioner Haigis states he would not bei ini favor at all int this as. North Huntingdon ist the largest community with the most employees. He feels ifa disaster hit our township would have enough to deal with and Director Albert has said they are running with a lean staff as it is. Manager Faulk states it is in the fee schedule that if another municipality were to use any ofour services, there would be a charge for the machine, manpower and things of that nature. Commissioner Zona states he would not necessarily be against this because a disaster could hit the entire public works department: and we wouldi bel begging other communities tol help us, He would be in favor of looking into something like this. Commissioner Haigis agrees to offer help but if wej join an intergovermental agreement, it willl hold ust tol help other communities. Commissioner Zona states it would all depend on the wording in the agreement. Commissioner Gray agrees with Commissioner Haigis that this will not solve aj problem for North Huntingdon, but someone else's problem and he does not want to be locked in. He feels ift there is an emergency, we all help each other if we can. Commissioner Atwood states he has a concern as well as we also have another agreement with the school district where we are to provide crossing guards in exchange for recreation programs and we: are the only ones upholding the end ofthe bargain. He would bel leery of entering into an agreement but would want to see more information before moving forward. Manager Faulk states right now there ist no draft agreement, just a gauge oflevel ofinterest, and if other municipalities sign on, can look at the agreement at that point. The Board agrees. Commissioner Gass agrees with everyone's point but would be ok to look further into it. Commissioner Hempel agrees with Commissioner Gass to look further into the agreement.  PLANNING/ENGINEERING TOPICS: 1) S-07-2024: Bellone, Jellison & Harris Plan *Proposed boundary line revision on Baker School. Road.  Director Fonzi states these are two adjacent properties on Baker School Road. The Bellone property owner is wanting to add 0.641 acres from the. Jellison and Harris property, sO after the boundary line revision will double the Bellone lot with no sewage planning needed. The  Planning Commission recommended approval.    July11.2024  2) S-08-2024: Natale Consolidation *Proposed consolidation on. Linmore. Drive.  Director Fonzi states there. are two lots on Linmore Drive in the Legends Plan with one lot their home sits on and the other is vacant. The Natales' would like to consolidate into one lot. The  Planning Commission recommended for approval.  OLD BUSINESS  FURTHER BOARD COMMENTS Responders during the high heat. ADJOURNMENT Motion: Commissioner Haigis Second: Commissioner Zona  Commissioner Hempel thanks the local businesses for pitching in to provide supplies for First  Motion to adjourn.  Motion carried 7-0-0(8:37PM)  Special Meeting minutes ofJuly 11, 2024, were approved by the Board of  Commissioners on August 21,2024.  Jason Atwood, President  FA  MRrol Harry R. Faulk, Township Secretary