so good evening welcome to the cranbery township committee meeting of December 11th 2023 um we will uh we will call this meeting to order for those that are able please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance IED Al to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you great we'll start with the open public meetings act notice pursu to the opena public meetings act notice that this meeting was sent to the cranberry press the Trenton Times and home News Tribune on January 6 2023 posted on the Township's website and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice we'll move on to roll call Mrs abwi here Mrs caner here Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and mayor fronte here thank you good so welcome everybody we have about 10 members of the public here um this is should be our last Township committee meeting of 2023 I'm splitting my time tonight I'm in the Cranberry Arts Council play that's having a dress rehearsal so this is not my choice of Garb for evening but I'm going to run over there for a dress rehearsal in progress uh tickets still available for Friday Saturday and Sunday or at least Friday and Saturday so welcome I don't think we have any additions and changes to the menu to the agenda and we'll go from there i' i' like chicken um excellent we uh move on to Township committee meeting of the regular meeting of November 27th would someone like to move the minutes of November 27th I'll move great second second okay you go ahead Mr Scott thank you thank you we'll move on to roll call um Mrs Ali yes Mrs Kum yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor fronte yes unanimous thank you excellent so we have a we have a packed agenda tonight we are going to go through 2023 accomplishments we are going to um hear get a presentation from um inclusive about inclusive playgrounds and we have a second reading of an ordinance um but first we'll go to reports and Communications from members of our committee um and we'll start with Dr Rogers um none of my boards and commissions met but um uh the uh the environmental commission is um is ushering helping usher along the Eagle Scout project which is the kiosk on Main Street um things are going along with that um November 28th I did attend the um the school event um that provided District uh goal progress and construction updates and it was very informative you can go to the uh School website to learn more about that meeting um and that's all I have awesome thank you very much Mel beway I get fabulous uh Barbara and I had a meeting a sustainable Jersey meeting and we discussed a little bit of um senior interest uh with sustainable Jersey age friendly age age friendly age friendly with sustainable Jersey um that's the I mean that meeting was not necessarily one of my le as on positions the only board that met was the planning board and that was for consistency uh review and uh that passed comfortably and that is it thank you thank you very much Miss can him we are cruising every single one of my leas on board's met uh traditionally on the first week of the month where I'm always traveling on business so uh I got some pre- meetings done I was able to zoom from afar and I'll start with EDC uh we reviewed the resident survey um results which we had 402 unique responses W EDC is working on an executive summary and we will present to the TC I believe in January 24 business survey resulted 22 unique responses we're going to be very brief in that summary um but recommend any insights are just purely directional based on the limited response we'll include an addendum um to the larger presentation again in January no budget request for 2024 we do have an uh opening available on edac beginning 1124 with anen uh leaving Chamber of Commerce again reiterates their support uh for the luminaries uh which we're all going to say is next Saturday and we're super excited because it's just an awesome event down so I expect everybody here to mention that event at least like five times um cranberry historic preservation uh met on December 4th again I was away but uh Prem met with them and got a download I am now a um proud card carrying member of the chips um and I'm embarrassed to admit that I was not one before I believe they're up to 150 members of chips due to my uh work and travel schedule I was unable to make the tree lighting and miss the tea event at the Museum but um heard that they were wonderful uh events and well attended I'd like to say that the cedar roof looks amazing on the 17 13 house I I just there's something about Cedar so everybody you know go past it Millstone Park it looks fantastic wet or dry uh presented the New Jersey rev uh Revolution presentation to chips um see a great tie in um to that organization walking tours 17713 house Colonial Fair Etc and the point person for that with chips is Karen Kelly so I'll be working closely with her and there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm to bring back the wasle so if anyone's not familiar with that uh you visit five cranberry homes enjoy appetizer Beverages and desserts and they feature characters from New Jersey uh history and music I believe the last event was 2014 and it was sold out so just saying maybe some demand there um so stay tuned HBC um Stephen Galas will be stepping down at the end of his term leaving a vacancy Sally Sant will become a full Comm commer and Steve's vacancy will then become an alternate HBC has an unheard of two uh applications interested in HBC so we have a waiting list it appears for the HBC which is fantastic uh signage is on track to be delivered early January 2024 an installation to begin soon after discussed again Revolution New Jersey and ideas to participate Richard grubin Associates will give a um database and Survey collection this is phase three this is where they go and review all the properties and premises and locations within the historic district and they categorize them I think I've shared this with you guys before whether they're contributing non-contributing or excessively contributing to the historic nature of that um this will be at the library on January 25th at 7 pm um which is is really exciting it's truly amazing work and very detailed and it's it's super interesting so great if everyone can do that uh Board of Health we're formally requesting that the mayor's Wellness campaign fall under the responsibility of Board of Health uh the rec committee was asked if they would take this on they said no so this seems to be the next logical place for it to fall um if approved we'll uh assign a lead Board of Health will assign a lead within their Das to you know take that on the annual event um calendar um we've asked uh Board of Health to to uh create that I volunteer to do it um anything again that is paid to participate event we will push that over to the cranbery of um Chamber of Commerce and the rest will have the township amplify that message if there's no fee for any event um for that and I'd like to post that monthly calendar in the town hall kiosk as well uh the rabies clinic we already have a date September 21st 2024 that will be after cranberry day so they can use cranber day to promote that and get as many uh folks out there to vaccinate their dogs and we believe that is a dog only event sorry for the long-windedness but everybody met so thank you and M K thank you for I mean with your travel schedule you've been super good at maintaining your leaz on relationship and it just goes to show you don't need to necessarily be in the room with the with the the organization sometimes a check-in before and after our good book ends to not being able to attend in person so thank you for doing that appr yeah um any questions or or comments from Miss Canam are we all in support of the mayor's Wellness going under Board of Health I think it's kind of floated a little bit but I think they've had the most passion and most drive towards it everybody I yeah it makes sense it has to do with health so that makes sense and are you I mean among mon I I have a question for you though does that mean that the people that are on the mayor's Wellness campaign have to be members of the Board of Health no no okay that's what I want to clarify it's almost it's very interdisciplinary by nature of different Health elements so there're I I think they're more sort of coordinating the efforts and sort of streamlining the calendar of the events that's it and there'll be one point person that'll reach out to anybody who's been participating in that Wellness Plan the idea is to amplify it so that you know we can make 30 people that show up to an event become 60 become 90 become you know etc etc so these events are phenomenal and I just think it needs more momentum so to get a commission or a committee behind it makes sense so appreciate your support and I'll I'll let them know and just so I'm clear the the Board of Health is okay with that they're they're advocating for it okay good yeah originally re re said no so they were like okay now this makes the most sense regardless they want it to continue that's the overarching theme it's like let's keep doing it I'm just thinking because you know i' I've been on it too that um just one person would like would need to be at the Board of Health like not the whole subcommittee right yeah okay thank you Miss caner Mr Scott yes uh thank you I'm GNA go a little bit long tonight because I'm gonna talk about two things one I'm going to talk about the results of the pickle ball survey and then I just want to kind of give a recap and a timeline for pickle ball and and what my recommendations are for for best steps forward um because it's been a a a tumultuous year with pickleball um it was funny you know at the beginning of the year when when I was picking my assignments um I thought you know re-election coming up at starting a new job I thought I'd take two relatively calm and easy Slots of wreck and pars beginning of the year I was like salt and pepper now I'm just salt so just be careful what you wish for okay um so we um as as a result of of of sort of going back and forth on on location for pickle ball and actual you know trying to gauge the depth of desire for pickle ball we put out a survey a couple weeks ago um which closed on on um this past Friday December 8th we had a total of 353 responses um five of those were not from cranberry which I only bring that up because one of them was my wife which I don't know why she did that but she responded she doesn't live here so I don't know if she wants to tell me something or what but hopefully just a mistake on her part so 353 responses um 57% 2011 respondents were on on a scale of 1 to 10 how how how interested are you in having outdoor pickall courts build in Cranberry uh 2011 respondents or 57% were were at a 10 um there were at a level of one which is the least obviously interested there were 73 respondents um and then in the in the middle ranges there were um maybe 16 20 35 for respondence between eight and nine and then the remainder were um between two and five I'll share all these results with you guys later the point being that of the 348 respondents um you know 230 or so were were strongly in favor and about 75 or so were were were strongly opposed um and again the the the survey asked you know if you're not interested please check off any of the reasons that apply and the the those that did reply they didn't were not interested the the number one concern was was of noise which which we've heard so uh I think the survey was interesting it it was a relatively brief window for the survey with with a relatively um small amount of publicity so I think 350 348 respondents is a pretty good number but I don't think necessarily is is really all that important as far as our decision- making process goes so let me just back up and and give everyone um here tonight and everyone who's watching on YouTube just to sort of overview of of um what has transpired during this year for pickle ball so fall fall 2022 um you know we had some uh very engaged local citizens come before the TC and ask us to consider construction of freestanding pickleball courts in town I know that people get upset by that because we already do have courts in town they're in Village Park we have two uh temporary pickle ball courts set up um on the on the existing tennis courts so uh um after uh being uh besieged by requests by by a very um vocal group of people who wanted to actually have us build pickleball courts the TC in January of 2023 earmarked funds to have um our Township planner and Township engineer investigate feasibility and location of pickleball courts as well as in investigate inclusive playgrounds which we'll get to later tonight um so we earmarked funds for that um and then starting in 2023 parks and wck the two separate committees started the process to consider plans for the location number of pickleball courts um and because um there's a little bit of overlap and it's not really clear which committee actually gets to make the decision on on where um said Pickle bar will be located I decided that Parks and Rec should create a subcommittee where they can they can join um uh members from each committee to meet and and help figure out um possible location and number of courts are pickle ball so concurrently with that the the town planner as a part of um the the funds that we gave them to investigate pickle ball um they began conducting a study of possible locations feasibility of locations and and possible um uh pluses and minuses of having pickle ball in town and this was all done um in in concurrence with the open space update plan so uh May 10th pball subcommittee um started their discussion process um sorry um and May 24th Recreation commit recommended Village Park um so the rec committee came up with their own idea of an ideal location so they they thought that Village Park um would be the ideal location um so that was their um location that they stuck with throughout the process however on June 14th Parks committee separately recommended that they would like three courts and they want the town to consider West Property Millstone and Village park behind dirt Hill separate from the location that Rec committee was looking at for consideration um then in October um the town planner released the pickle ball memo which we all had a chance to look at so the pickle ball memo um which was um very well researched well documented um professional memo that the Our Town planner Liz leey put together found a number of problems number one amongst them was noise um so it it in in the in the forward of of this memo it cited numerous National examples of of some pretty serious concerns with with pickle ball and noise and with possibility for litigation and it cited many examples of of towns and cities in the US that have actually um mandated certain setbacks for pickle ball and some towns have even um outright ban pickle ball so long story short um they looked at all the various locations that were considered for pickle ball in town West Property Millstone Village Park um and they basically said there is no ideal location due to a combination of issues with noise uh with with proximity to riparian zones um the possibility for Need for remediation of proposed sites it all led to the conclusion that there was no good or easy option for placement of Courts um so with that in mind and and knowing that there was an interest in in finding some kind of solution the TC issue survey which which I discussed already so in short I just want to kind of give what having spent the year on both these committees and and sat on the TC and been privy to all these conversations I just want to kind of let everyone in the town know and let the TC know what my thoughts are where what we should do and where we should go um as we've seen over the year and we've seen quite recently on on social media p pickle ball listed very strong emotions um for those who are both Pro and anti um those who play are very strong advocates for the sport and they they can be very adamant and um in their their advocacy um and those who dislike the sport or the idea of the sport also feel very strongly about it in fact we had some uh unpleasant heated exchange between members of wreck and members of Park which is you know it's sort of to be expected I guess um so just one of the things I want to highlight I think that over the year there's been a lot of difficulty um in my position as as liaison to both these committees because they been sort of fighting about who is actually gonna determine this process so there's a lot of overlap and sort of obfuscation over which committee had jurisdiction in the process um and as I mentioned above Parks and Rec did not agree on a location um adding to this confusion there was the fact that the W committee was unable to gather enough members for a quorum in the month of January February June August and September so they really were only able to meet six months out of the giving year um if you add this to the fact that the the pickle ball um Memo from the planning or from the arttown planner actually came out a little bit late came out in August so it kind of came late into the process so I think that we've all kind of figured out there's no agreed consensus for location um sound remains a very important issue I think um you know without really uh looking into uh proper location with with proper distancing for a court um and looking into the idea of um sound abatement I think it puts the town at risk of litigation and some very upset citizenry um and the survey while while small in scope it did it did show some level of Interest so I think we're sort of we're sort of stuck in a gray area here so after discussing after the last wreck meeting I had last month um And discussing with um with Ken Jacobs And discussing you Mr Mayor I think one of the things that I would recommend is that we look at um our existing uh Village Park Tennis Court which I feel like is an underutilized asset um and you know it as I mentioned above it's been used for at least 18 months it might be longer I could be I'm not sure about the exact date but I know it's been at least used a year and a half for pickle ball um without any noise complaints from adjacent residents um that court is well great it's in a state of absolute disrepair um it's really it's um uh long in need of of of resurfacing um so my recommendations be to resurface the Village Park courts um with the addition of permanent lining for both tennis and pickle ball um consider adding some sort of sound abatement um and then consider uh upgrading the the rolling pickle ball nets that we have there um and going forward I think that we should um and I've spoken to a couple members in the TC about this I think we need to talk about what the actual roles and responsibility of parks and recck committees are and address issues of jurisdiction and domain between the two committees and discuss the possibility of merging the two if issues um as I cited above cannot be result um and then for pickle ball finally I'll just say if if we resurface Village Park um and it's utilized for pickle ball I think we can revisit any subsequent issues of noise and Resident complaints um and we should look into going forward we should look into further investigation of noise bement technology and then I also think keep an eye on the national discussion and the experiences of other municipalities and and townships with um with construction of pickle ball that's it cool Mr Scott thanks for that thanks for that summary of sort of the the annual journey I think we don't have to make a decision tonight so there's no decision but I think I think this that was a good I think that was a good synopsis of sort of the journey we're on and sort of the pros and cons and I think I appreciate you put in the survey in context about that that's that's not a free pass for this project it's it comes in context with everything we're looking at so um so with with trepidation I'm gonna ask if anybody has any questions from Mr Scott recognizing that we are we're not gonna we're not going to solve this tonight but just I think with the context of that sort of summary and putting the survey in context any questions for Mr Scott I um thanks for doing all that and your hair looks terrific still um anyway um you know we we just received a status report which we're going to um vote on um about what uh we do with our open spaces and the type of questions we should ask so um you know um not only noise you know it's also how it impacts our Open Spaces in terms of flood resiliency you know Etc there's so many other different questions that could be asked when we do uh think about placing things in our open spaces so um thank you that's all I just want to mention that there are thank you considerations any other questions for Mr Scott or comments yep the only thing I'd say is that I think on from a social media perspective the I'd like to clarify your statement that people were acting on behalf of parks and wreck no yeah in social media yeah I think they were yeah they were acting as um private citizens and expressing an opinion so I just want you to that's true kind of clar it was other people that were that outed them as members of the committee it wasn't M out added themselves as members of the Comm and to be fair we have a social media all our boards and commissions there's a social media policy any member of any board and commission can speak what they would like on social media they just need to not do it on behalf of the township or on behalf of their board and I think people are pretty good about that and clarify that that role great good thank you I think that there's a tremendous amount of discussion that needs to happen between um merging parks and wreck um I'm publicly going to say that I support that um it was brought up by um the chair s o' Grady at a previous meeting here um for the TC to recommend I believe madhabi also recommended that same thing I believe it I think there's more urgent consideration that we as a TC um should should you know gather around that I don't know many local municipalities that don't have it set up that way I don't know why we're unique in that right um thank you very much for I think Gathering all those facts I don't think it's I think it was a I want to say a labor of love it was just labor say labor Gathering all those facts but um I think what we've made clear as a teach and anything publicly is that there are multiple sources of information that this TC has gathered in order to make a decision which we're not doing tonight but I think I'm if I had a megaphone I would keep screaming that yeah yeah absolutely good so thank you for that good um I'll move on so my report I'll keep it brief I attended the planning board where their sole task of the evening was to do a consistency check on the um ordinance we're having second meing tonight and it was uh it was a unanimous um vote of that it was not inconsistent with the master plan which is in land use terms that's a that's like a that's an overwhelming endorsement um so we'll go from there um thank you any questions for me I'll put out a mayor's update tomorrow um I'll feature some of the events going on this weekend um let me know if anybody has any other events um I also attended um the manora ceremony today at a Memorial Park um which was very nice um Rabbi Z from kabad house in Monroe was there it turns out of the of the seven or eight people at the at the event four of us were from Detroit so how random is that so there you go so we all were saying where we lived and What Mile Road we were from so there you go um great um any subcommittees or department heads tonight so I don't know Matt if you wanted to bring up the roof repair in Village Park on the Pavilion yeah I I was gonna well I wasn't sure if that needs to go back to Parks or is that decision that we would make no we have to deci well here's the thing we already decided last year we gave them money for it but then there was can you go back and look at what kind of roof can we just clean the roof or do we want to just remove it and and put a new roof on and so um Parks came up with quotes for the different um ways that it can be done and there's cleaning or there's replacing with asphalt shingles or there's replacing with cedar so I can tell you that we have the money to replace with asphalt we do not have the money to replace with cedar if you wanted to do that that would have to be an add-on in 2024 we definitely have the money to clean it so what they're asking is do you want them to move forward with a non-pressure wash cleaning to remove the Moss or a full replacement which is why I was hesitant because I feel like Parks that's their domain and if they have a recommendation but they asked us does the TC want us to move forward with so they're asking the TC that's in this budget is that in our Capital we have $1,975 we approved in 2023 okay I mean does anyone object to going ahead with the cleaning and see how it looks I I that cleaning sounds good yeah but but there's big holes Michael we can we can clean but if we don't repair it's not going to be you still it's not impacting the usage from what I understand it's the corners so but it's still you know not a great experience and it's used a lot yeah I think it's got to be a clean and it's got to be at least it's got to be a repair so so why is that not an option why is repair not an option cuz when I Leed with them last year they were talking about repair patch patch no patch like with the cedar shingles Jerry said the the patch isn't going to work either he would Jerry would leave it alone he he said take the Moss off of it and it's fine but if you want to replace it that's a different story they can repair a spots only certain spots that's on here for 3,850 how much 3,850 so that would be the repair Denise with shingle with the Cedar uh it doesn't say whether it's cedar or not just says repair spots only probably asph from what I understand it's clean it off get all the Moss off and then those spots that are the problem spots which I think is the best wave forward from what I understand could could I ask what's wrong with leaving moss on it is it degrading it it is and it's causing the the holes okay yeah and the holes right now again are on kind of the corners and like not you know over your picnic table so they're on the corners so because I mean some groups have moss on yeah at all nice I mean so sounds killing it in the repair and then maybe in 2024 we asked Parks putting something in the 25 budget for cedar or asphalt Cedars Cedars banan's great expensive but again go past the 17 13 house and it looks awesome it's just super expensive yeah okay the the cleaning is actually a the method of cleaning is important right if we if we hit this with like a spray wash non pressure walk non pressure that'll blow a hole yeah thank you so we just voted that wait what we what we cleaning and repairing SP cleaning and repair and spots Y and I'm sorry to blor this but the so looking back at the letter now it says um you want to move forward with non pressure wash clean to remove moss which is one Co one quote at 1245 and then it says repair spots only at 3850 so we're doing both that's what they're saying it's two different vendors so I don't know if we can get the one to do both I I'll have to go back and find that out so is how much I think it looks like total will be 5,000 underneath what their what they yeah it's under what they have in I mean let's yeah so clean and repair four digits for six yeah like $40,000 for a new Cedar roof so all right good okay good good all right let's keep let's keep going we're gonna um our next on the agenda we're gonna talk about our uh some 2023 accomplishments so I'm going to move through this so um we we as a Township committee the five members up here sat down and set some goals at the beginning of the year knowing that sometimes your goals happen and sometimes the year goes off the rails but this this knock I think we can say it it's a year where we actually had Fairly stable ability to sort of deliver on goals so we set a goal of building a 2023 budget that keeps Municipal portion of taxes as stable as possible while maximizing resident value we did that we also funded a million dollars in Road improvements with Surplus we successfully implemented the village walking path in August 2023 we completed the Plainsboro Road resurfacing project through the dot Grant in June 2023 and put ada8 compliant entries and new crosswalk modifications at O'Brien um we uh monitored the petty Road resurfacing which was funded by Toll Brothers and that was completed in August 2023 we partnered with cha and Ingram on the walkway connecting Ingman to Bennett way um and then through multiple lawyers and discussion we got that completed and it's it's done and it's very nice and it looks like it's always been there and it's a lovely connector between the angr in the Bennett and it's lighted and it's a very nice and our goal always with uh with our properties is to have connected walking communities and this definitely reinforces that um we partnered with cha the cranberry housing Associates which is our nonprofit that helps us with affordable housing obligations they um they asked us to deed the road that that connects Main Street to the new Public Library was owned by them and not by the township but maintained by us so a little bit of house cleaning we got that approved by the zoning board they got that approved by the zoning board we approved that um November 2023 um we with the HPC implemented holistic consistent signage program including Gateway signs the as Miss Canam reported the new street signs were ordered um for for late 202 delivered an early 2024 installation very nice there's a sample up at the corner of cranberry Neck Road and South Main Street with the example of The Way Way finding and the street signs that's a temporary sign but to show proof of concept this will replace the various white hanging signs that exist and are falling down around town into a consistent downtown um look um we this was our first year with the new Municipal Library building we improved alignment a lot this year between the school the township and library with new leaders in place in both locations with almost 34,000 people visiting the library 650 new library cards issued and 4 7,000 print and non-print materials checked out so good year for the library and a ton of programming um we supported the Board of Education as they're working on their long-term construction project they had some stops and starts but they did pull us in for input on parking lot flow before the pro to the construction project so they've been very good partners and helping with repairs of and as you know the school in the township kind of share this plot of land um and we even share walls so we partner on that and they've been very good partners we support a business organizations in town um the new Chamber of Commerce had its first full year of operation um edac had their Community priority survey that was completed that Miss Canam reported on we've been trying to do well on keeping open boards and filling them within a one month of vacancy with limited success um we after last year with the fire company we we set a goal to review other informal agreements that needed to be formalized this year and we completed the library agreement that formalized what the library board will maintain and what the township will maintain we got that done in February um on the traffic subcommittee um we supported the middle sex County Freight study by holding a meeting at cranberry school um we kept the Cranberry Circle project progressing at the Ste at the speed of State projects which is which is slow but um the seven more years yeah exactly so but the solution there is essentially to Brickyard Road will make will will connect onto South Main South of circle and there will be lights ahead of the Circle that will allow cross flow for um so that should help the one of the most dangerous intersections in our area um the police support a successful and safe Halloween event with excellent signage and excellent presence with and we thank our crossing guards and our police for that and we installed new Gateway treatment at the station road entrance um sustainability a big year for sustainability installed sherrow on Old Cranberry Road installed bike lane markers and Old Trenton Road achieved silver sustainability status completed the 2023 stream cleanup informed residents about Community solar projects and completed a regional flood resiliency study and was awarded a Federal grant so congratulations on that on communication subcommittee um we streamlined Weekly News and an announcement into a digest weekly format we heard we had received TC updates from Seven boards HPC edac Municipal Alliance Library parks recreation and shade tree we installed the new Ki in front of town hall and we have a new Cask in front of cranberry Brook preserve that is in progress and being worked on by an eagle scout we also have some unplanned items that we accomplished this year and I'm sure there's more as we get the juices flowing but a couple or a couple of unplanned accomplishments we introduced an ordinance to seek a revenue sharing opportunity for alternative treatment centers we progressed the uh inclusive playground including being designated for a $300,000 State Grant we progress the open space refresh to inform future future parks and re permanent installation and um HBC did the street sign audit that complet that supported the new Village street signs so yeah it's a big it's a big year I mean we're we're very lucky a lot of things we set out to do this year we're able to get done so um thank you to we have a we have an amazing group of Township employees we have an amazing group of volunteers on our boards and commissions and we're very cooperative and supportive Tona committee so thank you guys um Great accomplishments I'm going to make a slideshow version of some events and stuff throughout the year so some of these will will be featured in that it'll be less dry than this but we'll um I'll put that out next week after The Luminaries are done we'll include that in there any questions or comments Michael yeah it's been a wonderful year you've been an amazing mayor thank you and I've enjoyed this TC I just want to say thank you yeah it's a good team good I I just want to say that it's amazing because so many of these are multi-year projects too and that they multi- multi years like the library um and you know and um the walkway the walkway all of them M the flood resil Etc traffic anyway but um it's great that they're all coming to fruition they all came to fruition yeah good thank you good so we are going to we're going to drill down into one of those projects now we have a member of the of the um of the Parks Commission that um is going to give a presentation on inclusive playground so welcome and we have our rec director Ken Jacobs so um and so the the context on this is um Miss fatias has been has been driving the the um the grant process for an inclusive playground um has been spearheading this thank you for your support in this you've been driving this for for several years and we've been moving at the speed speed of Municipal projects which um is faster than State projects but not as fast as business as Real World Private uh private space so um so so we're all in we're supporting this grant $300,000 in Grant this Township committee has put in 100,000 um towards that in in the in the budget and so um we' loved a brief update and sort of where you are and the status and um on this and so I'm going to turn there evening everyone so welcome so thanks for a few minutes of your time today Matt asked um Ken and I to put together a quick um summary of the inclusive playground subcommittee uh so if you flip to the next side so the members of the subcommittee is Matt who's been amazing and attending all of our meetings and our conversations to help move the project forward Ken who's direct director um myself from Parks Kelly Lavery and Leo fron have all put in a lot of their personal time and support for for this inclusive playground and from rack we have Irene and Courtney um Courtney um participated in a number of meetings and then has since resigned from Wreck in November I believe our mission as a subcommittee was to look for a space that is inclusive for everyone gives a space for everyone to play regardless of their ability and we were also looking for an area for the community of where you could gather and have have fun of course um in order for us to complete this Mission we met with a number of other Town wreck and Parks groups um they assisted us with their best practices things that we should avoid pitfalls Etc we met with vendors at proposed um sites that we were looking at in Cranberry to put this inclusive playground in we l at cost estiment and most importantly we also looked at the layout and equipment that would be great feasible in our town so couple highlights of some of the things that we've done thank you for the uh support of engaging the engineer to help us find um a space what was determined is that a demo and redesign of the existing playground in Village Park was the best place so that is the same footprint and space that um the vendors looked at to do a redesign and a layout new equipment the funding as you mentioned is 400,000 300 from the state 100,000 in the 2024 budget there's some additional Green Acres grants um that are available to us and Ken's going to explore them and look to apply for them by the due date in February of 24 and the decision from my understanding is is pretty quick after submission um resident support was immense so local residents um created a change.org petition which was about 600 plus participants in that um change.org petition and those results were presented back to TC from the from the members of the community of those results also you had a number of write-in comments as well as public comments that were presented um to C TC parks and wreck the vendors that we're looking at are all state and Co-op approved and participate on the New Jersey state contract um they have done work with cranberry in the past in a number of different capacities and we also spoke to a number of the board commissions so one was Shay tree to talk about the trees to understand if there's any impact to the trees um that surround the playground if any needed to be cut back and things of that nature um the shade tree commission did send an email stating their full commitment and support of the playground to Matt that was great um Recreation and Parks is in full support of um of the playground and in through this subcommittee I have to say it was very collaborative Cooperative experience so everyone gave a lot of their personal time came up with different ideas went to other areas in New Jersey to look at spaces so it was a really great experience with the subcommittee um an environmental asked to that's okay environmental asked just for us to look at vendors that have a sustainability a sustainability commitment in their policies and in the way they manufacture their equipment and all three do uh the space that we're looking at is the Village Park so it's like the L same footprint that is there today um pictures were taken over the weekend by Tyler sensey um with his with his drone so he was kind enough to help us out and give us some pictures of the area and the layout of where it's going to go uh so Ken's going to go through some of the some of the layouts and recommendations from our vendors so like Christina said we we reached out to three vendors I came in late in the game they've done a lot of the leg work before I came in what I tried to do was to to um get them to really focus on the pieces of equipment they'd like to see in the playground and then go back to the uh vendors to get a more solid um estimate from them um as you can see there's different amounts of equipment from each of the vendors um vendor vendor B has like the most equipment in there it it may be a little bit over the budget it's something we could we could work on but um there there are there is a sway table the the which is a a piece of equipment that someone on a wheelchair can can wheel right into and every any and there seats where they can they Rock back and forth it's a really neat piece of equipment that other towns have and and very popular we have a like a little whirl like a little Merry G around that's accessible on there and also we added just last week or the um seesaw that's accessible as well uh from that vendor B you'll see and then you know obviously we wanted to maintain the uh swings that are that are there and we're going to add uh swings for accessible swings in there as well and then so the the old the bigger piece is for the older kids 5 to 12 the smaller piece that you see on the left on most of them actually on on the left hand side of of the bigger piece is H for the three to fivey Old kits uh there's a ramp for wheelchair access on all those bigger pieces so the wheelchair can go right up and and actually be part of the higher uh end of the um of the playground so it's really really neat all three of them have a neat uh piece to it um and there's you know there one vendor that we feel I think is uh kind of standing out at this point right now but we don't need to discuss that but you could see that we there's been a lot of there's been a lot of changes to this back and forth a lot of emails a lot of work has gone into this and I think we have um a really good layout for for what we were looking to do great it's something for everybody so you want to swing you want to sway you have access to anything in that in that space and the and the uh surfacing that we would put in there would be what's called like a poured in place uh uh sustainable like uh it's porous rubber it's made from recycled tires from the for the base and then the top couple inches is like a porous Rubber and you can put different color you could do a couple colors with it and it's probably the best um type of surfacing for playground for Falls that you good that you can have because it it bounces so somebody fell they would not really you know hit and and they bounce to to come back back up so so needless to say it's the it is the the best surface that you can put under a playground these days so as opposed to the mulch that we have out there that we have to replace every year you know add on to so good all right so these are just some of the renderings that we got from the vendors to just give you like a quick vid like eye eye test of what what's there so that little sued tables that little thing on the bottom left that looks like a little ship yeah color scheme that we were looking at was yellow and blue match the school but that that could change as well so you could hit you could go through those so that's the little merry go around right there okay and there's another different different view of it from a different colors perspective okay there's vender B so you can see the seao up at the top there top right yeah so the larger part on the right is from the parking lot into the bigger play Space Y and there's access to about three things you have the Seesaw the world the world spin and then the larger unit for children 5 to 12 that's where the sway table is which is like a great like rock feel like a mini roller coaster um a tube slide um shade and everything else that's needed there then you move on to the swing is organized in B so the little babies have their their section together he have two um special needs um harness chairs together that actually face each other so when someone's swinging they could actually see each other and then you have um just a regular belt swings that you're used to seeing in Park and at the end is um we want to keep the smaller children a little farther away from the larger children so two to five um to go there there's also benches that were strategically placed they could be moved around there are existing benches in the park now like just outside of that area so they may not be needed we'll have to look at the area but with the space we've given I think um there's a lot of fun that could be had yeah I can't wait so um just a different angle yeah just a different angle and then um the last one is the vendor C if you flip through there um they just gave uh some renderings it's a little bit Limited in what they're offering is really just a ramp to shaded area they have a swayed table and a and a smaller slide but um it's not as robust as the as the middle vendor okay that's and then the pour it in place um rubber surfacing is what mentioned it's porous it's um it's manufactured with uh safety standards in place sustainable measures in place it's durable it has warranty that comes with it if there's a piece that's damaged that specific piece can be repaired potentially um it's very easy to maintain and slip resistant access for wheelchairs for walkers for runners for Walkers you name it you could go on there and have some fun good good that's it and I and again Our intention goes back to our mission is really to create a space that's fun for the community and bring bring everyone together it's great I mean thank you for doing this I know there's not a decision again not a decision here tonight but I think you've done now everything we've asked you to do to prepare us for I'm looking at that we've done mostly what they need to do to prepare for January correct yes now it's just a matter of finding out how we get the funding right because obviously we can't move forward with purchasing anything or doing a PO because I can't certify the funds until I know how they're coming through so and we also are putting the 100,000 in the capital plan so that won't be available until the spring okay good and and the we wouldn't necessarily have to go out the bid with this because the playground vendors are under State contract and uh the surfacing is under Co-op purchasing which I'm sure we're members of the one long as we confirm all that with eron obviously and also make sure that those State contracts don't expire 12:30 some of them do right good that certainly speeds it up y good ER just needs their code number she needs the state contract number or Co-op number check with her and then she can look into it all right well I mean I I just want to say thank you for doing this I mean you've you've been spearheading this you know for a long time this this must be feel very nice to feel that you you helped get this on our radar you got us to put it on the list we got the confirmation from the state that it's designated whatever whatever Hoops number of hurdles that jumps us over I think you got this committee to put in 100,000 for this I think we have a location you have a plan you have viable options from vendors this is this is you've done a lot of work thank you for doing this for the commun thank you for the support yeah and I have to again say the subcommittee of parks and rec was great working together so it was it was fun activity fun project good awesome look forward to seeing it yeah now we just have to see it any any questions for uh Ken CHR the only thing I'd say I'd reiterate thank you but um you know besides the Ada element I think several of us have kind of talked this is kind of the evolution of the playground yeah I mean again that spinny thing compared to the 1970s things that we all you know spun around on it's come a long way so from the 70s the 80s the 90s and to where we are today this just seems like progress overall by providing a safe play space for everybody in our community so I'm with mayor fronte and excited to participate in it and play on it but I again I'm just going to reiterate it it just feels like the right Evolution to keep updating our play space in in our town so thank you for your efforts yeah thank you very much and if I could you know we've been working together all year and it's been a pleasure uh you guys have really um made my work eat here um because you know we we'd come to the subcommittee meetings and you guys would have everything together and so you guys really um you carried carried a lot of water and I really appreciate it um appreciate the work that you did um and and to reiterate what um what Lisa was saying I feel like it's a playground for everyone we started out as as an inclusive playground but we worked on making sure that we had things that every age cohort could do you know we we added the the Seesaw because it you know if you guys remember seesaw is when you're a kid but there's an element of danger there which I think kids kids need to be excited about Playgrounds um so I I really look forward to to come January and U to to groundbreaking should be exciting thank youate your thank you so much I just wanted to point out that the white the the white the the yellow and blue are Michigan colors I don't know if I can as an Ohio State family support that I'm Swedish so there could be an argument there so yeah I wasn't going to say anything but wa what's wrong with the colors the blue Ohio State Michigan yellow oh michig I went Sweden he went Michigan you know there's an argument for a variety of color we have to find something that's no thank you very much thank yeah thank you so much thank you guys very much Vikings yeah there you go all right we're we're going to keep moving on um I don't think there are any followup items except for the survey and the summary um so I think we're good there I think we're not going to talk about boards and commissions vacancies because we are at the end of the year and we can't make any more um uh appointments so we're going to move on to ordinances we have no first readings tonight we do have a second reading of an ordinance and so um Miss Rubin is going to read the title we'll open it up for any TC members that um that want to speak on it I'm going to give a opening paragraph and then we'll open it up to members of the public for the public hearing my yes um this evening we have ordinance number 11-23 D2 which is an ordinance repealing article 3 section 50-9 and 50-10 recreational Cannabis of the code replacing with a new article 3 section 50 medical and recreational Cannabis activity and amending Section 1 15-5 of the code good so just to put this in context tonight we are the ordinance we're considering we're holding a hearing on this ordinance that proposes a more comprehensive cannabis ordinance to replace the current sections that Miss Rubin indicated the revised ordinance provides more detail around the classes and definitions of cannabis it reaffirms our ban on retail recreational Cannabis within the borders of our town and it allows for pre-existing cannabis manufacturers located within our town to cultivate for the Cannabis Market this ordinance also provides a revenue source for our Township by setting licensing fees and in indicating State permitting permitted Revenue sharing percentages from sales and transfers from Cannabis activities so the the Practical implications of this is this recognizes an existing company that has been in our town for almost 10 years um it limits future companies um from coming in and you know producing under this this um this company is building a facility on Brickyard Road they are approved to do it it is a beautiful state-of-the-art energy efficient facility that will be cultivating and growing um cannabis this ordinance gives them the flexibility to sell into both parts of the market um and it provides at the same time a revenue stream for the township um it actually allows for some flexibility for the company and it has essentially zero impact and disruption for our residents um zero discernable impact so with that any TC members that would like to speak before we open it up to the public okay um hearing none we'll now open this up to members of the public so this is um we will have a section for public comment later but this is specifically on ordinance session works as he's signing in is um we will now be quiet up here um the members of the public will have three minutes to give to uh give the statement that they want and when all the members of the public have given uh their statements we will close public comment and then we will do our best to address or Define action items out of that so welcome and if you could just say name and Street James Frolic uh vice president Breakwater treatment and wellness two Corporate Drive sweet e Cranberry New Jersey um won't won't belabor the point I just wanted to thank the committee and the mayor for taking the time to consider this issue and reiterate as the mayor said that um you know we've been operating here for almost 10 years and uh the effect of this ordinance is is is nothing outward other than that it gives the town an opportunity to share in the revenue and growth and allow us to continue to grow uh in this industry and be a resident for another 10 2030 years we're building this facility we're proud to call cranberry your home and we're very excited for a future here so wanted to thank the mayor and the committee for taking their time to con consider this issue thank you thank you any other members of the public that would like to speak um hearing none we'll close public comment and um would someone like to we need someone to move the second reading of this ordinance so moved Mr Scott moved second second Miss Canam second can move on to roll call M M albadawi yes Mrs Kum yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor fronte yes yes unanimously thank you excellent um we're going to move on to resolutions consent a through C I'd like to pull out resolution uh 12C um which is the recognizing the status report of the open space and Recreation plan just because this is such a Monumental effort that's been an effort this year so um I wonder if someone would like to moove 12C move M thank you second thank you good excellent so okay so this is vote is only on 12C correct okay so we'll move on to Mrs alwi yes Mrs can yes Dr Rogers yes this is to remove see okay yes this is to vote to approve on it oh that's what I'm trying to make clear we're approving 12C okay I I was going to just make a comment on it we're we're voting right now but after after we vote you're okay thank you yes okay Mr Scott yes mayor fronte yes unanimous thank you so please go ahead Dr Rogers okay thank you I wasn't sure of the procedure um uh I'm just really glad we pulled out resolution C and it has to do with the open space and wreck um plan um it um it was an an idea uh that needed to be done because the last open space plan kind of just review um update was in 2008 this is not an update this was a status report and um I just wanted really commend the subcommittee on bringing this home there were so many distractions throughout the year that it could potentially have gotten off the rail um and um what I really do appreciate is in 2008 I think it um was the open space it that plan just spoke about um active and passive Recreation this plan brings it now into 20123 um and you know as we were saying about the in par Parks how things evolve open space has involved to more than just walking in an open space or just playing in a playground it is also such an important part of our climate and um and flood resiliency and that was pointed out later on in in in the document and that is a voice that really needs to be raised and and hopefully we'll get an update in the next few years when we're going to have to update the master plan again um because the master plan in the next master plan is going to have to include in all aspects climate resiliency so we're well on our way which is terrific to be mentioning that our open spaces and Aman thanks for being on that subcommittee and the engineer and our planner so thanks for and M by the way thanks you for driving this review over the course of the Year yes good would someone like to move items 12 A and B move thank you second second no Mr Scott yes and we'll do a roll call Mrs alwi yes Mrs K yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes mayor fonte yes unanimous for A and B thank you good so we will move on to public comment now this is general public comment on any topic of your choosing so again um we same format apply as anybody who would like to come on up hit the button till you get the red light you can speak for three minutes if you'd like and um and then we will shut up and and let everybody roll through public comment when we're all done we'll we'll do our best to respond or address or action each of the items so would anyone like to please yeah just hit the button sign in please yep and when you speak you can just say your name and Street whichever one's going get there you go there you go awesome and you have to get embarrassingly close close to the microphone they're better there you go cool I'm Stacy Nunan I live on Bennett Place um I actually feel much better hearing Mr Scott's report um on pickle ball so many of my concerns have already been addressed but I took time away from thesis writing so I'm gonna read this anyway so pickle ball I don't play pickle ball um but I consider myself an ally my 82-year-old mother plays two hours a day with her pickle ball Club in Pennsylvania and that's great it's good exercise it keeps her out of trouble um her town has a population of 4,000 and they have two outdoor courts on the edge of town away from houses in June I drove her down to North Carolina for a onewe pickle ball camp and as for the two courts in Village Park I've gone over and shoveled the snow off those courts so people could play I get it people love pickle ball but it does have a well documented downside as a noise nuisance no other recreational activity has generated the amount of nuisance litigation that picala has has when courts are built close to houses and quite a bit of that litigation has come out of New Jersey the Ridgewood New Jersey case is nationally known ridgewood's Town Council is on record saying they wish they had done more due diligence before they built those courts and some towns have had to rip their courts out and some have had to pay for expensive noise mitigation so re's recommendation to build courts near the volleyball courts close to the houses on Bennett and Maplewood despite all of these lawsuits is disturbing and frankly disrespectful they either didn't do their due diligence or they just didn't care and to those who say oh you chose to live near a park you have no right to say anything about any noise cranberry's own ordinances disagree we take a look at Park section 1084 B and general code chapter 110 peace and good order I urge this Council to do its own due diligence with all the legal precedents no town at this point can say we didn't know I would start with the health department and ask them what the physical and mental health consequences are to Residents who are exposed to a noise nuisance on a continued basis and as an attorney myself practicing for more than 30 years I strongly suggest you count consult the township attorney about the town's litigation exposure ask about the exposure to injunctions to stop construction ask about the exposure to litigation after the fact if cranberry builds these near houses there is no upside to knowingly creating a noise nuisance near houses one noise mitigation study recommended courts be placed no closer than 500 to 600 feet from houses courts plac closer especially if houses are on two sides need extensive and expensive soundproofing my house is approximately 350 feet from the proposed courts some houses on Maplewood are even closer and I've heard nothing from Wreck about how or even if they plan to mitigate the noise from two or four or seven courts and that number keeps changing I would keep them at two I would keep the two that are already there I can hear them but they're occasional use it's not that bad but you start adding more courts to that if you put four courts in there you're going to you're going to that noise is going to go up exponentially again I come as an ally it's a great game but courts built near houses aren't good neighbors yeah good thank you Miss no and if if you want to feel free to email that to us if you want to okay if you want to so that's great thank you so much for coming tonight good any other members of the public that would like to speak all right hearing none we will close public comment on the final Township committee meeting of 2023 um I think our only action item is we are going to proceed with cancelling the O the December 18th Township committee meeting I think we we formalized that last time but I think we'll I think we voted last last meeting but yeah so we'll that'll be published tomorrow and I just want to thank everybody it's been a pleasure to be mayor for 2023 and I'm looking forward to great year in 2024 so great thank you and with that I'll take a motion to adjourn moved move all all in favor all right nice good job freshman year in the good baby soft one I'm skip