good morning everybody we're going to start the meeting first off I want to say Happy New Year to everybody and welcome to the Blairstown Township committee reorganization meeting and today is Monday January 1st I am going to start with an opening roll call Mrs Lance yes Mr lman here Mr makur here Mr Morehead here Mr or here we are now going to stand for the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all notice of this meeting has been sent and published by the New Jersey Herald in or Express Times providing the date time place and general agenda set forth in accordance with the open public meetings Act PL of 1975 chapter 231 additionally a notice was posted on the Township bul Board and on the township website at this time we're going to do the oath of office and we're going to start with G Eric lman Mr [Music] lman last you got a good picture I want to make sure we get this right before everyone wants to see find an armpit an armpit are you ready I'm good ready whatever you need to please repeat after me I G Eric lman i g Eric Lan do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the constitute of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government to the same and to the government established in the United States and in the state established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of commitment all the duties of commitment for the township of Blairstown for the township of blown according to the best of my ability so help me God according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations thank and then I need you [Music] toost all right at this time we're going to have um Mr orot be sworn in I have I have the pleasure of having my dear dear friend John Deo who's the assembly minority leader here today to swear me in and we go back a long way in uh politics and government service and I'm really glad to have you here pal great to be here too and speak be back in blown in the nth when we get reorganize and TR uh 23rd legislative district we have the honor representing that once again I can't be more happy uh to be back here so raise your right hand got that got that repeat after me I Walter or cut do solemnly swear I Walter orcut do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the government established to the governments established in the United States and in this state in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and justly impartially and justly perform all the duties of perform all the duties of commitment commitment in the township of Cl in the township of blound according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God got you know how to at this time I am going to take a motion for the mayor of 2024 Madam clerk I would move that we nominate Rob Morehead to be mayor once again in 2024 may I have a second I'll second then I'm going to do a roll call Mrs Lance yes Mr lman yes Mr Mur yes Mr orcot yes Mr Morehead yes all right we are now going to S you in I Rob Morehead I Rob Morehead do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments to the same and to the governments establish in the United States and this state established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of Mayor all the duties of mayor for the township of Blairstown for the township of Blairstown for the best of my ability for the best of my ability so help me God so help me God right congratulations for and at this time mayor Morehead will be taking over P Char there all right wasti oh it felt good take take a break all right uh next up we will uh take nominations for deputy mayor for the year 2024 we have have a nomination I'd like to uh nominate Walter orot as deputy mayor for the year 2024 do we have a second I'll second though well roll call please Christen Mrs Lance yes Mr lman yes Mr mtor yes Mr orov Mayor Moran yes congratulations one more time okay stay oh this is double pleasure John I'm I any opportunity spee you after me I wut Solly swear I Walter Orca do solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will Faithfully imp partially and justly impartially and justly perform all the duties of Deputy Mayor perform all the duties of deputy mayor for the township of Blairstown according to the best of my abilities for the township of Blairstown according to the best of my abilities so help me so help me God so help me God thank you thanks I got your back if anything happens to you trust me he's a reason I take no time off um up next we've got some oath of office for our Blairstown Hose Company number one our officers if uh you want to come up I guess individually we'll start out with our chief Mark Slater get as far out of the picture repeat after me I Robert Mark sler I Robert Mar SL do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the con of the United States of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will Faithfully impartially partially and justly perform all the duties of Fire Chief and perform all the duties of Fire onee term ending December 30th 31st 2024 for the township of blown for the township of blown according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so me so God congratulations congratulations I think I can speak for the rest of host company number one that uh you have the best person in charge and uh we're very happy he's staying there he does a great job and he's uh he's really fought hard for the uh the host company this year so thank you Mar Stuart left hand on right hand all right repeat after me i steuart k i steuart k do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey that I will bear that I will bear true faith and Allegiance true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments established established in the united states in the United States and in this St St and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of Deputy fire chief all all the duties of Deputy fire chief for the township of blown for the township of blown according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratul conations over did very well on that by the way George ready repeat after me I George carer III I George carer the third do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of Captain all the duties of captain for the township of Blair toown for the township of blam according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you thank you you're up next Mike cheing repeat after me sir I Mike Pell I Mike Pell do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of theate state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of Lieutenant all the duties of Lieutenant for the township of Blairstown for the township of Blairstown according to the best of my ability according to the best of my abil so help you got so help you got [Music] [Applause] congratul all right we'll move on to our consent agenda it's lengthy because it is uh the first of the year we have to do all of these number one through 27 before we start um are there any uh changes or uh additions that anyone has to make on any of these uh uh consent agendas from 1 to 27 one for January set a possible yeah um I would like to change the January meeting if possible to January or 17 would be the can we do it um either the 18 16th that's hard meeting the second anything for me anything before the 23rd with the exception of the 17 I'm good um any other anybody have any Thursday the 18th we about that for reason Thursday [Music] 18 January 18 looks good online okay thank you having having made that change mayor are you looking for a motion to move the consent agenda I would like to I would so do that do we have a second I have a second all right roll call please Kristen Mrs Lance yes Mr lman yes Mr makur yes Mr orcot yes mayor Mor yes uh we have some appointments to the land use board we've uh definitely had a little bit of motion this year [Applause] um for a one-year term expiring 1231 2024 it's a class one seat on the land use board Walter orcut uh another one-year term expiring on the 31st of December 2024 Class 2 Evelyn tilney moves up from our um our um sorry alternate 2 alternate 2 yeah um Adam Jarvis also moving up from the alternate seats to a 4-year term expiring on 1231 2027 as a class 4 coming into uh an alternate one position Mike Su with a 2-year term expiring 1231 2025 and also coming in uh filling an unexpired unexpired term as all to Daniel ganella so we congratulate everyone on their moves on their moves in the land use board and look forward to a really fine uh New Year coming up our committee liaison assignments um has everyone uh looked these over I think everyone kind of went through um went through what they have we uh we we we spoke independently on this Eric you uh we're gonna call you Eric right we're dropping the G for you can call me whatever you like don't say that uh Eric are you uh are you good with your assignments I am okay um so Hing as a police commissioner Charlie makatura our Municipal Court primary as well our class three in the land use board alternate for buildings and grounds alternate for water utility emergency management alternate and Blair Academy and also Personnel alternate our Deputy Mayor U also staying as DPW primary because they love them over there they really do they love them a bunch you might want you might not to love you might want to buy them t-shirts I did that in my year open space primary uh Walter uh really very pivotal in um looking to uh to save land in this town and we appreciate your work with that buildings and grounds primary class one land use board member Finance alternate fire department alternate uh intermunicipal County state and federal liaison alternate and the Paulina Dam liaison hopefully by uh mid 2024 we need that no we'll drop those Liaisons um committee woman Lance a a finance primary uh boy we really picked the right person for that this year um you have done an amazing job in w Walter we haven't worried about anything uh financially uh for our future the the planning that's been done by by that subcommittee this year has been exemplary Blairstown Elementary primary Blairstown historical primary and the work you've done on the blairtown historic preservation committee has been uh has been really really um well documented this has been a good year for them uh Rescue Squad primary senior citizen alternate Recreation alternate and North Warren Regional alternate our newcomer Eric lman he starts off with North Warren Regional primary our Recreation primary because you just look so very recreational over there senior citizen primary um you're you're the same age as me so you can legally go to the uh the dinner this year which is nice uh Blairstown historical alternate and rescue squad alternate Yours Truly Deputy Police Commissioner water utility primary Personnel primary Emergency Management primary AR Blair Academy primary intermunicipal County state and federal liaison primary fire department primary DPW alternate open space alternate Municipal Court alternate and Paulina Dan liaison primary um we are going to move right through this because I know a lot of us need to get down to the county building uh by noontime um from the committee what have you guys U got for us will uh did we change our um did we change our yes our go around here are we going in that no I don't I don't have we're going to start with Mrs L oh yeah I didn't get our new order um committee person Lance what do you have for us for the new year so I'm very excited to begin the new year we have a lot of work ahead of us and we have um some very very hard workers on our committee it's going to be a fantastic year with a lot of challenges and I'm really looking forward to it um welcome Eric um I can see that you're going to be doing uh a lot of wonderful things with this group and I'm very grateful to be serving with you a lot of the same committees so I look forward to that um uh congratulations mayor and Deputy Mayor um there are two people who will to Gabel and will do a good job in here and um I'm very grateful that around is the mayor um but seriously uh congratulations on your election uh both Walter and Eric and uh again uh it's going to be a great year and I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and working with everyone here and happy New Year to everyone thank you for coming today thank you Ken I'm just yeah I'm just trying to find the uh the yeah I my my um My Librarian skills are lacking uh Eric lman what have you got for as committee person God I wish I had something for you looking forward we're looking forward to it as well thank you congratulations happy to welcome the board thank you committee person mura first uh looking forward to 2024 Wishing every everybody a Happy New Year um obviously we're looking we're very excited about how some of the prospects we're going to have um again welcome back mayor Deputy Mayor we now have our committee Eric bman and our committee woman m l so I think we got a very cohesive group and be able to get a lot done in 2024 very excited about Jon's Farm um I'm hoping that you'll see some activity there maybe in a couple of weeks so that's been on very long long uh long process and many years down the road so we're looking forward to that we're also thrill we have our police chief back for four years with a new contract a new Young officer that's very excited to be here um our judge municipal judge wants to come down and introduce himself to the town and municipality so we're excited to have him come down um and that's about it again I want to thank my wife for you know standing by here and coming and supporting me for the uh for the entire year and uh again we look forward to 2024 I think it's a great town we got a lot of good things for so happy New Year thank you Charlie Deputy Mayor orcut thank you mayor um have a little prepared remark Shar it's been my honor and pleasure to serve on this governing body for a total of nine years now and as I start my 10th year I want to thank the voters for returning me back to this position for another 3 years I couldn't have a better work relationship than the one I have with Mayor Rob Morhead and committee and Charles makur I consider both of these men trusted friends and they are passionate about serving the residents and they are both consumate Professionals in all private and public interactions we had a great team here on the governing body in 2023 especially with the addition of Karen Lance last year and she brought with her her extensive Municipal Finance experience we've worked together closely to keep spending in check while creatively budgeting and planning for the future Karen's perspectives and initiatives have been extremely helpful and enhancing our service to Residents and taxpayers in ways that are creative and thoughtful this year we welcome Eric lman to the township committee and I fully expect that this will be the most cohesive governing body Blair has had in many many years I have worked with Eric on the land board for a few years now and I can attest to his creative and thoughtful demeanor which will ensure a 100% team effort on this governing body going forward since I came back onto this committee three years ago I took the lead on addressing the res president's concerns about the condition of our local roads we took serious steps forward and have literally been redoubling our efforts these past 3 years by implementing a thoughtfully crafted 5-year Road Capital Improvement plan and significantly increasing the amount and scope of our overlay projects each year we will all cohesively continue to ensure that your tax dollars are being spent wisely and efficiently while maintaining the level of service that the taxpayers truly deserve as I have said many times in the past Blairstown Municipal Taxes have been and continue to be the lowest of any municipality with the police department in Sussex Warren or hunon County and even with the police department we are still the third or fourth lowest Municipal tax rate in all those Three Counties this governing body has been extremely supportive of both our police department and our DPW Department making sure they have all the necessary tools and resources to give the residents the absolute best service while while ensuring that the residents are getting the best value for their hard-earned tax dollars chief Johnson is an extremely capable and charismatic leader for our police department and he has done a great job in making the department one which we are all proud of all of our officers are well respected by the community and I have literally heard zero complaints and plenty of praiseworthy comments since I have been on this Township committee our dedicated Department of Public Works per Personnel under Eric yin's leadership have Pace with Road and drainage maintenance and improvements and have spent significant time and effort in preparing our roads for the unprecedented amount of overlay and resurfacing that we have funded during my attender on this committee it's been an honor to be one of the liazon that the blairtown fire department these past three years and I personally have enormous respect for all the members from Chief Slater all the way down through the ranks of this great group of volunteers everyone in town should respect and admire them for their dedication and I might add their time spent in going out and and responding to calls at all hours of the day uh my wife of nearly 44 years and mother of our four wonderful children Robin is in the audience and I want to publicly thank her for her patience understanding for all those times that I'm serving the residents and taxpayers of Blairstown I see I have two of my dear friends and former elected officials of this town south cimetti is a former mayor of this town but additionally he was as you all may well know he was a sheriff of Warren County for nine years and U I'm glad to see you here today and maybe we can make you can make some remarks later because you're usually pretty good at that I also see a former deputy mayor in the audience who is also a member of the fire department Sal is scary and S it's worthy thank you for all your all you've done for the town and continue to do and I'm looking forward to a productive and harmonious 2024 here in Blairstown and I I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year thank you Deputy Mayor can you talk that I just want to go on the record of saying I am always accused of talking too much I have nothing written here uh we had a really good year last year um this Committee in in its in its form now I think will be even more productive than we've been we have been very productive we've been a committee about getting things done and we've found creative ways to get things done without burdening taxpayers and that's the most important thing that that I could do because we are all taxpayers in this town and we know we want to keep the town as close to as uh you know the way we found it as as we can um and I think we've done a very very good job uh with that and we will continue to do that this year and I do want to also congratulate all the uh the in well the the the sworn in members and all the members of blairtown H company number one uh terrific bunch of people I just I'm so proud to uh to be your commissioner again for another year um to to watch you in your meetings and in your how you handle yourselves uh not only with each other but with the public is exemplary um I I I wish every town could have a fire department like yours they'd be a they'd be a very very proud uh proud town indeed uh and uh want to thank my wife for putting up with me for another year she said last night she goes you're running again huh I said well yeah I know we talked about this guess so this is so this is your official announcement I kind of owe it to the town to continue if I can yeah so uh I yeah I I will run again this year and uh having nothing prepared I will open it up to any public comment any uh any member of the public who'd like to say anything before we move to a journ today seeing none can we have a motion for adjournment mayor I would so move that oh wait I have make that motion uh so moved all in favor hi all oppose all right thank you everyone for coming out today congratulations to the host company members who were sworn in and have a great 2024