to order Madame clerk in accordance with the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this work session regular meeting of the Franklin Township Council was made as required indicating that this work session regular meeting would take place at the municipal building at 7 p.m. on Tuesday March 12th 2024 thank you if we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the invocation by councilwoman Kimberly franois I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which as we as we can you hear me okay yep as We Gather here today as members of the township Council we pray that we are ever mindful of opportunities to render our service to fellow citizens and to our community mind always the enduring values of life leting our efforts in those areas and on those things upon which fut Generations can build with confidence let us continue to strive to make a better world Amen Madam clerk colth the role councilman EMB Barrison here councilwoman fris here councilman karazi here mayor Kramer here councilman Oni jaka here Deputy Mayor basnik president Council woman here councilman vasella here councilman Wright we have six different proclamations tonight it's proclamations week um first the our Girl Scouts the Girl Scout week a proclamation and the uh girl out silver awards no I'll take this one to for you got to be strong I guess my nails were getting in the way three all right so nice to see the young ladies here tonight the Girl Scouts you look so beautiful okay so I'm going to read the proclamation for the Girl Scout week whereas the Girl Scouts of the United States of America have been instrumental in empowering young girls and women for over a century instilling values of leadership community service and personal development and whereas the Girl Scouts organization continues to inspire generations of girls to be courageous confident and compassionate leaders who make the work world and the workpl a better place whereas Girl Scout week is an annual celebration that honors the contributions of grow Scouts to their communities and recognizes their commitment to making a positive impact through service and Leadership and whereas during Girl Scout week we acknowledge the dedication of Girl Scout volunteers troop leaders supporters who work powerlessly to mentor and guide girls on their journey of self-discovery and empowerment and whereas the values of inclusivity diversity and Equity are fundamental to the Girl Scout organization fostering an environment where all girls are welcome and supported regardless of their background abilities or circumstances and whereas Girl Scout week provides an opportunity for communities to come together in appreciation of Girl Scouts and their legacy of service Sisterhood and Leadership and to reaffirm our commitment to supporting the next generation of female leaders now therefore our mayor Philip Kramer do hereby Pro proclaim the week of March 10th through 16th 2024 as Girl Scout week and urge all citizens to join us and recognizing and celebrating the invaluable contributions of the Girl Scouts to our society and in supporting their mission of building girls of Courage confidence and character to make our world a better place come on up here ladies young ladies all the scouts and the leaders all the scouts and the leaders has come up everybody that's here with with them who's taking pictures taking pictur okay some people could sit down or squash down a little bit if so that we can see everything everybody can you get them all you can sit in the chairs too if you want to it'll look like a nice photo if you want to sit sit down take your time you'll keep this forever now who wants to hold up the proclamation you're in the middle thank you the next item is the silver award so anyone receiving a silver award or the leader of someone leading a silver award or the parents of someone uh get receiving a silver award come on up silver award okay whereas Maya Ella Kennedy yashi have received the Girl Scout silver award which is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadet can earn and second highest award in girl scouting and whereas since 1916 Girl Scout leadership awards have stood for excellence and Leadership for girls everywhere which girls who pursued these Awards as aspiring to transform an idea and vision for change into an actionable plan with far-reaching results and whereas to qualify for the Girl Scout award silver award a girl must be a registered girl scoutc in the sixth seventh or eighth grade have a completed Journey um concept plan planned and executed a sustainable project either independently or with a team and whereas Maya Ella Kennedy ymi have successfully completed all requirements including their special project entitled safe warm weather hiking to receive their Girl Scout silver award and now therefore be proclaimed that I sheep oin mayor council members of the township Franklin on behalf of the township Council and the residents of the township Franklin congratulate Maya Ella Kennedy yashi on their achievement in receiving the Girl Scout silver award wow congratulations that's Maya's one Maya Ella k so this is quite an achievement you they have still have the Gold Award ahead of you we expect you all back by what one year when you gonna have that done two years all right Madame clerk please note that in two years they'll be back okay okay thank you anyone have anything to say well yeah uh thank you to our trop leaders who always helped us throughout like we faced many challenges throughout the process of getting these Awards and our troop leaders were always able to Pivot us into the right direction and just help us with contact information with how to approach problems and they also just really helped us in general so thank you to them I'd like to thank our Troth leaders also for helping us when we needed it to go as Yosi said in like the right direction to start our silver award when we didn't when we were lost and didn't know where else to go or we didn't know where else to start from they were always there to help us I I'd also like to thank our trop leaders my troop leader is my mom so thanks I'm Miss Barbara yes so what uh they said also um to the people who helped us complete our projects outside of our troop uh that thank you to them too that's terrific thank you thank you for all you've done and what you're going to do in the future because you are accomplished people now you have to pay back to society and get that gold award thank you thank you so it's only fitting that girl scout week occurs in women's History Month okay so March is is women's history month and this Proclamation I will read for women's History Month women's history month is a time to celebrate and honor the contributions achievements and resilience of women throughout history acknowledging their invaluable role in shaping our society advancing progress and Champion equality and whereas women's history months traces his roots to the efforts of activists and Scholars who recognize the need to highlight women's voices experiences and accomplishment ments challenging stereotypes and promoting gender equality and women's History Month serves as an opportunity to recognize the countless women who have broken barriers shattered glass ceilings and paved the way for future Generations across all fields of endeavor including science politics Arts Sports business and activism whereas women's history month is a time to amplify the stories of unsung heroes whose contributions have been overlooked are margin marginalized ensuring that their legacies are remembered and celebrated for their lasting impact on our world and whereas women's history month is a call to action to continue to fight for gender equality to address systematic systemic in inequities and injustices faced by women and to create a more inclusive and Equitable Society where every woman and girl can Thrive and fulfill her potential whereas the observance of women's history month is a testament to the strength resilience and courage of women throughout history and serves as a reminder of the importance of recognizing and uplifting women's voices and achievements every every day we councilwoman myself Kimberly franois and councilwoman sheepa Udin and mayor Philip Kramer to hereby Proclaim March 2024 as women's history month and urge all citizens to join us in celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of women past and present and in committing to the ongoing work of advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls and all aspects of life I think we saw that tonight with our young ladies thank you Deputy Mayor will presenting social emotional learning day Proclamation so good evening uh we have two representatives from Somerset County votech with us um and this resolution is a pro Proclamation on social emotional learning uh whereas social emotional learning is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities manage emotions and Achieve Personal and collect goals feel and show empathy to others establish and maintain supportive relationships and also make responsible and caring decisions and where our social emotional learning comp uh competencies develop through our lives and are essential to the success in our schools our workplaces our homes our communities and allow individuals to contribute meaningfully to society and whereas social emotional learning can be taught and developed throughout childhood adolescence and Beyond and whereas schools families and the wider Community must be engaged to enhance the strength uh enhance the strength depth and pace of acquisition of social emotional competencies and whereas social emotional learning is a wise use of public resources because there can be long-term social and economic benefits to society from implementation of evidence-based social emotional learning and whereas the township of Franklin continues to support students in their acquisition of the core social emotional learning competencies of self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision- making and community building and connections across the school environment to support student learning and learning environments that Foster welcoming affirming and inclusive opportunities to promote Equitable opportunities for academic and social success in school and life now therefore let it be resolved that Township Council proclaims March 8th 2024 as social emotional learning day I think that's backwards so it's a post uh uh Hamas I don't know how to say that word uh declaration in the township of Franklin encourages all community members to learn about share their knowledge of the importance and the impact of integrating evidence-based social emotional learning into our schools organizations and community and that is the resolution and folks might like Wonder exactly what this is um and and basically while I was reading none of you got up and just like screamed right that's social emotional learning it's like what's appropriate for the context and those of you who are parents or had been Educators understand that that actually is something we teach um how to respect one another if a parent or an uncle comes over giving them a hug showing affection or being angry when you're frustrated when things don't go your way and then how to process that information in a productive manner to ensure there's an outcome at the other end that that is um positive and done in a way that um is not harmful to others around them you know and and is like we might say like an adult conversation although I venture to say there are many adults that don't do this well and we all could remind them so um I want to acknowledge the two outstanding Educators we have here and give them a minute to share a little bit about their experience and then hand the microphone over to the mayor but this is something they're working on every day in our in our school districts and and throughout our community we appreciate your work thank you so much ince yourself to deput miror thank you my name is Chris lemman jelli I am a supervisor at suet County votek I am also the I guess the leader of or supervisor of the social emotional learning committee at Somerset County votek and as many of you know we serve as uh students from Franklin and all over Somerset County and as the deputy mayor pointed out the social emotional learning it's things that you would think that are going on in your everyday life that you don't really label as social emotional learning I can call it like life skills or being better positive human beings and a big kind of term we use with our students and our staff is we're helping students become Future Ready people being ready for job interviews being ready for D function in careers and relationships in conversations in a restaurant being able to kind of order and conversate with other people things as simple as that to being entrepreneurs or leaders in your fields and it all starts with simple little things like the de pointed out uh conversational skills the domains are relationship skills self-management self-awareness social awareness and am I forgetting one uh oh self-management too as well I apologize for that so these are the things we're working on every day uh more and more uh evidence and statistics are coming out on how this helps students with attendance decreases uh behaviors increases test scores in increas is life after school college I'm in high school too as well in college and careers so we're very excited to be a part of it we're very excited that the township of uh Franklin has acknowledged this and given this Proclamation because this is what we need to continue to build a program so it's nothing that you know people aren't doing already but we're reinforcing it we're building on it and we're making it kind of being okay yes that does work or yes that does have an impact I should be kind of reinforcing that behavior those skills too as well to help these students and also the adults we're working with adults too as we move forward so if anyone has any questions or wants any more information my number uh my email is on the Somerset County uh votch website you can reach out to me I'll send you more information or have a conversation with you um we have a lot of great resources within our building and we'd love to share them with everybody in the community thank you oh yeah absolutely pitcher thank you mayor too Kramer councilman and barison and councilman Kazi a proclam for naus whereas naus which translates to new day is an ancient celebration observed by millions of people around the world making the arrival of spring and the beginning of the new year in various cultures particularly in countries such as Iran Afghanistan aeran Tajikistan usbekistan and parts of Central Asia and whereas naus embodies the spirit of renewal rejuvenation and hope symbolizing the Triumph of light over Darkness good over evil and promise of new beginnings and whereas now Rus is a time of joyous festivities family gatherings and cultural Traditions including the half seen table which features seven symbolic items representing blessings for the new year such as wheat grass for rebirth apples for health and go colleague for protection and whereas naus serves as an occasion to honor the rich cultural heritage and contributions of Persian and Central Asian communities to our society promoting diversity inclusivity and Intercultural understanding and whereas nus transcends boundaries of ethnicity religion and nationality uniting people of different backgrounds in celebration of Shar values of peace prosperity and friendship and fostering Goodwill and Harmony among diverse communities and whereas the observance of nus is a cherished tradition that enriches the cultural tapestry of our society and strengthens of bonds of friendship and solidarity among people around the world now therefore we Ram andaren councilman at large Philip and Philip Kimmer mayor and Alex K rzi councilman at large do hereby Proclaim March 19 2024 as nut's day and encourage all citizens to join in celebrating the spirit of noos and in extending warm wishes of Happiness prosperity and unity to all those observing this joyous occasion very much like the Diwali we that's right and Chinese New Year all all of them combined so that's great and we have a lot of community members to celebrate this I guess our next one Council woman while councel woman is coming I'd like to make a short statement and uh we do the proclamation for Ramadan so as the second diverse Township in New Jersey Franklin Township has proven time and time again that our community where differences are celebrated and not feared is stronger because of its diversity I along with several our colleagues and mayor and almost 300 community members and leaders attended Ramadan Lighting Event in the senior center on March 3rd to welcome arrival of holy month of Ramadan it was a great event and I extend the warmest wishes and congratulations to all those who observe Ramadan a months of car Ing and sharing spiritual regeneration and charity work as you may know uh food insecurity is an ongoing challenge in our Township and did you know that almost 40 45% of our students depend on food assistance and did you know that many single mothers seniors and the sa and immigrants depend on organization like food bank to supplement their daily food I'm very happy to let you know that about three programs in our Township which will be done during the month of Ramadan all three are in partnership with food bank the first is food sponsorship this year the Muslim Community in Franklin joined together to sponsor 100 families of tre each for a month the cost per per food bank for each family is about1 the second is organized by a new NGO in town called GMA what they do and is pretty unique they're going to invite about 200 to 250 clients of food bank and serve them dinner or AAR in the community center the third one also is pretty unique is done by a Corner Stone organization and they're going to serve 1,000 hot Mills to Food Bank clients so again I wish all of them the best and now we have a proclamation which I would like to ask all right whereas Ramadan is a secred month observed by millions of Muslims around the world marked by fasting prayer reflection and community and whereas during Ramadan Muslims abstain from food drink and other physical needs from Dawn until sunset demonstrating self-discipline empathy and Devotion to their faith and whereas Ramadan is a time for Spiritual renewal purification of the soul and seeking forgiveness as Muslims strive to deepen their connection with Allah 26 and strengthen their bonds with family friends and neighbors and whereas Ramadan serves as a reminder of the importance of compassion generosity and charity as Muslims engage in acts of kindness and contribute to the welfare of those in Need by ing the values of empathy and Solarity and whereas the spirit of uh sorry whereas the spirit of Ramadan transcends boundaries of cultures ethnicity and nationality fostering understanding tolerance and respect among people of diverse backgrounds and promoting peace Harmony and unity in our communities and whereas the observance of Ramadan is a cherished tradition that enhances the cultural tapestry of our society and enhances the fabric of our shared Humanity now the therefore we Alex karazi councilman sheepa Udin councilman and Philip Kramer mayor do hereby proclaim the month of Ramadan which began on March 11 2024 and expected to end on April 10 2024 Franklin and encourage all citizens to join in recognizing the significance of Ramadan and in extending warm wishes of Peace blessings and prosperity to our Muslim brothers and sisters during this auspicious time are we giving this to anyone or yeah I just wanted to let you know there's this flyer is the sponsorship Flyers out there so you all welcome to join the Muslim back we have a motion to open to the public M IED move in second and all in favor of opening to the public say I I oos say nay motion is carried we're now open for public comments anything to do related to government um 5 minutes no yielding of time may come up once please state your name and address good evening esteemed council members and staff um I've been up here several times and uh it's always to um bring up something or a complaint or or other but um I I just want to say that um I respect um the work that uh you're doing and um I don't envy the work that you're doing um specifically uh tonight I would like to touch upon the um Economic Development aspect of the township and the fact that um it's it's it's such an important part of of any town and um you know how do you how do you keep a town fiscally um um in good shape and at the same time take care of all the residents that come up here and complain about this and that and and the other um my first question um and and it's a real question because I've only uh lived in Franklin um although I'm almost a 20e resident in Somers County I've only lived in Franklin for uh two years so I would like to respectfully ask uh whether the township has uh at some point uh carried out a comprehensive Market study or a survey of um the needs of the residents similar to the to the health survey that we recently the township recently um carried out um and the reason I'm asking this is because um there seems to me that there is a dissonance uh between what I'm hearing in my community and among my friends and what some of the uh plans are for some future uh projects and um for example uh many of the people that I know who live mostly in retirement communities like me they complain that they're not enough good restaurants quote unquote in Franklin and how they always have to go to either Hillsboro OR Somerville or some other nearby Town um to go to quote unquote and I don't know what their definition of good is um and also several people who including myself who always has have to drive um outside of Franklin um specifically for as a as a new condo owner you know trying to get some things done around my place um go to Lowe's or go to a Home Depot none of these things are uh any Home Improvement major store in Franklin excuse me also as a senior member of course the focus is on health and again um uh often times I find myself including the health of my dog I must say I find myself going out of town uh as well as for uh household items whether it is a new set of plates a new set of glasses or or whatever and of course clothing now that uh we're venturing again after covid um because honestly um I I cannot trust um uh my changing uh size uh to uh ordering five different dress sizes online and and have them delivered and then keep the one that fits and return the others so it it it seems to me that that there is a u a shortage a shortage of retail and yet when I look around me I don't see a shortage of retail stores in Franklin uh so maybe a market study that's done and carried out by the township as opposed to the market studies that Developers uh such as leing properties uh carry out and and whether the township depends on their Market studies I hope that's not the case because uh clearly anybody knows that uh their Market Studies have a different focus and I I do not blame them uh but their existence depends on their bottom line and their shareholders while um you you you are um Ed to um to protect the public good so I was just wondering and to protect the safety whether it is traffic the quality of life and whether it's flooding or whatever and I'm just wondering whether Franklin is becoming the equivalent of a retail desert similar to the inner city food deserts that we sometimes read about and thank you so much for giving me the time thank you anyone else wishing to speak hello esteemed Council people um and mayor um I am here to voice my objection to the proposed Lev apartment complex on the Kmart site for a number of reasons rezoning I didn't say State my name Dina Lux 51 Patriots way back um for number of reasons rezoning this property to accommodate this project is the wrong move we don't need more traffic on Easton Avenue the unsafest road in Franklin Township and Somerset County if this project is approved the safety of nearby residents and others traveling down easn Avenue and JFK Parkway from other Franklin Township Wards would be at risk due to an increase in traffic and congestion there is known flooding on easn Avenue just past that intersection during heavy storm events due to the proximity of the canal just imagine the added increased congestion at the already dangerous JFK intersection if everyone is diverted to avoid the flooded roads in addition other Kmarts across the state have repurposed have been purpose for various facilities we need more shopping in Franklin rather than providing tax dollars to other towns to shop at stores like Kohl's TJ Maxx and Marshalls it would be nice to Shop Franklin instead and keep the needed tax dollars here I know you can't tell Levan what to do however Levan Prides itself in attracting retail please don't allow rezoning for them because this will open the door to other developers to ask for the same thing how will you be able to say no thank you thank you anyone else Debbie Stewart to farington um I just have a variety of little questions here first of all this new Oprah change that they're thinking of making I was wondering if you could all weigh in on that not each of you but somebody whether you think that's a good thing for the Franklin residents and um I don't know if I'm working okay um the pros and cons of this change uh that's one question second question how do you determine the road speed in Franklin Township it seems very inconsistent how roads have their speed limits for example the one behind the high school Weston Road 40 m hour it's not even a two lane road and then I'm coming down New Brunswick tonight Road and that's 35 okay so none of it makes sense to me uh the second thing I notice all the time and it upsets me so much I don't know if there's a solution but all the roads not just Franklin Township New Jersey trash trash trash all over the place place and how does it get there and how are we going to ever get rid of it it's horrible it you know if you start focusing on it it'll drive you nuts it drives me nuts so and um I as far as the Le properties I don't know all the pros and cons but I empathize with anybody that lives there and is stressed out over development that they feel is not right for their neighborhood thank you thank you anyone else Terry thoron 18 Leed drive I have a question I tried to ask the zoning board but since it's a quasi judicial board uh they couldn't answer me um in the applications that people make because they want to put up some sort of a development or a house or anything uh everybody checks off one little box that says the purpose of the municipal land use law would be Advanced by a deviation from the zoning ornaments ordinance and I'm wondering if that's a form that we make up or that's a state one because I think it would be a lot easier for the zoning board if these people explained how they would Advance the goals of the municipal land use okay I know you can't answer till the end all right also again with Levan Levan's website touts that it has expertise in commercial development do we really want to be a guinea pig for their fora into Apartments their current uh application originally had six variances they cut two of them they cut signs they didn't cut anything that had to do with safety of people in the town and when you look at the impermeable cover they bragged that they brought it down to 74% or ordinance says 70 this would be an ideal way for them to show that they would be good neighbors if they cut some of the parking spaces because with 200 Apartments I think over a th000 parking spaces is a little bit excess mive if I were them I wouldn't pay the people did their traffic study because all they did was look at a chart that was made um by The Institute of tra uh Traffic Engineers and looked at a fully functioning shopping center and looked at a lowrise apartment building I don't think they actually counted things going in and out and there's no mention of school buses and we all know there are a lot of school buses going around in Franklin what really concerns me is that E Avenue is called an Avenue because it's got two lanes in each Direction it's divided a lot of the way what's going to happen when this Eastern Avenue floods and we know it will flood again from JFK to Foxwood people coming out the JFK uh area they'd have to come out to JFK Boulevard make a left they're going to end up on Hamilton Street Hamilton Street is called a street because it's got one lane in each Direction and it has pedestrians that's really going to affect the safety of people in Franklin there are no pedestrians on Eastern Avenue if they are they'll lost Franklin needs to have a consistent idea about how to protect their uh their residents and I think Hamilton Street will suffer badly anybody needing to get to St Peter's Hospital Robert Wood Johnson Route 18 New Brunswick the train station would have to be diverted off East Avenue and onto Hamilton Street and I don't think Hamilton Street can even with all the vast improvements that are being made on Hamilton Street I don't think it can handle any more traffic um also just another another kind of point I know we raised the replacement tree fund u tree replacement tree fee from $3 to $300 $300 means nothing if they don't add trees you know replace all at 325 they're taking down but add trayes to that and Native species at that they're going to have more water down there April 13th I invite everybody to come and help clean up C Brook with the environmental commission and the Delaware uh rarin water canal people because Cel Brook is full of garbage and what happens is it overflows and where is it overflow Eastern Avenue okay thank you very much for your attention thank you anyone else I'll be very brief tonight very simple timer B gripo Pier Street um last week I had the pleasure of read Across America Mr grippo yes name and address please I I just said grippo uh Pier Street 199 Pier Street thank you is this thing working yeah the hearing aids muffle when I say just so you know um and the deputy mayor was there that was great but the real surprise the real surprise I I read in five schools the last school was Franklin Park and you know when I drove into Franklin Park there's this library now I saw it under construction but I never went in it since it opened in September because that's not one you I don't go to all the schools all the time so I walked over when I was done reading and there was a class that walked over there was reading inside of this new library I've got to give you guys credit for building this Library this is you deserve a uh a lot of years ago Bob knows you know years ago we were all over the South trying to put books in the side of a store and all that kind of stuff so you really did a good thing with the library that's all I wanted to say tonight I did want to talk about something else that but I don't want to draw any attention to lunacy you know what I'm talking about so I'm going to stop there if you don't know what I'm talking about email me but I don't want to draw attention to craziness absolute craziness but congratulations on the new library if anybody wants to know what I'm talking about see me outside okay oh by the way if you want to see a great movie about a hero go see Cabrini I don't care what your religion is you'll it'll move you it'll move you and change your life that and it's women's month what this woman did for not just Italian Americans but all people what courage go see it I'll buy you your ticket if you go just text me I'll Z you the money thank you crazy Edie how you doing bill Connell 25 Spring Street he said he didn't want to attract craziness you know he did anyway um first things first I don't want to uh uh stomp on the Muslims time but um I have my Franklin Food Bank gold shirt that I got from uh the Franklin Food Bank uh toward Franklin uh the team is the Hops and props experience feel free to donate um anyway um so um I've retired officially from from set building but when um I come here I'm just another Resident but there's people I meet along the way that are just amazing and I just want to point out um the holers stasa and her mom Cara her mom is not only has helped the program she's runs this the Scout Troop and uh I commend anybody who takes the time to do anything Scouts baseball the plays whatever you do you deserve an honorable mention because that's the fabric of Franklin and as far as staa uh the first time I met her she was inside her mom's belly okay she wound up being a great Wing person and when you join a group if you can not only do the thing you're asked but make yourself a part of it okay that's even better and staa has done I needed to point that out tonight um now as far as Kmart goes my only question is this this came up six months ago it kind of died okay uh New Year election the whole bit here it is again um have you had a discussion about the consequence if the zoning board makes a change for the rest of Franklin that's the real question I have I'm not going to bother you with my opinions about it but I want to know has there been a discussion if you do this do you know the conse quence of other properties or the potential consequences of the properties um that's it thank you anyone else evening Arnold Schmidt 1 34 Hickory Road Somerset so yesterday I had prepared a presentation specifically about the 11 Kmart property today I rewrote today I rewrote it after reading this morning that the mayor and Council announced that they're going to have to raise our Municipal property taxes so I visited our tax assessor's office today to review the history of my personal property tax records which are Franklin staff was quickly able to provide going back to 2008 bottom line my property tax portion controlled by the Council of our property tax bill 17.76% has increased by about 13.2% in the past 16 years for an average increase of about 0.83% per year our school tax which is the largest part of our property Bill tax about 62% has increased by about 21.2% over the past 16 years for an average of about 1.3% each year our school taxes have increased over 60% more than our taxes controlled by our Council what causes the largest increase in property taxes more children in the school system which requires eventually building more schools which we have done more teach teachers more after school activities increased salaries insurance and pension costs and more all part of a growing town a wonderful diverse and diverse town that I have adopted as my hometown after living here for over 40 years now longer than anywhere else that I've lived I welcome more children and building schools when and where necessary Franklin as as every other town has a finite amount of land to build on our planning department and planning board meticulously with a lot of research prepared a master plan that determined where residential retail commercial industrial and more would be best located and developed Franklin has undeveloped land for residential that can be built on we don't have to and shouldn't build residential on land zoned and dedicated for other applications such as land zon for business opportunities that will actually increase our tax our Revenue base 11 Pro L Kmart property is not zoned for residential and it's not our job to bail out this or any other Corporation because of their apparent poor management Property Owners should build on their land for what it is zoned they they should and must pay play for the same rules as the rest of us we can't let Levens came more property be the first Domino to fall that will allow other developers to ask for and get the same variances being requested by Levan to build residential and non residentially zoned areas in all five Wards up and down Main roadways where retail is zoned including where retail currently exists and could eventually be replaced by residential housing thank you thank you anyone else see anyone coming forward mayor or motion to close a public portion second moved in second and all in favor of closing public portion say i i v say nay motion is carried um forther questions about levit Mr renon turn on your mic oh sorry that just a couple of things of course a the disclaimer that that always comes with discussions of levit is that the zoning board is an independent body uh while appointed by us under the land use law they act independently so the council doesn't really have any control over their decisions one way or the other I believe that one of the questions was well there's a form and why is there a box checked on the form um that is essentially a form that's it's not a state form but it's a commonly used form and the reason that box is there is because applicants have to indicate to us what it is that they intend to prove when they file their application so the fact that somebody checks a box that says it doesn't uh affect the the the zoning code um or the or affect the master plan or any of those things is only a it's only an indication to us that that's one of the things that they will attempt to prove so when they come in however to the board they have to have an expert that testifies to that and that's subject to our experts on our Board review doing it and ultimately a a judgment of credibility and substance by the zoning board so that doesn't necessarily mean that it's it's true it's just an indication to you know once again you're looking at an application that really is only giving us an indication as to what people are going to try to prove when they come before the board so it's not an indication that it's granted one way or the other so but but once again a pretty pretty commonly used form It's Not Unusual you might see on form there might be a section that says give the reasons why you need a variance you it'll say some very similar things but that's all it is were there other questions about Lan mayor that you wanted me to answer No I um you've recommended to council that we not oh and that and and once again that's that's really part of part of the disclaimer there is a uh position a provision in the Township's ordinance that's authorized by the municiple land use law that says that there are certain circumstances when zoning board decisions can certain zoning board decisions can be appealed to the council so it's very narrow and those zoning board the only zoning board decision that get could get appeared could get appealed to the council is the grant of a use variance and that's what levit is Levan is asking for so because of that possibility and once again that would mean Levan would have to win at the zoning board and then that decision could be appealed to the council because the council is in the appeal process I have advised all of the members of the council that they specifically cannot comment on this application because uh you know I I have been involved personally in in litigation over the course of the last now four decades in which uh applicants have taken the position that Council people who have voiced their uh position with regards to a zoning board application are then conflicted out of hearing and an appeal and I'm sure that there's nobody in the audience that would like any member of the council who would Express an opinion favorable or unfavorable to you to be then precluded from uh actually um sitting on an appeal if one should come before them so I know that's really technical um I I am assuming that it's really Technical and that's why they asked me to explain it because that's kind of my role here um but but that's why you'll generally see that people won't comment one way or the other with regards to anything concerning the levit 11 application so and then by the way that I'll answer questions but I I'm not really going to weigh in on some of the every everybody is entitled to of course come and express their opinion I'm not going to weigh in one way or the other with regards to it because if and when this comes to the if if this should come to the council I of course have to sit here as Council to the council and and um I should be you know free of those same conflicts hope that explained it mayor thank you um as far as the Oprah legislation that's before the uh assembly and the Senate um you I suggest you speak to assemblyman D Danielson uh assemblyman um Eagan or Senator Bob Smith about that that's where those comments would best be heard uh because they'll be voting on it or or not if it gets that far um we'll leave Road speeds for later um trash yeah trash is a problem the one question was how does it get there it's I'm just going to say it people are pigs I I have never thrown anything except something like an apple core I will admit to that out of a window of a car because I like to feed the squirrels mayor but um sorry but why people throw their McDonald's cups out I mean they they're they're it's in my front yard um we do I'll let um what is your name Mr born Locker um comment on what efforts we do to pick it up but it's it's horrible um 11 uh the does anyone from Economic Development want to comment on and I use your first name because I'll buter your last name Kiki's comment or is that something you want to discuss between yourselves I mean I I I can so I can address some of it Mr Mayor I certainly don't mind doing that just okay good I'm probably about to get to you um Mr Connell on my private email please remind me to donate to your uh trip and and uh that's all I had Mr vlocker oh well I'm sorry any council members uh yes so I'm sorry interrup you when you were talking about the litter or responding to it and I think the manager is going to pick up on it obviously it's it's horrendous fortunately it's not all over town but there are some spots that just uh I don't know how people litter but I know years ago we had an initia that basically we use some of our clean Community money they'll do okay and I so so I just whatever the manager is going to say I I really think the situation has gotten worse so whatever we can do I'm not suggesting put another line item in the budget but whatever resources are there that we utilize and even look to to try to engage the public I know sometimes it's not practical for using volunteers but it does seem to have gotten worse and and it really is this makes part of our town look disgusting when it's such a beautiful town so I just wanted to ask about any sources including the clean community's money if oh yeah when when the manager comments on it Mr manager I just have one comment well oh I'm sorry Mr uh Deputy Mayor so I just want to thank uh Mr grippo for um sort of highlighting the I guess I would call it the Franklin Park South Branch of the library um because it was something that really really exemplifies when the uh you know Town works with the Board of Education in this case and I happen to be on the board of ed and president at the time and um in the I call it the steinart plaza but they haven't been there in quite some time so you might know confectionary yours or Ocean State odd job along 27 the South Branch of the library was there and the mayor astutely pointed out we were paying rent to a private landlord and there might be an opportunity for us using funds from the state in library construction bond that was overwhelming supported by voters um to move into our own facility to build it on land we just needed land made sense to put it near a school we had like a I call it like vestigal just a little piece of property hanging out that really couldn't be used for the school it was off to the side of the parking lot and we were able to sell that at market value which helped offset expenses for the school board provide the land for the library which has an educational component for the schools and then they were able to leverage funds um from the state to build a facility and now not paying to an independent landlord not that they're bad but keeping that money within the library system for education and opportunity for folks to gather and think and and commune um and I think it's a stud of view and I'm glad you got a chance to go there and I'm just going to advertise if you haven't had a chance get over there it's a cute beautiful Library you can reserve books and they'll send them over from another facility but don't forget to pick them up because there's like a 50 Cent fee if they send the book over there and then they got to ship it back um and I think it's a beautiful part of the community and it wouldn't have happened without the mayor the library board and a whole bunch of people just working together like we do all the time and it's worth lifting that kind of thing up because you know social emotional learning positive reinforcement goes a long way thank you thank you you'll be running my next campaign Mr manager I just just have one comment on uh uh What uh my friend Onie schmidth brought up about the taxes um I have to tell you I I did a little article on Franklin reporter a while ago um I did a survey of all the surrounding towns um of of Franklin and we are the lowest tax rate to town uh in the region and I think the credit goes to this Council and the township manager uh for keeping all the expenses uh in line and and keeping the taxes the lowest in our region thank you then to staff as well if you notice at last meets budget hearing most departments had were zero change or even a couple hundred dollars decrease in their uh operating budget now finally Mr manager I'm ready for you Mr Mayor um so a couple things one just to uh further the discussion about trash along our public roadways so I I it actually the mayor and I did have that conversation about um unfortunately many of our fellow residents of New Jersey are not as um considerate as it relates to the sides of our public roads and do litter and I think I call them pigs as well I think that's probably a disservice to pigs but um I I I will tell you that uh as far as the Township's efforts um in general when it is something that is of of sizable por portion the public works department will go out and pick something up if there's a couch alongside the road or something like that that gets done on a you know as an as needed basis um that we do continue to use clean communities funding which is um grant money that we receive from the state specifically for purposes such as that to fund uh cleanup duties on weekends with the public works uh employees um understand that we will will not clean up Easton Avenue eastn Avenue is under the jurisdiction of Somerset County as are the other County Roads like South middlebush Road and Elizabeth Avenue and Cedar Grove Lane and Hamilton Street and Amell Road and on and on and I won't name them all here but I could if I had to um and it is the responsibility of the public works department of Somers SEC County to maintain those roads and they do if you you will see uh Road Cruise out on Easton Avenue um it it is not an easy Road to clean based on the traffic volume on easn Avenue um so but it is done as are the other County Roads by County Cru um we maintain the municipal roads um those clean Community uh cleanups are generally on the more major roads um and and and and by Major I can say that it might be um what you might not consider a major road but in the the the hierarchy of roads in Franklin Township they might be major to us our rural our rural roads off of South midle Bush Road like Blackwells Mills and caloo and skilman and Bennetts and those roads as well as Canal Road for the most part is Township and it's those roads that generally get cleaned up um by Clean communities uh Road Cruise so I think that's cleanup um speed limits so I'm about to go nerdy on you here you ask for speed limits and you're going to get the traffic officer response so there three statutory speed limits in the state of New Jersey there is the uh residential 25 there is the rural residential 35 and then all other roads at 50 for a statutory speed limit so the 25 mph speed limit requires 660 ft for every 660 ft of roadway Frontage there has to be 50% of building Frontage for a rural residential it is for for every 1320 ft there has to be 50% of residential property Frontage and then you have the all other of 50 and any other speed limit other than 25 35 or 50 is established by an engineering study and the only way that those speed limits can be changed is by engineering study which is is is not exceptionally complex but I'm not going to bore you with the details of an engineering stud to do speed surveys and what's required to um change a speed limit and speed limits should be set at the at the 85th percentile speed of a roadway so a speed survey would be determined uh to be necessary to change the speed limit and then you look for the what the 85th percentile speed is on a road um that's the engineering standard that's established by Statute so that's the way it has to be done um so you will have speed limits That Vary all over town that might not seem to make much sense based on the geometry of a road but that you know the road that you mentioned New Brunswick Road has been established by Statute it's a Suburban residential Zone it has 50% of its Frontage over each 1320 ft which by the way is a quarter of a mile that's that's um residential in nature and it has to to be Frontage not rear that's why there's a split speed limit on the uh section of New Brunswick Road between deont Lane and JFK Boulevard the section where there are single family homes is 25 the section where there is town houses backing up to the road that's not Frontage that's rear and there was a actually a case that went to court and it's the New Brunswick Road case and that meant that it had to be a Suburban 35 not a residential 25 so that's how speed limits sometimes are random and um they may be and they're they don't conform to that 25 3550 that didn't answer your question you can call me later um I think that the answer was given on the the ML and and why the the zoning form says what it says um just an interesting side note that there was a certain that you know there was a question asked and I'm not going to get into the details of of how it impacts uh but we talked about traffic and the need to limit traffic but that there's a need to increase retail which does in fact increase traffic so there's a kind of a a catch 22 there you know it's like you can't have your cake and E to two the the current uh uh the current areas that lack retail or have vacant stores if you fill those stores traffic will come that's an inevitable thing and clothing stores we did have one as recently as a couple years ago and it failed to succeed and that was Steinmart as council member pnik mentioned which was in the shopping center at the Town Center at South Middle bush in Route 27 and it was it it failed to thrive so um that's it Mr Mayor three diameters yes I think the question was would be be willing to do a retail Market study oh so okay thank you so so we actually did a a a fairly comprehensive Economic Development study and it started in 2015 it was done by a firm called forward planning um there is a me there's a number of different documents on the township website related to it it's actually forward planning's um Economic Development strategy plan that was developed that resulted in the creation of the bi Zone um it was also focused on the Hamilton Street business district and it made a number of recommendations and it's interesting that it was finalized in 2017 and many many recommendations were made and then as we all know what happened in the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 and our world changed and it has negated a lot of the recommendations that were made in that planning study because times change and in this particular case CH time times changed very very rapidly um and and the the economic impacts that that time in our history had on not only our town but really the whole world has changed everything and so if you're interested in reading it I believe there's a link to it on the planning page um it's the forward planning economic study that was done to focus on um our corporate business Zone and and our Hamilton Street uh business district three diameter I don't I don't know that there's anything to particularly address here if you're asking for what my opinion is I don't think that you want to have me give it okay okay um okay moving on um Council comments Mr Wright I know you're going to start with me first that's a beautiful thought um just a couple quick items here from my committees the Redevelopment uh agency um we executed our our auditing um of the last year mark haly who's our executive director and I being the chairman we initiated our auditing process uh on the housing front the Housing Authority um it's not too much uh Miss franois might know better but from what I understand Housing Authority okay so I'm going let that slide down there um on the recreation uh advisory committee um check the website for updates uh everyone received the newspaper uh of what their uh activities that we were putting out for the year but they always change and um new ones are out there uh Keith Stewart the uh the chairman of the recreation advisory committee reminded me that we need to get the community more involved in what our children are doing um so go to the website um look look at what's being offered from swimming um all kind of activities that some of them are being used and some of them aren't but we need to have to make sure that our kids are out there um on another note next meeting does anybody know who scored a th000 points for girls basketball did anybody know that oh no forget the newspaper no I ain't counting the newspaper but we have a thousand Point score for girls here in Franklin I want to here um we also have um the Tournament of Champions anybody heard about that um it's for recreation recre it's for athletic sports and we had a Gold Medal winner a silver and a bronze and and I want them here too so you can all meet them um and I know we're not the water Channel but sometimes you need to go a little Bey of that beyond that and see what the kids are doing out there uh hey they're actually doing this in addition to scholarship and we'll get that down the road too so we have a couple things that we want to bring to you um that'll work wonders for us now uh one more thing that I have um if I can find it it's from the YMCA brother Bill we are planning to go to the annual campaign uh celebration project and spirit Awards event that's going to be Wednesday April the 10th at the raron Valley Country Club now as you know we're trying to bring that YMCA over here off of Route 27 we're giving up treasure to get them here um and that's all I can say we got to get them here and going to these functions uh you get the rub knobs you know everybody's there you get to talk to them you get to impress upon them they need to come they have the footprint we just need them to come up with the money uh because we threw in our cash when we got the footprint um so that's one thing that we're going to uh in April um and that is pretty much it Mr Mayor um see you next week I mean in two weeks with all my Champions here thank you oh Central Jersey College Prep we haven't forgotten them because they went to MIT and do did a little work up there so we're going to bring them in too uh because they belong here in Franklin town so some of our students are there and we have to recognize too uh them too I don't know if they have their own little YouTube channel but we going to bring them in here thank you thank you councilman Kazi thank you Mr Mayor um I attended several advisory boards and meetings and I'd like to share some highlights with uh with the community and uh everybody here uh the first one we had a great uh uh presentation by 12 of our members members to The Advisory Board of Health about the assessment Community Health assessment the objective was to identify a few items that The Advisory board can work on and basically they picked four of them one was related to the mental health the other one was improving knowledge relating to available resources for uh disabled also specialized emotional and Social Services for screening a medical attention and finally providing lowcost or free medical screening uh also I just want to let everybody know that in the senior citizen there's a a bench and this is not a regular bench actually you can't sit on it if you sit you're going to be sliding down but it has information QR code how to get information about opioid and look for alternative is going to be there for probably a month maybe longer and we are hoping to have a press release PJ hopefully soon so everybody in town become aware of it it is really great and I already got a couple of uh emails that people have have used it so please stop by and spread the word uh the next meeting of The Advisory Board is going to be on April 3rd starting at 7:30 and across the hall I also also attended human relations Commission meeting and we had our director of safety Miss May Mayweather was with us who talked about the safety in our Township such as arrive together program plus High number of burglary especially targetting luxury cars and shared some recommendation to keep our home safe our next meeting is on March 27th at 700 p.m. and we're going to talk actually there going to be some presentation on homeschooling so if you know anyone who does homeschooling this may be a great opportunity to come to the meeting and also New Jersey National Guard um the budget season we've been very busy to review the budget for various departments and uh the uh Trail advisory committee meeting is actually tomorrow it's virtual it's 7:00 I recommend anybody who's interested to walk on our Trails police please do so it's really a great opportunity to learn about it and we also had the Hamilton Advisory board meeting and that was pretty that was first time I was attending as a liaison and a lot of things to learn and was pretty uh good meeting and led by our own vce Domino sitting right that's it Mr Mayor thank you councilwoman sheepa oudin good evening um so Mr gripple I was also at the read Across America in uh McAfee Road school and um it's one of those experiences that um you just feel so great to see walk into a school my kids went to mcafe old school so when when I walked in it was um just remembering the times when they went to Mofi and just to see the same teachers um teaching the kids and little little kids walking past the hallways and um the public safety directors and it was just very nice um and to be able to read to uh a group of 20 kids and have their um span of just curiosity sitting there for 20 minutes was a a nice uh thing to know and then they just jumped and went um loud we also had our Public Works meeting um right before this meeting um reviewing 2024 Road ping schedule I know councilman um vasella will provide more updates to that meeting um thi America which is a a South Indian organization hosted a international mother language day in the senior center um which was nice to see various um languages in our town um kids came up and they did speeches in their own mother uh tongue we had folks from Bangladesh India um I think one kid was from Mexico we had one kid from China and so on so it's very nice to see the various diverse kids um talking in their language um I know we mentioned this today a lot um supporting local initiatives such as food bank nna Etc I think it's so important that we continue to support these initiatives because this is giving back to our own Community these are our own residents our friends our neighbors that may not have dinner on their table every day or may not have breakfast on their table um so it's very personal sometimes or I think I I have neighbors that I always uh offer food to and it's very nice to support these local initiatives um apart from that I just want to wish everyone I know St Patrick's Day is coming up on March 16th so just want to wish everyone that's celebrating Happy St Patrick's Day and then we had a bunch of Ramadan um lighting ceremony events throughout the town and across um neighboring towns that I attended so it's very nice to see the community coming together and embracing each other's culture religion um very nice thank you thank you councilman Charles onaka microphone oh good gotta speak more into the mic councilman okay with deepest regret public that uh the seran community in L one of the talk hello okay okay with deepest regret I just want to inform the society that the San community in Franklin lost one of their great members men lmen has been very very strong with the bran community and has been a good participant in all the things we've been doing in Franklin and he just uh died a couple of days ago transit to his hometown Arrangement is still under under Arrangement so rest in perfect peace thank you councilman vasella uh yes so in the last couple weeks we've attended a the Hamilton board meeting which was referenced by councilman Kazi uh there's a budget put forth that is on the agenda uh it's pretty basic very similar to Prior budgets I don't believe it will end up having any assessment to the commercial Property Owners where they would have to kick in anything beyond um their regular tax assessment um there's uh a tree skape plan which really wasn't talked about too much because it was kind of has been worked on for a couple years basically we're talking about allocating uh over $200,000 it's in the resolutions that we'll be voting on later I know I've been involved with it um through various committees including the shade three committee and the Hamilton board so long awaited for treescape plan which short of it is will bring a lot of greenery and kind of give a little consistency and a little I'm going to say uh uh attractiveness to the corridor in general where we'll have a consistent plan throughout um and hopefully if they're maintained right our contract I think calls for the maintenance for a couple years and uh then uh if it goes well we will have a much more beautiful Hamilton Street um that's on the resolutions to be voted on later it's like I say it's been in the works for a couple years um we also in public works I'm sorry I'm shifting to Public Works we had the meeting earlier as mentioned there's a couple ordinances that should be forthcoming next month uh just basic description one of them deals with I'm going to call called a property maintenance issue uh we have very good strong Property Maintenance ordinances many of which I've had the honor to work on over the years this one actually deals with an issue uh not a big issue but an issue that needs to be dealt with as far as uh ordinance that governs how the curb where the curb meets the machanum to keep it simple is maintained to where unfortunately sometimes it will actually grow as high and be over the curb cement or Belgium Block or what whatever the material is so we have an ordinance coming forward that helps us deal with that um aspect of property maintenance and I believe we uh recommended it unanimously to move forward as described earlier at our at our committee meeting the other ordinance has to do with um commercial properties and housing developments meaning anywhere that has a ho homeowners association or has four or more rental properties um as a rental complex would um a lot of them not all of them have um sprinkler systems irrigation systems whatever you want to call and because of a lot of reasons including water loss which can be big on these uh properties that God forbid there's a leak uh so we have a registration process I won't get into the details uh and this will is not for residences single family residences or two family residences but commercial properties and housing complexes that should be coming next month and uh from what I'm told we'll hopefully save save uh a lot of water leakage and also be able to help us communicate with the um facilities that do have these systems so that um you know if we notice there's an issue uh that suggest is there's a leak or some other issue so those are forthcoming we reviewed I'm not going to go over rest Street we kind of honed in on a uh an amount to keep us somewhat up to date um this is a hard year financially with our road repaving so without going into all the details we kind of came up with a point of which we're comfortable with not as much as we originally would have liked to have but enough to where um we should still be able to maintain staying up to schedule as we like to look at it as uh there is one unfortunate issue and I I think we'll hear a little bit more about the funding involved in the discussion item tonight that uh long awaited for and long promised improvements to uh to the water system which you know has issues it's a crumbling system unfortunately in certain areas we've been doing great keeping up with it but there's some areas including about eight streets in the Fifth Ward and slightly into the fourth that although the project has been on our list here for a couple years unfortunately I found at the end of the meeting that the funding's in question so so um I guess we'll hear more about that one of the funding sources we'll be talking about in our Council discussion item so I don't want to elaborate further but hopefully this will be part um one way or the other of our budget and we be done at least started this year like I say it's a long promised and long awaited for improvements in the Fourth and Fifth Ward some of the oldest areas of town so more to come on that that's it mayor thank you thank you uh councilman EMB barison uh thank you mayor um don't have a lot uh I did tend the Public Works meeting that councilman vasella just mentioned so I don't want to repeat anything there um there was a u signage review subcommittee um meeting uh that uh some of all of us uh in the subcommittee met with the staff uh we had a good discussion uh we reviewed uh the uh ordinances and the difficulties faced by uh businesses in terms of exposure and um we have some ideas but not completely fleshed out um we do want to get input from the uh business Community uh so the staff will uh research and come up with a uh date uh to do a a zoom meeting with the uh business Community or even a public at large can participate uh to see how we can help these businesses uh promote themselves uh in town uh so they stay in business you know uh Kiki talked about uh retail dessert we we do want to support uh their effort um we want to have them around uh for us to go shop uh uh you know they provide employment economic development in the town so we do want to um look into that and and see how we can um keep them in business um there was a surage Authority uh board meeting on the 5th uh one of the main discussions was uh uh the relocation of the western Canal Pump Station as you know uh whenever we have a huge storms the Western Canal uh gets flooded and the pump station gets uh uh several feet of water and uh remained out of service for for a time period uh we can and and every time we have to fix them it's you know millions of dollars of uh um money that we spend and unfortunately the insurance doesn't cover that because it's in a flood zone uh so we have to relocate that uh Pump Station uh slightly to an higher elevation um PNG has space to offer us uh so we have uh made an offer uh after a couple of uh appraisals have been done to the land and we have submitted to the PNG hopefully they would approve it and we can begin the Reconstruction relocation of uh that pump station that should help us in the future future other than that I attended this lovely Ramadan celebration at this uh community center on the third uh what began as a small uh event uh four years ago I think uh has grown to a uh really really Community big Community event a lot of kids performed uh number of uh Muslim leaders in town came over and uh there were of course food with without that no celebration is complete so uh we are very happy to be part of that celebration and of course I would be also going to the omca event that councilman right talked about and that's a one of our priorities uh we want to make that happen uh for the Franklin uh for for the for the community at large and I think we we there's some effort of collaborating with the neighboring towns because it is going to be uh on Route 27 which borders the New Brunswick North Brunswick South Brunswick kennel Park so we we we plan to um reach out to those officials and see how much they can help us uh in in making that reality that's all I have mayor thank you thank you councilwoman fruis uh according to the theme that I've always adhered to personally and professionally and specifically on this Council one of my major priorities has been affordable housing and the revitalization of Franklin Township so as I have sat on as a commissioner on the Redevelopment agency and also as a commissioner uh a member of the Hamilton Street Advisory Board uh I do sit on the Housing Authority as a commissioner since you brought it up I usually don't talk about about it we do have a meeting tomorrow uh we will be passing a resolution for late budget submission and I also will be attending a um conference uh the public housing authority Conference in June and specifically that conference is um going to be focusing on planning several timely sessions on legislative and Regulatory mans affecting housing authorities more importantly uh racial equity practi IES and fair housing programs and so yes I will be attending that um conference councilman I'm I'm not sure why you bought it up but yeah I will be attending that conference and it will be paid for by the authority in June in New Orleans and we're also going to be talking about AI artificial intelligence and how it's going to affect fair housing practices as well yeah so a lot to learn I hope to bring some of that back and uh the Housing Authority obviously focuses on people that need affordable housing and Section 8 housing thank you very much thank you Mr Mayor that's it thank you deputy mayor tasak uh so happy New Year now ruse as well as uh Ramadan Mubarak so uh a lot of holidays to celebrate and we appreciate um the earlier resolutions and particularly to our Girl Scouts and the silver Award winners uh for their tremendous efforts and of course behind every successful child is a village but most importantly their family and we appreciate their efforts as well to stand behind the girls as they move forward with uh you know that hard work um which is very appreciated just want to double down our friends at The Meadows Foundation mention this uh stream cleanup coming up for sort of Earth Day on April 13th it's a Saturday and if you don't know where that stream is it's by on uh uh you know it's h I guess guess Hilt uh excuse me Easton Avenue where IHOP is so it's called the the Somers said something or other but everyone knows the IHOP that's where we'll start there'll be gloves provided protective material as well as instructions in case you come along something that's sharp or heavy Etc it's actually a really fun and rewarding experience and unfortunate at the same time so you get to see a little bit of everything I plan to be there and then in addition I just want to extend uh a lot of gratitude to the public works department uh Carl H for their efforts to ensure that as we're redoing the water system over by the McAfee school that we do it with as little disruption as possible to the school which is already a uh I would say a challenge sort of parking situation the bus routes and the neighborhood itself I'm looking at uh principal grippo uh who's very familiar with the McAfee school um and the way that they've worked out the timing um you know has really been exceptional we look forward to that plan going into effect I know there's a number of adjustments and the mayor appreciate his help on that as well to ensure the smooth operations of the schools but also upgrades that are critical to the water system and that's all I have for tonight thank you thank you um I would just like to announce that Deputy Mayor basnik performed his first wedding about two weeks ago right did spectacularly well and I think I think it's time that we recognize greatness Among Us there's share there there's Elvis we now have a citizen of Franklin who has reached the first name only needed status Kiki and that is the momentous news I have Mr manager thank Mr Mayor I'm sure Kiki appreciates that immensely um so I just to just to add some additional information to council member pik's uh announcement on the stream cleanup of of sel's run um while uh there is no experience required there is a pre-registration required and as such I would direct anyone who's interested in participating in that stream cleanup to go to our website in the news um there you can do it the modern and uh uh new way of uh scanning a QR code on our website but there's also a link um to get to the the registration page and that is also sponsored uh I know it was mentioned earlier actually by the lower R and water shed because we also have things with the DNR Canal watch that's different so got to give props to the people who are doing the work um so that is that and then we have um bunny banan on Saturday March 23rd that would be a week before Easter at 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the community center it is a free activity for your young ones or great grand young ones um at the community center uh getting a photo with Mr and Mrs bunny face painting balloon artist music kids craft and more um no registration will be required for that one council member pnik you can just show up for bunny Bonanza if you'd like um and then we also want to let everyone know that if you go to our Township website and you are interested in having a 5 to8 cubic yard delivery of leaf and wood mulch uh the public works department will do that for you they will dump it in your driveway they have to dump it off the road um but you'll have to wheelbarrow it to where you need it but if you'd like to do that you can go to the township website and again Township news and there's a form to fill out to submit everything needs to be submitted your requests need to be submitted by April 15th also tax day um and uh just a a I was I received some good news today that uh I'd like to give some thanks to funny Carl H and his public works department is getting thanks today from a couple different sources today I was advised that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced the amounts of for recipients of the municipal recycling tonnage Grant um back in 2020 and 2021 the public works department worked very diligently to get notifications out to all of our businesses throughout the town and requested that they report all of their recycling uh that they do through the year the tonnage that's where that comes from um the state of New Jersey um is a couple years behind and this year TW is for 2021s total tonnage of recycling for each municipality um in 2020 we received $95,500 um that was for 2020 and we received that last year this year for 2021 we are receiving $ 34,412 which is the fourth fourth largest award in the state of New Jersey um so clearly the efforts of the public works department to get all of our businesses to report to the state the amount of recycling that they're doing has resulted in um more than triple the amount from last year to this year so I I give them uh kudos for the hard work they did to get everything out and then to follow up with the businesses as to what they needed to do and it that's a significant uh Grant receip seat by the township that we'll be receiving in this year and that's pretty much what I had Mr Mayor garbage counts thank you um so many of you may not know it but um Mr Dominic usually watches these meetings from home with popcorn um he's here tonight um suffering without the popcorn because he's going to do item number 13 the Hamilton Street special improvement district uh I thought we could be kind to him if anyone wanted to move to amend the agenda to do that next they'll move seconded there is no obligation to be nice to him you know that okay yes just wonder I don't think you or I our votes count Mr raino all in favor say I I I those say nay better make it good better make it quick uh I present oh what do we do here I present the resolution 2409 um calendar year 24 2024 Hamilton Street special Improvement District budget by title to the township Council for their consideration do I have a motion so moved second move then second and any discussion uh Madam Clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on jaka yes Deputy Mayor basnik yes councilwoman udine yes councilman vasella yes councilman right is now appropriate to have a public hearing uh does anyone want to move to open to the public so moved second uh all in favor say I I I oos say nay motion is carried we are open to the public you wish to say anything Mr Dominic seeing no one from the public come forward a motion to close the public portion second move then seconded all in favor say I I I close say nay motion is carried so I present resolution 2493 adopt the calendar year 2024 Hamilton Street special Improvement District budget as in introduced to the township Council for their consideration do we have a motion so moved seconded mov and seconded uh any discussion Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman n jaka Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman Udin yes councilman vasella yes councilman right it did Super Mr Dominic your brevity is greatly appreciated thank you super job see you in the morning if you could only teach that to council members and know I just got to say one thing Mr Mayor you really should do some scientific research on the Apple course because there are very differing opinions as whether they're safe for Animals especially on the side of the road so I haven't done it for I haven't done it for take a look at that I haven't done it for years thank you and you're out of order I will um touche uh so we're now back to item number 10 Council discussion item ARP funding for construction trade program um and there's appears to be some confusion about what we're discussing so maybe so that's what we're discussing I believe that Mr vasel was referring to the fact that in our Public Works committee meeting I told him that the last $2 million uh of um American Rescue plan funds has yet to be committed by Council and I don't believe that that's untrue but we're not looking at that for tonight we're looking at another application of American Rescue plan funds for job training what we have on the agenda for our Council discussion and that 2 million doll is available possibly to the water that's slightly under under two million and it is available to the water utility but it has not gone it has not been committed by council at this time but I asked that we discussed tonight was a request to fund a uh a job training program uh in conjunction with the Board of Education and a uh a a uh training a Technical Training Institute by the name of brentshire Technical Institute um last year there was a pilot program that was Grant funded that was run um by the Board of Education uh the course was was conducted by training staff from brentshire Technical Institute um that funding was a one-time funding source for the grant money to to uh run the class um and it was actually run at the middle school with a at middle school students and it was it was met with a great deal of uh of positive response after the course was completed and uh councilwoman Francois was contacted by um orille Wilson a member of the the senior staff at the Board of Education uh to to see if there was any opportunity for the township to be able to provide future funding to continue the course um into really at that time this semester of this current school year with a Target being the uh road to success program for high school age students as opposed to the middle school age students um at at the at the middle school and for those of you who don't know the road to success uh program is actually run out of the Hamilton Street Middle School campus so we met with uh um Mr Wilson and Dr ravali and members of the staff of brentshire and had a discussion about what they were able to offer uh as far as this training program to the RTS students and what we what we learned was that this program that had been run with the middle school students and now was being proposed for the high school students was a uh construction basic construction skills uh program for high school age students um in fact um it would offer a certification from the national Center for construction education and research um that uh that entity has what's called the high school Builder program um I will read from their website real quick so you understand what we're talking about here the high school Builder program is designed specifically for schools that are just starting their construction CTE Journey our program provides expert guidance and support to overcome the obstacles of setting up a successful CTI CTE program in addition our core introduction to basic construction skills incorporates applied math along with employability and communication skills to help your students gain the life ready skills needed to success in the workforce this is the basic program and certification that would be uh offered uh to that would uh the students would receive should they be able to complete the course of study um The Proposal is was initially to run this program for this semester of the school year and then the following two School semesters uh in the 2425 school year um because there was a lot of um discussion and back and forth about costs which uh are appropriate and can be covered by the American Rescue plan funds um there was there was a lot of back and forth and fine-tuning I was able to get de Mitchell who is our grant consultant for the American Rescue plan involved to work with brentshire so that they had a better understanding of what were permitted expenses and what were not permitted expenses under the American Rescue plan we also worked with Dr rali and Mr Wilson to to better uh to better fine-tune the The Proposal so that it would fit with the upcoming summer uh session of the road to success program as opposed to trying to rush this to get it get it done for this current School semester so the the the proposal is for the summer term for the road to success program and then the two semesters of the 2425 school year um and it would cover all costs associated with the program uh the the consumables that would be utilized by the students the lumber the sheetrock the electrical that they they would have Hands-On training for as well as the equipment to run the course and the instructors um and that would include five day a week training two hours a day for the students four hours total for two instructors for an hour of setup and an hour of cleanup after the two hours of instruction daily for up to 24 students and it could be expanded Beyond 24 students to a total of 30 at any given time based on S uh constraints in in room size um that's the maximum that it can go to um and the cost would be let me a spreadsheet here the cost for the entire uh summer session and F year school session next year is at $1,128 that works out to uh participant cost for the 200 days of study the 20 uh summer term plus 180 day school year of $1,542 20 per pupil um 1,254 for the summer program and 11,287 for the 180 day school year so that's what was proposed to us um again um I had multiple discussions with Dr rali and Mr Wilson regarding this program both were very enthusiastic about the program itself um there there was uh a concern about cost and at that rate Dr rali has informed me that that is within the norm for this type of course of study um that they would pay for from an outside provider that's what I have to offer up about what I know about it any Council comments well just curious about what the pool of money total is from the American Rescue plan so current the res American Rescue plan funds I have it written um the total was $ 7,735 th000 that was received by the Township from the federal government um $2 million has been uh appropriated for water infrastructure improvements in the um in the fourth and fifth Wards specifically in those Census Data tracks that um qualify for cdbg funds um $2 million was uh appropriated for sewer main improvements in that same area $1.5 million has been appropriated to uh a health care facility on the grounds of the Middle School to serve the school population and future uh in in the future um the general population of the township for those in need um and so that's a total of $5.5 million this is a $300 million project 300 million I'm sorry $300,000 project so you're at 5.8 which means there's roughly $2 million left in American Rescue plan funds should this um program be funded so what I want to hear everybody's opinion so just want to be clear though the numbers so without getting into details there is still approximately 2 million correct separate from this 300 that hasn't I don't want to say been promised but there hasn't been these in dep behind uncommitted funds at okay so there's not like something like this is in the works there's this and then there's the two million the the the general discussion about that remaining funds has been to utilize it uh for further replacement of water M that's that's been the only discussion okay up to this point yeah okay so I'll wait please anybody else go anyone else I have a comment um I think this is is this a program scap uh was also working on uh at all uh scap came to me uh for funding uh like a similar program you have a scat board member to your left I would ask her more than me so the scat program is the one that you started with for Workforce Development for the um no no he Mike actually talked to me about this particular construction program for middle school students talk to you Mike Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark yeah Mark haris um so um my my comments to him was two uh two things in middle school student training was not something that we would approve um and secondly I said even if there was an adult training program like this we would need to see the the course contents the course outcomes and employer Partnerships cuz uh 300,000 is a lot of money my comment was uh after the training what happens is is the vendor going to provide some sort of a job placement assistance and so forth so that uh this uh uh trainees could get jobs but he never came back to me so it seems like he has gone to the school and uh done this so this was run in this school I don't know if it's the same program councilman but what I can tell you is that this was run as a middle school program last year and in this particular case what the what the board of education has said is that upon completion and certification they will work with each student for for placement either in uh additional trade school whether it be through ratton Valley Community College or um another trade school or to look towards an apprenticeship with one of the trade unions and that would be a responsibility of of the guidance counselors at the high school that are working and the and the counselors that are working directly with the RTS program okay yeah so the outcomes are important to us so as long as there is some um conditions attached to the uh funding uh to provide meaningful outcomes of the programs uh I think uh we could uh uh probably consider it properly so just so just so we're clear we're not funding the program the board of educ ation will be funding the program so and I say that because this is where much like the zall program the zua uh Health Center we provide the funding to the board of education and then they'll administer the course along with brentshire so the oversight will be on the part of the Board of Education not us which I think for an educational program is much more appropriate um they're much more well suited to over see an educational program than we are and and this program in its for in in its application with the RTS program we'll also have the RTS teacher on site with the instructors from brentshire while the instruction is taking place um so I have a couple questions actually a number of questions and I'll I'll just preface it by saying um I grew up with my father he was a carpet installer so if you remember uh Township manager had a lot of questions about the carpet here and how it was going to be put in that's uh you know that was babysitting for me I was in the blue truck the passenger seat was kind of pushed down you could hardly lean back on it from the rolls of carpet um I remember my father telling me stories about installing Carpets on the Empire State Building and well like got the twin towers and the how they were wavering now obviously they're not with us um and then myself I am a licensed contractor so the trades have been in a important part of my life both growing up to provide food on our table and pay for rent in addition to when I was a teacher supplementing my income because I was not compensated enough so I started this construction company so I've always been working with my hands I think the trades are critical and as you all know I was on the school board uh for quite a number of years taught for 10 years and School Board president so uh I think the program itself is like totally makes sense it's great and you know we want to train people in the trades and earlier is better you know the college degree Etc I do have questions though um the first is um the brentshire themselves do we know if they're a profit for profit or nonprofit and do we have any idea like what their profit margin is I so as far as the the business that that as I have not done any research whatsoever other than to know that they are a for-profit company because you know the unusual thing here is I I run nonprofit too is like we're really being like sort of the grantor right we're being the agency that has to vet these projects and these proposals look at them in not only the priorities in our town but also the ability for the provider to provide it and this is a third party case where we're trusting the school board to do this vetting so can you tell me a little bit about what the vetting process has been both from I know Township manager vorn Locker you've been involved has this gone through a committee of the council and and how has that worked with the school board has there been a Schoolboard committee that's also been involved in this vetting I just don't so the financial oversight committee was the one who initially heard the request for funding yes and that was um what when was that last week no it was about a month ago we met a couple month and a half ago yeah it must have been the meeting I missed must have been the meeting you missed because it was the financial oversight committee that heard the heard the request from um in this case the request is actually from the Board of Education correct yeah so so as far as the the vetting of brentshire and and what their involvement is is is one that I certainly would rely on the board of education this request came from the Board of Education not from brire no I understand that you know I think probably a lot of the questions I have are related to not being able to be at that meeting I think I had some work conflict or something I don't know what happened then um so I think my initial sort of concern also lies in the per per pupil cost and then I have like another sort of I would say it's sort of a reservation around scales of economy when we're creating our own program when for example Somerset County votek has facilities that we don't have anymore because we've decommissioned them in the school and so my hats off to really trying to bring a program you know in locally but Somerset County votch has programs I know at ran Valley Community College uh additionally has programs I know a student who took their welding class it was $2,000 and you know they got a certificate at the end to be a welder um this is six times more expensive and then they had to pay that out of their own pocket but if they did well in the course they actually had a grant program to refund it um and that was for high school students who are post postgrad graduates the dollar amount it seems High um for the number of students and I also have a a big place in my heart for the road to success program which is our alternative school for folks that can't um the regular school environment really doesn't work for them for example um a young mom you know you can't go to the regular classes with your kid so night school makes sense or if for some reason you had um some sort of altercation and you were not allowed into the school regular hours and these are our most at risk um populations and so having opportunities for them but I just can't help but thinking this is where my reservations come from that there could be a more cost-effective way to do it um given the the high price and like has there been and do you know any opportunity to look at some of the institutions 18 months is great there was a pilot program for like a year that's two and a half years of what we think is a high priority how do we make it sustainable like in an institution that already exists like ridan Valley or the votch have they looked at that at all well I I don't know that the company who's going to provide the education has looked at that no I think that the board of education has informed them I don't think it I know it that this is one-time funding that's not available beyond the length of this particular program and that they would have to seek out additional funding they have developed the relationship with Kean University to hopefully be able to fund further programs as they move forward is there any is Kane putting any money to this project in particular not at this particular time no for the rescue plans our money would be the full investment they're not bringing anything right and this is the cost and this is the cost of of that period of time understand that the issue with the rescue plan funds is also that it's finite not only in amount but also in time yeah to be encumbered to be encumbered by the end of this year and expended by the end of 2026 actually um it would be the end of the school year of 2026 for this type of funding because it's not construction um related it's program related like the water system yeah like the water system which can go till December 31st of 26 correct okay I would just like to say question yeah um I guess after this training Bob uh are we going to be able to sustain for the as I just answered I no this is not beyond our training the question is is it possible speaking to the mic I'm sorry yeah uh is it possible that we use this money to create uh um whatever we needed so we can continue utilizing down the road for other students that they are going to be needing same kind of uh skills I don't follow what would we create in schools we can have shops we can have whatever needed this is this is not again and I want to be perfectly clear here the township of Franklin is not running this program this was something that the Board of Education approached us and said we had this program it was successful we would like to continue to again in this case we would like to continue it with the RTS students as opposed to the middle school students and do you have funding available and then we work through the process of funding for the program based on the request from the Board of Education that this is this was not so this is not to construct shops and schools there's specific things that this can be used for and job training is one of the things that the American Rescue plan funds can be used for specific Ally as it relates to a certain um income level of our population and the RTS students meet that income requirement that's required based on a percentage according to the Board of Education no no I understand that I think my only concern is that we do in one time and a couple of years what about the others but if we have some sort of a shop and we can work with but we can't build a shop in the high school that's so you that's maybe maybe some place else maybe some place like we can't use these funds for that purpose this and not to mention that the if to build a shop at the high school would then require a full-time teacher and all of the other things that go along with it and this is not what this program is about I can't that's the best I can answer I can give you that's not really what we're talking about we I one question and then Council uh councilwoman fruis where will this physically take place do we know at the middle school so so they have a shop of they're going to set aside space for it but yes the Middle School actually still has shop space okay but this program runs after the middle school students are done for the day sorry Council woman your next so there's just one thing I wanted to say this uh the road to success students are at risk obviously and most of them have dropped out of school and now they're going to the this Alternative Program when they take this course they'll have a skill set that they can walk away with and potentially have job placement we keep talking about sustainability well we'll have three semesters of this course so we'll be able to um affect 24 different students for for each semester so if you times 24 times three I don't know what that comes up to se 73 okay thank you very much 72 72 yeah that sounds right so if let even though this may not be sustainable over time the American Rescue funds were appropriated for this type of application the same thing that we've done for zufall right with the clinic and so I think that if we invest in a few students and one or two of them come out with a one two three or four come out with the trade with a skill where they can move on to become a construction trade worker we've done something good in our community so you know I I know we're scrutinizing the amount of money but there was a lot a lot of back and forth with Dr V rali and Orville and W Locker they've had many different meetings to get the cost down to for this program to be cost effective per pupil I say that the fact that we we we were given $7.7 million and we're using 300,000 of it for a program like this I think we should we should support that as a as a governing body so um I don't can't speak for everyone but I don't sense there's anybody who doesn't support the the program or what the results hopefully would be um but I think it's our responsibility to see if we're getting the biggest bank for a buck and I before Bob says we didn't discuss that I'm not asking that what I'm asking is this uh why wouldn't the school board or councel if we're involved in trying to help in any way look at the cost instead of going to a for-profit company peace maill look at putting I know they used to have it years ago because plenty of my friends went through the school you know whatever space is there to have permanent teacher whether it's part-time whether it's full-time whether there's a couple but if this is a worthwhile program why wouldn't we want to create the framework for which you know children every year would be able to benefit by what I think we all agree is a good program because a lot of times these grants come up are these money allocations my big my first and foremost concern is there's enough money left to handle what unfortunately I believe well unfortunately I believe is important a crumbling infrastructure and Public Safety in this case the infrastructure but assuming there's still that amount would that would be available to do what I was mentioning before four the 300,000 to me you know is up for grabs but again why wouldn't there be discussions on how this can be done on a long-term basis uh or an ongoing basis getting every dollar we count I'd rather see two uh two or three good teachers part-time or full-time become embedded in our system school school district to provide what everybody is seeing whether you're a plum or construction is becoming job I could talk to my Council colleagues listen I'm just trying to give you feedback the coun but I'm asking my colleagues for feedback right now I'm so let the councilman finish so and in all due respect to Bob I just to me I want to do what is the wisest and will benefit the most people over time so that I think is a legitimate concern and I'm glad all these high level discussions I respect totally the people Bob mentioned before but at the end of the day if we're partnering up and doing out a lot of money the discussion should be happening in our committees are on this Council DS as it's happening now so again we don't have all these details or cost analysis or ideas of how you know program could be more uh uh longterm and permanent embedded in the school system but anyway so those those are my thoughts and um but I do councilwoman totally support the the the theme of what we're trying to do here and and I would say say that go ahead I would say that um they the Board of Education sponsored the program the first time and I don't know where they got the money from but they obviously they like the program but then they didn't have more money to run the program so since we had this money and it's already been pilot proof of concept they wanted to do it more it was kind of like we were having a discussion it would be really really nice if we could do it again so that's when I went to Bob and said can we utilize some of the at American Rescue funds to do it again you were on the board more than uh uh uh Deputy Mayor you've been on the board of education you know what they use to appropriate money and what what budgets they have to appropriate monies for different programs like after school programs like Arts programs like shop programs all the things that they do at the school I'm not running the Board of Education you're asking a question why aren't they doing this more often I can't answer that why aren't they appropriating money more more money like this in their budget I can't answer that we just happen to get this AA American Rescue uh money and so this to me is an opportunity for us to use a small chunk of it to do something good Mr porn Locker so to get back to what what I was addressing earlier is that so these funds can't be utilized to fund a teacher position at the board of education and um you know I've had many disc discussions with Dr rali and Mr Wilson about trade programs and Shop classes and what have you so the high school was not built with shop classes um because there was a cost associated with um running auto shop wood shop metal shop that were previously run at the uh what is now the Middle School uh on Hamilton Street and those costs exceeded their value so that's why they don't run them anymore that's why often times and I'm sure that the deputy mayor can can add to this often times school systems don't run programs that are run by staff members but are brought in their their outside firms that are brought in to run programs that's the case here as the councilwoman said in particular these students are not students that would be um the ideal uh candidates for vote Tech enrollment or uh trade school uh trade programs at Ron Valley Community College at this particular point in their education they're in this road to success program because they dropped out of school and they're getting back into this education and that's why they're there this was an opportunity for the township to fund this program again as far as what was done on the back back end as far as this organization offering this training this is something that was done by the board of education so I certainly can't say that I drilled deep into brentshire Technical Institute to determine what they do well I know that they also offer um this similar program to people who are coming out of prison as a and that's the you know the the uh job training offered by the state of New Jersey and they provide that training as well so and it's the similar program to get people once they come out of prison into a trade so that then they can make themselves um whole again and also perhaps move on towards an apprenticeship with one of the trade Unions that's what I know from the program yeah they also have an electric and Carpenter program and they work with the electric Union and Carpenter Union and they offer trade jobs there they also have uh two other trades healthcare workers and home health aid workers so they are in this business of helping people who are less fortunate yeah and I I know the I mean the school district also has a a program in medical Sciences too with another partnership uh as well um so is it the recommendation then of the finance committee Financial oversight committee to for to the council to approve this or was it just discussed there and then this Council for today is just discussion and we'll pick it back up I don't know what the procedure is it was the recommendation of the financial oversight committee okay and then I just wanted to mention one thing Bob you mentioned the um the fact that the the high school when it was built it was like cost prohibitive Etc I also think it's a timing issue like when I first started teaching in early well 1999 so you can get my age I'm 51 um I would drive into school and I would leave my car in the back in the shop and they would change my oil by the time I left teaching in 2010 that was closed up right it wasn't a cost issue I mean they had all the equipment no no I I I think that my discussion was not that that so when the the the programs were discontinued it was because they no longer became cost effective as far as the staff and everything else but based on the number of students that were participating well it was partly that but it was also this other place which I mentioned earlier which was scales of economy right where we consolidate some of the smaller programs into one place so we can and it's a it's a choice bus folks from all over to the one place rather than then have it duplicated with small enrollment all over so when you're talking about an end number or a size number of 25 that's small so when you bring in all the equipment you bring in the setup cost for 25 students is the same whether you had three classes of 25 students they set up and clean up an hour before and after so that money can go a lot longer if you had three consecutive courses and you might not do that in Franklin but you could do that at the county level where Bridgewater and you know Hillsboro Etc could be benefit in and um you know as public stewards of funds I think it's important for us to use that Common Sense scales of economy approach to touch more people to empower more individuals to ensure more folks can have access to those high quality jobs and so at this price point with the 300,000 I I I still have concerns that we could maybe be doing more in a different way with a different efficiency or creativity or in-house versus a for-profit um business where it could also be sustainable because then you've got a lot of feeders and then each school could pay a little less than pick up the whole program and so I I I so help me understand one thing council member when you say in-house who would be perfor providing the training well it seems to me like at the county votek no well I'm saying we're we're trying to serve this road to success program which is what we were requested the the funding for how does the road to success program participate at the County vot Tech I would think that similarly to going to the Middle School the students many of which um in the road to se Pro are actually driving could do that same thing at night at the vote where everything is already set up and they have a shop teacher maybe they stipend that individual to stay later you should have you should have gone to a board of ed meeting I I and I honestly I and I say that the administration of the Board of Education approached us I understand about funding this program for the road to success Pros so I can't speak but these are the things in my mind in your mind but I can't speak for the superintendent of schools and and his senior staff as to why they want this program funded other than it was successful and they want to see it funded to the benefit of the RTS students no totally that that's all I can offer yeah I don't think anyone doubts that I don't think there's a person on this I'm just saying can't give you any more because that's all I know right and I think timing here is critical too because at one point we were trying to discuss getting in to this year school um curriculum right we're done with that so now we're trying to do it in the summer and then the 2024 2025 school year and I have also have to be a little selfish I've been thinking about we've gotten that $1.5 million Grant from the state and we have money in there for job training I've been thinking about doing something like this for the Youth Center as well so you know so the the fact is that we need to at least say we want to move forward with it so the board can do what they need to do to get get the preparation ready for summer can you talk more about that I don't know that I picked up the 1.5 million Grant in this how are they tied together yeah well we got we put we allocated like $200,000 for job training in that grant that we got appropriated from the state from assemblyman Joe Danielson yes so in my mind I'm thinking we need to do something with that money and maybe we can use a concept something like this to use for we haven't figured it out yet I'm just I'm just be my vision is just you know I don't have any specifics as of yet but we've talked so the councilwoman and I have had discussions and actually we had a meeting on uh Friday in reference to the $1.5 million grant that was shared by the Township in scap um the the the state grant that uh assemblyman Danielson uh so graciously worked for us to get and as the councilwoman said one of the components of that Grant application was job training right so it may and and so we had this discussion in that meeting of the staff and uh Mark Harris from scap and uh and and the staff of the youth center on Friday when we had this meeting the discussion among other things is that on a lesser scale as a as a precursor to perhaps job training at the votch or job training at Ron Valley Community College that we could offer a similar type of training to kids that were interested in it that we not part of the road to success program but we're a part of our youth center uh programming um right now that is still primarily middle school students so we would look to hopefully draw in maybe some high school age students to participate this not on a 2hour a day five day a week but maybe once a week to to kind of you know expose them to things like carpentry and electric electric exposure yeah so that that's another discussion but on our end not on the board of education's end with different funding I'll just hear one random thought which is you know as I'm thinking about all the training I'm also thinking about all the housing needs we have and you know know Habitat for Humanity re and renovating homes and how we can you know on the job train rather than in the lab train there's nothing better than that hands-on experience and I know there's a lot of these nonprofits that are out there that that have construction Professionals in fact um Mr Harmon who actually got me started my first construction business shared the chemistry lab next to me gave me the confidence to start my own construction business after retirement he went and worked for Habitat for Humanity and his job was to teach people that knew nothing about construction had to take their volunteer time and learn skills but also build things for people you build a wall put it up tear it down I think we could be creative here I think there's a lot of opportunity and so this is G me a lot to think about thank you so I have one comment uh on the on listening to the discussions and I think we we all want to do Workforce uh training uh in in town to benefit the people but my vision had been to create something permanent in town uh which hasn't happened yet and still working on it uh but I think I have a number of concerns along the lines of my colleagues about this particular training program um it's not that I you know we don't like the program I think there are a lot of questions about the uh uh the tuition that they are charging the um the after the training program the outcomes uh the syllabus the credentialing uh there are a lot of questions in my mind that uh have not been answered uh but that's not to say I don't support the program but I'd like to get uh some more uh we need to drill down in into more details about uh what we are going to fund because hon I'll be honest uh it's $300,000 if you don't have the program that could potentially go into our water infrastructure uh that would offset some of our future expense uh to the to the budget so it it's it's not the money is going to be used one way or the other in a very uh productive way for the township but um I think we I need at least in my mind I need more details about uh this program how how effective it is going to be at the end um are 24 people going to graduate what's the guarantee that they will pass um what are the chances that they're going to get into uh some sort of apprenti ship program what's the pipeline are there employers lined up for this program so there a lot of questions I have some background in Workforce training so I I have a lot of questions Mr vorn Locker is there a deadline I I know there is a deadline are we up against the deadline yes and and to the specific date I can't tell you but the Board of Education needs to begin to plan the summer programs and uh they're looking for an answer sooner rather than later I guess the question I have when when we were doing Workforce Development this is for councilman ROM I didn't get involved in any of that and I know there was a partnership with scap I'm not so sure that was that was a a program where we HED that I don't think it was um we we were specific about how many students are going to go through the program who how many people are going to graduate from the program what was the sustainability of that program we stepped out on faith and said let's try this and my understanding is that maybe we got three or four people that graduated from that program it was not as successful as we thought it would be so M so my but there was not that level of scrutiny it was one of those things where we said we were going to try to do it and go forward now I know it was held by ro and Valley and we didn't spend any money but at the end of the day it was a prodct program and we said we wanted to teach people a trade and we put it out there we didn't get a lot of marketing we didn't get a lot of wraparound Services provided by scap but we did it and there may have been one or two people that benefited from that I I guess Council woman um I guess what what you're hearing here that all of us have interest to see if there is a way that we can make this a sustainable program for the stud students that they will be coming in 2 3 years I don't know if possible but maybe there is a discussion that we should hold with the Board of Education to see if there's any way that we can perhaps build some shop in Township or other ways I know Bob said that we can use it but I'm not 100% sure about that but it will be a great service for our youth down the road as well so that's one thing that I I like to get at least a clar if a good program for we want it all to be sustainable but it costs money to do that a lot of money that's the issue yeah okay so I I I just want to add something I I like how we're collaborating and and coming up with some ideas I think there's a lot of questions and I know councilman you may not have the answers it's a lot of B of Ed questions of having this pilot program kick off my you know one of my concerns I I love the fact that we're trying to get our youth back in be successful and get training on the job but you know we're talking about 24 to 30 students but what if we have I don't know if there's a criteria if there's a process that goes through um getting these students but what if we have 100 students are we going to turn back and say we're only selecting 24 students there aren't 100 students enrolled in a program there's only 24 that's enrolled currently there there's no I there I'm saying there's not a 100 students enrolled in the return to uh the road to success program so you don't have to be concerned about that there's not that many students enrolled this currently is it would be offered to all of the RTS program students two hours a day five days a week that's that's what it's currently budg it's only going to be offered to the road to success students and if there's a lack of interest on the part of the road to success they could open it up to other students but currently this is a road to success program and we have like four students you said in that program no I didn't say I never said four I said no there was it's budgeted at 24 students what I'm saying is that the it's not there aren't you said a 100 students I said there aren't 100 students in the RTS program do we know how many it's current it's currently a rent between 20 and 24 it fluctuates councilwoman these are not your traditional students some come and they quit even though they've quit they don't have a college a high school degree they're they're not in a GED program this is an alternate School outside of the the the normal uh education track for for students at the high school level and so you know the these are these are kids who have had a rough time and this is an opportunity for them to get something and that's I think what the Board of Education staff is looking at there it's an opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise have and I am all about the opportunity to support then my other question is well if they decide in two weeks they don't want to do this anymore and they just and that could happen that could happen right so that absolutely could happen and if the program is discontinued then the funds would be return to the that comes back to whatever the funds okay use the Fone for something else don't we what as long as it's I mean if they if they now of course it's a matter of timing I mean it's now again I go back to the ARP funds need to be committed by the end of this year so if the fun if the program ended at this you know then it can't you can't recommit I mean there's a there's a commitment on the part of this Council yes there is is there when are the is the Joint Committee April 4th yes that's the joint committee meeting and that's before the second Tuesday of the month it is do you have a feeling whether if we passed it then there would be time I I I I listen they're going to they'll take but this is one of those things where when you ask for something you take it no matter when it's given is that you know they're not going to say no on April 4th all right or April 5th if you they're going to say yes and we'll accommodate as best we can they're looking to schedule the summer programs and if they if you want to have a discussion about this on on April 4th then we'll have a discussion about it on April 4th so I'm not saying one way or the other I'm just gathering information no I and I'm saying you collectively not you mayor thank yes so I'll just move that we add this to the agenda for the joint meeting to continue the discussion with the folks from the Board of Ed who are firsthand so I take that that you're tabling this vote until well this was just simply discussion item Mr Mayor I don't know that there would be any vote tonight anyway we weren't looking to pass a resolution okay so we'd um all right so we don't have to table so you want this added to the just added to the agenda of the St the committee that meeting that's coming up okay then not committee could report out on it mayor at the council meeting yes so the members of The Joint board are you Mr basnik Mr Wright Miss franois and myself as I recall yes so yes that's correct does everyone obviously you agree with what there's a motion there needs to be a second right and I think it was a amended by councilman vasella who said and report back so a motion to add it to the agenda I'll amend it for the fourth with the directive to report back to the Council on discussions thank you we have a motion do we have a second on that sorry who second that was Charles Charles seconded um any discussion on uh tabling this to no any discuss on the motion okay um let's do it by roll call so a Yes means we're waiting councilman EMB Arison yes councilwoman Francois no councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman non cha yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman oudin yes councilman vasella yes councilman Wright uh so if you could add that to the agenda or the April 4th meeting so let it be written so let it be done uh that's what I those are the words I was trying to find so let it be done um my coun my comment on this to precede the next time we discuss it you always have to be careful that perfect is the enemy of good in other words trying to make it perfect we may miss our chance to do this but I I think we have time to answer some of these questions and hopefully have a better concession on this um item number 11 approval of the minutes I present the following minutes to the township Council for their approval Township Council work session regular meeting and executive session February 27th 2024 to have a motion on the minutes mov second it moved in seconded um any discussion anyone want to change an item correct an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franah yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on jaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman udine yes councilman vasella yes warrant time to pay the bills in the amount of 1 7,534 192 on March 12th 2024 presents to the township Council for payment to have a motion to pay the warrants come Mo move then 10 second and any discussion anyone like to pull an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes Council woman Fran yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman non Jaa yes Deputy Mayor pazik yes councilwoman udine yes councilman vasel yes there are no second hearings we have uh first hearings ordinance 4430 d24 accepting a deed dedication from Enclave at Canal Walk Condominiums Owners Association Inc at block 5 13.48% of lot 1.02 Schoolhouse Road the forgoing orian is presented the township Council for adoption on first reading posting and publication in accordance with law and public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday March 26th 20 24 at 7:00 p.m. in council chambers do we have a motion so move seconded move then seconded any discussion mayor can you explain what's what's being done so this is a um yeah it's it's a general construction easement that's all it's nothing of any consequence developers Grant easements for a wide variety of reasons and this is one of those easements that's being granted it's not anything any other discuss anything special Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman Kazi mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni Chaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman UD councilman vasella yes or 44312 4 calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget Appropriations limit and to uh establish a cap Bank the forgoing orance is presented to Township Council for adoption on first reading posting and publication in accordance with law on public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday March 26th 2024 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers do you have a motion on this item the mo seconded in second it and I perpetually mess up the explanation for this so Mr manager yearly habit so the state of New Jersey um only allows for you to increase your Appropriations by 2.5% Mr prome correct 2% there's actually 2.5% thank you I thought so this is yeah this Appropriations not Levy um um and the Appropriations and this is allows when you don't exceed the your um Appropriations uh when when you your budget in Prior years does not exceed that two 2.5% limit the amount that it is not exceeded is allowed to be kept in a cap bank that rolls from year to year to maintain three years worth of cap Bank so this will allow us to continue to roll that from the prior years so that in any given year we could exceed the 2.5 because we've banked some of this you could exceed that 2.5% Appropriations cap and not have to go to referendum which is what would be required to exceed the cap Bank otherwise without the C that the Appropriations cap just my my job tonight is to give disclaimers this does not actually appropriate any money some correct this is just creates that bank it doesn't it creates the bank in the sense that it's um it gives you it's um storing the uh authorization it's not actually banking any money that's correct it's it's banking basically a percentage it's banking an authorization yeah right thank you now let's talk about Levy caps no that's not continue on um let's talk about Road uh highway road speeds again I I can and listen I can get into much more detail if you'd like me to um I pass um as to most so we've uh motioned and seconded we've had discussion any other discussion Madame clerk do your job councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman oi jaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman oud yes councilman vasella yes uh the items a through t on the consent agenda is uh portion of this meeting are presented to the township Council for adoption do we have a motion on the consent agenda a second moved and seconded any discussion anyone like to pull item I didn't have a discussion about anything on the consent agenda I just wanted to ask a question but since there's been a about something prior but I since you have a motion I I'll wait till after the consent agent is voted on thank you and then I will recognize you thank you um so anyone want to pull or discuss Madame clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni jaka yes Deputy Mayor basnik yes Council woman udine councilman vasella yes councilman vasella yeah I I know we're not going to get in discussion I'm not looking to initiate discussion now but um had I not asked the question right before I was leaving my Public Works committee meeting tonight I would have been working off the worksheets which we are handed monthly or when we meet and I say this because it specifically has a project that's starting I referred to earlier with the Waterworks long promise long wait in the wait so the P of perspective my understanding is the numbers mentioned before as we had the discussion on that program which um I'm not saying is linked to this but the conversation I believe said that there was still approximately the amount of money needed for that project when exactly where how um I thought it was given the way that we've been reported on would lead anybody to believe it was a given through our Public Works committee but obviously there's still a question of Are We directing the balance of that money still leaving enough for that jobs program if if we do that when exactly where do we we we confirm that that's where that money is going meaning the approximate $2 million for something we've been talking about doing for a few years uh relevant to our water system I know this whole thing is moving now with financial oversight and so so the the answer to your question councilman is that this Council has never committed that $2 million otherwise you would have been party to a vote and you didn't vote on that because the Appropriations from the American Rescue plan are are done by a resolution of council and while Mr Hal the Public Works manager certainly has planned for that money should it be appropriated until such time as it's appropriated it's just that him planning water projects and to be honest I believe that we probably have about $10 million worth of water projects shovel ready right now with only fine-tuning having to be done and Mr H has reported that back to both Public Works and the financial oversight committee on more than one occasion right so that's exactly my my point is is it was it was talked about we were doing it anyway but last year we specifically said oh well we'll be able to do that from the ARP money I don't care where the money comes from or if I'm using the right acronym but that that um uh large grant that we got or from the federal program I don't I shouldn't say I don't care I I would like it to have the least burden on taxpayers or rate payers but it was deemed as a project that not only is necessary lot could say it was long overdue but where if it doesn't come from that Grant and I'm trying to decide since there's a time limit we have to spend it when is are we deciding as a group based on recommendations from our water department if we're using for that and if we're not it's important because then perhaps we need to cut back on Road repaving we had discussion tonight and it was never even mentioned that what says second half of 2024 is now in limbo so one has nothing to do with the other councilman road paving and water main replacement I'm just talking about our general budget and how much we're going to spend understand but they're two different budgets okay so again how do we decide general fund and water is water fund great so when and how where do we decide through proper committee discussion or public if we're going to do this project which has been suggested we were going to do for the last few years wherever the money may come from and this is I'm going to say anybody who doesn't know this is the area off of Hamilton Street we Fourth and Fifth Ward merge which we've been promising for years these people would see the benefit of their neighborhoods a couple blocks in from Hamilton Street would be brought up to par with the rest of the town and these issues would be dealt with besides massive drainage issues or at least to them major drainage issues you have water main breaks that we've been told in different meetings for two years are just ready to break now I'm not saying we're not keeping up but we're struggling to keep up and I'd like to know where the opportunity to fund this is because again I have a whole folder that suggest it's being done between last year and this year and now it's a question mark if it's going to be funded this is infrastructure and this is just being fair to every corner of this town regardless of how big or expensive the houses are Mr Mayor I have nothing further to add so R youw again for me the money that we've already committed to AR uh yeah ARP sorry I didn't hear you review again the amounts that we have already committed to our I don't need my notes um $2 million to water $2 million to sewer and $1.5 million to Zu fall total of 5.5 million and that leaves us 2.2.3 rounding numbers what you're asking for Mr vasella is a commitment of the two that $2 million um in a nutshell I'm asking that what was suggested was going to happen with this project that would be a great funding source mayor that wouldn't have to go back to the Rays and that's what we were told last year would likely happen if it has to be funded through whatever legal aspects of the budget water budget Etc but yes I would like to see that extra money with the 300 set aside so if we do do this program uh job streaming program that would interfere with that but the balance I would like to see go towards this but I just want the project done one way or the other and we talked about doing it with that kind of you know money and the 2 million that's already been that was last year because we have so much water work that needs to be done the M the manager just said so if you have 10 million or more two deci last year went in a direction and yes I would like to see the other two safeguarding 300,000 to to put towards this Mr Council Mr vasella is asking us to commit the remainder of our our funds if you consider this 300,000 spent obviously it's not my decision to make but that's what's being put before us is it time to I mean we have till December 31st I'm just kind of paraphrasing you Mr vasella no May and thank you yes you're so we have till December 31st and it's not unreasonable to come to that decision now um I guess would people agree Financial oversight would be the place to discuss it I would think so I think so yeah all right so next financial oversight please put that on the agenda that what are we doing with the last I I don't think any of us will forget you know I I know we're all dedicated to doing the things I'm talking about I I just this somehow kind of slip through the cracks and the funding no your point is well taken and I just wanted to work I know we all want to keep uh everybody prospering in that Hamilton cor coun I wouldn't categorize it as slipping through the cracks let me just clarify something here the funding for the water utility comes from the water budget and there's a a a large number uh large amount of money annually that's budgeted for main replacement in the water budget we discuss that every year anywhere between 1 and 2 mli million in addition to that money budgeted last year this Council approved an infrastructure fee that's that's directly related to usage by every rate payer that will fund main replacement going forward so that the water utility isn't required to bond annually for main replacement its sole purpose is for infrastructure Improvement so that funding which began in April of last year through Billings will cont and and goes into a separate trust specifically for infrastructure improvements will also be utilized for this this type of work that you're speaking about so no one is saying that that that Pro that project is going to go and and be and be unfunded for the foreseeable future there's alternate means of funding there's an an amount uh I believe it's a million dollars that's proposed in the water budget this year for main replacement that's uncommitted because it's in this year's budget and it can't be committed until the budget is adopted so there's there's more than one source of funding besides American Rescue plan funding what I'm saying to you is that a department head doesn't make the financial decisions that are left to the the responsibility of the elected body so while while Mr Hal may have said something in a meeting about having this plan for this $2 million worth of waterm work until he receives the funding as authorized by this body those projects don't move forward that's just the nature of the Beast no the I totally understand everything you're saying is right and I trust our financial oversight committee seriously with your guidance maybe it's a million dollars from that you mentioned maybe it's a million from the program all I'm saying is these are overdue and I would love to see the financial oversight committee come up with a way that it could be done however you piece together the financing that's all thank you so I don't think it's overdue I don't think it's slipped between the cracks but I do think that December 31st will be here sooner than we think and it's I'm glad you have brought it to our attention to let's figure out what we're going to do with that money we don't want to lose it um so did the consent agenda and we no no we're not done any nominations for committees now we're done so do we have a motion to adjourn so moved second move then second it all in favor say I I opposed say nay we are adjourned be well Franklin