okay okay we're rolling for the final time of 2023 I have the privilege of calling to order tonight's meeting of the Bridgewater Township Council it is Thursday de December 21st 2023 in compliance with the open public meetings act in New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting was provided on January 10th 2023 with written notice and electronic notice provided to The Courier News in the breeze posting on the website and the bulletin board in the municipal building and filing with the Township Clerk subsequent notice with revised live stream information was provided on August 15 2023 an attendance roll call please councilman codilla councilman nalis yes councilman pedroso councilman rain good evening here president Kush yes I'm here Pledge of Allegiance uh please join us uh led by um councilman noral Ali 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 okay we have uh minutes for approval the December member 7th 2023 session uh uh uh has everyone provided any comments I'll minutes de is there a second I'll second all in favor please say I or yes I any opposed if you could just note I'm uh abstaining from the December 7th since I was absent due to an illness okay so we have all eyes and one one abstention okay Township Council reports uh I will start with um this time I'm going to go to my left so I'll start with Council vice president ring all right thank you um just a couple brief things I apologize as I said I uh was under the weather and missed the last council meeting um but I know there's been um some stuff in the news some questions regarding uh a recent in essence what is described as a trial regarding the Somerville Lumber property um there was as a result of some ordinance changes this governing body made earlier this year there was a a letter filed for interpretation of usage uh the township zoning officer denied the facility as being a warehouse facility but rather stated it was a retail primary uh with Warehouse secondary it was ultimately appealed and the appeal is heard by our Board of adjustment through a a in essence a trial um the long story short is the board of adjustment voted to approve uh that the facility was a warehouse facility in warehousing Lumber and Associated materials so what that means is the existing structures can still be used in a warehousing capability during the application the applicant testified they have a company who produces Iron Work material which they wish to Warehouse there they this this is not a tear down the buildings build a new warehouse this is not expand uh I believe 76% of the space is Warehouse there was offices there was retail they can't go above the 76% of the space in warehousing um they cannot you know change add additional Overhead Doors anything like that it simply allows them to continue the space that was used for the purpose of warehousing so that was uh approved by the board of adjustment um the board of adjustment will will be holding their uh reorg meeting on January 9th um the anticipate hearing an application that night for a variance for a drive-thru for a uh coffee chain on Route 22 down near Morgan Lane that may have a large uh green and black logo um I'll let you you figured that one out huh uh and um with that tonight is my last uh of land use board board uh updates as a councilman next year it appears councilman kersch will be taking over my spot on the planning board which I'm very happy for and I'll let him make those future reports um I might get in trouble for this one but um we do have an item on the agenda later tonight for the appointment of a new clerk um and I just wanted to um I'm confident it will pass and gra Grace being appointed she has some of our staff here in support of her um had a chance to sit and meet with Grace and very confident in what she will do moving forward um I won't say how many years ago but Grace immigrated to the United States with her aunt has learned English uh been with the township for a number of years and and will now become our clerk as we move into 2024 so I extend my congratulations to her and lastly for those uh folks that are celebrating next week I extend a Merry Christmas to everyone thank you thank you thank you I'll I'll continue uh to my left with councilman pedroo good evening good evening everybody thank you for being here tonight um me see it's worth reporting um well I attended the Somerset County governing officials dinner and I uh sworn in as the vice president of the Somerset County governing official so I'm honored to um received the support and confidence of my of the um elected officials here in suers County to serve them in that capacity um and oh I was admitted to um the Wharton public policy certificate program it's a uh it's a six session program over the course of several months um which basically um provides overview on public policy How It's Made and how policies are analyzed and evaluated so if I have anything of interest to report that I learned I'll come back and let you guys know um those are the only things I I think are worthy of reporting um otherwise I want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year we see I guess we'll see you all back here in 2024 thank you sir uh councilman nor gals thank you Mr President winter arrives officially in just a couple of hours and I would like to as a safety notice remind everybody especially if you're a driver to take care of yourself in your car and if you go laboring out uh please make sure your cell phone is charged it was just recently I was talking to somebody and they said they were out on Route 78 someplace and their phone uh battery died and they didn't have a charger so they were stuck for information anyway I want to thank uh Michael kersch for the presidential his presidential leadership during 2023 the job of the council president is to plan the meeting agenda run the council meetings and serve as the public interface for the council and Michael has done that just that he has gone above and beyond in numerous cases uh and by the way uh one of those things and he says gee it was it was a pet project of his to redesign the township logo and he spent several months and arranged to do that and he did a nice job on it I attended the Somerset County Business Partnership annual meeting where outstanding companies were recognized the keynote speaker was an investment advisor for Raymond James who discussed the he health of the national economy I attended the quarterly Somerset County Planning Partners meeting where planning director uh Walter Lane introduced Donna Rino who is the executive this is a long title executive director and Secretary of the State Planning Commission and the executive director of The Office of planning advocacy which mean what was that again bigger she has bigger business cards is he trying to uh compete with all the titles that uh our administrator might have uh Donna provided an intense overview of the evolving State development plan and sadly in many ways the state planning direction will be at odds with the basic plans that we uh enjoy here in Bridgewater in its simplest terms the state is looking for more intensive development including many more rental units I attended the fourth annual manora lighting at the administration building an additional Candle is lit each night during the8 days of Hanukkah it was very well attended attended the centerbridge holiday party where the residents of both buildings these are the two high-rise buildings over by the post office uh the residents en enjoyed a festive time I attended a meeting of Summer of the healthier Somerset sponsored by RWJ Barnabas Health Network the keynote speaker was Cynthia Dior she's a speaker a writer an accomplished athlete an originally a pelaton instructor and founder of Workshop a workshop in selftaught she was talking about how we talk to ourselves and what things we say to ourselves uh she said the most powerful thing anyone can say to us is what we say to ourselves our inner dialogue is a powerful driver of the direction and quality of our lives in closing I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it a happy holiday if you do not and ask for God's blessing on Bridgewater in the United States thank you thank you very much uh few few comments tonight uh so Council man cordilla is not on the day as he's under the weather nothing terribly serious but uh sufficiently under the weather that he's not not here with us tonight as was mentioned on December 11th uh we had uh our fourth annual Hanukkah celebration very well attended uh festive and and certainly an overall success uh and and our partnership with the JCC Temple Shalom uh C certainly uh is is is thriving and great great appreciation to uh our staff uh that that helped to coordinate that uh the following night December 12th uh I uh attended uh um a combined holiday party and uh uh appreciation uh event for scarlet Doyle with our zoning board there had been a similar one the previous week with the planning board December 13th uh two two two items one was mentioned before Somerset County governing officials Association and uh I I I voted in favor of count councilman pedroso being the organization's vice president for the year uh um so uh there is a pledge to make that organization uh more vibrant and I'm I'm sure that you'll report back uh throughout the year uh there was also a very unique event on December 13th uh there was a uh manora Car Parade uh between um uh the kabad in um Basking Ridge wo its way through uh Warren and into Bridgewater uh culminating uh at our manora uh and um it was basically a a popup party for lack of a better phrase um uh the way it was described to me uh in in the request uh was they just need to use our manora and Courtyard uh and they'd bring everything else they would bring the the the music the food uh the PA system and everything else and they did it literally uh um a second Hanukkah party if you will sort of Pop popped up uh I mention it though because I want to express appreciation uh to our Police Department our office of emergency management um because um you know a parade through through the streets of uh Somerset County communities doesn't just happen by accident uh it needs to be uh planned carefully so that everybody can remain safe and everybody was uh and I guess it's my hope uh that if we're asked to uh be the destination for a similar event in 2024 that we could do that and there could be two uh two celebrations uh on the 20th yesterday uh attended the briefly attended the staff holiday party uh so good opportunity to uh share some time uh with uh with key staff members uh the next time we will be meeting is on January 4th 2024 our reorganization meeting and that is at 6:00 p.m. thank you uh councilman um uh nor Galas for your kind comments about my presidency um I I you know I will I will briefly share thoughts um as we both look forward and look ahead uh at the reorganization meeting I know our mayor will give a very um thorough report uh on his state of the township but what's on my mind right now is really a combination of appreciation uh for the opportunity to serve both in the Council seat and in the presidency and pride in the collective accomplishments uh of our mayor and Council and staff this year we really have had an extraordinary year and in closing uh as was stated just wish everyone who is celebrating uh whether it's Christmas or any other holiday that is uh is upcoming merry Christmas happy holidays Happy New Year and we'll see you back here in 2024 so I turn to uh administrator papis uh for any comments either yourself or on behalf of the mayor thank you very much um uh just a couple of items as we all know we have a presentation that will take place in just a few minutes uh the annual presentation by Mr Branch uh and uh we have the benefit in the council's packet uh report several reports from several individuals for the township that reviewed the uh application and and uh they speak for themselves um there are a number of items on the agenda and I suppose when we get to them there might be appropriate uh comments or questions but I do want to uh just follow up from the last council meeting that the corrective action plan regarding our 2022 audit is proceeding as outlined when the council met a couple of weeks ago and that uh the corrective action plan was presented and approved uh my update on three items that were addressed in the audit are as follows number one HFA our contracted CFO at the time has restated as recently as in a meeting that we had today that they will bring the general ledgers current for 2022 in the time frame outlined in the corrective action plan uh the second item our CFO Bill P OS who is here tonight uh will have all interfund balances liquidated by the end of this month and the third item uh is regarding to overe expenditures from 2022 and again in the corrective action plan we indicated that the uh Administration the uh CFO will be presenting on a monthly basis a report to the township Council detailing our expenditures that are being monitored appropriately and that will begin with in the next month uh and uh that concludes my report uh on behalf of the mayor congratulations to Mr kers for his presidency and Merry Christmas and happy New Year thank you quick question any comment I AP you might not know the answer did the state ever finish the reinforcement on the Sor main no the reason I bring it up um you know you may know the uh Queen Gate bridge between between Bound Brook South Bound Brook has been closed indefinitely apparently according to some social media posts the um sore pipe that runs under the bridge was damaged due to the heavy rains in the past week so it just made me think of that and I know we've been hard trying to get the state to reinforce that we have had numerous I personally had numerous interactions with the I think her name is Megan feckler from uh do U Mr Burr has done so with as well uh he can refresh my memory but I think the last communication that I recall is that their um one of their uh divisions within dot was designing Bill why don't you help me out here I'm probably not remembering would you come up to the microphone if you would so I'm sorry to no this is important because every time I drive down that portion of Route 22 if I remember I pull into the parking lot and get out of my car to look to see if they've done it when I saw someone comment it that what the cause was of the problem with the bridge it made me think of it both I was eating my dinner so I'm sorry and it and it's hard to see good evening by the way and it's hard to see from Route 22 when you drive over but two things as Mr Papa said they are designing the hard armoring on the embankment okay they also needed to obtain permission from the owner of the car dealership um that is okay property so it's not done but it's being work done correct okay that's fine I do not have an update which is a good reminder we'll we'll ping her and see if we can get an update for maybe the next meeting I mean we we were uh reaching out to them through early part of this year the end of the winter through the year because we were concerned Here Comes hurricane season again and and yet they've still not concluded and so uh good question thank you for the reminder and uh we're we'll follow up again thank you thank you Bill the Lexus the Chevy Chevrolet dealer and the Lexus dealer on Route 22 the Middlebrook runs directly adjacent to the Lexus dealer where our sewer M runs it's within an easement adjacent to the Lexus dealer property but in order for them to do the hard armoring above our sewer M they needed to get permission from the owner of that property yeah but it's not it's not on the work would be on Lexus property yeah yeah they do they do so dot owns Downstream and Upstream of the Route 22 proper the right of way but then anything beyond that is privately owned yep sure okay okay uh so moving to our presentation uh this is the stavola Quarry operating license uh I guess I'll uh recognize uh Tom Tom Branch council president K Bill Sabo has a long-standing conflict as you're all aware so I'm going to step off okay Tom can do his thing okay thank you we'll operate without a net without a legal net you've done it for since 2003 so we have have Joseph Bell Esquire who is special counsel for the township regarding the quiry license so he is present okay so we won't be operating without a legal net great good evening everyone my name is Thomas Branch I'm a vice president of engineering Regulatory Compliance and safety for the stavola companies um I'm here this evening as you know to present what our uh experience has been this past year 2023 and also to lay out what's anticipated in 2024 uh this process began with with uh our submittal of all of the required information to the township staff uh that includes approximately 20 different documents including both state and local permits which have to be maintained and demonstrated to the township which we've done as of November 7th 2023 as I said the stola construction materials Inc scmi as it's known operates and or owns and operates the 380 acre Quarry which provides aggregate products for use on construction projects and manufacturing of concrete and asphalt materials uh this Quarry has been in existance since the 1890s originally known as a copper mine and then years later producing aggregate from the basalt material we currently extract um the the information that uh was submitted uh also included uh material estimates uh for earthwork and excavation areas on that plan that you see there I'm going to go over that in a minute um during 2023 uh there have been so far 53 shots or as we call them blasting or blasting events uh to date uh that produced approximately 2.8 million tons of aggregate materials all 53 shots uh were recorded by seismograph and uh microphone for air over pressure decel readings and we're determined to be in compliance with standards established by the state of New Jersey again blasting is regulated by the state of New Jersey they establish the standards we have to follow um as to blasting uh calls that we've received uh we have returned every call that was submitted or provided to us uh We've either answered questions uh We've logged their concerns and that's important information for us to understand as we operate operate throughout the Quarry when you're dealing with 380 Acres you can understand that we're moving around within that large area both horizontally and vertically so the feedback that we get from residents is important to us so that we can understand how best to adjust our blasting to minimize any exposure or any effects to those residents nearby and as I'll show you in a minute we're moving Westward and we're getting up into the residential area along steel Gap Road in lindberger up up in the northwest corner um the d uh recently uh and this is of interest because we just spoke of the heavy rains and hurricane season the DP recently contacted us during one of their inspections and asked if we would be interested in participating in a flood control project this was something that stola had thought about years ago during the original hurricanes and now most recently with this recent rain event it seems to be coming back to the Forefront so what this would mean would be that stavola would utilize its series of basins to store water during high flow events of the middle Brook which we just spoke of and then at other times release that water out at a slower rate so this is something that the D has come to us asking us for participation uh we've reached out to the Greenbrook uh flood control project people uh and also we're now working with the engineering company that participated in the Greenbrook flood control project that being AECOM engineering um let me uh step over here and just give everybody an overview of where we're at all right so as you can see on the um illustration the tan areas are the areas of where active mining is taking place at this time uh it includes earthwork stripping of material placement of earth work in other areas the effort is to be able to move the Earth on top or what we call overburden away from the areas for where the stone is located underneath and then moving the dirt back into an area where Reclamation will become finalized as we've seen in these green areas here where we've finalized reclamation also highlighted is the retail Redevelopment area that we all know exists out along Route 22 um and that eventually um has been fully completed as it's shown here on the on the map so um additionally ear have now again I just like to mention that uh for anybody that has any concerns or has any questions about the Quarry its operation I always make myself available uh cell phone number um I'm finding that the more that the information is exchanged with the residents uh the more uh thankful they are to understand what we do and we have an open dialogue in that way and so I think that helps all all of us so in the end I'd like to thank the mayor and Township committee for their open communication with our company and again I wish everyone an enjoyable holiday season does anybody have any questions of me or anything that you'd like to talk of uh good evening Mr Branch it's always good to see your smiling face uh in fact 20 years ago in in the courtroom at that time one of the questions I ask is how long do you expect to be in business and the answer at that time was 50 years and I understand now you have new exciting product uh that will even extend you past wherever you were going to be well it it it's a it's a function of what the state legislature has passed which for many of you may know as the dirty dirt legislation now what that means is that there's concern about fill material being placed that have come from contaminated s and elsewhere which the state now wants to regulate very closely so what that means to us is a product which was not of any value that being the Shale material now becomes a certified clean material and so therefore we're now able to Market that Shale material as another product for which we sell and therefore as you said councilman we most likely extend the life of the Quarry for the use of that material so it keeps changing not only with the economy and the supply and demand but also the type of materials we provide you know one of the other factors that we've been able to enjoy is the fact that we are the state leader in recycled product asphalt product back into the new mix as you probably know asphalt material has to meet a DOT standard we've been able to reach 45% recycled material into the new Mix Design that's accepted by dot obviously it reduces the dependency on Virgin materials it also reduces our cost but more importantly with all these millings that are coming off the roadways it's reducing the volume of material that's being stored on site and becoming problem so again it's a win-win for us and for those of you who don't know uh every product that we manufacture and its byproduct is reutilized for instance with the crushing of stone we're creating a dust product that actually can be run through a wash Plant we can actually make manufactured sand so therefore we're not dependent on buying natural sand we we can actually manufacture our own sand out of the byproduct and once you process that there's a filter cake that's produced that's similar to a treatment plant that filter cake is used back into the asphalt plant to make filler material so therefore we're almost a complete recycling operation at this point anything else councilman pedroo just want to make sure I think I heard you say that but uh in the past I guess over the past year since the last time you were here um has all your blasting activity been in compliance with state regulations has has in other words has any uh blast exceeded levels that would be beyond the permissible amount no they've all been within the standard established by the state of New Jersey okay thank you you're welcome vice president ring thank you so first of all thank thank you for coming tonight Tom and uh your willingness to always have open communication with us um I think the brief comment I think the the process of us renewing a license for you um is a little bit unique because usually what we hear about from the residents are the impacts of blasting um which as you've already pointed out is regulated by the state um and I do understand some of the residents concerns um I myself as I think you're aware for the first 26 years of my life lived at the closest house to the Quarry just north of the Quarry so I have firsthand experience of the blasting and I understand their concerns but also understand as you've pointed out the Quarry has been in existence since the 1800s um you mentioned all the calls that you've returned I guess my question is the volume of calls this year comparable greater less than past years I know there's always a certain number of calls and then there's a certain number of callers correct and that's a very good way of saying it I have certain people who uh have become very friendly to the Quarry as far as their calls by the fact that they will call up and just give us a qualitative analysis from their perspective as to what they thought that shot was and it's we certainly you know want to understand what any concerns were but in that case with that caller it's just an opinion that he has as to far as whether or not that shot was worse or better than the one before and that's that's the difficulty in trying to explain to people how we do and what we do or what we do and how we do it because you're dealing with variables that can change that reaction of the shot very quickly um we did have a shot um recently um within the past two months that was higher than normal uh in fact it was around 128 129 with a maximum of 130 we then wanted to go back and look at why did that happen okay why with all the other shots that were in that area we were down into the one 20s 120 or 120 119 and it it was a situation where the geology had an anomaly within it that caused the energy to be out you know exerted faster and therefore more of a reaction but an answer to your question I I do have uh several people that are a common uh call I will say that want to know or want us to know that they heard the shot they felt it how did that relate back to the last one and the one before uh and then as far as new people um I would say I've gotten probably a half a dozen of those this year and most of those people are new to the area and they want to be then placed on the call list so that they're informed as to when we're going to conduct a shot and they understand what we're doing so all in all I'd say it was about the same I don't see any increase significant thank you and I was going to ask you next just for anybody the public that is watching this they do have the ability to contact stavola and be added to a call list to receive notification ahead of time of the blast that phone number is 732 356 5700 and punch option 3 okay you'll talk to a nice woman named Helen Stokes very good thank you you're welcome thank you so I'll I'll just bring the conversation home by um uh reiterating uh one of the comments you made that your your your door is open so to speak your phone is available um and I know that you you you are interested in having an ongoing dialogue not just with us but with the community so thank you for that um if I recall back in 20 maybe it was during 2022 I know there was there was some concern raised and and and I uh uh you know you made a commitment to having offline meetings um largely in the area of Education um and and I you know I appreciate you're doing that um so that uh you know the community can be aware of what's what's what's going on now uh at your facility so if there are no other questions I think we can we can bring bring this uh presentation to a close thank you thank you everyone thank you all right we're now at uh the portion where the meeting will be open to the public uh I'll take a motion to open to the public second all in favor any opposed okay so members of the public wishing to address Council on any matter will be allowed two minutes to speak unless there are unusual circumstances we ask that anyone who is interested in speaking come forward state your name and address for the record going once George jumps up hello my name is George baitman uh 94 Katherine Lane uh I wanted to thank the board for uh their or the uh Council for their hard work this year uh between the council and the planning board I wanted to thank them and the zoning board uh all the township employees uh police department uh for all their hard work for uh the Bridgewater residents it's uh well appreciated by me thank you very much thank you for stating that does anybody else wish to be heard does anybody else wish to be heard this evening okay name and address for the record please uh Dean n 671 Country Club Road I'm Sor the spelling of your last name NY okay this afternoon late this afternoon I sat outside with a 19-year-old who smacked into another car and into a telephone pole her skin was falling off of her hand her head went through the windshield we have all complained about this we started a petition we asked for help because of the Speeders and the stop sign blowers it is now gotten to the point where someone almost died today and it was a teenager and yet people are still flying by doing 60 doing 50 doing 40 the traffic today I understand was because of an accident on 206 so everybody was diverting up talamini every single one of those persons waning 20 30 cars blowing that stop sign over and over and over again and today two people could have been killed so I understand you're doing speed test to try to capture Speeders but it's not working something needs to done now every time every day we're hearing crashes you know like tires screeching I don't know if you hear that often but when you hear it every day you're waiting to hear that bang and today it was two bangs but this time it was a teenager and an older lady it wasn't just a one man accident in my yard so if you guys can help that would be good um it was horrifying today her skin was falling off of her hand because it was shattered from hitting the pole so with that thank you happy holidays sorry you experienced that does anyone else wish to be heard tonight move the close public input is there a second second all in favor I any opposed okay thank you uh we do not have any uh final ordinance action for tonight we also do not have any introduction of new ordinances tonight which brings us to our resolutions uh and without any objection I I'd like to take 12j first because I know there are a couple of members of the audience who are most uh most interested in that one uh so I will read 12j uh that is appointing uh Grace Juna as municipal clerk pursuant to njsa 4A colon 9-33 for a three-year term commen January 1st 2024 is there a motion on that I will happily second it okay and uh is there any uh friendly discussion of uh uh resolution 12j I would like to offer that I have sort of tracked Grace's progress through Bridgewater Township for a number of years and she is not only a delight to talk to and to work with she's efficient H and she's friendly and she personifies all of the kind of quality qualities that we need in in the next Clerk and Grace Would You Do Us favor would you introduce your staff who is here because I'm sure see now they're getting embarrassed to be introduced um Juliana um that's confidential secretary 1 and Ali confidential secretary 2 thank you so much for for being here it's a surprise I didn't know they were coming thank you so much for showing your support I appreciate it they make a great team well they knew they knew it was on the agenda so you know yes it's hard to keep I didn't tell him okay any any and and I I I want to acknowledge uh that uh Council vice president ring and councilman nor Gallas were uh did take the lead on the interview committee yes uh so thank you for that incremental time uh that you that you spent uh and uh any com any additional commentary I shared some comments earlier I just will say it was very enjoyable process spending time talking to Grace through the process and I personally learned a lot about Grace I know councilman nalis has worked with her for a number of years uh a few less for me so um it's always nice when you when you speak to someone about a role and it's not just talking about a role but talking about the individual so enjoyed that with that councilman pedroo any comment THS up congratulations okay the only thing I'll say before we'll ask Grace to do the roll call vote uh I got to have a motion I think we did the motion you made the motion I seconded the motion second we're in discussion um so just wanted wanted to state that in in my position this year as council president I've had the privilege of working even more closely with the clerk staff than in previous years um and you know my interaction s have have have been outstanding and that's a testament um you know to to Linda who has retired uh and who we we spoke about uh at a previous meeting grace to you uh to um uh Juliana and to Ally um it's a great team it's a great effort uh our Township has served extremely well and I'm very confident the beginning on January 1st uh we will be served extremely well Grace with you as our um as our uh municipal clerk so thank you so much I appreciate uh with that I guess you this is somewhat somewhat uh unusual if you could call the role councilman nowi yes councilman pedroso yes councilman ring yes president Kush yes and congratulations thank you very much I appreciate thank you thank you okay and you guys can stay or since we've changed the order uh you know you can go home a little earlier you can go home uh okay so now we will go back to order 12a this is the 2024 stavola quaria operating license that's located at block 711 Lots 34 and 6.01 Chimney Rock Road Bridgewater New Jersey 08807 uh located of course in Somerset County uh a motion please I'll move it is there a second second uh we've just we've uh had our presentation is there any any additional discussion required okay we'll go to a roll call please councilman nales yes councilman pedroso yes councilman ring yes president Kush yes 12b this is a resolution to cancel Capital appropriation balances for completed projects in the total of1 42,2 29 Mr papis any commentary here I'd like to acknowledge the effort of Mr pandos our new CFO who worked with um a number of people Mr Burr is one that reviewed old ordinances that had been completed uh the projects were completed all of the funds that needed to fund those improvements or those purchases have been uh exhausted and these funds remained and this uh is going to allow these funds to be used as unanticipated revenue for the budget next year so I'm sorry this goes into next year's budget uh we're talking 2024 yes correct so this is a situation where we have the funds in hand and we can utilize them maybe for more construction more roads does it go into capital or does it go into general or either cap [Music] okay thank you I think it's also important just for the public that might be listening to this these projects and there's two four six of them um they go back as far as 27 at just under $100,000 for uh what's that um 15 years uh and the most recent one goes back to 2016 at just under 40,000 um so these are um projects that have been on the books quite some time uh for you know well before this Administration uh took over um and have been out there for a while so and if I may we did a a pretty exhaustive cleanup a number of years back so I'm actually surprised to see some that are as old back to 07 and '08 uh I thought they had been cleaned up under the previous administration just just to give an idea if you look at the 07 is actually the construction of this building for 94 ,000 yeah that's how long ago there were some done in 2020 I remember when Natasha was still here there were some that had been done that's the last time that's the last time um since thank you well it's found money so there was a suggestion that with the capital funds next year um councilman kers is looking for new chairs yeah I I'm looking for new I'm looking for new chair I'm not the only one met with him because me members of the audience or or um viewing uh uh through video um the chairs on the Das are are well worn let's just say uh well used a minor point the last time we got new chairs it was because the CFO the sitting CFO sat down and the chair broke so we got CF Nat yeah so we we got new chairs at that someone sabotaged her chair well hope hopefully that won't happen again uh but it certainly uh it is it is uh I'll uh it's it's it's great to have this money now identified so uh a motion please so moved as there a second I don't believe any additional discussions required so let's go to a roll call please councilman nalis yes councilman pedroso yes councilman ring yes president K yes moving to 12C this is authorizing budget transfers for fiscal year 2023 Appropriations in the amount of $751,000 in the current fund Mr papis if you could both comment on this and uh tie it back to the um uh transfers that we also authorized uh during the meeting two weeks ago sure I I do want to point out that the uh amount has actually changed the resolution that you have the total is $782,500 um can I'm sorry can we just for the sake of the record 782 78241 4 and if you could provide commentary particularly um you know on the items in 12C uh and then also how it ties back because this is essentially uh part two of two since we did some transfers uh two weeks ago yes um I want to acknowledge and thank Mr pandos for uh for his efforts um he um been here just a few months and went through as he said numerous times line by line to ensure that there were no uh other um uh line items that needed to see transfers to cover uh expend expenditures and where monies were unspent to use that as the source for the funds uh he did so after the first uh resolution was uh was prepared at the time I said I thought that there would be one more at the time I thought it was going to be less but obviously it's not it's significantly more uh the sources of funds as you can see at the the bottom portion of the the list primarily from s the salary and wage line items in those particular offices and um in in some instances for for instance the first one the construction there were instances where there were vacancies for an extended period of time people left uh took uh it's taking a longer period of time to fill vacancies because of the the job market being the way that it is um and uh that's one example streets and Roads is another one a larger number $140,000 um and that uh benefited Us in being able to present this transfer resolution to be able to use U line items that uh had not not been uh fully uh spent and the uh areas where the funds are going to many of them are utilities um uh some instances the billing for um one year uh there delays in US receiving billing uh spilling over into a subsequent year um and um I think in most instances that was the case and in a couple of instances uh probably the preparation of line items in a budget were not as accurate as they should have been um so I think it's a mix uh as far as where the funds would be uh transferred into be happy to respond to any more detailed question if you have any well I I I I know there's a question um we I think there's a a desire for um a bit of a deeper dive explanation on the $390,000 for Police salary and that's that's what I said I felt in in some instances and that is one where the uh line item in the budget probably could have been more accurate than it was okay I I know there are going to be some questions on the Das yeah I was uh I I noticed the hydrant number was up by $122,000 $125,000 and I understand that was one of those instances where the 2022 bill uh was not was not journalized in uh until this year correct uh I we will Mr pendos we will look to you to uh to to keep those kinds of things and for the police that $380,000 represented uh 4.7% of the entire budget uh that that will require some real uh introspection uh for 2024 because that that's a that's a big miss it is what's um I'm sorry are you done Howard pardon are you done I'm done thank you question but um what's the other utility category or what would be an other utility yeah but what what would give me an example something that would be charged to other utility okay still still learning yes fair enough I have I have I have a a question um get that we'll get that detailed to you thank you to make sure that our numbers are in sync and that we reach this 78241 that's a difference of 30,500 from the version of the document at least that I have in front of me from from when I printed it out a couple days ago is there a single line item that accounts for that 30,500 or is it is it somehow dispersed across several okay I'm not sure the public can hear him speak maybe he should come to the yeah well let's let's do that why don't because Bill some questions may be asked that you'll that you'll answer why don't you come over to the to the to the podium so that the the microphone can pick up your voice okay uh Mr pedroo oh trying to grasp this as a general cont context these are these are shortfalls in these particular budget items that uh the township would have been short for 2023 but for these transfers into these line items it's correct those line items would have been over expended so not to beat a dead horse uh but the police um this 390,000 is all for salaries all for salaries uh with one payroll left for the year the payroll December 30th there's $40,000 left in the budget account for payroll salary and wages and um are these now is what's the reason why as councilman or gal says you know this is somewhere around almost 5% of the overall police budget is this because there were new I'm tring why new hires were there pay increases are unexpected like what what's the I looked at the history and it each pay was within you know certain percentage you know some were higher some were lower there was nothing that was really out of line except for the December 15th payroll which is where disparities are caught up where uh senior officers are paid for their overtime where patrolmen are paid for their on call and overtime where we make the payments for Thanksgiving Thursday where we make the payments for Thanksgiving Friday so typical payroll would have been in the neighborhood of 400,000 this payroll December 15th was in the neighborhood of 513,000 that was the only disparity that we did notice now is that a is that a common disparity when to look at I do believe that that happens every year that they use the last payroll of the year to make those adjustments so I'm still not really understanding why is there a shortfall of almost $400,000 said earlier that um budgeting could have been more precise I think it's also important if we if we expect a a backend loading uh it might be a good idea to try to normalize it by acre along the course of the year if we know we're going to get a backend expense of 500,000 to to sort of take that into consideration on a monthly basis it's awesome important you know yeah sorry when did you start sir I started August 14th so keeping in mind you know I think we have some very fair questions here I also think we have to keep in mind that Mr pandos was not involved in the preparation of this budget so some of these questions you know he's looking through notes and records trying to ascertain um I think we need to absolutely use these items um a as Learning Blocks as we move into the 2024 budget season um I agree with you councilman ring I don't think I mean certainly not any of his fault yep and and I'm none of my questions should infer that I'm just trying to understand what's happening this is a bit unusual um so none of this police expense is anything that was like any like a new hire or anything that was sort of like unforeseen this is just basically an accounting goof from the beginning of the year I would say something guess you could call it that I would say so I'm not making light of it I can assure you of that by the way and one item here it lists Library utilities uh that's the library building it doesn't have anything that Somerset County is our tenant there and they Pro they meet through in fact I assume they cover the telephone cost and things like that we run the building but they utilize it we also had some water issues there as well a lot of so I think the I mean in the four years I've sat on this stas every year we've done end of the year transfers I don't think it's unusual I think the unusual item here is some of the dollar amounts the amount the amounts yes not the transfers yep and just just to put a number behind this if we add up this 78241 to the 272 476 from last last meeting that's roughly 1.05 5 million out of a roughly $47 million budget by my math that's about 2% um is it I think total transfers were about $850,000 okay last year was about $850,000 okay so so so more um it how should we be feeling that we we missed the mark on our spending plan or not on the spending plan on the on the details of our spending plan by 2% I mean is that you know plans change as the year goes on or or I think it would be a you know very important uh point for the administration and the finance committee to discuss that as we look to prepare the 2024 budget learning from this um I think there are a number of perspectives that you we should take and we have those discussions as to how this came about I think there's probably at least two two U issues at play here just say each each one might be a different issue right but but to to but to be clear we authorize the spending of roughly if my my memory is correct $ 47.2 million we will SP still spend $ 47.2 million it will be distributed differently a little bit differently sir okay all right any other questions or comments on the Das does any of this money that's in the from column include what we just did with a prior resolution with with fire yeah uh the money that was apparently found we're not transferring any additional funds to anything from the last meeting no sir well the resolution for the capital Appropriations for 142,000 oh that from resolution 12b none of the none of this from column includes that no is any of this at all related to the audit this is for 2023 the audit was 2022 right but what we're doing here prevents some of the challenges that we seeing in 22 by correct prior that's correct this why we need to get overe expenditure yes why we need to get this done tonight yes sir or we'll have a finding for 23 you can you can as I understand it you can if something Bill find something else you can transfer through March of next year for okay 23 budget we're not anticipating that but that has occurred on you know more minor basis in the past we did it I think two two years ago we did that once one instance but a small amount happened to the fire hydrant that was a bill from 2022 that was not recognized in 2022 therefore carried forward water no hydrant we rent it's a hydrant rent it's independently water I got it the Bill bills were coming in for 2022 in 2023 in January and in February and they were being paid out of 2023 funds so you were behind the apall before you even started in 2023 you got 13 months worth of utilities for 12 months and 23 I see I see that's that's as an accounting goof yes sir yes sir and and that speaks to the issue if for whatever reason you don't get the bill you know the bill is due you ACW for it so you recognize it on the books in the calendar year just as we're closing the books this year next week you've got a budget for it to try to you know capture everything you can the business administrator that's also the same thing sorry the the business administrator is that a salary issue uh it's not me personally it is for the office that new hire or is that just not just again accounting accounting all right one of the learnings that from from this year that I I I know we've already discussed that we'll carry over to 20124 um so um next year's council president ring and I will be the budget committee um up until now our practice has been largely to focus on the spending plan um and and that's what we did and worked collaboratively with the mayor and department heads and uh had a had had had several meetings before introduction and then of course uh you know the work that the public saw from this this very day uh I I think that I know that in 2024 the budget committee will need to be more active not just on setting the spending plan but working with you working with administrator papis uh on a month-by-month basis uh to develop sometime type of relatively simple but still uh thorough scorecard uh so that we can understand where are any of these deviations occurring um are there any watch outs um uh are there any adjustments that we need to make as we go I I I believe that the can that that there is desire uh for us in December of 2024 to be doing a smaller number uh and a smaller percentage of adjustments understanding adjustments are a part of the process but I think that with good information flow throughout the year uh you know with particularly the incoming president president ring and myself working with administrator papis with yourself with with any others uh I think if we if we aim to to have a month by Monon accounting of where we're going as I said development of some sort of a simple but still thorough scorecard I think that'll get us to a much better place I look forward to it sir okay terrific any other comments from the de okay I'll take a motion then uh at 12C move 12C is there a second second and a roll call at 12C please councilman nales yes councilman pedroo yes councilman ring yes president kers yes moving to 12d this authorizes the execution of a vending machine concession to the Bridgewater policeman's benevolent Association numbered 174 for two breakroom vending machines uh this is continuation of previous practice um is um Mr Pap is any conversation needed you need an explanation I'd be happy to provide proved Mr U corini prepared a memo that outlines it it's pretty simple thank you and I'll take a motion move 12d I will second it but I just wanted to make a comment for the public it's a this is something that would not even normally require an agreement but because of workings of PBA in the town uh an agreement is placed just for public disclosure but I will gladly second it and a roll call please councilman aalis yes councilman Pedro yes councilman ring yes president K yes 12 uh e uh resolution authorizing consent to ass to assignment assumption and admission agreements between Bridgewater Commons Mall LLC Bridgewater Commons Mall 2 LLC and Bridgewater Pacific LLC Mr Papas um simply the uh language in one of the whereases if you compare the proposed resolution to the one that you had adopted some specific language if you look at the uh 12E the two three the fourth whereas uh has a more detailed um description of the title of the LLC whereas in the previous resolution it was referred to as the company and Mr savvo had sent a memo and and uh that is I think the the substance Mr Corsini can correct me of the the difference between the two do we questions I'm happy to answer do we need to reference in the new I don't see it here I apologize but do we need to reference in the new resolution that this supersedes the prior one or do we need to resend the prior resolution good okay I'll move 12v is there a second a second all right any additional discussion before we go to vote um well Mr council president uh consistent to my prior actions over the past year I will continue to vote no on these matters as I had raised an issue with the Bridgewater comment uh regarding alleged sexual harassment uh by certain employees at the mall I had asked the mall Administration to consider the issue and perhaps uh work in in in providing some type of men atory uh sexual harassment training to the mall um the re retailers and other other renters at at the mall other facilities there um something as simple as perhaps requiring a an online um video training I wasn't really talking about anything super expensive or I wouldn't call expensive at all but it would increase education to the to the management staff and also would also educate the employees as to their rights and what they should do if they're sexually harassed the ball administra Administration has refuse to cooperate in the simple matter and therefore I will continue to vote no roll call please Gales yes councilman pedroso no councilman ring yes president K yes unless there's objection I'd like to take f and g together uh 12f is a resolution authorizing execution of a Redevelopment agreement between Township of Bridgewater an AR Bridgewater 2 LLC regarding block 483 lot 17 on Route 202 206 and 12g is a resolution authorizing the execution of a developer agreement between the township of Bridgewater and AR Bridgewater 2 LLC regarding block 483 lot 17 on Route 202 206 to Mr papis Mo probably for the for the benefit of the public if you could give us just an overall overview of uh what we're accomplishing here yes and certainly Mr Corsini can jump in but this is the um property formerly known as the center of excellence the uh governing body has uh been U provided excellent um assistance by Mr savvo and Mr fiser in drawing these agreements up that cover the Township's interests in um relationship with the developer of this property one of course is the developers agreement which is normally approved subsequent to the site plan approval and the other one is the actual Redevelopment agreement because of the designation of this site as a Redevelopment Zone any uh questions or comments just uh I just want trying to understand a little better we we are approving today the the developer agreement developers AG the Redevelopment agreement and the developers agreement and maybe just for the Public's sake this has been obviously a highly publicized matter maybe you could explain what the what the developers agreement sort of entails what what is you know what is the project I mean the agreement speaks for itself I have no comment maybe Mr papis can explain what they're going to be doing the uh developers agreement again is a document that captures the that that is clear the developers agreement I don't want to make you go the law on this the redevelopers agreement um this is just basic stuff redevelopers agreement it codifies the terms of the redeveloper of the agreement between the township and redeveloper developers agreement codifies the planning board's um approvals that's the difference those two as to the specifics of the agreement in black and white for anyone to read I I don't want him to read it Mr carcini but um the senator of exons has been a topic certainly has received tremendous amount of uh public um input and opinion and it's been in the media I think in all fairness people listening I just asking him to so summarize what we are generally approving um so that the public is aware you know they're hearing the word Center of Excellence over and over again and frankly uh I'm just asking it to be sort of explained to the public en layment terms I will attempt to um I don't need a whole detail just just so the public understands what you know generally what we're doing here the the developers agreement again is a document that captures the governing B's um belief of what needs to be done to ensure compliance with the planning board approval planning board approval obviously is captured within a a resolution that that board adopts but uh there are instances where there are additional um Chris you could help me here additional um measures that the planning board does not have the authority to address and a developers agreement obviously being approved by the governing body uh has a uh degree of authority that the planning board does not uh and in many instances the uh public improvements that are impacted by uh the development again are beyond the scope of a land use board is that is that accurate Chris very good job stting what I already said okay and and the Redevelopment agreement I think is certainly uh well beyond that that um this governing body and planning board previously had uh issued uh various declarations had certain uh uh reports or studies conducted that identified certain uses that would be permitted in this geographically designated area and the um it's almost a specific Zone that's what I guess the state legislature had in mind when they established these uh processes that local governments could establish a Zone uh within a Zone in a sense and allow the governing body to enter to into an agreement with uh a property owner that or an individual or entity that that would be interested in developing it along the lines of what uses were permitted within that designated Redevelopment Zone that you know what I was just trying to get you know more to like um this is good basically going to do what we have discussed this is this this will permit uh the property owner to construct couple of warehouses correct no planning board approval the settlement agreement captured the what was permitted in the um on the property the settlement agreement the the the approval for the development of the warehouse Chris for for for the life science facilities in the industrial Flex space is granted based upon the resolution of land use board these are documents that simply protect us and Define the process that things will go through um based upon the information heard Mr President I make a motion to approve uh both items FNG together if I could take a second please second all right a roll call at 12 FNG together Council nalis yes councilman pedroso I I approve it councilman ring yes president Kush yes 12h with is a waiver of fire permit fees in the amount of $60 for the Somerville Elks Lodge Number 1068 located at 375 Union Avenue in Bridge order in connection with the Elks 2023 Christmas tree sale I think we we may have a a um recusal or two yes as a member of the Elks I'm recusing myself I'll move 12h I'll second seems pretty self-explanatory so I believe we can go to roll call vote councilman nales yes councilman pedroso yes councilman ring abstain president Kush yes uh 12i this is reimbursement of building construction permit fees pursuant to chapter 94 section 94-3 of the code of the township of Bridgewater in the amount of $746 for Cynthia Whit cell surviving spouse of David P Whit cell of SE of 271 York Old York Road excuse me Bridgewater New Jersey 08807 formerly known as block 102 lot 2.01 associated with the construction of a deck Mr papus brief uh brief commentary sorry did you want to say something yeah I well I'll let you okay um thank you um the title captures the essence of what is presented by the administration um Mr whitel is was a longtime volunteer emergency responder um I think prior to his death uh he and his wife were planning on a construction of a deck uh fortunately he passed away and Mrs whitall is had had moved forward had paid the fee that's mentioned in the resolution and um the ordinance there is an ordinance that exists that um indicates that emergency responders and spouse as I recall the language are permitted to apply for and the council could wave the fee uh he passed away and U this is presented by the administration to request the council to wave it under these circumstances for his widow by way Mr President uh I am supportive of reimbursing uh Mrs whel for's expense however it is my understanding that the specific wording of this document talks about waving Bridgewater it's only the Bridgewater Township fees for emergency for Volunteer Fire and N EMS and Dave whitel was a long-term member of the Bradley Gardens uh fire department he was ex-chief there uh a very active guy uh but I would like to see the codification of this specifically changed so that other surviving spouses can be aware of this as a benefit to them and take advantage of it because quite honestly until this issue came up I was not aware that surviving spiles had any opportunity uh and I assume they'd have to be living in the same house and there's probably a number of things that need to be said but uh in terms of transparency if there's a benefit available to Mrs whitel and it's available to every other surviving spouse who who has whose spouse has been a firefighter or an EMT I want to see the code changed and if if the administration agrees to update that code over the coming months I will gladly support this uh if the administration position is that the work wording is adequate right now I don't believe it is I believe there's an interpretation that allows it but I'd like to see the wording changed yeah I I spoke with Mr Corino based on Mr Corsini based upon on your U email and yes we would be very much in favor of that with that with that in mind I will move 12 by and it would be something to the effect of a surviving spouse in the same residence we didn't work out language yet something something to that effect okay any any commentary um Mr Council vice president ring I will uh just Echo councilman noralis position and um I share this just as an example nothing further um I know historically um different answers have been given within the township for survivors of longtime volunteers as it relates to fees so I think it would be absolutely critical to clarify this to avoid conflicting um um positions on this matter moving forward but um I agree and I do not want to see delaying this refund um I think just for the Public's benefit too um the ordinance allows uh there's two different pieces to this there's also another section allows Council to W certain fees by a vote um we're only waving the township fee the home homeowner is still responsible for paying the state DCA fees so I will uh second it okay um Council PSO any commentary I did not okay I just have one question about the title of this it states formerly known as block 102 lot 2.01 have we has that been redesignated or should that say no also known as okay so so if we could uh uh if I if we could take a motion a second uh with an amendment with an appropriate Amendment to the title uh that the uh it is block 102 lot 2.01 that's what's on the permit application I'm sorry that that is what's on the permit application attached so they are consistent so okay all right so do I have that amended Motion in second yes for a second and a roll call please councilman nales yes councilman pedroso yes councilman ring yes president Kush yes and we've already done letter J uh so our final item for tonight letter K uh New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund initiation of membership Mr papis so as the council knows uh we have a concluding this year a three-year arrangement with the Somerset County gif as as practice uh as we did three years ago our risk manager uh prepared a basically an RFP and marketed this among gifs uh in New Jersey about I think a handful of GIFs that are C candidates for considering service for municipalities such as Bridgewater she did so again over the last couple of months and U had I think five originally that she had reached out to two of them uh declined for various reasons and a third um then chose not to uh issue a quote although they considered it the two that remained were the Inc Somerset County Joint Insurance Fund and then the one that is proposed here by the administration New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund the uh council did receive um as soon as we received it uh the analysis uh it's referred to as the 2004 Property and Casualty marketing report by um Miss Amy Peron and um I would it's a you know over 60-page document but the the um talk about a couple of things that are critical you know from my perspective it's service it's cost and coverage uh and one other is the financial stability of the organization and uh Miss prony is uh extremely experienced risk manager we've been served by her quite well um certainly I've worked with her here for the last four years and she has presented this document and I'll draw attention to a couple Pages uh one of them is referred to as the 2024 premium summary and and that document has the uh costs of the 2003 GIF expenditure that the township has made which was 1, 263,000 for $134,200 more than last year or than 2023 for a premium of 1,397 332 the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund uh has presented a proposal for 1 1,274 th000 which is a 86% increase above what we are paying this year 10,8 $67 more for 2024 than what we're paying this year um so we were faced from a cost perspective almost an 11% increase to our costs versus just less than a 1% increase to our cost and again the third GIF Suburban Municipal GIF uh chose not to submit a quote um so those are the the the costs on the same page if you flip back before the the previous page it outlines she's outlined uh in I think sufficient detail the coverages and the comparison between the Somerset County GIF and the and New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund you can see those there's similarities and she and I have actually reviewed this uh over several telephone conferences uh she does believe that the uh the coverage amounts are more than sufficient from the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund uh one of the differences between the somerset GIF and the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund is in area of deductibles uh Somerset County GIF in some of these instances you can see there's no deductible uh New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund there's approximately in some instances a $5,000 deductible uh she said Somerset GIF is as far as she knows the only GIF in the state that has no deductible uh every other GIF has these deduct have these deductibles as part of their proposals and uh so it's It's Not Unusual I did go uh because I anticipated questions from you folks I had the question myself is if we had to pay those deductibles in 2023 based upon our claims uh what um what cost would there have been what would have been the outof pocket cost to Bridgewater for the claims that we had in 2023 it would have been $10,000 two $55,000 deductible payments that we would have made of course no one has a crystal ball no one knows what 2024 will bring but I want to at least have an idea at least a snapshot what the what the differences would be um so um she she feels there the financial stability of this shf is solid and um feels that um she um would feel confident that they could carry out the service for us yes I had a conversation with Amy today and basically she recapped exactly what uh the administrator has said uh she does not formulate a recommendation for either case she said either one would do a good job and it is really a she her job was to provide the analysis and the details so that we could make the informed POS decision and it sounds like that decision is an appropriate one in terms of moving to the New Jersey intergovernmental Insurance Fund so if there were no other things I I would uh move that as an action let me just see if there's any other discussion then we'll take the second and go to vote any any commentary your questions just a comment that I think you know one of the things when I was reviewing this that stood out at me is that um the the other uh governmental entities that are in the New Jersey GIF are you know with it Asbury Park Bon Cedar grov manal oing marst toown um Oldbridge Union I mean Warren County um Township of Wayne you know the these are not um small outfits these are are large outfits that are are participating in this GIF and I think add to the overall stability of it um and there's over 20 other government entities in the GIF so I would uh and and you know my rough calculation is it's just under a 10% difference in price between the two quotes uh I think $12 something, is significant um so absolutely would support the GIF and if Howard did you actually make a motion yes all right second it um and just we'll finish discussion any discussion uh councilman pedroo I do not okay I'll just point out there's there is one very very small town on here um Teterboro uh has a population of I think it's like 65 or some some number um but your point that there are uh similar um uh entities to ourselves on this list certainly uh uh is is an is an important piece of the uh the equation so we'll go to a roll call vote at 12K please councilman nalis yes counc pedo yes councilman ring yes president K yes uh confirming that there is no closed session uh so we have reached the end of our agenda we have reached the end of our work for the year so I will entertain a motion to adjourn it would be my honor to offer a an adjournment to this August body with a asking for God bless us one and all so said Tiny Tim thank you is there a second so moved all in favor of that motion I any opposed okay we are adjourned for this meeting and our work for 2023 is complete congratulations again Grace thank you so much thank you thank you guys I appreciate it