excellent I'd like to call our meeting to order the meeting April 22nd 2024 please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America to the stands Nation God indivisible andice welcome everybody open L uh meetings act notice please pursuant to the open public meetings act notice that this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trenton Times and home news tribute on January 5th 2024 posted on Township's website and send to those who requested a copy of this notice and we'll move on to roll call Mr Fon here Mrs kiram is absent Dr Rogers here Mr Scott and may bedway here thank you thank you very much um any additions or changes to our agenda for today no perfect we'll continue then we have three proclamations today um and I would like to read them I guess do I read them or do I not read them I can I definitely want to read the library one so you could skip the one that you've already done if You' like it's up to you do you have them or do I have them you have them they're in that folder I'm sorry I gave them right back to you um I read a proclamation at a uh Community event held at the library in celebration of the festival called holy so I will not read that today but congratulations to that community and it's wonderful for the library to lift community events in that way um we have a li Library commemorating National Library week so this is a proclamation so whereas libraries provide the opportunity for everyone to pursue their passions and engage in lifelong learning allowing them to live their best life whereas libraries have long served as trusted institutions for all members of the community regardless of race ethnicity Creed ability sexual orientation gender identity and socioeconomic status whereas libraries strive to develop and maintain programs and collections that are as diverse the populations they serve and ensure Equity of access for all whereas libraries adapt to the everchanging needs of their communities continually expanding their collections services and Partnerships whereas libraries play a critical role in the economic Vitality of communities by providing internet and Technology access literacy skills and support for job Seekers small businesses and entrepreneurs whereas libraries are accessible and inclusive places that promote a sense of local connection advancing understanding Civic engagement and shared Community goals whereas libraries are cornerstones of democracy promoting the free exchange of information and ideas for all whereas libraries Librarians and Library workers are joining Library supporters and Advocates Across the Nation to celebrate National Library week whereas be it resolved that I amended by the we mayor of Cranbury Township Proclaim National Library week April 7th to 13 2024 during this week I encourage all residents to visit their library to explore the wealth of resources available congratulations excellent um to receive this will be Dean right so is this is this the appropriate time can I can I hand this off now okay Dean would you like to come up and receive this I should this is just for the this is just for the proclamation right now if you want to come receive it yeah then we'll call you up on the on the agenda certainly LLY thank you just a couple more minutes thank you so much R um should I read the Arbor Day Proclamation yes since we have some um sh Tre members here okay we are also recognizing Arbor Day today with this Proclamation whereas in 1872 J Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce oxygen and provide habitats for for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our city increase property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees where whenever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal and now therefore I emended by the we mayor of the township of Cranbury do hereby Proclaim April 26 2024 as Arbor Day so congratulations very nice perfect thank you so much um I would like uh any amendments to our Township committee minutes seeing none I'd like to entertain um a motion to accept motion to so moved uh second excellent thank you move on to roll call Mr fronte abstain Mrs kir Miss abson Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and Mayo bway yes thank you thank you very much let's go on to reports any member would like to start first I have a quick one I can go first um so I did not was not able to join you on April 8th I was Eclipse chasing in Ohio um and uh but I did dial in from the snarl of the Ohio Turnpike can listen to the 22-minute meeting um which sounds like it was lovely but um a couple things uh just quick updates um I attended the school construction groundbreaking on April 9th the project is moving um according to plan with I I guess they did aestus abatement over spring break they're working on the old library space and they're gonna they're they're working on it in stages to get it done in about a year and a half two years it's moving along well um the I attended the planning board and the Dr C on April 4th which I think you reported out on um the DRC was a a specific review and then the library board meeting on April 11th I attended and nothing to note from that so thank you excellent thank you any questions for Michael I just wanted to add that it was a great event for the school um and fun to see you and a hard hat and the golden shovels and you know that they're moving forward excellent anybody else would like to go Matt Barbara sure you you want to finish that I don't have much I didn't have any my committees to meet um it was nice though on Saturday to be part of the stream cleanup very exciting hopefully we were very successful how many people showed up for that event uh probably I don't know if it was the actual headcount but it seemed like yeah like 40 yeah and is that uh number up or down from what it normally is uh it's about stable yeah considering the day it was yeah it was nice to see members of the Amazon team the Amazon warehouse team came again and Were You instrumental on getting them there we got them signed up for the Township news so they they're they we autopilot it they get the information got invited that very nice very very nice their coordinator their site coordinator gets the news and tracks events and comes when they can so it's great and um when will we find out the tonnage of garbage that was collected that day do you know they they send it to they send it to the chair and they send it they'll send it to me but it takes a little while um because DPW needs to calculate it and so does the Watershed Institute okay excellent thank you Matt any questions for Matt other than what I had okay wonderful um I want to thank Matt and his family for cleaning up that Maplewood area yeah that was terrific that was on the agenda of things that needed to be cleaned yeah they went to Maplewood AV and clean the entrance way so thank you yeah thank you Barbara and I walked that area and we were checking that area out yeah it definitely needed attention so yeah a lot more trash than I thought that's great that you went there and now there's less trash than you thought of um anyway um I uh so I'm just going to finish off the stream cleanup um I think it's about the 14th or 15th year um since its Inception and I've made all of them I think except for one year and every year I always always say I hope I we never have to do this because everyone's taking care of their own trash but um but once again we do meet up and it um you know I hate to say it was successful because of all the trash that's picked up um and Not only was Amazon there the Boy Scouts were there the Girl Scouts were there the um uh Parks Commission was there um well you know um and uh you know our elected officials were there um and uh it it and Watershed Institute brings the gloves and um and it's it's a it's a good event uh for us to all see what needs to be done um um okay so I had April 18th was the environmental commission meeting and um you know they're they they're working on um continuing to work on the ms4 um the inlet mapping um the high school kids I think are going to be starting next weekend um uh and then we have um the screen cleanup happened we had the Girl Scouts come and present and they're going to come and present uh well the one um will come and present today um about their um the kiosk upgrading and the garden that they're going to be putting in um fantastic that they um the environmental commission put together the information that's on the kiosk um on Main Street uh it was really a group effort on what kind of information everyone needs to go and see it it's on Main Street and the new kiosk that the Boy Scout um an Eagle Scout project was put up um and um I think that's uh that's pretty much it that I'd like to report out on that um and then also stream clean up day um was preservation New Jersey and another hat that my husband and I happen to wear is we um the guides historic guides so we had about I would say 60 to 70 people come from um all over New Jersey to come and we walked with um uh chips put together um this fantastic um you know program um that we walk the streets and it it was it's just so great to hear what other towns um are doing about preserving their um historic sites as well and how well cranberry is situated they're just in awe of everything of the um of what's been preserved um and you hear other towns of they're knocking things down they're um you know their commission isn't very strong um their volunteerism for you know this type of work is not up and um and just in the middle of showing them some of the homes comes marching down the Boy Scouts with the giant tire and stream cleanup was happening you know it's just uh you know it just shows the community of of cranberry in a really great light but um I really thank the cranberry historic preservation Society for putting that together awesome can I just ask a question uh Barbara regarding the kiosk what is the mechanism for posting in that kiosk and who is doing it and who is going to be maintaining that so um would you like to feel that so the information comes from the EC they provide it to me I say yes it looks good and then they put it in and I I presume they're going to update it when need it to be updated or take things out or put things in um John was really good about sending this stuff ahead of time I said looks good came he got the key from Donna brought the key back and and now everything's in the kiosk and how often do you anticipate that that information will change I don't think that'll often no because some really just great general information okay and I think but on the back side I think they're going to do is put um just pin up some things about the type of U organisms species that you might see plants and animals that are out there and fungus don't forget the fungus um that are out there um and um yeah um so so when you go in you have information when you come out you have information okay perfect thank you any questions for Barbara all right seeing none I will share um a shorter report um I too wanted to just congratulate the group on the historic tour that was conducted here this weekend um by preservation New Jersey and heavily um serviced I should say a lot of effort by chps and some effort by HPC and this historic tour was very informational and we ended up uh at the end of the evening we were hosted an event was hosted at the Cranberry Inn so it was just nice that it was all tied in together um the stream clean up although I did miss it I I definitely enjoy the event it's just a lot of conflicting events so you kind of have to choose where you end up going uh the school groundbreaking was on April 9th um many members of the township did attend I think Michael you were there Barbara was there I was there we had the police chief we had staff members we had previous admin from the school as well and we were uh we had a presentation at the end of it just to show us sort of the the timeline of how that all that is going to take place um I did attend the Library community event the holy Festival on April 13th it was very well attended very well done and the commentary after that event was so positive and I hope that um the library has heard some of the commentary because it's just been very positive so congratulations on an event well run on April 14th I attended coffee with a cop and uh I had just missed the chief I guess he had put in a couple of hours and I came towards the end of it and so um a couple of our police officers were there and it was just really nice to see residents come in to sit you know to chitchat and just support our our police and uh there was a wonderful exhibit at the cranberry Museum called path to preservation if any of you are interested in how things in town were sort of um preserved and and very deliberately preserved that would be a very good presentation to catch uh the chief provided Chief Owens provided some uh safety tips uh how to keep ourselves safe against burglaries I think that was put up on a Facebook but I certainly have that information in an email and I'll try and put some of that maybe in my update this was in response to your um question Barbara when you had asked the chief for some um tidbits on how to prevent burglaries absolutely and I wanted to share with you all today the very exciting news I had mentioned last meeting that we were designated New Jersey healthy Town up and coming through the efforts of the mayor's Wellness campaign and we're waiting for a plaque that has arrived so it's says New Jersey healthy Town upand cominging 2023 presented to Cranbury Township for your commitment to improving the health and wellness of your community and this is issued by New Jersey Healthcare quality Institute and congratulations to all of us because this is a collective effort you know um well done put it up on I guess so that's right that's right thank you Michael on the official side the only board that met for me was the municipal Alliance the meeting was held on April 16th um they discussed the municipal Alliance contribution to the National Night out and uh the interest to host a presentation on Cyber safety um I did make the note that as we invite the town maybe we sort of create some special invitations for the senior community because they don't always hear of these invitations um they discuss the school's Parent Academy and the success uh that it's seeing so far and they had a representative from a company called Wellspring um it's a center for prevention and it conducts educational guidance on dangers of drugs alcohol use as well as safe Behavior um some of their presentations are free and some of them uh because there some of them are funded by the state and some you have to pay for but it was just a very nice resource to get to know and um you know uh we'll see what how much we end up doing with them that's it for my reports any questions for me perfect seeing none I will uh any subcommittee reports that we have for today are you going to report on the traffic subcommittee or the specific issue for the traffic sub committee or is that we haven't had a meeting per se okay um is is there something that you wanted to mention no I knew that I saw there some residents for a specific issue and I didn't know if you were going to speak to that issue um I mean we we haven't had a meeting per se necessarily yeah we did um we did in response to the to the ideas and the queres from not last meeting but I think two meetings ago we did uh put up the the dummy car the the ghost vehicle as it's called Uh the police car on Station Road and that was not necessarily a result of the traffic subcommittee it was just um something that we could do right away to see what the result of that would be and so cars certainly slowed down for a couple of days but then they just picked right back up the way they were um but yes we haven't had a traffic subcommittee meeting yet thank you and department heads he's not so you know what yeah all right and something may have called him away I know that they're busy they're working on some things right now so uh we have on our boards today we have library and we have Municipal line so let's hear from our library uh first if you don't mind Dean thank you when you speak if you could just push down that button so that the red light goes on and then you'll be um audible welcome we're live okay great hi everyone my name is Dean clay I'm the technology librarian for the Cranberry Public Library uh and I'd like to thank Cranberry Township uh for the proclamation for National Library week uh it's an honor to accept the proclamation on on the library's behalf uh while I have this moment I'd like to just promote some Library services and give some thanks accordingly uh if you have not filled out a survey for the library please do so you can go to Cranberry publiclibrary.org and on our homepage for Library news there's a direct link where anyone can uh fill out the survey or if you prefer a paper copy you can come into the library and do that as well we take both forms of that uh I'd also like to talk about a new service that we just launched as we're always trying to expand our services uh the library now has canopy and what canopy is it is a Digital streaming service um cranberry card holders can watch unlimited movies through uh the app on your phone the smart TV a computer all with your library card all it takes is a library card and an account to to sign in and you can access movies immediately um from that I'd also like to thank Dela georgees from the environmental commission for putting on a program about sustainability in our own backyards for cranberry at the library as well that's it thank you so much that's awesome I was gon to ask have we put that the link to the survey on the Township news no we have not I've just put it down for myself all right that'd be great if we could get I believe so yes if you even send me that information then I'll make sure that we check no I'm sorry I me in the mayor's update what saying okay yeah so we we typically have followed that process that um okay you know that form that you created yeah so if it has been done and it's been missed my apologies but uh we will get that the information is the website yes yes if you go on to the website and go to our homepage under Library news there's a big post with a banner that says National Library survey everything like that okay when you click on that there is a direct link to our Google form for that okay perfect any um any questions or any thoughts for Dean I just wanted to mention that that library that microphone so uh has to do with the wildlife certification so that cranberry can become a wildlife certification it's New Jersey uhal National that's not New Jersey um people could go to the National Wildlife Foundation website and uh and find out what the checklist is to find out whether your habit whether your home can be certified and if we get a 100 residents um we become certified so very nice and who keeps track of that number is it the library no the go I'm sorry okay so it's a member of the EC it's a member of the EC okay perfect wonderful um you know thank you all so much at the library it what started out as an idea has blossomed into something that we all gravitate to and every week we look forward to events at the library host and um when I attend when I'm in a gathering people are constantly talking about something they attended something that they wanted to attend but there wasn't any space for them because it was so popular so you're doing it right you know congratulations well done thank you so much for coming and letting us know about what you do absolutely thank you so much certainly certainly thanks thank you we have another presentation tonight and that will be by the municipal Alliance if we could have our chairperson Joan Charan please welcome welcome hi everybody thank you for having me this evening um I'm Joan charwin the chair of the municipal Alliance I have been on the municipal Alliance for over 20 years since I started as a school counselor at cranberry school and I have been the chair for two years and five months so I would like to thank everybody on the township committee Denise marabello mayor El badwe for inviting me to come this evening I'd like to uh just say that um I have a wonderful committee to work with it's a privilege to work with the Professionals in the community and Beyond the community and if I could just give a shout out to our me um members Sasha Weinstein is the the vice chair Chief Owens on the cranberry police is on our committee Dr Jennifer dler cranberry School Chief School administrator Ria benero from Penn Medicine Princeton Health um she's a community wellness program associate then anelie Joshy she's a meditation teacher Andrea Kaplan a cranberry school teacher Diane Stanley social worker Erica skullman who is a cranberry school health teacher she's an alternate and Manish Kumar a Community member and it leader he's um Erica and Manish are our alternates and we have two students from the cranberry School 8th grade who are our representatives for cranberry school and they are kenes manga petro dracopoulos and Elizabeth Wong our secretary is Jackie Bryant our liaison is Mayor badway badawi I'm sorry B bway I'm trying to get your name pronounce your name correctly and we currently have one opening on our committee so we couldn't do this work without a wonderful committee that we have and I'd like to talk a little bit about our accomplishments and our goals so every year we sponsor the cranberry school jam fest we have two and they're held in November and February they are for the middle school students and they're very well attended close to according to Dr dler 98% of the Middle School attend and there are a lot of fun things for the students to do they always have a theme a lot of parents are involved in decorating they have a photo booth cotton candy ice cream donated by Gillan BS and the municipal Alliance provides games we have very large and heavy game equipment pingpong tables fooseball tables air hockey and we provide virtual game support through game truck and this past year a very big accomplishment was that we found a permanent solution for storage for the jamfest equipment with the help of Denise marabello Iman and the township committee we were able to purchase a storage container to house all of the equipment right on the cranberry school property and it's right next to the pole barn and now the school has easy access to the equipment we don't have to pay for storage and we don't have to pay for delivery so it's really a win-win situation and truly it took a village for this to happen Chief Owens held the equipment temporarily at the police station Dave uh Gallagher and Dave widell were're very instrumental in finding a place and making everything work so we're really very happy that that all came together so thank you everyone now just recently we had National drug and alcohol week fax week and we're going to show a PSA one of the things that we've done for the last two years is the students created a public service announcement for their peers and this it's a contest that's sponsored by the partnership for a drug-free New Jersey and Mike has it all set up and we're going to watch this 32nd PSA that was created by our three student reps he'll Shar attacks last year this is how many people died of just school shootings last year this is how many people have died in the United States military in the last 10 years and this is how many people have died of just drugs in 2022 if you are struggling with drug addiction there is help available such there a national heline 1 8006624357 and overdose prevention centers okay that's it well the students did a great job they followed all the parameters of the contest rules and they were very proud of themselves and we were very proud of them for putting that together it takes a lot I want to pass this around this is a little book I put together copies of flyers and different programs that we've done through the municipal just so the TC can see everything thank you so during that week National drug and alcohol weeks this was shown in all the health classes and we also send literature home to the parents uh last year we sent a guide A playbook for parents of pre-teens a guide for parents to take actions to protect kids it helps parents of pre-teens 7 through 12 to take actions to safeguard their health and well-being it's from drugfree.org and this year we sent home information to parents about talking with kids about Alcohol and Other Drugs and that was through SSA every year we have a well every year starting this year we had a fourth grade folder art competition this is also put out through the partnership for a drug free New Jersey where this goes to whatever schools request it throughout New Jersey the fourth graders can design a folder and then they're submitted so the students participated in the contest this year through their art teacher Stacy cranage and um the entries are in the book so you could take a look at them so we hope to continue that in the future every year we give out a third grade healthy life healthy decisions coloring and activity book sponsored Again by The partnership for a a drug-free New Jersey and psng the the activity book is colorful includes a contract for the child and the parents assign together pledging to stay Alcohol Tobacco and drug-free and there are a lot of fun activities inside and it's just for New Jersey residents and they also um they point out the Jersey Shore they have a puzzle about the the Jersey Shore which is really cute so um uh every year we have speakers and I just wanted to tell you about our speakers that we had in 2023 we had student and parent assembly titled a better High presented by Matt Ballas on the topic of resiliency and reducing stress and we also had another parent and Community Zoom presentation by Dr Omar abubakr on the topic of what parents need to know about opioids very informative and helpful programs and we participated in 2023 in Cranberry school's 125th anniversary celebration on April 3r by setting up a table with information and displaying drug-free T-shirts from the past 30 years so actually um Matt if you don't mind helping me holding this up so we had a quilt made of all the past 30 years of t-shirts we actually got all of them and it's many years of hard work andun and dedication to Substance Abuse Prevention and it's a lot of fun people to look at because you recognize the names of people who have participated in the contest in the past thank you finally that last part I did I finally found the last one and the the funny story is that um up until the day of we did not have the last t-shirt and I just pretty much gave up on the fact that we were going to have the last t-shirt and who comes walking into the the drug free Fair the health and wellness Fair Barbara Adams and she had on she goes oh I want to show you I have on my my shirt that I got the first year that I was teaching at cranberry school and it was the missing shirt so she was the savior of the day we were really excited about that so we've had the health and wellness Fair the drug-free fair for the past 30 years and this year it's going to look different we wanted to see how we can maybe combine with another organization and reach as many people as possible and there was already um a very um large built-in audience uh for the National Night Out so we're going to combine some of our Resources with the cranberry police department and we're going to have the health and wellness Fair during the National Night Out we're going to have some of our old favorites that we enjoyed at the previous health and wellness fairs we want to continue the t-shirts and and a lot of the same kind of Health and Wellness type information that we provided in the past so every year at Princeton um High School for the past two years we well no um every year for the past many years we provide sandwiches during the Princeton High School orientation for freshmen in August and not only provide sandwiches but information on the team teen hel line this year and last year pen uh pened Prince and health this year conducted the Teen Mental Health first aid for phas PHS sophomores for the entire class and trained 10% of PHS staff in Mental Health First Aid in order to support the students the lessons are taught by Debbie Miller she's the director of community wellness and engagement Craig Harley the associate director of community wellness and Maria benov who's on our Municipal Alliance and she's the community Wellness associate so they are in charge of all of the health and wellness programs through penm so it's really an honor to have them teach these classes they're very well qualified very enthusiastic and have so much great information to impart to the students so so I just wanted to say that um some of the things that they talk about in these classes are six session classes and it's taught through fizzed common signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenge common signs and symptoms of Mental Health crisis particularly suicide the impact of school violence and bullying on Mental Health how to open the conversation about mental illness and substance abuse with friends and how to seek the help of a responsible and trusted adult and as you can tell from that list there are a lot of very sensitive subjects and one thing that they do at the end of every session is they give the students an exit ticket and the exit ticket says do you are you good you could check off one of the following are you good do you want someone to contact you today do you want somebody to contact you during the week or do you want some somebody to contact you immediately so they have received exit tickets and what they do is when they receive an exit ticket they go right to the guidance office and the guidance counselors will take care of that so it's an extremely worthwhile program and according to Maria benov there's been a lot of Engagement from the students every year we set up a table with information at National Night Out in Cranberry day we have information and giveaways we um at those events we advertise the police that the police department has a Dropbox for medication and that's for um it's an ongoing Dropbox that people can go to every day to drop things off it's not just once a year they can drop off pills capsules patches inhalers and pet medications they cannot accept liquids or syringes but if people do have those items Li uh syringes they can be dropped off at the Princeton pen Medical Center they accept Sharps syringes epipens and they can be brought to the east entrance in a closed container with the their name and address attached a plastic container so the department um the DEA has a National Prescription Drug takeback day just to advertise the fact how important it is to do this and their actual day is this Saturday April 27th it's an official day to bring attention to this program and um the drop boox is located at the police department and it's very important to hand in old prescription medication according to the DEA too often unused prescription drugs find their way into the wrong hands and it's dangerous and often tragic I uh talk about at our meetings there are free virtual Naran trainings made available through Rutter's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and that's been advertised through the township so thank you for doing that there's also free monthly learning series webinars offered through the partnership for drug free New Jersey and it's called knockout opioid abuse and it all centers around opioids um April 25th they have a program called trauma and opioid disorder May 30th treating pain without opioids June 20th opioids impacts of Health disparities and discrimination July 25th empowering empowering p parents in prevention and recovery and September 12th recovery overcoming stigma and misconceptions and if anybody needs a link to get to those free webinars you can send me an email to my Township address we also provide information about mental health awareness during the mental health awareness day either on or around October 10th when the mayor's Wellness committee have their centr State live live well mobile Health Clinic available we celebrate Red Ribbon Week every year and there's always a different theme in 2023 it was be kind to your mind and it was coordinated by cranberry school counselors Christine Fulton and Lea Pella and the peer leaders make announcements they have buddy class activities and they the staff and students wear read on October 25th we also have giveaways um at Halloween on Main Street with a drug-free message and our new ideas for 20124 will carry over many of our programs from previous year as mentioned themes and speakers change from year to year and I talked about the health and wellness fair being combined with National Night Out the speaker theme this year focus on decisionmaking speaker for parents in cooperation with cranberry's parent Institute the topic will be how to teach kids to make good decisions and how to recognize early signs and symptoms of anxiety and where to go for help and the speaker for students will be how to make safe decisions in tough situations the municipal Alliance is always seeking to find programs and new ways that will support and reinforce the message of positive mental health and substance abuse prevention to all of the populations in our community and we thank the um Township committee for all of your support well done well done Joanne and thank you so much um the municipal license is always always busy and you're always thinking of innovative ways to approach the um the situation of drug and alcohol abuse and mental health and thank you so much for for for taking us on the very brief journey of what you do because I know there's more that you do um I have one quick question for you can you mention that date for The Living Well van again for uh I don't know off the top of my head when it is for this September coming up no this October it will be October but I don't remember what the date is okay okay and I I should have that but I don't have that in any case um awesome any questions for um Joanne I I think it's a terrific idea to partner with the health and wellness fair with uh the night out because I think you'll reach a lot a bigger audience too I think it's terrific one last question who made the quilt out of the t-shirts oh I had a company that I found online called repat okay they make t-shirt quilts and I had one made for my son of all of his t-shirts from when he was in high school and he liked it more than I thought he would and so I remembered it and I thought that this would be a good way to always have a memory of all these wonderful shirts very nice from previous Bears very nice thank you and please extend our thanks to all of the municipal alliance members as well okay thank you certainly thank you moving along in our agenda any follow-up items for today any thank you for that book none okay so we have um on our boards and commissions I have two vacancies to report today um HPC has a vacancy for second alternate Class C expiring 12 3125 anybody interested in HPC that's the historic preservation committee or commission commission commission all right and we have one full member expiring 12 3126 on the municipal Alliance if anybody would like to volunteer for the municipal Alliance thank you we have at this point I wanted to invite up our um Girl Scout we have a work session we have a Girl Scout silver award project would someone like to introduce this project for us today so tonight we have Kelly Sensei representing her Duo of Girl Scout uh silver Awards and just just to recognize um silver award is right about the e8th grade uh seven seven seventh or eighth grade range and it's then the sort of the the culmination of The Scouting CSE kind of the Gold Award so this is sort of the on the journey to Girl Scout Gold Award and so uh so miss ciny has um has a project she wants to propose she has followed all the proper channels she has filled out the application form and part of scouting is Bure learning bureaucracy so so she has filed that she has gone to the Parks Commission and gotten their approval for the projects this is her last stop so she has done all the necessary checks and confirmations she went to the environmental I'm sorry environmental commission and her partner is not here today so she's braving it alone Co welcome so thank you I know this can be intimidating to be here and sit here but thank you and we to hear a little bit about your project okay well hi I'm Kelly sensey and my good friend Jane and I are working on our Girl Scout silver award where seventh graders and so what is our silver award our project is to create a monarch Way Station in the Cranberry Brook reserve and a monarch way station is a place that butterflies specifically monarchs can come during their migration trips to rest or reproduce in the way station we're going to be using native plants because they won't harm the environment they'll grow better and it's just it's a win-win for everyone and we hope to start planting in late April through early May and I have a list here but we're going to be using two milkweed plants and a variety of other nectar plants in the way station and I think you guys talked about this before but there will be a kiosk in about the center of the way station which will display information about our project and our project is actually continuing former Girl Scout and boy scout projects so there's already information in there we're just going to be renewing it replacing it and yeah so I passed out a paper earlier I think and it shows where our project is so it's located in the red circle it's south from the cranberry school which is in the top right corner and it's in the Cranberry Brook Reserve it's on a little corner if you look on the map so our project is going to be hang on sorry so why are we doing this project our project is going to help the butterflies and their populations because as you might know butterflies and monarchs are endangered animals and so milkweed as said in its name is a weed meaning when Farmers see it in their Farms I guess they might try to kill it which is harmful for the butterfly populations because they lay their eggs on the milked we also hope to teach the community about this issue through events like National Night Out and cranberry day we've gotten help from Dela George's our Girl Scout advisor she's back there thank you Barbara Rogers up here she's our project advisor and we've gotten advice from Master Gardeners Susan tar and Jessica irons along the way so we plan to sustain this project using multiple ways including the Girl Scouts themselves so we're going to get them to help us with planting watering weeding and just generally looking over the area and when I say the girl I mean the younger troops and our troop itself we also hope to ask the cranberry W camp for help with watering in the hotter months such as August when the school is away and speaking of the school Jane and I are very involved in school clubs such as Peak and Peak itself has actually already offered to help us with planting we have I believe 14 eighth graders who have also Express that they would like to help us and so we're grateful for them thank you and sustainability is also like watering weeding and general maintenance so when it comes to watering our plants have medium water needs which after talking with the Master Gardeners they said that's suitable for cranberry in cranberry's area and we hope to water once or twice a week getting help from everyone else and of course taking in rain and when that happens how much it rains and so weeding in general maintenance is going to happen probably two to three times a year or if me and Jane check it over and see that it might need more than that we can adjust accordingly and by general maintenance I mean just go into the area looking it over and seeing if it might need anything um we also are going to get these plants through a donation from Ruckers there's a very long name which I'm going to be honest I don't fully remember but they have already helped with donating and when it comes to the costs of this most of it is going to be covered through donation from places such as solar landscaping and they've offered to help us with donations so thank you any questions so you have uh first of all thank you so much for that presentation thank you and it was clear and I very much appreciate a map because I don't I don't exactly know the layout of the West Property um and so this is very good to see cranberry cranberry book Preserve sorry yes ma'am it's my thing I got it I got it um so um I mean you've answered the question of what you're going to do you've answered the question about um how you're going to fund it you've answered the question about how it's going to be maintained and remain sustainable does anybody here have a question on any of those I I mean I think you addressed all the questions I had I I just want to I want to thank you I mean this is I don't know if we've ever had a silver award come to this committee before so I just want to acknowledge once again that this is a little it can be a little intimidating and I really want to give you a lot of credit for coming up as a seventh grader a rising eighth grader to you know to do this in this forum and just recognize you're that you're you're coming in as you got an A in public speaking if there's an award for this so seriously thank you it's the third sensey too soed you had to your brothers were here um I just really applaud this because um that area has had plantings and that was a a silver award prior and um and and to just build on it is so important and um and also um that was an Eagle Scout project and um and there is an animal that is digging into that kiosk so I am really happy that you're going to be replacing that Center the board um so that that's terrific that you are not only managing an area but you're also growing it into a you know a bigger project so that's and a very well done well you look like you have a great team behind you and you certainly have the support of this TC so congratulations and we look forward to a wonderful monarch butterfly station is that what this is called yes awesome awesome you well done thank you to Dela thank you to Barbara and everybody else involved in this do we need to formally can I move that we approve the proposed Sil uh Girl Scout silver award project proposal a are you second second yes I'll do a roll call uh Mr fronte yes M K is absent Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and marel bedway yes it's unanimous thank you and this is the easy part now you got to build it you well done congratulations how do you follow that right Orin understand right first readings the very sterile ordinances okay so for today we have two ordinances up for first reading we'll start with our first ordinance which is Cranberry Township ordinance number 04- 24-11 creating in the code of the township of cranberry middle County New Jersey chapter 131 entitled tree removal and replacement if we can have a motion I'll move to introduce I'll second thank you we'll move on to roll call um we have Mr fronte yes Mrs kir Miss abson Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor El bedway yes thank you we're going to move on to the second as a reminder first reading we don't have any comment so on our second ordinance for first reading is Cranberry Township ordinance number 04-24-2019 by away yes thank you and unanimous and we'll move on to the we have one what one up for second reading yeah which is being sched for May 13th yes it's on the agenda because it was originally scheduled for this evening however we are rescheduling it for May 13th so we're not doing a motion second no comment tonight indeed okay we can however move on to our resolution for our non-consent item item a um 042 4054 so moved um yeah I'll second thank you okay we're going to move on to roll call again Mr fronte yes uh Mrs kiram is absent Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor bedway yes that's unanimous for all present excellent I just I was gon to say I want to thank everybody who worked on this man and I worked on the sub team for the parks and rec so this names the new members to our brand new parks and recck commission so we over the course of the year year and I want to thank mayor Al by the way for sort of kicking us and I think Mr Scott last year too of saying why do we have these two commissions there's so much role confusion and I started as liaison for this year for the wreck and it became very clear that there was as much liasing between the committee is there was work being done sort of outward from the from the committee so I think this was a smart move I think we have a we have a great group of of recharged volunteers that are excited to be on this combined committee um so I think it's a it's a great step forward and a quick move I'd like us to read the names is that okay yeah please and as Le is on Michael would you like to read this uh sure I'm happy um so the the appointments for the Parkson commission Kelly Lavery will be a three- term member Brendan Hansen will a three-year term member Brendan Hansen will be a three-year term member deepo ramach Krishna will be a three-year term member Omar mudin will be a 2-year term member M Katie Harmon will be a two-year term member Adam kiram will be a one-year term member Sally o Grady will be a one-year term member Christina Faus will be a one-year alternate member and Fallon scissor will be the one-year alternate member and so when we started this they have rotating terms but when you start them all at once you have to put them on one two and threee rotation so they don't all expire every year so very exciting will be updated yep great thank you wonderful we're very excited and very grateful that they've all stepped up to volunteer in this capacity excellent thank you just a quick question so the first meeting will be this 1 17th excellent it will follow the same timeline as the uh as the rec meeting yes yes wonderful thank you we have other uh consent resolutions a b and c um would anybody like to discuss any of those separately or can we uh accept a I'll move a through C second thank you we're going to move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs kir is absent Dr Rogers yes Mr Sky yes mayor bedway yes thank you it's unanimous for all those present excellent excellent It's amazing we're at the end of our agenda um seeing as the sun has set I I didn't hear anything sorry good yes good sorry all right um with the sunset I just wanted to greet those that are celebrating very happy Passover I believe it starts at Sunset and um we will be um also I think residents will be celebrating a Easter some have celebrated some we'll be celebrating so happy happy Easter to all of them and happy Passover to those celebrating tonight um at the end of our agenda here we would like to now open this up for public comment and I will remind the public that we have three minutes each to speak and it is your turn to speak our turn to listen if at the end of our public comment we're able to address anything we will U but this is truly our time to listen to what you have to say please members of the public good evening uh I'm here to provide a brief update on the Station Road traffic since last month's meeting I'm sorry to introduce myself Rich juso 14 Station Road as you should know eight Station Road residents spoke at last month's TC meeting to express our Collective concerns around the speeding and unsafe driving that has become pervasive and needs to be addressed let's start off with some good news on March 26th the day after the March TC meeting cranber police set up speed enforcement for a few hours worked from home that day and watched as at least 10 cars were pulled over for speeding while the volume of traffic was typical the reduced speeding provided a meaningful Improvement I'd like to publicly thank the creme police for their efforts unfortunately that's where the good news ends as I stated at last month's meeting the speeding and unsafe driving returns almost immediately after the police have moved on from patrolling Station Road it happened again this month after each instance of speed enforcement on Station Road ended and now some unfortunate commentary to share on April 17th I watched the car across the double yellow to pass three separate middle sex County Public Works trucks one employee in the public works truck laid on the horn to show his dissatisfaction and the driver seemingly couldn't care less this is not the first time that I've seen a car cross the center line and pass on Station Road it is unsafe and it's completely unacceptable additionally I feel obligated to respond to some of the com ments made after the public comment portion of last month's meeting several residents reached out to me to express their disappointment over the seeming lack of understanding and acknowledgement of the problem we've brought to this committee I acknowledge the traffic problems extend beyond Station Road but I believe this committee has some work to do to convince the residents of Station Road that their concerns are being taken seriously and we're working together to find a real solution in short we need more than signage and the occasional police presence to fix this problem that point I'd like to suggest a couple of longer term solutions for consideration with our County and state Partners first would be a forc turn Island where Station Road meets Route 130 this would effectively prevent traffic from Crossing Route 130 on Station Road but would still allow emergency vehicles to access Station Road if needed which is a critical point of Distinction second solution would be to change the timing of the light at Station Road in Route 130 making that light considerably longer than the light at Old Trenton Road would shift some of the ways in Google Maps users to Old Trenton Road over time these are relatively lowcost Solutions especially when compared to the crosswalk project brought up in the March meeting that would improve the traffic situation on Station Road immensely lastly the electronic speed sign on Station Road that's closer to Main Street hasn't been working for over a week thank you very much thank you for your comment you're wel anybody else [Music] yep other one stays up that was the right one all right good Perfect all right uh my name is Tyler Nado I live on 15 Station Road um so I would just like to take the time today to just talk about the immediate reaction um after the last Town Hall uh committee meeting and why it was appreciative but ultimately ineffective um the day after the committee meeting so Tuesday March 26th there was a police officer posted on Station Road um which led to a total of nine cars getting pulled over and I think additionally also a truck um the residence of Station Road um and thus cranberry immediately applauded and recognized the increase uh police presence which could easily be seen on a post on all about cranberry that garnered 68 likes however after the occurrence of speed traps significantly decreased and we um and we were instead provided an unmanned police cruiser and speed signs an unmanned police cruiser was placed about three houses down from 130 um which for a day or two seemed to slow down commuters um utilizing Station Road unfortunately due to a large percentage of Station Road um drivers being daily commuters uh they very quickly noticed that it was unmanned and uh would in add would not lead to any consequence consequences for speeding and reckless driving as for the speed signs uh they deter some people um from speeding but firsthand experience I've witnessed drivers uh continue to pick up speed even after seeing the signs flashing blue and red um lights which means that they're going over 35 uh Additionally the speed signs posted to grab the attention from drivers coming from Main Street needs to be moved back in most cases it won't register the speed until after the vehicle has passed making it completely useless uh even after the two AFF forementioned responses from the town uh cars and trucks still continue to speed down Station Road at a speed that can lead to some very serious consequences upon further research I uncovered it takes a car traveling at least 40 miles per hour which is very common for the cars on Station Road at least 80 feet to cease Moving 80 feet is not even uh factoring in the driver's reaction time most houses and specifically my house is only 15 ft from the road a permanent solution needs to be implemented before something int in reversible occurs is very disappointing to have worked so hard to buy my house and feel the need to be concerned by every passing car on the street on a daily basis thank you thank you for your comment anybody else either one whichever keeps it on the other one then great thank you Dennis Morgan 28 Station Road uh good evening Township committee members wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight to voice our concerns over ongoing traffic safety issues on Station Road also want to thank Rich for spearheading this effort on behalf of the residents of Station Road when my family moved to town in 2016 I attended a town council meeting expressing concerns about excessive speeding on the street and safety concerns unfortunately the same issues remain and have visibly gotten worse highlighted by a recent accident on the road that could easily have caused a life a loss of life or a property given it's been several years of town being aware of the situation it seems that the ongoing concerns aren't being taken seriously and permanent Solutions aren't being explored from personal experience if you drive through heightstown Robinsville Allentown Princeton you don't speed because of fear of being ticketed some of the reasons that I've heard over the years why the speeding problem couldn't be solved where crry doesn't have a dedicated traffic judge and any tickets that are written will go to neighboring towns not making it cost effective and a drain on police officers time having to be present for Traffic Court sessions two driving through crry back in the day was known as the crry crawl based on the fear of being ticketed however this was before the development that took place law enforcement staffing has now been stretched Beyond capacity having to deal with issues that take place during along all of Route 130 and and the distribution centers have to deal with issues over there current temporary solutions that have recently been put in place such as an unmanned C police officer car seasonal speeding alert signs and increase in man police presence on the road offered up a temporary solution for a week or two but the speeding is back it is time that real permanent Solutions are explored and put in place given committee members past and present have been aware of the situation and have heard about this ongoing issue for many years what is being done to resolve it speed bumps diverting traffic off the road crosswalks additional law enforcement Staffing assigned to elevated consistent ticketing could be viable options Station Road residents can no longer live with this issue and the committee needs to be proactive in order to avoid the next accident that could easily produce a more regrettable outcome than the last situation or that accident that happened on the road thank you thank you for your comment I think the right sign in please thank you hello um and thank you for having us uh my name is Glenn schy and I'm at 43 Station Road which is the last house on the left before you get to 130 and um I see basically everything that was mentioned by my other fellow Station Road residents uh especially the u-turns that take place primarily during um rush hour they come in they turn around at stocked in and go back to the traffic light and go across 130 um that's it's been going on for ages especially since all those warehouses got put in down the street um there's a bunch of that going on I don't see as much speeding as the uh as my other fellow residents do down the street farther um the traffic enforcement was great when the cop car was there and they were very sneaky about it and you know parked one here and parked one behind it and so they thought it was empty and then they came around and got pulled over and I saw many cars get pulled over I never kept count uh the one thing I would say is if you want to put a dead car there turn it around every day that don't keep people guessing saying oh maybe somebody's there now you know I don't know um that might help ease the problem uh the I don't well the other thing the thing that really gets me is the urns and the trucks and just a flat out ban on you know 45 ft trailers might be something that's called for and uh I like the suggestion I heard from I'm not sure who that was um about you know turning it into a circle or whatever so you know nobody can come in um that sounded like a good idea to me uh speed bumps would also sound like a good idea and I understand Station Road is a county road so we don't totally have jurisdiction over that so uh being that is thing as it is I would ask you to consider taking it over you know so we get plowed at the same rate everybody else does because all the other streets are nice and you know plowed when the snow comes and you know station roads sometimes it's not as well maintained as our gentleman in town do um and I think that's about it thank you so much for your comment turn this off on the left the same button the right [Music] button thank you anybody else would anybody else like to speak all right seeing that I would like to close this portion this public comment um it doesn't fall on this TC lightly that we have issues of safety on our road that affect our residents and if the solution was easy we would already be there but this is an ongoing task and um I apologize if you feel that my comments uh during the last meeting didn't meet uh the mark that you wanted it to if we can talk a little bit about what some of you have mentioned today um the county does have jurisdiction over Station Road and interest in this TC and previous TCS to have the county step up and offer uh remedies for traffic calming have fallen short as early or as late as last year uh we were denied a speed hump or a speed bump on Station Road it is a practice that I believe is no longer really encouraged because it is an expense to the county not only to install but also to maintain and it affects their plows so it's the county plows that come in we also as we mentioned in the last meeting attempted to uh have the uh striping across Station Road to give the visual that there are people residents that walk here and the county made that rather difficult to implement also requiring us to have a very expensive project with uh sidewalks on either side of the road and ada8 compliant sort of entrance and and and off of that um now all the additional suggestions today uh are something that we're very happy to look at the add the suggestion one suggestion that was made last meeting was to have a four-way stop and that was looked at and that was deemed um illegal actually the the engineer said that's something that cannot be done so we even explored that and um I I hope what you what you can gather from seeing a vehicle that was put a ghost vehicle uh being put out on the street so quickly after your commentary um is that your TC is listening to you the police is listening to you and while I don't offer any Concrete Solutions this evening uh we do collectively join in with you in the interest of trying to figure out a way to make this more manageable um the behavior of erratic driving fast driving is out of control and it is not only on Station Road unfortunately um we have statistics again this week from the police department where they have doubled their stops in this month 2024 compared to this month of 2023 so the behavior in people is only getting with regards to driving unfortunately the accident as it occurred uh last month um unfortunately was related to alcohol and it was something I couldn't mention then because it was still an ongoing investigation but it was an alcohol rated speed um accident and it was unfortunate and we're very grateful that everybody uh was safe in that so again I open it up to this TC and anybody else who has anything else to add to this I just something we've I'm sorry we've we've closed public comment I'm so sorry any anything else from my TC I I just I want you all to know that this it weighs heavily on me that there is a speeding issue that affects the quality of your life and the safety of your life we are hearing you you are not being ignored if there was an easy solution we would be there right now um and we are happy to keep looking and that's you know that's what we're doing we we are we are still in the state of trying to figure out what else can we do so I appreciate um our comments tonight and I appreciate everybody that is here in the audience and on the TC um we are at the end of our public comment and our comment of the public comment and so I would like to entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor hi hi hi thank you thank you