sorry that was biscuit dog my bad good evening and welcome to the bed Township Township committee meeting this is our regularly scheduled meeting for April 15 2024 tax day recognize that we a full attendance by the Bedminster Township committee attending here in person committee man hickey committee woman meski and attending theom committee woman Fernandez and committeeman Stevenson m r may we please have the open public meetings act statement yes mayor adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to The Courier new Summerville Bernville news whiy and to all subscribers and post at the Township Municipal Building on January 5th 2024 great thank you and please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the the United States of americais quickly go to public comments any member of the public wishing to make a comment please raise your hand and we'll bring you up to the microphone up here person that's half a hand rais no okay and Robin do we have anyone on Zoom uh no one other than um C committee members okay so we will go past public comments and we do have some special guests um here tonight we have um Chief Deputy Chief and the president from the Far Hills Bedminster Fire Department and we also have our OEM coordinator uh Chris CW here as well um on April 5 on Friday um there was a fire up on an encampment drive up in the uh up in Hills and it um nearly knocked out an entire uh building and displaced um 10 is it 10 units that got displaced five got displaced 10 total were 10 were affected but only five completely displaced um during that um event and the uh hours that followed I was on the phone with u Chief Bernardo I'm trading some messages with folks from F Hills uh beder fire department and I went up to the uh the property on the uh on Sunday I SP to some of the neighbors up there and they all gave glowing glowing remarks about um the speed with which Far Hills bedminister responded to the event um how professional uh the whole organization went uh not just with Far Hills but also the coordination with all the mutual Aid um who responded and um remarkable at at the devastation in the center of that building and then I spoke to one of the um residents who was not displaced she said yeah little bit of um little faint Whi of smoke but that was it that was that was it and while I was out there number of people just kept walking by and once again talking about response and so what I'd like to do was like to bring up um Chief brienza uh just to talk about the event and deputy chief kenik if you want to come up as well and just walk us through the uh situation and just to give a description of um your thoughts as to how the events proceeded I mean once again I I got to say I was um shocked that buildings are close together encampment is narrow you have cars parked a long encampment and just looking at that site two days after and I'm going how did they even get the vehicles in there plus all the mutual Aid vehicles that responded it must have just been a bear of a project or bear of a firefighting situation and really I think it'd be great for the uh Eder Township committee to hear from you guys directly on the response so Chief turn it to you sure thank you just pulling up presentation we got here cool all right so this is a snippet of our action after action debrief that we did for [Music] um sure this is the wrong window I don't want to share anything it's the wrong window um one second I just chop this down there's the right so this is a a short summary based off our AC after action report that we went through on Tuesday day of last week with all of our mutual Aid Partners um this gives a brief summary of the fire what went on what we found when we got there and what we did to stop it so timeline for this fire initial dispatch was at 1624 so just before 4:30 in the afternoon uh we were quickly upgraded to a structure fire from originally what came over as a patio fire um there was reports of multiple people still in their residences uh as soon as I got that report uh I hit out our first alarm box for 2901 Alpha which is our am box in that part of the uh the town and Patrol got on location four minutes later um they said there was a lot of fire when I got on to 202 206 from lamington road I was able to I saw a column on the side of the hill of a lot of smoke Jason was the first arriving I pulled up 20 30 seconds later um we had smoke and fire showing from the Charlie side and then as you can see within four minutes of us getting on location and within minutes of our first du fire engine getting on location there was water on the fire so really you know kudos to that first du engine crew they did an excellent job of getting quick water on the fire and so about 10 minutes from dispatch to getting water up there yeah that's correct Jesus so and you know what that drive is like uh and if you took a ride up there you know how bad those speed bumps that they put in are um do you guys have trouble with those speed bumps should they not be there yeah that's a conversation for a different day but those speed bumps are are certainly not good speed bumps okay um so there was Smoke showing from the Charlie side and then we got water on the fire um about 15 minutes into the call um we had I filled our second alarm just to put them in quarters and have them coming just because of the size of the building and the volume of fire that we had on arrival um the rest of this is is not really relevant to this conversation but this is where the structure was on the back side of in so basically at the corner of Sussex and encampment down that backside off of Smoke Rise the units that were affected uh were you know worst case in area units in the middle both top and bottom units in the dead center of the backside of the building uh we well involved with fire on our arrival uh this was what it looked like from where the command post was so you can see that row as you guys know the 10 units that are throughout garages on the front access in the sides in the back uh our first due fire engine was AG right at that corner which was the uh Alpha Delta corner of the fire uh we had the main body of fire there in the middle you can see it there two hose lines off of our first two fire engine which was engine 291 we had a ladder truck set up which was truck 29 which was fed by uh Squad 40 Squad 40 also had another line that was around the back side of the building putting up fire as well uh in addition to a line that went interior through the garages in the front so these are two uh pictures the first one showed shows what we saw when we first arrived that photo was taken on arrival so before there was any water on the fire um you can see that there's multiple levels of the units involved as well as the porches and the patios uh this is as soon as water was put on the fire um so that was that first push the fire has made its way up into the attic area which is the technically the third story of the building as part of those buildings have a loft area uh it had pushed all through there that whole deck was inaccessible for the most part and there was fire throughout the first floor and second floor units um these are some other pictures of the scene but that was where the command post was and then this is some firefighters working on the the alpha side roof uh this is some exterior visual of the damage after the fire was out so you can see the damage was extensive it affected both the structure as well as the contents of the building uh it was you know was really an incredible stop from our standpoint um we were able to put the fire out in a timely manner and and make a serious push trying to fire that otherwise would have taken that whole building out uh normally speaking those buildings that are stacked like that with those middle units that's the toughest fires we fight in this town for the most part other than our Rural Water Supply issues and so those fires it's key to get water on the fire fast and to have you know people that know the well train and know what they're doing and they can make a push on it uh it was a great save and like you guys heard there's still five people staying in their houses tonight because of it so uh it was huge help from all of our mutual Aid Partners which I won't list off because I'll end up forgetting someone but listed on our Facebook uh and and the kudos to them as well Chief were there 10 Mutual Aid um units responded is that there were seven companies total on scene uh and then there was I believe with both alarms there was a total of 12 yeah great great and I guess it's up to you to manage all the chaos with getting all that support coming in it's got to be organized yeah with the help of others um you know Jason Jason had operations of one side the fire side of the building so he did a great job organizing all the Manpower on that side and then we also have um somerson County Mutual Aid coordinators that come in and help coordinate some of the mutual Aid that's coming in so that it's easier to run the scene well I'm sure all the TC members will want to say something but I just want to say that on behalf of the township committee and bster Township uh we thank you guys for your work we always remember that all of our Hill Bedminster are volunteers and you put a hell a lot of time into training and being ready and requesting uh the appropriate apparatus from the township committee to support you guys and uh just you know um quidos to all of you and especially to you Chief and deputy chief Rik um and thank you sure thank you no and and I Know Chief Bernardo also heard reports and he just said that you guys the two of you were doing a great job of uh responding and keeping everything under control so thank you and thank you chief for those updates um any questions for chief Panza deputy chief gundik I guess my other question would be first off thank you Jake as you're writing your article please underline volunteer because I think a lot of people still in this town don't realize you guys are volunteers you've got day jobs and it's amazing but I mean was that typical by the way in terms of how quickly that building was engulfed when you got there I generally speaking those are most of the units in the hills are considered lightweight construction which is mainly glue and wood that's put together so you have vinyl siding you have a lot of things that burn very quickly and can uh you know can go go up like that so once again amazing sa I think mayor a woman pointed out to you I think when you were up there had the fire proceeded down that Hill filled with leaves and trees and fall of mogs life gets even worse so an amazing save in two respects um I guess just a dovetail with Rene's question is there anything else we should know so the speed bumps are one thing that is inhibiting your ability to respond for fire is there anything else the HOA should be doing we should be doing things to think about based on Lessons Learned out of this fire no just continuing to support us and continuing to make sure that we're getting all the apparatus and equipment we need you know you guys have been champions of the fire department for a while and this Committee in particular has supported us and so we appreciate that but absolutely it's uh getting people out we can staff Manpower we can do all of those things on that side it's just continuing to buy you know this very expensive equipment and um and making sure that we have the the best stuff so that we can keep being you know what I consider the best around so well thank you again for your time your dedication I I got to attend where your training sessions about a month ago it's amazing the amount of time that you guys have invested in this and and it's an exceptional job your training pays off obviously so thank you thank you obviously thank you everybody's been saying um I happen to live in a building just like that so I feel a whole lot safer knowing it took you what 10 minutes to put that fire out um just want to comment um if anybody else from the hills is listening that we had taken the speed bumps off of Hills Drive just for that reason and we weren't able to put them back on even though that does slow down the traffic which is nice but we want to make sure you guys can get to us and um I was just going to ask like Holland did is there anything else that we can be doing and as um as the HOA or homeowners um I know I'm in an EG unit so I'm in the corner I have the cement steps so those won't go up as fast I know we've been putting wood up the center ones because they have access from the other side um I don't know if there's rules about um fire retardant or stuff that goes on that but I'm sure there are things that we probably could be doing for you guys that would be helpful and if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to pass them along sure yeah no generally speaking um everything is is run well with the town you know Steve Dill does a great job doing fire inspections making sure that the buildings are what they should be unfortunately in those buildings they do go up quickly just because how they're built and it's uh we do what we can to put it out um but there's not much you can do to change that type of construction so and you know the the speed bumps is really not an issue for us in most cases just for some reason the way those are built in encampment they're not built correctly so they're very steep up very steep down um with no egress so you have to go well either destroy your vehicle going over it or you have to go you know two or three miles an hour I'm not sure if you've driven over them but they're oh yeah they're horrible they wrecked my old car yeah but we don't have them on Hills Drive just for for that reason was there a um the construction of those units based on their age did they have the appropriate fire brakes that you would see in today's construction yeah generally speaking what we saw with the one fire break that stopped the spread between two of the units was you know completely up to code it was functional it was it was all good it it probably is what stopped majority of the fire um coming around the outside what we'll always get in those units is as the siding Burns it'll loop around the outside and then expose it from that direction as opposed to coming through the inside because those are internal fire brakes not external um so it the fire always tends to make its way around the outside and up into the sopit in the Attic of the next I can see that where you guys got to the sofits in the front and there some damage there and sofits along the sides as well um but so the fire brakes work and this is also something uh you know that I think it's important that our residents here is that these fire brakes do work and when they're not there you probably would lost the entire building um Doug Gina any uh questions or comments for chief Penza deputy chief greny yeah thanks oh go ahead J go ahead no I just want to thank you guys again like you are really Heroes to so many people so it's just like amazing how well you do your job and uh we really really appreciate you that's all thank you Gina yeah and and a couple things one is I'm sorry I'm not there in person I certainly would love to um you know convey these messages to you face to face but uh preliminarily certainly my thoughts and prayers go out to the residents that lost belongings and that are temporarily displaced um you know they're certainly on our minds but for here and for now um too many times you know we throw the word awesome around and this is is awesome that's awesome but you know what's the definition of awesome it's all inspiring as I see the recap here and you see what you're dealing with and the the just the Ferocious nature of the blaze you can tell the heat just by looking at the picture um and then to see how you guys did this on a timeline and to get a true understanding of what you're up against and the volunteer aspect of it you know I I'm Tru truly inspired I'm I'm I'm put back here and I'm sort of at a loss of words because um you know as G says you guys are heroes um it's all well and good to say I want to be in the fire department until somebody tells you that you got to go actually extinguish a fire that like this and then it's it's game on and then the way you tackled it the way you handled it I even tie it back to like budget discussions and the the the the ladder truck right and the use of the ladder truck and how integral that was for this particular fire and how you talk about how this is the most challenging type of fire that you deal with it puts it all in perspective to me and it really brings it home and I I just can't be more thankful to you your team the first respond the the excuse me the mutual Aid responders um for looking out after everybody here and you know uh Chief you know we go back some ways to to watching little kids run around play basball right and to see you elevate to this position and leading Us in this most essential service I just I have so much admiration for you individually I and and I just um thank you so much um really impressive your whole team and and it's not often that I'm kind of left uh for a loss rewards but when I see this all happening and and what you did and what you saved and everything that happened and could have happened um I just uh I'm I'm just so thankful so thank you so much from everybody thank you Doug so once again thank you guys for everything you did what a great what a great response and um really you know we'll we'll get to the uh displacement and we'll bring um OEM coordinator Chris crra up next to talk about what happens immediately after the F and Chris you've got some updates and um some good stories of coordination with the build management and um their their response team yep Chris will turn it over to you so just to to start off um the you know you saw the pictures of the unit the fire um just a kudos to the Chiefs brienza and grandite because the way they ran that operation um to save half those units five families were able to return back um is when you see those pictures it's um it's unheard of um and that was the you know part of my role and job and for this incident was is knowing that five went back in um to their homes um so that was always you know that's a great sign and and for the record Chris is not only our OEM coordinator but he's also a firefighter with Far Hills Bedminster fire department as well um so I got on the scene shortly after 6:30 um so about that time every you know they were in what's called overhaul so the fire was out um all the residents were you know gathered and and most of them except step for two had already made arrangements to U find a place to stay um with either friends or family so I helped coordinate with the last two um that were there to find a place to stay uh for that night um and then reached out to our Red Cross contacts um over the weekend to start that process so they open up a ticket um we originally were coordinating myself the Wilkins um Management Group um our shelter coordinator also Robin um trying to figure out best way to get messaging out to them on what resources were available since they were all spread out um so we were able to uh make contact with everybody or at least reach out um and then the Red Cross um doubled their efforts and dialed them directly um for the next three days until they got hold of everybody um by that time most of the five displaced have already made arrangements with their insurance company so um they ultimately declined the services of Red Cross but the Red Cross did offer that you know if there's anything you need in the interim um you know please reach back out so they were pretty helpful there um so at this point um that part of the incident will be closing this Friday I believe there's just usually a two- week window um when a case is open that residents can reach out for assistance and then by that time the insurance companies have already jumped in so they're working with their reps there um so but given the structure um the damage you know the the management company will obviously take it from there advising the residents of what their options are long term and so I just another little fill in the Gap is um so during a situ a structur fire like this where um residents are involved B Tam buy from construction um he's the one who makes the decision whether or not the remaining units are habitable yeah and Vinnie was you know I think it was Chief you were giving me updates when Vinnie got there right so he was up there that evening yes yeah he arrived yeah about about 25 minutes after I did so and he went right to work uh assessing the units um with Steve Dill um went through and then he gave the okay to to flip the switch for five to to have the power turned back on and they could go back in that night right and I think that's also important I know I was also trading messages with uh with Ron Kennedy president of SM Hills BS of fire as well and that was sort of to get those folks back in it was critical that their utilities were there that water if gas or um electric that they were serviced separately not through the same line as everything else so the fact that they still had utilities meant that those structures could be habited that night so that is once again just um you know just what a great team effort of getting everyone out there including folks are able to return there so thanks again to Steve and Vinnie from uh Bedminster staff um so after effects so who's in control of the restoration at this point that's wilin yep so the wilin group is and they're working for the HOA insurance company so that part I'm not too familiar with and I know there's a master uh and then you have your homeowners so I don't know what the order of operations is on that part but um but um Gary was very helpful Gary wilin who was on the scene um he met with each resident explained everything to them that you know they'll be holding their hands and being in touch with them daily to help them through the process so and BR you've had um contact with um with the conduit Association and with wilin as well with wil yeah okay can you have any update from uh wilon just what Chris said that um Andrea was talking to the individual residents um someone was setting up some GoFundMe information um and that we we tried to get uh some floor plans and structure plans to them but they were not available as they are probably not with most of our neighborhoods um but I was able to send a couple four plans which gave them kind of an idea to help with uh deciding what needs to be destroyed and what can be uh reconstructed um and their construction guy said don't worry about it we hit this you know we get these things all the time so they'll take it from there okay so that that was all the the help that I could provide for them um but it sounded like they knew what they were doing okay and and once again you said there was a it was wilin management has actually established the GoFundMe account they took care of that and that's for the residents who were displaced correct once again questions comments from Township committee can hickey now just Chris thank you as as mayor mentioned you're a firefighter but you also have this other day job and thank you for the tremendous coordination um I'm sure the I know the families because some of them reached out and and and recognize that so thank you for all you do thank you for me as well the personal touch that we provide in this town is amazing as Doug said you know we use big fancy words but just thank you so much and I'm sure they all appreciate it a lot yep I just Chris you know in particular it it's you're like the perfect guy for this position because your approach uh and your way to interact with the public is spot on uh empathy uh competence professionalism it's all there um and again thank you for what you do and to some degree you have uh the longer more laborious job of trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together here as best we can and it's it's a a true Community effort but someone has to lead and thank you for taking the spear and carrying it um you're doing a phenomenal job you are a great Steward of Bedminster so thank you for what you're doing thanks any comments same Chris I just want to say you know thank you for you know when it really counts you're there and uh that means a lot to everyone and you're a great leader in our community and I just you know uh genuinely just want to thank you for all you do thank you we'll let you guys go on with the rest of your night you know have there's no alarms going off so you're all go home and relax and once again on behalf of B Mr Township committee thank you for everything you guys do the water supply it's just the water supply B Bell is we pick on them all the time but that water supply makes a difference up there too the condominiums in the Hills or the whole Hills development that was well thought out 35 years ago sidewalks weren't we know that okay speed bumps weren't there was no residential sighten Improvement standards back then you did your own ordinances back then you made some mistakes in some of those neighborhoods with all that was built but the one thing that's good up there and in the lower part of the Hills is water and the water supply makes a difference over there so we used a fair amount and we tied in the hydr are only 300 foot apart from each other everywhere in there so hydrant were really easy to get to and it still goes back to when you plan things out of all you that have sat on planning boards for a long time is that really works up in the hills so our water supply Paul did do a lot of work in making that happen so but the water supply in the Hills is really well done and that makes a difference snow and confidence too that if that fire got bigger that we have a fair amount of of water to fight fires that get bigger in that complex other condominiums in other parts of this County do not and you struggle with that where you go in and you go to fight a fire and you only have X number of gallons of water and then it becomes a problem the hills is quite well done were the hydrant in good shape because there are a couple I've seen walking around my neighborhood that they don't look so great but they're big cast iron things they might be fine they just look yeah terrible to me I'm GNA ask you not all that we found them in the past we had a carire probably a couple of years ago we could be 10 years ago where we couldn't find the hydrant on our map that says there's where the hydrant is and the bush is already run around so to get to that hydrant we had to take chainsaws and cut the shrubs out to get to the hydrant the other hydrants we've had I think it was in Village Green we had one of the hydrant of the six we tied into that was winter time too we couldn't get that but then there's should hi yeah remember we actually had that discussion with the Village Green Fire is that was I forget if it was in a snow bank or something piled into or or just piled up Snow and it was a it was problematic for you guys when you talk about things that could be done with the post associations two things are trees are a big problem for us okay but you're not going to put all trees okay but that becomes we're not allowed to town won't let us but that becomes as they got bigger and bigger now 35 40 years old they're bigger the aerial truck gets in there and it's hitting things and we're bouncing all over the place we can't get it up this one we didn't have a problem we got the arel in and there wasn't trees in our way other times we've had some Trea that's one hydrants that don't work it's just lack of Maintenance and I'm not sure if that's the water company you pay a fortune for what company means okay getting them to do it or the association the association should be clearing three foot in every direction around the H they don't those shrugs have grown until so that's a that's something minor but it can be done and then the maintenance of those good luck the work they'll just charge you your $300 or $600 hydrant but that's a whole other issue because I saw a hydrant the other day that like the bolts that hold it to the pipe that comes out of the ground they look like they were all rotted off so it looks like you would take you know a wrench open that faucet up and the whole thing's going to just go over and if they're not you know they're not regularly tested which they should be um whether that's the association where the water company it could be a problem they do a regular flushing but I don't know if that's the same thing okay okay thank you Ron thank you everyone once again thank you for your response and that goes to all the First Responders that Mr PD as well you don't have to leave there there're so meeting we'll hold you to that I love it we have one set of meeting minutes to approve that's the April 1st 2020 4 Township committee meeting not one of our budget meetings any comments questions regarding those minutes seeing none take a motion to approve the minutes for April 1 2024 oh come on go ahead dog you do the second I'm just kidding second thank you all in favor I'm abstaining from the I was not at the meeting we have three Raffles to approve an on- premise 50/50 raffle it's benit Special Olympics New Jersey on June 17 2024 from 10: a.m. to 700 pm at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club next is an on- premise 50/50 raffle to benefit the state troopers fraternal Association of New Jersey Foundation New Jersey fraternal Association New Jersey Foundation on July 22 2024 at 5:00 pm located at Trump National Golf Club and then the last is an off premise 5050 raffle to benefit the Pottersville Volunteer Fire Company on December 14 2024 at 8:00 P.M at the Pottersville Volunteer Fire Company in Pottersville any questions comments regarding those Raffles seeing none take a motion to approve so moved second all in favor we have U our monthly report discussions by subcommittee chair committe M Stevenson we'll start with you thank you mayor uh good evening everybody sorry I'm not there uh so Kevin and his team continue to work on our Fields uh prep them for the spring uh we continue to work on the roads as it continues to rain and rain um I guess we're also working toward is completing our quote for the roof uh so that's good um and then we've got an update on the bathrooms for River Road they're going to be delivered uh tomorrow it it sounds like and the estimated time for having those up and running will be next week so hopefully that'll uh run smoothly and I believe that's all we've got I've got uh histor pration coming up and I'll have a report on that uh next meeting Doug I just want to briefly turn to Kevin Murray to talk about the Pavilion that's being constructed over at River Road The Pavilion is completed it is in concrete St it's been backfilled grass was put down I did not put my initials or my into this wet cement even though you you suggested I do that I put in there um so that's complete uh there was one punch ticket item uh that I think Neil sent an email on but besides that it looks great I think they did a wonderful job with it when are you bringing uh electricity to it uh shooting for next week or the following it'll be done prior to weather dependent will be done prior right right right Market great okay nice thank you for that g Miss Dragon a generator out every Saturday you still can still in gap we won't turn it on we'll just oh yeah there it'll be out there on right it's not that bad oh yeah you say that sure I did it when it's hot well that's she she do committ thank you good evening all Board of Health we have a meeting this Thursday uh and speaking of the farmers market they'll have a table at the Farmers Market on Saturday uh June 29th they're going to have the following on hand first off they're going to have rate on information and coupons for free test kits they're also going to be handing out excuse me rabies information and what to do if a back gets into your house having a daughter who just spent her last semester in an old New England house I can emphatically state that an ounce prevention is much much cheaper than a pound of cure particularly when insurance doesn't cover it so that Rab's information will be valuable they'll also have emergency resources and emergency supply kit flyers and finally information on how to maintain your septic or well so that will be on the 20 9 uh of June and mayor that's all I have right now great many woman mesy thank you mayor continuing with the farmers market theme uh the environmental commission will be taking advantage of the Farmers Market on June 88th and having Flyers um for the well testing done by Ron headquarters um they should there'll be somebody there from EC uh most of the day uh also setting up at Farmers Market EC will have Flyers about uh recycling because apparently our recycling rules are a little complicated and not everybody is following them and the county um would like us to so uh EC will bring bring out some information and put that uh put that up at the farmers market um they're still working on having a raptor night um they would love to get the birds out here we're just having a little bit of trouble because the uh Birds really do need to be inside somewhere and I don't think this room is appropriate it's still too a little too new um so they're working on uh perhaps uh pingry or the willow schools so we're they're continuing to go down uh that road and um that's about it I have a jbh meeting on Wednesday and I'll report back after that great committee woman Fernandez uh thank you mayor um so I just wanted to recap on the Easter egg hunt um that took place on Saturday March 30 um and uh there were 20 2,750 eggs um placed out in the field and it was a a lovely day I was there and um it the Easter Bunny was in attendance and um the Far Hills Bedminster fire department the Bedminster Township DPW and um members of the recreation committee did a wonderful job helping set up the event so I just wanted to recognize all of them um also a huge thanks to um Team Welsh uh Far Hills Pharmacy Trump National Golf Club Far Hills Bedminster fire department and the bur of Far Hills and the tach of Bedminster for sponsoring events it was a lovely Town Event um there's a met a medication management presentation that um Josh O'Neal from the Somerset County Office on Aging Disability Services uh will be holding on Thursday September 19th at 12:00 noon at the Clarence Dyan library and it's available to adults over the age of 60 and there's no fee to attend a lot of spring programs are taking place right now we have soccer clinics taking place at burnt Mills Park and the Lego engineering and coding after school program was held on Thursdays at Bedminster school and Camp is coming summer camp registration began on Monday April 1st uh Camp Bedminster has more participants registered at this time than they did last year at this time and uh 7 in the afternoon camps are at maximum capacity already and so that's awesome and uh the facilities uh 20 by 20 Pavilion was installed at River Road and two clus composting restrooms will be delivered tomorrow Tuesday April 16th um and that's all that's a lot that's a lot yeah well I I wasn't at the April 1 meeting so had to recap all that so from uh some from my end um land use um we had meeting last week and we haven't had one of these in a while it was actually an interpretation of zoning ordinance regarding a potential application coming into the PAC Gladstone Bank in Pottersville and the question involved um the a potential Baker use which is a permitted use um in conjunction with other uses at that same building including the uh residential on the second floor uh the consensus of the land use board was that u a bakery at that property would be consistent with the zoning ordinance it was approved unanimously and U the expectation is that after some site plan issues are worked out we may be seeing a site plan application for a bakery at the PAC Le Stone building right at the corner of Black River in poville and um Hackle Barney road so that' be very exciting uh for p and maybe they'll want to go to the farmers market and I believe I got a note during the presentation from um commit St commit hit sorry for that uh saying Farmers marget um so we'll certainly see and uh the other application will was a uh C variance for expansion of a um residence which was also unanimously approved do have a library board meeting coming up tomorrow and we did have a this is really a subcommittee but we did have a meeting uh with the Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee and uh so that was the mayors of the surrounding towns and several of the police Chiefs and we talked about um where we all are on the adoption of the uh call the Breakin ordinance or or toh stop the car thefts uh and we talked about some other elements um that are also going out there or certainly other public safety issues to consider um once again the installation of the license plate readers and cameras at critical um roads uh leading into all the Somerset Hills um what the other towns are working on and um and also some legislation that is uh down in Trenton that may help police in their efforts to comat to combat uh some of these criminal activities that we've been reading about and maybe a little bit later on when we get to Chief if you don't mind giveing a little update on some the issues that you've been looking at to the community policing report uh and that's what I have from my end M Ray may we please have the open I'm sorry the administrator's report sure um so since our last meeting bedst Township experienced a 4.8 earthquake and several aftershocks and a lunar eclipse as well as that damaging fire in the Hills as this um the with regard to the Earth earthquake I just wanted to mention that um Kevin Murray was all over it he immediately was out inspecting all of our buildings did a fantastic job he conducted a very thorough investigation of all of our facilities and he documented all the damages reported everything to the um insurance company right away and actually he met with the um uh appraiser today to assess all of our damages so I just wanted to say thank you to Kevin because he really was he jumped right on it we we saw assessment um literally within really hours yeah from the first incident you're out there you showed us pictures of your inspection and you really were right on top of it and the same is true for Rodney thank you for being here tonight so you could hear this but um Rodney you know backed that right up um they went out they inspected the sewer plant because that's a major infrastructure for Bedminster Township um Rodney immediately reached out to the Sewer utility committee as well as the sewer transmission Advisory Board in the neighboring town so just wanted to say thank you to both of them for staying on top of it and keeping us safe um so we spent the uh last week wrapping up our last budget meeting and then um Debbie and I worked on this userfriendly budget which is you all each have a copy which is just another way to look at the budget it's supposed to be for um the average resident to be able to take a look and see where the bulk of the municipality's expenses are personally I don't find it very easy to read yeah yeah this is the uh user friendly budget yes it's it's just a different way of looking at the information rather than putting it in one pocket it splits things up into five different pockets and um it really is quite confusing so I just want to make sure that this will be posted on our website tomorrow for everybody to uh look at um and uh we have a uh the actual Budget on for consideration this evening which we will discussing after seven meetings that was a a lot of work by the township committee and all the department heads so I want to thank everybody um we as a result of the fire um we took a look at our information again of the hills Conta so I'm in the process of working with all the HOA presidents I'm almost done two more neighborhoods and we're completely finished with updating our list to make sure we have every piece of detail we have several lists in the municipalities just merging everything together and this will be a live document that we update quarterly with the different um HOAs and the property manager since there's so many changes on a regular basis um also uh the HPC has been working on a grant with our Municipal planner uh Frank banish that's actually um will be submitting that this Thursday April 18th it's a New Jersey historic trust Municipal County and Regional planning Grant which allows um local uh Municipal historic preservation um committees and commissions to be able to put um update their ordinances their local ordinances so um this is is a a grant to help us get a planner to help us update our ordinances so that's due on on Thursday and just one other update um we both Far Hills Bedminster fire and Potterville Volunteer Fire applied for the uh appreciation for fire fighters Grant and as of today um the grants are now if you made it through the first um pass and you go on to the second stage which is actual panel review I did reach out to our FEMA coordinator he's checking to where we are in the process if we if our two companies have made it through the next so hopefully I have some good news after the next me um there was uh over 6,000 companies applied for the grant 6,000 applicants federally which is a big number over $3 billion worth of funding was requested so we'll see what happens very competitive Grant and that concludes my report so fire earthquake floods lunar eclipse budget lunar eclipse budget and more budget meetings um so Robin you know it's funny with all the talk about fire and certainly the flood issues that K's been dealing with um the earthquake which that I believe that last um that last Tremor was centered in Bedminster right off of long Lane by Black River Road so um yeah here we are when you're hearing about the epicenter and they're talking about 5 miles Northwest of White House 3 miles south Gladstone and you're like wait a second that's that's us that's right here oh my goodness um so yeah it it is funny how you know just a just a week later it's like oh yeah yeah the Earth by way and we had so so much going on uh and Robin you talked about the seven budget meetings you know I've been on Township committee uh for 12 years and we've never gone to seven budget meetings or so this isal budget we're capital budget we were at capital budget y until that last meeting and then we went to capital budget z um but thank you Robin and to all the directors from um staff and from our volunteer organizations who showed up to talk about their needs talk about prioritization and Robin thank you to you thanks again to you for hearing the township committee taking our um comments back coming back again and again with different iterations of the capital budget the operating budget uh working with um our Auditors and our CFO to bring us to the point where we are and when we're ready to introduce we'll do summary of it but certainly we know how much work went into this so thank you for the there thank you Chief Bernardo community policing and any other updates you have for us yes may the police youth week um it uh registration is open it's going to be an afternoon uh choice for the summer camps that's going to be July 22nd through the 26th from 1: P p.m. to 400 p.m. each day for grades 6 through 8 um we can have up to 20 participants um there is a fee and we're hoping that people take advantage of it it should be fun and also who who's going to be running that um probably uh officer Smith dcole couple other folks sprinkled in this good mix right there they're the lead officers they have a relationship with the kids so that's great easier uh for them to they already have like a report but we'll all get involved it's usually we used to do it when I when I started it was a lot of fun even for the [Laughter] police um hopefully tomorrow the next day we're going to be uh publishing on our um website the home security self assessment tool that the mayor and I are pushing out uh basically anybody a resident or anybody can um do a self assessment of uh their security at their house and it has best practices and tips um and it's user friendly um and basically uh it provides a tool to see where you're at and you can plan and provide like a meeting schedule to get to where you want to be to have a more secure uh setting of your home so that should be coming out hopefully tomorrow yeah that that's great I think this is this is tremendous we know that certainly some other um local agencies have implemented this with uh great response from the residents get Bedminster please to come out to assess your home make recommendations suggestions as to what you can do um to really to make sure that you are in good shape and I think this a great great um great opportunity once again bring bsiness police out into the community helping our residents make these assessments Chief I think that's a great idea just love it and we're also working on some programs to assist um our most vulnerable residents residents that usually are confined to their homes due to medical issues or ones that don't have friends or family close by we're working on some programs catered specifically for that so more to come the next few weeks just finalizing some details that's great thank you Chief Bernardo we have two ordinances to introduce tonight first is ordinance 20242 which amends chapter 13 intitled Land Development and this would uh change the section 13502 on storm water management and if approved the public hearing will be scheduled for May 6 2024 and the second ordinance that we may consider for introduction is ordinance 20243 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget Appropriations limit and to establish a cap bank if so needed and once again if this ordinance is introduced tonight public hearing would be scheduled for May 6 M Ray want to uh just quickly um discuss the storm water management ordinance uh sure so um as you know January 1st of 2023 the new rules went into effect effect for storm water management um and this ordinance is a is a direct result of those changes it just brings us current in our land use rules for uh Land Management there isn't one thing that jumps out at me it's all it's the whole thing it's a very big ordinance yes and completely replaces our existing section there'll be more to come over the next um month or so as well that's to this I did have a quick discussion with um Paul ferero this afternoon asking if there were any more uh State mandates coming out of the U storm Lo perminate and he said no he said once this um ordinance is adopted he thinks we'll comply with all the other requirements that the state has uh if there's no further questions or comments take a motion to introduce ordinance 2024 002 so moved second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey I miss moresi I miss Fernandez I and mayor Jacobs hi thank you the public hearing for ordinance 2024 002 will be scheduled for May 6 and then the P Bank ordinance Robin you just want to once again walk us through this sure um the uh local government Finance laws allow us to um municipality that we can't um increase our set budget by two and a half percent um unless we um have c bank which we have established each year we can use C Bank up the last three years I believe it is um this year we actually do need to um have a 1% increase in their budget for the said year which is about $888,000 which is an excess of our two and a half uh percent cap so we are using a portion of our cap Bank um from the prior year to be able to um present the budget for this year any further questions regarding the introduction of the ordinance seeing none take a motion to approve or well introduce introduce ordinance 20243 so moved second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey hi Miss I'm Sorry Miss moresi hi Miss Fernandez hi and mayor Jacobs I thank you and the public hearing for ordinance 2024 003 will be six 7 o' in these Chambers we have no public hearing for ordinances we have one two three four resolutions on the consent agenda does any member of the township committee want to pull any of those items off for individual consideration seeing none I'll take a motion to approve the items on the consent agenda so moved second we'll call the vote again please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi Miss Fernandez hi and mayor Jacobs I thank you the one resolution that is up for consideration is resolution 22457 which is the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget and public hearing for the res for the budget will be on May 20 2024 um Robin is this the resolution that we have to read into record um no it's not oh good this is um this budget will actually this is just the advertisement for the budget that's going to go in the newspaper which is what you have which is a summary of the changes from this year over last year okay so with that can we have someone move resolution 202 24057 the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget so moved second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi Miss Fernandez hi and mayor Jacobs hi thank you thank you and may have a motion to approve the bill list pending review of individual invoices second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey hi Miss moresi hi Miss Fernandez hi and mayor Jacobs I thank you so we do have a matter that I put up for new business I received a um request from Senator steinhardt asking for support um in the form of a municipal resolution for Senate Bill 725 which would uh criminalize the unlawful occupancy of a dwelling also known as squatting um certainly we've heard about squatting incidents um in the news and when I when I first got this um I flipped it over to um Chief Bernardo and to uh John Bardo Our Town attorney for their thoughts I think everyone knows that you know as a general rule um not necessarily in favor of um symbolic resolutions because I really think they they do anything um but it was interesting the issue of squatting is not something that happens elsewhere we've had squatting situations um in Bedminster and so I thought that it was certainly something worthwhile uh to discuss um I know that there's uh been at least one incident um the details we probably cannot go into but I did ask the chief uh to briefly talk about it in in in general um the issues in dealing with uh squatters and the impacts they can have on both Bedminster PD and certainly on time constraints and dedication of resources as well as what it can do to um communities so turn it over to uh Chief Bernardo ex just one second I just to point out to it's in your new business I mean in your correspondence section it should be the second item of Correspondence and I did prepare a resolution um for the next meeting if you're so inclined to move forward and by the way I did also send that same uh since we are in Senator steinhardt's legislative district but many of the other towns Somerset Hills Public Safety are not so I'm not sure that they would have received that same uh request from Senator seart but I did forward it to um everyone on the Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee so back to you Chief sorry oh yeah wrong um yeah in my career I've dealt with this issue at least twice that I could recall and it's very frustrating because from the property owners perspective they don't understand that um there's really no laws and there's no enforcement that we can help them with and it's very frustrating as a police officer to tell somebody you know sir man I really feel for you but I can't help you and we have to refer them to hire an attorney and go to civil court and it's it's extremely frustrating to watch it to deal with it and the two incidents is that we had were an extreme uh time restraint for my officers and basically we just went there to keep the peace um it's a it could happen again it it happens more often than you would think it really doesn't end up in paper a lot of times um but this is a serious issue that I hope that loophole gets closed through legislation because like I said as an officer to tell somebody I'm sorry I can't help you is the worst thing that uh for us and it's very frustrating for the property owners and for us um and it's a huge expense for the property owner it could be lost you know Grant to linol they can't sell the house can't move in the house it's a it's a really terrible situation and just to watch it happen for over a year in this one in one particular case was very frustrating and it was sad so so Chief have you looked through um the legislation that steinhardt is supporting I did not so maybe um you and John Bardo so maybe with commit Stevenson can um get together go through that and come back maybe at the next meeting with recommendations to proceed John uh did you get a chance to look at uh that legislation I have not yet had a chance to look at that mayor but I will okay so let's uh go ahead John no no I was just me I was saying the same for me I haven't seen it but I will and I'll I'll Circle back with the chief and Mr okay so let's let's get that for the next meeting you guys can coordinate Doug I'll leave it to you and the chief to coordinate with uh with John and then make uh some recommendations back to the TC and also all the TC members have a copy of that as well so you can make your own uh decisions but I think it'd be good certainly to hear from both uh John Bardo and the chief who have dealt with this issue um personally okay so we'll come back to this next meeting meeting um old business uh dot improvements um Chief we did get a response from Meredith yes after her group said yeah we can change the timing and then Meredith came back and said you want us to change the timing but yes so it's progress it's progress it's progress so pathetic so do we're on the chief Chief and I were on it and we'll continue and and direct Merida to the fact that dot staff already suggested the timing change so we'll keep pushing on that um utilities speaking of earthquake can we blame it on Jason pnl uh no but uh towards that end I I I did reach out to the utilities after the earthquake and none of them reported any damage at least immediately resulting from the earthquake so good news again here in bedm uh I do have a couple of updates uh first off on Alti um I continue to pursue uh the issue of existing Optimum customers who are unable to order the new Fiber service online so they built it but unfortunately the customers can't come that applies to the four developments in Hills Village North where the construction has already been completed the good news is Alti is going to set up a special coner line to assist bedm residents with ordering so the agents will be knowledge on the bedm build and the new pricing schedule which by the way in general is about 30% cheaper than the existing hybrid fiber coax service so that's good news for our residents wa so the fiber yes the highspeed fiber is cheaper is cheaper correct so that was a rate schedule they published on January 7th of this year um I'm sure in part is to encourage customers to migrate towards a service that's easier to maintain manage Etc and provides better service better reliability so it's a it's a win-win all around um they also requested a public space where they could set up an information desk to answer questions help customers who are interested in making the upgrade so I've been working with the Master Association up there um we thought at the clubhouse The Hills Village North and and they thought the clubhouse would be a great place to do it and and they are gonna and bers M we could but remember this is something that we want to do sooner rather than later and it's for a specific set of customers meaning it's the folks in Hills Village North right now so if we can get those Folks up there get them the information answer the questions they need then they can we do at the farmers market we have all the folks from Basking Ridge ask when they're getting it yes yes that's true so we will coordinate get that done uh just a quick update on New Jersey American Water we're working on an issue uh where customer in the hills are calling New Jersey American Water asking to turn off their water service because they're moving or they have an emergency and New Jersey American water is saying sorry not us call the town so yes it's an ongoing issue for the past and do you do those calls get directed to you Kevin yeah I'm like oh Noe you got to call the water company and when they tell you it's the town tell them no it's not the town right the obviously the agent has a script is reading from the script oh bedm oh no no don't call us so Robin has heard this I've gotten the calls we had somebody who had a flooding kitchen a couple months ago oh yeah they're just telling me to call you guys I'm like no for water turned off you have to go right to New Jersey American Water we need to work this issue so they've got to update their scripts theyve got to update their process internally we'll get on it and see what we can figure out but they do come to our neighborhood dig out where the dirt has covered over the little holes or the the caps you turn the water off from they Dy it in blue so they know those are there and that they belong to them why would they tell that's that's yeah exactly it's a field Group yeah the call center has a script they follow the script call comes in this is what I said it's what it is so that script needs to be updated call comes in from an NPA excuse me a number that's Bedminster here's where it goes and may that's all I've got Kevin real quick any update on psng and um old Stonehouse no uh radio silence as for the last conversation I with Brian wild so I reached out to my rest he says I'm also R silence for gas line from generator and uh not a lot of Headway so the paving of old Stonehouse is waiting on correct the gas line installation yes Ma so we're all waiting on PS at this point yes okay like an underlying issue um very similar with fer Road when they ran the gas line um Brad B back in Gladstone Public Works he uh he mirrored what we did for payment L of Paving for the water company and for the gas to keep everything in house so one town would be doing the paving for that section from Holland to where it transfers the dirt keep at spearheading that yes P Paving we'll do it gladley American Water Meed on their side of the road PSG radio silence Okay so okay so underlying issue with them unfortunately huckman Park Housing we're going to leave that with uh Stevenson and attorney Bardo I've already reported on the Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee uh we do have an executive session uh it should be brief uh we will go through Township committee comments adjourn to Executive session and then come back to public session for final cise um Township committee comments we'll start with commitment Stevenson thank you mayor um my comments this evening are directed to Kevin Murray um Kevin you were all over the earthquake and um first off my apologies for not addressing this during my um update on DPW of course I get caught up in everything that you and your team are doing and I forget to recognize the the man at the steering wheel you are you had the report circulated immediately and it was one of those things like okay this is under control it never even sort of made it to the front front or lobe if you will of my mind of that we have an issue here because you all over it so my apologies for you being a victim of your own successes um but well done you continue to ring the bell and I have to say um whether it's an an weekend day or some godforsaken hour of the night uh you're always responsive and you're always there to address issues and to foresee things and and um I just want to let you know that yes I report on everything you do and your your the DPW folks and your team are doing but uh it's not mistaken for one second that uh you're the leader behind it all and and you've got us rowing in the right direction here so thank you for everything you do that's all I've got thank you thanks sir by the way Kevin it's also a volunteer firefighter in Two Towns or just one uh two two towns so not just here not just here in far in Far Hills with Far Hills Bedminster but also with and he's he's also a a Youth Athletic coach yes and a dad I will say kudos to uh two other public work staff who were the three of us were staying at the firehouse Friday after work the day we had the fire uh to do a check out on the rig so that's a big part of why we got out so fast so kudos to them for you know not living in town but you know also putting in the time so we appreciate all your support but they do give a lot back to so great Kudos best thank you commit hickey thank you mayor well first off our volunteers are amazing as we've seen tonight we've heard tonight so thank you to all them once again and also just to Echo the mayor's comments Robin the folks the 10 folks are in here they know it because they watch it as we do the budget meetings but we ask you all kinds of obscure questions data points analysis you're getting hit from every direction it's amazing that you have it either in the box at the snap of your fingers or you run back to your office and you find it and figure it out but it helps informs the discussion and gets us to the right place thank you for your diligence thank you for your efforts thank you just being for so comprehensive so can deliver for the bedm residence here you're in and your out thank you thank you very much may that's all I apprciate thank you committee women moresi thank you mayor so thank you goes out to all our First Responders our firefighters our first aid um responders our DPW our Sewer Authority you guys are amazing um and it's always appreciated by our residents even if they don't even know what's going on behind the scenes because you guys are so good and so fast um um thank you as always and Robin thank you so much for putting up with the five of us for Budget um we ask you lots of questions as Colin said but we are just doing what we were elected here to do is take care of our residents and take care of their pennies and boy those pennies crying this year um but I think we all did a pretty good job and I just want to say I'm so proud to work with this Township committee and everybody here who uh participated in the budget process I think we did a good job and have a good night thank you committee woman Fernandez I'm going last again so everyone has said everything but yeah just you know to all of our First Responders um you really are just heroes in our community and just like a genuine thank you from not only a Township Committee Member but also a resident in our town and Robin yeah there's no words to describe like how amazing you are so just thank you for all your hard work and keep keep doing what you do thanks Gina thank you appreciate that I know um from tonight it was just really that 10 minute from the first dispatch to actually putting water on the fire that's crazy I I recommend um to all the TC members go up to encampment and and you'll see that it is on it's the middle of encampment on the the fire was on the rear of the building facing the woods encampment is narrow you've got cars parked on it and the fact that they were able to manage that situation Kevin you're the only fire uh firefighter here remaining but it was just obviously that there was a hell a lot of um management and skill ABS in in that response and you know once again talking to uh the neighbor um one of whom was in the building um and the others were from adjacent buildings or from Village I'm sorry from Parks side and they were all talking about what a great response how quick they were and how professional um so thank you to all you guys so U let's put fires and floods and earthquakes Eclipse protests in the streets I don't know what else just like put that behind us smooth moving smooth moving for the rest of uh 2024 the cicas are coming EXA cicas are coming and um with that I'll take a motion to adjourn to Executive session and it's 8:17 all in favor thank you thank you we'll be coming back to public session for fin German for the meths are we going to go back in no we can say here okay than you guys thank you good night Rodney two quick questions okay Rodney you look good man we're still recording Robin I remember stop it thanks for the reminder um no it is 8:28 and the township committee has returned from our executive session we have no further business to conduct this evening take a motion to adjourn so moved that was a second second all in favor I thank you and good night thank you everybody good night good night I'll be down in the morning thank you I'll stop over tomorrow Robin oh you know what I had um Renee sign yours because we had one that was timely okay perfect thank you so much thank you okay