meeting order meeting act car get back take the roll please okay okay okay bort here Vanessa Jones here John Moon here uh Ted Chase here Robin here Mary lco here uh councilman tnik is here um mayor Kramer B Bo Locker here ter here uh this is Michael in case anyone hasn't met him he's our intern he's only going to be here through the next meeting but he's been a huge help so um do I miss anyone I think no okay and we know Stephanie is not coming tonight all right next on the agenda is public comment motion open I'll make a motion open a second I'll second that all in favor I all right not open to the public any comments your name name and address Christopher Williams 20 Magnolia Road Somerset New Jersey uh most of you know me I used to be on the open space committee I would like to be on the open space committee again if there's an opening okay yeah open I just wanted to let you know that through New Jersey Autobon my wife and I are volunteers at New Jersey were the naturalists and we have set up uh car's got a list of all the meetings so times we're going to lead walks for Birds butterflies and plants um we did attend the township walk this past Saturday but the person we're leaving it didn't show up oh no so we let it oh L at least yeah one person showed up we we showed her to wild flowers person that was good show some wild flowers and stuff like that but that's that's it I just wanted to say hello everyone all thank you you're welcome good evening my name is burley Hannah Jr I'm here with my my wife Janet we uh reside in Ward one district 10 legislate District 12 block 3601 right next to our driveway I know where you live I been to your house we're driveway we're here because of the dun State yes and we're directly affected by that uh would they have uh done H I was fortunate we were fortunate to be um to meet Mr dun when he was living him and his wife we've been there that long and um we seen the area change I know he donated to the township uh but we had some issues one of them was someone I I got to say the counsel allowed honey and they used that entrance uh it's a dirt road yeah that's yeah so um sud sud uh yeah Sudan 32 Sudan road is is my house so we we want to find out what's going on because there was issues with the hunters not that they weren't hunting safe but some of them used that road and travel at a fast pace sending stones into my house I could show you marks where it it damaged the site so when we heard that it was going to the house was going to be relocated we have concerns how you going to take it out of there no no nothing's being relocated if you want to ask some questions we'll give we'll give you answers there was a public hearing that about this that was the big giant sign that was at the corner of Saddam Road and and South mid Bush announced the public hearing it was I guess last week week before last but nonetheless what this is is that hearing didn't we came here on the date no it was here I was here yeah I was here it was in that room across the way it was here and there was people here a number of your neighbors that live off of people's line rer here as well the April 3rd meeting yes we did come the front door it was here the front door was locked so what well were here the door unlocks at 6:00 when the when the door is unlocked from 6:00 to 10: so you had to try the door all the way over to the maybe you missed the one that was unlocked it automatic do only unlocks one but it was here but the the the house is not being moved what the diversion process and and you'll hear it a little bit later when tyry gives an update cuz it's on the agenda the diversion process is that the township has determined that there's no um municipal use for that house and because it was part of an open space property that was not so much donated by Mr Dunn Mr Dunn back in the 1960s sold his farm to a man named Jack field Jack field then subsequently sold the property to havani and the developers and the portion of the property that was preserved as part of the overall devel velopment plan included the dun farm and the Gunther Farm next door and both people who the both families had life rights to live in that house as long as they were alive they they they were in the house once they died the house was turned over to the town the rest of the property had already been part of the Township's open space since 1998 your house is part of the Town and Country houses yes the easement that's alongside your your house is is the access to that proper there are two acres around that including the house that are the township is looking to sell the way that you have to sell property in the state of New Jersey that's been dedicated open space is called the diversion process it requires state house approval and there's a commission that grants approval for these types of of sales and what it requires the town to do is make a 4 to One exchange for the right to sell the property so that two acres will result in 8 acres in town being dedicated as open space that's currently just municipally on land but what will happen is that the town will offer for at bid at auction the the sale of the house the exterior of the house and and and all of the historical parts of the house are required to remain as and so the house will have to look the same they call it a historic easement so that's what will happen to the property what the township will also pursue at if we get approval is we're going to pursue acquisition of a small piece of property on Barge Lane that what is barge Lane that will which is at the back of the property on the culdesac people so that would allow access to the property directly to barge Lane as opposed to that's alongside your property so that's the direction that we're trying to go now this will still take some more time for all of that to happen the hunting that's on that property is part of the lease agreement with the farmer who Farms the property it's not that's not a property that's included in our deer management plan but Hunters are permitted to hunt on the properties that they lease and they're allowed to bring permitted Hunters onto that property with them to manage to Deer so it doesn't destroy their crops so that's the hunters that you see we have two different types of hunting programs one is on our open space properties where we have a permitted hunters for deer management on nonfarm properties and then there's the farm properties where there are agricultural leases and the farmers have permission to bring people to man the deer herd so that they don't destroy the crops but we can address if there's concerns about and now obviously it's not that time of year now it won't be until September where it starts to happen again but we can talk to the farmer who has the lease there and make sure that there's there's some management but I will tell you that once that house sells that the farmer will no longer have access to that particular part of the property for parking and things like like that so they if the farmer wants to hunt the property going forward after we sell the house then they would have to access it from the Gunther property not from not from yours exactly so that that's the whole kind of story in nutsh did I steal your thunder on your up that's what's going to happen about how long's that going to take you think well I mean it's taken several years to get to this point now we have to wait the state house to approve our our uh our public hearing information and if there are any comments that have been submitted by the public so I'm I'm thinking that it's going to be at least another 6 months to a year before the house actually is auctioned every year okay two years yeah knowing the state it could be but I'm I'm eternally optimistic that it'll be 6 months to a year years okay all right we taking bets I'll put them in no I don't take bets on anything that feel the state of New Jersey any more comments for the public if not a motion to close a public session make a motion you second second all in favor okay approval of the February minutes anybody get a chance to look at them read no I didn't send them around I just got your email before I think I wasn't sure what happened but I think it looks like I didn't hit the send button it's okay yeah so I mean I put on the screen you won't probably be very much interested in the rest you got the report Table that's okay with you guys you can move to table okay financial report oh financial report okay so it's on I I don't know if you got a chance to pick it up on the table but I'm going to put it up on the screen here um did anyone anyone need a deer Cofe I can grab it there we go scen cop any need pass that around but I emailed it to everyone with the agenda when was the event when will the event the event okay so no event yet we are getting a bronze plaque made for the site right now so as soon as we have that that didn't want to miss no no you won't and um I spoke to her son and he wants to be there as well so so yeah we'll keep everybody posted question the red numbers we were in the hole for for the month um no I think that I just made that color choice for whatever reason yes I know as you're saying it now like yeah I probably just miss put the wrong color on it does anybody else have any other questions or make it larger what's the what's the pump package for wear um you know I don't know exactly what a pump package is but I figured maybe Bob would know what that was it's from the capital Improvement fund that's that's the only description that was there pump page at the bottom L 900 I honestly I don't know yeah that I'm not sure 100% call me tomorrow I'll find out for you I don't know the top of my I mean unfortunately didn't really been a little bit hectic the last two days I'm really get a chance to look at the paperwork for the meeting just now are we saving the low till May till Earth days on any of these props yes so uh yes the properties that DPW normally would mow they have not mowed yet um and the only thing we've done is the prescrib burn at John Clyde Memorial needed gr does everybody here know what save the mo till Earth Day is about yes I do everybody I do didn't hear what you said save the mo till Earth Day I I know what it's about and I had several convers [Music] all right any other questions on uh screw that fin it's not move along here next on the agenda is new business okay I okay um what is I got to look here next is the pathways and trails plan right okay so the pathways and trails plan did everyone so the last meeting we didn't meet last time uh the meeting before before that I had sent everyone the link to the plan and asked if you have any comments to please send them to me ahead of time or if you have anything you would like to send me at this meeting um but the trails committee finished the the plan a few months ago and so I would like to get it to our Township planner Mar um cuz I like to get his final review before she did yes I just got them right now like like an hour ago so I can make those comments Arie actually gave me a few comments which I have you got mine I got your yes got yours so I figured if anyone has any more comments I'd like to if possible put the deadline on now just because I'd like to get it in when you went to when you went drop dat for comments I was hoping now right now if anyone has a like a they really really really want me to wait I can but I would really prefer not to only because because um I've been like trying to Mark and I are trying to just collaborate and get I want to get his you know seal I have a red line with about 142 comments oh no can you can you reach out to Chris Kelly yes um because I think he wants the county trails to work with us and try and do something so Chris had Chris had some ideas about what to do you said some of the trails are good but you're walking in mush right and how they had set some of the trails up you're just crossing over creeks and and streams and you you need boots to be it's called hiking it is nature that's a nature I'm talking about boots problem I know we did court we did use the Cy's updated walk hike and bike plan I always get the words but we did use that as a major source for the foundation of this so there you know we TR we did consider that try to get it but there is just some where we know we're going through wet spots and you know when the trail is actually constructed cuz these are conceptual designs you know maybe at that point we consider like having some type of like raising you know a raise elevation or a boardwalk or moving it you know you know slightly moving it I don't know so I don't know that you have talked I don't know that you have talked either but you'd make me think that has there been any movement on the establishment of trails on the former stola property offro 518 I I I think you got to because we have a financial interest in that one so okay I would reach out to Chris at um open space because they kind of he and I talk a little bit about you know the different things and they were interested in maybe doing something like that I know they were that's that's that was one of the I identified properties I think they had open space today today we've talked about that as well from Chris one of the proper that was talked about several years ago but then Co yeah talked we will reach out to him definitely about uh the stola trail so just so everyone here is aware so with this plan once I because I did receive comments from some people and once I put those comments in the next step for me is to send it to Mark and he will give me his approval or his comments and then I'll make those changes then we will send the plan and the link to the county we'll post it on the website and then we're going to have a public hearing on it that's the first public hearing to get comment from the outside and then the final public comment is to adopt it as part of the master plan so there's still time to comment but the only people that have seen this plan is the trails committee and you guys so I'd like to get it to that point out for comment you know so did you I think I sent it to Chris I'm not sure okay I got a question still a little fogy from on the in the Canal Park uh sort of in the vicinity of the Greektown Rock there's a little Trail the Silver Maple Trail sort of Loops away from the toe path and down to the river and back I don't think I've ever walked it but I haven't I me if they've cut it down the Last 5 Years I wouldn't know but okay it was such a trail okay that's good yes I will look into that and if it's if it's there we can add that in that's easy enough to it's not much of an addition to what the state has but and there's actually uh you know the the bridge across the canal by Little Valley Ranch there's actually a trail from that goes straight down to the river again just okay it's a few hundred yards but there is a trail has that been maintained last has that been maintained I was there maybe a year ago it seemed like it doesn't you can see it was a you know after last night's discussion at the environmental commission about a digital environmental resource inventory to put this digitally on the website so that any Township resident could go in and zero in on this stuff would be wonderful it's on the website yes no but not as a PDF that is an interative like as the you know rgis online yeah so what we have in here is conceptual design so not but we do have PDFs of the updated trails maps and those are live layers so we are able to get those we are able to do that we actually have the data live but maybe when we're looking at doing the ER we can do this with it because I saw this in the interactive map that Readington Township has it's pretty amazing you can zero when you click on it you can see all the detail about a particular point and I if we can find a grant to help pay for that it could just make it so accessible people yeah I get it absolutely yeah I think the existing trails are something we can do that with the conceptual ones we probably don't want to make live only because they're like content but I agree with you that we have the ability to do that because we walked every step of the trail so we can easily put that up so yeah good point I like get so just to bring it up this weekend I helped a uh Eagle Scout for soon to be agle Scout work on a project with bunker heill um he was executing a plan that Chuck Martin actually gave him oh was it Ste Steven or Ste stepan yes okay yeah yeah I agree he did what he was asked but in addition he actually added more planks I know this cuz I carried them out and and covered muddy tracks so he actually did more he actually covered you know oh that's great you know so he actually did more than the asked of him um awesome specifically because some of the spots were muddy and he actually built the planks and dropped them into place good for him okay yeah he's been very helpful he's going to do some paint blazes for us and he's installing a bench as well so yeah he's really good that that is installed oh great oh perfect okay good so basically this plan is Trail this plan all conceptual the what you see in there there's a section of conceptual and then we have a section of actual trails that are done and those have been already ground through the the other ones are conceptual I mean I definitely can wait until the end of the week if anyone needs more time you know I mean I'm not in charge so I really can't say that with any certainty but I'm try trying yeah if you really need till the end of the week I think we can you know we can wait but the longer we wait you know then I have to uh you know I Mark has to look at it and then we're not going to be able to you know so does anyone want until Friday and you're like you'll send me comments or I just have one question oh sure more time is the rail to Trail like the Old Railway making that into a trail in here or so we don't have that in there that is something we've talking about the environmental commission we did talk to the county about it and the county agreed with the original assessment that it's a very difficult process so it's not in this iteration of the trail it may be in the future but this one right now is really kind of focused on our Franklin Township Trail made a goal CU there's a section of goals and I my comments I edit it to the goals okay that's great so if any of you had been here about 15 years ago with this discussion you would know why the township is very wanted an option right we met with great resistance from the residents who bordered the ones that we own and Conrail has said in in no uncertain terms that they have no desire at this point to turn over any portion of it um between Route 27 and C but that was 15 years ago no that was about 2 months ago they do not want to turn it over we had had to deal with a drainage issue behind a home on Churchill Avenue at in 2023 and it took us 2 years to just get approval for access to get a drainage PL there they will not turn that section over it's very difficult so in our Trails plan we don't have that listed we don't have anything identified as that but I if we want to put it in as a goal for the future we can I think it should be a goal I mean we had it was it was in the previous plan and we were directed encour to take it out because it wasn't an option sections my I really I really liked it I'm not saying consider it again but my understanding is that that even sections of that have been sold of people's houses true and so it wouldn't even connect connect even if we got the rest even if we did it with the sections I don't know how that happened but that happened and so and so now railro when the railroad sold off property some of it they sold off to private property owners and some of it was sold to the township that's but that's probably further west I know at least one of the houses on at the end of Gary court has property that includes where the railroad was not to mention of course the situation in midb and from hambo South South midd Bish road to to uh Elizabeth and then on to um Amo road finally cross Amo Road you're walking in people's backyards yeah but I think from Clyde to Jersey Avenue trade station that' be amazing I'm not willing to give it up it'd be an amazing and it's not in your backyard so that's why you can say that yep but it is in theirs I agree still this itation of the pathways and trails plan is really focused on our Franklin town Trails how we switch to the paint Le system and how we updated our GIS data so it's important that we get it out there if we can you know approve but I think we can put it in as a goal but we don't have any mapping any other questions on the on the trails plan the question well I I would like if possible if we are ready for me to bring it to planning I'd like to you know get the open for that basically unless you need till Friday well you got comments to look at already right yeah just there's not I'm going to incorporate them so it won't be yeah and when is that going to planning as soon as I get the okay from here I'll Implement all the comments which will take me a day or two and then I can get it to planning you have a motion to approve the plan I'll make a motion to approve second any discussion all in favor to say I I opposed awesome thank you and Terry you'll share those changes from these comments with us with Trails yes absolutely so I'll can share with trails and then like like I said once Mark looks it over and gives the a these are these comments aren't changes no no they're not like major changes to the plan no I mean if there's any major changes I'll bring them to Trails first but there's nothing that's like a new policy or changing any of the there's nothing major if there was I would bring it absolutely yeah yeah of course um but for planning as soon as I can get it to them then they will schedule the first public hearing and that you know we might get more comments from the public or from from anyone else all right moving on uh open space trust fund budget okay so mayor you had asked that um I add this to the agenda so I did so the not really discussing the whole trust fund budget we're discussing what the township is taking from the trust fund to help fund its budget um that's been a bone of contention every year and I want everyone to know what we've done this year so about a week before we introduce the budget less than a week before we introduced so why don't you handle it all around and then just take one we were um we had a financial oversight meeting Ed was there uh Kimberly and Alex and at one point in that meeting we were looking at a 10% increase to the township uh Levy and that's a big pill to swallow since we've been doing zeros and ones in the last eight years um the reason for that is because the biggest reason is because of the amount that Health Care insurance went up for our employees um 3 [Music] million a little bit more almost four so that St 24% on a on a n 10in change bill from the previous year so that that's roughly 10% of the levy so we started trimming wherever we could um and and the the healthare wasn't the only pressure on the budget we started trimming wherever we could and one of the things that um we felt was that there's more that is appropriate for the um open space Recreation historic and uh um f pres farm and preservation fund um was benefiting from um uh there was more that it could contribute um so one thing that I actually didn't realize as you all know we take from the uh fund uh salaries for DPW and that's eight part-time workers are uh which are 10 months of a year they're full-time workers but they're they're 10 months of the year not 12 months of the year and two workers uh for 2 months of the year um mon 12 months 12 months I'm sorry that's right so 2 for 12 and 8 for 10 what I hadn't realized is is the manager in Defence to the open space trust had done the calculation in 2018 and had not been increasing those salaries since 2018 16 16 right so the first year for any salaries charged to the open space trust was in 2015 in 2015 two new laborers were hired in the public works department and that coincided with the opening of middle Bush Park and the decision was made to charge two labors to the open space trust following year the decision was made to charge the other eight employees within the Public Works Parks maintenance division to the open space trust at a rate of 10 months of of their salary for as opposed to 12 um that rounded up in 2016 to I round it down I should say to about 300,000 we budgeted an even 300,000 in 2016 and as know this is not me patting myself on the back I prepare the budget when I prepared the budget going forward in 2017 through 2023 I held the number at $300,000 even though those Public Works employees had gotten increases um in addition the two employees that are charged 12 months of the year in 2021 I'm sorry for the 2022 budget I replaced the original two employees that were hired um in 2015 with what was then in 2022 the two lowest paid laborers in the Parks division so that's why you'll look at the spreadsheet that is the legal size one where it details the amount I made 15 copies they died down there um and and uh you'll see that from 2021 it was at 10,525 for the two fulltime 12mth year employees and it dipped down to 92,000 and22 because I replaced them with the what was then the two lowest paid labors in the Parks division um but we've we held it steady at $300,000 for the eight partial salaries um even though clearly their salaries have increased and if you turn to the word document that is page two what you'll see is that the difference and in the second section where it says 2024 employee cost paid from general fund the difference between the amount of money that those eight employees earn versus the $300,000 that's budgeted is $341,500 so over the course of time from 2016 to 2024 those salaries have increased every year to a point where it's $341,000 short on the amount to be budgeted if they were budgeted in full which they have not been so this is where I'll go back to the mayor and what what He was discussing that as a result of this I think that it's also important that you look back on the spreadsheet at the growth of the open space trust fund tax revenue that's the left side of the legal siiz page in 2016 the open space tax revenue was $4,620 in 2024 it will be $ 7,443 th000 or a $560,000 increase over what it was in 2016 do you know what a percentage that is proba yeah I mean I I can do the math real quick it's about 14% 560,000 of 46 4.6 too um what you can see though is that the total tax revenue collected between 2016 and 2024 was 50,8 23,000 the total salary charg was 3,526 or 6.94% of the total tax revenue and how much did we spend on properties um Millions I'm sure millions and millions and of the 50 it does I I it's it's not relevant to this discussion right now you can get to that but the bottom line is that the maintenance of all of these open space properties costs far more than what was buil to the open space trust and the purpose of the open space trust is not just to buy it but also to maintain it I don't argue that just to have first page if you look at the first page what you'll see is that this is just the detailing of the number number of hours in a year just to do general maintenance of the properties nothing special but just general maintenance and currently that totals up to 18389 hours of which the the two full-time and eight full-time employees account for 18,24 about 300 and some odd hours less than what it actually takes to just do general maintenance not talking about any special projects not talk talking about tree plantings in a park not talking about anything that's above and beyond the general maintenance that's detailed here Rob actually mayor question mayor I I have no problem with the cost keeping up with what they really are but just to have a general sense of the drain on the total sum the trust fund is grown since 2015 by about $6 million the last major purchase that charged to the trust fund was the consolata acquisition the total cost to the open space trust fund on that acquisition was about $10 million of the $14 million that was paid for the property the other 4 million came out of Municipal funds for the set aside properties that became the 10 acres on the corner that's the proposed YMCA site as well as the Board of Education campus the remainder of the property was the last major acquisition at $10 million in addition to that there's been a number of smaller Acquisitions as well as a $1.5 million acquisition of the Farm Credit East property off of 518 so worst case maybe 20 million I think there was one didn't you calculate a 5 year period 5 years so tar did over the last five years anual drain no but this is a total tax revenue of 50 million since 2016 what do you think we spent since 2016 on properties maybe 20 no than that I would say more than it's been more than yeah definitely more there's a 5year period That's somewhere in there and we spent 24 million on over 500 Acres of prop and generally what do we earn on those funds they're sitting somewhere well they they they didn't earn very much until recently and they were earning about a half a percent on money market funds where they're deposited but now the interest income has increased into a much more healthy I think off the top of my head I don't know the only healthy thing to do is to keep it current with what it really costs well and and that's and that's I and I appreciate you saying that and that's what was proposed to be done and that's what's been included in this year's Municipal budget is just to keep those salaries current but I also think that it's important to know what the real cost is and the real cost is the remainder of that document that is page two and the real cost for all employee costs would be an additional $77,900 so we'd be talking about a million 2 a year it's overall it's about a million 55 to do the entire thing and that's to include the general DPW expenses and any Capital maintenance equipment this year that total about 3345 not all of that General DPW expenses will be expended it's a budget that has a number that we've never expended all of those funds what goes unexpended just returns to the trust but it's estimated that it's about a $1.5 million um operation annually for which the open space trust has been charged up until you know last year's total was 43,000 for salaries plus the maintenance equ is it possible you guys could do a projection for us going out 5 years we do a true true cost of what it costs to maintain these properties well I I would love to say yes but unfortunately there are things that that occur that I can't anticipate and that's part of the PO the reason why an open space trust spending plan is done in the manner which it is and why you know trusts are are created for purposes like that um the only thing that we could project and this is where things are going to change and things are going to change soon the next part to go online will be the park uh built by the developer of summerfields that's a ball field a full-size baseball field a Tot Lot and basically what amounts to a soccer field sized open space area that's all grass that will need to be maintained that's not included in these annual hour estimates and once catapa which is hoping that the EP finally gives their final permit approvals we'll go out to bid sometime in the next couple months once that Park is developed that's roughly the equivalent in labor cost that um middle Bush Park is for maintenance purposes and you can see middle Bush Park Mowing and and maintenance is 1150 hours alone just for mowing then we talk about string trimming and all of the other things that go along with a park that size um it's an anticipated that the likelihood is is that the park department will probably need three more labors once those two parks are back online and does that bring us up does that bring us up to 2 million a year well no that's going to bring you up to two fulltime 12 months and um 11 10mon a year employees and that'll be a I certainly will'll be able to project that because there's annual increasing costs they are members of a bargaining unit and they have contractual increases if if right now we're at a million5 and we get these two parks I think that it's fair to say that it'll be two it'll be a 2 million you know within 5 Years it'll be $2 million overall as far as the costs associated with um the Township's cost shouldered both by the the general fund budget and the open space fund budget obviously it won't be $2 million charged to the open space budget unless there's changes in in the in the uh decision making on the part of our elected officials that we'll continue to charge what I would say is the actual salaries that are earned by the employees who work in the park maintenance department um what what we did and and a part of the part of the decision making that I part of my decision making as to how to put forward the open space budget following in 2016 was that we had just brought down the open space trust fund from about $12 million to $7 million all right with the acquisition of the consolat property because of that $10 million that was used out of op space 5 million was bonded and 5 million was cash out of the trust so we brought it down in a significant amount so I we we needed to let the trust build back up well it built back up from 2016 to 2024 before and now it's back over $10 million they in the $1 million range and I think that it's time that we start to charge and that's why this meeting was held and the decision was made by the council I I also want to let you know council is considering the idea next year of charging health or of including health benefit costs the cost is a cost just nothing terrible about a benefit um the way I see it is with the terrible tax structure of the state of New Jersey of doing T running government or at least local government by property tax which I think is is ridiculous it should be by means to pay but they do it by property tax that for most of the um tax the local the county and the schools fire and fire it's on based on your property's tax but it's your property tax in proportion to others property tax so if Ed's property doubles and mine doubles and all everyone else's doubles you're still paying the same amount unless the budgets go up because it's it's just your property tells you the piece of the pie but with open space library and County libr uh County open space it's the actual price of the house so with the it's a it's a straight number it's for open space it's 5 cents per 100 so the way prices of houses have gone up you're really hitting the homeowner with the open space tax and to make them pay twice one into open space and then also to have to pay an increased Township budget because of the increased cost I just don't think it's fair they're paying an open space tax he should use the open space wisely tax wisely to pay for open space needs question I probably getting a big heated discussion about this we got basically we're paying for 12 employees no you're paying for 10 eight at 10 months a year and two at full time full time okay obviously these guys aren't working the whole time on open space come January Define open space and that's why they only work they only get paid for 10 months a year well they only get paid for 10 months a year then they do work in when there's they do work in the Parks and that's where a lot of the maintenance is done in the off Time of the Season but they don't get for December and January they're not being charged how about the two guys are paying four months and they're working in the Parks there's still garbage that needs to be collected Bob there's the hours the hours are there I see the and that's the and well you got and you've asked for the hours and we went through all of the all of the details related to all of the parts and all of the tasks associated with them and you got the hours now and the hours are still less than what the hours are to maintain the parks and that's calculated on 10 months a year for eight employees and two and 12 months a year for for the two and there's there's still additional work not included there not to mention the bottom line which is an absolute fact every single member of Management in this town who does anything related to open space be it the purchasing agent the Public Works director me or anyone else none of that time is built to the open space trust and trust me there's a lot of time spent by employees in this town on open space issues I spend at least 2 hours every month here and I don't get compensated for any part of my salary for thank you coming right but but that's but no no but I'm an employee not a member of this committee all right and as some of you who have been around here long enough no I'm the first Township manager to come to every one of these meetings and none of my predecessors ever did all right so I I think that it needs to all be put into the perspective that the mayor put it into there's still a great deal of expense shouldered by all of the taxpayers through the general fund budget that is related to costs associated with open space and parks that are not built to the open space and it's done primarily because we do want to maintain a number in reserve to acquire properties you know we made the recommendation and and and this is no longer secret because it was handled in in in executive session and you already we made the recommendation to preserve a farm on meter's Road in in within Colonial Park that money is not it's not necessary to bond that money is just an outright cash purchase and we've made a number of outright cash preservations and Acquisitions over the last several years because the open space trust is funded well and it continues to grow as the mayor indicated as as assessments go up and assessments have gone up roughly 9% per year over the last several years well that means the open space trust tax has grown by 9% per year because it's flat do you need a motion no no it's done this is information information the this we don't need a motion this body has a um um task of advising of advising the councel um I you could advise us not to do it uh you could say yes we agree with it to be completely honest not political but honest I think council's pretty set in doing this but if you want to weigh in you're welcome to we well the only question I've got about this the budget and it goes back a long time ago that in January I believe was or December I think it was in January the committee here would get a proposed budget and we'd add to this this line take away from this line whatever before went to and we we presented our budget to the council has changed we don't see the to you guys do it so here is what you here's our budget guys remember how I started I started this a week before the budget was presented to council Financial oversight had a meeting and we were hit with a 10% increase at one point in that meeting we were thinking about increasing taxes 10% we said that can't happen so we started looking that's not answer my question my question was why they so the answer is and and again in in this form of government the the budget that gets put forward to the township is a responsibility of the township manager all right I meet with your open space coordinator I meet with the public works director and we formulate a budget it's my responsibility to do it not this committee's all right you you have a responsibility to advise the township Council on things like land Acquisitions and how these properties are managed and you do that and this is not to start an argument Bob but the law says that the township manager has the responsibility to prepare a budget and present it to the township Council and that's what I do and to that meaning it is going to be the same as this as last year exactly going to be any change to that's how I originally presented it to the township Council without any increase in salaries other than the two full-time employees that have been fully funded as you can see from this document which has not been changed this document still reflects $300,000 in 2024 because that's how I presented it to the township Council the financial oversight committee so what so how much of an increase are coming out of $343,000 no additional that was it the $341,500 4 so we're going in other words it's going to be 641000 out of the budget this year uh for the for the for the the eight yes for the eight employees yes yes correct yep that's that was the only change that was made no other no other addition that's one roughly 1% of the tax would have been 7% on everyone so instead of it being 10% that got it down to 9% and then I had to work a little bit harder to find the other 3% to get it well no I'm being slightly factious but I had to work a little bit harder to give the township Council a budget that got it down from 10 to 9 to six and still tried to get it below six but could not find anywhere else to try to squeeze out another percentage point and looking at the local area Health assessment and how the residents view the township the single greatest thing they say is the amount of open space I agree and and so I think if we need to harp on that some more in the view of the budget and then selling the tax increase we can say it proudly and we're continuing to add to the inventory of this and we maintain the proper well I thought the single greatest thing was Bill con I have only one question all of the additional M are really pegged to labor cost they're not pegged to the annual revenue like you know like if like I didn't hear the first part this fan is right above my head all these additional costs are pegged to the labor cost yes correct okay not the annual revenue so the well they're when you say they're not pegged to the annual revenue percentage of the reeven percentage no they're not a percentage of the revenue they're just simply these are the costs that are associated for labor to maintain our parks in open spaces and and the the amount of money collected in Revenue has also steadily increased I if God forbid it tanks and we go back to and that could happen Okay that absolutely Could Happen which means that our labor our labor number is a fixed number now like regardless of what happens with but everything is so everything is subject to the budget that I put forward to the township Council right so that what you're saying is true in theory that what if if if assessment ratables went down right then the open space tax would go down but our costs will continue to increase based on you know known factors right rate of inflation um labor labor union uh contract cost increases so there's always going to those things are not going to go down I that's something that I can say with absolute certainty the costs of of Labor as far as the hourly rate of employees is not going to go down sometimes it has this a a kind of blip down because of retirements and new hires and it come people come in at lower cost so therefore the cost might dip a little bit if you had a but but not enough to notice probably so so in the future the only way to change that number in any meaningful way is to do less well to do less that's absolutely true don't bow the grass as often well and one thing to just consider is as we have more open space preserved in the future the cost to maintain them will also but your point is valid Bill your point is absolutely valid the issue here is that labor costs will not decrease now health insurance costs unlikely that that will decrease although I'm hoping based on the switch from a fully insured model to a self-insured model for this year as the first year self-insured that there is the possibility that if we manage it better than atna managed it as a fully insured model we could see a possible decrease in the full amount needed to be budgeted in 25 I'm hoping that we do it's possible okay but but overall the the we don't budget Health Care in in in open space currently but as the mayor said that's been a consideration um but if that decrease were to occur it would be so small that when it factored into just these 10 employees it wouldn't even notice it I mean it you know it's kind of like a and one more thing here a little tap thank you for making this document you're welcome and I will tell you I know that you wanted it the the councilman wanted it the mayor wanted it and and but I will tell I was telling you that it it was not something that just got whipped up in a couple hours it took a significant amount of effort on the part of the Public Works uh managers and myself in review and discussion it was not something you know what what gets included what doesn't get included I'll be honest with you you know Bob brought something up and I don't even realize he he brought it up well you know they're they're out plowing snow in the winter well yeah they are but you notice that the plowing of all the parking lots and driveways of of our Parks isn't included in those hours but yet they get done right right because somebody's got to plow out those parking lots oh when it doesn't snow you don't have any hours when it snows a lot you have a whole bunch of hours it it's some and that's why this is not an easy task because not every year is the same our mowing schedule from April through September is each field gets mowed on a 10day rotation but if we have a wet July then they're getting mowed every 5 days which means I'm pulling people from the road department to go mow grass in the parts because the number of employees isn't enough to keep up with the rotation all right so that that those are the factors that are difficult but you have a basic outlay of manh hours necessary to maintain with that do and I just want to say too thank you to Bob and for putting it together and I'll change I'll men some something the mayor said I would say like I personally feel like your approval even if it's with a little bit of a groan is helpful to know I don't know if it will change Us in in all of this as an advisory committee and that's why we really push to have this information presented in a way that was digestible made sense cross verified so folks could say this is not a bait and switch this is what the voters approved which was investing in open space and Recreation and it's an appropriate charge cuz we have done a great job in preserving open space and with that comes more responsibility to maintain it what good is land that you're going to die if you walk on it right like that's not going to be great or you're getting tick so no one uses it and you're in the hospital and and have you know or you have mushy Trails like said that earlier that's right and then the other thing I'd say is I I wasn't sure I left the meeting and like he are you okay with this and I was like uh I think about what everyone here would say so I did call some of my colleagues to talk about this cuz it would be nice to have guidance from organizations and I would have talk to colleagues about it but it's hard every Town's different the density of the town the amount of open space they have the kind of open space they have you know Etc um and I went through our situation folks knowing Franklin is a leader they said that they thought this was reasonable and even with the healthcare would make sense so I felt more comfortable about it um and I it's legitimate it is leg but I know there's discomfort too added to the uh agenda because I thought you deserve to noises so you're saying that other open space organizations or townships were okay with health benefits coming out yeah anything that's related to providing the the service but is that is that any ordinance to allow to have pay that I have no problem with paying what the or what the ordinance says that created the open space trust and the the full name I won't read it at all but the full name of the open space trust is that costs associated with the maintenance of the open space and that's not just our rule that's the Green Acres regulations which is what we have to follow everything that we do has to be in accordance with Green Acres regulations and I I will tell you that I am aware of municipalities that charge a portion of their Police salary budget to their open space trust fund because police officers control their parts in open space properties all right um there are certainly CS that charge those other positions on a small percentage basis like their administrators and their purchasing agents and their HR directors and their Finance officers you know if you look at the members of this committee on paper who they are in the ordinance that are not voting members it's the township planner it's the Township Public Works director it's the township finance officer sir I there's a reason why those people are on this committee if there if it's necessary for them to come here is because they play a function in the process of open space maintenance and acquisition we don't charge them I'm not looking to charge them I only bring it up as there is a lot of expense associated with maintaining these properties and by the way the salaries if charged to uh and and the numbers that we said okay the 300,000 plus the additional money um is about 9% and I believe that council member pnik looked into it to some extent and 10% is not out of the ordinary that would be okay committee feeling you want to make a motion to give counsel okay I mean it doesn't matter one way or the other they're going to do this anyway but you want to if you started yelling has showed up at Council meetings you know they might feel differently but I think that they're pretty strong about support yeah understanding with nothing more than [Music] that anys like this is always felt to be painful but by the next budget it doesn't hurt so I think that was 2017 that was spoken it didn't hurt as much in 2017 as it hurt in 2016 when we first did it so he anybody make a motion want to support the budget if not we just move on move on move on done diversion project uh so the scoping hearing we required hold the scoping hearing for the dun version so we held that on April 3rd here in this building uh it was the day that it was a really bad rain like remember it was like a torrential downpour um and we still had about 24 25 people comes which was great um um and so we basically what I did was just present this is what we're looking to do which is take two acres around the dun housee so we can eventually sell that portion off um it'll be better in the long run because house will be properly maintained which is really what we want we want the house to stay properly maintained and rehabilitated um we also before we started the done project we worked with the state historic preservation office and the New Jersey historic trust to make sure there's a facade easement on the outside of the house historic facade easement and on the inside there's vory list of items banisters pills and cabinets wall uh certain I mean I don't know the exact correct terms I don't want to say them in case but fireplace and and the original kitchen things like that will all have to Mo right and the owner whoever that is has to follow those rues so even by us diverting these two acres that house the outside's going to look the same if not improved and the it will look the same except for the vinyl siding on the North exposure which apparently Mr Dunn didn't want to go for the uh authentic that's true there's one part of the house that's like not historic yes but um so we had the scoping hearing that's that's the first one everyone seemed very happy when they left there I was I came here at about 5:45 I left at 8:30 there was a lot of lively conversation I think it was very nice um so the next thing we're going to do the public comment period ends on April 17th so tomorrow as soon as that's done I'll start compiling the application um and then we'll send that forward completed and then we wait for the state to approve it um but I'm in constant contact with our representative at Green Acres so she's aware of everything going on and then after that we have to have a last public hearing which is further down the road and then we can actually get the approval to do the diversion so um oh and like B one thing I forgot to mention just real quick is that we have to do a 4:1 uh mitigation so because we're doing two acres we have eight Acres that we need to preserve and we looked at property over by um basically make an ultimate connection towards the southbound R um little leag complex and the streets over there we have some Municipal property that's not preserved and it's a nice belt of 8.3 8.03 Acres of space so so this property it it it will create a buffer for uh you know for any um development along the 287 Corridor on the southbound Brook side of 287 um we own just about all of that property I'm sure that we came into ownersh ship of it as a result of the construction of 287 back in the60s um but it's just remained as municipally owned land um and this will allow for a significant buffer between the highway and any of the developed part of the town on that side of 287 right and one thing I did stress too is that it's the properties we're looking at are pretty wooded so it's another one of our goals with trying to preserve tree canopies so it's it's almost completely wooded um kind of that that I'll call it deciduous Wetlands but some of it is wet some of it is dry it it's it's the typical forested area of Franklin Township and it's very I mean it's it's over in the area where I live so I'm very familiar with it and uh it's it'll be it'll be nice to keep it away from everything yes um moving ahead to three years somebody purchases the home is there some kind of schedule where and some somebody that goes in the house once a year or something to make sure that everything is done properly in the house that's a somebody it will be obviously privately owned and and and but that can certainly be a discussion it isn't it some I thought you were talking about it has to be maintained it does I mean ites there are certain elements of the interior of the house and you've been in it you know what the ones we're talking about um that will have to be maintained as part of any restoration or or or renovation that easement is like basically a rider to the house so anytime there's a real estate transaction that'll be triggered for inspection anytime that someone pulls a permit from the township that will be it's attached it's a rider to the deed so if someone goes to go in there the inspector and they see that you know they're supposed to look at that historic inventory as well so that's real but no one's going to come once a year and go in the private property um but there is opportunities to make sure the work is being done proper there this is there is another house that that you know so this uh open space trust fund uh monies were utilized um in the form of a grant for the house on Route 27 at Raymond Road um a significant amount of money that was used for the the restoration of that house um I think it was about $700,000 if I recall correctly before my time but again that's that's another property that has a facade easement and all those things not so much for the interior but that's the Higgins house um done a faithful job they've done a faithful job of the exterior it it has maintained its Integrity but inside they've did well listen the gentleman who did all of the original work who unfortunately passed away shortly after the work was completed he he fell down flight of steps and um had a head injury um but he he was very fastidious with his efforts to maintain the Integrity of the of the house but much like the dun house the same was with that house that over the years when you own a house like that and it's your house and it was your family's house and you live there with your family there's been many modernizations of the dun house that that didn't take into account the historic features that Mr Dunn felt were necessary to live in the house like um well there's many interesting wiring uh of the house um it's quite interesting the use of long extension cords tucked in underneath baseboard um to to create new Outlets um but yeah that there there's two kitchens in the house um one is off the living room that is not very much to speak of and one is in the old portion of the house so it whoever buys the house has got a lot of work ahead of them and and there's not much much on the interior of the house to save but the things that we've required them to save are not difficult right you know banisters and built-in bookcases and and cabinets are not difficult a a a huge kitchen fireplace is not difficult it's there I mean you you don't have to do anything you just have to whitewash it right I mean so the beams in the ceiling in that part are not hard to save they're just going to be incorporated into the restoration the flooring things like that yes right okay spe so my question is with with the EAS and everything would that be uh something that the historic commission would look at okay for any kind of outside work and everything well the historic commission would have to be the people would have to go to the historic commission for the house it's in a historic well it's in the six mile run historic district and it's a contributor to the six mile run historic district so anything that has to be done there would have to go to Historic before so we would we would look at protecting that or that's by the ordance that by our ordinance it would be required for them to go in front of they couldn't take the house down absolutely not no no I'm looking I'm thinking of other houses in the historic district that have come down this one is because we own it and because we'll be selling it we place all the restrictions on the deed yeah no one I you know this is something that so I and I'll share this with this committee I think I've talked about it before um when I first became the township manager I kind of fell in love with this house um in fact there was a time where I said take uh take a cut and pay make it to manager's house and I'll work on it over time while I live there with my family I it's a beautiful setting I mean it it if you cleared out some vegetation it would be overlooking the pond the pond needs a little help too but it it's kind of like um a plantation house and it's quiet and it's away from everything but yet it's close um it's beautiful it it and and the interior is huge and it really has so much potential to be something special for someone who could put time p is the pond within the two we keep the pond keep it um the two acres doesn't include it and what I had mentioned to the couple that were here earlier is and and Dr Chase will know about this because we had many conversations about it we will we are looking and we will will look to acquire um either by easement or by uh by fee simple acquisition of a very small piece of property that belongs to one property owner because of an odd shape to come at the end of a bulb of a culdesac to allow for a driveway on the back end of the property so that that easement which is a Perpetual easement um that that the township was granted um will no longer become necessary that they bought their house in '98 and that easan has been alongside it and and Mr Dunn used it as his driveway which wasn't a big deal but you know we we do go in and out and so we maintain that property we cut the grass there um and the hunters do go in the and hun don't use that dver not anymore right they they only use they only use Gunther right that's what I thought but wasn't wor further to and I'll make I'll make I'll make a point you tell them that you know I've dealt with I've dealt with the fuel oil truck kicking Stones up uh I've dealt with um Public Works trucks kicking Stones up uh mowers kicking Stones up and so if we don't have to have that easement anymore we probably be a good thing exactly for all involved all right moving on SC next scoping here yes uh so the next one is at Castleton Park um and we'll be having a scoping hearing on that on May 13th at 7:00 just so everyone is aware exp perfect so what this is about is a very very simple thing here that little blue rectangle that you see up on the yellow that's at right at Easton Avenue so for those of you who don't know the history of Castleton Park Castleton Park was acquired back in the 1970s with a HUD Grant um by the township it was purchased from um it was actually in my to my recollection it was two women sisters that lived in the house it was the family house the house used to sit on the hill overlooking eastn Avenue and that was that house was there until the late 1980s when the second sister passed away they had been granted life rights by the township the township had acquired all from eastn Avenue all the way what is na Castle to park uh to develop as a park um which we did left the house alone once she died the house was torn down but there's a an easement through Castleton park for uh a a gasoline a a liquid petroleum gas uh pipeline it's owned by I I forget it's it's sooko is who owns it and it's this this pipeline runs almost from from that point on eastn Avenue all the way South and goes into South Brunswick it's one that that most people don't realize but if you look at a map of lit you can pretty much pick out where that pipeline is because it runs all the way through my neighborhood it certainly does bill um and it's been there since the 1940s all right so it's not new right under your right right across the street from Castleton Park between the can uh the canal and uh the guide rail is a valve station which is a manual valve station that needs to be maintained by sonoko employees and it certainly is hazardous for them to cross but also it's not it's in a flood plane and it's not able to be modernized to automated uh valves in the present location because it's in a flood plane so what they've requested is the ability to move it across the street on the pipeline that's already there within a small portion of their easement but widening the easement to allow for a small valve station that then would be automated that in the event that there was a failure in the pipeline the valve would automatically close and that this way they could better control it and this is part of a greater project along the entire length of that pipeline to bring to up to modern times the valve uh the valve state along the length of the pipeline um we met with them on a number of occasions um one of the things I stressed to them was to keep it as small as possible to provide adequate screening through vegetation it'll have a fence around it that'll be a screen fence along with vegetation plantings around the the the valve station itself and it'll just have a very very small gravel parking area for their maintenance vehicle when some one of them has to go there and in return this is also a diversion so they will have to pay us four times the appraised value of the easement right and you'll see that it's not a whole lot of money no one because the the because of the size of this easement is so small I think that they'll pay into the trust what 13 $133,300 does that take it out of the flood plan does take it out of the flood plane yes cuz it you know there's a hill so it'll be up the hill a little bit so that's never been within a flood plane so that that's what this this uh scoping hearing is about for that small Val station um Public Utilities uh or or should say utilities are permitted as part of the diversion process within the Green Acres regulations and the standard diversion is a 4 to1 value of easement and we had it appraised um they paid for the appraisal and they utilized one of our appra Green Acres appraisers yes Y how close for the historic thousand ft does that go for the historic commission um well it's a utility so I don't know if it will but if I mean they'll be more than willing to go it's certainly within 1,000 ft of the nice roof and some you know like ornaments well the idea is that you don't see it I mean we I had them try to design it in such a way that between the the the uh kind of board on board fencing that they would use but also with the veget with the the tree and and shrub plantings to to just screen it so that you didn't see it anyway does it make noise no no it's it's a it's just it's just a valve literally a valve there's no blowoff because it's liquid that runs through the pipeline it makes a lot more sense have automatic one because something happens must remember that this pipeline runs through one of the most densely populated areas of our town and if there's a failure in that pipeline you would want them to be able to turn it all fast right well you can't turn it off fast if you have somebody drive all the way to the valve and manually turn it and R and it's and it's flood so it seemed like a very reasonable request from the utility company here okay prescribe burn so we did the prescribe burn at John Clyde Memorial native grasslands Preserve on March 30th uh so that's been done the only field they couldn't do was the field when so if you're going down the long path not by the kiosk the other one and then you make a left into the kind of wooded area there's a small field there they could not burn that one they like had to come to an abrupt stop because the wind velocity went up just enough that they literally shut everything down but they got everything else done yeah you just said March 30th it's March 20th on the paper March 20th did I say the 30th I'm sorry yeah March 20th Yep so so that is done um I went to look at it shortly afterwards there's already some Sprouts coming up um I got to see the normal like fleeing of the mice like at all at once which was like the thing I need the most it was horrible absolutely terrible Michael came with me and he got so did you enjoy that yeah yeah it was really cool were you the pie Piper I was like I basically pushed Michael ahead of I was like you go first but the good thing was it was great for Michael to be there because they really let us they let us go right up with them into the fields and everything and see how they how they do the burn because it's very you know they they explain to us how when they set the fire they make it so that the smoke kind of like comes into itself and that makes it go out without having to use water so it was really interesting and one other cool thing was there was some New York City Firefighters that had to have training done for ecological Burns and so they came to our site to do it which was which was really fun too so only fi didn't burn was the wet field I'm sorry the only field that didn't burn was the wet one yeah it was yes it was and it was just because of the wind it just changed so rapidly um we do have an an approved application and have burnings on at negri nepot and I followed up with him again today because we are up coming up against the deadline so we're hoping we can get that done they've been busy this year suers si County did a number of prescribed Burns out there open space properties in in a number of different places in the county I know that there were a number of bridgew that were done by on County Properties so so the forest fire forest fire service has been pretty busy doing but I think we should have been on the top of the list because we were supposed to burn negtive prob last year we never got it done so we should have been to the top of the list start yeah they put John Clyde Memorial at the top at the top because that's larger and that one's been burned already so they said the third fourth and you really see an improvement but yes I've been following up with them I actually just sent him another email today have it in my calendar every like few days to follow up so you know you and not not that this should matter but I think that we do sort of get some special treatment because um he lives in Frank yeah yeah yeah but it was really good and honestly doing that prescribe burn it saves us a lot of time it saves us a lot of money and it's better for the it's much better for the land itself it's a better management technique so hopefully we can get to Nar pod I have my fingers crossed so you're pushing Up Against the Wild I know I know yeah that's you said the 30th right so yeah all business grant from the from the from NE Park so I worked with um Dr abrupta again at uh Ruckers and he put together a detailed materials and supplies uh list that we need to do the implementation of the green infrastructure all of our concept designs have been approved so I am going to meet with car uh next week and non Williams and we're going to go over the quantities we need and then we will be able to start working on some of the green infrastructure a lot of it is going to be done with some volunteers uh DPW help um one great thing is DPW when they repaved the path they did put the under drain in in the really so it needs to still be connected which it will be soon but that is already we've seen an improvement so um yeah so we're going to start working on that shortly and we're going to hold some public Outreach sessions there so moving along I a question I that I remember your presentation about that um with a plan of like where the trees might be yes so is that going ahead shortly or is that going to be later as far as the tree planting the tree planting is part of the um green infrastructure technique some of the tree planting so we're starting off on the edge of where the wetlands are to kind of beef up that tree line so I probably will have to come to shade tree commission at some point um once we get further along um as long as we have grant money we're going to keep moving from the first priority all the way to the last so we did make one change remember there was a proposed line of trees by the playground and the residents that lived by that playground did not want the solid line of trees we did make that Amendment so instead of a solid line we made Groves so and that seems to have gone over for better and I do understand their point because if you go I went to the parking lot where they would see and a solid line of trees you can't see anything at that point so that's not based on recent we haven't met with them yet who but um the residents of that area no I went that was based on like from I thought that was from previous previous study it was a study that was done not to only a couple years ago so pretty vocal about not wanting that to be done in that part of the right my point is we haven't met yet like that was based on previous information that we already knew but we haven't yet met with the residents about our current project we have not met with them yet no that's part of it we will we did the feedback we got about that line of trees though did come from our councilman um my gosh why yeah Council councilman right um and he did meet with those residents so he yeah yeah and I think there was a few residents here at one of the meetings that there was public session that stated about the trees so we had plenty input on that okay next on the agenda is update on the tree M maintenance plan I asked ter to put this on here because we're supposed to having a Tre main this plan and we want to get going with more far somehow some way but where we at with this plan and and there's a proposal that was put forward uh and costs associated with it and I've had discussions with the chairman of the shade tree commission and we should be ready to award the contract to be done by the township engineering Consulting engineering firm fantastic time frame roughly I'm hoping that within the next month we'll be able to award a contract good now along with that speaking about I was waiting so and just not to cut you off what what I wanted it's it's not a small cost no okay and we didn't we figured it was going to be somewhat significant the shade tree trust can certainly absorb it and that's where it'll be funded from um but I wanted to make sure that everyone on the shry commission was comfortable with it and I've had some discussions with Mr Gilli who's their chair now and uh I asked for him to for me to finalize everything with him to just give me the time to get through through the budget process which is now done so he and I will be getting together within the next week or two I would imagine since he sent me another email today and uh he's a persistent little guy he's good he's my friend so I can say that but he's a persistent and uh and I told him just get I said Steve let me get through the introduction of the budget and then we can get time to get together to finalize how we want to move forward but he's a lieutenant commander it's not just a it's not just a just a you know the the plans that we're putting is the the overall tree maintenance plan a tree inventory of all um developed parks and um I I identified certain areas of the Town not the entire town for Street tree inventory but some portions of the of the town but more importantly a tree inventory of all developed parks to exclude heavily wooded areas like the the one portion of Inman uh that that's that where it's heavily wooded down at the but beyond the lower ball field and and where the trail runs through not not that but you you know what I mean that that so there that is included inventory of trees a maintenance plan but also a planting plan for Memorial Forest those three things are included in the in the in the proposals that I I uh spoke with Steve about would they put a well in at the Memorial Forest I mean you could I mean certainly you could a well could you put a well I mean it it might you know depends on Ian I I don't know there's a already there that was I wouldn't surpr I I thought that there might be um but the answer is yes that could be considered um so there's a like we're going to talk about katala and and I think I just did talk about a little bit earlier but there's a proposal for a well at katalpa for the community garden that type of well you know with the the hand like they have in in a garden SP right um so but um but yeah so it's definitely is is something that we could consider sure okay K next my the report was what I said earlier um the the mayor has sent a letter to the governor's office requesting intervention on the part of the governor's office we have been waiting for finalize per the final approvals from the D everything that we were required to do has either been submitted or uh been done since uh late 21 early 22 I mean all of the work that we were required to do the change in plans to uh because of a widening stream Carter because of wood turtle sighting a quarter of a mile to the West on on a stream that runs into the park um and um then the the uh archaeological dig and study on the uh the homeowner there there's a there are people that live within Kapa Park on their it's it was subdivided off by deed um the farm owners their house is is is old not on any particular register whether not state or national register and not necessarily um historic as far as that the quote unquote historic it's old it was built in the 1700s and it's a beautiful home but they also don't want to be interfered with they're private homeowners and they were not happy with the fact that the D was forcing down their throats a a historic study of their house um because it's their house and they live in it and I understood it and I like the people who live there so I kind of defended them as best I could so we did a limited one and the D allowed us a little bit but we still haven't gotten the final approvals so um I I they they every time we ask we get told that it's just a a matter of days a matter of weeks a month but but and that's been going on unfortunately since 2022 the checks in the mail deal on March 3 21st on March on April 22nd is the 21st is Sunday uh I will be contacting them again and I'm going to be a pain in place in their body and the township manager has it as a reminder on his calendar to remind the mayor to do that on the 22nd at 7:30 on Monday morning Earth it's also Earth Earth perfect oh there you go perfect day okay something else on Under World business um two of us on the committee talked about Memorial Forest as far as can we get the Public Works to mow around the trees up front the mayor's tree instead of you know begging choose for you know we not we're not mowing during the month of April and in deference to the environmental commission's no mo April or whatever we're calling it no no no mo till Earth and that's I'm stretching the truth just a little bit there yes of course we can mayor's tree there now you motor looks nice the interest looks nice so we want to maintain that all right e you want to keep the ticks down going to be bad this year next anybody else old business to bring up negative Dan if not any questions on monthly activity report I sent it out with the email and there's a copies there if you need not updates from other committees um no we talked mostly several times about the save the mot till Earth Day just want to let you know on April 29th in this building we're holding a discussion group on electric vehicles so if you like to come the good and the Ugly Monday night the 29th 7 o' we have some of the best people in the state actually coming to talk about New Jersey EV Association vice president and our man stand and your man stand Mr E of Frank no doubt about it and we did a the the um EC along with the r lower Ron um partnership did a major stream Cleanup in Cy Brook on Saturday and um we had over 100 volunteers which was a really good sign of people supporting this kind of work so and thank you to the township for all the support and picking up the garbage and helping us make that happen so we try to do one every year near Earth Day and if you've never done it about the other it's a fun thing to do and bring a couple of kids that you know that get exposed to this it's a good opportunity for them to see what this is like yeah so if if I could just have a moment to kind of to go on top of what Robin just said about the stream cleanup um so Carl uh how came to me about a month ago and it was just recently discussed um at a committee uh Public Works committee uh I had to think for a second um we received annually a a clean communities Grant um and we used the clean communities grant for a number of things the the the clean up that that assistance for a stream cleanup with Public Works employees is funded out of the clean communities Grant things like that the materials that you use the bags and all those things um what Carl learned and and you know so he is our clean communities coordinator it is actually a thing all right and you have to get certified as a clean communities um coordinator and they have meetings and what he learned is what some other towns are doing and it's within the guidelines of of clean communities Grant is that if you have a nonprofit group that wants to do a cleanup now they have to be a nonprofit group if you have a nonprofit group that wants a clean to do a cleanup they want to clean non Williams Park um and it and it and most towns do it based on the number of volunteers that come out and do the cleanup you can provide a donation to that nonprofit you know $100 $300 $500 that gets donated to that nonprofit from the clean community's grant for their cleanups it's a way to entice groups to come out and do that so we're going to implement this hopefully as Carl is putting together all of the like the forms and things that we can get it up online we hope to be able to do this starting this spring houses of worship could houses of worship absolutely qual green yeah all I mean any 501c3 or house of worship anyone can do it as and uh but what it would be done is we would coordinate it with our DPW staff that would be in on the weekend like on a Saturday with them to to assist with you know get well take the garbage away provide with the with the equipment and things like that so these funds the $300 whatever wouldn't necessarily be for the not for profit to buy supplies no no no this is just a donation to go in their coffers East Millstone Historical Society wants to clean now and this this just came up they wanted to clean up East Millstone unfortunately we didn't have it in place they cleaned up East Millstone this past weekend I said well I can have them go pick up the garbage but I can't make the donation retroactively to their nonprofit but going forward you know griggstown historic wants to clean up griggstown along the causeway or something like that then they can do the cleanup and then they can get a donation based on the number of volunteers and it and it it's like if three people come out they'll still get a donation but if 50 people get out they'll get the full donation you what and I I'm making up numbers there don't hold me to those so they so who sets the criteria for what they're they're cleaning up is it like is well we we we will we'll let's put it this way we will give guidance if if the East milstone Historic Society came to us and said we would like to clean up the Village of East Millstone that would be satisfactory and that would make and that would make total sense if the Kingston Historic Society wanted to do Kingston if they wanted to clean up um the flour preserve um which if you don't know is down in Kingston at the southern tip of our town um if they wanted to clean that up what if if it was that or if it was the Kingston Greenway or it was the K the the women Kingston women's Garder there's a gardening club in Kingston um it doesn't matter who it is it could be the private school that occupies Kingston School they're a nonprofit voice exactly could be anybody if they don't have an idea we'll give them an idea if they have an idea will help them develop what they're going to do it it could just be in all honesty it could just be a litter strewn residential neighborhood yep okay that's great doesn't have to be a a public park or something like that I could do Lee lewood J yeah yeah things like that you know you know we have some of our rural roads that's where we generally send our employees out to do roadside cleanups but if we could control it and and provide them with safety vest it could be you know um it could be Still's Lane yeah there's trash there sometimes you know Robin sometimes there's trash alongside that road in bad especially that 27 end there's a lot there's a lot of trash down that end I know um I like that that's but yeah so that's that will be coming into play as soon as I can get everything in place come up with a clever name and we can start talking about it yeah and and that that's a good idea so if you have some creative thinking amongst this committee think creatively I say don't ask us we're the cash for trash listen to the mayor cash for trash want came up with no M Earth it's like you know every once in a while you you get something you say wow that's a really good idea and I think that we'll get a lot of participation very wonderful I mean we have 70 houses of worship exactly and I'm telling you that all of them will take some I'm on the Interfaith Alliance so I can help spread that message perfect I was going to ask about you know how you get the word out about this so well we're going to get the word out the newsletter is about to go out for the spring summer edition so it'll be in the newsletter we'll have it on the website we'll put it out on all of our social media outlets and you know while Robin is a member of the of the Interfaith Council um our councilman karazi is the president so I'm sure he'll get the word out to all of the houses a workship actually I think he's passed the presidency on has he passed it on now well he's a past president and I think he's at the meeting he's at the meeting some Lage we can even email it to people have done cleanups before exactly because we've had other groups do cleanups in the past yeah well as I said I think it's Kingston Greenways around Earth Day they do a clean up where in the morning it's on the Franklin side in the afternoon it's on the South Side along what is I think technically called Kingston Rocky Hill Road the new road past thear because that's a an area that it's it's not like you have houses where people pick up in front of their houses and it's in front of Rockingham of course of course and I've participated in that at least once any other any other committees if not just a just a reminder this in the minutes from last the last time here um the trails has some hikes coming up some trail runs coming up starting on Earth Day um and then story book hike May 4th Eco hike May 25th National Trails day the 1st so get out join us there there's there's weekday evening runs at um I announced this at the council meeting too I try to announce those things in my report all of the all of the other negative stuff but at least give some positive stuff um so I know that that that that's something that I announced about the evening runs that sounded like a nice it is right it'll be nice nice place to run too I don't run anymore but it's nice place to run I got too many physical Chris Gonda uh who's on our who's on the trails committee he's the one kind of leading leading Those runs and he ALS works for keep middle SE County moving and does like has expertise with ebikes and e-mobility stuff like that so I have to let him know about your thing um and I just wanted to mention that I I was able to go to the follow sou met Bush Road The Meadows had done I don't know if anybody had read about that they had on one day where you could go to four historic homes with half a mile of each other and it was great it was really great to to get inside those buildings and and see dressed some of them dressed in Period clothing it was nice are we going to do an offsite meeting send me an email from her and okay what you say offsite know the situation do not send she's not involved at all that's we absolutely can just ignore it we can uh we well the last one we did was in September we can do june we can do well so the September one the only thing I will caution do we do September or October October October it's start getting too dark that was the problem I recommend we either do well we don't mean July and August so either June or or September cuz remember it was dark in October right when we did the did you come when we did the it was nice actually but it it got really dark so we had to move it up if you want electricity right no well they do but we have to bring our own like light so and it still was dark so if we pick a place yeah if you guys want to uh brainstorm some places or whatever we can do that for sure why don't we have an offsite meeting when we dedicate the plaque to Mila oh yes okay that's a good idea we could do it all are we allowed to do like a meeting outside or no if it rains if it I know that is a bad idea yeah what about Williams Park is that being family oh God I'm sorry what is that being coordinated with her family yes I spoke to her son and he approved the language on the plaque and everything so talk about when we have yes I told him once the plaque is in and we have the the stone in and it's like all fixed he he'll be there we'll tell him the day he can come and be there for the day okay so we're telling him it's not a matter of you know him having some input in it um he approved the language of no about approving the date that I'm talking I'm going to let him approve the team not going to be like hey you you just said you just said we going to tell him when the date is he Liv in Mass you know by the exact literal word I said yes but I'm definitely going to invite him in and work with for sure that's right it's his cousin Nancy lives right there Nancy yes all everyone yeah for sure so yep absolutely okay moving on um Recreation U as you know Bo U did a hell of a job for us U he accepted a position at at mouth and we gave him a nice sent off at tu's restaurant and everybody had a good times you know sending him off um his assistant is taking over she's doing the doing a pretty good job no that's not true no no I mean temp his assistant is in an acting role and we are currently soliciting resumes for people to apply for that I stand corrected just wanted to be clear that she's in an acting position right now and she presented all the program for the summer as of now I guess the everything's going smooth oh great but we we really going to miss Bo he did a have of a job yeah for sure he got he he is I it was hard to see him leave um but I certainly could not hold him back from the position that he was off no way he had a sweet deal he sure did M MTH County's Park commission is a is a very robust Park commission um they they have a lot of you know because of its location they have they have ocean and Bay related uh activities for their uh Parks they have several golf courses uh they have a marina um so there there's there's a they have a campground um like not just like a tank Campground a real like RV park campgr um we couldn't couldn't refuse no and you know being a deputy director is a pretty big deal so and it's close to his house too he lives in so any other reports if not next on agenda is a public uh C PR again motion to go to public comment motion open second second all in favor any comments yes I have a couple things I'd like to say Chuck Martin had binocular that I had used does anybody know where they are I have them okay yes I have because when I leave my bird walks I'd like to get them to give to the young kids to use okay I have them in my office yes yep all all good there okay and it would be nice I see that on deont Lane they put up these nice benches they put up five benches probably didn't need five but they put up five benches long story can we get some benches like five in each grasslands so we are in the process of replacing the benches some so if you go to John Clyde there's a there's two benches there they're the flat ones with no back and that was decided by the trails committee to do that because it's better for you know their opinion was it was better for hikers and it's more standard bench that's that these preserves cuz people are there hiking right um are you specifically wondering about a back bench or you're just saying any it would be nice to see a back bench a couple of them yeah um especially I know the one corner at John Clyde up in the top we we if you know so one of the other things that we've discussed and we've actually already done it on two occasions now is if you know someone who wants to donate a bench they're about $900 and the public works department will install it and put a you can put a little plaque on it there was a park bench donated under Kingston Green and there was another park bench actually donated out in this Municipal complex all the way down by the senior center in the center Island donated by the family of a their mother would enjoy the fireworks from the same location for many many years so there's now a park bench there where her mother their mother used to sit all I'll bring your so they can donate park benches if you want they're about $900 a piece yeah okay the other thing is is memorial Force you is that land still least or do we close where Memorial Forest Memorial Forest cuz the farmer there used to be milked in the front field he planted corn in here this last year yeah it's still lease to the farmer um so how long is the lease going to up for we put restrictions on for five re up for another five years so but we were so put restrictions on why don't we do that um because because Farm ground and milk we don't go along Chris I John can't help buddy Bob it was in the front I understand that but you can't it was a it was an old Hayfield got milked came in it so we he sprayed it for a milkweed just one year he didn't it he we got the milked so now he took care of it but the milk weed's good for the monarchs anyway I guess that's I get it I get where I am yeah next time you we have we do have a beautiful pollinator Garden out here courtesy of the Somerset County Master Gardeners and the Franklin Women's Club that was planted all all pollinating plants by the gazebo the next time any lease period comes up we will absolutely review the lease But the lease that we're current currently under had a 5year extension built into it so could you know change but anytime a new lease comes up we look at it and you know you know yeah because we have those trees the shade tree commission paid to have Planet yeah I understand yeah I get it and the other thing is is are we looking into purchasing no um not not not that I can say no you can't already preserved can't it's already preserved property it's it's preserved Farmland yeah what no what Mel Mel's property so mela's property is already we've already purchased the development rights many many years ago so why would we buy property that's already pres it's no it's called a waste of taxpayer money and this was there it's a preser you can't because it's under a Farland preservation Farland preservation ConEd all we would be doing was assuming all of the responsibility of a farm we'd have to keep it as you have to keep it you have to keep it as a farm and and and that's what I'm saying that this was discussed and then when I say it would be a Monumental waste of taxpayer money we would then have to farm it um and maintain it as a farm and not have it available to the public because it would be down I understand we looked into it there was something that was discussed thank you Chris that's it all right thank you no other public comment motion to close the public session motion all in favor executive session do we need to go on Executive session we do said we do you like look say bye Chris have a good night we do I'll be I'll be I'll zip for