because when we have we're good we're good call the meeting to order roll call please here here here Mr absent Mr R I'm here sorry notice that this meeting was provided to the Burnsville news and Courier News file with municipal clerk and posted on the municipal bulletin board on December 14 2023 and supplemented on April 16th 2024 to change the date of the meeting to April 29th 2024 please stand for the pledge Al Al to the the United States of America the rep for it stands na welcome to the April 9th 2024 meeting of the Barnesville Barrow Council this meeting is being conducted in person in the council chambers in Bur Hall and it is being broadcast Live on YouTube and on Zoom to make it as convenient as possible for residents to attend the meeting members of the public who are here in person and those attending remotely online will be given the opportunity to comment at appropriate times during the meeting in accordance with the following guidelines members of the public will be allowed to speak during the open sessions and during formal public hearings on the agenda including public hearings on ordinances comments will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker which will be monitored and enforced by the burrow clerk comments containing offensive ofan or indecent language or language constituting hate speech will not be permitted remote participants will be muted unless they are unmuted by the clerk and remote participants will not be able to unmute themselves the clerk will mute remote speakers at the expiration of their 3 minutes of a lotted time or if they make any inappropriate or offensive comments All speakers whether in person or on zooming shall State their name and address before making their comments speakers on Zoom shall activate their cameras so that they can be seen by members of the governing body and audience failure of the governing body to provide a live broadcast of this meeting or technological problems encountered during the course of the meeting that affect remote viewing and or participation will not invalidate this meeting or any action taken included but not limited to the adoption of any ordinance resolution or motion all right um first it on the agenda we have a proclamation for Mone Bank um this is their 140th anniversary so I will read the proclamation whereas the Bernville branch of Carney bank is located at 122 Mars toown Road and whereas Carney bank is in their 140th year of establishment dating back from 1884 to the present and whereas Carney bank has been in Burnsville since 2020 and has been the burrow of burnsville's primary Bank since that time now therefore I Mary Jane Kos mayor of the burough of Burnsville do hereby recognize and congratulate Carney bank for 140 years of service to the community and wish them well in their future so congrats Carney um I don't know don't think anybody's there are they all right um then they ask for a copy that they're going to hang in their Lobby so we will give them an official copy all right moving on to the budget so um we have a PowerPoint presentation um just for people to kind of get a sense of um you know we introduce this once a year but the budget is really an ongoing living document that we refer to all year long um thank you to the finance commit who put a lot of time and effort and um Leslie Roberson and our administrator thanks lul for all the time they put into putting this budget together um what the budget should do is really reflect what our goals and objectives are for the year and what our priorities are and I think you've done an excellent job in keeping that in mind as you work through this budget unfortunately we can never give everybody what they asked for but I think what's important is that we really uh kept our priorities in mind of the library Main Street and making in our contractual obligations Meeting those contractual obligations so thank you again for you guys and Jay for chairman and who's going to start uh I'm going to start so um just to Echo the mayor's uh comments I I want to thank um Leslie and Nancy uh this could not have come together had it not been for the two of them uh you know it's a a very um long process my second year as a part of it um and uh you know I really appreciate all their patience and and working with us um of course I want to thank uh Chad and Al for all the time they put put in we had several meetings and and went through this and then of course the mayor and Council overall everybody I believe has had a presentation on the budget so it's it takes a lot of time to get this done um we'll drop we we'll jump into the key takeaways so if you can uh move down a little bit um to start with um we have will have uh no tax rate and say rate increase uh for the third straight year that was a priority for um the council and uh and everybody on the finance committee um the the largest increase we're going to see is in non-discretionary items uh we're all seeing this in our workplaces uh and at home health spending um contracts um the good news is we were able to fund those through the uh um valuations uh increasing in the burough so for the four straight year um we're seeing um increases in our overall valuation which means increases to the um property uh values um we're also investing in contining to invest in public safety and of course are um we were able to this year actually come up with a uh meet the full ask of the library which hasn't been the case um in every year and Main Street Burnsville um we still face some significant headwinds so of course inflation I said this to the council at the last meeting um you know I it's easy to do a budget when valuations are increasing I have yet to be on Council when valuations are decreasing I imagine it's much harder to do so um it's um um you know something that we have will have headwinds on the future it's it's uh everything comes in a cycle but um we're very um uh happy with what we able to get for this here um and then just one last Point um and we we actually have a really nice slide on this uh it talks about where your tax dollars go um and 24% of it comes from what we do here um over uh 34s um just about um comes from other parts of either the schools or from County or from um different taxes that uh that we have so um it represents a you know an accomplishment but it's a 24% of our overall tax dollar uh that comes in so we can go to the next page this is just a high level on the numbers I'm not going to read them the bottom line is is at the bottom uh for 2024 uh the budget increased 63% uh less than than the 2023 budget so we've actually seen our overall budget um slightly down um from the uh uh 2023 budget so let me make sure I'm reading that that right so percent increase yeah that's right 5.6% increase from 20 22 to 23 and a 4.97 so we actually had lower increase in overall uh by 63% go to next slide this talks about the increases in non-discretionary spending so um obviously a lot of things on here we don't control pension Debt Service um I I would say that debt service is one of the things that that I personally am the most proud of I I want to see I think this is something that we've been working on for um many years before I join Council and hopefully uh we'll continue well after I'm off councel and and once we can get rid of The Debt Service hopefully that's something we can keep off the books in the future I know there's several initiatives to help us with that but um we're continuing to pay down the debt um and um uh maintain the the town's credit rating and then of course we have contractual stiens um the total non-discretionary increases are listed at the bottom want to go to the next slide this is just a pie chart of the uh the non-discretionary uh increases in budget you can see the Deb service liability insurance health benefits pensions um you know all things that uh we have to pay for as as a part of Municipal municipality um and then the next one is just the distribution of your property tax levy so this is a slide we've shown uh I think for at least four or five years now um and it shows where your money's going so the burrow is the far right $23.93 um comes to the burrow there's also our own open space funds the county open space funds uh the library and I believe that's the Library non discretion that's that's the part of the library that we St we we by law have to pay St and then of course County and 56 dollar out of every hundred goes to or 57 to the schools and uh just for you know the the uh um our our uh you know our history from uh 20 22 we we held the the rate flat coming out of covid 2023 we've had a decrease in our rate and 2024 um again another decrease in the rate so the next slide I'm going to turn over to Nancy who's going to take us through the rest of the deck sure uh so this slide represents um the entire budget is 18,5 55,8 3 um84 but this uh this slide pie chart represents what that is made up of and the percentages are listed to the right um but provides a good visual on where all your Municipal tax salars are are going so the bulk or the largest amount um probably comes as no surprise to anyone is uh Public Safety which is almost 22% of the entire Municipal appropriation and that income this is police fire rescue squat OEM and dis as well and then as a typical and uh almost all municipalities the second highest is public works and that makes up um a little over 133% um so I don't think is any is much different than most of the aties those are usually the two biggest line items in municipal government um and then the rest are are broken up as you see there with their corresponding percentages the next slide um I broke this down into just to to show really the Highlight for the public how little the governing body has within their control set of what what the uh budget is because the uh well the first slide is almost half of $18 million and that is mandatory expenses I gave some examples there there it's not inclusive um statutory uh employees who we have have to have by law CFO clerk assessor tax collector um our insurance our health benefits our recycling um pension is not on there but that should be in my category as well the next um slide is called core I'm sorry the next C called core services that makes below less than the one before it 8 million of to 18 and um this includes things that were not required to provide by law but they are essential anyway Public Works um it utilities and what will we do without them we could really exist but they're not required by law and then the last group is a little less than 12% of the entire budget and this is the only thing that the Govern bu really has true control over um it's called discretionary because they are not required by law they're not considered essential um I call them quality of life issues because these are the things that make life better uh in most count you the library the full uh you know whole Recreation programs um for preserving our history but these are these are the only things that you really have control over and that's $2 million you know out of the 18 and a half mil so it's more to show the public um you know how much is really mandated the next slide talks um about councilman emang was talking about which is our evaluation it shows a fouryear history of how much it has gone up and this year it's like literally figur legally off the charts at 2 b590 m44 $4,100 which is an increase of about $43 million over last year which represents 6.5% so as you see it's been a steady incline since 2020 and now um is high thing and then the next slide you see the uh what that has done the average assessment has gone up from $844,000 in 20 23 to this year 89686 and that's the average home in Burnville and as you see the U library and Municipal open space tax rate stay Stayed the same but the municipal uh went down from 470 to 468 which brings the overall rate down from 52252 and um as the coun said the reduction a reduction in the rate with second year in a row and third year in a row but it has been it was um the next we also before with state aid um we had a very slight increase of 3,318 over last year um which is minimal I hate to even call it increase because if you go back to 2008 um after that after 2009 there were 12 years where it was you know the same thing and then it went it flapped the last two and now it is a bit of an increase but if you go back to 2008 it's almost a 30% decrease over what we used to get and this is an old um first receipt and franch franchise tax that we supposed to get um that's repl so we're supposed to be great but we should had anyway with ours um the next slide I don't know if you want me to go into detail but these represent our proposed Capital program and it includes vehicles for police and DBW um Police radios uh buildings improve building improvements for burall and the police department uh maill and Paving of four full roads and two partial roads and then if you just go ahead couple slides anthy to one more I think that one most important one no new debt so all this capital is done with cash so that is a key SL with because we saw how big that service was and you know we probably not to make it bigger and then the last slide is the library and this this was in last year's I I updated it and left it in this shows just shows the history of the contributions to the library and as a council with um the library that in addition to the 13 of a mill which you see there on the left their es was $852 3 if I can just make a comment about that and real compliments to Al the work he did long every year the BR take thatb is one year closer to Good News um so it's I know they work really hard to get this budget in line while decreasing rates um not take you that is is great news for every resident this so any questions or comments from the council thank you all very much yeah and J and you can introduce I move that resolution 24-19 be adopted in public hearing on the 2024 Municipal budget be held on Tuesday May 28th 2024 at 700 p.m. second all in favor sorry M yes m m yes Mr McQueen yes Mr yes yes all right we have minutes for March 18th and March 20 5th 2024 I have a motion to approve a motion to approve I'll second all all in favor I I oppose okay all right uh we are now at our uh First Open session for items not listed for a public hearing so if anyone in the audience would like to speak um please remember to give your name and address and try to limit your comment three minutes and I see BR ready to go hey um thank you one um and two I just wanted to draw your attention to two County things that the county has extended our ESL funding in December so that class is going to continue on Monday and Wednesday night part of it is going to be online during the summer um but that's ongoing and they're also still pairing people with tutors for all different times of day and night at the library so if know anybody who needs ESL classes or tutoring that's still ongoing the literacy Volunteers can put you in touch with those people but two um there was a RFA from the county of Somerset with the Workforce Development board for summer youth workers and that is an opportunity we apply for one to have like team between I think 16 and 18 work for 200 hours over the summer to support summer Library programming and help with technology content creation so we've applied we don't have any official word yet that we've received one but there are I think 70 opportunities throughout the county um at different municipalities and businesses and the application date for that is May 3rd so we're going to try to get the word out if we find out we' had one but it would be a great opportunity for any team so it's a really cool program the county pays $16 an hour and you apply for the job that you'd love a team to work for so I just want to draw your attention thank you thank you thanks BR uh anyone else in the public either here or on zo Olivia yeah Olivia you yes am I unmuted are we good awesome yeah my the hand thing isn't showing up so I had to do it like oldfashioned um I just want to say uh thank you so much to council for um increasing our amount this year and uh I'm really looking forward to sharing with everyone uh updates with our progress and our plans for this year we are really excited about bringing back um honoring Ed English uh we've been talking about it for a couple of years that's certainly a project that we're looking forward to working on this year um over by the train station and we have a great relationship now with New Jersey Transit that is allowing us to move forward on a project like this so we're really excited about that um and we are also moving forward with some data components as well to help us track events and help our small business Community as well with um giving them some more information on on how to uh capitalize on the the bodies and the humans that are coming through town that that um they may be missing out on so we're looking forward to sharing that with the business Community as well so lots more down the down the list I'm not going to um use up all of my three minutes but um we will be we will be coming a lot of our volunteers are um excited about coming to Council meetings actually believe it or not uh and sharing our Main Street minute which we'll share with you um so that you know what's going on as well so thank you so much for uh uh not cutting us out um and continuing on all of this it's it's really exciting to uh be moving forward in really a positive direction working with all of you thank you so much thank you Olivia all right now car hi I'm Harry hon 39 seven M of road I just wanted to talk tonight a little bit about the upcoming subdivision of the neb Farm we've talked about this property for decades now we I think that the original open space tax that was passed by a wide margin way back when was really put into place with this property in mind and maybe only this property was the most important one this is our Gateway from the south and the West and I would like to see us have that Gateway stay the way it is uh in for eternity basically for people in burn after gone we haven't seen any changes on that property in the 32 years of I've Liv here and I'm sure in the more than that that Mary Jane has lived here but now we're there's going to be a subdivision which I we need to stay on top of and I urge you to be aware of what's happening on the planning board regarding the splitting of the property into seven seven pieces and the ability of each of the siblings to act on their own I know that they are enjoying being at their Farm I can see the changes I can see that we've got 15 cows now everybody's excited there's more um produce that's for sale and there there's a lot going on and I know they don't have any plans for right now but a deal to to to get a property like this a 200 acre property I've seen it in my role on County open space they can take many many years they can take decades and even though they don't have plans now the telephone once this once this sub subdivision is approved the telephone is going to start ringing in each of those three households from developers and and builders that are just to to poke around and see what they might be thinking I want us to be at the table and we're going to need Partners County Partners State Partners it's not it's complicated I'm not sure what the status of Our Hope and space uh advisory committee is now but we need that level of expertise for sensitive um negotiations with this most important group of land owners for the future of our town for swarm Water Management flood mitigation connecting Trails connecting our open spaces maybe even getting as I've talked about before to neighboring towns without this piece we can't get there um we've got historic resources across the way and I just urge you not to let this opportunity as it developed over the years past a spot so let's be there um let's be there early and get and make sure that we're we have a seat at the table so thank you very much thank you Carrie and yeah I think we all are in agreement on that thanks anyone else I see bron bron un Bron hello council is this uh is this public comment yes yes hello can you hear me yes is this public comment it is so if you could just give us your name and address awesome so I was actually hoping oh yes my name is uh Brenton tarant and I live on um I live on 11 East 14th Avenue yes and so today what I was hoping to talk about um Avenue where it was actually in regards to pride month my issue here is that I'm not trying to spread hate I I was just hoping for the city itself I I don't necessarily know if it's something that we should be giving recognition and I have some statistics here to back up why so in 2017 adults and Adolescent gay and bisexual men made up 70% of the new HIV diagnoses in the United States and that is according to the CDC um Studies have shown when compared with the general population gain by sex men lesbian and transgender individuals are more likely to use alcohol and drugs have higher rates of substance abuse not withhold from alcohol and drug use and continue heavy drinking into later life and that's from the CDC as well um studies find a positive association between childhood Mal maltreatment and same-sex sexuality in uh adulthood with lesbians and gay men reporting 1.6 to four times greater prevalence of sexual and physical abuse than heterosexuals and that's according to the National Institute of Health while the ratio of uh Giles to andril among the general population is approximately 20 to1 the ratio of heterosexual to homosexual pedophiles was calculated to be approximately 11 I'm sorry did we get his address is he in Burnsville I I didn't hear he didn't answer yeah I don't know where that is yeah I don't I don't know where that is either guys he muted himself so I didn't M him but he's muted right now okay maybe he on a meeting um who else did me have we have Julie okay jul hi hi everyone can you hear me yep hear me name and address great uh Julia Carabas I live at 98 ceni Drive in Bernardsville New Jersey um I'm also a co-owner of a local business um and I just wanted to make a quick um comment and ask of the council I saw that there's a vote for resolution um regarding a soul bid for The Snack Shack um I have been checking uh and was interested in making a bid and never saw the bid um on the website it's not archived it's not there um I was informed today uh that it uh there were no bids because this was a different process this is a concessions bid and there was no requirement to put the bid on the website um that is different than what I've seen there are bids for the Snack Shack in 2019 2020 and 2020 1 um and so if the process has changed in 2022 um it would be great to see that ordinance or how it changed um and so and and I was also told that um the recreation department was in charge of it and there was an email sent to um apologize if you didn't hear my dog um there was an email sent to community pass members I did check my community pass um messages it's not there um and so so I'm just hoping that the board can look at this process um to make sure that it's fair and Equitable for everybody in the town um and and everybody has access to this information especially if it was available previously and and people were able to bid for The Snack Shack in the past um so I really wanted to just point that out um hope that the council would take note um and look into the process in the future so that maybe in 2025 um everybody can can bid on the on The Snack Shack if it's available thank you yeah and I think with that we've bided in the past um the bidding process is not required for that for the concession and it is an expensive process to go through um and we usually some years we got no bids um most of the time we got one so I think what we realized is we could do it through um just in quotes because it's under the bid limit well actually I mean Jack correct me if I'm wrong so I I became the qpa the qualified purchasing agent so I was looking at a lot of the things we've been putting out and this is a concession it's a bur owned property that you're basically leasing out to others and so it is defined as a concession in the bursing law and it should have been put out as a concession it could be bit out I mean there's nothing to say that it couldn't be bit out but it is the most um the best way to do it would be as a concession it's closest to a concession rather than a bid it's a lot of work to to go through for under you know ,000 to put a bid out so um I asked that we do it as a concession this way because it is closest thing in the personing to a concession um concession is not legally required to be advertised it requires um informal quotes um the rec director said that he believed that he sent down Community pass in December I'd asked him to start looking for people in early this year last year because we had heard that the concession ER was not coming back so so I asked him to start looking around earlier um he says he Lees he put uh put something out in December um he did reach out to people he had heard who who were interested um we could have and we will going forward advertise it on the website and even in the newspaper I mean the more people who put in the better but um I've been told that for the last 20 years we've had one bitter every single year um or not and um and in this particular case while I appreciate everyone's interest the fact is that we don't have a meeting before the pool opens and you know the uh Rec director had been dealing with I can't remember their name but I know that they're the concession there the burner pool um looked at their menu and approved it and their prices and I think at this point I think for this year um I would recommend that you stick with the people that are on the agenda for tonight and then in the future we will we will continue to do it as a concession but we'll just make sure that we advertise more than the law even require and Nancy if there's a resident that's interested they should just contact let them know that interest in in the future people interested now they can contact Direct Department let know please include me for next year yeah I me it' be nice to have a few offers instead of just one so yeah all right um what else do we have have two more we have Wyatt Wyatt are you there yeah can you guys hear me yes okay all right so I'm from 88 booking wal Camp drive on Arville New Jersey 07924 okay uh yeah I just wanted to you know comment about the pride month as well dude and I mean it's what you what do you got to be prideful about you know you're it's a Abomination you know these are the ones that you know instill this type of  something like that sh don't um we yeah we don't allow inappropriate language I'm sorry who else we got there we have we Havey hi can you guys hear me okay yes fantastic my goodness I was want to talk about something completely different but I think this is an important time to address what just happened um I I work for I'm sorry do you need my address it's 18 Thompson Street right here in the burrow okay thank you phenomenal um so I work for a nonprofit called the AWG uh we do a lot of counseling mostly people who have had it Court mandated due to unfortunately mostly hate crimes um so this is something that watching this I I feel it is necessary to speak about um one lady that I've been working with a lot recently has been a woman named Molly cogner she has a podcast lovely lady she does a lot of blogging um now she specifically has been helping me with what I'm seeing Arison which is anti-Semitism um I mean it's it's all over it's I mean it's online it's clearly in our city councils um so her and I have been doing a lot of late nights lot of research and one thing that I find is most helpful when combating hate is bringing awareness to things because I feel like a lot of hate is just ill-informed people so we've been doing a lot of research and I find that um I if if you look at the the Jewish religion and you look at their holy books like the the Torah they also have the talmud um in which it states that to rape a child under three is to do nothing so really I find myself in this hard position where I I mean I want to stand up for the people that are are being talked about in this manner but at the same time when they believe things like that when they're taught things like that how can you stand up for them I'm I'm pressed between picking the sides of pedophiles or Nazis and I sincerely hope like right now when you're in that position you do not pick the side of the pedophile please thank you all right Jacky good evening Council Jack Sky Roman here can you hear me fantastic 80 Post Lane I'd like to speak tonight about a very serious issue uh that affects our municipality as well as all municipalities in this country right now and it's the Dei policies being pushed uh and they're having consequences in our community uh that are extremely detrimental white people are being so marginalized in all aspects of society that white men are now the largest group of suicide the largest suicide group in America according to the CDC government statistics 247 excuse me I can hear people talking I'll continue okay can you just say your actress again jack Sky Roman yeah 0 Post Road in Burnsville correct you live in Burnsville correct okay 80 thank you sir yeah as I was saying uh white males are the largest group committing suicide in this country and I would argue in this municipality I can't prove that but if they're not blowing their heads off with a gun they are turning to opiates where cheap fentol from China are flooding our streets the Dei policies are an abject failure and this Mission needs to be aborted all groups of people affected by this policy are suffering because of it black people do not like being grouped with brown people many brown people own slaves pre- abolition I mean did you know that 25% of the slave owners in New Orleans were Brown pre 1865 in fact they were so vehemently proud of their Brown slave owning status they had little marra clubs where the main requirement was your skin color needed to be the color of a paper bag or lighter you can sigh sir but this is serious business yeah no definitely and regarding White people the only white people that are buying into this Dei policy are sellout shavis goys and low low IQ waffin wow that's a big word waffin you look yeah well your singled digit IQ couldn't possibly comprehend a phrase like that okay it's great we end the public session all right I'm going to close the public session thank you all right uh we have I will open a public hearing on ordinance 2024 appropriating $100,000 from the sore Capital Improvement fund up design of Maron Avenue Pump Station anyone like to be heard on this appro $100,000 yes yes seeing none uh I will close the public hearing umina you want move that one yeah I move past ordinance 24996 on Final reading and adop published second roll call please yes M yes Mr yes Mr R yes M yes okay I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2024 1997 supplementing amending Chapter 3 of the borrow code entitled police regulations by adding a new section 3-27 entitled resident protection anyone like to be heard on this ordinance and this again is just um The somerson Hills towns are all doing the same ordinance in an effort to send a message to the legislator legislatures and the governor about policy regarding crimes local some of our local crimes um seeing none I will close the public hearing take it away I move to pass ordinance 2024 D 1997 on a final reading and adopt is published call please yes yes Mr yes M yes M yes I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2024 1998 amending the storm water Control Ordinance and supplementing and amending chapter 12 of the Barrow land use code anyone want to be heard on this we don't don't really have a choice on this one do we okay then I will close the public hearing [Music] um you want to move that sure I'll move pass ordinance 1.4 1998 and final reading second wel Mr yes M yes Mr R yes there yes moving on to resolutions I think these are all the ones we had discussed at the last meeting yes yes was there was the when you discussed about the swim coaches which on the end new business okay yeah these are ones that we we've discussed in last meeting so new ones are at again resolution Mee at the end the resolution right so would someone like to moove 20489 to 24108 I'll move resolutions 2489 through 2418 call please yes Mr yes Mr M yes yes yes all right um May update um as I mentioned with the the ordinance we just approved um our somerson Hills Public Safety Committee has had at two meetings since our last official meeting um what Basking Ridge is doing they are actually adding to more officers in the 2024 budget um and 13 license plate readers um I think we've added three and at this point I think the committee kind feels like we've done everything we can do locally so we're going to take these this ordinance we passed um to send it on to the governor and the legislators to try and encourage policy changes uh the Centennial committee has been meeting monthly we have a bunch of stuff coming up in May I hope to see all of you at the Burnville night at the Ballpark on May 18th uh we'll have our veterans doing the uh color the color guard um the magicals will be singing national anthem believe um there'll be fireworks should be a fun night and we still have um reduced price tickets if you go to either Bernville Centennial 2024 um you can get all take what you want uh we also have I think um I know I just wanted to do a little plug I know this Friday they're doing the bringing back the senior prom at the high school um gold golden intergenerational inter I that word intergenerational golden fog so the high school students serve dinner to seniors so if you know I know they they're still looking for people and you need to pre-registered um because it's a dinner so if you know anybody that's eligible um please have it's always been a lot of fun I've gotone a couple it's really a nice evening uh we also have um the Memorial Day Parade on May 27th so uh the committee needs to know who of us is going to be there because we launch usually so what you're not here I'm here I'm here I may be here yes okay if I'm here I'll be here yes and we do have a we have a centennial Banner you can hold yeah I don't think all my weekends um and then on May 30th the U Centennial committee as well as the mayor's Wellness committee will be sponsoring um music through the years with Good Time Charlie as our DJ at the library so that again will be Geared for um our seniors I attended the fire company dinner and provided proclamations for I think it was one two for five members who have been 50-year members um Victor gulet Tom carton Don foresight Dave Wacker and Ken Hendershot so good volunteerism um I also attended the YMCA Spirit Awards and an annual campaign celebration and they have exceeded their goal this year we had an Eagle Scout court of honor on the 14th with four count four Eagle Scouts um there was Dan Daniel Adams Gavin buers Evan Don and Luke har har 10 and what I'm going to do is read one of the proclamations um because they're all pretty much the same except for their uh projects and since we have re you here his brother was one of those four I'll read his um so whereas Evan Donahue has proven himself to be an outstanding member of the Boy Scouts of America and has achieved the highest rank of Eagle Scout and whereas it takes years of dedication and commitment to achieve Eagle rank and whereas Eagle Scouts act as leaders and role models in the community and whereas the eagle scout award is a distinction that will follow him throughout life and will be a beacon to others of the leadership quality and commitment with young L has shown and whereas residents of the summerson hills appreciate his hard work at the Environmental Education Center where he spruced up P padders Cod and whereas the Eagles Scout court of honor Rec recognizing Evan for his accomplishments with boy scat TR 150 was held on April 14th 2024 now therefore being proclaimed that I Mary Jane Kos mayor of the burner burrow of Burnsville to hereby recognize Evan Donna hbert his achievement of the rank of Eagle um and the other boys got the same except for uh what Dan Adams did he uh created a garden he took recycled wood pallets made it a garden planted vegetables and grew the vegetables and donated them to a food bank uh Gavin built a a fairly large kiosk through the r and Headwaters Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve in Bedminster uh and Luke har hartjen built and installed a trail kiosk at Kirk Patrick Park and helped clean and maintain the trail so uh the projects that these Eagles FS do are really pretty impressive and we are grateful for all that they do re you'll be coming up next right yeah all right uh we had the fence Setter fence sitter Film Festival here in town last weekend um brought a lot of people into town I think was a really great event um I attended the opening event at Diamond dream and the closing event at the Bernie and a lot of the business local businesses supported it so it was and I think they'll be back with another one in September so they're going to try and do two a year um Alan and I also attended the opening day parade ceremony for the summerson hills ball club and there's 380 kids or something incredible how many children are involved in that uh we had the green fair at the train station last Saturday um thank you to the Green Team and Jeff Hamond I think it was a really good event um saw a lot of you guys there helping out so thank you I think that was we had Trails the trails committee had a table environmental commission had a table M um I also attended the somerson County Planning Partners meeting which was an update on the state uh development and Redevelopment plan and the cross acceptance we'll be hearing more about that um I think you all got copies of the presentation that um Walter Lane did I I'm not sure I think at some point we have to do a resolution that we're going to participate in the process um they also talked about uh the county has a local Safety Action Plan that they're working on to help reduce traffic debts and injuries um and we have a pl we had our plaque for 2023 we are again A New Jersey healthy town to watch this was the mayor's Wellness committee our Banner hasn't come yet they said they are sending one so once it comes we have to take a picture with it and send it in so we have that so that is myu see when it takes it's a whole mon I want to say sorry administrator um I just have a couple things one I to let you know that the test um or demonstration I guess to show how high the proposed lights at the PO ground will be on Thursday May 2nd um the truck the bucket truck will be there around 6 p.m. um on Thursday until 6:00 a.m. on Friday one of the residents made a request for a light um on the top and so that you can see it in the dark and so the actually the uh tree company accomodating us they have they have on apparently a very quiet generator so the light will be on I have warned the residents that it's not going to be the same light as the light that would be there which be very FOC um but it's just to give an idea of height um so again that is Thursday night until Friday morning um at 2:51 Claremont we have received uh all but one of the things we needed in order to get our demolition permit um the last we had a propan tank removed septic tank removed and a a um well and the last two were required health department approval so we got those they were approved and we got those permits we got Morris County so I'm sorry somerson County Soil permit we got um we had it exterminated and we had uh the electric turned off and got the letter of disconnection from JC pel we just need the gas the gas was turned off the we disconnected but we just need it disconnected from the street and we need a lot of amendments L than we need which think it's happening this week so is possible we could have the house demolished and the report into the state by the end of May which gives us a whole extra money um and like I said we have $500,000 on the on the line for that so I want to thank um Tony Hadar engineer and John mdow or did you have director for their help in getting all that done and ping you because I mean this is like the fastest you know that I've seen in a while so um so you know it's a shame to see the house go I didn't really like that house but um you know it'll be a beautiful Park entrance to tr and thank you uh so we have our monthly reports do I have uh a motion to accept the department monthly report I to accept all in favor okay um we have another volunteer for shade tree so I think how many is that make eight eight so now we just have to get them together and get somebody to offer to be chair um so who wants to do that one I move to confirm the mayor's appointment of Kate Lincoln to the committee all in favor hear come out of here all right moving on to um any Unfinished Business by the way we have anything new business um a temporary sign request for um Farmers Market I think we have a a form FLD out by m English anybody have a problem with that motion by motion I have a motion to approve I'll move to approve by item 10 be for temporary second all in favor we have to we have to approve all these you know if you wish you can do sum all these resolutions by we haven't talked about them so we talked about s [Music] um well can we pull out um I think we answer um Main Street there were a bunch of questions we need to address I think the rest are we were talking about last time right we did okay so just the one from um the 10d yeah we'll pull that one out and then we can just move the wall so yeah I'll move 102 103 the resolution number check sorry TI uh resolutions 2024 1110 2411 2412 13 and 14 can you just do can you just do 16 15 and 16 he needs to his son is on the list second come on all right roll call Mr yes M MC yes Mr Mr mcen yes Mr R yes yes okay so we had a number of questions here and maybe Jack you can answer them the um the vendors for the car show and what people have to do we do those two it's not a resolution okay let's do 15 while Jack look that up Jay why are you my son the list on the list he works there so I'm GNA obain I'm like but my son's gonna work there too so does that mean I have to obstain I mean it's like basic I it's minimum wage normal job but I mean I don't know I'll just is yours not minimum wage it's had had he's one of the head okay good so that I'm like because I'm like mine's minimum wage I was not gonna for a Seas can we do it with just with three votes Jack if so let's we can take care of this I think we can handle it that's I'll move um resolution 24115 second all right roll call Mr obain Mr obain Mr MC yes Mr Ruth hanging on you Jeff Jeff sorry yes there yes okay thank you all right so Olivia you had a bunch of questions um this is for 104 yeah and I don't know what we how we I think are you doing you there yeah are you doing I'm here the vendor Village is over by the statue by millison statue in that area uh we haven't finalized exactly where but I I think that's right now where it looks like um and as far as the vendors go most of them there's only two right now that would actually be selling anything uh one of which is actually uh my husband's toy store with the vintage toys um since they're no longer in the popup um they have like a trailer like um yeah like a trailer that they've outfitted into like a mobile toy store um and then one other person that does handmade jewelry but everyone else is like the Girl Scout Troop they're not selling anything um there's a a chrome company that's just you know showcasing their services because it's vehicle Chrome um we have Carney Bank coming uh and then another local uh person who teaches speaking so there's no like physical products to sell it's more like just informational um so that I guess that's where the question came in is you know the Girl Scouts had asked you know can we wave the fee because we're a nonprofit like I wasn't really sure how to answer them I just was going to do the $50 across the board and the cois across the board and treat everyone the same but at the same time the I don't I don't know what's right or wrong as far as this goes because we've never done it this way before so I think one that's up to the council do noral record problem that insurance call policies actually recognized that some individuals aren't going to be able to get insurance like that and as long as the sponsor the said that they someone doesn't have insurance there like individual they have to show us home own that's right that's right oh home owners yeah they to yeah so I didn't realize we have a $50 vendor fee is that that from like the farmers market is that separate the $50 or special events special event start for when we get the the application to how close it is to the actual event it go up sponsor and the vendor okay but you know if they're not actually selling anything yeah you know you remember when we we did the unity day and you'd have like all the businesses set up I don't remember that we charged them back no they just kind of had information about their businesses yeah I are we good with not charging yes yeah across the border yeah wave the fee yeah even to the folks Selling Stuff where they could be making money at this event yeah I think so I think just yeah the two that are selling probably should p and I we just felt like it' be easier if we just said let's have a great event let's not let $50 get in the way of a great event but but tell them 5% of their Sal should go to uh I will say though um and there was another individual too uh Chris over at the movie theater has offered to give popcorn away um so I was I was asking him I'm like well you sure you want to do that because I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of popcorn that people are going to want and so I guess that was another factor and I didn't know if I mean I'm gonna have him deal with health department and all that if he needs to but um that's where another question came in is do I need to charge him as well because of the popcorn ECT because we have the food trucks and we're managing the food trucks like we do every year so that's not really an issue but I just you know you never really know for sure so I appreciate your time and your help on this one thank you I will come for a bag of popcorn it's good movie theater popcorn so uh it's good stuff okay that's good and I guess what about the insurance can the can can they just provide can Main Street just provide their own insurance on behalf of all of these vendors I think the vendors like the Girl Scouts get insurance because they paration have as Anthony said individuals don't aren't able to get Commercial Insurance like that and just provide a copy of the home policy but we need to have them provide it we can't have Main Street provide their insurance okay everyone has to do it so can you ask them for their homeowners copy of homeowners that doesn't have a business insurance or an organization Insurance like Girl Scouts do uh yeah the the Girl Scouts actually said that they have insurance I asked them if they had that so they said yes and they're going to provide that for me this week so as far as I'm seeing right now everybody seems to have it I just know in the past I've asked some individuals you know like you know some students that have like a product that they're selling or something that they're doing and then you know they don't have insurance um so if I ever was encountered with that situation I just wanted to make sure that there was an a Sol ution for them um not having it so the homeowner saying is probably fine um if that comes about but I think so far we're in good shape everybody has it thank you thank you thank you very much okay um we're back now to a second open session for any items that were not listed for the public hearing Jo um two things um Johan Washington Corner Road um speaking environment commissioner um regarding the shade tree um kit L I've been meeting with Kate Lincoln giving her the agenda kind of talk through into being chair that's what we needed we had people so but she wants to know how we do it I mean you you're responsible for assigning the chair right so um soon as you give us um permission you know you tell us or let her know uh if you agree with that then we'll get that going wonderful you know some of the people have been EMA can we do that tonight we're certain that she's aware she's I told her we would help this is the ultimate coer joh I know know I did it with Jeff I do it number two um I don't know about this uh maybe you could help me uh I'm concerned that we don't have a member from the planning board on the environmental Commission because of some level and I um and and I don't know about that I just I do know that uh having a full member from the planning board is really important it's nice to have a dialogue for them to understand us for them to for us to understand them um they have a lot of insight that we might not have that we can ask they're right there so I don't know what happened we had mark it was wonderful um and I don't know what these different levels are and why that is but if we can't have a member uh and this this you can understand that this is important it's a state thing you know they have a regulation for that um so we ought to change something if that's the case for this municipality because I think an environmental commission should have a member from the plan cour actually environmental commission member should be on the plan board has to be for some reason two courts have held that it's not mandatory I have no idea why say the language of the statute very clear but there are two court cases saying you don't have to but it's not the commissioner on the plan board it's the planning board on the commission that's somebody that do okay but if the if the commission is full this year no room next year do you is your membership full no oh I didn't think all right I mean he was on it and now he's not on it so there's a boy how many MERS must be six I I have to look there's seven plus two Al I don't know if they're all filled off the top my head oh look I didn't think there definitely seven started off the year with he being the seven right so I made that assumption we didn't fill it with a new person we have we we don't assign anyway maybe he's just not what maybe he's just not appending your meetings no no we put him on the board of health all right okay okay thank you thank you we'll figure that out you get that because of request right have the correct yeah okay uh yeah we need a motion for to approve I guess it's your they okay me appointing Kate Lincoln as chair that the motion yeah can we make a conent on Kate link the green I think that's all we we'll move Kaitlyn L chair pending her agreement I'll give her a call okay all in favor okay that's great because I was hoping I didn't have to try and get them organized good um I guess we do have items for executive yes oh I didn't ask anybody else want to speak I'm sorry I didn't yes close the public session yet hi car mind Ro I just wanted to you know mention that we are working on a new parking area up at Peter track the trails are beautiful the pies are open along the trails and probably soon will be at Pi Envy we really desperately need a sign even people that are on the trails committee sometimes drive past that Park so we know that that driveway now we know we're going to use that driveway steep as it is we're going to improve it could we have a sign that shows on even that's facing the way the traffic faces because we've got a green AC sign but you can't see it unless you're sto uh and that say p distract with uh you know we can use whatever design you want and I would suggest that we just use the Centennial design which is beautiful that that we could use for all of our parks and just start with that one we we need a sign also for Patrick Park we have issues with the driveway but we could put a sign in and then we could move it later if we have a different driveway but we're having issues with people not being able to find the parks and uh you know I suggest I hope that we could move forward with Peter's tra at this point no good point just with no apostrophe I think is the yeah um okay anyone else all right then I will close the public session do I have a motion for close session to Executive second all in favor are we coming out um I don't no early night Char appreciate well