thank you what are we though 27th 27th said okay all right so I'm going to call the meeting to order January 27th 2024 let's um stand for the Pledge of Allegiance if we're able to thank you the United States of America and to the stands na indivisible andice thank you all for coming today and we don't have an audience today but we will have um um members of our boards and commissions rolling in and out at different times um can we please have the open public meetings act notice yes pursuant to the open public meeing Z notice of this meeting was sent to the cranbery Press Trenton Times and home News Tribune on January 12th 2024 posted on the township website and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice and then we'll move on to roll call Mr fante over here Mrs kir over here Dr Rogers is absent Mr Scott right here and mayor El bedway here thank you now we know where we are so um in the parking lot we could it's outside oh they're outside okay I don't know why they don't come in no I'll text them I'll text them can okay so they should be coming in shortly and then so how we're going to do it is we're going to go through each of the Departments who made request ests that we need to discuss and they're basically Capital requests except for shade tree they've made an operating request so Kathy Easton will come in and talk to us about the tree maintenance um operating budget that she's asking for and then we'll go through the rest of the capital items um that are basically TC or ones like sewer improvements that we have no control over type of thing we only handle the capital for this year the rest will just go into a plan and then we'll move on to salary pool increases in operating line items there aren't many and to be honest um the controllable expenses have actually gone down this year rather than up but there were a couple um that went down significantly and then some that went up a little so we'll just talk about the I think there's like four that went up one of them is shade Tre um and then use of surplus and tax rate and then public comment we should be done so um I forgot to mention something um I think I had a conversation with you Matt but um with regard so sha Tre has this request that they've made of us and then um Parks has an element in their budget that they requested that has to do with shade tree and shade tree came to their meeting and made it very clear to them that they that's not their priority this year so I don't know how we're going to handle that we just tell them no I mean they'll come and they'll ask and we'll say it's not shade tre's priority so we're not doing it this year and and you need to confer with shade tree before asking for it again that's all okay yeah I heard right thank you before before comes I'll have a them guidance on sort of what they should put forward so before they jump into that I'll I'll set that up I hope it should limit the discussion a little bit right so good we did we did receive um we did receive an update from Ken Jacobs on the resurfacing of the tennis courts and including pickle ball and then noise abatement as well um so that's in the capital which Iman is new for you I put in front of you anyone who didn't get a book it's already in their book but okay I mean is there anything else in operating we can cover while we're waiting we well I mean we could talk about the increases if you want to the few increases that there were um there was a slight increase in the planner and legal for any zoning changes including historic district revisions that may happen in 2024 um where you looking at oh well if you go to your summary spreadsheets in the front that'll give you like the summary of everything I'm just highlighting the increases that were significant um I attended the HPC um thing on Thursday night and they're they're going to be submitting a plan for um they're going to want us to accept that survey and take actions on that survey and that's going to require some some changes you have that you have the planner expenses built in for that so I went up to them basically after the meeting I said what do you need to make sure in the budget that we that we can help you get this done this year this is the the survey that they did of all the um all the properties and they want to revisit they want to take away the buffer but which was confusing but they want to sort of add a section of North Main and if few adjacent properties to sort of make a contiguous historic Zone and they've done a very meticulous survey with a grant for every property in the historic Zone and so they're going to be they said we're we're going to come to the township committee with this proposal and you know we you know and so I said what do you need from us and they said the only thing they need is is make sure we have planner and legal funds good awesome that will not be before um rounds of yeah absolutely yeah I just wanted I just said okay yeah I just want to make sure that they like I was like I didn't want us to get past today and them to say oh we should have asked for X in the budget so so yeah I just want to say whatever there's steps they have to go through but I want to make sure they had what they needed that we had what they needed this today to be able to do that awesome thank you was was that meeting recorded because that it sounded very valuable Rec oh my goodness supposed to be but I was sitting in the back and I saw the iPad and it was black and I posted something on Facebook on 21 minutes in this is pretty cool meeting or something and my Facebook post popped up on the iPad yeah so I texted Susan and she got up and was not recording and that was the main objective not recording I don't do you think we could ask the planner from RGA to um to re-record thee the materialist she did a great job and it was 40 minutes long and she blew through 41 slots that time period so I think it's a reasonable request I think it's unfortunate there were many conflicts on that night including for me had three meetings and the slides were very nice the slides were very detailed so maybe at least literally the sole purpose of that meeting yeah was record I I regret that yeah I was looking forward to a recording welcome welcome no we're good we're good I don't need anymore thank you gentlemen thank you for joining us today good morning here to go over their Capital requests um their operating budget pretty much the same as it was the prior year except for contractual obligations and salaries um which obviously can't change so they're going to go over Capital so in your Capital book you can go to police and there's a summary sheet right in the CRI going well now that I have your attention testing testing Matt and I will just drive this meeting from now on so that's of the room so it's half of the room maybe that'll work and maybe we'll we'll just bring the tables closer is that okay whoever needs to talk and talk so we just we Shi [Music] you Chief you want to come over here over here oh wait we got something hey now it's coming we go what you I good I saw it for a it's again it's out again there's a short circuit there's a short somewhere then if it's out again just stay where you are yeah ours is working over here yeah know then just stay where you are how are you when you got up and you walk that direction that's all right I'll just stand like this for hours in motion I didn't touch anything ready works we'll over I normally well again it's for the recording okay right sorry my vision is not so good literally something just happened it's a short here we go there okay nobody mov now is it on yeah but don't don't move you guys just stay where you please yes yes your we all set take it away I can hear you okay good morning everyone I'm going to start with this year's uh Capital request um and I'll go through them line by line if you would like any clarification or anything let me know it's probably be my 10th time doing this um first line item is um motor vehicles um this Council in the past has committed to two vehicles every year um we're following soup we did lose um an extra vehicle and an unfortunate motor vehicle crash which was not our fault um the car was totaled um so there is a pickup truck that's included in this um the officer is okay um and unfortunately I know you see that sticker price it's changed over the years it's just the world we live in right now so um going up yep yep they don't ever go down so it's unfortunate um the minimal expenses after that the next three line items are just to outfit the vehicles um we are taking uh radios that are still under warranty from vehicles that we sold we sold multiple Vehicles this year um we take them out of those cars and put them into the new cars they're still covered and they're still uh functioning so we're saving wherever we can save um with respect to the next line item Traffic Safety um due to Manpower issues our traffic Bureau has taken a real hit so the monies that was allocated years past the way Capital works and den these can correct me if I'm wrong it's every five years so that money is still sitting there um we're not asking for more we're just going to reallocate the money that is there for the same purposes um next line item uh County radio system do you man can you just tell us a little bit more about what regardless of the amount the plans you have for that bucket sort of for Traffic Safety First for Traffic Safety um we have a b request out the chief would like some um uh potential permanent uh signs at a location that he deems um for um you know it'll flash your signs not so much slowdown in our town but the speed limit on cranberry neck is 35 miles an hour then a sign would go there and you would hit it if it set for three miles an hour over that speed Li would start to flash at you but they're more permanent signs they would uh require an electrician to install them and they wouldn't go nowhere so they would be rechargeable it would rep for um some of that money um the portable signs that you do uh that you have seen in town those batteries are a couple hundred a battery um and they are required to be replaced every two years so they're up this year so the monies would go for that as well that's just a couple things I mean there um you know we have the message boards obviously nothing always works or doesn't need repairs uh monies would go to repair that and to fix those as needed cool thank you the permanent signs are in addition to the the mobile signs okay thank you uh the next line I'm sorry is any other questions for that good okay uh the next line item is the county uh radio system uh we uh went to a County uh radio system five years ago um and this is just the annual cost to maintain that radio system uh what's nice about it is you know we could be here and we could ask for help as far as Philadelphia down to Cape May so the systems in itself is uh very worthy um replacement of firearms we do this every uh five five years I'm learning it's now five to six years we ordered um some of our weapons I ordered them five months ago and they're still not in in just for production wise so yeah um so that's why you see uh it's five years but the money again is capital so it carries over um and the requested amount is roughly what we spent to repl them it's a little bit less but there's trade in value so we offset it with that um uh the the one of the bigger ones is buildings and grounds um the amount of money is we're um trying to can we go back to the fireworks what I'm looking at to is a culmination of the 36,000 is a culmination of the couple years of that correct correct just to make yeah it's actually 45,000 it's 9,000 a year yeah 36,000 well I only go out in the plan yeah because they only go out so many years it's just Capital plan that's fine this year 9,000 for sure is going in yeah and um you know possibly in the next go around I may order those weapons six eight months earlier then you know the money's there and uh with the understanding um they're just every everything's behind nothing we can do for production including weapons um the next line item is buildings and grounds uh we are I'm happy to report more than halfway over in the police department itself with switching over to uh all LED lighting parking lot was done half of the interior of the building was done um so some of the monies go for that um final stages of painting again we took office in 2005 um there're just things that need to be done um training room it room um and computers uh a portion of this will be set aside for a three-year plan to replace all the computers uh within headquarters if we were to do it all at once we'd be you know hitting you with a 50 $60,000 and say hey what's going on with the computers and cranberry so we try to space them out so that it's not a hit all at once any questions with that no okay um I kind of jumped between buildings and grounds and the computer server uh we're in the process now uh Town Hall was done first um and we're uh now the second phase um that's where you see computer servers and equipment needed uh we're in the process of changing the main Hub of the building um and the infrastructure uh of the building um and that's what that money is used for so the big ticket item this year are going to be the last two items um we have been the chief and I were both hired in the same year in 19 uh 99 um shortly thereafter I don't even think we had one year under our belt that we went to uh mobile recorders uh for uh motor vehicle stops um the world we live in now it's it's state law that we use a recorder basically for any interaction um that we're called to whether it's a motor vehicle stop or uh a house call um this company acts on their calls I don't know if you ever see a police video Acts is known worldwide um they have the state contract for New Jersey quite frankly we were not happy with the company that we're uh currently using um their prices were more than axons um we are creatures of habit we don't like change um but we have to change with the times um this is imperative this is law um we really don't have any flexibility uh we the only flexibility we have is who we go with and I believe that this company will serve this Township well is the um uh the records is this is this going to be like an annual cost or is this just like start this is the initial annual call yes this is the it will go down a little bit um they were willing to because it's a 10-year contract um they were willing to offset the cost per the state guidelines under State contract um annually um one is for it's broken down into two parts this is the total part one is for body cams that the officers have to wear and the other ones are for the motor vehicles we have to have both it will go down a little bit somewhere in the 60s for next for next capital I I did submit the the full 10 years to uh to the township administrator you guys are you guys all outfitted currently everyone everyone is the current the current um model we're using is not warrantied it's not serviceable um I don't want to say that they sold us a bill of goods it was done under Grant um they gave us what they gave us in the hopes that we would go with them yeah um down the road in three years and unfortunately we're out of warranty um I'm down to two spares left um but yes every every officer will be uh equipped they have to be by law including the chief myself and the other Lieutenant these are the ones that came out recently with the the law where we all had to get them right away and the state mandated it so we pushed and we got the one set and then it turned out that they we were really they had us good because we needed it so they gave us a good bill of sale and we we bought what we had to because we needed coverage on it and this is where we're at now so M marel can this is only showing for one year can we put this in the plan as sort of out years sure I mean we can put it in there the amount could change just for full disclosure thank you and that's all I have if anybody has any questions anybody have questions thank you that was very thorough and I think that you were very approach thank appreciate your time thank you than you have a good year okay okay thank you indeed thank you thank you guys nice suburb thank you all for making the time yeah have a great day yeah that that'll remain as our backup for today all right okay if you guys are ready we'd be very happy to hear um from our firefighters today thank you and welcome there's two seats but if you want to pull up another if you just pull up one of one of the seats from behind perfect how you guys good you morning thank you for coming cranberry fire I'm Charlie Smith Chief Jay our treasur and Richard Zimmer our president what can we do for you today um well we like to invite you guys every year just because we're going to go over um the loap amount and the annual contribution just so you can be here so loap is um 20203 per member for this year that's the max that's the max that's what I put in the budget so if anyone has a problem they should say now otherwise it's in operating okay um annual contribution fire is 161,50 26 for this year that's what I put in the budget that is the maximum okay first dat is 125,000 John T yeah okay okay how much 125,000 is there extra above that if we give you a uh audit or annual report no that that went away I think that is if you give me the audit first eight 125,000 yeah uh went from 70 to 125 ,000 so I put the 125,000 in but I do do require an audit from both the fire and you sure that's an audit and not an annual report says audit we've talked about that I I well I mean it seems like a waste of uh money to have a true audit done but we'll give you what we give you and then if the check doesn't clear then we're good okay well I don't think the check's not cleared yet I you know what I mean if you stop payment so I think it's fine um and then the only other thing would be capital and I know um we had a capital plan from you guys already um we had an issue you know with the with fixing the building the roof the siding the windows we had trouble getting the State Contractor to come out there he finally did no one's happy with the quote that he gave us because we don't understand what it involves there was not enough detail in it but we do know that we need more money because what we estimated it's 2024 it's not going to cover it so I put extra in this year's Capital to cover that I put in for um another Firehouse another 198,000 on top of what we had last year which was 250 um last year it was fire house roof was 5500 for the old fire warehous roof 55 55,000 for the old no 5500 for the old one and then it's not even close right it wasn't even close and those were just estimates that were given to me by Greg at the time so obviously it wasn't enough and we're going to need to put more in and then new Firehouse improvements was 150,000 so 155,00 we you're adding another 198,000 to it yeah I I talked to another guy who was going to do a repair on The Old Firehouse and after he got some numbers crunched he he realized that he won't bid um prevailing wage yeah he's like me I don't agree with it it's ridiculous it's it's just a communist way that we're living in now but um so that's why the price is up and take I think what we need to do is go to bid on that yeah we're gonna have to do a bid spec though do that I think we can yeah it shouldn't be call an architect and for a couple Grand get a vid spe and you know so we're going to have to to get these guys are way too vague and no and and my qpi agree but you tried because it'd be easier than going out to bid but it's the problem is is that the firehouse The Old Firehouse is leaking bad the ceiling's coming down on the second floor I mean you could walk up there and see daylight through the roof so something has to be done with it yeah the problem is we can't find someone to even come out and give us I know because nobody wants to work prevailing rage so anyway so that's 3535 total between last year and I was just going to ask the question to move it over which is the priority and you just answered it that both well they both are they both are oh they both yeah they're both it's a 20-year roof that's 30 years old unless you're open planetarium in the old you know I mean it's a 20-year roof is 30 years old yeah the buildings are getting older public work also has a request in for their so we're going to do the bid spec probably at the same time for all the buildings just yeah but I just got a quote from this guy non-prevailing wage to strip the shingles off The Old Firehouse new underlayment down to the rafters for 11,000 you go prevailing wage is going to be 50 but Cho 30 probably yeah you know yeah at least that much right so still far away from what they quoted I with it's the law I can't I understand it I understand it's just my frustration wait is that is that total roof replacement or just repair no that was about repair but no I'm talking about replacement that 11,000 was replacement for The Old Firehouse for the old for The Old Firehouse new plywood right down to you know what I mean so yeah their price was an overlayment not even taking the shingles off which you can't do at this point nail it to well you know we go out to bid we see what Happ yeah that's what we'll do I'm glad I just want to make sure we we're Square on that that's you know if we can't get what we need then we have to talk to the state okay and same with the windows too we'll do a separate bit on that though let's not do a combination yeah okay I'm I mean that's fine it's just then we have to go out to bid more than once could take longer but okay yeah you you you want to make sure that the experts are doing each job right well that's fine you just have to have separate bid specs okay all right very good y so I just I did want to some numbers yeah I just did want to let everybody know because you you're all subject to the cap from the state of 160,000 but like everything inflation is going going up everything's going up so I just want to give everybody a number because we're going to have to have a discussion about you know that 160 at some point um with our legislatures because just last year we spent $70,000 in repairs and then yeah and on the vehicles yeah on the vehicles and then we spent another $37,000 on equipment so you're talking 107,000 right there just between vehicle repairs and Equipment of That 160 and then if you add in the communication ations uh because we have now the communications with the truck subscriptions with AT&T so everybody can talk to to whatnot and that was another 36,000 so already you got 36 plus 37 plus 70 you know and then the state's telling us hey we have to operate you know at 170,000 there's just not much or 60,000 there's just not much margin there to that's why we're investigating a different way to do this but maybe that's not this is not the the venue to this isn't a venue but I just want everybody to know what the numbers are yeah I don't I don't yeah at 160,000 you start to run into issues yeah and it's not your fault I mean it's the state decided 6,000 right yeah yeah thank you guys for what you do an end this town has no volunteers yeah so well we really appreciate everything you're doing thank you thank you guys for doing what you do no and we we more than appreciate what you all are doing as well and um you know maybe out of this budget cycle it'd be nice to have just a good conversation to sit down and sort of see where things are headed y yeah absolutely and we should we had issues with Merl Lynch getting statements that we missing so we just got those today okay um so those will go to with them for the financial consolidation so they're gonna get they're doing all the taxes and Denise so okay probably sometime in the spring we'll get that statement I mean we don't adopt our budget and can't issue any money anyway until no we I just wanted you everybody to be aware of what the timing was this when is historically ever has the state changed that cap they do they change it but it's what they like do you know criteria with inflation usually it's 3% I mean they'll change it every year it goes up a little bit sometimes but yeah we cap that what we cap that like a merit increase well I mean even when we had the double digit inflation year it still only went up a well thank you all thank you day thank you gentlemen thanks guys all right we have okay so re is next but I don't think they're here yet so why don't we go back to the um operating expenses that I was talking to you about um so there's going to be a little increase in Parks Jerry needs to buy a lot of grass seed and fertilizer to work on some of the fields and and open space that we have so um that went up a little bit not significantly vehicle maintenance went up um because the cost of parts has just increased um as they were saying right maintenance on the vehicles are getting older and um police and um other buildings the buildings are getting older they're starting to need more repairs so we're putting in a little cushion for that and operating and we're also going to talk about Capital expenses for that when we go through Capital so that was pretty much it operating as I said except for salaries um our salary pool is 5% that was discussed with the Personnel subcommittee um but other than that our expenses have stayed relatively flat for several years now um we're managing with what we have even though things have gone up and we still have a Reserve at the end of the year so we're doing good um when you talked about uh the little bit of cushion for repairs to buildings does that include Town Hall yes yes yes include but town hall is not as in dire need as Public Works Public Works the firehouse and police building is getting older and but they they take care of that in their Capital so they're good yeah okay okay yeah okay so is wreck here are we ready is Ken here he's walking in okay so you guys can come up and we'll do wreck next hello Ken you can come sit Ken Ken we're ready you guys are early yep we're early little bit waiting for okay that's okay she'll join us okay okay um maybe I can just tea up while Ken's getting set up so I'm I'm the new liaison for I've attended all of one meeting um as we mentioned at that meeting Katie Haron is the new chair Ken is our steady Eddie on sort of uh running the running with the the constant on that um they're they're coming forward today with a couple um suggestions proposal for pickle ball court as well as research surfacing the tennis courts at um at uh Village Park um my my suggestion was really make sure that they that what they came in with for the pickle ball refinishing it at Village Park was sort of everything they needed to get that project done including soundproofing the refinishing all that so the number Ken has is I asked him to go deliberately kind of high on that to make sure that it was enough to to cover that today and then we um they're also they also the other line item on here is Four Courts and the proposal would be in the west property I I explained to the rec commission that that was not a not not a priority or and not consist the open plan so I suggested that be delayed but we both proposals were brought tonight so we'll today so we'll come to into that right we have the um 100,000 for the playground as well I was just gonna say that and for the inclusive so I I mean do you do you really need me to go in detail with the playground or um I don't know how you want me to address the that but no I think we already approved that 100,000 but but understanding that the grants 300 we're giving a 100 that's 400 you have to do everything with that money get the equipment the ground whatever needs to be done installation engineering anything that's involved with the project is 400,000 yes okay y yeah with the presentation that the last meeting was very thorough so that was good do we uh we have an update on the state money no but typically we hear in the spring on that Grant so I would imagine they promised it to us already and made a big announcement I don't think they're going to take it back but I don't think they're actually gonna going to announce it until the spring that's typically when they do it okay and and this 100,000 won't be ready to be spent until approximately May anyway so we should have Word by then for sure I would hope so right yeah do we is getting ahead of ourselves but do we think we could break ground after May well you can't order until the funds are in place then you can order and there's a 10 we at least yeah who who knows with the right current situation yeah so comes in when it comes in it's possible I guess you could say but there's no guarantee are there elements that aren't unique to Cranberry for the playground in other words like could they be stock items to someone who's designing it just might be a color change or something like that oh yeah yeah so there's speed that you can maybe make up if those components are common and not unique right yeah I I think we have a pretty good idea what we want for the equipment and we have a design for that so if we say hey let's let's move forward with it and we're able to use the either the co-op or the state contract we won't have to go out the public bid and it'll that'll certainly yeah and just getting it scheduled I mean everyone knows getting a contractor out to do anything the installer will probably be the one that might hold it up it might be in before the installers right it's a very attractive feature right now in every town and so with a lot of different towns that I talked to they said that it takes so much time because everybody's installing these some sometimes are installing two and three yeah inclusive Park so if well there's been a lot of money that's been exact been put out exactly exactly yeah it's a very attractive project and it may mean that we have to wait a little but we waited a lot so yeah it else in due time happen exactly indeed so so getting into the um the pickle ball courts um the at at Village Park just to give you a little background you know we did the basketball court that was actually one piece of concrete for the both the tennis courts and and the basketball court there so what we actually did was cut the concrete which is under was underneath that surface and and we had like a synthetic surface on top that we had several times damaged um it's over 25 years old it really needs to be you know removed and taken out um there are concrete tennis courts um I actually prefer and I could be totally wrong asphalt tennis courts though because you can maintain them I feel a lot easier it's just you just get on a maintenance schedule of 5 to 10 years you do some crack repair you paint them and they keep going on and on and Lasting uh for a long time is there a lifespan difference between concrete and as I'm sure there is I'm no expert in that so I can't really tell you what that is I've never I've never used concrete in and and it's just started to be up in the Northeast because of some improvements they made because you know we have Winters that you Tha you freezes and that's not usually typically good for concrete the uh the maintenance of something like that then um are you expecting that to fall on our DPW or will you bring in a professional no you would want to have somebody a company to come in but if you if you do it on a consistent basis it's minimal you know if you wait until you're you have huge cracks and uh you have to do crack fill and then leveling and all that kind of stuff then you get into some and when you say it is it is in your opinion more easily maintained what part of it is the ease versus the concrete well if you get a crack in your in the concrete you know could you don't really know how far it's going you know it could it could spider out of control you know they they do use you know um like the rebar in there to try to minimize those kind of things but uh I don't know you I would I would really defer to an engineer as to lifespans or the I just have all my experience working with Asal um courts and not had any real issues with any of them so um that's just why that's my opinion it could be totally wrong I don't I don't I don't know but I'm sure the concrete that is underneath those courts right now it's probably 30 years old it can't be in any shape that we could use another item you got to think about too is if we're if we put any sort of um sound barrier on the fence the fence has to be able to hold that with the wind so we would have to beef up the fence there so that fence has got to come out it has to come out no matter what the fence is not in very good shape anyway so and that's in that's part of it so we're going to be tearing that up it's I I just think a total rebuild is is really what you need to do and that's what we did with the basketball so should we be um getting rid of the word resurfacing it truly isn't that you're saying we go in there you remove remove all that concrete you pull out the fence and you're completely starting from ground zero right okay so we should not be talking about resurfacing not a res not the right descriptor there there you know depending you know depending on what's underneath uh I I do have some friends who are engineers and they said what you could do is take that surface that top surface off the synthetic surface off get rid of the fence and possibly do like a what's called a stone dust overlay and and put the concrete put the asphalt on top of the concrete he said you could do that I just don't know you know technically if if that's something that someone would suggest so that's another possibility but I I haven't gotten confirmation as to whether or not that's a viable option I think it's GNA be key because the last thing we're going to want to do is like do that what you just suggested and that's not really going to take us long term the idea is to look for a longterm recreational you know solution here but we're using an existing space that's already been disrupted right so there's still a wi there but um I think we'd have to really understand from all the way from a resurface to well we're not going to resurface and it's it all depends on what's underneath there you know I mean our goal here remember today our goal here is not to Workshop solution our goal here is to put in essentially the highest placeholder that would cover the range of possibilities so that this project can proceed without having to come back and have a new budget ordinance and a new and then so obviously there the the obious a lot of steps to happen on this project but the goal is to get a big enough number and to give you go- ahead to start taking those steps as directed by you know Miss Marella is sort of working through that the the way I came about these numbers I don't know if the email sent would if you sharook yeah yeah okay so you know I base it off of numbers that I've seen myself from either the basketball court Ren uh renovation or in West Windsor some projects that we had where is it sorry um it should be under Recreation see it I don't see you my book already right you had your book already we all had it came in an email it came in an email maybe um Matt didn't copy it but you can read the email to them it's literally three sentences it's not so so um the basketball court Rehabilitation cost 70,000 approximately $70,000 that area is a third of the size of the two tennis courts so so that was $210,000 the fencing uh would have to be a a heavier Duty fence as I as I indicated before uh in 2007 17 we put that type of fence up around two tennis courts in West Windsor and at that time 2017 it cost 85,000 and the sound of batement material I've I looked online got some roundabout prices not not any quotes but it looked like about 25,000 to do two sides of the uh of the courts so that got me to a number of about 320 without any increases for uh material and installation and all that don't don't we need four sides we only use two well we we talked about that at the Recreation Commission yeah CU one one side faces a highway that's way louder than the pickle ball courses the other faces a long stretch over the 500 feet until you'd come to a resident so it's really the Bennett facing um residence and the Maplewood facing residence so the goal would be on those two sides right yeah so so we put 300 75,000 in the capital if you prove it yeah um but I also sent you an email you saw yesterday about the grants right there's a DCA Grant uh Recreation local Recreation Improvement uh Grant um that I'm not sure I think uh did we get for some maybe the inclusive play that it was the same thing basically for the inclusive playgrounds same type but they gave us a little bit more this one's capped at a 100,000 it's capped at 100 okay so you can only get 100 yeah so you could get you could get a hundred um I got last year in West Windsor I got the 70,000 for a uh Trail replacement so pretty much I think if you if you put in for that Grant you get close to it's a DCA uh it's the the governor just calls it the recreation Improvement right it's due the applications due the end of February yeah so it's very similar to the one we just did uh for the right um playground for the play Yeah from a timing perspective end of February does that work to apply oh yeah yeah they're simple enough it's it was easy and a lot of the stuff I can now just and they're they're eager to give away money for recreation and park improvements like that pickle ball I think they got a lot of federal money from and us us putting this in the budget today is really the first step of making that happen so I will put it in if we don't get the grant at all you will be saying yes you have up to 375,000 to spend on this if you get the grant then I just have to fund less yeah the Grant and that's the goal that's the goal that's the goal um so from the time that you submit for this grant to the time that we can actually use it though you think we'll be able to use it this year they were pretty quick they say yes to the grant pretty quick and and those monies are available um I think it's a reimbursable so you spend it and then you get it back okay yeah that that's good that it makes it rather immediate awesome um okay so any any other questions on when you um probably getting ahead of ourselves but did you uh Design This with two quarts four quarts for pickle ball oh I'm sorry so it it it also has lining for two courts uh for pickle yeah and it would include like a a better net temp a portable net uh something that's really kind of heavy duty that would be able to you know withstand the weather and all that kind of stuff so Ken I'm just concerned about one thing and this is probably it's definitely nothing we're going to solve right now but something that I'd like to see is um you know currently the any tennis court we have is not always used for tennis I see dogs being walked in there I see all sorts of other activity and if we're spending this premium you know funds towards making this amazing how are we going to manage this so that people are not misusing this piece of equipment well I mean really we have we have that issue with people using Millstone without permits and all that kind of stuff I you know signage is going to have to be a lot more easily uh available to read uh there and just you know ask people to to uh short of having a park ranger yeah yeah that's what G to say yeah yeah well I just I would hate to see something that we install it's such a premium be misuse I mean it's bike riding and rollerblading and dog walking I mean the police are not in the Parks all the time so they're not going to see this happening to say you shouldn't be doing it and so short of having a park ranger that's riding around in the Parks all day long I've seen other towns supposed to like put a lock on the gate and then then who's giving out the key you have to come in and sign out the key problem we don't have staff for that our you don't want to do that debie de right can another another question for you is um the decision has been made to to put sound abatement on two sides yes it can be fitted for more you know other sides can be fitted if we need it absolutely sure um thank you so much for that all right and and my I I've voiced this at the rec commission the other line item for additional four pick ball carts I I believe I believe they should my suggestion is they they're off the table I think the rec commission has a these two very amb projects I would rather see two projects get done this year and done well and have well-used a well-used tennis pickle ball court and and a nice inclusive playground that is a lot on your plate for this year I think doing more than that for this year is is recipe for for not success so my recommendation is we do not do any more than those two projects under the wreck perview this year has everyone okay with that that we're putting 100,000 in for the inclusive playgrounds and 375 in with the goal of getting a grant or more than one Grant if there's something else out there I don't know um to supplement it and taking off new pickle ball CTS the table the only thing I would say is just from that line on them remove the word resurface because we re we don't know what we're we're doing but we're aiming conservatively right I just I want to make sure we're these are done right I want to have well-used recreational high quality well-used recreational items in our town and I want these projects set up for success and focus this year so um again my question would be do you think this gonna be done this year probably not that would probably take a little longer because we have to do bid specifications and you know go at the bid you know that process right we have to go to bid for that the playground we're using State contract and I don't think we can have both of those projects going on at the same time it's going to be too hard to manage they big projects so I would say playground then pickle right right and it's cour are we good okay okay yes all right thank you for coming thank you yeah leave this on we've got um Parks is next Parks is is here they're in the hallway I just thought I could catch his eye right hi hello okay so Parks is here they had um a few requests um that were provided to us for the capital those are the things we're going to go over with them and say yes or no okay so um do you want me to go line by line or you guys want to go okay beautification of parks you're requesting um I know you ask for that pretty much every year um what are you going to be doing with that just tell them what you're looking to do with that so we have used this Fund in the past for or this allocation in the past for various expenses that have I guess popped up during the year we purchased seeds for um art on the park Day art and the park day yeah and this year we're planing on having the historic baseball game return to the park um maybe trying to partner with uh the historic appr preservation Society but that hosting that event or coordinating that event um they suggested donation to the baseball team and last year it was like brutally hot and we had some Girl Scouts selling um refresh but I think we need to amp that up this year if the weather in August is going to be similar so that's the money that we would use for um for that that kind of event okay okay sorry HBC I mentioned the same thing to partner with them I think it would be great but um they did not put in anything toward that so it was solely in Parks the the title of beautification upkeep might be more limiting than we're imagining because um um like for those events and stuff uh is that's not exactly beautification item or a peep item but that's um that's fine I added it in the description here so if you go to suspend it so are we okay with that yes I think it's um it's a very reasonable um item to afford okay next is the chest tables additional money for that no please wait did I other glasses and and your phone all right the chess tables we had previously requested money in the last year's budget right and uh we need a little bit more to actually have them installed and put the whatever surface pad underneath them which is why we had to request the additional Monies to complete the project so we need to add the $5,000 requested here to the money from the 2023 location to put um chest tables one of which will be uh accessible it will have like not a seat there so that you can roll to it uh installed in Heritage Park I have probably the only opinion here that is maybe different than the rest of the TC I'm um I love this project I just don't like the location that is being proposed I really think this is um best place next to the inclusive Park where it truly has an inclusive feel you are now going to have the youth doing their activities on a playground equipment and you can have an elder person um you know or um a special knes person sitting down and playing chess on these tables and so I'm just very wary of installations in Heritage Park that can grow and take from the nature of that Park which is what is essentially um open space and I mean Heritage Park is known for what's not in it not for what's in it and so again I love this project I'm not keen on its location and so uh I cannot support its location and if that is where it's going then I will probably not be very excited about moving this one forward but there's je definitely other members here yeah I'm I'm excited about it I think it's a unique idea for Heritage Park I like the idea of a table you considered in Heritage Park I think actually the fact that there's no other structure or no Pavilion right there actually makes it a unique and for Heritage so I support it I support the Solitude of it it's passive so I like the idea of that being a complement to the spirit of Heritage Park okay so not an aggressive sport that's a yes to the additional $5,000 for the chest tables okay next is kayak rack got this is our most exciting request personally at least um we were requesting $4,000 for the purchase and installation of a commercial grade uh canoe and kayak rack that would be placed close to brard Lake obviously um and and also close to the um the parking lot in the back side of so you would drive in go past the sliding Hill and you could deliver your um water craft uh to the kayak rack other other municipalities that that have these available through their park system use a like an annual permit that every if if it becomes popular people in the town um submit their name to to have one of these spaces available and then they get it for their personal kayak for the whole year they get like a little sticker from the town they're required to sign a waiver form for liability purposes and provided to the town and uh then they're required to agree to keep their kayak or canoe always chained when they're not using it and L with a lot there would be um eight um I guess slots for kayaks I'm sorry say again there would be eight slots for kayaks room to store up up to eight um and the uh equipment itself would be durable and require no maintenance on a regular basis um and is all weather too and but not what could be removed for the winter if the township decided but could also remain outside all year round and how did you come up with eight that's just a common configuration when you when you're looking for the municipal um yeah will they go like this way and do you see that this is a project that if it took um you know if it took off if it was very popular that you would look to have another phase where you project to install another set of eight I I I mean I wouldn't Ru that out the the Parks Commission as a body hasn't collectively discussed that um but my sense of where they would be at is um possibly to add like eight more and then cap it there we don't want to um we are conscientious of putting too much stuff in any of our Parks especially Village Park which already has a lot going on um but depending on demand I think that's something that we would have to discuss and and possibly be open to so just to be clear this is just a shed for people to put their private vs in right we're not offering it's not a roof structure it's not a roof structure it's a it's a rack it's rack it's like they're they're they're I'm on top of one another four on one side and four on the other it's on a concrete pad or it's no it can get installed just right onto the ground the weight of the rack and the kayak will keep it in place but again it's just for Township residents to store their own boats we're not providing boat we're not we're not renting them or anything like that it's just that like for me if I had a kayak there's it's pretty annoying to be driving it back and forth I would never really use it this is um like residents actually suggested it I don't personally own one but it's it's been pretty popular I know that Adam just mentioned it as well he's like people are talking about in the description you have seasonal rental so that's renting spot not yeah the rental is the rental of the space um so we're providing the lake right the lake um and I heard the word waiver and then so that my ears went up because there's nothing preventing uh as we just saw a bench almost made it over it tried very hard but uh there's no blocking there at down right so my concern is Public Safety and do we have to do anything to where that water goes down where a again I'm just looking at the liability of the Town um when it comes to Public Safety and that there's nothing preventing anything from going down there or a child in a kayak or something crazy worst case scenario um that's my only concern I think this is super great I there 's definitely on um some of the edex surveys that have been done this was mentioned multiple times by multiple residents um to utilize the lake more um which I think is terrific um I also think you know we just have to be very careful with people on kayaks and we just did all of that work on the lake and that people aren't out there and littering and dumping stuff in the lake on their kayak so those are my concerns around it as a project but the use of it of our Lake more I think is Fant fantastic yeah I was just going to add I I I have a kayak I love to take my kayak to the lake um I kayak with Mr Brenan and a couple others around the around the space um I love kayaking I don't love the idea of putting a kayak rack for eight kayaks to sit there all season right on the right on our Scenic Waterfront um I I also think I just the LI the liability concerns me the the M the the the encumbrance of the township to maintain and to have a seasonal rental of the spot and have people argue over that for eight spots I I think most people that have a kayak have a way to get their kayak to and from the lake and it feels like a lot of Waterfront space to use up for eight people's private rental of a kayak I and so can't believe I'm saying that but I because I L a kayak and I think it's great and I love the accessibility but I don't love a kayak rack with eight private kayaks sitting right on the lake Matt uh no I I I like other towns have done it I think making it I have a kayak I never take it down there because it's such a pain I think having the rack there is actually a really good idea and what you guys are saying is that the if they're personal boats people take their a waiver and if they they're going to lock these things up and other towns have done it without issues I don't see a problem I'm in favor of it I had imagined um we didn't discuss a specific location other than that it would be back by the um the parking lot beyond the sled Hill but I had imagined it way in the back um near the trees um where that little patch of woods in the Southeast corner is um so that it doesn't obstruct The View it's sort of on the edge of the park but still very much on the lake um but not really in a place where most people would see it as obstructing they're seeing a few it's not in the middle so on the right or the left you're looking at the lake in the middle there's a kayak rack it's on the right there's a lake in the middle there's a kayak rack and on the left you can't see the lake because there's the wood so in that sense I imagined it sort of um right there on the edge of things and who would maintain the rent who would run the rental and permitting program the space the slots we weren't exactly uh sure about that we certainly are are not an operating um body the Parks Commission um we did consider that the town already uh permits and takes applications and accepts payment for use of the recreation fields in town um but that element um I mean we don't as the Parks Commission really um you know we can't make that decision so again if you if you have to assess demand again in the edex survey and this most recent one this came up again and a couple residents actually you wrote some letters with this as an idea so I think that there's public interest here for sure um so I lost my and I thought oh how to do it would you imagine like what if the interest just from what we've read is nine people 10 people then it becomes a lottery type of a system so these are popular when when we were doing research in Wisconsin lots of lakes and in New York state with their Town parks and when we were looking the most common um way that they were run is if it was pop if it proved popular in the beginning it was just first comfor Ser for the first year if it proved popular then there would be a Lottery deadline date typically I saw something like February 1st everyone that's interested in getting a spot you put your name in we pull the names and you know no preference is given to someone who had it last year everyone goes in blind or you can remove those people if there's like such a huge demand and um then you allocate the spaces were you guys thinking of attaching a fee to this or it's just a lot of towns do attach a fee to it so I think that it was like in two seasons it could pay for itself um depending on depends on how you structure how much how much are they generally charging less than $100 with the season yeah wow uh this creates sort of I'm I'm very wary that it creates uh issues for the township and people that uh may have to step up and take care of the funding and all of that um and enforcement honestly like what if you have the person that rents but hasn't paid or you know their time has laps like how do you chase after that person or vandalism to the actual kayak on the property and I understand people have signed waivers and done things but it really doesn't prevent people from being very upset and coming after us and so um it looks like people like the idea but the mechanisms the logistics all of that gives us a little bit of pause so how do we want to approach this oh well there are concerns Public Works has concerns um you know we're telling them to put chest tables on concrete pads but now we're going to put a kayak rack that if they The Kayaks off and we have a storm or a wind it could potentially blow over um I am concerned about vandalism out there um the police are not going to patrol you know necessarily to see that that doesn't happen as you said if someone puts it there and doesn't lock it up then what and yes they can sign a liability waiver but we still will be on the hook if there's an accident of some sort um um so those are all concerns also um we have a wreck department but understand that we have a part-time wreck person so now we're adding on more work to that person so and that's fine if we're going to keep doing this so we're GNA have to talk about potentially having a full-time wreck person at at some point um because and finding one that's the other issue finding one to to do it um so those are just some concerns I think with the kayak um we take a vote but if it's 22 we can't do anything right now we would need Barbera uh indeed Debbie did you have anything to add or you good you're good all right um what do I want to say I think that this project needs a little more research I think we need to figure flush out some of these uh the answers to these questions um you definitely have answered some of them like the the the visibility right taking away from the viewscape and all of that but the mechanisms still give us pause and so um Can Can we vote and be a conion on some of these questions being answered meaning we put it in the budget because I think there's an I feel like we need to use Brainard Lake more I just like flat out feel that way from everything that I have learned from the edex surveys and talking in the community I believe there's a passion for this so if we approve it and get answers to these questions where we're satisfied it doesn't we have to um have to spend it I correct however if we vote I'm feeling like it's going to be 22 so we're not going to have I mean we can take a vote right now but if it's 2 two we don't we don't have someone to break it the tie so we would need to Circle back on that I I don't think it's it's not effort wasted to say keep working at this let's not put money towards it this year let's keep working at this and may I ask what the specific questions that we can ask are only because in doing the research we can only go so far because we just like give advice or kind of thoughts and recomendations and we we just don't have knowledge of all the townships operating Insurance like we've said you know um we don't have any interactions with your insurance broker whoever handles the town's insurance so I think a lot of questions about liability which I'm sensitive to myself would probably not even come from this body it would come from the town's insurer they probably have questions or or issues that they might want address before anyone else would but we don't have that um relationship so I'm happy to answer any questions and do F the research I just need to know like exactly what we want to research for it seems to me like this is actually a wreck item because it's a wreck it would have to be administered like a wreck program like a rental wreck like it seems like it's lovely that it would be in the Parks and I think this is our challenge with having parks and recks separate is I love that you guys are thinking about how to use the space but I think when we're starting to think programmatically about how does this run how are the handling that's really something wreck does and W has the capability to do and to our point we're a small town we have a part-time Rec director um we have to make sure that this is from I don't think there's actually all that I don't think there's actually all that much homework you have to do I think it's more more the township saying do we want to take this on from a rental permitting you know other other factors so I think you've done you've done the work other than maybe providing a picture of the rack and concerns about blowing you know it blowing away um you know I think it becomes sort of how to operationalize this and that feels more like a wreck thing to me okay so we need to move on to their other items so let's take a vote on the kayak rack and see where we stand are we yes or no Matt yes Mike um no Iman no yes yes okay so we can't do anything with it right now so but but but but to Michael's Point can can this conversation now shift a little bit towards wreck and can we bring Ken on board just to give a little bit of um sure they can they can ask wreck if they're interested in pursuing it and wreck may say no they're not at this point they have enough going on they're not interested in or we'll put it in next year and see where we stand yes so that that would if I were to guide you I would say please have a conversation in that direction but thank you for lifting that um okay next Village Park connect so the new path in Village Park does not connect there is no accessible solid surface that connects from that new path to the sidewalk Network in town There's a sidewalk that runs in from town and dead ends near that first parking lot and then there's a little bit of gravel before you get to the actual paved accessible path we feel strongly that there needs to be connection between the township sidewalk Network and the New Path and Village Park um it would also serve as an accessible path from um Birchwood and the Willows to the township sidewalk Network yeah and just just just for a little bit of context since the peral path was put in there's now a connector a paved connector path from Ingram to Bennett so there is there's not there's um only gravel it was complet in November it it's paved it's a paved sidewalk we have photos I visited every day that connects the ingr to the Birchwood so the ingren connecting ingr to the town through a page sidewalk is 100% covered from an ada8 compliant standpoint it's but I agree with you the the concern I see is that the walking path um passes over and it doesn't connect to anything in the park except for at the one Ada accessible parking spot so there is not a the one the one Gap now in the in the armor is there's no walking or sidewalk path like between the walking path and and and the town network but but I don't think but I don't think the Ingram the Ingman issue is off the table we spent $50,000 on a walkway to connect them to Bennett it's now just getting Walkers onto the ADA Compliant Walkers to the new Walking path in Village Park okay yeah that and so we've we've talked about this and to do just that little section to have a come out and do that it it it's going to cost too much money so what we can do is try to add it on if we do a road project in the area to have them come out and add that on so that their equipment is already out there so when we do the road project I've already indicated to the engineer that we should try to include that in the budget that we have um if we can't obviously that's going to be the last thing we do but I I think we probably can with the money we're going to set aside for for the roads so um we've asked the engineer to to just have them the contractors take a look at that so this amount on this budget is unnecessary because you're going to absorb the work and it's costing we're going to try if it's within that 600 and something thousand we put in for the roads then we will do it right so please please when you do go back to Parks you know please let is not a rejection of this part of the budget this is just it's misplace it's going to uh be absorbed in another um in another project thank you okay um and then the last one is walking trail trees yes um we're very interested in having uh trees installed along some trees installed I'm not sure that's the right word placed um along the new walking trail um in Village Park uh we're looking at from shade trees uh from coordinating with shade tree 12 trees at $400 a tree um so I just want to go back to the parks meeting because when this was mentioned shry was um was there and what they said is this is not going to be their priority this year and so us putting the funds and making it available for you know an entity that's going to potentially not potentially but has to be involved with this work when they're saying they're not going to make this a priority this year it may not be the right um may not be the best idea I heard that too but and our budget submission was due in November and the shade tree um collaboration on I understand that shade tree speaks to which the placement and the selection of the species of the tree along the path and that happened prior to us submitting indeed yeah so I wasn't sure about that um comment either but I understood that to mean out of shade tre's budget but I could be wrong but I I understand where you're coming from that shade tree definitely said that we don't we shouldn't be putting money towards the uh installation of trees around the path this year right so we'll just take that off well I think it just it speaks to the bandwidth that they have right now yeah um so if you're okay with that again um you know thank you so much and I really appreciate the collaborative effort between the two yeah all right thank you thank you guys for for the extra three minutes yeah of course all right well well done Brendon congratulations and the extra six minutes at the beginning okay so I don't see HPC so why don't we let shade tree go and then HPC come in I told them to so if not I mean we already have we already have the phase from them so it's fine I just didn't know if they wanted add anything else good morning everyone Thanks for popping in early well I was going to come early anyway and I didn't see your text so it just worked out that way awesome yeah early okay okay we're taking questions is that right um I think we're just here because um there's an increase in your operating budget so just explain what that's for sure um but it's right I already put it in so I don't think it's a question of not getting it it's just let them know what's going on okay so um one thing that we one thing that's new this year is 5,000 uh for Consulting arborist far Stewart to manage to try and restore the wood cops and starting to take a look at the West TR uh crumb Brook preserve um but what we don't have in here is uh we're not asking funds for tree inventory because we have phase one so that sort of works out what we are asking for additional money for is the tree pruning and the maintenance because we didn't get our annual uh pruning done last year and we ran out of time so we added it to this year and but we won't do that again it's not going to bump from year to year it just it just sort of happened that way post where we encumbered funds what maybe 22 for 23 I don't remember but anyway so we're um we already have quite uh the agenda for this year and tree printing maintenance is ever so important and basically we du to the parks we also are looking at the Young trees on Main Street for structural Bruning as well as limbing up um just so we take the best care of the trees that we have and that's really the main increase and we did increase tree planting horiculture material because we have so many empty holes as we call them which is um so many places where we've lost trees and we want to get the right tree you things have changed a lot because uh and and there's really thank goodness a really a much stronger push although not so much in the nursery industry for natives as a matter of fact there's Le legislation right now do you know where the legislation is in the state anyway regarding um preventing nurseries from selling continuing to sell um rabid invasive plants just just a few there's you know it's not everything but it's a start um but anyway um and invasive plants is our problem over in Village Park and sad Lake CR book preserve but anyway so that those the those the only increase decreases um and and also again we didn't we didn't we didn't plant any trees except for Arbor trees and memory trees last year so we hope to get more planting and we do have a better understanding since going to the shat Tre conference you have a better understanding we start now we're going to go visit the nurseries um we hope to maybe develop a relationship with Barton because we talked to um not what's the guy's name oneway anyhow um we're going to go to a different Barton office and talk to the administrative people and work something out because in that case we would be able to actually go to the field pick the tree it's important for us to have um you know inspection and we're not planting a lot of trees 10,000 you know that's uh that would be why can't I do this math in my head um ,000 maybe 20 trees 20 trees yeah it's about 500 any anything we plant um between the sidewalk I'm sorry anything we play between the sidewalk and the curb in the as What's called the grassy strip or the devil strip we need root guards that's something that will go into the new ordinance that we are having a work session on next Thursday um and we don't have any budget for that that the lawyer will take care of that and that'll come out of a different budget any questions um I just remember you came to a few months ago with an update on some things and you sort of said we really would like to get some things done in the next year and we encourage you to put it in the budget to get sort of make your wish list so does this operating budget represent sort of what you want what you think you can actually get done this year with with the tree inventory yeah it it helps us a lot to know exactly where the priorities are yeah okay also also um the work that's being done I don't know if they got out here yester yesterday but they were supposed save a Tre was coming out to do the work in Village barn and Heritage and one of the items was to uh cut slash all the remaining well the remaining because they pop up here the um Atlantis saplings and treat them with an herbicide we hope to not be using having to use the herbicide again um because if we can that's where we need a consultant you know what how can we keep the invasives down including the lanis and and restore that because it's never going to be a noise filter 130 for 130 but it's gonna it it should be a native filter that filters the groundwater and the air um and I it is some it does mitigate the noise somewhat I guess quick question so I think I'm understanding the inventory um tells you where the need for planting is so we just heard Works say that um it's not a priority to put those trees in Village but you're still referencing planting it's just that that's not the priority right there's other that's the priority has has always been Main Street to try and fill those holes and the inventory actually helps us more with what trees need to probably come down and get work which will then then we'll have to replace them but for now we're trying to fill in the holes that have been um created uh yeah perfect I just want to say I had proposed I went to the Parks Commission Jackie and I on Thursday Wednesday and we asked them what were they going to do in the circle because that was on their agenda and I said what about a tree and that's something we could do that's one tree if they if they decide they were thinking of putting an ornament I me on ornament sculpture sculpture a sculpture or something and they had they hadn't even considered tree but you know putting a tree there lens shade you know to the path that goes around the circle and it could be a really gorgeous specimen tree um so anyway I planted that seed with them but that could happen this year well they they they did mention um that they wanted to look at that space and then project for 2025 and so that that yes you set that you you've planted that seed and so that's a good um starter now here's another thought for you and maybe I should have mentioned with Parks but they're thinking of trees along the walking path we do have have residents that come in to do the memorial benches and every once in a while a memorial tree can any of those trees become a memorial tree uh at this point no one has requested a memorial Tree in Village Park there's one Memorial tree pending and it's going to go in um milstone okay because the person who passed the neighbors are buying the tree and the person who passed lived down Washington Drive so it's adj sort of adjacent to where he live pro um generally well so far spe the uh Memorial trees have often been specimen trees meaning they stand out on their own they have you know they're attractive in three to four seasons um and maybe they're not going to lend themselves to shade so much I'm thinking of the several trees that are planted in Heritage Park um I can't think can't think of this but they don't all have to be specimen trees do they no no no no no they don't it's we always we work with a family indeed and again we try to stick to Native um now the thing too about planting around the path is how close do we go we you can't really go close than 10 to 12 feet because we know what happened when you um because the RO you well the roots can go under that sidewalk thing but um I mean I have to talk to an Arbus about that um it's good to wait it's good to wait on that and also do we have to put if if they want them a a little closer would would Arbus recommend putting root guards there but you know we don't want to dig next to that new path so we haven't I don't know where I don't know how they wouldn't provide shade soon but it would and there is a lot of that's why 40% of the trees got damaged because when they dug the path there is quite a bit of shade around um but it's not all shaded yeah any other questions was that something you talked to the arborist about this year last year we're talking about all the damage the trees but where we didn't put anything in the budget to treat the trees to help um mitigate the damage but uh it's something we would talk to the arbest about if we were going to plant in this situation what what would you recommend the distance and that kind of thing and they would be shap trees because that's what the parks is looking fora um well it was mentioned that um kind of ran out of time to do like normal annual pruning does that mean that there were funds from 2023 that weren't used that would roll over no they don't roll over operating doesn't roll only Capital does so what they asked for went away so that's why they're asking for more so the 77 to the 107 got it so at a time and do you have do you typically have a schedule for when you want that to happen that maintenance uh dormant season which is why it gets tricky because now is the dormant season and is doing right now which is what is happening right now so it's tricky because it happens early in the year before the budget's approved and um but we can we can work with that because once we if we can get into a rolling thing the hardest thing honestly that takes a huge amount of my time is meeting different companies to do the work and it's always and we always end up sending selecting this one because they know the town it's SE um the that we work with that I that I consult with um is very knowledgeable and experience and they they offer a good price um and it but when I to talk to all the the two you know two other arbit we um it's hard to explain it's not like we're saying how much do this table give us a price it's very it's it's subjective understood um so it takes a lot of time and then then there're not Apples to Apples when I get the quotes we have to look at that and so it just takes it takes time and we focused just to say really really focused on treat inventory last year including a grant that we put lots of work toward and then we couldn't get the facility to apply for it so um but in terms of a schedule for um over how many years do you want to do a big pruning like this that you're going to do we prune through the parks every year okay and it's not always the same Parks this year it's Barn Park um some Heritage because Heritage is been and and Village specifically is the Atlantis and then there was um another Tree in village that was problematic so so mostly the the work in village is we're this is the third year in a row now we're working on that V the the wood pots and we lost some what 3 350 400 trees from there um removing the atanus there was a lot of atanus in there which is one bugs all over town yeah and um but to answer your question too about tree pruning you know you take one tree and it shouldn't need to be pruned more than every three or five years that's that's the answer so thank you but a lot of them have never been yeah our tree inventory off so we have the new so we have a whole so we need to establish a routine so that um I'm just asking in terms of when we create a pattern in our in our budget right uh you know should we see this kind of a budget ask in the next three years well yes yeah ask every year yes and and because what we haven't done is we have not haven't pruned or managed maned the trees that we planted in 2011 on the hagy property now I know there's 2500 trees there and that sounds enormous but um there has to be some work done in there and if we're ever to get back a real preserve work has to be done there too and I'm not saying we're going to accomplish this even in you know five well maybe hagy in five years but the West trct without a deer fence I think it's hopeless um okay well but that that's where you sort of create your priority list and so so in the beginning of the year so we look at the parks um we see what and we get complaints we get inut from um from folks who say you know the branches are hanging over the sidewalk and people can't pass that kind of thing okay so we try to be responsive very good how are we doing everybody um everybody on board yeah 100% more trees and thank you and I I was talking to save a tree about a month ago and they were singing your Praises they said very knowledgeable very good to work with and you're a good customer man install you guys I would I would get that whatever permit let's not yeah no you're you're good yeah just keep hiring the people thank you thank you for making the time today I guess not which is fine because they came last year and asked for the multiphase sign so I just didn't know if they wanted to give us an update on what this next phase was going to be but I had it in from last year so I put it in again this year and for 2024 it's 11,8 98 yeah it's it's in track with everything they did before so I just told them there's no need we got them covered as far as conversation and the signs were delivered oh wonderful they were delivered they were delivered and they're uh coming up with a kind of hierarchy but nice it's up to Jerry start with the hardest first in case you need parts and that or start with the easiest first hard with Main Street as long as it's all done by next week it's fine that's what I say no we know he's kidding that he's kidding no no no no no but I think that that we gave Jerry REM we gave Jerry the freedom to pH this through and Stage it yeah in his time right that's awesome that's really good news so we we um we have this look maybe we take a little bit of a break right here since HPC is up can we just finish up the capital go through rest the capitalist you want to finish Capital yeah I mean it's up to whatever you guys want to do and then it's just uh use of surplus and tax rate public comment so in other words your your thought is plow right through yeah yeah if everyone wants to we're probably 30 less than 30 minutes all right okay let's let's go all right so you have your sheet that I gave you for Cle that we've been going through and we've hit almost all of them already with the different departments that came in right so the first one was the historic sign we said yes to um the next one two three four five six seven are police we said yes to those I have a quick question yes a little bit of confusion was that one police vehicle or two two two okay good two and unmarked and a marked um okay so miscellaneous Road repairs and resurfacing I put 20,000 in each year um because we have you know potholes we have cracks that need ceiling sometimes so you know our roads are older we try to do the big roads in one each year but then other roads things may pop up so I put that um across the board um cranberry sewer improvements once again we have several pump stations that are our responsibility they're getting older every year something happens to at least one of them so I have money set aside every year for that because um I I wouldn't want to have to do an emergency but if a pump station goes down it has to be fixed immediately um South Brunswick sewer improvements this um comes from South Brunswick and it's the pump stations that cranber flows through per our agreement with them each pump station has a percentage that we are responsible for it's all spelled out certified by the engineer this is what is going to be needed for 2024 they had a lot of big capital projects over the last couple of years and if it doesn't happen in 2024 it just rolls and I'll it'll be sitting there when I need to pay it um that's a big increase over last year it was 100,000 last year yep um because a lot of the things um that they estimated were going to happen came in like 25 30 40% more than they thought based on construction cost and it's all certified I mean it's you know we have all the backup it just happens because of the times um okay but most of that I you probably don't notice my notes is going to be coming out of um fair share a large chunk of it that's money that we collect when new developments go in or new warehouses they pay their fair share of sewer and we put it in a trust fund we have a good chunk of money in there so I'm going to be using that to fund this so it won't go to a bond um okay we did I'm sorry is this something you see coming along every year there years every year you it'll be 600 it'll be no I don't think it'll be 620 but every year there'll be something you what's last year was 100 what is it been in the past before that um it it well it it's each year so what happens is when they send it to me a lot of this stuff are multi-year projects so I will put it in the capital all in the one year the money sitting there and I pay it right so now this will cover us probably for a few years unless they send me something saying the cost went up and then I'll have to to put that so essentially last year it was not 100 it was more than 100 yeah it was more than 100 what we paid last year but I only needed a 100 on top of the ordinances I already had in place okay yeah um okay so uh pickle ball Courts for we said no so I took that completely off uh rebuild tennis courts to include pickle ball courts we said yes inclusive playground yes um Parks the first two were yes the last three were no uh the next item is the bike Network plan so we did not give that any money last year because Barbara couldn't tell us what she was going to use it for we now know we now know we're going to be using it for Gateway signs um right now um probably there's probably going to be at least five that we're looking at we have to get permission from the county for some of them but we're going to use it for that um striping signage it's not $325 per sign per sign but then we have to pay to install it too and that gets up to 20 um no but there may be some striping that needs to be done other things that need to happen with it so we'll leave that and then the following year if she's putting more signs you know or the plan progresses because the county actually you know works with us to do wanes and stuff then we'll have it sitting there so and HP is aware of this right I was just gonna say so HPC is coordinating um with Denise and so there isn't redundancy for their long-term phase two phase three signage program so that right there's you're not going to have two signs in the same spot so it's a waste of money and your visual it's great the next is um our road project for the year so um based on our inventory and assessment by the engineer and Jer um Corporate Drive Barkley Wesley Westminster Sims and we're going to try to include that connection which is Corporate Drive Corporate Drive is over by Kerner on the other side of the highway but we actually own the roads and they are really really bad tell tell me again corporate um I think corporate is where Kerner is off of Route 130 so if you die road back there how off South River well sou D South yeah it's one of those roads back there like yeah back there oh okay yeah yeah yeah the Cedarbrook um is Corporate Cedarbrook no Cedarbrook is Cedarbrook I think corporate is the Kerner oh it's where break water their warehous it's the next one that's that's Corporate Drive right okay yeah yeah okay yeah yeah yeah the the road going through not there parking lots and all that um no the road well the roads we took them over so they're ours okay all right yeah and they're bad Jerry said they're really bad and then Barkley Barkley Wesley where remind me where Barkley is Barkley wesler Westminster and Sims so Sims is off of Cranbury neack R yes s sims westminster's by the cemetery westminster's yeah right um and Wesley and Barkley are over in that Wesley is the half road that connects Westminster to right to Parkplace right and where do Barkley Barkley I know oh Barkley is Barkley is the little offshoot it's the little offshoot that goes to the um that goes to the the um the Gordon house yeah yeah yeah okay yeah all right I know I I go past these all the time yeah we try to put them all together in one you know so this is this is kind of the missile like Corporate Drive and then it's a bunch of tiny little ones that we bundled together and this is less than last year we put in almost 900,000 yeah well there was more Road and and it actually came in under that anyway last year so um but again I'm going to be using money that was left over from that to fund this so um lat crosswalk at all Trenton Road in Washington Drive it's something the traffic subcommittee had been discussing okay so that will be our portion of it the county will do their fair share and then that'll be will this look like the other three okay nice cool thank you the idea I'm sorry Denise just going back to the roadmill the 12,000 for parks would come out of that number yes okay yes hopefully we should have enough in there to do that yes um W off Mills Road so engineering costs for that the um because we did receive the money from the grant so yes but there'll be um bid specs and and um inspection and all that kind of stuff and if we don't don't use it all that's fine that was his estimate okay Public Works building repairs Jerry rarely asks for stuff on his buildings but they're so old now he said if we're going to be working on the firehouse might well do his too he needs roof siding and the garage doors and that's about 180,000 he believes okay last time touched that building it since it was built probably yeah and Jerry doesn't ask for anything he doesn't absolutely need yeah yeah he seems to mcgyver everything is DPW fully staffed um no not really okay there's six guys no I just didn't know was there an opening um is there is there any open oh I guess we can talk about when we get operating that's a personal thing but we could always use another person it's finding one with their CDL they need a CDL I remember that from last budget meeting yeah okay yeah um dump truck with snowplow Jerry said his other one's old and broke so he needs another one um and then lawnmowers any equipment um for another 45,000 those I'm going to be taking out of a grant um the the lawnmowers and Equipment will come out of a grant so I don't actually have to fund that but it'll have to go into the capital and that's it for 2024 what's What's the total that we down to like two 26 2 well yeah because you take the 260,000 out and honestly again you take the 675 out because I'm reappropriate that from other grants okay so we're down to probably about 900,000 that I'll have to fund oh oh yeah 900,000 million because the 620 comes out of the Improvement okay and how much how much have you had to fund like last year the the line item said two 2.3 million but how much do we end up having to um last year how much did we fund um I can tell you let's see in 2022 6 it'd be 23 right um the road road project came out of um s uh Surplus so we didn't even have to really fund that so I would I would say probably 66 um a couple hundred, probably I had a fund from last year okay that was it because the 618,000 came right out of the road repair Surplus okay last year so yeah that's great so that's capital okay Denise what's the uh process forgive me it's a remedial question but what's the process for identifying roads that are not County that um you know people are kind of raising their hand need repair yeah um so we have an inventory list that our engineer did years ago and then Tom Decker takes that list and he updates it basically like okay we've done this road already this road I thought needed it next but guess what we've decided instead Shadow Oaks needs it or you know licky Drive needs it and so he goes through that and then Jerry weighs in because he's out on the roads and he's like no this road is a mess there's potholes everywhere we can't repair it anymore it need has never been done we need to do it and so between the two of them then they give me what road for the year that we're going to do the grant for and what road for the year that we'll do out of Township funds because side roads like that typically you won't get a grant for they like like one big long road like Mills or and then it is technically the same process for County right because if anyone's noticed like the endol treaton down by where that water just sits there that road is deteriorated significantly in a short amount of time like it is like it within the last two months it is deteriorating so like how does that get on the radar um well I mean we can call and tell them there's an issue with it and then they'll say the same thing I say well we have a priority list and when we get to it we get to it because we only have so much funding for this year so um you know if it's not been done that long ago or they don't feel it's a safety issue or they'll be like not this year has to be pushed got it thank you Denise had mentioned also in the past that uh people can sort of report issues with roads uh on um is it a site through the police yeah they can report to the police that there's a problem with the road and if if there's a big pothole or something then they'll call the county and be like yeah you know there's a safety issue out here after their guys look at it they'll be like oh yeah it's pretty bad they'll call the county or they'll tell Jerry right you know so and and that's a good way to sort of communicate that information to us yeah thank you okay okay so let's talk about tax rate and use of surplus because I know that's the fun part uh let me quick question this is for next year but this million dollar fire truck do we have to pay for that all in one year um well if we did it yes but again that's a placeholder they had asked for and they may come back and be like we don't even need that but I have to build a plan for the state they make they require it and it's three to five years so I need to put something in there so I put it in but that doesn't mean it's going to happen there okay so um with this with this year's revenues replenishment of surplus use of surplus and what our operating budget looks like right now I'm using 1, 765,000 of surplus in 2024 to keep the tax rate flat so there will be no increase in the tax rate um we used 2,285 2023 and we replenished 1,821 so we used more than we replenished which does happen but that's something that we keep an eye on right because if you continually do that eventually you run out and you don't want to do that um but we're still in a really good place using the 1,765 which includes $350,000 put aside for any of these capital projects that we wanted to use it for um or anything additional that might come up during the year um such as purchase of property or things like that so um with using the 1,765 we still have $6 million sitting in Surplus um you know I estimate how much I think we're going to replenish based on what's left in my budget from two years ago because two years ago operating budget rolls to Surplus what added assessment ments there may be um based on the tax assessor estimate and then increase in assessed value those are all taken into [Music] account yeah okay so that's what we're looking at for this year um so Denise you don't recommend I mean last year we we put a million dollars into Road repairs last year and that and the net effect was we we dipped our Surplus a little bit so your recomendation is not to to be that aggressive not replenishing all of it right we can take a look again in 2025 because we may it may not hit till 2026 though we may have some fees from the Cannabis at that point but we I don't know what that's going to be and I don't know when that's going to start rolling in so if we get that that goes into our Surplus basically and we can use that to fund a capital project or keep the tax rate flat so it it will help build our Surplus potentially at that point and one one more thing I look at when I look at this annual budget is I keep the file from last year of sort of our Surplus and how our Surplus is trending and I kind of look at the last year of the Surplus and basically the and where where it Trends over time to see how predictable it is and our Surplus is down in the last year 2027 the Surplus is down that that number is showing up being down about $3 million where it was last year so that just says sort of the variability the four-year variability is sort of trend is an estimate for assessed value and added assessments but again as the tax assessor will tell you and I'll tell you that really is an estimate and he does it based on what development he thinks is coming in but there's no big big warehouses really left there's one I think um then there may be some rebuilds like a take down and a rebuild so he's but he's not looking at that in the very near future he's looking at that basically in 2028 okay so yeah yes so I I concur I don't support using any more than that put funding any more capital projects than the the 350,000 so how does everybody else feel yeah yeah thank you for the guidance I'm sure I mean and that also means that we will not have raised taxes in like 16 years we're back to the tax rate from 16 years ago yeah our tax rate yeah was 375 yeah back then and then we had to increase a couple years and then we decreased and then we've kept it0 38 for a long time pretty much yeah thank you Denise for that I think I think it's important to mention that all of our conversations until this one is everything costs more everything costs more the bid was 25 % higher and all of that and yet we're maintaining the same tax rate for our Township so because we've been smart all these years correct I think it's also it's to M Marella's credit we have not had to go out to the bond market in the last couple years so if if we're if we're smart we actually will have dodged the bubble of of the high interest rates because it sounds like the trend is actually heading back down and so we may we may have bridged a pretty uncomfortable uncertain gap of like two years where interest rates were really high and the next time we may have to go to the Capital Market things may be back to kind of quote unquote normal fers cross it be the end of this year and hopefully the rates will be so yeah and and and I may be able to push it to 2025 if I don't need the cash right away yeah so excellent okay so that leaves public comment I would like to open the floor for public comment we have two members today anybody like to say share anything thank you so much why didn't you come up why don't you come up hit the button on the right Jeffrey when you come up and it'll um and then just sign your name in that'd be great yeah uh just mentioning the road works I'm speaking about Bunker Hill they did a fantastic job Jeff Grundy and uh buker Hill they were sorry Jeff gry three Bunker Hills um I was often out there talking to the talking to the the the the the people and what was very impressive was that they moved as a crew there'd be three or five and they were moving Prospect Street Bunker Hill with each job that needed done needed do it so I think it was a good choice of um contractor and for us they did a very good job well thank you good thank you so much it's good that feedback is very important so thank you okay seeing no more public I'd like to close public comment and um motion motion to adjourn I'll move I'll second last all in favor my last budget meeting meting don't say that I know right don't speak all right everybody okay I think this might be last year we