welcome to the blairtown township committee meeting for February 28th 2024 can we have an opening roll call please Kristen Mrs Lance here Mr lman here Mr makur here Mr orock here mayor Morhead here can you all please rise for the salute to the flag iance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meeting act PL 1975 chter 231 setting forth the time date place and purpose of this public meeting through a legal notice published in the New Jersey Herald Andor The Express Times following the Township's annual reorganization meeting at which the 2024 meeting schedule was adopted good evening in everyone nice to have a good good looking crowd tonight all right maybe a crowd can't speak for all of you but we want to start off the evening uh we have uh Frankfurt mayor uh David Silverthorne I'd love for you to bring up our our guest and introduce them and tell us why you guys are here tonight I'm going to take a chair okay take a chair please we got those from Olive Garden roll around nicely well let me introduce myself then I am Peter lamur I'm the judge of your court um as you know or as you may know I was appointed in uh January last year to be the judge in Frankfurt U and of course blone was part of that so that's what I've been doing for you since uh January of last year very good and I do have some good things to say about the police department even though they keep me up at night sometimes at 1:00 in the morning for warns or or temporary restraining orders you know they have come and we need them to testify so I don't have any complaints as to your Police Department if you have any complaints about us you get them out now well I I I have a couple I have I have your agreement here I have to sign tonight de no I I I would don't have any complaints it's uh you know it works pretty well I don't know if you guys know but um generally the third the fourth thir sale of each month is When U plone cases uh before us all right the first two uh sessions the second and third uh Thursday would be Frankfurt only and then the fourth would be U glone and U we take all the first appearances trunk driving uh assaults uh zoning cases you might get you might have gotten some significant monies um out of so so many cases so but if you have any questions I'm happy to answer any of no in talking to the police chief judge they're they're very happy with the service they been reing oh good happy to hear that very I we we we had had an issue with uh one of our other towns and the judge and I went over there to kind of smooth things over and talk them a little bit and yet got such a good response from that town that they're like 30 SP now that we said you know we come over here and see down too especially since although uh we're you're joint with us and we're shared with us and we I don't think anybody came from from FR thought it was a nice and I think you deserve it all oh my God should I repeat everything I said no talking for well Frankfurt was an emergency stand in if you recall and we actually had to get it was it's a little bit unique for me because you know we had to get two visages involved it's not uncommon to have multi units but um it was really nice that you guys were there for blown and they need them and I think the biggest concern was for our Police Department going up there but I think that's worked out very well and uh and actually Peter and I were talking off the Record before the meeting started and Peter used to cover meetings from in Blairstown for my father many years ago yeah and Kevin took my job in Frankfurt by the way attorney well I I had the opportunity I was up there a couple of months ago there we go I was up there a couple of months ago to see The Collector who happens to be related closely to my committee woman here but um I got to talk to the judge for a little bit and see him in action and and uh we're every everybody has everything good to say about the our whole Venture up there at at Frankford municial court for a couple meetings myself back in the day I I spent a good amount of time in court and I po in there and I I talked to the women's and the women in in the court office and the objective is to keep keep costs reasonable we don't think of course I obviously supposed to make money but it shouldn't lose money either and with the with the all the talk on the county level with going to some sort of County Joint Court I I think it's good for us to keep our group together as best we can and stay because you know once it goes to the to the county level it's not going to go the prices are not going to go down they're going to go up regardless of what they're telling us so I'm going to say something maybe you don't want to hear but we're not supposed to think about the cost of the courts you know it's we do that yeah I know you're not supposed to you know we're supposed to just do what's why we don't El judges in the state so anybody has any questions Happ to answer any so we're the only town with the police department uh of all the towns that are in the court joint court right yes correct I have I was appointed in May to be also the judge in Vernon U the judge who was there unfortunately fortunate for me but unfortunate for him act a little bit ridiculous he was suspended so I took over there and then I was appointed full-time in jary so okay but they also have yeah I just something that you mentioned before what is the difference between having a joint court and what was the other a sh well it's the joint quote would be we have five municipalities we have um Frankfurt Lafayette Sanderson monu and walpack okay and that's a joint joed they all joined one Court they joined us shared court is we are basically um took over the responsibility for Blair time it's only one qu and and so I'm sorry go say Karen so we maintain our own summons books um everything is we share expenses but our our everything else is separate in in the joint court and also in the shared in the shared Court you you we still retain jurisdiction to to make our judicial appointments that judge position in particular in the in the joint court all those Mr operate under one umbrella name all the summons this issue are uniform the Peter's position as the judge is actually well we technically nominate but ultim is approved by the by the governor actually so it's a completely different animal really in fact our our contract is actually with the joint court because they really collectively one one indivisible entity so it's really it's really just two entities Blair toown and the joint court because the other municipalities all are under it works very smoothly and there's also the Shar court has uh only one budget my put administator prepares the budget for the Shar Court The Joint court is one budget for all of the municipalities so that's another difference that exist how do you handle the the volume from wallpack it must be you know I I it's like five people if everyone all of the other towns are State Police and ours is just everything State Police yeah yeah yeah and and that's a difficult part State Police the discovery from the state police is much different than from coming from here here we have a there's a person here in a court system that provides us with the discovery in U Frankfurt we have to actually get other Tren to discover it's a nice it's a nightmare okay and the pro who's doing it right now uh spends a ton of time trying to obtain the discovery and then the state police doesn't they don't show up sometimes if they get to come or they don't want to be there they don't get former State Police um somebody there former State Police here oh no it's true though really some of them just don't show up be careful you know and there used to be a thought of notifying the station Commander but we don't do that you know it's because you don't know what happened really you st police I spent about 3 and a half years in but you would never have done that so I was there oh my God I'm trying to think the ryer Ry oh my God that's a really long time ago that yeah she had an office out of her home yeah oh yeah yeah she there 2:00 morning that's she died by the way nice yeah she was she was tough if she liked you you're okay if she didn't like you you could die in front of her up all nice improvements physical facility just got improved all it's not as nice as this room and we and we had this in mind when they built this building we had this in mind to be but then the state the state came in the next door and had their Construction office there so we couldn't be a court if we wanted to not that we want to at all um we love having you so uh you know we going to do the best I was skeptical when I wasn't on the committee yet four years ago I was skeptical going Frankfurt really but I'll tell you what being on the committee for three years I have not heard one complaint about the court being in Frankfurt not one it works out very well good system I'm glad to be a part keep going well thank you thank you for thank you thank you mayor hopefully it's we don't go another 20 something years before we see each other again we should do this more we really should thank good nice to meet you all right on to the exciting part of the evening our uh our engineer Dennis Keenan has our storm water update um we've uh we've gone through a lot of this in our subcommittee meeting and um you have an outline of uh what we have in store for us to uh for the upcoming year in uh what we have to do to uh be uh compliant with our new storm water regulations yes so I'll just walk you through briefly kind of what what is in front of us is um every year we basically have a running permit with Stadium New Jersey called our ms4 permit uh and basically that allows us to discharge water to State open Waters uh allows us to have a storm water system that then just discharges into Street every municipality needs to have a permit it needs to have a valid permit and it's regulated at the state level it even comes down from the federal level from the EPA so the way we've been moving forward they always had two tiers we were at least tier B for a very long time and uh just as of a year ago they got rid of tier B's and now everybody's a tier a so they used to have two different categories we have a lot less work to do uh as a municipality to comply with the tier B requirements now since that's gone we've been elevated to a TR and in some instances we're just behind the aall because a lot of the things that now we have to start complying with these other municipalities have been doing and progressing towards for years so so now there are things that we need to start implementing that we haven't done before um and put them together to kind of outline some things that I think we would need to do this next year um when d put out these regulations I came here about a year ago and just got gave a overview of what they were heads up that this is coming and we're going to have to deal with it at the time I don't think we actually knew how much money they were going to provide to help support to municipalities um they did come out and gave us $75,000 uh we have a portion of that that we already have and we have another the other portion is going to be coming shorter um they gave all the other municipalities that tier a $25,000 but the municipalities that were tier B's moving up to tier A's got $75,000 acknowledging the fact that you're a little bit behind and and had some catch up so what I did is I outlined some of the work that I think we need to start moving on now um and I can just walk through those things this is what I I'm I'm intending to move forward with pass around yeah so the the first item and really the need concern with it over course this next year we need to be able to produce a u storm water mapping for the township that is mapping every storm Inlet mapping all the storm pipes detention basins everything in municipality uh we have to create a GIS MTH that then has to be shipped down to the DP to update to their database every tier has been working towards this um they have some semblance even if it's not great they have something at this point we have nothing scratch so that's the first item that we need to get moving on um the second item is the municipal St management plan that's a plan that we really put together back in 2004 or so um which actually I think I prepared for T before we work with them on that um that needs to be updated supposed to be updated once every 10 years so we're outdated on that they're now making sure that gets updated uh we also have a local public Outreach which is something we have been doing since we were tib was always required but we need to go through and make sure we have a point system we modified the point system and that is a point system to notify the public uh St Water Management municipality things that they should do to comply with st management they have dog Wass how to watch your car things like that and inform the public it's an education program that they have every municipality do so we work with um Township staff to make sure that gets implemented and information gets distributed to Residents in account maybe tax mailers or things like that um we also have a storm Mar Control Ordinance which we actually need to implement they've been updating so more Control ordinances seems like once a year every time they do they tell us need update our own ordinates so we have any ordinates that need to be updated by July um C to get that taken care of inspection and maintenance of private storm water facilities they're actually requiring the municipality to reach out to owners of storm water bit facil being a private entity property owner that has a detention basement on their property usually business in town that probably been developed in the past you know 20 years they probably have a detention based on the property they should be maintaining it uh they're requiring us as a municipality to contact those uh individuals and owners and tell them you need to maintain your um detention Bas in storm water facilities and you need to notify us that you're doing so we'll work through trying to figure out who has the tension Basin in the town and then we'll prepare some notifications to those make sure that get distributed to annual employee training we provide some train ATT staff and apply again the ms4 permit inspection and uh maintenance mapping that's really there we take the stor water mapping that we prepared above and then we start drilling down and saying okay now that we understand the stor water mapping that's in the town now we have to go through and identify there's roads that need to be swept there's inlets that need to be clean and then set up a program for cleaning that and work with ER DW make sure he understand what got he actually has a physical to say this is what I'm doing program and they're requiring us to have that um and then the other item I put in there is is it's a little bit it's not really ms4 but it kind of fit do it is permit ordinance and that is a flood ordinance that we ended up adopting and forced to adopt for Thea to stay compant with the uh flood TR program they require us to adopt an updated ordinance that stipulates that we have a flood permit in town right now we don't have a flood permit so we have the ordinance that Fe requires us to have we just don't have a permit in place and that's a permit that basically is required for anybody who's developing in a flood PL that there's a perent they must get from the municipality you just verify their Dennis I actually of those for Wayne Ingram if your office who I work with in po hat so I'll circulate that to you Wayne Wayne approved it I tried to keep we and I found several samples of permits done elsewhere and we tried to keep it as practical as possible I'll send that to you make sure you're okay with it yeah and then we'll get it up to these guys in we'll just going to that by resolution because the permit is actually already referenced in the ordinances that is said just got the physically G so I'll I'll get that to you okay well we just save this money there we go well you can use that for the M do we have any idea how many inlets and outows was estimating 800 and is that just Township owned or is that they want to know everything all we have to worry about are the township owned um County owned state owned you know anything in the 94s we don't have to worry about any count have to worry about um any on private property inlets the shopping centers we don't have to about those and I saw something in here about shared as it's going into another municipality that is that part of the list also yes as it yes when we have a connection point with another municipality we generally what we're doing is just saying it's coming through D would like us to go through and map in the other municipalities so then we understand what's draining to our town but that's not required okay that's a higher number than I would have guessed that's right he would know better than anybody up here for no other reason it's good exercise that what yes yeah it will be help and and part of the idea in having m is looking a stream and there there there's some contamination we're see to boil from the SLI that's coming from you know a head wall okay well where does that go got a m we know where you don't have to guess so it will have a purpose it will be useful and I think the the gis platform that our GIS guys put together it can be it can be very useful we we we've actually used another town where you can have your iPhone and the DPW staff can stand over a structure and say okay I'm standing over the structure and I'm cleaning it out I took out this much material and enter all this information and then it feeds it back to us to do the permit at the end of the year it's all there y so the concept it works a lot better reality have there's an app for that yes there is app it so that that's really I just want to go over that make sure everybody was on board and to move forward and the good news is the uh the grant that they awarded us will cover the engineering fees the initial engineering fees for this year that's that's good news yes yes because we do list in there the watered inventorying that is required for next year um I I'm saying let's table that until next year because it's a little bit of an unknown entity this is that no one's had to put this together before um so I'm I'm hoping to get some guidance over the course of next year what that really is but we need to plan the fact that you know we're going to do this this year and some of get repeated it every year and next year we're going to have another and then and that's a phase one for analysis and there's a phase two so after 3 years we should be able to up after three years yes and then you know it's it's a it's taxing on us it's uh it's there's money involved but really the if if you look at the whole thing in in an entirety it's it's a great thing I mean we have probably one of the most beautiful parts of the state we should be responsible for what water goes into you know a lot of people drink the water that uh that that comes from up north of us and so it's it's not a bad thing it's just the way they did it and said here you're going to have to do all this right now should I think the phasing should have been more protracted but uh we we should all be as concerned with our water supplies as some I mean the state does a pretty good job with that so all right any other questions from Dennis just quick comment for Dennis about Dennis Dennis was in an hour early met with a mayor and I on a subcommittee about roads um and as some of you actually most everybody up here knows um Dennis represents the land use sport too as our engineers and does a great job for us all around not only for the town but for the land land sport so the continuity there has been really helpful and I know you have a good working relationship with Eric you send W our Ro supervisor so all good relationship thanks Dennis for all your work thank you Dennis and if you need your parking validated see your okay take care thank you all right we will open up our public comment section of the uh meeting tonight um does anyone have any public comment to add I see I see faces that I haven't seen before they she beat you to it come on up and guys we next give us your name and address sure U my name is Geraldine Cole my address is 151 Sol Road um I'm the president of North War football program and here tonight to express my support and explain the extreme need in updating items at the Walnut Valley Field such as the septic and other plumy items associated with it I call W Valley the heart of our town W Valley is home to North Football North waren Youth Cheer North waren little league and even a little Firehouse I'm here an advocate for all of our families and of course all of those groups we see hundreds of kids and thousands of people there throughout the year in addition to that you can always bet that you will hear any adult in the area say what fond memories they have playing down there football season is the heaviest crowd on a typical Saturday night we host about 2,000 people but that number can vary sometimes we have well over that I know baseball has had record numbers as well in the recent years years while I can't give you numbers for them I can assure you that they have plenty let's keep in mind on the football end that's roughly 800 kids playing outside instead of on a video game on any sun uh Saturday evening as you all know since there has been a parking issue um we came and spoke last year about doing some much needed upgrades that our groups were able to fund the grass looked fantastic the dugouts were updated and the concession had a makeover and the excitement amongst the families of even the town people that came just out to grab something to eat was incredible but then there's the bathrooms and the plumbing issues we have inside the concession St with that being said there are improvements at the field that are in desperate need our septic is in dire need of repair or replacement we currently use up to three portons in addition to attempting to use the bathrooms in the stand and the smell is absolutely atrocious from those portons for a family setting portons are not a great option especially if it's the only restroom which happens often throughout our day they're great on construction sites but not so great when you have kids or we typically start the day with the bathrooms open by the end of the second game we need to close them due to the bathroom issues this can be not flushing constant flushing backing up non-stop running urinals or toilets Etc it creates a mess so we do have to lock it we absolutely hate to lock the bathrooms because there's nothing worse as a mom to bring your little kid or even your infant into a Porton especially heavy into those days especially in the dark we have tried to put small lights in which have been stolen or thrown into the Porton tank Itself by the third gain the smell from the Porton Gs are so unbearable you can smell them by the concession stand and by the end of the evening you could smell them all the way out to the field and they are absolutely Beyond capacity we have moved them to different locations to try to avoid this but it's so rancid by the end of the night there is no hope we purchase toilet paper and cleaning supplies to help keep up and it's just not enough the portons are not an ideal situation because unfortunately we have seen an uptick in issues at the field we've had vandalism and we've had the portons knocked over or rocked creating quite a mess inside thankfully I work with awesome proof strong guys that have had the unfortunate job to do all that heavy lifting we also have fed bottled water that we bring in because the sink will also not drain if we let the bathrooms go too long huge thank you and shout out to the road department guys who have had to help me with that issue until we found a way to avoid it right now we do not use the sink in the concession stand for any type of dumping for example if I have to make something where I boil water I have to carry the pot out to another holding pot that we dump later and when it's not hot I can transport it to my home to dispose of it I try to avoid this at all costs doing the dishes at the end of the night is an absolute Nightmare and the concession is a massive part of our program so we try to make doe but these issues aren't going away the remedy is extremely overdue we cannot function if we do not have that concession stand we've had a huge jump in numbers in just the past two years and I truly believe it's because the parents love to see the pride that we have in our program while the outside is hands down gorgeous and you'll hear me say all the time it's the world famous concession stand because our kids are our world we have to keep making sure our facilities are clean and most importantly they sanitary for all the kids and families if you look at a restroom vers cortage on in sanitary terms hands down there's no contest we need sanitary bathrooms down there we do not go or we do go to eight other fields throughout the season and they all have super clean restrooms with running water lights Etc so my hope is that we can get this updated so our programs in town can continue to thrive I will end it with this the most important thing in this world are our children they get so much out of these Sports programs no matter what sport it is in this town I urge you to continue to put your support and your money into the kids they are the future and we are raising an awesome generation in our small town so we hope that we can continue to show them how the town backs them and their grow thank you for your support and opportunity to explain how desperately we need those bathroom s there sounds like getting back I can I can practically smell it from your description you got to come down but come down early for a flag game don't come later well U as you may or may not know this has been the subject of discussion for better part of a week now um Deputy Mayor orcut you want to we want to do this now or do it in within the meeting doesn't really matter we can we can discuss it now if you want you have anywhere to go yeah we have a couple other public comments we're going to circle back let's we'll Circle back no problem it's going to be don't be a fair it's it's certainly on the agenda whether you see it or not we're going to talk about that all right thank you for that appreciate it uh other public comments you had your hand up come [Applause] on just saying just saying best hair in the house you you you're making a lot of guys here very jealous that they can't have hair like that anymore are we allowed to come up here because I have sure for for okay okay yeah okay all right name and address name address yeah just make it legal my name is uh Jamie Shenley I live at 22 Road Jersey cool I'm the president of out ofar Shel 4 and me and our club have been thinking about setting up a mini Pantry outside of first cerian church now if you look at the images that are in there you can see where we wanted to set it up and just the general location so it's it's a we're talking about more of a it's a cabinet right it's a it's a cabinet with a closed door okay so what we're looking to do is to enhanc the experience at the food pantry uh we've been uh volunteering our time for the past 5 years um the kids will collect donations we stop the shelves and we prep and fake for the patrons that come in on Saturday so we're there every third Friday of the month what we want to do is have this cabinet installed in front of the Outreach so that it's for everybody it's 247 it's wor anybody that needs you know a kid walking home from school and Thursday need a bottle of water a mother that forgot an onion you know to home cooking dinner it's going to be organically uh restocked it's all going be based on donations and we are going to be on quality control making sure nothing is open there's no dangerous items each child in ad ofar shells for age will take a week uh responsibility of stocking uh quality control just making sure that the pantry is up to date and good okay um and we went already to the zone and uh building board they they already approved it the First Presbyterian Church already approved it they told us to come to you guys and if you guys say it's okay it's out oh you did your homework we did any questions so there's a pretty good overhang there too right exactly for the for the weather I suppose it's right the reason you have the picture of the door right next exactly exactly and I already have somebody that's willing to install it for free attach it to the building okay motion yeah motion to approve make a motion to approve this idea just with the only caveat keeping in mind two years down the road if it gets in rough shape or something it's the cabinet's going to be it's going to maintain we did add on to there that um when we when he when they outgrow the 4 group uh the First Presbyterian Church is going to overtake the cabinet okay that's fine that's perfect it's a good thing for that I'll make that motion and we uh hardly support this project I'll second it we have an all in favor I all oppose there you go thank you thank you so much thank you thank you for doing effort to communicate it's an awesome thing thank you all right any other come on up your entourage is growing as each month goes by add another okay I'm Chuck Walsh CU you know um 34 centr Road Columbia or open uh about these two gentlemen with me yeah we're not Paving your and your end of the road Chuck only the Blair we could use it though P I live at 21 M Road in Blair's downtown hi I'm Joey from drive now the reason why we're here um as you know of course the um committee kindly adopt the resolution of support for flown service am Trak service on the 18th of January now the reason why we're here I'm being HC to was on the 12 12 of January Congressman gimer wrote a letter which we found out about in the press the herald on the 26th of January basically promoting the Andover station site for Amtrak on the black one for service knowing some of the back history with the folks in Andel I've been up there a few times over the years the the intent in my opinion is not to just add on but to replace if they could the the letter from Congressman gimer went to the president of Amtrak Mr Gardner the the governor Mr Murphy has New Jersey Transit and a few others and of course the Press um we haven't seen a copy of the uh the letter I don't know if the Oprah I've called for times their office okay so we don't know exactly what's of course in the letter other than what was reported in the Press um at this point I don't know that nothing has been done and we have not heard anything so I guess that's no NOS as good news but uh we want to stay on top of this and we' actually also working on other townships in the area to get resolutions of support as well but uh that's you know relatively slow process but the thing is just to keep you in the loop that um we're still looking into this but uh at this point I don't really know what to say other than that's you know what we know at this point okay and of course I I I talked to Karen and and I also spoke to you Mr Mayor uh about this and I guess the strategy was to to see what we could find out but since we don't have the letter we don't I trying I've called and they called me back I've called them back no one answers that there any so the reason for your concern if I'm getting this right is that the stop would be an endover and then not here or anywhere here between or we would get we wouldn't get an Express Stop we don't know well uh the good news is that everything that's come out including the announcement which took place in December about and actually there been some subsequent announcements um about the Scranton service and Blairstown is is on the map and over is not so as long as that stays status quo I wouldn't say there's nothing to worry about but you know this is a this is maybe just a a tempest in a teapot we don't know but it's something of concerned just knowing the background from and over and what I think is their intent I don't want to overblow this but I I mean I I having talked to the mayor in the past they I I think that's what it's up to basically replace you know pick you guys off the map as you know goder represents Andover doesn't represent us we are we have Tom Kane of course as our representative yes yeah that would probably good I mean I've been talking to his Transportation person but you know coming from you sounds like the issue right if they coming from you folks have more import uh than coming from for me okay we can do that bent his ear on Sunday Walter I wonder if uh Senator steinhart I think he's got some pretty good connection maybe he could help us get his office maybe get a companion letter to support our our he's been a pretty helpful on that but but a federal clearly a federal issue though oh yeah I saying maybe maybe Senator could get us some contact with our rep f call I'll make some calls tomorrow I don't know if you two want to say but it's I dragged you actually actually you know what I you know what I might see the Congress on Saturday we have the convention on Saturday it'll probably be there it'll be there so I'll B I will get a chance to bend Perfect all right we understand your concern now I get it we know what we know what to do yeah yeah it would be a shame if we had the train come through blown but not actually serve blown correct right so yeah and the first stop in Pennsylvania will be is slated to be where e e by the old by the old whatever that restaurant was yeah actually be right there yeah interestingly this stop would be U would actually probably pick up some people we've talked about this before they would probably would pick up people from northeastern Pennsylvania because like Portland Banger maybe arel those people are not going to go to East sturg they're probably going to come here if they're going to ride the the train if I read it correctly though the laana cut off coming from the biod duct all the way to Andover is that not the only stretch where I think they can hit 110 mph so theoretically for them if they come and they hit Jersey they're doing 11 mph until the hand over then they slow down the rest of the light so I'm just think will it run like that will that will they actually do that if they didn't have stop would they could well I think they could probably get up to 110 probably going in the westbound Direction probably it'll be more difficult going eastbound because you're going upill but um I mean Blairstown is with it it probably adds about five minutes to the schedule the right now the projected time between Pen Station New York and SC is 2 hours and 50 minutes um if you took away Blair's now maybe it goes to 245 um but then again you can start taking all the stops away and you get you get the Blair's to Scranton in 2 hours and 30 minutes but you don't have any F riding it because you don't stop any does does Ander have the real estate board they have location well actually they're going to get a New Jersey transit station so they're kind of like double dipping here you know in terms actually what is behind and I I believe me I'm I'm a big fan of Andover because what they've done they've they actually devoted $115,000 from their open space Fund in order to fund getting an easan for it's a HUD I don't want to explain all this but it's basically of Culvert that was holding up the whole process for almost 10 years um because was off the property off of the New Jersey Transit line um they did that and then they push for it and you know thank goodness they did that uh with all the time and with AMR coming in later but um this is I think going too far in terms of they're pushing for but I don't want to I don't want to really um criticize them but I we have to realize that maybe you know we have our own interests here they have their own interest there but um I I think I I think poan deserves I'll just put that that section from I mean the the whole cut off is not going to be slated for highp Speed well is um certainly west of Andor we don't know because of New Jersey Transit because who's going to establish the the speed limit um but Amtrak west of Andover um is saying it could be 110 um and we know that in the past trains could exceed 100 miles an hour so it is it is conceivable it's not uh it's not farfetched I put that your phone on The Wire there you go always find the Comfort okay we have our poring orders y well thank you thank you thanks guys thank you next month I expect Four Guys anyone all right still in public session any other public comment seeing none yeah I know they all right seeing no further comment I close the public comment section we move on to department head reports for the month of January uh Blair Sound fire department host company number one Department of Public Works Police Department tax collect ctor Township Clerk vacant and abandoned properties uh we will address them in our committee assignments uh at the end of the meeting we have a motion to accept the January department head reports so move mayor second all in favor all oppos all right two minutes so we've got uh December 27th 2023 our public session meeting minutes and January 1st 2024 our reorganization meeting minutes I think we better split those up Ken wasn't here for the 27th so this is true okay ER yeah I'll move the uh December 27th minutes for adoption second all in favor I I obain very good with that uh January 1st 2024 reor meeting minutes motion for approval expertly prepared thank you so much were very well do all right all in favor I I all opposed all right approve those minutes we have one ordinance tonight an introduction of 202 401 ordinance amending chapter 142 of the code of the township of Blairstown entitled Parks and Recreation areas um this I got a phone call from the uh from from the uh D saying they've been going through their uh ordinances a lot of town smaller town ordinances and finding things that probably shouldn't be there and we had a line in there saying that if you had a venomous snake on your property that you could dispatch it with with prejudice um so uh because there's now an act of protecting such snakes we had to remove that from the ordinance that's really all this is I um we have a motion to introduce 2020 401 motion to introduce second all in favor I all opposed all right that's a no-brainer ordinance we have to do it by uh if by threat but actually there were the folks that I spoke with were really great and um they they understood that uh towns don't know everything on the books all these these older ordinances I hope I hope it doesn't come back B us joke yeah I didn't even set that up for you just we yeah I know I he had it written down right next to it our consent agenda tonight uh have uh let's see four items on our consent agenda 202 2435 a resolution supporting submission of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 2024 local Recreation Improvement grant that uh would be be um for perhaps something at uh at the veale field or uh something we're we're we're going to um so let's set that one aside May y let's set number one aside off the consent agenda yep number 2 2024 36 cancellation of taxes due to a totally disabled veteran status 2024 37 resolution of the township of Blairstown County of Warren and state of New Jersey authorizing execution for the agreement and shared Municipal Court between the township of Blairstown and the Municipal Court of Frankfurt Township and Lafayette Township siston Township blown Township monu Township and little old wallpack Township um we uh met our judge here tonight and that is another no-brainer uh number four 2020 438 approving vouchers and claims mayor I'll move number two three and four for adoption second all right roll call please Christen Mrs Lance yes Mr lman yes Mr mtor Mr orot yes Morhead yes all right so back to number one um our resolution supporting submission of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 2024 local Recreation Improvement Grant we uh I I will say Karen has probably put more hours into this than anyone up here um having uh spent most of her weekend trying to figure out um exactly what we can do with this Grant and how much we can go for and of course uh Dennis has French and Parell has been working closely with you and um what what do we what have we been tossing around I guess we should probably actually we've been working on it for a few weeks now um we started by working with um ericon and DPW to see um we actually had an alternate plan that we were considering um we did do some work towards that plan and we did get some bids towards it and that is a perimeter path in s Park um however we started to realize that we already now possess a lot of saying a lot of the tools and a lot of the knoow that we would be able to do a good portion of that inh housee and not have to uh waste the grand opportunity on it so uh when Eric discussed with me that uh there's just a huge need for something else that's just staring everybody in the face and it's a septic system and improved plumbing and bathroom at the Walnut Valley I I say Fieldhouse at the concession stand uh that there's an opportunity to work towards that instead and I thought okay he's got some kids maybe one's in cheering one's in the football um how large of a consensus uh would that would that be how many people would that help in comparison to some of the other projects that we have uh discussed in the past and I started to realize it's been over 20 years that my kids were using that field and the septic was bad then right so it's been bad for a long time it needs to be addressed um I think you heard um Jerry uh speak you know very eloquently about how difficult it is uh working there and it's the main fundraiser for the football program um it's used by so many people it's if you haven't been on that field um you know before in the past your neighbors have been your family has been or other people have been it's it's uh it's enjoyable to go but not if there's an overflowing uh bathroom and they have to be locked out and other problems like that so um Eric and I then went through and uh toured that area and started to look at where the layout was for the septic cleanouts and the solid tanks and where some of the underground piping was we're very lucky because we just had a remediation project there not too long ago actually I think we still don't have it's still ongoing almost done almost done yeah so at any rate we had the plans for that so to use them as an as built to be able to draw further on that and then um demonstrate the need we also then U I had an interview with uh Jerry I had an interview with somebody from cheerleading and someone from uh uh baseball and the the time to take the uh opportunity to fix that you know long standing of a problem for that many people uh really it's just it didn't make sense to ignore it so when we started we thought that the grant was for a maximum of $75,000 when we went a little further and we discussed it with the engineer we provided him brief um also some possible septic designs that uh might be considered to be used in that area um he went through and said you know what I have a guy in my office we've submitted three grants for that uh for that particular uh three applications for that particular Grant from other towns nearby uh just this week so we absolutely have somebody on our staff who does septic design and we are on board so we started to look at it from the perspective of what's needed uh we would need a resolution from the governing body and that's what's presented to you this evening um we started to look at other things like numbers of prices now depending upon whether the property self is able to be perked if it's uh the consistency of the soil and things like that a septic field could be there really under $100,000 depending upon if it's really not in good condition could be much more um so that is unknown at this point but I will point out that immediately north of there and south of there are a lot of Farmland a lot of good Fields um that have you know type some of the best types of soils in the whole County right from preserve f too so I have every expectation that we would be in a good circumstance to have a a nice outcome uh if we did go through with that um everything is unknown though at this point um we're grateful because when the when we had the this mad scramble to try and get all the paperwork done to uh submit um at the last minute uh they extended the grant recognizing that it's just a lot of information to go through and there are a lot of other ch that were at an interim phase and if they cut off the Grant application at that point they would hardly have any applicants at all um you know except those three that French and cor got in before ours but whatever um at any rate the need is there it's demonal it's something that would benefit um the town it would benefit um I I don't know I I uh believe it's not just those kids who are in that program um but it's also their families and anybody else who's using um um anywhere near that that bathroom is open um all day Saturday all day Sunday it's open I think s months out of the year eight months out of the year so so that's that's something as well um there is talk about putting other fields elsewhere there is talk about putting um you know why don't we put in a a holding tank and pump that why don't we put in uh extra portons but the truth is Porton is is not a good alternative because that's what we already have now they're already rening portons even if we own one which is the proposal I think will he afterwards but I think the um the whole point is they have a finite capacity and when they're done for the day they're done and that's it and that's no different from what we have right now um so what I would propose is something that would be through this grant um and would be for the longer use longer term use and uh better viability for a length of time of uh the septic system and we would like to uh get the approval of the committee to be able to uh support that in the way of this resolution and that's that's uh what we've been working on for the last few weeks so for the the resolution we don't we are not specifying what we're using the money for correct no it says for atic system for a setic system have get some yeah so so here you want to start no no you can go ahead no go ahead well I mean we've we've had we've had larger much larger numbers batted around um and now we're we're hearing that you could have about 2,000 people on that on that playing field in a weekend um this is not your average septic system we're talking about this is not your homeowner septic system that costs 50 Grand to install at a minimum this is something much bigger um with greater uh levels of Permitting um and uh soil examination what have you there's a lot going into it even before we can even decide on putting a new septic system in there that's why a lot of people limp along on their old septic systems because it's one of the most costly things you can do as a homeowner and certainly a business and it can it can actually crush a business um chatter box up in Augusto is pretty much closed because they could not upgrade their septic system it was it was too costly they wanted about $400,000 any said I'd rather just close the doors and and sell the place than to to put a half a million dollars I don't have into a septic system so when you when you talk about a septic system that that is that is that has that capacity um you're talking much bigger numbers than anything that a homeowner would see um so I I think we really kind of need to accept any kind of idea of uh even the the holding tank they have very sizable holding tanks um and that probably requires a lot less permitting than than a than putting the the waste out into the ground um that's that's just my two cents because I I I I heard about this in K the 11th hour I was I was hearing the walking path for the longest time and um and then when this came about it makes sense but we're going for $100,000 Grant and I do think we're we're going to end up going above that and tripping on our own feet so what what we're learning and we we talked to Dennis at length uh earlier before the meeting tonight about that cost also and the cost is is north of it's probably north of 100,000 up to 200 230,000 ludicrous amount of money if anybody has any uh experience in a residential septic system you think you put a new field in for 30 or 40 Grand this is different apparently though in that there a heavy load coming in and it has to be treated completely differently um not interested not interested in doing that at all i' very been very clear about that so the May and I got talking about it kicking it around um I have been saying for the last two months last two years actually let's put a holding tank down air pump the holding tank out put a 2,000g tank it cost $300 to pump 1,000 gallons everybody knows that who gets their septics pumped so it's not that's not a big deal that's one option it's permitting process or whatever then the mayor and I got our fling caps on this morning and started doing a little bit of research and we started looking into the mobile uh the mobile uh trailer based uh uh bathroom mobile bathrooms actually and if you've been to a concert or if you've been to whatever certain venues weddings in in the middle of farmlands or whatever these are very popular things to use um they make them they run they range anywhere from 40,000 to $100,000 um the very best ones but just is leaning toward the best has has uh the ADA Compliant bathroom plus it has anywhere from two to four other bathrooms or some of the models are longer and they have a bigger bathroom with a couple of stalls and urinals on the guy side and a couple extra stalls on the women's side there's many variations of the floor plan that we could come up with what I really liked about it was this yeah they're heated they're heated I'm not so much air condition I don't think but they probably yeah um what I liked about it also is that when we have special events like in Footbridge park or maybe we have a bicycle race in sycore park they can be brought wherever um if there's a I don't know a major crime scene or or a disaster going on we also have this you know this that we can bring to another site um it seems a lot better place to put our money than to put you know 250 Grand to receptor system which is just going to benefit one concession stand and at the end of the day we don't have an A ADA Compliant bathroom at at the concession stand and I'm pretty sure the the concession stand bathrooms are nothing great inside I don't remember ever I don't remember being in there but I I don't so uh that's that's what I'm going to try to uh promote with the thing and then you know we're talking about developing some other properties um you don't even know this for the football program but Charlie has some other great ideas that he's working on and when we have some flexibility with our with our uh uh what to stand like you know a mobile operation like this maybe we end up with two of these things who knows but I think it's a lot better to put our money into something like this than putting a quar million dollars into a septic system in for one concession stand at walner Valley which is a bit undersized no matter what no matter how you slice it down there how many people can that accommodate U they talk about in I think it's in the paperwork era that you have on the desk but they talk about in terms of flushes right so it was like it was a pretty crazy number like four 1,400 flushes or something 2,000 flushes Max on this one unit um and and we can work backwards from the unit sizes we we kind of know the amount of gallonage that we need at that site based on the historical evidence from the the portn that are there because we know the PTO joh sat there for X number months and there were so many Gams so we kind of do actually know that number so we could definitely work it out to size to to uh size a unit that will work best for us they have they have the cheaper units are built more on a on a a mobile home not mobile home an RV chassis you know it's it's wood and paneling it's just like an RV basically made into a big bathroom but the better units the ones that are 7 to $100,000 they're like this picture here they're they're all steel you know they're hurricane proof and they use them they sell these to the federal government the guy was telling me to Navy use them they're coming up they're actually I think they're going they got some units going to hell which I I didn't ask them but that's where the PNC Art Center is I think right so they're probably going there yeah Art Center uses just those they're probably making more of those they just use they just use straight i port johs there's all kinds of videos and and uh photographs of the inside you know everything stainless steel wash down paneling that really good floors it's it's all and the 88 comp is a big deal too really so we have a that's one of the portons we've always had that down there but P right if you're going based on the portons you're going to have to double sometimes triple it because those bathrooms are like we've had games where you can't even use the portons anymore people have to leave to go use the bathroom that's part of it and I think it's a massive thing and this is like so you know doesn't help with the kitchen at all it doesn't help with the kitchen and I it takes the St it takes the strain it takes the septic strain completely off the kitchen right there's no there's no human waste going into the septic it's only the water going into the septic I I'm not Eric would know this you know from what I understand there's fume issues and all kinds of things that you know come from a new septic would be you know would take care of all that I don't know any of that I just know that I'm going to tell you I don't know if you have poor Eric or whoever cleaning them they're going to be a nightmare they get trash they get absolutely trashed so you're going to have time and money from your DPW guys or whoever you're hiring to clean them out move them around and then we run into the problem where God forbid that there's a big issue are you going to take that away from us down at the field and then go take it to some big uh you know issue that's going on so you know it doesn't help us and like I said I he I don't have any experience with a firehouse but I hear there's some major issues that they run into with their septic in so that doesn't help them at all and you know I know everyone keeps saying you know to put so much money into one thing there's 800 kids that this affects multiple times and we're and Jerry we're trying to find the best solution for the taxpayers of Blairstown okay I agree with you but the kids are the future and the town has to put money back into the kids Sycamore Park is gorgeous I get it walking path would be great I use the one down in mton they're you know that's wonderful but wut Valley has been completely ignored for really really long long time it's not fair to say that we did we did clean up the buildings regroup the concession stands P it up last year it's not fair to say that Jerry but it the this has been an issue for I mean my kids played there 10 years ago and the bathrooms were a nightmare and we're trying to fix an issu it's been out there for 20 years I'm just I like I said I'm just saying that this I'm telling you from being down there every week even sometimes during the week we we have times where we don't have games down there and there only have one day of practice there like like in the beginning of the Season we can go down there Jared can tell you he's my field manager those bathrooms are trashed they're absolutely trashed we've had people that you know vandalized them so they this has to sit down there from July 15th until Thanksgiving and we're there we're in and out all all week long there's different days for practices and stuff and you're going to leave this $100,000 item out and I'm telling you it's going to get trashed we have stuff down there that gets excuse me does the firehouse share the same typic system no no actually would you like me to speak about that because we did study it so the firehouse has um a septic system as well with the cleanout um from that is uh in the immediate uh Northwest northeast corner of the building and it's too close to the to the surface that uh cleanout is frozen constantly in the winter time um again when once that building once the bathrooms there have already been closed for the season and winter so if there's a uniform pickup drop off any of the other things they do use the firehouse and they also use that Firehouse for storage there one whole Bay there that they use for uh I think the tackle dummies for football and and some cross things or whatever else but if they have to use a bathroom there that bathroom is no good either that bathroom the cleanout and the piping uh Eric showed me goes underneath and it actually goes immediately adjacent to that Fieldhouse um they don't know where the septic field is for that and the piping and the solid clean up is right where people are buying food to eat right but that septic or the bathroom in the firehouse literally doesn't get used almost no use at all that's correct the opposite problem it shouldn't be an issue of any fumes or or any odor no no the FES are from the the sink in the concession s not from the firehouse I'm not in that part of the firehouse very often but my point is is that there's lots of issues down there and well we do appreciate the roof it was great you know we did a lot down there last year and we're just asking for a little like you know that's something we can't do we can't do a septic um and like I said we we make do with the PTO Johns and stuff it's not ideal the pter John are not ideal like you know jerck can definitely speak probably more on it but this is not ideal um I spend a good part of half my life down there during a football season right um I can tell you that I've I've caught people in the port of John's vandalizing it I've cleaned it myself I've caught people doing drugs in there um when I spend hours down there painting the field not only doing practice um I've kicked Drifters out um there there's there's a lot of different stuff they're not and the portter Johns are not locked hopefully we can find some way we can we can lock this so they not vandalize from the inside if somebody breaks this before our game what what are we supposed to do right what is baseball supposed to do um although I'm not opposed to something like this we still need some work to be done inside for that septic for the sink for the food purpose for that stuff whatever we come to you know if we can come to an agreement to allocate some of that money to fixing that and we can get something like that listen I mean maybe that will work but I can tell you from experience being down there a long time UPS goes in there FedEx goes in there every person that drives a bike goes in there I catch so many people in there because guys when I tell you Kristen a lot of people know me in town I am there all the time right and I and I coach there there is a lot of people that use those Port jobs and they get they get destroyed and I I every morning before the games I go into the concession his bathrooms I make sure they're good I make sure everything's good to try to keep it presentable if we could just get a little bit better maintenance and fix that a little bit more you know I think we could come to you know an agreement I think it would work for everybody now and I'll be honest if there's that kind of vandalism happening on something that we are renting we don't own that someone comes and takes it away right but I think that's what we're missing this is a bathroom this will be locked when you're not there but it is a temporary bathroom and it is movable and it is vandalized it doesn't solve our bathrooms are vandalized correct is that a word y this doesn't solve the problem of having SE setic system so my question would be if you submit the Grant and you're asking for $100,000 for septic system is that going to lock you into a septic system or can you possibly go with the holding tanks a 2,000g holding tank that's what I thought holding tank sounds like it solves their problem it's not as expensive as something like this this is a great secondary item but I personally don't think that that's going to solve the problem I don't think it will I think it for the town believe that's my opinion yeah I think it could be an asset for the town and it could be used in other ways but I don't think it solves this problem but I think the other thing too is that since we found out that the grant was uh extended so the application deadline is extended we do actually have until next march uh next or next meting in March sorry April oh we have it we have till April so we can our next meeting to do to to take and by that time um I believe we would still like to have French and Corella go through the motions of understanding what the cost should be could be rather than um Pie in the Sky it's going to be $50,000 anything could be $50,000 but it could also be 100 or 75 um in the whole scheme of things we know it's going to be good soil we just have remediation done there and we already know that um if if uh it really becomes prohibitive I think that the the second option the interim option of having a holding tank is is great referred to this because you know if nothing else it's it solves the problem for not just the um the water use I mean the the water use in general in that building rather than a second problem because there are two problems they're not just the one the other thing I I mean as far as the the doors presently are not locked they are locked so that started last year so last year we had a kind of a big issue it was actually a before we painted the concession stand somebody tagged the outside of it with all pretty awful things so that's the other thing too like I'm really I'm really not trying to be like I'm against it we had some it's really gone down down I'm just thinking we had like a 2,000 gon tank the last thing we do is keep the doors open for I think baseball has a key he has key so everybody has a key that uses it t has to be than 300 I'm sorry I don't I don't mean to speak at a turn and I'm sure that your septic engineer could clarify it more my house has a 6,000-gallon tank if you're having 2,000 people you're going to need something much larger than a 2,000-gallon holding tank cuz I'm operating on a 6,000 and I have to P that out twice a year and I'm one person you're having 2,000 people go I don't think a 2,000g tank is going to last a weekend especially if you're also using water from the concession stand so I me capacity issues be addressed by the engineer not any the engineer would would handle your capacity issue but you keep tossing around 2,000 and that sounds great CU $2,000 tank not very expensive you know the scheme of things but I think once you consult the engineer you're probably going to find out you need a much larger tank than that and with 2,000 people going I mean what about fundraising kind of make this a joint effort so we do a lot of fundraising CU we keep our specifically for this project yeah yeah that was um that would be great I mean you laughed but I think it was the Mom's Club that did that amazing fundraiser for what they did at Sycamore so the playground yeah playground and you know then they had contractors volunteer and people donated Mulch and I know I donated supplies and money so there is a way for the community I think to come together and do this jointly with the governing body okay so I'll try to get through this consent agenda um shall we table this until the next meeting we'll have a lot we of course um Dennis will have a lot more time to uh do some exploratory between between the recreation subcommittee the buildings and ground subcommittee the finance subcommittee just the committee will'll come up with it not the committee as a whole we'll come up with something before the next meeting that sound I'll make a motion to table the second uh all in favor one yeah I tabling number one I I forget it was it was about an hour ago did we approve the rest of the okay all right good thanks wor thanks uh let's see here ah we have our resignation of our police Clerk and um it's from uh Lisa whitel really such a such a great person and such a uh um a big part of the police department it was uh to see her go um you want to read that that resolution Police Commissioner sure or that that resignation okay the chief Johnson Christ ships and T committee from please accept this letter as my formal request to retire from the Blairstown cion where I've been employed fulltime for the past 15 years at blown Police Department I currently have 28 years credit to my Pur pension system my husband is pre is previously retired I wish to join him for a move to North Carolina where we recently have purchased a home to build my last employment will be February 29th 2024 please accept my resignation as OEM Administrative Assistant as well I will finish uh out any Unis business and I will miss the contents I made and wish my department all the best sincerely yours Lisa Wiis um in speaking with the chief and I mean I've only been here few years but uh she's going to be very Sly missed and I know that they're not looking forward to it but unfortunately people move on she gave us five weeks notice and um and chief Johnson went to work immediately to find a replacement and after an awful lot of uh awful lot of interviewing he did uh hired some so0 160 candidates and um narrowed it down to uh Nicole mcgo she comes to us from from blown Elementary School is that right sorry but uh she had a very good sorry for stealing her away but uh she sounded like a great candidate and we're happy to have her here hope believe her first day was Monday unfinished business we need a resolution um we need we need to hire I'll make a resolution that we first of all accept the resignation of Lis talk about P John for another half hour I'll second that than you sir all in favor oh actually a roll call res all are we um the hiring we need res accepting the resignation all in favor all oppos sorry to see you go Lisa I had I don't have it mcre no just had 202 439 hiring polier like to make a motion that we approve the hiring of M M Nicole mcgr right Nico starting last Monday y Deputy Police Commissioner would you second it I will second that can we have a roll call please Mrs Lance yes Mr lman yes Mr Mur Mr or mayor Morhead yes on to unfinished business back to you Charlie on the Jones Farm there it is looking so picturesque well we removed all the snow as far as the Jones F uh I want to thank our comp mayor uh working with the DBW they actually got rid of the very first wooden structure out front you see this this structure right here that front part it's there um so it's it's the start of a very long process uh I did speak with our friend uh down in Georgia today um and he is looking at the weather his biggest concern is that we don't have any mornings or where there's frost on the ground because that will make the roof uh basically sopr won't be able to get on to it till about 10: in the morning uh he was going to get back to me tonight unfortunately he didn't do so but I would anticipate um in speaking to him um I think he's very anxious to be here he's looking to come up at least for 5 days to get this started so I'm hoping you see some action with that before next committee meeting and that's all I have for the Jones for all right um our grant agreement for preservation between County of Warren state of New Jersey Warren County and the Blairstown for the library no oh this why does it say library literally says Library um no that's the Warren County I'm sorry that's separate line okay that's a third line line all right so this is for uh this is for the Footbridge uh foot Bridge Park Bridge it is it's for the foot Bridge um do you want to well I just want to reiterate thank you very much to the war County Municipal Conservancy trust I'm sure I butchered that but um because it's a those folks those folks from Mor County that that help us advise the freeholders on AR aren you on that committee Walter I've heard that I've heard that uh he did recuse himself from the vote if anybody is curious about that which is proper um but I will say that that our um our application was uh expertly put together um by Christine vagel and the entire team from the um bl's Town historic preservation committee um there were letters of support from so many different organizations um mentions of a lot of the different events and festivals that happen in the park and it was uh it was very gratifying to go down and be among so many other applicants um for buildings um which is normally the the preservation effort within Warren County was towards saving buildings I understand that but it was really lovely for them to be able to recognize that um it's still a structure um it still has great historic value it still has uh the affection and attention of the town it's still is uh something very lovely it really is the Jewel and the crown foot Bridge Park and so thank you very much for the freeholders and their wisdom of uh granting that and for the Warr County Municipal Conservancy um something something something um for for awarding us that Grant in 70,000 and the municipality also gave a matching fund of I think 26 26 um we said up to 40 depending upon what was the total for there as a percentage of total so um it's the first step towards preserving that uh foot bridge and the next step will be um the application that's going to be put through to extend our historic district to include the bridge um because that gives us extra points and extra um matching funds soft costs everything for every other application we do from then on so um onward to big one better things thank you okay uh Al so Warren County Library the Blairstown office is moving right they they should be they said the 11th now push back uh move to Hope is that right moving to the basement of the the church over there where they have a food nutrition program or something the Episcopal tribe one of the church and leaving it will'll still have a drop off box here we have one drop off box okay all right all right new business may do we need a motion tothor mayor yes pleas I was going to say that all the grant yes yeah yes oh yeah I have it up here that's right okay can we have a motion to uh authorize that I the mayor be authorized to sign the uh acceptance of that gr second um roll call no roll call all right all in favor all oppos all right I'll sign the grant paperwork tonight um new business sample storm water ordinance we still work on that we covered that with Dennis he and I are on top that swack solid wasted gler talking about yeah we just can't can't get away from these topics think about recycling now think about it as recycling are you going to do that mayor are you going to be the member of swack or you going too someone I don't know is this who who who really really gets into Solid Waste here I would say that uh our our Junior member it's in my blood it is in your blood he's all about Solid Waste Eric you want to uh you want to take on your bring it up okay that's so we do need a motion in a second and all in favor I moveed it we the mayor I move that Eric be our Solid Waste advisory committee member from L I'll second that all in favor all POS all right we're just giving you all the all the good jobs um we got an application for facility use from uh Spitfire Consulting they want to use this room is that right that is correct okay um and this is for police training and Le that is correct okay um motion for approval yeah any a question because there is supposed to be sorry again there's supposed to be a fee of $300 except it's for police training correct I'm my dueil and telling you supposed to yeah there's I think there there a couple of couple of the officers are being trained for free in L of of uh compensation a motion please exactly so move all in favor do we have a second I thought said W soov there you go all right why we take the me that's that's one of those noer things you know uh 2024 election polling location they've settled on the school no no it's not the school the firehouse oh that's right it it it kind of pushed around a little bit all five districts are going to now be located at the firehouse for this um the next two elections hopefully it'll be a permanent however and you guys all know how the general election is there's a zillion people out voting and that's why they're moving all districts to the Firehouse this year we are having early voting here in this room the week prior which works out pretty well like the last two elections or something we're year so keep that in mind um about voting early it works pretty well actually and your mail and ballot can also dropped off in the drop box just mail and balance just don't use the bathrooms at the fire a drop box on the front porch for mail in Balance to you're they're bad that's not their that's not the main Firehouse they're talking about Walnut Valley Firehouse really what you're very welcome it's still just bathroom talk tonight Solid Waste talk um shredding event we have a shredding event coming up usually this is all to you in your in your little thing talk you don't want to talk one of your big things come on yeah we we love when you talk about that the shredding event is coming up May May 11th right here at Town Hall you can bring all of your your your sensitive documents no she doesn't want to talk tonight and she just said it two boxes two box from 8 to 11 8 to 11 how is our Shredder working out that we have it is wonderful I want to thank you for allowing me to purchase it that was Charlie but yeah Charlie thank you also coming up as our spring cleanup from May 28th no I don't think she wants to talk about that cuz she put it here May 28th to June 1st you can start to pick up your vouches for the spring clean up when April April 15th 15th you just made that but we'll have them ready by April 15 all right that is Memorial Day week so see okay long weekend get are there any rules to this yes you can't bring um the um hazardous stuff you can't bring a U-Haul truck I don't know if anybody do that you can't rent a U-Haul truck and then bring it cuz they'll say no to the pcfa it's a pickup truck or trailer right have a commercial advertisement on it at all no commercial plates on theal Plat you can't use your your construction truck that will say no that's our Solid Waste expert down there he's already you have to have a91 a901 okay is the reasoning for that that's just that's their rules not our rules it can have a lettering on the side with somebody's name you can cover it up yeah so I mean if you have they definitely was across yes there you go I it's their W okay as my headache gets worse um I have [Music] correspondence uh letter from the NJ do this is just acknowledgement so you guys know that we received it you don't have to take any action on it I just listed it and okay you can move on we got the letter guys thanks um what is all the other stuff here oh well okay let's let's talk about uh your um NJ do Route 94 bridge over jacksonburg Creek are you are you bringing that up so as you know it's been in the works so you may not know it's been in the works for quite a few years now um to repair the Route 94 bridge that goes over the jacksonburg creek right by um blidge yeah right if you're if you make a right at Blue Ridge you're turning uh just before that bridge that bridge is built in 1931 if you've ever gone underneath it to fish you know it's in pretty bad shape um and and Walter would like to show okay but keep talking so uh please enjoy some Samsung TV while he gets his uh his stuff up here that's the response from the audience yeah um so the um the the construction project is actually a ways off um this probably won't happen until late 2027 yes is that right that's what it said yeah I think it's 27 yeah um so I mean we're talking about something of 2027 fall of 2027 which means spring of 2028 right um but uh traffic will be affected the way it was with the bridges by Bridge Street um and it's I believe an 18month project is that what they said it said 22 22 I was being nice 22 month project and it's also going to cost $14 million $14 million boy how many septic tanks could we put in if we had is this this is Walter trying to use his iPad just pretend it's not up there that's the TV itself it's probably a way to turn that off Walter uh I'll just keep re I don't I don't anyway what uh what what there the big concern and what um what will affect us is truck traffic coming out of the lumber yard right any deliveries coming out of there they won't be able to make a right-and turn onto 94 so they're going to need to make a leftand turn make a U-turn and then proceed South come on actually right now I may they actually have them coming into if they wanted to go right hand they had to come our Municipal lot yes yeah that's yeah that's that's that's the plan well that was a plan um talked about in 2019 so uh 5 years ago we were talking about a plan to have them turn around in the municipal lot go around the building back out and then go south on 94 stop touching which you'll still have to to get out of our they want to widen the entrance uh right uh but that's this was talk this there's really very little in writing all we found was some some uh some minutes from that meeting but um I I don't think we have any agreement in writing that they're going to be widening our actually mayor is trying to bring up shows the whole map and shows oh yeah they do took a screenshot of the map which is coming someone remembered that meeting from 5 years ago obviously you there I I wasn't there my name's not on it um it's it's not a good idea I I don't think it's good idea at all but obviously like I said someone remembers the uh the meeting we had 5 years ago uh I don't think there's going to be much truck traffic I don't know how many trucks go in and out of uh Blue Ridge each day but uh I I can't imagine anything so I read on there that they were supposed to look in somebody was supposed to go down and talk to the folks at Blue and find out how many trucks they have right on a weekly basis that probably wasn't done 5 years ago yeah so as I said all this stuff is is years off um and uh some of us won't be sitting up here anymore I'm sure uh all right can we move on anything else in correspondant anything else you have no okay all right from the township attorney gosh play us out please I can't really think of anything solid way related that's all we've been talking about it's been a real crappy night I think I'll pass okay all right very good thank you C we do have an executive session after this meeting from the Township Clerk I'm going to assume you want to say nothing tonight all right I all the stuff I had to say has been on the agenda you made us say it yes you made me made me lim through it all right Committee Member Lance I am going to yield my time to Bob halat who is quietly sitting in the back of the room and I'd like for him very much to give the statistics for the entire last year for Blair toown ambulance please don't Bob how ambulance Court I didn't write him down last um oh I got him right here all right you can call them out okay have any com I'll give some update on our recruit okay so uh for the total year of 2023 statistics 1,00 calls traveled over 22,000 miles in an area that we cover that is about 200 square miles which is a new record for the Blair's toown amb Squad um January calls were 108 miles wor 2090 and I'm going to let you take it from there b you want to talk about their recruiting I'll add a little bit to this uh uh the the squad's doing much better because uh Co has somewhat ended and we're able to do more calls uh so uh but incidentally we do not build our residents no out of pocket expenses to any anybody who travels with us you want to call it so if you have insurance that's all we ask of you um we we recruited the elementary school I'll stand over here we recruit at the elementary school and we have signs up over most of the area uh especially in the spring weather and it seems to be working we have some uh kids from the Elementary from the High School who are are now Cadets and we have some adults who actually signed up who want to become members and they and gone to our EMS School some are graduating uh we we have most of our days covered oh and most of our nights covered um we go Mutual Aid with a noton because uh if they're busy if they don't have a squad right there we answer CL but we do answer CL hard really ni hope um and the uh ptin Trail the app trail uh we used to go to wallack actually but it took us 45 minutes to go from here to wpath so I think Blue Mountain maybe covers that now and besides the road is terrible so it's better um I guess that's all I have to say I want to thank you oh incidentally regarding this did you guys think about maybe the trucks fromage making a right turn going up jacksonburg to Mo come down4 inad making acks there was a meeting in 2019 between the do Steve Lance and U Joan Ben valkenberg and we have the minutes of that we were glad to share them with you they went over all the alternatives to doing this including going through the Dollar General parking you know using that street talking about Cedar um barricade Road the other side of Jack dids so they did they did talk this this didn't fall out of the sky and I also going to I'm also going to say what I've been saying to the mayor and to Charlie this is four years from now I'm having a hard time wasting any brain cells on this I agree with you okay fortunately I'll still be around I'll still be vertical I hope so of course you will you're Immortal thanks for for joining to see you V thank you all right Committee Member lman I I don't have a whole lot um I did go down to the uh lead municipalities uh training down in uh hell was that mount Laur La um that was great it was good to see uh know other other councilmen and women that uh to's ideas off of and got some good uh good ideas um I I don't have a lot so I'll give to to the next question all right very good thank you sir Committee Member makura right um for the uh for the police obviously we already talked about the resignation and the hire um but I to uh some of you may have seen this on Facebook may I have two I can find letters that uh the chief receed recently these are just interesting things um the second was going to be very interesting but on February 14th this is the chief Johnson from Sergeant B February 14th letter accommodation reference poli police officer Rani say correctly anyway on Wednesday February 14th 2024 officer rzani was dispatched to Tes market for a public assist upon arrival he met with an individual individual that hasain he was homeless and did not eat in a few days no money all service on understanding that the individual is going through hardship that most of us have not um yeah individual was going through a hardship that most of them not used his own money or and anyway used his own money bought him food and hot coffee officer B treated him with respect and compassion his dedication to the residents of Blan and to the public service uh as a great example to our profession not only the department but to the public as well um what officer be the forgot to put in that as he also contributed to help this individual so it's was just you know a nice little outstanding job that the police department did for the public this last one was something uh most recently this happened on February 2nd and this is an investigation department had he says Blair s please shate attention Chief Johnson on February 2nd 2024 I was really taken in by a group of Packers who convinced me that they were looking to help me fix my hacked computer they aded me that my banking account also been hacked I would working with a woman who said she was from PNC headquarters who was helping me and I was advised to get a cashier's check and overate it to the UPS to an address in calto California after realizing I was being scanned the next morning I went to the Blair down PD at 7: a.m. where I met with officer Tom Tucka and officer Bano after my after explaining my problems with the officer Tucka he immediately called the police department in Rialto California then officer Tucker called the USPS USP customer service between the police departments and UPS they were able to accept intercept the $45,000 check and make the status return to sener before anyone could access the check officer stck officer Tucka stayed in contact with me several times throughout the day and so we were sure the check was being returned the way officer tuck it and person help me was above and beyond to Call of Duty to which I am interally grateful thank you again to the officers of Blair St speak Police Department grow your help and empathy in this overwhelming and embarrassing situation I always thought and knew that the red flags to look for if anything this ever ever happened to me but I could not believe how easy it was to fall victim to these scammers and I'm going to leave the the resident um andos but that was this month so for the people out there the scammers have gotten really really sophisticated and good so if you have any doubt don't send money you know call back h up call back um but don't deal with people that call you and solicit any information at all those call so for the police department that's all I have um the planning board meeting uh we're talking about hiring a planner so uh what going to be important for that as we come into the budget session we need to try to appropriate to see how much money we want to to spend for a planner um the planning board itself is just trying to get the ideas of exactly what we're going to use the planner for because obviously we can't hire somebody full time we're looking at anywhere from 15 to $200 an hour for planner so that's something we're going to be taking into consideration for the budgeting session again F my Jones Farm the last thing is the animal control um I've been looking into and I've been talking to as we call officer Robbie about an online dog licensing system so for just under 18 $0000 we have a company out California um it would be an online system for the residents they would be able to log on put in all their animals information certifications pay online and the only thing the municipality would have to do from there would be mailing your dog T anybody that did want to do it online could obviously still come in here and probably do it uh person to person there's three different ways of being able to pay one would be PayPal the other one is U you just mail in a check and then the last one is an agency called pay pay. us um they would probably charge you like a dollar for a transaction on top of whatever our do licenses are so it's something that I would I talk to the company they're going to give me a 7day trial with mock data um I'm hoping that's something we can may move forward every year automatically in December you get an email from basically from the municipality saying you know your animals up for Renewal and uh there'll be a link right there you can log on and you won't have to forget like most of us do and end up paying time time release in February March April I think we even had some in October this year correct so again it's 7 comes out to $1,788 it's a very very robust database for a lot of data um you can put in your pets information vaccines you can put in your chip information you can put in if there ever lost what type of medications that you need what that so um I I I think it's a step in the right direction so that's it I don't know if we want I would like to evaluate it for this uh next seven days possibly come back next meeting and make a recommendation purchas it okay is it something that would be sent to me I'm sorry would it be sent obviously sent to me or to the dog licensing offal or is something you're just going to do the the the Prototype it's going to be the M okay yeah and it's it's a web based application then so everything resides on their server off okay that's all I have all right thank you Charlie deputy mayor or cut uh a couple things let me show you you know do pictures there um we got when the state was doing a big project on 46 down in down in uh the state was doing a big project uh on Route 46 and they had about some crazy amount 500 loads of of soil in there I she has I didn't touch it relax and um so we got 100 loads we we brought in 100 loads it's clean fil um this is down on Lam just on Lambert Road looking towards the uh Sycamore Park um if you guys recall there were guard rails along that road we talked about this last meeting that we were going this there were guard rails and it was like a drop off it was a tough they had a weed whack this whole quarter of a mile section and everything so they brought in I think they put about 85 loads in there and they used another 10 or 15 loads to cover up some other mess they had somewhere else and there it is looking down toward Lambert Road Bridge is there more com uh no not not they can't bring any more in here because of the flood plan this is about the limits if you could see where the tree is boil gets wet in there in a perfect world you would go all the way past the tree but you really couldn't because of the flood plane but this way when we resurface which we are doing this year Lambert Road when we resurface Lambert Road we don't have to put the guard roils back either and deal with that expense and they're expensive yeah the guard rails are not as expensive as redoing the road but they're stupid expensive um what did we do with we keep them they're they're up in the yard with all the rest of our junk but you never know when we need a piece to replace other El we're pretty good like that um we talked before about the demo that we did at Jones Farm which was really a good a good start because when uh Charlie krug's in here from Georgia hopefully in in the next month to start taking the barn down they'll basically be taking it down to the block walls and when when they leave then our guys can you know at their Leisure go in from time to time and and uh take down the block balls and and we will ultimately we're saving all that uh uh block and debris and we're going to crush that and it's great big you know great material we have a pretty good stock pilot at now and we're going to bring a big unit in we actually probably crush it there somewhere else um you see what else they did he put the DPW put a new gate down at the dog park uh which has been very very well received and very well used by the way um I have nothing but favorable feedback coming from the dog park uh they did the first quarter media reading at the uh for the water company and those bills will be going out soon and and that'll be under the new R structure right now they'll be doing that um and of course they did their they did a really great job about plowing and salting during the last snowstorm which we don't see tooo many of thankfully uh global warming is working out just right uh what else do we have for the reg we talked about jacksonburg you stillo much with s's letter and that's it okay thank you we have a few items for executive session but there those are for um contract negotiation and the um acquisition or disposal of Municipal property okay uh I have a a very brief report because uh nothing about this meeting has been brief tonight um you were brief no no few of you were brief this guy here than talk about P Johns um we've uh the uh January 2024 fire report from flown host company number one they had a lot of calls 36 calls for service 21 of them in Blairstown five in Hardwick um seven in freeling heisen one in Nolton and two in Still Water uh seven in freeling heisen because we did uh take over briefly uh freeling heisen this coverage uh for them until their fire department gets up to speed and I hear by uh pretty much right around now yeah hope or something yeah first week of March they should have their um they should have their their blessing and have their own fire department I met uh I met uh most of the folks from their Department including their uh their Chief and they seem pretty darn enthusiastic and ready to go doing a nice job over there they got the firehouse all fixed up they got their trucks in there good luck to them yep I uh I have nothing else so I will uh I would like a motion for uh executive session 2024 20244 resolution authorizing executive session so move for attorney ad advice second wait hold we have we have one from the uh one from the the public I haven't heard anything about the status of the digital sign oh our Deputy Mayor will address that right now what's going on with the digital sign Walter I just saw Eric had something had sent me something you're just working on where you put that they're working on the was text they're just working on the scheduling of it to get it out get them out here you know you know the side wasn't they don't just take it out of a box they built the side once we told them to go um they've been working on it it'll be up it'll be up as soon you know just kind of snowy out yeah you said the end of last year yeah I missed it D start it the permitting is all done we uh we have the the hookup approved I thought they were actually supposed to come before the snow oh still Eric's Eric's comment was still waiting on footings from The Sign Company okay I don't know what that means exactly but I think he wants the drawings or whatever the wheels are still turning they're getting there you promise you have any messages you want un assign once it gets put up what's your next what's your next uh event for the senior yeah you want to you want to give a little report for the uh the senior committee we don't know how much money we're getting how much are you allowing us we're going to give it all to Recreation so they probably not going to happen we have 800 kids in Recreation we don't have that many kids that many he kid kidding all at home he's KD that was Walter or you know what though um we are going to have a budget meeting coming up you have a date for that CU we have some budget if you wanted to come to the budget Saturday morning meeting we're going to have we before that Lorraine I would hope you're getting at least the same as last year um and well I know I know we we spoke about it with the fuel costs and uh what what buses cost these days it's it has gone up so the the budget meeting is a really good time to uh to talk about that it's open to the public and that's when you can come and kind of when is that they're finding it and would they could be March 10th but I mean I can certainly text you it but um I know I know the budget the finance has to meet on the 6th so I know it's after March 6th I you have I thought it was is that a Saturday yes you know the nth but check with Christian before that you know what they say about the squeaky wheel no no no I have it the 16th it's the 16th at 9:00 a.m. it was a reason was yeah so it's open to the public 16th at 9:00 a.m. and um our aor will be there and it's great to have the budget meeting with him because he can actually work things out one way or another if we have to trade something from one line item to another one um it's real time you can do the mask for us we yeah you maybe line you can just um submit a proposal on an amount that you're looking for so it could be reved R if you can get some numbers from the bus company so you have some hard numbers of what it's going to cost to do X number of trips that would really be uh helpful and you should use your Liaisons which are Karen and Eric are the senior Liaisons so you should use senior and solid waste okay we have a motion and a second to enter executive session all in favor I all oppos okay so yes we have a motion to come out of executive session all in favor hi hi welcome back folks um uh the executive session was for uh cont contracts negotiation no uh no action being taken tonight at this time do we have will you entertain a motion for ajour I'll entertain that motion yes pleas think about it we have a second all in favor a jour