okay good evening hope everyone is um warm this is Mayor Larry Jacobs I'll recognize that we have um as soon as that little Zoom sign goes away oh okay is that in there right in the corner I'm not sure okay well we have a quorum of Township committee here at Town Hall committee man hickey is joining me live and in person committee woman Renee moresi is joining us live in person committee men Stevenson uh may be joining us a bit later remotely as well as committee woman uh Fernandez who I believe also has a wreck committee meeting uh this evening Miss Ray may we please have the meetings act statement yes mayor adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to The Courier new Somerville Bernville news whiy and to all subscribers and posted at the Township Municipal Building on January 4th 2023 great thank you please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay this is the time of the meeting that we uh open up microphones either in person or via Zoom for public comments there are no members of the public public here in person however there are uh there is one there is one um on zoom and Robin I believe uh we already know that she has a comment to make yes we have on Linda Sarah on joining us I'm just going to ask her to unmute her microphone please can you hear us okay okay yes thank you okay okay Miss Sarah if you have a a comment You' like to uh make please uh go ahead now's your time okay thank you very much um my name is Linda Sarah I live at Bedminster cring on lington road um m s can you get closer to your microphone I'm sorry um my name is Linda Sarah I live at Bedminster Crossing on lamington road and as I'm hearing impaired I have my hus hasb been Jim with me here in case U you should ask me some questions and yeah we we we've seen his face pop into the screen a couple times so if he wants to join you he's he's certainly more than welcome or just put his hand and and wave every once in a while okay great so um stop me if you can't hear me um but i' like to bring to your attention a safety concern I have at the intersection of 206 and 202 lamington road uh as you know that intersection has crosswalks it has the button that you press for the traffic lights but it does not have uh a pedestrian countdown signal uh last year my granddaughter Ella Johansson was hit by a pickup truck at that intersection uh she was at the crosswalk Crossing on the crosswalk she ended up on the hospital for a week with fractured ribs and some internal issues and thank goodness she's fine physically but mentally that kind of drama I think stays with you for quite some time so recently um I had two encounters at the exact same spot Crossing uh on cross at the crosswalk using the button Crossing on 206 heading towards the library the first event happened in November or December um the light was red for the traffic on 206 so all the traffic was stopped but uh the uh cars green for the cars that were heading south on 206 and I hadn't made it across the highway uh when the light changed and it was um quite frightening uh I reported the incident to the Bedminster police they didn't an interview and unfortunately I didn't get the officer's name but he did uh do the video recording and said he would pass the information on to the proper channels uh the second incident happened on January 11th I was crossing 206 heading again towards the library uh the vehicle on lamington made a left onto 206 South and the sun when his was in his eyes and he couldn't see me and he slammed his brakes on and he open the window and apologize uh but it came pretty close to uh hitting me there I reported that to the bedm police also and officer Mast Dino took a report he was wonderful he was very attentive and he followed up and called me uh the next day to say that he had uh sent a report to the mayor and the town councilman and suggested I would attend the meeting tonight to just um voice my concerns personally um My Hope Is that uh that intersection can be evaluated and somehow made safer for pedestrians because between the library and Dunkin Donuts and quip check and the development that's right behind the library a number of people are crossing there and I'm just concerned after that happened to my granddaughter and since I had the incidents I don't want to see someone else hurt injured or fatality there thank you Miss Sarah um as um as you may know I live up the street from um your daughter and son-in-law um I'm very familiar with that intersection having um run um both ways um across that intersection walking the dog um and I will completely uh agree with you that it is a short window for Walkers to get from east to west or west to east um M Ray has already reached out to our contact at do and suggested um that do look into augmenting the crosswalk signals at that intersection uh so Robin when you do do hear back from Meredith uh please let us know and Miss s do we have your contact information so if we need to uh bring you into any discussions with do that we can reach out to you directly yes mayor I have so Robin has your contact information phone number okay great okay so miss er um we will certainly uh look into it and um once again I'm glad that your granddaughter is doing better uh from that incident last year and I'm glad that you're doing well from uh your two incidents at that intersection so thank you for uh thank you for your comments okay thank you and I would like to thank officer Mas Andino and I would like to thank Rob and Ray for their uh help and their attention to the matter great and and just so you know uh police chief Frank Bernardo is on um Zoom as well so U he's heard what you have to say about his officers and he will relay that message directly thank you very much thank you yeah mayor if I could just interject I I sent Meredith an email with our crash statistic s pictures in intersection Monday I wasn't aware Robin did but I guess two emails is better than none and if you need a third I can always Reach Out Meredith as well she loves getting emails from me okay thank you Chief thank you Miss sah uh Robin any further um participants via zoom and we still have no one else in person so miss sah thank you for your comments once again you're you're willing you are certainly well welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but you don't have to option is yours um we will move on to rest of the meeting uh let's see we have four sets of meeting minutes to approve including the township committee reorganization meeting very excited Thomas questions regarding those meeting minutes say second motion to approve so moved second all in favor I thank you we have no permit and Raffles none we will go through uh monthly report discussions by subcommittee chair not that I'm expecting a lot of activity from reorganization till now um commit hickey will'll start with you thank you mayor good evening all and you are correct we have Library tomorrow Board of Health on Thursday and board of V on Thursday so I will report back about those meetings at the next meeting we have okay and committee woman rescue same with me mayor as well good evening um EC is first week of February jbh third week of February so I don't have anything until then okay um I've had one meeting along with committee man hickey which is the reorganization for the bmin L use board where we are pleased that uh Carol Guta um was nom nominated and has accepted the position again as chair of the luse board and also that um our vice chair has also returned Jeff Leonard so we continue uh the same chair positions and vice chair positions as really the rest of the entire board came back um and I think having that continuity at the land use board gives consistency in um how land use applications are heard so that was uh very good to um see and just say committee Mii said Library board coming up Farmers Market oh coming up as well because believe it or not already getting inquiries for the 2024 Farmers Market season um so if you're paying attention that's two or three times playing long exactly uh M Ray may we have the uh administrator report please yes mayor um so in a year where we're trying to we always are trying to find alternative funding sources um I submitted a grant to the highlands Council to help offset some of our storm weather compliance um regulations um they've come back with a couple questions so I'm working on Gathering some more information for them um hopefully that'll save us some money um last year our budget increased by 44,000 this year it's expected to increase by 40 for St water compliance so we think any grants with would be great um we held department head meeting on January 11th to review and discuss the mandatory um mail joint Insurance Fund Personnel manual and um the more personalized Personnel handbook with all of our managers um had some good comments and everybody we're going to reconvene in about two weeks um let's see um we have a radio Emergency Services radio meeting coming up on January 31st 2024 I know committee man hickey is attending that along with all of our Emergency Services um Chiefs will be in attendance and OEM um shared services um been working uh steadfast on the stab budget as well as the uh shared Municipal Court budget hope to have those wrapped up by next week and then our just regular Municipal budget and reminder our first meeting is Monday January 29th Y and that concludes my report thank you we have no ordinances um for introduction or nor do we have any ordinances for public hearing we have no items on the consent agenda we do have one two three four resolutions to consider tonight the first one is resolution 202 24024 authorized Somerset Hills municipal Alliance and Youth Services Commission to submit a strategic plan for a 2024 Grant funds from the governor's Council on alcoholism and drug abuse to benefit Som Hills youth M Ray um we done I don't recall having done this is this something that we do every year we do it every year I just don't call this a yeah the beginning of the year it's a specific form that they give us it's called form 1B which is really our resolution um that fits into the application package that is put together um by uh Sher kalish who's our coordinator for the Su Hills area Okay um any comments or questions regarding resolution 202 24024 say none take motion to approve no moved second roll call vote Please Mr um hickey hi Miss moresi hi and mayor Jacobs hi next resolution is resolution 202 24025 this resolution authorizes the execution of a harmless agement between Somerset County and the township of Bedminster for the proposed welcome to Township of Bedminster signage located at lamington Road and rattlesnake Bridge Road you like to elaborate work um as you know the historic preservation commission uh Champion the effort of getting uh replacing the welcome to beder signs throughout the township and um so there are requirements by the uh state DOT an application to the state as well as an application to the county for putting the signs in the right way there's an engineering plan um and Sign Sealed plans as well that need to be sent in and uh suers count is requiring a hold harmless agreement similar to what they do with the um the beacons for the crosswalks okay so this is a we've gone over this um hold harmless agreement and the indentification [Music] language uh multiple times attorney Bardo has reviewed it we've had conversations with the county uh so we fully understand um what's at stake here any questions or comments regarding resolution so none take a motion to approve resolution 024 035 so moved second roll call vote Please Mr Mr hickey I Ms moresi I and mayor Jacobs I third resolution is 202 24026 authorized mayor in Township cler to execute a oneyear direct payment agreements with only those neighborhood associations which will return their signed direct payment agreements MRE so mayor this started back in 1993 where we established um 10 acre 10 acre 10year agreements with with um the neighborhood associations in the hills and we renew it every 10 years um however um we've noticed that in the last period there's been a change over technology some of the neighborhood associations are installing solar or testing solar out um some of them have switched over to LED we've switched them out to LED which is obviously anywhere anybody says anywhere between 70 and 90% more efficient um so we just thought we would take the time to do a deep dive into this between engineering doing the mapping along with Kevin Murray's team going out and doing assessment of all the lights tagging them all so we have a really good um survey that's not 30 years old um that we need to do and so therefore we're asking for the year we hope to have the DPW portion completed by June 30th of this year and then the engineering uh completed by October um so that we could submit new contracts with some placing so but the way this setup is uh it authorizes um the execution of direct payment agreements with only those neighborhood associations which will return the signed direct payment agreement so how well does that mesh with the activities you just described so I'm following the language that we have used in the past several years of this implementing this document um so I guess when the some of them don't return their agreements there's a little bit of push back and we're getting a lot of questions so we're only signing them as they return them that's all we're not just automatically giving them the payment we want them to acknowledge and understand that we're going through this process which was part of the cover letter that explained what we're doing and there may be adjustments in the next year depending upon the expenses that uh pop up that's correct okay any further questions seeing none take motion to approve 202 24026 s second roll call vote Please Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi and M job hi thank you resolution 22427 this resolution adopts the municipal exess liability joint Insurance Fund model Personnel manual as a Township Bedminster Personnel manual for 2024 2025 and there it is but at the same time don't we have some changes to the Personnel manual that have been in the works for a couple of years now so we have two so we have a document that's a Personnel manual that was adopted in 2018 we made some revisions in 2021 when I first came on we had needed to make right the GIF has come out with this policy that every two years their team of attorneys is going to go through the manual and determine what policies need to be updated to protect all of their member municipalities and so that keeping our deductibles lower so this is all the legal laws pertaining to New Jersey family leave Americans with disability all of those that are now extinct in our 2018 manual and the revision that we made in 2021 so they all come out of our regular manual and they're now over here in this GIF manual that we have to adopt um we as a team um department heads are now taking what's remaining of that 2018 handbook that we revised in 2021 and with Amanda's help and um putting together a handbook which is what the prescribes they've got specific sections go in the handbook so things that are unique to us for example you know uh we are 14 vacation and 14 holidays that are observed that's not necessarily identified in here um we have floating holidays which are not it's everything that's specific to us to Bedminster Township in the handbook so we have a manual so we have a personal manual and we have a handbook correct does our handbook need to be reviewed by uh the Mel before we before we adopt no they've given us a model employee handbook so making sure we're covering all the specifics that are not covered in this big 200 Page document and it's a a bridged document you can hand to new employees and make this in a electronic repository for everybody to read people have to acknowledge this and they're going to have to acknowledge the other so we have the template from the U Mel that we're going to use we we are going through and merging it with our existing 2018 minus those Americans with Disabilities acts whistleblower policy minus those that change quite frequently and um meeting with the department heads so that we all have a comprehensive document so that'll be the next phase that we adopt and what's the um the timing on the need to um pass this resolution and return it to the mail so this one we need to do this now because my preference would be to have Gina read it and report back to us as the HR Le is okay no I'm joking I'm joking I'm joking I don't think she's gonna read two inches of yeah Amanda's Amanda's waving nodding her head yeah I don't think Tak Amanda and I've some time to make sure that we have everything that's up to date that matches ours um and also um jump I mean um don't jump L excuse me but um artbo needed to be involved in the process because he needed to sign off on that we're we're covering all the necessary okay so Amanda's gone through it Art's gone through it this is um across the male territory correct we be doing this every two years from now on in okay any we don't and we don't need the township committee HR Lea on to read all all five pounds of it we don't need some free time right so we she's not here that's what happens when you're not here Township committee person wants to should I nominate to read it all 212 Pages I'm formatting it so seeing if there's no further questions or comments take a motion to approve resolution 2024 027 so moved second roll call vote Please Mr hickey I miss moresi I and may Jacobs I thank you thank you we'll take a motion to approve the bill is pending review of individual invoices Z moved second roll call vote again please Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi and mayor Jacobs hi throws me off when this just throws us off too there's just you know one missing new business any items for uper discussion for new business so now we'll go to Old business versus dot improvements um got the guard rail extensions on Route 206 um right we might as well add onto thisw yeah exactly the traffic um or the crosswalk at lamington and 206 yes ma'am so once again we put it up there it's a reminder to us that the issue doesn't go away until we uh come to some resolution either internally or with do and between Chief Bernardo Miss Ray who's already been outreached to Meredith and I will probably both Chief and Robin if you could send me whatever emails you sent to Meredith sure so that I can once again um pile on and send an email to to meridith who's once again a great um advocate for bed inser down at to so um always glad to reach out to her in addition utilities um can't we had a couple of rain we've had rain snow ice wind we've had it all in the last few weeks but despite that we've only had a handful of bages I impacted about 16 uh customers in Bedminster so I worked with our local JCP Al rep to get those rectified we also had the school lab for one day a Aaron squirrel got into a piece of equipment and uh I guess met his demise but also took the school lab and uh we escalated that to jcpnl who uh actually made sure that that was back up and running so that the kids who thought they might have gotten a long weekend or actually back at school on Friday sry kids um and then then while I'm on the topic of utilities altise um as neighborhoods have completed construction we identified an issue where customers were not able to sign up for the new Fiber service existing customers so we built it but the folks couldn't come it's a database error I've been working with marketing and sales over at Altis they're going to rectify the problem and probably within the next week or so people will be able to begin ordering the new Fiber service in the neighborhoods where it has been built out and which neighborhoods are that again so we've got Windwood courland Four Oaks and wooduck pond is that when they're trying to access it online or even if they go on the phone the customer service person can't hook them up yes yes and yes yes so there was a new rate table that was loaded so it's actually fortunate because the rates are now less expensive if you go on the Fiber service significantly less expensive so cheaper to get the same service fiber than coax COA correct and it's faster obviously and it's symmetrical so those rates just went to effect on January 7th so it's fortunate that the incident actually happens that people didn't order under the old rate plan symmetrical meaning upload and download speeds are the same exactly ex remember there may be people yes there may be people I apologize yes thank you we all take this for granted but so they know there's an error they're going to get that error fixed with the next few days and then folks can be able to click online www.optimum.com and order the new service for themselves as existing customers so I'll keep following up on that and that's all I have okay great uh puckman Park Housing we'll leave that on uh for 2024 as well we will head uh to Executive session after Township committee comments we will be returning because we may be considering two resolutions at after executive session I'm not expecting um a long executive session but um we will be adjourning for sometime and then returning um so let's uh go straight into Township committee comments committee man hickey thank you mayor I just I'll play the role of Doug tonight and thank DPW for their fantastic work apparently Robin you said that they were they started last night and they work through the day until about 4:00 and then they're coming back in tonight at 11:00 again yes I mean you can tell though you you you go on the roads in bedminister they're salted they're plowed they're clean you always know when you're in bed Mister so just a shout out to Kevin and his crew for a job well done as always that's all I have there thank you commit woman moresi I'll Echo colums uh comments it's always nice to come home and have the roads cleaned up and safe for all our residents and uh looking forward to the new year and the new budget session so um I too will um reiterate the uh kudos to DPW and the effort that they're putting to keep our roads um in great shape during these um snow and ice events um also once again um you know it's only a couple weeks and we looked back at the reorganization meeting that we had on January 4th fourth 4th janary 4th and once again um thank you to pingry for uh being our host that night I've had so many people come up to me at the meeting at the end of the meeting and even afterwards saying how much they enjoyed that reorganization the facility the food um I I think it was a you know a success thank you Robin for working with us uh in um moving the reorg there in the Betty MK dinner and um you know I I also do like the idea of what we did with the uh PowerPoint I was able to Showcase some of the things that U we've talked about and we're certainly familiar with it but some folks in the public or in the audience may not be so I think having that PowerPoint was a good way to go um and perhaps it's something that we can um do in the future for whoever does those comments um in the upcoming years um so once again thank you to everyone uh for everyone's involvement and working with us on that and with that at 7:32 take a motion to adourn to Executive session so moved second all in favor thank you once again we will be returning uh where we may be taking formal action after executive after the executive session okay it is 7:57 and we are back from our executive session and we are also joined by committee women prendas so we have two resolutions left to consider uh this evening and the first is resolution Z 2024 excuse me 028 um which resolution um offers the position of assistant Treasurer to D James for car I yeah I stumbl James yes yes it's been a long day to James trero you for the position of assistant Treasurer um has gone through the interview process with um both Amanda our HR consultant with Robin and also with uh Gina Fernandez um our Township committee liaison to HR um with endorsements from all three of them any further questions regarding uh the resolution to appoint James trero as the Bedminster assistant Treasurer seeing none take a motion to approve no moved second roll call vote Please Mr hickey I miss moresi I miss Fernandez I and mayor Jacobs I thank you so the next resolution is resolution 202 24029 with the appointment of uh James TR Caro to the assistant Treasurer position the expectation is that he will also serve as our qualified purchasing agent he's completed the classwork for the qpa position and is waiting to take the test and pass the usest so that he can officially be the qualified purchasing agent ever uh the DCA rules do allow us to appoint him as a temporary qualified purchasing agent pending his successful uh um passing of the qpa test so resolution 202 24029 um would well actually it doesn't would it will [Music] um allow the township committee to to appoint James trero as our temporary qualified purchasing questions or comments regarding the resolution no seeing none take motion to approve so move need a second do we have a second I need a second first Gina Gina second okay okay thank you roll call vote Please Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi Miss Fernandez hi and mayor Jacob hi thank you so Gina you did um miss the township committee comments but you know while you're here before we adjourn any uh any comments um do you want your the wreck updates I was on a wreck meeting that's why okay um so hold on because I have them on my phone uh so uh we had a meeting there's um a bunch of programs coming up our our Winter Springs basketball clinics after school programs which include Lego engineering coding cooking um World Monuments after school program and uh adult indoor volleyball the registration has not gone out but usually we have about 40 participants right now the gym is booked but it will most likely take place on Tuesdays um in uh late winter and early spring and our Easter egg hunt our annual Easter egg hunt will take place on Saturday March 30th which is the Saturday before Easter at 12:00 noon and of course the the Easter Bunny will be there and also um we have a new throne for the Easter Bunny is the Easter Bunny gonna be wearing blue sneakers Easter also gonna be taking there'll be a mailbox you can actually mail mail letters to the Easter Budd good to see that Throne get to use yeah Fall Fest this year is actually going to be moved up to Saturday October 12th from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. um and that's the week before the Far Hills races instead of doing the week after the Far Hills races which then would allow our Trunk or Treat to take more close to Halloween and um you know we're going to be looking at a ATM possibility so we have found that one of the biggest concerns with people didn't have cash so the rec committee is talking about that and um I think that's and then summer camp uh registration there's they're beginning to book trips and um discuss fees and uh whatnot so um that's that's where the rec committee is at right now um that sounds like you guys had a busy busy meeting we did we did so and that was all M I have no other updates for this week okay well that's good so at let's see what time is it it is is my phone not working 8802 802 I'll take a motion to adjourn for the evening so moved second all in favor I I thank you Gina thank you Amanda thank you Robin good night good night good night oh I wait for that I did you bu Jina thank you Ray welcome by night