welcome to the township committee meeting of uh May 13th 2024 please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance if you can the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all okay we're going to move on to the open public meeting statement pursuant to the open public meetings act notice that this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trenton Times and home News Tribune on January 5th 20124 posted on the Township's website and sent to those requested a copy of this notice uh next is roll call Mr fante here Mrs kiram here Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and may here thank you um do we have any changes to our agenda today yes we'll be removing uh resolution 05- 24- 061 from the consent agenda d061 okay thank you we have a proclamation today and I do remember signing it but I didn't keep it with me is it back in your room do will will I be able to pull it from here oh you have it yes perfect I'm so sorry no no no that's okay thank you very much so I would like to read this proclamation in honor of uh Garden for wildlife month whereas Cranbury Township recognizes that Wildlife species are declining at an unprecedented rate globally there are over a million species endangered with Extinction and one-third of North American wildlife species are at increased risk of Extinction in the coming decades and whereas Cranbury Township recognizes that human health ultimately depends on well-functioning ecosystems and that biodiverse regions can better support food production healthy soil and air quality and can foster healthy connections between humans and Wildlife and whereas Cranberry Township celebrates local wildlife and wild Place such as places excuse me such as the cranberry Brook preserve the Reinhardt Forest Preserve pin oaks and the unami woods and whereas Cranberry Township is working to build a healthy sustainable and wildlife-friendly community that brings the many benefits of nature to all corners of our community and whereas Garden for wildlife month is a National initiative of the National Wildlife Federation that empowers Americans to support local Wildlife like birds and pollinators by planting native plants in their garden and throughout the community to help restore and connect habitat and whereas Cranbury Township supports and promotes Garden for wildlife month throughout the community and encourages residents to participate including certifying and maintaining their properties as certified wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation and whereas cranbery Township will continue to support local efforts that protect restore and conserve habitat and vital environmental resources as well as Foster a greater connection between residents and Wildlife and now therefore I emand and bedi by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of cranbery Township do hereby proclaim the month of May as Garden for wildlife month in cranbery Township and encourage all residents to plant native plants and participate in community activities that support and celebrate healthy sustainable Wildlife friendly communities well done thank you to the environmental commission for lifting this initiative and um for helping to produce the proclamation and um you know cranberry very much is a wildlife what should I say town and so this really works right in line with with our philosophy so thank you we have um our minutes from the April 22nd meeting do I have a motion to adopt I'm happy to move those second thank you move on to roll call Mr fante yes Mrs K obain Dr Rogers yes uh Mr Scott yes and may yes thank you thank you motion passes uh we are up to our reports and communication who would like to go first today I'm happy to lead with a brief report so I had I had three lays on or three different things I'll report on one was the planning board on May 2nd had an application from a company at the Cranberry Circle um it was a really interesting application there's a company at sort of the southeast Corner that's a brick building with sort of a concrete jungle surrounding it AB buding all the road on all sides and essentially their proposal is to take out some of the pavement plant trees and grass and uh um sort of create a buffer around their building um and so a nice proposal it's a local business that um they bought the building about a year ago and they're moving their headquarters to that and it was a nice proposal it was nice to see the planning board being very cooperative and and partnering with them to make sure that they were getting what they needed to do to make that make that possible for a small business so um that was uh the May 2nd planning board May 9th I attended the library board nothing to report there and then on May 11th I attended the court Eagle court of honor for four uh Troop 52 Eagle Scouts including cranber Tyler Sensei and Luca bonagura it's a very nice event and that's all I have to report on any questions for me thank you excellent seeing none um who else would like to go mat happy to go absolutely so on May 6 I attended the Board of Health meeting um and the the major news from there is that Laura zlow has has stepped down which uh I understand her reasons why but I I feel like she will be missed she's here tonight um and uh I encourage her to continue to participate in local government and local activities which I'm sure she will um there were a couple of issues that were discussed at the meeting one was the issue of the um uh the old community pool site on Old Trenton Road um and the question of what actually is being done there and that apparently there's um very large piles of dirt in the parking lot but I discussed with Miss Mar Bello um I guess the plan is for the for the new owner um who was B in nurseries is going to fill in the pool but they haven't actually gotten all the permits correct right that's still correct they're dealing with the D Freehold Soil Conservation our zoning officer construction official various entities um notices of violation that they have to obate okay uh thank you for that um and then there was some question about whether um the Eden facility ities um I know there's one is there two there's one that's functioning I know they're planning on building a second one across the street and whether those um kitchen facilities needed to be inspected routinely and I know you replied to me but the answer is essentially they don't have their own kitchen they're not State facilities so I believe that the residents cook their own food and they wouldn't be inspected then okay okay um and that's all one thing that came up in my mind from the Board of Health meeting now that Mr Flo has has stepped down um we would need to figure out who's going to be a vet for rabies clinics which I'm sure you're working on okay good I assume as much um and that's all I have only meeting I was able to attend thank you any questions from out thank you for report um on this side who would like to go next thank you like to apologize to the residents of cranberry I've been Miss and not hear the last two meetings but my professional life has been upside down and crazy so I apologize um I met Jeff Kagan the president of uh ncrr which is the new Chamber of Commerce uh that merged with CCOC um I feel after that meeting cranberry businesses will get a much broader reach and more exposure by joining that organization they have a lot more resources behind them they also went to and I went to it a working event on May 9th at the Cranberry Inn uh really good turnout and many from our neighboring towns specifically Millstone Jamesburg and and East Windsor so it was a nice nice event um I hope everyone has taken notice just an update for HPC of all the incredible new signage that's been placed throughout our The Village District a very special thanks to Jerry and his team at DPW for their diligent work to install and replace those signs and Resident response has been a very positive documentation on social media uh which I don't think those words have ever been put together but yeah it's been a nice response uh also Mr I think I'm pronouncing his his last name correctly Howell h u l e an incredible volunteer um created an interactive map that was posted on the HPC website um and it is all a um an interactive map of Cranberry historic resources uh he volunteered to do this it's amazing a new feature that's been added um to the map uh is a flood overlay uh that will identify which properties are threatened by flooding um if you're a new Resident to town you can also just click on your property or a potential property that you're looking at purchasing and you'll get significantly more detail than in the past now that it's on a digital platform and in addition there's other features that are being worked on to add historical context and significance of the property as well um so that's pretty cool um as far as uh chips um You probably covered this in the last T TC meeting so I won't go over it again but the tour of cranberry um Mark non Nast nestate from preservation New Jersey evidently is a man of very few words but he sent them our Direction and quote unquote cranberry is the best preserved town in Middle sex County so that was really a wonderful compliment to hear the museum I attended the uh presentation of cranberry proud path to preserv ation do not say that quick proud path to preservation on Sunday um May 5th Mark Bowski he gave an absolute incredible audio tour of the Decades long work um devoted to the preservation of historic land homes landmarks of cranberry uh the presentation was recorded I think they're working on editing it and then they'll get it up on the website and social media Outlets a reminder that museum is open on Sundays from 1: to 4: and then the water tower dedication is proceeding as planned the Eagle Scout project that's being worked on and then the 1713 Cottage they are looking for skilled and unskilled uh volunteers to Begin work on the interior of the house so they're looking at cleanup plaster work fireplace restoration I encourage them to maybe do like a signup genius and uh get it going pretty quickly um because they do not have central air in the 17 13 house and it is getting otter and otder so if you're going to get volunteers you want to make it you know good experience for them parsonage Barn there's going to be a summer concert that's going to be scheduled in July which will be Colonial music and some music uh education programming also a cranberry historic house tour is scheduled for September 28th from 11: to 3: p.m. and just as a reminder of the mission statement for chips it's committed to the history and future of cranberry we a society of volunteers who support and encourage the preservation of cranberry Township's land is historic buildings sites and landmarks through education stewardship Outreach research and restoration so having said that membership is up year over-year um but we every member has a challenge to try to get five more members so I would really encourage it's imperative that we support this organization so that they can continue their work zoning February March April and May meetings have all been canceled due to lack of applications to discuss and then uh for Park and wreck I need a liaison for New Jersey Revolution so in their next meeting whoever attends that if it could just have a volunteer um from that group and that is all I've got questions for Lisa So Lisa your leison will be Michael because he's um yeah I was just I did forget to mention that the first parks and wreck meeting um will be this Wednesday um at the reorganization so we'll we'll make sure that gets assigned thank you awesome um I have a question for you when you mentioned the flood overlay that's being worked on um as interesting as that is for a resident I think that would be also interesting for real estate agents um yeah I would imagine is that I mean also I think the whole thing would be interesting for real estate agents right to kind of know the property they're talking about and this could have been the old blacksmith's home like you don't know all that you're they're learning a lot about it but it's a lot more in depth and if you remember that survey that they did There's even like an architectural review of you know whether they were significant or contributing or not contributing or highly contributing to the historic district so all of that information now is if you just click on a property so it's pretty interesting very very clever and uh you mentioned the video for the path to preservation presentation you said it would be up but up where through the Historic Society or through the library yeah it'll be on um uh the uh Chip's website Chip's website yeah and as well as I think on social media they're going to okay put it up on whatever Avenues they can and they just sent out a newsletter which I also think is really why their membership is up year on year because it was just chalk full of great information so that's wonderful and it was a really long but terrific meeting that they just held wonderful thank you yeah do you know what flood data used I don't but um I can find out for you I'll ask Mr H I'm still going with that okay great just curious how updated is where he got it from thanks excellent uh Dr Rogers you ready yeah thank you I turned it off um Iman and I attended on May 8th um the middle six County trans first and um inaugural Transportation Symposium and you know ywn transport but not really because they started out with um with that everyone needs um everyone got here somehow and um everyone needs safe and reliable transportation so with that in mind um you know it it it really you know it it all this structure and all this um you know what they were talking about really hits home to every single person and so um uh they they had some U great initi and I'm going to let Iman speak more um more about that Symposium and then I'll pipe in you know with with other uh with other information um I'm um I won't be attending because I'll be away um the next environmental commission meeting which is Monday the 21st um the Girl Scouts will be planting um on May 21st uh 24th um with the help of Kathy um for their project for the Monarch Way Station in Cranbury Brook preserve um the mapping of inlets has begun um by high school students that are volunteering uh it's kind of getting the end of school year so it's kind of getting hard for these students to um gather but it's going to get done and we have plenty of time to get it done um flowers on Main Street they're going to be worked on by cranberry business associate ation um and the businesses will compete for the best baskets and um they will get a prize at cranber day um and uh that's uh pretty much it thank you any questions for um Dr Rogers all right very well that's awesome thank you so much I have I'm sorry a little bit of a lengthy report today um I wanted to first of all recognize may as being a very very busy month uh it was International firefighting day was May 4th and that's where we recognized Fallen firefighters uh s De Mayo was super fun super delicious everywhere I went we were remembering the Battle of qubla and it's also the day that we celebrate Mexican culture and Heritage May is also Asian-American Pacific Islander month as well as mental health awareness month and um Municipal Alliance has done a lot of work for that and it's National stroke awareness month I mean there's so much that goes on in May it's amazing um most importantly it's Mother's Day May 12th so happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there and all the all the people that take care of smaller people mothers are not mothers so um I wanted to recognize that we have a resident in town Dr Jessica wear who was recently awarded the 2024 Wings women of Discovery award for the United States of America it is an international distinction um Dr we is the chair of the division of invertebrate zoology and entomologist in the American Museum of Natural History so congratulations to her she's definitely a feather in our cap um I wanted to thank very very warmly uh from the bottom of my heart I wanted to thank Dr Laura zerlu who was here with us tonight for her time on the board of health and the mayor's Wellness campaign as well as her time as the township vet we will miss you and thank you for your services I did also wanted to thank um the DPW for great work on the street signs that you mentioned but also for uh the heavy work that they did at the cranberry recycling day dump day it was very busy at every moment that I went it was very busy um despite the rain so people were really happy to get rid of their junk um on the official note I have uh the municipal Alliance did not meet their next meeting is on the 21st of May and the planning board as Michael reported we had one um one application and it was a pretty interesting application and no ruling was made on that application they will be deferring that till I think the June meeting is that correct I I think they we gave them parameters to work with the professionals on so yeah so they they will be coming back um to us with that same application the traffic subcommittee met on May 1st and we discussed issues um traffic issues in our town we've submitted a few requests to the county and we're waiting for their responses and um these requests include you know the the Gateway signs that we talked about Barbara and um the traffic calming uh ideas that we have and the lighted crosswalk that uh we've been discussing as well so we're waiting on response for all of those we did as Dr Rogers mentioned as Barbara mentioned the we attended this traffic Symposium it was the inaugural traffic Symposium meeting and I think it was so well attended and it was so well received that they're going to be doing that um I hope fingers crossed that they do this every year their goal was to create Dialogue on critical Transportation topics and they held breakout rooms it was really cool on County transportation such as uh projects such as planning initiatives trans opportunities um it's very interesting they have made New Brunswick a living laboratory it's it's a data City so they mine the streets and the moving of traffic on in New Brunswick and they're using that um as their pilot study for the smart Mobility testing ground it's really really interesting um I had a library Foundation meeting and the mayor's Wellness meeting we uh we discussed uh two specific walks that we will be sponsoring and May 19th uh at 12:00 at the cran cranberry Brook preserve I've got the name correct there will be a walk with renowned entomologist Dr Jessica wear and she'll be speaking about insects on the trail um and then on Sunday June 23rd at 9:00 a.m. will be a walk um it'll be a handicap accessible walk on our beautiful new Walking path in Village Park and we will be looking at birds and plant species and Kathy Easton will be our expert there so that's my report any questions for me Julie D Simone was she was at this last meeting too for the mayor's wellness and she was there she talked to us about how every year we try to gather our information to make it to the next level of healthy town so that you know this year we were designated healthy Town up and coming we want to really move up if we can and so Julie Simone um from the quality Institute met with us to tell us how we could gather more information so it looks like cranberry is doing all that it needs to do to really be designated healthy town it's a matter of like Gathering it all so that's what we talked about by the way I just had had a quick update but I can please other question I just had two things from the library board I forgot to mention one was that the um the library had in April almost four people shy of 4,000 visitors over the course of the month which was the highest on record um ever which is amazing and if you look at the program in April they did everything from a 250 person Eclipse watching party to a Taylor Swift launch party um so I think they're they're really doing a great job and one of the goals I may have mentioned at a previous meeting one of the goals for the library board this year is to break through the 50% uh library card barrier or or goal for the for the town most towns have about a 20% of the residents have libr cards we're at 47% so we're going to get to 50 this year and have have one in every two residents having a library card so that's really cool and I think that the school has also done a good job with u with making that happen yeah thank you for that update also I just wanted to mention about the library they had some great streaming uh products uh canopies amazing some of their some of their streaming movies are amazing excellent wonderful if I get back to the just want to add one more thing on the transport um I attended the uh Vision zero um and they have this um High Injury Network um of middle sex County um map and that was pretty amazing um there's quite a a lot of issues on the road with high injuries but uh Vision zero is to get that number to zero and we are on the same quest to get that number to zero okay so any subcommittees for reports or Communications today nothing excellent any department heads no one okay perfect any followup items for today excellent so I am going to share with uh you all the um vacancies that we have on our boards and commissions for Board of Health we have a full membership expiring 12 3126 for the clock winding we have a full membership expiring 12 3124 for the HPC we have a second alternate expiring 12 3125 for the municipal Alliance we have a full membership expiring 12 3126 and we have had a lot of applications this week and last week so I expect that by the following meeting we will be making some of these appointments excellent so we come to our work session and we have a treat I believe we we have um a Boy Scout with us Michael will you introduce I'm happy to so yeah Mr Oma um can come and join us um up here and so uh Mr MAA is a life Scout in troop 52 in cranbery he is an eagle candidate and he is proposing a project for uh to build some bike racks around some Township property he has he we he has submitted the requisite um application he has also met with the now Parks parks department as well as the environmental commission and sort of he's here in his final stop on the tour um so welcome Omen thank you welcome um yeah thanks let me get this okay oh [Music] okay um so thank you all so much for just giving me an opportunity to present here so I'm I'm a sophomore at PHS and as Mr fron just said I'm working on the initial phases of my Eagle Scout project right now which is just to install some bike racks in the parks around Cranbury um my main reasoning for doing this is just because I feel like we really need to get more of this biking stuff around Cranbury I know that there's already been a pretty big effort to do that um like the township committee's been focusing on that cycling master plan I know we got a lot like really big turnout to Tyler's T Cranbury and all those bike Lanes have been popping up around town um I think just having convenient parking in these parks would probably make it a lot easier for people to get to the parks it would make our bike Lanes we've been spending so much time on just be more used um as Mr fronte already said the E and Parks submission were support of the idea um and I use their suggestions to make my option A I'll show you um but to actually get it done I would need the township sub Mission and support as the beneficiary so that I can install the racks both like through the BSA process and for the township process um I'll go over the options in a second let me just pass out some images real quick of the locations so uh just just confirming when you say what you need from the township you're not asking for financial resources it's literally just project approval is that correct yeah just the project approval no Financial Resources okay so just going through the options option A is the simpler one it would just be four bike racks around town um so there would be one in Heritage Park one in Village Park one in the west property and then like based on how much funding I get there would be one on the Reinhard preserve um and these would be basically just identical wooden bike racks um if seen the one that Luca made for his project of the library they'd be pretty similar to that um yeah and then option b that's a bit more complicated um so it would just be two bike racks the one at Heritage Park and one at Village Park or at the one at Heritage Park and one in the brook preserve um so Heritage Park is the same exact thing as for option A so just like a wooden bike rack placed on the ground and in the West Property it would be a bit more substantial anal so the actual bike rack would be the same as Heritage Park or all the other ones for plan for option a um but in like for this one that would have a roof alongside it um that would be to provide shelter to both any bikers or to um like their actual bikes um that'll be firmly anchored into the ground um and it would be pretty similar to what you can see pictured on the slides and then in terms of costs as I already said the township wouldn't have to bear any of the burden I would be fundraising it myself through a few car washes some donations from family and friends um and any excess funds I collect would go towards the township um I'm going to be doing this if this has approved of course if um I would be doing this from July to September of this year um and there wouldn't really be any maintenance that the township needs to do on it um only in case of like severe damage and in that case I will be the one doing the maintenance um so is there any like questions comments concerns from any of you any any questions on this side um my one feedback I I gave to Mr meta which was to give the additional option I wasn't sure how you guys would feel about a a roofed property there's sort of maybe some issues with stability or you know blowing away or things like that so I I was sort of advocating that maybe option A was got us more bike racks for the uh same amount of effort but um yeah and it looks like funding wise it would fund more bike rcks to not have the roof structure so that's a huge Advantage I I just I unfortunately have the experience at the planning board where every structure people they're asking them how is it going to be tied down how is it going to be secured how is it going to be hurricane proof wind proof it becomes a there's a lot of questions around it um and while I think you I'm sure you could build a top top-notch one it it feels to me it felt a little bit like overkill for bikes and I I'd rather see more bike racks that would be more durable and less maintenance prone to maintenance either clearing things off it or having to deal with wind or other and how do we feel on the side similar um I think we're just wrapping our heads around where these things are located that was number one um uh and I hear that you know about the roof I don't know how stable that is um you know like so you what be the roofing material um so I was thinking pretty similar to what you can see in kona's um like the um the sign that was just put at the West property so like a like a steel sheet roof basically that's been like um like pre-coded for the outdoors um that's basically it yeah and I'm I'm just curious is this West property or is this cranberry Brook preserve where does that start so I I don't know if this is either property of CR they well this is different one is the schools did you ask Parks if they were okay with the specific locations you were putting to yeah so Parks said they were okay with these locations um I checked it's not EC it's like it's definitely not the brook preserve because the EC said that it wasn't theirs but I'm not yeah I like the more bike racks ver the the commers and structure that you would have to put in there yeah I oh this is very ambitious I I like it um question the actual construction of these racks are they just pressure treated wood on the ground or is it concrete pad or um as I have it right now it would just be pressure treated wood on the ground yeah and the longevity of that wood is pretty significant yeah has pretty significant longevity like it's meant to be in the outdoors and this um these bike racks it doesn't look like they are bolted to the ground like they're mobile yeah so they're mobile I could of course Bol them to the ground later if we need um that's a thing I could add to the project but right now I'm not planning on it I I like that it's mobile I don't know how the rest of the TC feels but I like that it's mobile they are they are very significant heavy if you so the blowa away risk is very minimal on those so the one that's at the library is very heavy and not likely to yeah yeah so but I the Reinhardt preserve I'm not sure why you chose that location because it blocks entrance Into The Preserve I mean I think that might have to be moved yeah probably move that one definitely to the probably just the other side of The Preserve sign and I also want can commend you for this because the bike Network plan does call for more bike um uh bike racks within town to encourage biking so that's really terrific um yeah and I'll I'll we have a a meeting with middle six County about our bike Network and I'm going to let them know that they that we're working on more bike racks just one more technical question you would um seal these or paint them or um yeah I could paint them yeah um and I like that you used you showed microt transportation in there with the scooters it's called microt Transportation she just wants to let you know she went to a transportation symposium she's throwing out big words now yes Michael thoughts on option A versus option b it looks like it looks like option A has the general interest here and so thumbs up on option a uh oh well done there okay am I am I correct if I say that the Reinhardt preserve and the Pin Oaks Trail have never had a bike rack correct y that's wonderful yeah wait wait way to find a problem and solve it so yeah thank you I'm not sure about this yeah Mike and what we could do too is we can we can what we try to do with these approvals is we we try to give the blanket approval here and then if they're specific like we want the locations confirmed let's make that that like a contingency of it that who he should work with to get the exact location of these and if I could just lift one more thought uh because Mr Scott mentioned the idea of painting now we already have a bike rack by the library with a specific color paint are we going to uniform all of that it's like I think it's a very dark it's either a dark stain or a light brown it looks like a dark yeah dark stain and it's a it's a nice handsome color but is that is that something that we'd like to see in terms of uniformity yes I would say yes so om can we put that is that okay can we ask that of you yeah I can definitely do that yeah excellent any more questions for M um I I do have an issue with um uh maintenance you know you're going to graduate and go on um you know that's something that we we have uh you know to continue with I'm not sure you know yeah I mean I I think generally we don't put the burden Beyond maybe your high school years of this but eventually like the one in the library if it gets damaged it's going to be pulled apart it's going to be it's going to be trashed and you know or unless somebody wants to replace it but the nice part it's not metal it's not going to rust and be an ice or it will just need to be taken apart and and trashed when it hits its usable life so I think and then there can be a plan a future Township committee or future Parks can decide what to you know whether there's a follow on but we generally don't burden a scout with sort of more than a reasonable time window of sort of building something that's gonna last and be weather resistant but it's not a lifetime commitment to his uh to his project Denise had some thoughts also micophone was on I would also work with uh Jerry Thorne our Public Works director um just because he may be able to help you location wise with you know mowing and all that kind of stuff and where the ground will be better for it he's really good at that so when you're ready to do it reach out um to me or to him and then he'll meet with you out in the different locations okay excellent any more questions or thoughts for m i sounds like it sounds like to summarize it sounds like option a um it sounds like a a consistent look to the one in the in front of the library I think the design is already consistent which is great and it sounds like Consulting with Mr Thorne um on the exact location for the placement any other conditions we heard do you have any questions for us um not really no thank you this is great it's going to be a great addition it's one of those things where once it's there we're going to wonder how we survive without bike racks at these locations and it'll it'll definitely plant the seed that these are bikable locations too when do you plan on having these done by yeah so I was thinking July to September of this year I'll be working on it so it should be in by like September wonderful wonderful we'll have a photo op maybe at the end of that right right well well done thank you excellent we are at uh we are at our ordinances up for first reading no we have none we have ordinance for second reading um should I read a little intro to the ordinance let's start you you tell me so just do the title okay do you want to read the title no you read the title the first ordinance on for second reading is Cranberry Township ordinance number 04- 24-10 regulating the storage of salt and other granual deicing material pursuant to the township ms4 permit requirements so I should open this up to the public for a comment I'm just going to say too just for uh this did go to the planning board for a consistency check and it was found to be not inconsistent which is a positive thing indeed not inconsistent the double negative which is a positive indeed so I'd like to open this up for public comment would anybody from the public like to comment on this ordinance and this ordinance alone seeing none I'd like to close public comment for this um for this ordinance and do I open it up for our Township any comments from the township regulating the storage of salt and other deicing materials none okay I will close this part as well can we take a a a motion to I'm I'm happy to move 042 24-10 second thank you we'll move on to roll call for this ordinance Mr fronte yes Mrs Kum yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor bway yes that's unanimous thank you thank you and for our next second reading um if you will kindly read the title I'd like to just read a little blurb um before we yeah thank you sure so our second um ordinance on is um cranber Township ordinance number 04-24-18 entitled tree removal and replacement excellent so just for a little bit of context um uh this is an ordinance to establish requirements for tree removal and replacement in Cranbury with the exception of trees in conservation areas to reduce soil erosion and pollution runoff promote infiltration of rain water into the soil and protect the environment public health safety and Welfare it has been mandated by the state so all municipalities are drawing up new tree removal ordinances and the goal is to create responsible approach to the removal of trees in this state and it has direct impact on storm water management as you heard ear and so you know this is not supposed to um prevent residents from removing trees but it creates a plan as to how they should be done so I will open this up to the public for comment on this particular ordinance seeing no comment I will close the public uh portion of the public comment for this for this ordinance and any comments from the TC yeah I think we need to make it very clear that this is a different discussion than we had a month ago that we were debating whether or not we wanted it to be on the residents and so I understand that that was a lot of confusion at the state level it's not at the township level but it's the state level and I'll continue to express my opinion that this is an overreach into private property thank you for your comment any other comments from TC members um I just want to say that the ms4 permit stands for separate storm sewer system it's a collection of structures that gather storm water discharge into local waterways without treatment so trees are an integral part of the way that we can prevent uh you know erosion we are we are now at a trying to work on a resiliency of our towns throughout New Jersey this is a way for resiliency to occur with additional trees it's a way for people now to consider when trees are being cut down and hope and J tree has done an amazing amount of work on this ordinance to make it appropriate for our town there are towns that have a lot more um requirements um you know we're a small town and we have really looked into how we can do this in an appropriate way without it being uh owner to land owners um and I think it's really important that um we pass this and we pass it wholeheartedly um and yes it is a requirement of this new permitting but it is something that is way well overdue that people consider um trees as an important part of your property just like any like basement that's being built or anything else super important and I am so wholeheartedly for this ordinance excellent any other thoughts I was just going to say I I I totally remember the the confusion back and forth discussions M K mentioned I think a lot of lot of back and forth on the scope of this I I reflected on the discussion last time and thought about the you know personal property or not and I've actually talked to a lot of residents about this and I think once you get past the the initial shock of like wait a minute it's no longer just the RightWay it's now all the prop properties but I think put it putting in context the you know sort of we're all part of the canopy together and also there there's one resident in town where someone moved in and basically clear-cut their entire property with more than 25 trees um cut down and so I think this the way we've crafted it hits a nice Middle Ground of sort of setting the parameters setting some penalties but not having it be too owner if somebody unknowingly does something there it's not going to be too punitive so but so I and I think you know like the rest of New Jersey we're going to learn from this and I think this sets the this sets the stage for this continuing education about the importance of the canopy and if we find we've done something wrong on this um or the state as collectively we learn something we always have the opportunity to amend this but I think it's important to start the education now and to to move in this direction so thank you Matt any thoughts yeah I I think you know we we had this discussion I think we found a middle ground I mean you know we we could have been more punitive um and I think this is a good compromise and I I appreciate what Lisa is saying you know as a property owner I understand the Optics of having the town reach into personal property owner rights but I mean the canopy is shared by all of us and I think that um you know we we could have been much harsher and and we chose not to so I I think it's a good good ordinance wonderful and I just want to add that we have oversight for so many things on private property so this is uh another oversight and um I just also wanted to point out that um shade tree has a community forestry management plan and one of their objectives is to encourage the planting and proper care of trees on private properties so that's one of their mandates and I think this helps with their mandate well I think just reflecting back on 2021 when we had massive flooding in our town this is something we can say we've pointed to canopies directly Rel to how much how much um water can be retained on a property and so this is something we can support so thank you I just want to restate I like trees I just want to make sure nobody's leaving here thinking I don't like trees uh so I just want to emphasize that point but if you're going to make an ex an have an exemption to it you have to hire an arborist right so there's cost that now is going to go into a property owning saying that they're In Harm's Way or the tree is dying you still have to get a professional consultation they're not going to take your word for it as a resident so there's expense there and I do appreciate the fact that we did what we could at a Township level again that's not who I am I have an issue with it's at the state level that the DP was not organized in their approach they wasted hours of our time at a previous TC meeting having a discussion about something that we didn't think we needed to have a discussion about so I just want to clarify where my resistance is and agre I just want to like I'm sorry I just want to clarify that trees is not just the canopy it's the root structure that helps prevent the runoff and we are going to be getting a lot more nuisance flooding um you know with what's going on so the roots are super important for preventing erosion and um flooding and allowing infiltration I'd like to move for adoption of 042 24-1 can I second oh there you go very good awesome very nice thank you can move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs no Dr Roger yes Mr Scott yes mayor better yes that's for is Monday thank you and thank you for a healthy discussion that's what we should be having um we have one final ordinance up for second reading Cranberry Township ordinance number 04- 24-12 amending the code of the township of cranberry chapter 41 titled shade tree Commission I'd like to open this particular ordinance up to the public for comment any members of the public would like to comment on this ordinance and this ordinance alone seeing none I will close public comment members of the TC would anybody like to comment on this ordinance seeing none I will entertain a motion to accept so move I'll second thank you we'll move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor Benway yes unanimous thank you thank you I'd like to move items 12 a through C on the consent agenda second second by Lisa thank you we'll move on to roll call for consent items a through C Mr fronte yes Mrs can yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes mayway yes thank you thank you very much um I just I find it very interesting that today we had a very heavy sort of environmental flavor to our meeting and I think that's very it's very cranber so um thank you all for uh for getting us to this point we are now at public comment I would like to open the floor for public comment on anything that anybody would like to lift up you have three minutes as as a commenter and please when you come up sign your name on the form in front of you push the button so the red light turns on and we will be here to listen um good evening everyone I'm Dela georgees um I am the new environmental commission Committee Member that put forth the proclamation I just wanted to say thank you so much for your support and this initiative um I also wanted to show you a little bit of what um when you do get certified what the signage is going to look like so we're working on an outdoor classroom in the school that will have a sign like this um a sign like this will also be um at all the different preserves um and this is an example of what the um home signage can look like so very much in keeping with the historic charm and character of our town um we can proudly display signs like this um I also wanted to share with you all that this month there is 20% off of certification and on signage so really encouraging um all of you to take that step and certify your yards and begin to knit together um our community as a safe haven for our Wildlife so thank you very much thank you so much perfect thank you so much any other comments for tonight yes please oh and please you're welcome absolutely thank you for coming just GNA sor they no that's right go ahead you're just going to sign in first and then announce your name for us please thank you just my that's fine too yeah exactly that's right good evening thank you for taking the time to listen to me I'm here on behalf of the Community Affairs and Resource Center we're a nonprofit organization and I'm a part of the lead remediation and free lead removal program so we're trying to make more of a presence in Middle sex County and I I think many and most most don't know about these free programs that are out there so I have brought literature with me that I could pass along to all of you after you have any questions it's basically for homes that are built before 1978 which I know many are up in this area one to four family homes and as long as they fit within the guidelines which is on our website the median which I will also give out to everybody the the remediation and all the construction is done at no cost to the landlord the tenant or the homeowner your your name Patricia Walsh Patricia Walsh okay thank you so much um for that information excellent how does it work with with materials that are left um information that's left yeah after we review it you can put it out in the front for the public okay so thank you if you leave it then it'll be reviewed and then we can and we can leave it yeah actually if you leave it with Denise can I leave it all with you yes thank you so much for taking the time all right thank you [Music] absolutely any other public comments anybody else for public comment tonight excellent seeing none I will close public comment for this evening and thank you all for an amazing meeting I would like to entertain a oh action items I'm so sorry that's right any action items for tonight we will inaugurate a new committee on Wednesday W the new parks and wrecks commission going uh what gifts are you taking for them I I the t-shirts have been printed and ordered no I'm joking I'm joking we should have but Leslie nope may be a uh surprise guest so oh and I will get the flooding overlay to Barbara wonderful anything else okay seeing uh no more no more action items I'd like to entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second second all in favor I thank you all