we got we officially in session are we being recorded hi Alex you ready for us thank you next meeting yeah next meeting ready um Alex you ready yeah I'm ready just one second May when I get the notice on YouTube now we think we have good sound we checked everything we did a test our Tech came in tested everything reconfigured everything we should have no issue just waiting on the YouTube notification we can all speak in booming voices yes clear and concise it should be better sound tonight okay it's live on on YouTube there okay um Alex you ready yeah recording in progress okay welcome to the March 12th 2024 meeting of the chadam township committee uh can I ask everybody to rise for the pledge IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we are returning from executive session so we are going to jump right into the hearing of citizens Mr ly would you mind reading the guidance members of the public are now welcome to come up to the microphone to address the township committee this is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are not scheduled for public hearings tonight those present May step up to the microphone to be heard if you are watching via Zoom you may speak during any of the public comment sessions by following the zoom instructions to raise your hand whether in in person or online when you are recognized to speak please mind the following procedures please say your name spell your last name and give the name of your street you do not need need to give your street number all public comments will be limited to 3 minutes rather than use any of your time answering questions the township committee will wait until you finish speaking before responding there are two public comment sessions on tonight's agenda each member of the public will be limited to one comment of up to 3 minutes during each public comment period written comments submitted to the Township Clerk before 3 p.m. today will be read during the public comment sessions written comments um are subject to the same guidelines as Ro comments duplicative written comments may be summarized rather than read in full according to guidelines is ised by the New Jersey Division of local government services and we did not receive any written comments today thank you do we have anybody on line who has their hand raised we do not have any hands raised okay any questions from the audience okay so I think you miss someone in the back I will close the uh hearing of citizens um okay so we have a packed schedule just want did you want to start with the budget by chance I was actually going to ask you it's your your preference may I can start with the budget we do um I figured everybody else will be wanting to hear that first um all right so I put the presentation up on the big screen as well and um just there we go all right so uh this is the presentation on the 2024 Municipal operating budget um the theme for this budget is called securing the future uh I'll talk a little bit about about that uh later on the finance committee this year is made up of the Deputy Mayor Michael Choy uh committee woman Jen Roland and myself and the administrator and our CFO Debbie king um the finance committee had two new members to the municipal budget process that's the deputy mayor and the committee woman but you wouldn't know it from uh sitting in meetings with them because they both had a lot of insightful questions and some very valuable input to the process and so I want to thank you both for that and the support that you gave Debbie and I uh and and crafting this budget for you uh CFO Debbie King she's a Township employee of almost 25 years she's got incredible knowledge over 25 trying to yeah I don't want to stress that b over 25 years uh she's got a lot of great knowledge on uh the not only the budget but the town's finances and and the history here um and especially our operations and and you know helped me as well and the finance committee in forming some of the decision making uh that LE into this and I also would be if I didn't recognize our finance clerk at Davenport um who helped us out he's not here this evening uh but he this was his first year sitting through the budget process with us he started uh working for the township 2023 was his first full year uh and so this year I wanted to get him part of the transition and and building the bench for the future so he sat through the budget process he's an incredible resource to us uh and also gave a lot of assistance to Debbie and myself and not only updating and reviewing the budget materials but also helping me with this budget presentation um the budget process uh looks a little bit like this it's not too different from last year uh other than last year I called it uh the budget of transition and transformation and that was because it was my first budget in chadam Township and it was a lot of new uh processes and a lot of new templates and a lot of Education both for myself and the department heads into how that process would work this budget uh started lot earlier as I promised last year it would and and this year preparing for 2025 it would start even earlier than it did uh this year but we're we're getting closer to what I think is an ideal Pro timeline so started in November to December with the budget process beginning with a prior year review and also having the department heads submit their requests uh they also reviewed their expenditures and for the previous year to help inform them for 2024 uh January and February of the beginning of this year that's when the finance department closed the books and we held department head meetings to go over all of their requests on the operating side February 2024 uh was also the start of our finance committee meetings after the department heads uh gave us you know their their requests Debbie and I solidified those after our meetings with them made any reductions and adjustments we presented that to the finance committee and then we had uh some more meetings in March with the finance committee and the first 12 days of this month was review final adjustments and quality control of the budget tonight is the initial budget presentation March 26th we are hoping uh with the approval of the governing body tonight to do an introduction resolution for the budget and do another presentation uh that would essentially be a repeat of this maybe abbreviated uh we we're looking to do uh April 9th further public review uh opportunity for the public to review the documents scrutinize that send in their their requests questions and get those answered and then April 23rd will be the required public hearing and then adoption of the budget uh 2023 as I said that was the theme of the budget was transition transformation there's still some transition transformation going on this year and that happened this year uh but we're finalizing that this year I I call it uh budget to secure the future uh and why do I why do I say that so I'll cover four things personnel um in this budget and for the rest of the year what we're looking to do is round out the municipal Workforce anywhere there's vacancies that needed to be filled that are critical but we are not adding any new staff in this budget uh our Construction office will be fully staffed um by the end of the year hopefully even sooner than that uh but what we're looking at there is a team that's all less than a year old for the township all very bright individuals with experience and um running things a lot more smoothly than they've ever been before we've got new pool manager starting this year a new administrative assistant in an Administration and we've also had a few retirements and resignations both in the DPW and the police department that we're hoping to fill those vac vacancies uh as well and the budget accounts for all those those changes uh so it's a continuation of that fresh blood ideas and perspectives which gives us an opportunity for new efficiencies and improvements here in the township some of the operational changes I want to go over is uh a reduction in the footprint of our municipal offices uh that's part of an effort to consolidate so that way uh in the future when we look at a municipal facilities realignment project uh we have a better handle on the space that we need and what we can work with uh it's also helping to improve the workflow and organization of the offices it's especially apparent I think in the administration and finance offices and also the construction offices we've made a switch to an entirely cloud-based Voiceover IP phone system which has proven to be more cost effective than what we had it's less equipment for maintenance and upgrades less equipment for failures which we saw a lot of in in the last two years uh so it's much more reliable it's accessible remotely so employees can work uh whether you know they're at home due to emergencies weather conditions or um if they're out on the road you know we have some employees that are out in the field and this gives them the opportunity to you know stay in touch we've switched our it vendors uh at the beginning of this year gives us a more agile and responsive team to any of our issues but it's also coming at a further cost reduction because we've got a flat rate pricing whereas before we had hourly billing and uh the team was not as as uh efficient as they could have been we're also reducing we've reduced and are continuing to Red reduce our digital Hardware footprint and upgrading connectivity uh that's going to make our our staff our building our operations more resilient and it's also cutting cost through the elimination of some Legacy services and upgrades to our internet connections and our Computing uh We've also moved our file storage and continue to do that move our our file storage to the Microsoft cloud which is also helping again all part of this theme of securing the future and and looking to being municipal government of the 21st century some Financial notables I want to touch on uh our fund balance and our Surplus uh through this budget it's going to be the healthiest it's been in six years of the history that I've reviewed it's more than double the 2018 levels and it's in line with best practices as well as recommendations by Municipal Auditors financial advisors and it also meets the Township's policy of being between 10 to 15% of total expenditures uh negotiations with various Banks uh this this past few months are going to secure us interest rates at 4% or better for our accounts as well as short-term CD options at 5% or better this is going to help our revenue for 2024 and Beyond uh unfortunately though there's some Nega negatives uh we have some shared uh our shared Municipal core expenses went up almost 45% this year due to one municipality pulling out of uh the shared agreement our pension costs are seeing an almost $100,000 increase this year our liability medical insurance both went up about 15% this year and the revenue on our construction permits is dropping significantly uh there was a boom during the pandemic uh here in chadam of of building of rehab Renovations uh and 2023 Revenue was 61% of the 2022 levels so what we anticipated this year was about $150,000 Less in Revenue than last year so that's something that needs to be made up uh through the tax base and then finally on Capital planning I just want some highlights there as well uh the Appropriations for a capital Improvement fund this year are going to be set at 900,000 that's higher than it's been in a while um Debbie any off the top of your head you know highest it's been in what probably five years or more I think right uh which is good that's higher than it's been for a while but that's an investment into the future that minimizes the need for more borrowing uh the 2024 capital is largely focused on Public Safety uh we have to place orders for two uh firefighting apparatuses for our volunteer fire departments towards the end of the year and those are both coming in at a cost a total cost of about $3 million we've got about $400,000 for vehicle and equipment for public works and in police and another half a million dollars in Road uh Road improvements uh we'll go into the capital details uh next month so where do your taxes go uh a lot of people have heard about this have seen this but it's still worth repeating what we're talking about here what this governing body what the mayor and Township committee uh vote on what Debbie and I work on putting a budget together is for 16.64% of your tax tax bill that means for every dollar that you pay in taxes less than 17 cents of that dollar is used to fund Township services but why you see the township of chadam on your tax bills because by law we're obligated to collect the other 83 cents uh for the county the schools and the library so the only thing that's within our control is that 16.64 for the municipal and that 1% for the uh open space tax too far um and so you know quick overview on Municipal budgeting what we look at are two columns our Appropriations and our revenues Appropriations those are all the expenses that we anticipate that's made up of our salaries and wages for the Personnel what's known as quote other expenses that's the categorization you know for the state that's your supplies your electricity things like uh you know paper um you know leases contracts uh contractual obligations what I refer to that is actually negotiating bargaining unit contractual obligations uh contractual obligations like our uh recycling collection contractual obligations like our um uh shared shared services that all falls under contractual obligations those are pre-negotiated usually negotiated three or five years out and so there's really not that much discretion in any given year on those uh are utilities electricity gas fuel for the vehicles uh you know the the heating bills the water bills uh all that irrigation for Fields things like that and then finally Debt Service uh and then we make we we attempt our best to pay for all of those Appropriations with the following which are fees and fines whether that's coming through the court or whether it's fees for permits uh licenses those might be you know marriage licenses food licenses uh interest on money that we have in our accounts state aid that we're getting uh this year we're getting uh very nominal increase to our state aid I think what was it Debbie $7,000 $4,000 $4,000 increase in state aid uh so that doesn't do much to help us uh grants and we pursue every possible Grant opportunity that we can uh what close observers of the budget and budget documents will see is that grants actually show up on both your Appropriations and your revenues um but that's one way of getting things done without paying for it through taxes and some other miscellaneous revenues that come in you know whether it's uh lease you know leases things that we're getting paid for um small Revenue but that revenue does not add up to all of the Appropriations and that's where it's made up the balance is made up for uh with taxes so this is okay so this is an over why does it keep doing that okay um this is the budget overview it's a little snapshot of the budget uh this year the the headline uh is that the tax rate is virtually flat um as you'll see down at the bottom uh these are rounded because go could go out for many many decimals but it's about 32 uh which is the same as last year and the year before that uh there you'll see what I was talking about is our Appropriations that's 9.4 uh million dollar in Appropriations for municipal purposes that's to fund all the things I'll talk about and all the things that were on the slide before our anticipated revenue is about 6.8 uh that's the again the other column that I was talking about on the slide before so the balance that's left for us to have to raise by taxation is the $1.2 million and you distribute that over your net valuation taxable which is what is commonly referred to as quote your tax base uh what the value of all the properties in the town are worth and that's how you come up with uh the tax rate so um we're still managing to do all those things despite all the challenges uh but because we also have a healthy tax base and uh you know we're doing well uh in terms of how we're budgeting and how we've been spending even after we budget to make sure that our fund balance is replenished uh we're able to keep that Municipal tax rate at32 so what are you getting for all of that uh this is what you pay for with just about 17 cents of every dollar that you pay in taxes uh as you'll see there's a very extensive list uh I went over this last year um but I do think it's important to mention and to demonstrate that we are operating in a very lean manner very efficient manner to be able to do all of that with just 17 cents for every dollar uh everything from Storm cleanup and snow removal to the outstanding police protection uh the great job our DPW does all the way to subsidizing our uh fire departments the two volunteer fire departments our first aid Squad our senior center and uh also uh to the library as well so we are doing quite a bit with your dollar these are the movers and shakers as I like to call them the top seven movers and shakers because these are the largest uh you know single chunks of the budget uh and you have an option here to compare them to 2023 and see what that total difference is uh but right there you'll see a difference in $282,000 that's an increase in just these seven items uh you know again pensions of Social Security that's the Big Driver uh Insurance uh that also went up quite a bit and the debt payments is the other large amount uh paying principal and interest on past debt fortunately we locked out this year with the decrease in our utility costs um as things stabilize in the the global economy and the the commodity sector and uh you see that impact very clearly here uh we also last year in anticipation of this year also did a reverse energy auction um for our electricity bills for a portion of what we pay for our Municipal properties so that helped also with a reduction so right there you'll see that that subtotal is uh 13.4 million and when you're looking at our total Appropriations I mentioned before is about 19.5 right that's that's only leaving about 6 million in discretionary spending uh I would say sort of discretionary in the sense that uh things that we can try to move the needle on on a year-to-year basis I talked before about the Surplus uh that's what we say is a fund balance but commonly referred to as a surplus by the public uh you'll see in the 2024 column that uh we are using about 3.5 million from the fund balance this year that is consistent with where it's been uh in the last few years however because of a a good prior two years uh our fund balance has grown and because of our uh discipline in terms of not using more than we should and you know ating correctly and also estimating our revenues correctly we're seeing an increase to our fund balance uh this year and so that will give us a balance at the end of the year of 2.3 million uh down at the bottom you'll see a calculation the 10% and 15% that's the Township's adopted uh fund balance policy on where that balance should be but it's also in keeping with as I mentioned before best practices and and recommendations from financial advisors so we are right there in the middle of that 10 to 15% of our total expenditures so this is a good place to be and we want to stay there for the future here we go just recapping again the budget uh if anybody wants to see that one more time but the Highlight here is uh again uh pretty much a tax rate um I apologize this should not say tax reduction we should just say tax rate um uh maintaining the services uh of the township no service Cuts improved fund balance and continued Capital Improvements and then finally the sewer utility uh This falls out of the Township's operating budget because the sewer utility is just that it's a uh a finance term calling it a utility meaning that it's self-liquidating its Appropriations and its revenues have to it revenues have to come the Appropriations this does not hit the taxpayers in their tax bill uh we're seeing a nearly $2,000 increase over last year's expenditures uh I'm sorry Appropriations so uh we did a really thorough analysis again of the real costs uh the challenge has been uh costs of chemicals are increasing you know people might see that at home with their pool but that affects us too whether it's chlorine and and other materials that the sewer utility needs in order to process the waste that comes through the plant and to treat it and and make sure that it's compliant with DP regulations uh for the benefit of the public that's manned and staffed by six dedicated full-time employees uh but the administrative staff is shared by the rest of the municipality uh Debt Service for the for the utilities at about 588,000 and the revenue to pay for all this comes from what's known as our rents that's the uh sewer Utility payments that the public makes and uh that's that's it for the 2024 Municipal budget and uh in an overview any questions wonderful thank you I want to you know thank our CFO and our administrator and and the team for and our our uh finance committee our incoming finance committee for all your work on this this is um there's a lot of pressure coming up on the budget and there's been a lot of pressure on the budget and uh you know you guys really worked hard to to keep things it's we're just in a great situation between you couldn't ask for a better situation flat tax Surplus is improving uh and we're maintaining our services so um I think we're in pretty good shape major Capital Investments and and major Capital Investments and not you know keeping the debt yes yeah the debt down but um I'm not sure how long that's going to last given the two fire trucks and everything else that's got to get done um any questions comments wonderful so you need a resolution so we'll do a resolution at the next meeting if this is if the budget as I talked about it and we'll send out the budget documents uh Debbie's finalizing those with our Auditors we'll send those out to the full committee for your review but as soon as possible de when do you think we could get that to the governing body um hopefully sometime next week okay so it gives you some time before the May I'm sorry the the end of March the March 20 6th meeting uh we introduce then then we introduce okay for some reason I thought you said that you want to introduce toight no no no I'm sorry this was the uh presentation but there would be an introduction resolution at the next meeting wonderful um do we want to finish out the topic of Finance while we're on it yeah okay D was there anything else you wanted to add on this okay thank you again for all your hard work on that thank you uh so on finance uh we talked about the resolution for budget introduction uh that would be that's done by resolution but treated as an ordinance uh we have the cap Bank ordinance that we are looking to introduce um we are not using anything from our cap Bank this year uh which is great but this budget does help us towards building that c bank back up uh it had been uh depleted once and uh I think this was in 2022 right it was depleted in 2022 uh was not replenished in 2022 2023 the governing body finally gave us uh the authority to build that back up we want to continue that this year with building up that cap bank but we're not anticipating and planning to use it any questions on that okay and then um we do have a resolution for temporary budget Appropriations because the budget will not be adopted until the end of April uh the initial temporary budget would need to be extended to cover us uh through the end of the uh month month of April April and that way uh we're good there and then once the budget's adopted in April that will then override and we should be fine uh there's more routine resolution canceling over payment of some sewer assessments any questions there and then finally a resolution to certify loap eligibility so we did have a number of uh volunteers for those that don't know losap is the length of service award program it's a way to thank the volunteers essentially like a mini retirement type of an account we contribute on their behalf if they meet certain criteria so it's a reward for the volunteers for all their hard work and it's a small investment that we make but we have to certify their eligibility based on reports that the uh that the Departments is our volunteer fire departments and our first AE Squad so uh Debbie include a list of those that she got from the Departments with the uh agenda update this morning you got the sample resolution for 2023 so we would update that for 2024 and that's a standard resolution we do every year to update any questions on those all right um Debbie also submitted a report it's a largely budget status report though on a temporary budget so uh keep in mind that it's not as meaningful until we adopt the budget but it does give you an idea of what spending is like this this uh so far up till this month uh if you have any questions Debbie can answer those I do have a quick question the energy tax receipts because I've been asking people about this the so for this for 2024 it was up 4,000 last year plus another um it was went up last year um I don't know the exact figure from last year but it went up another 4,000 this year so the last two years we had very small increases I I thought I heard it doubled at the state level I'm wondering where our money is um yeah I'll have to find out more about that okay thank you I think I'm good thank you de you're going back to the office now right yeah thank you life an account thank you okay do you want to move on to Administration sure take it from the top down all right um so we are um first one bidding for public transportation uh that one is something we discussed at the last meeting uh with respect to providing public transportation for residents of the future affordable housing development over at 522 Southern Boulevard uh as part of the settlement the Developers agreement our obligations under the tax credit applications we have to ensure access to public transportation for residents there so um tienna is preparing the bid specifications for that I'm also looking at one other option uh as an alternative if that doesn't pan out then the next meeting would be meting a resolution from the governing body to authorize uh the public bidding any questions there uh we also have uh earmarked an ordinance for land sale uh that is for River Road uh where there's been some negotiations uh ongoing we've discussed that in an executive session um but we're here marking that for the next meeting uh if all goes well with the other parties in the negotiation there any questions okay and then a resolution reaffirming our anti-idling policies is requested by the environmental commission um they are a group of outstanding volunteers that is working to recertification for uh sustainable Jersey uh so you know they've been going through a lot of actions and efforts that uh get us points in order for us to meet different levels of certification this is just one of those along with the next item which is our n natural resources inventory uh that also requires a resolution uh setting the process by which we update the N natural resources inventory so uh those two items uh we're hoping to have those on for the agenda for the next meeting if there are no objections um you can refresh my memory I the the NRI is part of the master plan it is okay uh Greg John and I did some digging and we did find it and uh Greg's updated the website and so it's listed under the master plan but there have been minutes historical minutes and and evidence that the NRI was uh incorporated into the master plan by the planning board so check there uh and we are working on uh you know helping the environmental commission with getting a database for uh from the state which would help also uh but they're still you know whether they are able what I'm hearing is they're not going to necessarily be able to incorporate the NRI for this certification round but there are still actions that we need to take anyways uh to update and you know best practices with respect to an NRI so I think we still want to pursue those even if they can't get the points for this year does the planning board need to be involved in the update um so first what would need to happen is we would set this uh the the resolution would set the process by which the NRI is updated uh essentially setting funds for the environmental commission maybe it's hiring another contractor then the NRI gets updated they would present that to the planning board then the planning board would uh review that and you know do an update you know vote to actually update the master plan to incorporate those changes under the NRI okay if I understand correctly which may may not be the case um the NRI last was updated in 2014 and it needs to be a 10-year update is that correct and then as it as it has an implication for the planning board um the planning board is uh is 17 to 27 as I understand is that correct for the master plan for the master about and so this then becomes part of not the big part but a part of the master plan so it would be helpful to the planning board to have this accomplished yes great so in 2014 was when it was adopted as a part of the master plan yes and um if anyone at home is looking for it on the website the main posting of the NR is on the environmental commission page but in the the master plan section I um created a link there so that way people can see the uh the meat and potatoes of it and there's also a link to the um environmental commission page so that way people can see the the full NRI great thank you any questions under admin I think we're good okay um no legislation for the clerk but he did provide his report any questions for him there okay um construction uh the one resolution that's confirm the appointment of a building inspector the that building inspector actually should be starting I think later this week or early next week um but that will help uh our construction official with uh being able to focus a little bit more on plan reviews and have an inspector out in the field uh you know reviewing the actual work for the public he submitted his report as well any questions on that okay uh engineering uh we've got uh two items under legislation and authorization to bid that's for the water pollution control transfer switch and vfd replacement project can remember we we studied that one variable frequency drives not my my makeup you hear vfd once and now it shows up every single time uh so that is an authorization to bid uh that's some electrical work uh for the WPC it'll improve some reliability there as well uh I think it's pretty critical so and we've got the funds for that any questions or concerns on that okay and then uh Pine Street that project uh from 2023 that was a repaving project there were some issues there uh drainage issues and so the uh contractor and John Rush engineer have been going back and forth to resolve those and so there's a change order here uh to accomplish and finally close out that project and that was an extension of a main yeah so there were some issues with uh with access on a property and connecting uh to a catch Bas a catch Basin exactly so John looked at a couple different options he wanted to explore both make sure that you know whichever option he's choosing won't impact anything down Downstream but also you know we had a pro private property owner that was giving us a little bit of hard time uh with access onto his property which not required but uh so that's why it took a little bit long and why it's been sitting out there but it's been all resolved now and we just need that change order for the contractor to finish and that's covered by the grant correct uh John also provided a report any questions on that okay I think one thing I want to highl Nash no actually his no his notes were on the transfer transfer switch I just wanted to make sure that you all saw that there um which we talked about that was that authorization did that was in his report if anybody had questions all right uh moving on finance we talked about that police uh resolution for the purchase of two vehicles uh that one we had put in the request to the manufacturer last year for those uh it takes time by the time you request them from the from the manufacturer till they get delivery and so we need a resolution to actually purchase those Vehicles it would be under a state contract uh so we're getting the getting some good pricing there uh don't need to go through the procurement process the bidding process but does require governing body action uh we are also recommending an ordinance to repeal one of our ordinances I was doing some research on I forget what it was I think something Rel to OEM and I noticed in there that we had an ordinance on emergency dispatch with Harding uh something that hasn't been done in a while we got out of that business a while ago but the ordinance on the books wasn't repealed so just as a cleanup I think we should take that out uh and throughout the year you'll probably hear a few more of those Greg and I have talked about you know doing a review of the codified ordinances to see what we can clean up because there is quite a bit of stuff that's been outdated in there um and then finally another ordinance to amend section uh chapter 7 section 30 of our midblock crosswalks ordinance uh there were some documents included with your agenda packet on that uh any discussion on those or is that okay for TI to work with John and and the chief on amending I did have questions apologize for not sending those in advance I will try my best to answer them yeah yeah and it's fine I could always follow up afterwards um so I it was very confusing okay information in terms of what is being are they netet looking to is this just a documentation thing like there was one piece that looked like they were actually going to remove some crossw right so it's hard for the police department to enforce and write summonses for violations of our ordinances when they don't actually have the ordinance because it gets to court they like well it's not listed here as a midblock crosswalk so if a driver failed to to yield to a pedestrian for example or something happened there it's technically not a crosswalk in our ordinances so that it came about because the chief hadn't noticed and over the years uh prior to my arrival there were a lot of crosswalks that were just added mid block um you know they were like oh we want to make this safe for kids and they just tell DPW go ahead and paint it there but it never actually was effectuated by an engineering study or even an amendment of our ordinances so that's kind of how this came about so the chief and Rich um sent that list of what we currently are aware of to John John reviewed that list reviewed all a couple others um and so the chief is recommending a number of cross mid block crosswalks be added because they're not in our ordinances and then John as part of his review noticed that are some crosswalks in our ordinances where there is not actually a midblock crosswalk or it's incorrectly classified as a midblock crosswalk where it should not be so that's where the cleanup is is going to be able be adding crosswalks that should be added and then removing some that uh don't exist so just I'm clear when we're removing it's a paper removal there's no actual crosswalk correct that was the confusing great I'm good thank you all good on that one okay uh Public Works we've got two retirements um one retirement from WPC and the other one from uh Public Works uh two outstanding employees who have been doing a great job for us uh but for them it's time to move on and so they put in their notice of retirement um I think at the next meeting uh or the meeting after that mayor you know if it's okay we'll have here and recognize them publicly upon their retirement uh through their many years of service to the township okay great we also have two resolutions uh for the purchase of chemicals for the water pollution control for for sewer treatment plans uh those are chemicals that uh have because the cost has gone up uh the overall the aggregate price has increased beyond the threshold of what is permitted uh for Debbie and myself to approve administratively they require resolution by the governing body to approve that uh increased uh pricing they're going to be purchased under co-ops so it just needs resolutions from the goverment body to authorize that purchase okay and uh Rich sented his report any questions there uh I do want to recognize uh Rich also for his efforts to secure a grant uh it's a reimbursement Grant from the state uh I I think Greg got an EMA about it from the state forward along to me reviewed it with Rich and Rich promptly put in for it and what that is it's a grant for lantern fly treatment reimbursement uh it's been an issue that the state's been trying to get a handle on for quite a bit but uh they're you know through this program they're allowing municipalities to aggressively pursue Lantern fly treatment and then get a reimbursement uh I forget how much want maybe 20,000 do you know Greg it's a good it's a good amount of money yeah so uh kudos to Rich for for doing a good job of that application and getting us some some money what what is a lantern fly treatment Lantern flies without killing everything what's that without killing everything so there there is some treatment like chemical treatment that they recommend that the state recommends but there are also some tree species that are more susceptible and so they recommend removal of oh okay so it's continuing removal of those trees so it's a combination of either certain chemical treatment and or uh Tre removal yeah no that I understand okay got you um and then Recreation uh Recreation tax collector tax assessor three reports no legislative action any questions on either of those uh tax assessor yes um the uh County mandated Revel would you report money in this year's budget or so that one is going to well let me just say one thing real quick we uh that presentation we publishing on the website if it's not today tomorrow will be published presentation of the timeline uh the money for this year would be just for the tax map updates uh so we did put some money in the budget for that this year uh I've been working with John and another firm in our tax assessor to get a better handle on that because uh the county used to do them apparently the the buau uh years ago started this through the county the county was doing tax map updates and helping the towns with that uh they no longer do it because it turned out the cost was a lot higher than they were expecting and they were taking a big loss so uh the initial estimate that I got was $250,000 when we were originally thinking somewhere along the lines of 50,000 uh for updating the tax for updating the tax map because they have to be updated to certain standards because they have to get State approval uh it's not just a simple you know because we could do tax map updates but whether they go for State approval they have to meet a different standard um but the initial proposal also included a lot more Tech GIS mapping and uh making sure that everything was fully digital not just a digital version of a analog document this is actually all digital that would be the $250,000 version um I went back to John and asked if he could get us a proposal for what would be sort of the bare minimum and that's where now we're looking at 75,000 so I I put in the budget about 50,000 for it uh but the at some point we've got to discuss and a special emergency appropriation uh because we're going to need to have money set aside for the bidding for the full Services of the reval and so then the question goes do we want to just lump all of them together or uh break that up and pay some of it out of operating and then do the rest as a special emergency appropriation so um we've got some money now but that's something that we can continue that conversation later on okay that's it for reports is that everything wonderful thank you yeah give you a little break now yeah um I am going to open our second hearing of citizens and the same rules apply anyone online we do not have any hands raised thank you any questions I gotta go okay then we will close the hearing of citizens um we do not need we don't need Executive session covered everything okay so I will look for a motion to adjourn so moved thank you all in favor mayor mayor did you want to go over the Oprah Bill I know you had asked legislation oh I did Chang apologies can we reopen I think we just voted I mean we could uh or we can talk about next next meeting yeah Tiana could send an update even by email yeah I could do that okay want we do that okay sorry I forgot about that thank you I forgot change wonderful thank you we are we are done