e e thank I open the Bernard's Township committee meeting for March 12th 2024 please stand for the flag salute I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu One Nation God indivisible andice for all the opening meeting statement adequate notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in municipal building one col your lane Basking Ridge on the township website and email to the Bernardsville news whiy The Courier News Bridgewater tap into to.net patch.com and filed with the Township Clerk on December 18 2023 any motion to go into closed session will include that the matters discussed it such closed session will be disclosed to the public when such matters are finally determined that there is no further reason to prohibit the public from disclosures of information relating to such matters I'm now reading the meeting rules adopted by Township committee no new business will be introduced after 10:30 p.m. no public comment will be ex excuse me public comment will be accepted at all meetings speakers will be limited to 5 minutes each all meetings will adjourn no later than 11:30 p.m. Christie roll call please MRT McCarthy present Miss Fields here mayor AC here Mr MCN and Mr Bowman are excused this evening thank you Christie do we have any executive session this evening none this evening mayor then that brings us to presentations resolution ing Ridge High wrestling team 2024 New Jersey group 4 state champions North 2 group 4 sectional Champions sumerset County Champions Virginia dwes National division third place so thank you to everyone for being here we are extremely excited to celebrate these young men and their amazing accomplishment I just want to share um we have both a resolution to present as well as a proclamation from uh Congressman C so we'll be able to present those here in just a bit but what we'd like to do now is just make a few remarks here on the dasas before we vote on this resolution um I've been watching from afar the accomplishments that these young men have made um and they are historic there have been some great um accomplishments that we haven't seen for decades and so I just want to just give a brief for those that may not is familiar our young men on the wrestling team are Somerset County Champions as of 2024 the first time since 1988 they achieved the north to group four sectional champions in 2024 the first time since 1986 and then one of the Capstone is the 2024 group 4 state champions the first time since 1986 and to add to that they accomplished the Virginia duels National division third place I as um a mother of an athlete I fully appreciate the years that the students the athletes pour into these types of accomplishments they don't get there by themselves they get there through the commitment of their amazing coaches all along the way as well as their amazing parents for the years of transporting these folks wherever they needed to be um as well gentlemen I fully recognize that you just don't wake up and do this wrestling requires tremendous sacrifice and discipline not only from an athletic athletic perspective but just being able to meet things like weight class just adds that extra little thrill to make things even more challenging so um we couldn't be more proud of the accomplishments that you made and so what I'd like to do now is I will ask my colleagues on the deis for any additional comments that they'd like to make before we do a vote thank you mayor congratulations to our fearless wrestlers who fought their way to a winning year your dedication and drive to succeed not just physically but mentally in every match truly has been inspirational you should be proud of this remarkable moment and cherish the victories that you secured for yourself and for your team may you continue to wrestle through life successfully and continue to Foster the friendships that you've made along this incredible journey and to the seniors of this team it's not goodbye forever so we all wish you good luck in all your future endeavors you have come to the end of the season let's acknowledge and appreciate a pinning combination your family and coaches their encouragement and sacrifices have helped secure a winning season congratulations thank you mayor I wanted to also had comments I too I'm a proud Ridge parent and I can just imagine the pride and success and achievement that all of you have that are here tonight um my family were all retired athletes at this point but we were all athletes in high school and my husband has a painting on the wall that I had made for him because he's very competitive that says it doesn't matter how you play the game as long as you win now that's a little bit of a play on a very famous quote um from grantlin Rice which was an early American sport SPS writer of um it doesn't matter whether you win or lose it's how you play the game and you are winners and we are so incredibly proud of that and I can imagine also the lessons you've learned the sacrifices you've made there were defeats along the way and and what you have to kind of pause and rebuild and pivot from that and so what you've learned will just help you so much as you go on as young men into your communi so we couldn't be prouder of you you represented us as home home team as an away team your ambassadors of our community and just super congratulations on this extraordinary achievement and as my colleagues have said to the coaches to your parents for the support that they provided you so congratulations may I have a motion so moved second Christie roll call please miss darty McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried so what we'd like to do now we'd ask um coach Dragon to please come up we would like for him to acknowledge the names on this resolution and for them to please come up as their name is called we will do a photo once everyone is up in front of the Des thank you we appreciate the uh recognition and uh I'd like to say before I start calling them off that we have a great group of athletes and a great group of young men so I'll start calling them up uh Captain Kevin Taylor Captain Gavin Duran Captain will Corbett Captain Joe San Tanner Conelly Owen oy Cal Reynolds Matt cash Lenny poo Gavin Ryan Yang Izzy Imperial Ryan angle ree Carelli Alex sched Jared mark Dave cah Sam gin JT Kim Alex montian Anthony Valera Nate angal geese artoro Ray Cooper Chris Oliver and our coaches Steve dobert Taylor Bower Ron rumsby and our manager Rachel angle so gentlemen um in addition so we we'll ask you to scooch a little closer when we do the photos um but as as so we have a resolution to share with all of your names to memorialize this for the decades to come to see uh so you will never be forgotten for this amazing accomplishment Congressman Kan uh has provided us this Proclamation and if I just may read just a little bit um in general um the team exhibited resilience and determination overcoming a significant deficit to claim victory and showcase the two spirit of Athletics and whereas under the leadership of their coaches and captains the rich high school wrestling team exemplified the values of teamwork perseverance and Excellence therefore be it proclaimed that I Congressman Tom Kane Jr of the seventh congressional district of New Jersey officially Rec recognize the achievements of the Ridge High School wrestling team for their remarkable achievement I commend the coaches athletes and supporters whose dedication at hard work contributed to this historic Victory and wish them continued success in all of their future endeavors gentlemen congratulations may I present this to you condense a little bit and then you can would you like to stand in front sure I'll stand if we can yeah coach you want to be in front with let's do it again next year okay we about get their pictures gentlemen thank you so much again congratulations thank you for coming and love the hair congratulations thank you so much we just need our Township attorney back on the de and we will proceed it I didn't mean to call you out I was I was asking if any of wrestle Le a there you go he's trying to recruit that's John they're going to Lafayette recruting couple Lafayette guys there ladies you're up next and just as you saw as soon as the presentation is done you are also welcome to leave so um you're also welcome to stay I know it's riveting uh but you know you have other things to to do I'm sure so if we move on to the next presentation please resolution 2024-the dasas for any comments that they'd like to share okay all right um sure I'll start so congratulations to all the scouts their leaders and their families that support their participation uh personally I loved being a scout I was a member of the Girl Scout troop in Summit nearby and our Patrol was called the ratfinks I have very fond memories of our camping trips um up at Sunfish Pond learning how to pitch tents how to uh make fires using our mes kits to cook dinner but more importantly um you know earning the badges it was such a sense of Pride and in reflecting on girl scouting it's I think it really appr propo U so to the extent that folks know Girl Scouts began back in 1912 and it was based upon uh the founder Juliet Gordon low had a meeting with Sir Robert Baden Powell who was founder of the Boy Scouts and beli strongly that everything Girl Scouts should do should unlock their full potential potential and raised their confidence and girl scatting has continued to provide that experience and this is such important um opportunities for young women to learn skills build friendships and learn about leadership and working in teams uh there's are great life skills that will serve you well and it's also appropo we're celebrating you in women's History Month um it's a time to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of women we are so very proud of all that you do for our community and it's wonderful to have you here tonight for this resolution so congratulations thank you it's such an honor to to um recognize girl scouting um I wrote a little something so um Girl Scouts holds a very special place in my heart because I was a Cadet as it is written in the Girl Scout Law we can make the world a better place girl scouting certainly does that through leadership confidence commitment understanding volunteerism creativity and trustworthiness scouting exploration of nature builds character scouting Adventures builds many friendships and scouting creates Priceless Memories for a lifetime and I can honestly tell you I have so many wonderful memories of scouting they are so beautiful I'm so fond of them so I wish that for all of you as well along with every Girl Scouts thanks scouting teaches us so many things it teaches us that that we should do our best be honest and fair friendly and helpful you know the oath considerate and caring courageous strong responsible respectful use resources wisely and certainly to make this place a better place than when we left it so I want to thank all of you for being part of The Sisterhood that we are all so proud of and we are all better women for it and in the future scouting will make all the difference in our world and I promise you it really will so many lessons that I have learned from scouting I use today and I'll leave you with this which is kind of funny I'm always proud of like I'm the only person who's not afraid of bugs thanks to scouting so proud thank you so we are excited for the Girls Scouts to be here and I have to acknowledge um the amazing Service Unit managers both Barbara Gary and Marissa steel for enabling this to happen and all the wonderful parents and uh troop leaders that help to um support our young women uh to participate and to achieve these types of awards I myself also have been a Girl Scout um I'm a proud mom of a Gold Award winner and a Cadet a current Cadet uh so and ladies if you can just please acknowledged at this meeting you may not never been here before but I think this is the first time that it happens to be women's history month and it happens to be three women of five that are actually running the meeting the we very much believe in diversity and we need men and women to participate um but ironically it is just the three ladies plus our wonderful board attorney and Township administrator of course but just make a note girls um you can be anything you want to be so uh I just wanted to share just a couple of things ladies Girl Scouts you can might be like when you're going through it you're like what am I getting out of this you're getting things that as the others have said you're going to use in your future I wanted to share a fun little story that happened to me a few weeks ago so I am yes a cookie mom um and I have a what I thought was a tried andrue 2008 Honda Odyssey mivan that I have used for about six well as many years as that van is old uh to pick up cookies as cookie mom from the mega drop which is the new thing for cookie deliveries my trusty Steed was pulled up in front where all the deliveries happen right so you pull up and then the other people file behind you and I loaded all the cookies for my troop into the van and I turned the the key fob because it's a 2008 turned the key fob and it did nothing so here I was blocking the entire process of all the other moms that are there to pick up the cookies for their troops I was horrified and these are all mom volunteers that are doing this and they I mean not just a second they're like do you have jumper cables I said absolutely so I went to the back of my van I got the jumper cables and the next thing I know that one of these other moms ran she already got her car she pulled it in front of mine and it was like the the hoods were open and we were ready to connect so I'm just telling you ladies um all of those moms are also Girl Scouts and without thinking they jumped into action and they helped someone and that is I think the epitome of what Girl Scouts are and I told them I said I'm going to have to tell the story because um it's why we want you to participate in Scouts is because um it just makes you just a wonderful person so some other people I wanted to see if you might know other famous girl scouts so and I used my daughter to help make sure that I was being kind of relatively uh you know relevant Mariah Carey yeah we've heard of mariia Cary Taylor Swift who hasn't heard of Taylor Swift unless you've lived under a rock Queen Latifa right awesome you know artist yeah Jersey girl actress what can the woman not do ree Witherspoon Venus Williams right people with amazing attributes and of course Queen Elizabeth II did not know that now these are things that these are people that you may not have known but you should know um Sally Ry was the first woman in space meline Albright was the first female secretary of State Janet Reno the first female attorney general and Sandra Deo Conor the first female Supreme Court justice so there are people that you have heard of and people that you haven't but I hope that gives you um a beacon as to what women can achieve so with that I would like to ask my colleagues on the deas to please make a motion so moved second chrisy roll call please miss Duarte McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you now we're going to move on to the next presentation resolution 2024-25 attaining the bronze and silver award you have achieved these Awards through courage confidence and character one badge at a time not an easy feet but one at a time may you continue to wear your badges proudly knowing you are prepared for the next achievement you set out for wishing you more Awards throughout your scouting career and someday reaching the level of Ambassador thank you to your leaders and your family for helping Empower you into becoming the future women leader ERS congratulations ladies I'll just add I I was unfamiliar with these Awards until the resolution came up so I went on the website to familiarize with myself and the rubric and the work and the amount of of so there's identify an issue to the community research work with a team of advisors Draft plans address a root cause all of these things it's in probably just tremendous project management and deliverables and all these things I think wow this is like being at work uh but what's really wonderful is the the work and the projects that you did I had a chance to speak with one of the recipients and shared her project and the opportunity to work with children uh for whom English is a second language and helping them with reading and tests and uh what a wonderful opportunity uh what a wonderful achievement to identify it and just do all the work to get it done so congratulations really really proud of this accomplishment and just wishing you well um and also differently when you are applying for college Andor employment you know I may not be alone in not knowing the significance of this award talk about it put it on describe that this is something that you achieved and share that story because it's an important story so congratulations again and if I can just add um I got to live the achievement of the cadet troop um as they achieved their Bronze award and uh as committee woman dor McCarthy mentioned um you know about the achievements and and all the things you have to do and I want to be careful because this is being recorded and in case anybody watches at any point in time if you add on the additional level complexity that Council puts on top of all of those types of achievements my heart goes out to each and every leader um because sometimes those guiding principles are not clearly guiding um so there is a lot of work that goes into that so not only the awards that the women achieve but and the project work but let's add on the journeys that have to be completed before we get to actually do the project so ladies I feel your pain I've seen it firsthand and that's what makes the achievement of these Awards even more significant so again the types of work that you do um after we vote we're going to ask um Marissa steel to come up and she'll speak a little bit about these projects so we know what they are but please know they have tremendous impact within our community and for that we are tremendously grateful so what you're achieving at these ages you're just going to continue to build upon and again you're showing yourself that you can literally do anything that you put your mind to and it's usually to make the world a better place so with that may I have a motion so moved second chrisy roll call please miss Duarte McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you so may I have Miss Steel come forward thank you mayor AC and committee members um we greatly appreciate you taking the time to recognize all of our amazing girl scouts and Volunteers in our town um again yes my name is Isa steel and along with Barbara giri we are the Service Unit managers for the Girl Scouts of Basking Ridge if I could pick up on some of the points that you were making about Girl Scouts um Girl Scouts is one of the only organizations where girls are recognized not just for what they are achieving but by their character the way they contribute in their communities and how much kindness and respect they spread in the world um and following in the footsteps of Girl Scouts founder Juliet Gordon Low Girl Scouts are called to become the Future Leaders of our communities we'd like to share with the committee some of the amazing ways Girl Scouts in our town are making an impact every day our Scouts have held food drives made and donate breakfast bags to local schools for children in need became pen pals with burnard's Township senior citizens during covid raised awareness for animal shelters supported our community veterans and perhaps most importantly supplied our town with delicious Girl Scout cookies all while doing this they have learned essential leadership skills goal setting decision- making money management business ethics and self-confidence Every Girl Scout in this room should feel pride in being a part of these wonderful accomplishments congratulations to you all turning to the high Awards as Mary C indicated through uh our local Council the Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey girls are recognized for Extraordinary service with higher awards first when a girl scout reaches the Junior Girl Scout or fifth grade level she becomes eligible to earn a Bronze award to earn the award each Scout must devote 20 hours at least towards a project that addresses the root cause of an issue within the community this year I'm proud to announce the following Girl Scouts have earned the Bronze Award from Troop 6115 Alexandria winterfeld Elise Acy Alexandra Marino Lyla walski Annabelle Brooks Maya First Grace Novak antonina Kaine and Isabella lucarell for their project troop 61115 created a publicity campaign and met with 30 eight local businesses to help the residents of Bernard's Township find resources to educate about and eradicate food insecurity and you can learn more by following their Facebook page finding food for Bernards congratulations girls from Troop 639 Rachel Ellis Emily groe Natalie Tay Lenora talbet hope sordillo Chelsea sordillo and Avery Bolero for their project troop 639 partnered with local businesses to collect donations for animal shelters in Somerset County created a social media campaign and hosted a handmade animal portrait creation event to decorate the shelters the effort resulted in the delivery of 1,000 200 items to two area rescue organizations congratulations troop 639 turning to the silver award upon reaching the middle school years the Girl Scout Cadet LEL level Scouts become eligible to earn the silver award which is the second highest award in girl scouting it requires 50 hours of service towards a unique project that addresses an issue on a local or global scale in a lasting and self-sustaining way only 10% of all Girl Scouts in the country earn this award it's a tremendous achievement tonight we recognize the following silver Award winners from Troop 60608 near and dear to my own heart from my own troop Katie white come on up Katie for her project Katie created literacy tools for Orphans in Malawi Africa who are learning to read English she made alphabet cards and an original story book which are now regularly being used by the school in Malawi congratulations Katie from Troop 62038 Jana sanki and Victoria agustino they here for their project they acquired donations to make busy be creativity kits and pamphlets for children at the Valerie fund Camp happy times and cooperman Barnabas Medical Center the kits encourage children to use art as a creative Outlet to help relieve stress and anxiety congratulations and also from Troop 62038 winter Carl gruswitz and aani mandalia for their project winter and aani created a website and social media hosted presentations and distributed pamphlets and flyers to raise awareness surrounding Teen Mental Health and support for those teens and their families congratulations so thank you again to the committee for recognizing all the Girl Scouts do we want to do a picture first and then all the girls okay you troop leaders come on ladies ladies get in the picture in the back and we have all of the spe good ladies thank you so much for all that you're doing we look forward to seeing you next [Applause] year it's inspir thank you congratulations congratulations Hey Joe good luck conratulations you so we'll be there Satur come cookies cookies are still for sale thank you thank you okay Christie do we have any public work session needed none this evening mayor any reports none this evening that takes us to correspondence Community Development Block Grant application for Community hope this evening we have a representative from Community hope who will provide us with a summary of the application is Jen Styers I'm the managing director of community hope and uh we're here to ask for your support for our cdbg application so we have a hope for veterans program which is a 95 bed transitional housing program for homeless veterans that is housed at the VA and what we provide there is a multitude of services incl including counseling Transportation access to 12 step meetings pet therapy yoga Etc and the cdbg application that we put in is to help fund our Employment Program which is a training program for the veterans and that helps us to hire an Employment Specialist so that Employment Specialist helps the veterans with employment training signing up for GI Bill and other educational opportunities helping them write the resumés doing mock interviews taking them to job fairs connecting with employers who are eager to hire veterans providing support to help them with credit repair and also debt management and provide financial literacy Services we actually hosted a job fair at the Bridgewater Mall last year and we're going to be hosting another one in April at the American dream mall so this application would really help us to be able to keep doing these type of endeavors for our veterans and help them maintain and obtain employment wow um from my perspective you have our complete support thank you for all that you're doing this sounds really um important work so thank you thank you so much thanks for having me thank you yeah thank you as well I I used to work on with the Wounded Warrior Project at my former employer and the at the transition from service to and then the work you do with the homeless veterans and then to help people get those skills is remarkable so I agree with Mary have our full support thank you so much so now I need to open public comment on this application seeing no comment I will close public comment thank you thank you thank you so moving along to public comment comments are welcomed during the public comment period during this meeting on any agenda item or other matter over which the township committee has jurisdiction however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comments for that particular public hearing the public comment portion of the agenda is not structured as a question and answer session but offers an opportunity to share your thoughts with the township committee the committee may or may not address these comments during the meeting however all comments are considered to address this body the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to 5 minutes the clerk will keep time please prly yield the floor when the time is called and return to your seat your cooperation and adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting I open public comment the title Stein Riverside Drive good evening everybody this is not really towards our committee because you don't have any way of fighting this other than writing a letter and I talk about the how the state's trying to attack transparency by having these um two bills Senate Bill s 2930 and assembly bill a445 which um attacks the open public um records act or Oprah it would limit public access to certain types of government institutional and board education records and documents related information thus killing transparency in the state of New Jersey one key part is that it would hinder the right to sue for um access since it would make it harder to recover legal fees the New Jersey League of municipalities support this obviously because they want people to know what goes on because there'll be a lack of transparency I know most people don't really think about Oprah I mean I've never filled one out but I think it's an important um way of getting information if it's not um accessible normally and I know this town is very transparent otherwise we hear about all the lawsuits against us for not providing the information so this town's very good but the way the Senate and assembly bills are the town won't have to provide the type of information that the people want or the board education and it may not affect the the people up on the D now as you know or leaders but one day when they're not on the on De and they need the information it will fect them because they won't be able to get the information these bills have been sponsored by um Paul sarlo uh um down down at 36 and assemblyman Joe uh Danielson from Somerset District of 17 both Democrats but it makes a difference because the Dem the Republicans or if the house was filled of De uh Republicans and not as many Democrats they would be providing the same bill it's easy for the Republicans not to um you know to say we're against it because they know it's going to be um voted over them so it's an easy thing for them but it does affect every Republican Democrat and independent in the state and it affects your rights to know what goes on how things are done how the information is and if you can't get the information easily then there's no reason to ever complain about how things happen because you allowed this to happen I'm not going to allow it now I've made my phone calls you can call our assembly in or assembly persons or state senator but you also could reach out to anybody else and complain to them because once this is a done deal it's not going to change and you only have yourselves to blame thank you very much thank you thank you Tod thank you anyone else okay seeing no other comments I will close public comment moving on to reports staff comments Township committee comments and board leers on reports Pat would you like to start please sure thank you mayor uh just wanted to uh acknowledge that earlier this evening we held a swear and in ceremony for our newest police officer uh all I want to congratulate Omar caponpon and his family uh welcome to burner's Township and our family so that's all I have mayor thank you Christie none this evening thank you mayor thank you Mr Bardo no thank you mayor great Anna yes thank you mayor um two things to report on so I'm the liaison to the municipal Alliance and we have our Twilight challenge race fundraiser on behalf of the alliance coming up on June 2nd Runners and participants can begin to sign up and there was also an opportunity for sponsorship so it's a great way to support this important Endeavor in our community and there was also an opportunity uh that I participated in last Wednesday on it was an online program on suicide prevention uh that was was communicated through the alliance and that opportunity is coming up again April 3rd in person at the library um it was a wonderful program it was held in partnership with Empower Somerset and the focus is on question persuade and refer and uh something that I would I personally thought was really informative and would encourage uh folks to do it it's free to anyone over the age of 18 who's interested in learning about suicide prevention techniques and then differently the agricultural advisory committee um is moving forward this month we will recognize in the county National agricultural day and that's on Friday March 22nd and it's an important opportunity to showcase the role the farmers play in our community um their hard work and dedication to feeding millions and so uh Gary Balman who's liais on to the board of ed connected me to the right contact there and our schools are looking at leveraging the resources that the county has available for school each school age children um including the potential of bringing a dairy cow in so we're that will more on that um so then lastly uh I wanted to just share that I had an opportunity to also with mayor AC attend to the Crescent lighting this past Sunday at the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge mosque marking the beginning of Ramadan you'll hear probably more about this from our mayor but I wanted to add uh mayor AC offered very eloquent remarks on the importance of Ramadan in our Muslim Community and the importance of inclusion so it was great to be there and to support this important opportunity that's it thank you Deputy Mayor sure thank you mayor Farmstead will be having their annual meeting on August 6 with which I will be attending so I'm going to do this in one swoop April 6 is the day everything is happening so the farm will be having its annual meeting the Liberty Corner Fire Company will be having their comedy night at 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 at the Liberty Corner firehouse um you can go to the website and purchase tickets that's also the day that um the town will be hosting the uh townwide yard sale I mentioning that because it's all on the 6th April 6th and except except for the yard sale the leaz on to the uh Farmstead Liberty Corner and um the library and the library will be hosting an afternoon tea and silent auction at the library at 2: p.m. this is hosted by the friends of of the library so this is one of their um afternoon tea fundraisers at the library at 2 p.m so let's um so in the after in the afternoon you can go for the tea then during the day you can do the yard sale and then at night you can attend the fundraiser for the um Liberty Corner um comedy night also from the um from the library they wanted everyone to know it was an unexpected a closure yesterday due to the power outage as a result to it there was a down tree on Maple Avenue so if they inconvenienced anybody with the with um having to close the library they wanted you all to know why um also they recently submitted their annual statistics to the New Jersey State Library they want to thank our finance department for their help with the paperwork it's not easy and any guidance that the library can receive they're always appreciative of and also with the assistance from DPW they were able to find a spot at the line train station where they're able to hang up posters and advertise the library so one of the initiatives the library has taken on is communication so they had a um they had a committee formed and they're trying to find new ways to outreach the community to come to the library or to participate in any of the programs that they have so that was another initiative to be able to post posters around town to let people know what's going on at the library and and um try and get more people like I said to attend the library um they've also been very busy with their construction Grant projects um it's coming along nicely the new doors are going to be delivered by mid April which should conclude the job so that's another thing we're working on the doors um and also a representative from the library will be meeting next week with other Township Mayors on the mayor's Wellness campaign initiative so I'm happy that the librar is participating in that and thank you mayor for doing the uh Wellness campaign initiative um every year given the opportunity to participate and not everybody not every M mayor steps up and participates because it's not an easy process and that I know with being a mayor I did not participate that year but I want to thank you mayor for participating and taking that on it's not an easy fee but I want to I want to say to you thank you so much for doing that and like um our administrator said we had our swearing in ceremony of our new police officer Omar and I welcome him to the Bernards Township um family as uh one of the liaz onto the uh subcommittees actually to the police department and I thanked his parents um for allowing us um to have him serve um the pleasure really allowing us the pleasure to have him serve it's such an honor his family was amazing to meet them and and and the touching part is I I I said to them I know it's not hard you know when your child my son is in the Army so I know the feeling you know when your child wants to step up and serve you know it's it's not easy as a parent parent because you know what that entails and sometimes it's pretty dangerous and I said to them you know I know how you feel about you know your son stepping up and serve and they said without missing a beat they said it's something that they find in their heart that they want to do and that is so true so if you talk to anybody who is in service to this country the town community they'll all say it's a calling within their heart to do to step up and serve and so I commend arar and our whole Police Department for that and I just want to finish by saying thank you mayor tonight has been so exciting um I want to thank you for all the initiatives that you that you put forth but especially one of the initiatives that you've done is Outreach to our schools to our residents on any achievements that they have done in the community and so that we can Spotlight them and we could thank them through their achievements and recognize them so I want to thank you it was exciting tonight to have the Girl Scouts and Bridge wrestling and I thank you for that it wouldn't be um we wouldn't have it if it wasn't for you making sure week after week when we have a me every other week when we have a meeting that um we recognize everyone so like I said if something happens in town we don't know about it just email us like you said the initiative of the mayor is to make sure everyone's recognized for their achievements Awards or anything like we did the H 100th birthday so anything you want somebody to recognize in town resident please email the mayor so that we can uh put it on the agenda thank you mayor thank you there's a lot of U positivity in the world and so it's important I think to shine that light on that so thank you so a couple of my comments um related to the Board of Health I wanted to acknowledge that um right now we're busy faced with the fact that Lucy foron has a distinguished 41-year career dedicated to Public Health and she has decided to retire so big shoes to fill and so um we are very grateful for all of her service um especially watching her I I've been blessed to be on the board of health uh for over 12 years and she's just a remarkable individual so um big shoes to fill but you know um she's built a great group and the foundation is there and so the work will continue but we will miss her so I have some other important updates that I I wanted to acknowledge um yesterday it was mentioned about um that storm so I wanted to acknowledge the office of emergency management in particular Mike Sweeney and Ryan Wallace um for their quick action so I hope I I keep trying to drive people to those Rave 911 alerts so hopefully you all got those and you knew what was happening when was going on um you know JCP luckily quickly restored the power outage at one point we had between 500 to 1500 residents without power I was one of them at one point so it was H near and dear to my heart um but you know just automatically you know the Department of Public Works and OEM they opened up this Hall as a warming Center and charging uh Center until 11:00 last night when most residents had re it closed at 11: when most people had been restored so again huge thank you this day in day out stuff this is stuff that it's just like clockwork it happens um but for that again I'm just very graceful and our Police Department you know keeping people safe with these you know trees down and and such so just you guys are fabulous um echoing uh committee woman uh D to car's comments Sunday night uh we were very fortunate it was also a historic event um to unfortunately due to the weather um the ISB had to quickly change locations um for the the lighting of the cressent um as a part of the Ramadan uh begin session so they moved it to the mosque you wouldn't have known it was a very well-run program um a lot of amazing speakers fabulous food um Ridge youth um ramine in particular just amazing comments uh Dr Shri was I think Beyond welcoming and um he asked for all folks that were non Muslim to please share with their friends that the mosque is open to each and every person and it is a welcoming place um so certainly encourage you to do that um when uh Dr chry told me that the Crescent had been relocated to where it is for the next 30 days or so which is at the um the Pavilion just down the way um I had to drive over and see it because I wanted to see it at night and it is absolutely beautiful so if you're driving around um it is lit very beautifully and again a thank you to our Department of Public Works and making sure that that thing didn't blow over in the wind um and that it stays safe uh again so again I think it was a wonderful thing we really want to ensure that every resident within our community knows that they are valued and they are respected and that they feel that they are part of this community so um we were very grateful moving then on to um a big shout out to the Baskin Bridge business Alliance um thank you for allowing me to speak with your membership this morning um unfortunately it was a little chilly in the church because of the power outage from the day before that they didn't have the heat on um so but we got through it um so moving on to women's History Month I was so excited yesterday we brought together the panel of seven women that are going to be speaking March the 27th at 7 p.m. we have seven panelists uh women panelists that represent different life stages employment statuses and motherhood roles but they have one thing in common they selfishly serve our community so please come there's an RSVP that just helps to know how many folks are coming so hopefully we'll have a great crowd um these women will inspire us and motivate us with their personal Journeys they are sharing of themselves and we'll have a great discussion on personal growth and the challenges that they have overcome as they pursued their fulfillment so I hope to see you all there super excited we've not done this yet um so can't wait for it um the last thing that I want to speak from topics are um I wanted to thank the students that submitted essays for the municipal leaders scholarship competition so that deadline was yesterday so I understand that the uh committee which we are blinding the submission so the the committee will blindly review um those submissions to select the state semi-finalist so that'll be happening in the next couple weeks and we will submit the official state semi-finalist from Bernards to the state and I am confident sh knock on wood that one of our students will win one of the three $1,000 scholarships I know we have the talent so um it would not be a Township committee meeting with uh two important functional updates one of those is safety updates so if you'll bear with me um you know our police force again we are grateful for the new officer the new officer that was hired that brings us up to 39 so this is a part of our larger plan that we are our our police leadership are hiring fabulous folks um to help to continue to protect us if you took a peek at the Fe February blot you will notice that the criminal activity that was very concerning to many of the residents seems to be going a little slower which is good but there still are incidents so therefore um you know this is still a focus um and it will remain a focus until we are clearly focusing on the origins of why there's an eptic in the entire State not just our community I will also Reserve specific uh comments on the agenda items to those sections but let me just tell you some of the things I've been up to one is on March the 7th the Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee the mayors of Somerset Hills we all met again and the good news is the other towns are proceeding with similar ordinances to what we are reviewing later this evening we will also they will also be showing support for the bill that we're recognizing on today's agenda so this organization is is our group is still moving forward sharing information and best practices to do what we can to protect our entire Somerset Hills so more to come on that safety videos have continued to be released so please take a look at those on um Instagram as well on um our Facebook page this morning uh we created new videos with Chief burger and Sergeant Bal deseri so the topics on those you'll just have to take a peek it's not related to burglar iies and auto thefts um it is other things that are timely related to the weather um we also just to share in terms of the conference of mayors that subcommittee I am still working on and uh more to come when we are able to report on that progress that is addressing the reform that's needed at the state level as I hope that you can see safety continues to remain as our highest concern and has been shared many times we are a safe Community but nonetheless we are not going to relent until we continue to minimize the incidents that are happening but please we want residents to feel confident that we're doing everything possible to protect you the next topic that is important that I want to keep on everyone's radar and this is in the spirit of transparency the overdevelopment driven by affordable housing at the state level um there is action that is still being taken taken as previously reported the legislature is moving forward on bills that will overhaul the state's affordable housing laws the assembly as we've already shared already passed A4 and the Senate counterpart s50 has been second referenced in the Senate budget and Appropriations Committee after being favorably released from the Senate community and urban Affairs committee both bills are on the SBA committee's agenda for the hearing that happened yesterday I'm looking for updates as to what came out from that so as soon as we know we will share but please know that um you know at the time of this posting which was last week that the amendment language hasn't been made available I just want residents to understand that we will continue to closely monitor this legislation and we encourage all of our residents to contact their state elected officials to share any concerns they have with this legislation and again as I've shared we will try to be as transparent with you as possible regarding this process balancing all communication releases that could be potentially could that could be potentially used against us um on these particular topics so with that I think we can move forward fire and rescue appointments none this evening mayor thank you moving on to unfinished business ordinance 2546 an ordinance amending chapter 3 police regulations of the revised General ordinances of the township of Bernard's to add a new section 3-20 entitled resident protection and this is a public hearing I open the public hearing and welcome comments Jane John from three Wellington Drive in Basin Ridge uh recently as mayor mentioned since and late last year uh there are significant uh number of um house invasion or break in uh this um paralyzed um traumatized the community uh significantly anything um the township can do and is do is doing will help us to feel safe to um improve our quality of life and uh we really appreciate the T ship uh move forward within their uh authority to protect the resident so I'm 100% supported this um initiative thank you thank Youk you anyone else if not then I will close the public hearing may I have a motion yes I move that ordinance 2546 be adopted and advertised as required by law second clerk roll call please miss Dart McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you moving on to the consent agenda the items listed within the consent agenda portion of the meeting have been referred to the township committee for reading and study are posted on the agenda on the website are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion of the township committee with no separate discussion if separate discussion is required the item may be removed from the agenda by Township Committee Action and plac on the regular agenda under new business would anyone like an item to be removed from the consent agenda may have a motion so moved second chrisy roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you Item B resolution 2024-25 supporting NJ State Legislature Bill a 3806 and S 2819 establishing a reputable presumption of pre-trial detention and increasing penalties for motor vehicle theft defenses authorizing home detention for minors adjudicated delinquent for motor vehicle theft offenses establishing grants for underage auto theft risk deterrence pilot program and Juvenile Justice Commission and appropriating $7 million and mayor I would just like to mention there have been minor um edits to this resolution if you'd like me to read them yes please thank you uh the resolution previously read now therefore beat resolved that the township Committee of the township of Bernards urges the legislature to approve a 3806 ands 2819 as swiftly as possible and the resolution now reads now therefore be it resolved that the township Committee of the township with Bernards supports the objectives of a 3806 and S 2819 as introduced and urges the legislature to expedite the review and approval of these bills does anyone have any comments yeah I just wanted to comment I had um the mayor was able to connect me with the assembly woman's office matsakis and I had a great conversation with her Deputy Chief of Staff and legislative director Josh Kutner and was able to explain these bills um in more detail and they're all available they're on the websites and you can look up the bill and um the text of it and one of the things that I particularly liked about this bill it really resonated it's trying to do something for residents across the state this is an issue across municipalities U there is bipartisan support for bills there are several that are in the assembly and the Senate to try to uh to really understand opportunities to both bring consequences to what has become a rising rate of auto theft and home invasion and also to address some of the opportunities to intervene and among the aspects of this bill is the opportunity for a two-year pilot program called grants for underage auto theft risk deterrence pilot program or guard uh appropriating 7 million to focus on reducing the incidence of Motor Vehicle theft by providing Direct Services to juveniles to prevent them from engaging in this Behavior so it's a pretty comprehensive bill um and it will focus on providing consequences um to address issues around how we consider auto theft the consequences around it um and then differently to also address some of the causality so it's I you know I'm hopeful that this will continue among all the things that are being done to provide more of a sense of protection for us um so that we feel safe in our homes and that we're able to thrive as communities across the state thank you any other comment uh well said by my colleague thank you Anna I just I want to commend um our Assembly women as well as um our Senator Bram Nick to introduce this type of um legislation there as je Burger has said there's not one Silver Bullet that's going to solve these issues um so we have to work with our experts you know working with Chief burger and understanding the challenges that they have um has been very helpful and insightful to know that efforts like this will help to address part of the problem um and we are hopeful that by taking this type of action that we are also communicating to the state that true Solutions need to be developed while we're waiting for that to happen I hope again we have communicated to our residents that they feel confident that Bernards is Bernard's Township is doing everything possible possible within our ability and our municipality to protect our residents um so this is one step in the right direction and I you know fingers crossed again with working with the other Mayors uh not only with Somerset Hills but within the state trying to support efforts like this is is where our efforts will be may I have a motion yes may or I have make a motion to adopt resolution number 2024 0174 with the changes made second chrisy roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you item C please ordinance 2547 an ordinance of the township of Bernards appropriating 1 mil $35,000 for various Capital Improvements and this is an introduction I move that ordinance 2547 be introduced on first reading advertised as required by law and scheduled for a public hearing on March 26 2024 second clerk roll call please mrte McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you on to letter D approval of minutes February 27th 2024 Open Session minutes may have a motion so moved second all in favor I I I executive session none the evening mayor that takes us to adjournment so moved second all in favor I great thank you good night