##VIDEO ID:5BcMrIXFZdU## right agenda good evening welcome to the August 15th Township council meeting in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting was provided on December 21st 2023 by sending written notice and electronic notice to The Courier News and the breeze posting on the website and the bulletin board in municipal building and filing with the Township Clerk if we could have a roll call please councilman kers here councilman cordilla here councilman oralis here councilman proso council president ring here if you're able we'd ask you to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by councilman cordill flag United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation God liy andice for all before we um move into our agenda I will just uh let you know we we are aware we have a air conditioning problem contractor is literally working on it as we speak um can't promise you how the temperature will be but um apologize in advance but we will uh continue to move forward with the agenda while they're working on it with that um would ask for a motion to approve the July 18th minutes I'll make that motion I'll second it all those in favor I I opposed okay uh going to ask for a motion on the August 1st minutes just noting I am abstaining since I was not present for that meeting I'll move those minutes I'll second it all those in favor I I opposed and I abstain thank you all right we'll start with Township Council reports with councilman cordilla okay um what I'd like to report is that I attended a third open space Rec Recreation and open space uh master plan meeting and also since our last meeting I've had some conversations with residents expressing concerns over uh speeding neighborhoods and so forth and the I guess what I'd like to do at some point is uh us as a body look into uh with with uh Chief msac and the police department is the uh possibility of getting speed bumps installed in somebody these neighborhoods is that your report that's my report okay councilman noralis thank you sir uh continue continued personal discussions with Warren mayor Victor sordillo regarding the billing to Warren for Warren seage conveyed through Bridgewater the heavy lifting and documentation on this subject had already been worked on by Tom janova Mike papis and Bill savvo over many months we are attempting to update somewhat vague contract wording dating back decades more to follow after my planned telephone call with mayor sard Dillo tomorrow tomorrow morning there they're actually meeting tonight and that will be a discussion uh participated in uh numerous email exchanges telephone and conferences dealing with police vehicle Fleet Maintenance and procurement as a Township we continue to struggle with parts availability and as importantly the escalating cost of repair parts for all of the vehicles used by the township under superintendent Richard Shimp the V the vehicle maintenance staff rats mechanic make Valiant attempts to reuse and repurpose parts from retired vehicles to keep line vehicles on the road but always always to ensure that they safe to operate I would like to revisit a subject I talked about several years ago that being Street lighting not working uh the township under contract with jcpnl and psng uh pays for street lights lots of them uh we pay for them whether they are working or not so it's a loss it's like an airplane if the airplane leaves with a vacant seat it's lost Revenue in our particular case it's a sunk expense uh the electric company does not Patrol for a light outage they rely on reports from employees and residents uh I intend to discuss uh Township reporting process with Mr papis so we have a centralized location for the future road work in the township continues on two fronts first we have the formal 5-year plan frequently discussed at numerous Council meetings in each of the six Township areas then we have the psng mill and overlay on some streets as negotiated by the administration to address the issue of psng gas line replacement a good example is the talamini work from 202 206 to The JCC driveway completed just this week uh I wrote on it this morning it looks fine uh speaking of the psng gas line replacement that work either in the street or the hookup by psse employees will continue for some time I underscore that only psng credentialed employees will be doing the hookup within someone's home if someone other than a psng employee comes to your door to say they are going to hook up your new gas line do not let them in check with the township a question I have been asked numerous times is will I have a gas shut off in the house with my new line the meter is going to be outside of course uh the answer according to Township engineer Bill bar is no uh your main shut off will be outside by the newly installed gas meter you can't however ever at your expense hire your own contractor to install an inside Gas shut off should you prefer thank you thank you councilman pedroso good evening welcome everybody congratulations to a Bridgewater raron high school graduate Casey Murphy for winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics Casey was a soccer star here at Bridgewater riton went on to play for ruter and has achieved so much in her young blossoming soccer career like many in our Bridgewater Community I look forward to watching Casey's continued success Casey competes in women's sports where she is wife where she rightfully faces other women it's common sense that women should compete with women in physical Sports allowing men to compete alongside them would create an unfair Advantage yet this common sense is being challenged on today's athletic fields transgender girls and women are often allowed to compete in female sports and at times this results in physical advantages that make it impossible for cisgender females to compete fairly I EMP I empathize with TR transgender women as they seek their place in sports they deserve Fair Equitable opportunity ities to compete just as all people do equal treatment must must extend to everyone including transgender women however when one groups rights overshadows others we cross the line from equality to pref to preferential treatment women have fought for centuries to gain equality with men within that struggle they've had to carve out their place in the sports world a world historically dominated by men that often impressed women's participation now transgender women are fighting for their place in sports but their physical advantages can place biological women at a disadvantage sometimes even In Harm's Way transgender women have the right to compete in sports but not at the expense of fairness for cisgender women and the progress made in women's rights as these issues become more prevalent they will undoubtedly touch upon our Bridge waterer RIT and schools I urge our Bridgewater Board of Education Bridgewater veriton Board of Education to stand firm for equality and protect the rights of our young biological girls ensuring they have a fair and Level Playing Field just as Casey Murphy did thank you coun kers uh thank you first just a quick reaction to the comment from uh councilman uh cordilla about speeding and general safety uh perhaps uh with the school uh School uh school year starting soon we could use this as an opportunity through our newsletter through our um um email bulletins and social media just to reinforce that safety message uh you know slow down a little bit be mindful of pedestrians and school buses so perhaps that's a a short-term takeaway uh that that could be something uh that can uh make at least a limited difference uh quickly uh on August 6th the planning board met uh approved a subdivision on Mountain toop road with a sizable number of conditions after substantial uh conversation and debate uh also during that same meeting the planning board took action on um the um area in need of Redevelopment uh that is also now on our our agenda tonight the um uh area off of foot of Foothill Road and also addressed the amended master plan housing plan element the planning board met again briefly on August 13th to memorialize several of the actions from the previous week and then later that same evening the zoning board took up a new case uh it's known forly as 821 Bridgewater LLC uh it it involves the JCC property they own um and potentially uh developing a portion of that land for additional JCC active use and portion of that property uh for age restricted uh Town Homes uh yesterday the 14th was a a busy day uh for several of us mayor I'm not going to steal your thunder but simply acknowledge uh that a few of us were up at Camp Cromwell uh uh um with uh Congressman Cain and I'll simply let let the mayor uh give additional detail uh we were then uh I was then a few of us were over at a avos uh a new business that's operating over on miltown road um that has a commitment to the environment they have a technology that removes uh CO2 from ambient air and I do recall being on um one of the land use boards when when that uh when that building was heard to to move to that uh uh Tech um technology use uh and then finally uh yesterday spent some high quality time with our senior citizens one of the events in Bridgewater that I look forward to every year that's the um senior citizen appreciation uh day and and luncheon um uh you know this this year was a a celebration of Happy Days um and uh it's certainly something I I'm I'm glad to have attended and and look forward to each year and that's my report thank you before I start just want to piggyback on one thing councilman uh Nala said regarding pscg um as one that has gone through this process psng is the only one that will come in the house but the contractor runs the line to just outside the structure so the contractor will come on your property but should not come in the house so just so the folks are aware um I was honored to participate this Saturday this past Saturday in ribbon cutting and grand opening of uh a a new Venture here in Bridgewater called success on the Spectrum or SOS uh located right at 745e 202 206 um this is part of a national franchise but owned by some local residents including uh mahes volani um and this is a a group an organization that caters to uh 18-month-old to 18-year-olds uh diagnosed with autism they've opened about two months ago in their facility and they are already negotiating with the landlord for additional space uh as they are quickly outgrowing their space so we welcome them to Bridgewater and wish them uh lots of luck in the future um I'll piggy back on councilman kersh's comments participated uh with an event with Congressman Cain and the mayor and I'll let the mayor speak to that also participated in the Jefferson High School reunion aka the Bridgewater uh Senior Center um senior citizen appreciation day while uh senior citizen appreciation day is not until next week uh Bridgewater did recognize all of the seniors uh that are members of the senior center uh for all of their efforts and commitment to the community over the years um and would especially like to uh congratulate um Jennifer osterberg who runs the senior center on an absolutely phenomenal program uh participated in various meetings with the administration on uh budgets police vehicles PBA contracts and the like uh and lastly just want to congratulate all the athletes that participated in the Olympics and in particular uh former Bridgewater Ron High School goalie Casey Murray Murphy for her participation in earning a gold medal that's my report turn to the mayor for his report thank you I I do have a few a few items um to discuss tonight and my report um first and foremost though we will um one of the highlights of yesterday which was a busy day was our um we had a a received our check from Congressman cane uh and the federal government for Camp Cromwell so we have our $4 million check since we don't normally get money from the federal government uh that is always nice to see uh we will we will put that up up there for the day um but uh in all seriousness it it was really great um I really appreciate Congressman Kane's uh work to help get us that Grant uh as everyone knows of course cam Cromwell is was a uh amazing piece of property that has been uh something we were able to preserve with the help of the county years ago and now we're working on isly opening that property to its fullest extent um we're hoping that with with this money and some of the other resources that we have we can certainly get the uh Park open to the public for at least for some of the uses it may take us a little longer on getting all the buildings up and running but at least to be able to open it get the trail system open get the parking Lots done in some of the initial work so that uh the public uh I think some of the public is back there right now they shouldn't be but um to get it actually open for the public so that we can move that project uh along so um thank you to Congressman Kane and the uh efforts of his staff to help us secure uh that money and we look forward to putting it to good use um yesterday we also as councilman Kur mentioned um I I attended along with um Congressman Kane a tour of the the avos facility which I'm sure a lot of people don't know it's across from um North Branch Park it's a it's a building that's over there it's kind of you know you wouldn't NE think much of it as you're driving by avos though is at The Cutting Edge of carbon removal systems so what they actually do uh for lack of a better term is they have a well looks like a giant generator and they remove carbon from the air uh excess CO2 um so it's part of efforts from you know the state of New Jersey has requirements to be 0% carbon footprint by 20150 the federal government has a lot of um you know goals and um you know goals towards that agenda uh and and attempts to do that and what their technology does they develop here in Bridgewater they have 12 phds that are based here in Bridgewater they're doing all their re research right here um if the are deployed right now there's one deployed in California but at a large enough scale companies let's say that um can't control their their point uh you know Source Point contamination so like take an airline if an airline wants to try to make an impact on its carbon emissions it can't stop the planes from burning carbon fuels but what it can do is it can essentially use enough of this technology to say we've offset we've removed the equivalent amount of carbon from our uses um with the uh with this so they get a lot of federal funding that's really what's pushing that technology development but uh it was pretty cool to see that right here in Bridgewater with a lot of the um they said that they they came to New Jersey um in in large measure because of the talent pool and uh the CEOs in California but they came out here between the the great location uh of New Jersey in general and Bridgewood in particular so we're happy to have them and they look like they're going to double in size in a year so we'll have about 24 people in that building and they have a lot of room to expand for more R&D research right there so that was pretty cool um the senior event which was mentioned earlier uh I just want to comment Jennifer Austin bger did a phenomenal job uh yesterday I mean the room was was packed the program was uh absolutely wonderful um the seniors really enjoyed it um Congressman Kane and Suman Deo who was also with us in the morning uh attended along with myself and um uh councilman kers and councilman ring um but it was really it was just a great great day uh there so I want to thank all the seniors who participate in our senior program as well as all the seniors who are part of our community the day yesterday other than being a fun event was to was celebrating Senor citizen appreciation which is actually next week but our event was was yesterday uh to thank all the seniors for their contributions to our community to our families uh to everything that our senior population brings and values for Bridgewater as a whole so um thank you to our seniors and thank you to our staff for that wonderful event um I want to thank Gabriel Fountain which came in and did a um ice cream social for our employees I think it was last week or week before um but I really appreciate uh their uh their work A lot's been said already about Casey Murphy hopefully um I've been in communication with her hopefully we'll have an opportunity to to do something here locally to honor her success and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that her brother Kyle uh is also very active in town uh he is involved with the wrestling program as well as I believe it's the High School freshman football coach um so he uh the whole family is um very active in our community and very active in athletics here in Bridgewater um a couple other a couple other notes I I did attend as we all know we uh we lost a former police officer um uh well I guess it was a week week and a half ago umut Dinan who uh who passed away I uh attended attended his wake up in North Jersey last Tuesday I can't remember it was last week I believe uh week and a half ago um uh but just wanted to take a moment and uh remember his accomplishments and contributions to our community uh he was here for I think it was about 25 years uh 27 years I say it was a longer it was a long time um one of the few that stayed longer than 25 I was going to say that's you don't see that as much anymore so uh um but that um you know I I was want to make sure we remember those folks who dedicate their careers uh here in Bridge order helping to protect and keep us safe uh couple other quick uh quick notes I had a meeting recently with the owners of the mall um that at some point I think in the fall they're going to come in in hopefully and do a little bit of a presentation but I just wanted to comment that um they're the direction that they're looking to go with the mall is one that uh is consistent with our um Vision uh for the mall which is to keep the mall the mall and uh no housing that's has not been proposed so uh um it was a really I was really um you know I don't want to get out in front of of them and what they're ready to to discuss publicly but I just want to say it was a very productive meeting it went longer than we anticipated because I asked a lot of questions but um uh I like the direction that they are proposing to move in uh they have some more moving Parts but I asked them if they could come uh to a council meeting at some point in the fall when they are ready to talk about uh some of the actions that they're looking to take in the short term and the medium term all of which I think is going to be very well received by uh the council and the community so um more to come on on that um the uh one item I wanted to just mention uh I don't know if if any of the residents are here on this issue but there's been some discussion about culdesac uh removal and Islands within the town so some of our um ccil may know some of our culde saacs for one reason another have Islands in them um wherever they were put in at the time I don't know what the policy was then we don't put them in now um but there are islands in the middle of the culde saacks usually have trees or Shrubbery or something in them and uh we have you know removed as we've as we as we have repaved roads we have removed uh some but not all um I was I was under the impression previously that we actually had been removing all of them because that's uh as a general matter I think that is the the direction that we tend to want to go in because they require maintenance from our staff or or they don't get maintained and they don't look great uh they generally get in in the way of um you know plows and Paving and all the other road maintenance uh but an issue came up because uh some some residents uh on one road had raised concerns over the fact that we removed the um uh the island and it in looking at this further it it appears to me that our policy has not been or our practice has not necessarily been consistently um either communicated or consistently uh implemented so there's been four roads that have had islands that we've repaved part of the paving program what's that left the Landscaping Islands two we left and two we removed and so um I just wanted to kind of flag it because uh the information I had previously uh was under the impression that we had been removing all of them it looks like we had not removed all of them and uh moving forward what we were trying to do is uh we've asked uh engineering and and Public Works to you know come up with a generally consistent policy on if we're going to remove them we're going to remove all of them um you know as a general matter or if we're not going to remove all of them uh some sort of criteria with regard to how to communicate with residents when we are or not or what the criteria is because uh uh in this instance I think our communication as a town was inconsistent with the residents who you know at one point were told I think you know hey we're not sure what we're going to do the next thing they know the Islands being removed and they're kind of saying hey we didn't know there was even a decision on this what's happening so um this one was not handled uh ideally and uh you know we're going to look at possible solutions on this particular road but um we're going to make sure going forward that we have a clear consistent policy internally and externally on how to handle um these islands so I wanted to mention that and if council members have other questions at any point in time um let Mr papis know and uh we'll set any meetings or you know Communications with our engineering and Public Works team as we uh go through that so um that's the last item of business that I have in my report so uh thank you all thank you all right um we're going to move on to the municipal budget there's a public hearing component of this I just want to for the Public's benefit um we actually have four different public hearings tonight so want to make sure um everyone you know understands what each of the hearings are for and what comments can be given during that so the first one will be on Strictly on the municiple budget the 2024 Municipal budget um I will entertain a motion to um open public hearing on the 2024 Municipal budget I'll make the motion I'll second it all those in favor I opposed okay members of the public wishing to address the Council on the budget uh should come forward State their name and address uh and they will be allowed two minutes and lusters on usual [Music] circumstances good evening Kathy Franco 766 weac Road um let me first say this is long overdue the introduction of this budget um I just let me just get to this page again um according to the njlm which is the New Jersey League of municipalities the mayor we're Faulkner act correct can I get an answer on that okay yes so according to that um the statutary DAT for Budget Transmission to the governing body is 117 with a revised date of 227 the submission of annual financial statement is 210 with a revised date of of 38 introduction and approval no later with a revised date of 329 and adoption by the governing body of 4:30 so we're now in August so we're four months past that you've done I believe three extensions or whatever it is those approvals that you do um to you know give you permission to keep spending money 2 and a half% over the previous years I think that's a disservice to the public um that's not the way I budget my personal finances that's not the way I budget at work at work my fiscal year starts in July my budget had to be submitted no later than March 1st my budget was approved no later than June 1st I don't understand why you as Council and why you you as a mayor an Administration cannot project the costs for this Township I I think that you knew what you were assessing properties at most of us have have taken on at least a 10% property tax assessment increase in addition you've increased the property taxes over that so even though you you continue to claim oh you're only a small percentage of our overall taxes you are having a significant increase I think you need to tighten your belts I think you need to stop cutting Public Works and increasing Administration with office of constituent relations which I don't know what they do but I think they're overstaffed um and other administrative roles I I did not get the opportunity to Deep dive into the budget because I never got a response from my request for the detail of the budget so all I can say is I as many residents and unfortunately they're not here to share their concerns are very disappointed and you as an mayor and you Mike papis as an administrator and you as a councel for not demanding a budget to be presented to your public the public that votes for you and the public that that you're supposed to be I don't know I I don't I I heard a few years ago you don't represent us that you're here to legislate us that you're here to govern us but the whole thing is you know just be aware this is not appropriate okay you don't have an excuse this year you don't have covid you don't have anything else okay as an excuse for why you didn't have a budget ready in March thank you very much last call for anyone on the budget all right I first of all want to say thank you for all the work I'm sorry just my name is s my 1020 Sunset Ridge thank you um but thank you for all your work um my daughter went to Bridgewater High School had an amazing experience so it's it's a good place to live I personally don't 100% disagree with the lady before me um taxes have gone up um I think somebody mentioned something about streets correct and uh we play PNG or jcpnl but we don't know where these street lights are to be honest as public we don't know where they are so we can't tell you that they're not working because I've never seen any street lights and I've lived in ma'am I'm sorry this is public comment on the budget specifically it is okay commenting on the budget if you're uh paying for something and you're not getting it and we don't know what it is is then it kind of is the budget again um councilman uh I can I'm sorry I do not want to butcher your name you had spoken about uh police cars and it's not just about police cars it's about cars in general the roads are disastrous so I understand there is a budget for the amount you can spend on roads and reconstruction but if you do if things aren't put back in place if roads are not done properly then cars aren going to be destroyed not just uh private vehicles but also government vehicles so that's my two things thank you thank you I don't see anyone else is there a motion to motion to close public input on the budget although I'm sorry we have a motion a second we have a second all those in favor I I opposed abstentions all right we are closed on public uh comment on this um I'll read 9B and after we have a motion in a second we can have a discussion um it's resolution for the adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget uh Municipal operating expense is 50,5 53,6 44.98 store utility of 13,272 31062 I'll make the motion to adopt the 2024 Municipal budget we have a motion do we have a second I'll second a motion okay [Music] discussion I just want to thank the council for its input throughout this process uh we think the budget uh meets our uh meets the service needs of the community and does it in a financial responsible manner that's all I have oh I the one comment I guess that the resident about the street lights um yeah we're forced to pay for those no matter what um so we only the only way we get them addressed is if either we're aware that a light is out or um so it's we can talk more about that if you have that concern but since you mentioned is part of the budget um yeah they charge us whether they're on or not and if we don't report that they're off then we still get paid so yeah I know I know it's I I hear you makes sense I know I know so that's all I have thank you okay anyone else comments on the budget I have a very very brief comment uh Mr council president I will be voting a no on the budget um I believe the amount to be raised by taxation this year is very high I think it would be prudent for for this governing body to consider at this time perhaps doing Cuts uh Cuts would be appropriate um and without any Cuts uh in in departments or budgetary items uh I will not support it U Mr President um I'll just comment briefly um acknowledge uh the process that we undertook similar to previous years highly collaborative uh many meetings uh between the administration and the budget and finance committee uh which is council president ring and myself and then bringing in our other colleagues one by one uh to make sure that they saw um where we were headed generally had an opportunity for input and then certainly also saw the semi-finished and then ultimately the finished product uh this is a difficult budget and there's there's really um uh very very little debate there um we face a substantial number of um mandates uh new expectations new requirements we're living we're all living in a hyperinflationary Time certainly the news that we're back at 3% is terrific uh but doesn't eliminate the fact that we've been living for 2 years in the 8 to 9% range it affects everybody's home the cars that they have on their driveways and it certainly affects the municipality and all the uh vehicles and equipment and everything that we need to operate uh for the good of the uh the citizenry um three areas I just want to quickly highlight as positives for the budget um we've made investments in transparency through uh improvements that that we will soon be uh uh working through on our website also our document management system and our uh recording system which is in place right now uh as as our public meetings are recorded and available for viewing afterwards in the area of Public Safety critically important particularly as uh crime seems to be on the rise car thefts catalytic converter thefts and home invasions uh this budget uh uh funds two additional police officers and a substantial amount of necessary equipment for our police officers including license plate readers and as far as managing our debt and making other fiscally responsible decisions we've paid for the turf field in cash we've paid for our financial management system in cash we've paid for a new fire safety vehicle uh and though this is on the um the sewer Utility side uh we have purchased a one we have made 1.2 million dollar of purchases for necessary uh utility trucks so uh there in my mind there is no question these are difficult budgetary times they're difficult times around each and every kitchen table difficult times at this de uh but I do firmly believe that we have constructed and are now in the process of taking action on a fiscally responsible budget that will provide for our present and our future uh and um that's the reason why I support this action today any comments no no okay um I will just share that I you know uh and I've said this in the past a budget is a work of compromise a lot of folks want a lot of different things um I think Mr pandos if he had to try to find money for each and every request that was made uh would never be possible um you know and it's a balancing act I also once heard someone say if we spent our entire budget one year on redoing every Road in Bridgewater we still wouldn't have the money to redo every road um so it's it's give and take trying to uh assess each and every person's requests versus their needs um I will tell you from a personal point of view uh when you look at the average homeowner in Bridgewater uh yes there there are reassessments that go on that is a process between the township and the county who the county ultimately certifies the assessment increases uh they impact each and every one of us um including those of us sitting up here uh any tax increase does um a home in Bridgewater based upon reassessment and adjustments to the tax rate the average home uh the increase from Bridgewater portion of their taxes is about $166 a year I believe it was um so out of your total tax bill for the portion of Bridgewater um it's about 166 dollar give or take of an increase it's not something I take lightly it impacts me just as well uh as you've heard some folks say it's a very uh was a challenging budget um I will also comment that uh I will thank councilman kersch for his efforts in the budget committee once we received a draft uh of a budget for the budget committee to start working I guess probably about two and a half months ago uh we worked through that and I think we were able to get something introduced uh in about four to six 6 weeks and then it has to sit for 28 days before we can take final action so I thank the budget committee I thank each and every council member that provided feedback um any final comments on the budget if not we'll take a roll call Council C yes councilman Cilla yes councilman oralis yes councilman proso no and council president ring yes all right with that we move to item 10 uh which is another open public comment this um before we talk about that we will have two other public comments tonight one on calendar year uh budget appropriation limits cap bank which we do every year and then another one on lead-based paint inspections so um this portion of the public meeting open to the public is for anyone wishing to address any issues other than the cap Bank and lead paint um with that I will entertain a motion motion open to public I'll second it all those in favor I I opposed abstentions all right the meeting is open to the public any member of the public wishing to address the Council on any matter will be allowed two minutes to speak unless there is unusual circumstances hello again Kathy Franco 766 ma Road um okay so other issues and I hope I don't know that I'll keep this under two minutes um just to set the stage um because it's anything other than um public hearing and final ordinances so when we talk about the certification of the municipal audit um under New Jersey statutes administrative njs say 40 a 5-4 annual audit required um the governing body of every local unit may be by resolution petition to the director um for an extension to complete the final audit within the division but otherwise it should have been completed within 6 months after the close of the fiscal year so I'm just wondering like why it is that we're now in August before the public is seeing this maybe it was finished but we certainly as the public didn't get to see it and I understand there's a corrective action in place for this year which is the second year in a row um which is very disappointing so those are resolutions 13 A and B 13 c um and I um we talk about 13 C is the Redevelopment of the area on Route 22 which is 1200 through 1220 Route 22 to as an area in need of Redevelopment I'm pretty sure that's the area that had been um asked for zoning had been gone before zoning as far as a warehouse so my question or concern is and I I I think there's also a lawsuit that's pending with the township so is this our way out of a lawsuit is to like declare it a area in need of Redevelopment and then whatever the township wishes to do um with it they can like say oh guess what you can do warehouses on that little slice of land or that little piece of heaven um the other is the resolution regarding um lock 349 lot two also known as 136t Hill Road which is better known but not clearly identified on this agenda as the Yard Waste Site the municipal Yard Waste Site um I you know Mr kers you talked about transpar and I I've heard you talk about transparency in the past and Mr nalis I've heard you talk about transparency at previous planning board meetings and not sharing like we we share lot and zones and blah blah blah blah and we share addresses but we don't clearly identify for the public what these areas are so don't talk about transparency in one conversation and then have agendas that aren't transparent to the public because you know I mean I'm one person and yes I try to stay on top of all of you um and it's not an easy job but you all know where these properties are and you could indeed if you chose to be transparent but it really appears based upon these agendas that are being published that you're choosing not to okay let's see I think I have oh try to wrap it up please well I appreciate that but you know what you have a lot on the agenda and I appreciate you only give us two minutes but Mr mench had over 10 minutes to give his a report okay Mr proso I am appalled and have had enough with your comments about things outside of your lane when it has to do with the town council meeting you have talked about everything from the Trump jury decision now to the Olympics and to the Board of Education this is not the appropri for if you want to speak about those things go to the Board of Education go online go and have a press conference this is a town council meeting stay in your lane um and as far as culdesac removal I hadn't heard any rumors about that I'm glad my culdesac Island was not removed last year but actually was maintained thank you very much good evening my name is Joseph Darren uh 543 Foothill Road um also 29 Lon Road we're the old uh Brewer property if anybody remembers Elmer Brewer in the town you do okay so we have the old Brewer property and the issue of the ctis a has actually hit us very hard as we are the only home on the end of lton Road on the culdesac um which I had been since um March for so for 5 months I've been in contact with Dan at the OCR regarding this um as of the week prior to a tree crew showing up at 7:30 in the morning to cut down the established trees in the culdesac I was being told no decision had been made I was told by Tom at the Town engineering that if it was up to him every one of these cacks would be left alone I've been given Reasons by Tom J that every call to sa's being removed it is Town policy and no matter what they're all coming out uh he also told me that they have to be removed because ambulances can't get around or because a firet truck can't get around but since we have unfortunately had an ambulance to our home before um that's not the case and since Santa comes around every year on the fir truck through the cisac I don't believe there's any issue with the fir trucks getting through um I think that my issue and the other residents on our street the issue that we have is that we have you know sitting here in front of of us five elected Town councilmen an elected mayor but there is an unelected bureaucrat in the director of Municipal Services who is ruling by Fiat on these issues no one in the community was told that any work was occurring with this no one was given any notice no one was given any opportunity to comment in the five months that I've been talking to the OCR about this I have said you know my family since we moved in 10 years ago we have taken responsibility for cleaning litter out of this culdesac when branches grow into the road we trim them back um when there are issues with snow I take my tractor out and I snow blow the entirety of the culdesac so that there's no issues with it in 10 years we have had somebody come in trim planting it once which was last year and in terms of snow blowing we had a county plow truck come through once and it buried our driveway in snow so I fail to see where the expense and the maintenance comes from on this when there is no expense uh what I have expressed previously to the mayor to the director of Municipal services and to the OCR is that if there's an issue with the maintenance we are more than willing to take care of it we can even put a rider in our deed saying that we are responsible for this maintenance with financial penalties if it is not undertaken so my question to everyone here is if we are electing leaders in this town who are running on the platform of saving our communities and preventing the character of it being you know destroyed by overzealous development things of that nature why is there an unelected official in the government who can just snap his fingers and make this happen just uh real quick I first of all I you know it's not uh what happened with your Colac is not on the director of mpal services or or you know any kind of unelected bureaucracy okay that anything that happened there uh starts with with me I'm the head of that Administration and you know I as I commented earlier you know this situation uh as I said you know was not communicated well there was uh you know as I've been looking at this because you've raised it I mean this is you know got onto my radar you know we've realized that we have not had a consistent approach to these CLD dis Acts or a consistent uh messaging and unfortunately um while you've raised it and it will help us address it moving forward for other cold attack Mees comes up unfortunately um you know I did not you know we did not get to the point where it was before your years removed so what I can tell you this point the trees have been cut but the said I mean it's still there and my family is more than willing to pay to restore what was there so yeah so so what we're going to do sir on on on this and we can talk more about this outside I'm happy to to meet with you in my office you know uh with me there um but we're going to take a look at what the options are with regard to your street I don't want to promise you one thing and and over promise underd deliver I mean we're going to we're going to look at it and decide uh what options you know we're we're proposing and I I don't know if that will be satisfactory or not to you but we're going to look at it is and again even I have expressed um to Tom janova and to the town engineer I guess the assistant Town engineer and to Dan and the OCR is that we have had an ongoing issue because our driveways we have two driveways on the property one on lton road and one on Foothill yeah and unfortunately mapping apps keep connecting to the two together so that people including psng the other day thought our driveway was an extension of lot and road so we have you know driveway gates up because we have three small kids we have dogs on the property we've had an ongoing issue of people driving literally running right through the gates right and hitting things on our property ending up in the Stream next to our property things of that nature actually the stream runs through our property yeah so there is a major safety issue in that call toac the planting forces people to slow down and go around it instead of coming straight into our driveway and there's a safety issue and what I was told by Tom janova is that our safety is not his issue the fact that Google is sending people up the road that only has one very small sign saying dead end right um and making them believe that it's a way to cut through is not his problem he said take it up with Google so I'm a little bit off-put that this is how somebody in the town government is speak I think again we can talk I said I'm happy to me with you to talk more about your experience with with the town and also you know resolution of your issue as you mentioned earlier you know we're going to look at our policies to make sure that again we approach these in a in a because there's other other you know CEST acts with Islands in there um I I believe that uh as a general matter I believe that the you know the direction uh of the director Municipal Services uh you know as a general matter was consistent with my direction which was generally to remove them um and now that has not been done consistently and that's one of the things we're looking at to say why was the decision made here or not there what was the communication between the contractor engineering OCR my office to make sure we're on the same page so I I can't tell you that I mean I said this was not handled the way it should have been as a general matter um but uh we'll take a look at it and uh you know just you know any concerns you have um we said we we'll meet with you we'll figure out if we can resolve it communicating with the town for five months and as of several days prior to a tree crew showing up at 7:30 in the morning yeah I I know we were told nothing had been decided and we would be the first ones to know once something happened I completely agree I I looked at all the communications I tracked that myself so we're we're we recognize there's an issue and uh you know I just want to make sure that uh you know I said said it to you and we'll see what we can do perfect thank you I think one thing if I may just piggy back on that isue look at this issue I think one of the things that needs to be done and gentleman has actually you know spoken to me as you're well aware regarding this issue I think we also need to have a clear policy on communication to the residents on the street as to what we're doing yeah and that's and that's one the things should be written communication to the residents that says C to Sachs going or C to Sachs stay and and unfortunately that's one of the things that in this instance uh you know like I said it it didn't work the way it's supposed to work it's same like we do sidewalks yeah and so we've taken a look internally to make sure that we figure out how do we fix that we don't have a communication problem where residents being told no decision's been made next thing you know look out their window and there's trees being cut down and somebody says well somebody made a decision who's not communicating to each other and who's not communicating to the resident um and uh and that's something that in this instance it was it we failed on and now we're got to figure out how to make sure that uh it's just a onetime failure and we learn from the issue that's it so thank you you and I guess the other thing that you know because again a number of neighbors have come to me since this is right in front of my property and said hey what did you do and I said it's not us you know we had nothing to do with this you know we've been maintaining it this because you know if few have come up and said hey why'd you cut it down but I guess the question that I've been getting asked is at what point is there a difference between a straight milling and resurfacing project and a capital Improvement and how are the two handled separately within the town you know is the installation of storm drains and removal of um Islands simply Paving or is it a capital Improvement that needs to be looked at a different way thank you thank you good evening good evening uh my name is Dan zalinsky I live at 7:15 Chimney Rock Road uh I have recently gotten back from touring the country in a road trip with my son of 6 weeks so I just got back I don't know that I'm fully prepared to talk to you guys about the budget but I will say that several months ago I was concerned because uh and I guess like tonight's theme is transparency apparently um uh I raised the question of uh we kept saying that we had a flat tax rate and I was trying to point out that there's a difference between the tax rate and the tax levy and the tax levy is really what uh sits on the shoulders of the residents and that was the reason that while uh mayor you were saying we had a fla flat tax rate as residents we were getting an increase in our uh in the amount of dollars that we were paying out and uh in my mind I think Mr Pedrosa was perhaps the only council member that uh picked up on what I was trying to say of course you probably don't remember because it was months ago but I did take a look at um the the current budget and you know like I said I haven't had a lot of time to take a deep dive into this but I am really concerned because the uh the the rate that our tax is going up is has like unprecedented like we're going up 11% but the thing that concerns me most is what the forecast is for next year so when we talking about the tax levy um we are talking about you know and I'm just going to round up uh $27 million but what you guys are forecasting for next year is $38 million that's a$ 42% increase that's sort of shocking to me so uh and I I also want to say that I think residents perhaps need uh a little bit more time to understand what's going on with the budget I can appreciate that you guys earlier gave folks a chance to speak and you know I'm I'm certain unbeknownst to you um you closed that comment out before I had a chance to get up and and speak as it relates to the budget um the only other thing that I want to say is the the first woman that came up uh I do want to say that I agree with her that uh Mr pedroo this is not an area for your you know political beliefs uh I don't know what it is that you've said about the Olympics uh be interesting to to find out but let's just talk about the business of Bridgewater and uh you know how what you guys are doing or not doing uh is you know managing the township and ultimately managing what we as residents have to pay and that's uh that's my comment for tonight but I do hope that you open the discuss up uh further for questions about uh the budget thank you thank you mahish 1020 Sunset Ridge um actually mine is more of a question uh I guess my question is how many years does it take to repave all the roads in Bridgewater it would be a lot a lot a lot yeah like a lot as in 20 years 20 years we have we have 200 we have 200 roads in Bridgewater that's about 600 miles of roadway that are that are Bridgewater controlled roads that's not counting Route 22 28 County Roads like Washington Val Road things like that and there's other factors too because we can repave a road uh you know you get a road that is 10 years old and utility company wants to dig it up like there's a lot you know it'd be one thing if we paved roads and nobody dug up a road for any reason no I absolutely there's a lot of different variables because um I don't like the previous gentleman said I have not really studied the budget um I'm just asking a question because I see that potholes get fixed they're temporary fixes and then you get them again in like matter of a year or two I've lived in my house over 5 years and my road has not been touched I'm just trying to figure out what the so process is if you're not aware we are in year four of what was announced as a 5-year project to brigewater up till 5 years ago historically has not done as good a job as the town should have when it comes to roads 5 years ago or so hired a company who went out evaluated roads prioritized them we are in year four of a five-year commitment for a total price of $40 million to repave roads throughout the township now will that repave every road no um if you have specific questions and you have not looked I would encourage you to look at rbw roads.com webbsite you can see rankings of your street how it was evaluated and if it's in any of the plans for this year um but we are working through we as of a couple years ago we put a process in place and are working through that okay I appreciate we're we're trying to get beyond the constant pothole patching I appreciate the clear response I mean I was getting confused because I I mean I've seen some major differences um um I live not too far off Foothill yep uh off mine yep so I've seen the differences but then I'm like I turn on my house is the first house on the street so are you right off of mine you're on mine or you want to after you go up on a you want to Bab you make the left up there yeah yeah Sunset Ridge I run sometimes up there and I know we've done some of the roads in your area but we have not done um your road yet but yeah and the really complicated thing was that just a couple almost a month ago a tree fell down on the corner of the road which took down a lot of wires and stuff which caused more damage and the tree is still cut up in the side of the road and we're like is this ever going to be taken from here we have no clue it's not on our side of the street it's I was actually really happy about that because we're getting Landscaping done so I was like nervous about that because we were out but I'm like every single time we turn in it's kind of like it's horrendous if a tree comes down in the road we will clear the road to open it but if it's the tree fell from private property it would be on the private properties owner's responsibility it is from a private property so um that was just I didn't know if that was how that worked so thank you so much yep [Music] yes John arol 1110 Washington Valley Road I thought I heard somebody say that um you couldn't fix all the roads repaving within 20 years is that a correct I just guesstimated it would take 20 years I don't know okay well let's use 20 years so 20 years at $8 million a year is $160 million but crude interest that's another total grand total of $222 million a quarter billion is that really where you people want to commit to Road repaving and Bridgewater you right now you have $85 million of outstanding debt with crude interest over $100 million you're just going to just blow through that at least doubling it at the rate of $8 million a year Bas I don't think anyone has said that we're committing to repaving every how long take not are you going to vote to do that over a I just heard the mayor say he 20 years he can't guys it's not worth arguing with John just let him make his comments and let him sit down it's not worth it it's not worth it all right well that's where we're going thank you much anyone else would move to close public input I'll second second all those in favor I I opposed extensions all right public hearing is now closed uh we're going to move on to the next public hearing um 11a is a public hearing and final action on calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget Appropriations limits and to establish a cap Bank under njsa 4A colon 44514 something we do every year procedurally do we have a motion I'll make the motion to approve to um excuse me open hold the public hearing on 11a I second it all those in favor I opposed abstentions all right public comment is open for any comments on specifically on 11a hello again Kathy Franco 7663 mro um this is an area that I truly don't understand this cap Bank thing I've been told I've been told I don't understand it so I was wondering if this body could actually explain what happens with this Cap B cap bank that you exceed each year and that I I think I don't know like do you put it in a reserve and then you get to spend it later because there's never every year you vote on it every year you approve it and if if every year you've approve this two% or whatever it is like why isn't that money available now instead of taxing us um you you know this excessive amount this year if you've been reserving all this money um for this so perhaps could actually explain this to me I can so the C Bank is not ual money so under the municipal Finance law there's you know there's rules about how what municipalities can do or can't do to to with their budget so one of the restrictions is that you cannot raise spending over a certain it's 2% now there's things that are in the cap out of the cap it's not as there's some things in the cap and some things not so in other words if our health insurance costs go up by 10% a year that's not counted against us but we can't raise salaries yeah Sal iies or you know of General spending uh the expense Side by more than 2% a year so what you can do as municipality is if let's just say that I don't top my head somebody here knows it I'm sure uh but let's say this year we're only spending we're only increasing the expenditures in the cap by 1.5% MH we can take the other 5% .5% that we're not increasing spending on and Bank it so two years for for two years right so so let's say next year uh you want to go up two and a half% we want to go up two and a half percent we can say well we didn't go up a half a percent last year so we can take that extra Bank the idea being they don't want towns to increase all their expenditures every year automatically by 2% because they don't want people to be afraid well if I don't do it this year it's going to catch up with me three years down the line it's the school teacher budget right right so they don't want to say hey we just want to increase 2% no matter what they say okay look we're not going to penalize you if you don't so this is not actual money this is us saying that we haven't increased expenses as much as we're allowed to under the law and we are taking the excess increase that we did not use putting it into the bank so that if there was a problem you know next year or the year after and we need to go up by whatever the difference is it's bank so we're not taxing people more now in advance of so so how much of this Bank are we using this year or how much of the pre-existing Bank are we using I guess would be my question like how how much that has been sitting in the bank are we using towards our spending this year yeah I don't top my head Bill might know if if Bill if you know top of your head you can answer Mr Franco's question and while he's pulling that just so we're clear if we don't pass this and something happens next year and we want to go above the 2% we can't so it's almost like it's a formality of a process that's like buying an insurance policy I understand I'm just wondering like how much did we have in the bank I don't remember how much of this year's Bank are we using and will we have anything in the bank moving forward okay what are we rolling over this year we're we're using this year this year is a so we so we didn't raise taxes in or expenditures in 203 and 22 and then so this year is a is a take year last year and the year before were give year give years so so basically there will be nothing in the bank for next year is that my left the 202 and and what will be left of 2023 okay all right thank you very much I appreciate your help any other comments on the cap Bank I'll move to uh unless there's anyone still wishing to make comment I'll move to close public comment um and uh proceed to uh passage of the cap Bank ordinance subject to any necessary discussion we may want to have second a motion okay any discussion amongst the council Mr council president consistent with my prior votes on these issues and also cons consistent with my votes this evening on the budget I will be voting no okay any other [Music] comments roll call councilman kers yes councilman cordella yes councilman oralis yes councilman proso no council president ring yes all right our last public hearing 11b is adding chapter 63 to the code of the township concerning lead BAS paint inspections I'll make the motion to open to the public and conduct the hearing for uh 11b second okay all those in favor I I opposed exensions public hearing is now open on 11b concerning lead-based paint inspections at least we're getting your steps in for you tonight [Laughter] [Music] and this is more a question or clarification perhaps because I didn't understand the in the ordinance um so you know I understand that anybody who rents I think were residential is that correct that they need the lead landlord that has a house that they're renting out so so is it both residential and commercial or is it just residential believe it's both both both okay and they have to have an inspection and they have to file their inspection with the town the town has to process that this basically establishes a $25 filing fee associated with that to cover our costs associated with the required filings okay so summarize that correctly okay okay so there's 25 now was there an opportunity for you know I saw where like there's you know I know there's people out there who do this inspection um was there something where the township offers it to be done through the town ship or have a partnership with a vendor they can pay they can pay that vendor U but we're not doing the actual inspection the township had the option of doing the inspections themselves or hiring an outside consultant which is what we did okay so by the way when this is 1978 and earlier vintage res buildings right uh once they have successfully passed the inspection by whoever legitimately did it they are they're done for the rest of that building stands so that this is not something so it's only buildings that were constructed prior to 1978 or renovate like Reen renovated anything prior to 1978 because lead lead was used in paint extensively in Prior years and this is the I'm child of that error so oh so so if if somebody did like a whole house renovation or a whole building renovation after 1978 would they also be subject to this well if they did it after if they did the renovation after 1978 they would not be using lead-based products right okay okay and now I'm I'm just trying to understand because I didn't quite totally I I try my best to understand all this stuff but thank you very much I truly appreciate your time anyone else with comments about lead based paint seeing no other comment I'll move to close the public uh hearing and proceed for final action on 11b pending any discussion we may need second the motion okay all those in favor of closing public hearing i i i opposed exensions all right comments just briefly uh to my understanding based B upon our discussions at the prior council meeting that basically we have to comply with state law and we this ordinance puts us in compliance with state law so therefore I don't really think that there really have much of a choice either way even if we had a different feeling about it so I will support it by the way the state law was passed in 2022 but they provided a two-year window for the township to play catchup on it and we're we're at the close of that window so this brings us into compliance with all of the state requirements for this act I'd like to um thank councilman nalis for his tenaciousness in working with the administration and getting us to where we're at today um I noed something that you have been uh all over so to speak yes so yes and I apologize I know your motion was to close public hearing and move final action we just want to restate your motion that we the desire to uh since we've already closed to the public to take final action on uh 11b second all rightless there's any other comments roll call please councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman orales yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes all right we are done with all of our public hearings we will move on 12a is Introduction of ordinance an ordinance to set the compensation of the mayor Township council members Department department heads and certain other Municipal Employees pursuant to chapter 374 of the public laws of 1985 njsa 2A col 809 njsa 2A col 8-13 njsa 40a col 9165 njsa 48-9 135 njsa 4A col 9-46 and chapter 95 of the public laws of 199 six only comment I have is that it was reported at one point that the mayor counsel were're getting raises no one is getting a raise the salaries have not been increased in at Le 20 years um so um there's no raises for mayor council ordinance um but it did come up in the context because we uh you know as as everyone knows there's um some expenses that are all into the sewer we reallocated the full salaries for elected officials to the actual budget no increases for elici Mr President just to be clear that's really more of a housekeeping item than anything we still hold the same and same responsibility that we do over the utility uh the question is exactly how we're being paid and now the answer is 100% from the municipal budget y I just have one comment uh we we use titles of the organization we don't use names and and sometimes this is perplexing because a person moves into a specific title role as a new person and looks at this ordinance and says gee I'm entitled to the same amount that the person was who's been serving there for 20 years it's just a I'm not sure if in the future we shouldn't consider just using the name of the person to show what their salary is as opposed to the title I think the challenge you run into when you do that is that person is given a salary for the year and then if over during the course of the Year their job changes their salary has already been set oh but you can go back and ordinance it and and change the salary the problem is the new person moving into that job says Hey Okay the old person was getting whatever it was that's the number that I think I should have uh but seniority and and things like so if you change in the court in the middle of the year yeah well you can you can do that for we do it all the time when weot people okay anyway just a thought but or or add language to the ordinance that says it's specific to the person holding the office at the time of this ordinance that that would do it I think is what you're where you're trying to go okay any other comments on 12a I'll make the motion to introduce 12a okay I'll second the motion uh any other comments otherwise roll call councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman arales yes councilman proso abstain councilman council president ring yes we could set public hearing final action is scheduled for September 5th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. here in the municipal courtroom public inspection of this ordinance is available on the Township's website bullet board and through the clerk's office okay thank you all right moving on to resolutions 13A is a certification of the 2023 Municipal audit you may want to also do 13B at the same time sure uh 13B we'll do on consent resolution approving the corrective action plan and that is related to 13 act yeah just just very briefly everyone has the audit 2023 audit um the only item that was flag for is six assets essentially that we keep a schedule of everything that we own and uh our ERS found that you know six items that uh have been omitted from the the list that they needed to add on so um that's the only issue with the with the audit and um we've identified those and um you know the of action plan which is to put the items on the on the list know there was s comment to the audit was delivered to the Council on August 2nd so um this is our first meeting since we've received the audit to uh take action on it any other no that's it other than that we had a you know clean bill of health and I appreciate Mr P's work and our Auditor's work uh making sure that know we had a make sure that we're everything right and not missing anything very diligent on move resolutions 13 A and B second okay uh roll call on consent 13 A and B councilman kers yes councilman cordela yes councilman oralis yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes all right 13 C resolution authorizing and directing the planning board of the Township of Bridgewater to undertake a preliminary investigation of block 221 Lots 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.0 and 2.01 pursuant to the New Jersey local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 48 col 12 A-1 etc for classification as an area in need of Redevelopment and redirecting the Township's Redevelopment planner to prepare a study investigating whether block 221 Lots 1.02 2 1.3 1.4 2.0 and 21 also known as 1200 1210 and 1220 Route 22 constitute an area in need of Redevelopment so this is uh one of uh you know a couple items on our agenda and our efforts to you know fight overdevelopment and make sure that the land uses that we see in town are consistent with what we want um we're asking the the council to ask the planning board to again consider whether this piece of property is a need of Redevelopment as everybody knows this is the this is the greymark property on 22 we are currently in litigation with them because uh they were trying to uh put in uses that we banned which is the the warehouses we didn't want warehouses there we're fighting them and continue to fight them in court uh we believe there's an opportunity um to take a look at alternate uses on the property which would be uh preferable uh potentially uh to the township so um this is a process that would allow us to continue to protect our Quality of Life by making sure we don't have overdevelopment uses along our 22 Corridor that are inconsistent with what we want to do and just so the public is aware passing of this does not mean that development starts tomorrow this is a process that uh goes to the planning board who researches it and works with the the planner to make a determination of what may or may not be appropriate there goes back to the planning board and then comes back to the council um this is several months and then from there there have to you know this is not something tomorrow is being developed correct and Mr President I'm just going to maybe I'll show a visual once again have my print out of the six steps of the development process as laid out by Alex Fisher there's a little little Accolade there um so we're going down the pathway we're at step number one uh we have you know two others in Pipeline and that's uh that's the process that we're that we follow any other comments hearing none I'll entertain move 13 C we have a motion second roll call councilman Kur yes councilman Cilla yes councilman orales yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes 13d is Award of contract to H company llc3 Orlando Drive Fairfield New Jersey 07 004 for the Bridgewater senior center located on Somerville Road improvements which includes the base bid for interior plumbing and electrical repairs in the sum of $237,500 funded through the cdbg covid-19 resiliency program and the 2024 Capital fund this is exactly what it sounds like it's uh the some of the improvements that we've been talking about for a couple years that uh will improve uh improve the quality of the senior center funded through Federal grant money move 13d I'll second if I may just real quick uh we're funding about $14,000 of that work the rest is coming from the grant so sorry we have a motion we have a second unless there's further comment roll call councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman oralis yes councilman Doo yes council president ring yes 13e is authorizing release of the performance guarantee in the amount of $ 37,8 7366 and the release of $1,200 trebond acceptance of the site improvements for VMR LLC uh block 315 Lots 7 and 8 now block 315 lot 7.01 and 8.01 located at 605 and 609 Bridgewater Avenue no comment no additional comments release of the bonds move 13 we have a motion second we have a motion with a second any comments hearing none roll call councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman oralis yes councilman PDO yes council president ring yes 13f has been moved to 15a uh 13 G authorizing dispersal of $81,300 for renovations and repairs for four low and moderate income properties uh located at 295 Yorktown Road 50 arir Drive 420 Crawford Court 214 West End Avenue through the Bridgewater housing rehabilitation program council president this is uh part of our court ordered COA uh program as part of the round three 2015 uh program that we have which requires us to make available to the public who qualify certain grants that are paid for through the COA trust fund money that we've collected over the years from various developers or uh in instances where we've gotten co-a fees uh to rehabilitate housing that is as it says here kind of low and moderate it may not be official co-a housing but it's part of our program to make sure that we provide U by court order the uh services to low and moderate income folks so that's what this is okay move 13g a second we have a motion we have a second unless there is any comments roll call please councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman oralis yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes uh 13h is a waiver of construction permit fees in the total amount of $233 of which $120 Electrical Plumbing 75 and a DCA training fee of $38 for the Somerset County Regional animal shelter located at 100 Commons Way in Bridgewater for subcoat fees associated with the replacement of cabinets um the animal shelter while they're part uh know sit on the township property they are a standalone organization that uh share the land with us um waving fees as we do for any other uh nonprofit organization I'll move uh h3h second any comments roll call councilman Kur yes councilman cordella yes councilman orales yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes 13i resolution designating the property identified as block 349 Lot 2 also known as 136 Foothill Road on the tax map of the township of Bridgewater as an area in need of Redevelopment non- condemnation condtion pursuant to the New Jersey local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 4A colon 12 A-1 etc for classification as an area in need of Redevelopment and directing the Township's Redevelopment planner and planning board to prepare a Redevelopment plan uh very briefly this is the yard way site mentioned earlier this is a property that was initially uh we asked the the planning board to review whether or not it is an area in need of Redevelopment uh this is you know property that the township owns that is uh down by uh in the fender section of town to look at uh what could or should be done if anything on that property and the most effective and efficient uses of it uh so what this is doing is asking the um accepting that and asking them to actually prepare a plan uh since it has been deemed an area Redevelopment was heard in front of the planning board which accepted that designation so that's the next step if I may I think it's important to show our commitment to the continued location of a Bridgewater based yard waste facility there we're not considering removing it in total it would probably be smaller in the future but it will still be there oh yeah been a lot of questions about yeah and and that's and that's all part of the plan that would be looked at is to say right now they have the piece of property which is not really uh being used kind of efficiently or effectively and looking at you know it's a important asset to bridgew and what what can or should be done with it move 13 I a question question are you you sure that the address is correct because when I put it in Google Maps it pops up as McDonald's by Costco it's I Googled it earlier I curiosity because somebody had mentioned about the address and I I did check it it's you know it's the correct address is it on Google Maps it goes to the the assessor uh the Assessor's record records have this as 136 Foothill is it West Foothill or just no no it's Foothill I I just Googled just to check it before I just Googled you know Bridgewater yard way site and 136 foot pops up so don't know about McDonald's so according to our Township website we list the yard way site as 136 Foot Hill Road okay I have a question I gu technically on this project with the study and all that that's going to be done if I recall when the prominade was built there was a lot of uh a portion of that property was declared wet lands and correct all kind of restrictions on it uh this study I I presume will address all of those concerns that's right and that's part of the issue is you have a piece of property which is you know down there abutting the prominade section A lot of it is Wetlands there's restrictions on what you can and can't do you have D regulations get involved there's a whole host of stuff so any plan any proposal would have to identify which areas are completely non-usable uh as you know with Green Acres or DP restrictions sometimes you can say well if I use some area here I have to make it up somewhere else and you can swap land but all that stuff would be done as part of the plan Mr President if if I may um that was addressed uh to a degree uh at step two so again tell tell Alex fiser I already told him all right he's got he got a second shout out so so we completed on this one we completed step two that was the planning board preliminary investigation and public hearing um and uh councilman Cella during the um uh public hearing there was a map that was shown that very clearly Illustrated uh which areas are wetlands which are border wetlands and my personal observation was that um a sizable amount of the easily buildable property presumably was built upon with the hotel with um uh you know what has become Trader Joe's Costco Etc but there are possibly Pockets uh within this property uh that would be suitable uh for building there's many parts of it that will not be and and just for the Public's knowledge we're now at this combination of step three and step four adopting this resolution um and then the council authorizing prep preparation of a Redevelopment plan so while this one is on its way to being at step four uh the other item uh that we we started down the path at step one and that's how the process has been working well I noticed you referenced that document from Mr fiser a lot who was it uh that Mr fiser wrote that email too well that was addressed to um I'm giving you a hard time a t- ring at Bridgewater nj.gov all right any other comments I heard a motion was that your motion Howard I'll make the second if that's still in order okay I just want a commitment from the administration that I'm not going to see any Apartments here oh okay Ness ordered by uh round for COA I guess I mean uh but no that is not our intention to do any kind of Apartments there all right roll call please councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman oralis yes councilman proso yes council president ring yes all right next up is a resolution for Clos session um we can resolution and then I want to speak briefly about process and what's going to happen yeah I was going to say you know uh just I I assume I know uh we have had our our uh staff our police officers here um I just want to make sure that uh I know we've had conversations with folks so I want to make sure that you know we still need a Clos session on this if we do then our our staff is here Mike's telling me yes we do so uh but if if the council didn't need a close session on it then we can vote on it and but if the chief is here if you have questions and we would have to go to close session for that okay I guess maybe just a quick straw poll I'll uh do you need to close session Mr pedroo Mr kers I think there's a desire to go to close session if only because it's it's a public safety matter and we want to have a discussion on it I will entertain a motion for closed session I'll make the motion to go into closed session to discuss uh what was previously referred to as 13f and has been redesignated potentially as 15a okay I'll second it all right so we have a motion uh let's do a roll call councilman kers yes councilman cordilla yes councilman orales yes councilman proso sure council president ring yes all right so I'm going to read this and then I'll comment further uh be it resolved by the Bridgewater Township Council this body will now hold a meeting closed to the public to discuss Public Safety what and if the matters discussed become public record this will be n made known to the public at that time the public is excluded from said meeting and further notice therefore is dispensed with all with an accordance Section 8 and 4A of the open public meetings act so we are going to close the meeting to the public which means the public have to leave uh I do like to tell you before you you know you can if if you would when we come back from public session there is the potential that we will vote and take action which you are allowed to be present for that you are welcome to stay outside if you would like if you want to go home you can also watch it online uh but you cannot stay in the room for the portion of the public session uh there's only one item plan for potential action following the public session so thank you and Mr Mr President just one other item in the event that that we do take action at 15a uh there will likely be a reasonable public explanation for what we're doing before going to a [Music] vote e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] we're good okay we are back I'll take a motion to uh resume our public meeting make the motion to resume our meeting a second all in favor I I opposed all right we have completed our closed session at this point in time I am going going to read resolution 15a which is authorizing a 4-year lease purchase financing agreement and the total amount not to exceed $652,400 I Fire Road eggh Harbor Township New Jersey 08234 via the Cranford police Cooperative pricing system contract number 23-01 um and I will introduce that we have a second I'll second okay any comments on 15a only comment I have uh generally is it the uh Chief and his administrative team have put together proposal for uh police cars and uh which calls for the purchase of nine cars five marked four unmarked and uh the uh I support the recommendation of the chief and with regard to the purchase of the vehicles and the uh breakdown of the types of cars inter uses for them and ask for the council support for the purchase as recommended by the chief as the mayor stated this is the nine cars five marked four unmarked uh after analyzing the uh the mileage on our existing Mark Fleet uh I'm looking at 11 cars that have in excess of 100,000 one has even 150,000 miles uh I feel the split of 5 and four is insufficient to maintain the the quality of the of the initial response feat uh I I would have preferred a 6-3 or even 7 to2 split uh but absent that I will not be supporting uh 15a I just want I know want to acknowledge that we had a robust conversation considered uh a few different options and the consensus seems to be to go with the original recommendation yeah I'm not going to sec I'm not going to second guess the chief's recommendation I the chief uh certainly knows his Department better than I do and what his needs are to better serve the community and keep our residents safe so I will go along with his recommendation Alan any comments sort of agree with Howard like see I'd like to see more I think move forward that's part that I'm really torn on with this uh um I have one additional I guess the first I heard of this split was uh was a week ago uh if we're going to get information on on something that uh is of such an important nature to the public and nature uh I'd like to get the information well in advance so that can be time for more fruitful discussion just so it's clear uh how the the cars are going to be split whether it was 54 uh or 63 in actuality the vehicles patrolling our streets would not change the number of black and white Vehicles without our P patrolling the streets and our residents would see would not change um it would just be that the how the vehicles are being replaced may change but the actual cars are on the road and how they're allocated would not change so the residents would not see any more or any less black and white vehicles on the road uh if that ratio was changed just a matter of how and when the vehicles are replaced thank you I think um I think we had a very passionate discussion and I think we still have passionate feelings and I respect that um I think we have a recommendation from the police chief and from our Public Works director who is the one that has tasked with his team with maintaining these vehicles uh the two of them have really put a lot of time and effort into this and have come up with this recommendation uh and I fully support their recommendation they're the ones that are uh their teams are operating these vehicles and servicing these vehicles so fully support any other comments roll call please councilman kers yes councilman Cilla no councilman oralis no councilman proso yes council president ring yes all rightless there's any other business I will uh councilman noralis would you like to make your uh move to adjourn this August body with vote of thanks for the late hour I'll second it all those in favor I opposed all right we are adjourned thank you what's that yep that's my