adequate notice of the February 8th 2024 Township committee meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act by posting written notice and agenda of the meeting on the bulletin board in the Municipal Building 1000 Route 10 Township of Hanover and by hand delivering mailing or faxing such notice and agenda to the following newspapers Mars County Daily Record Star Ledger Hanover eagle and by filing the scene with Township Clerk roll call commun kill here Comm farasa here Comm francoli here Comm Mahalo here mayor Gallagher here five members in attendance okay if you would please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance and please remain standing for our prayer taken care of by Deputy Mayor Mike Mahalo I pledge allegiance of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all almighty God please watch over and guide this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding to help make the best decisions for our residents please bless our First Responders and Township volunteers who help keep us all safe also bless our Township employees and residents lastly please let us pray for the men and women of the US Armed Forces who stand vigil over us always amen amen thank you please be seated yes well we've had a few inquiries about the detail and what goes into actually creating the Han Township budget and we discussed it at length with our CFO Sylvio ESO and Sylvio is going to run through tonight a few highlights on what he actually does and what we actually have to do to deliver a budget to Han Township and after sylvio's comment I will actually let you know the authority that the governing body actually does have in our small piece of what is our discretionary spending but Sylvio if you would take the floor and just give us an overview on typically what you do and how you prepare for our budget session which is this coming Saturday Okay normally what happens is um as of the first of the year all the department heads for Hanover Township submit their budget requests for their departments as well as for Capital um purchases of vehicles Road improvements things like that um we compile a book and hand it out to the committee as well as the department heads to prepare for annual budget meeting which we always hold on a Saturday morning um a lot of what goes into the budget again is the capital there's um about 2third of the Township's employees are covered under Union contracts so really that's not even part of the budget cuz that's set by the contract it's already in effect as of January 1st but we get all the information we put together and I'm just going to go by last year's numbers because they're the ones that had been already established um the overall taxes for the township were about $81.00 million but the share of the township itself was only1 18.6 Million we account for maybe 23% of your tax dollar um the rest of your tax dollar the other um 77% goes to your local schools your Regional Schools your county and your two fire districts um even though we collect all that money it's not ours and we're under State obligation to basically turn it over to those districts um one of the things we also have to collect um because we have to turn over the money to those districts no matter what we collect we have to build into the budget something called the reserve for uncollected taxes that means if a certain percentage of the township residents don't pay their taxes we have to have a cushion because we still have to pay the schools the county the fire district their full amount um we do have a very good collection rate in Handover so any excess of that Reserve fund collected taxes goes into next year's budget as an offset to your tax rate there are two guidelines we have to follow that the state puts in place there's two cap laws there's one cap wall that was in effect um for over 25 years um really just doesn't have much of an effect anymore because the state uh implemented a 2% cap that means normal spending for the township can't go over 2% but there are several exceptions to that um um last year the township went up over 2% about 2.8 and we still had a $625,000 cushion that we could have spent and that's because the cap allows to back out certain things like health insurance coverage um the state's obligation you have to pay for pension any Debt Service you incur that increases earning Capital expenditures so it's not really a hard 2% cap so people will call up and say my tax went up more than 2% we went up a little more than two and the other organizations have the exemptions as well so everybody goes up more than two so your taxes never are at a 2% rate um but when we do come to the meeting um all the committee men are there as well as the department heads and they try to come up with a reasonable tax rate they try to stay close to the 2% and the five of them along with um our administrator Mr Georgio do the best they can to take the budgets down as much as they can so we can still operate and stay with close to the 2% and like I said there are certain things that are out of the committee's hands uni contracts um health insurance costs the state's obligations we have to meet as well as certain things like utilities they're they they never stay at 2% it's just things the committee has no control of that is left there but they've always done the best they can to keep it as close to and sometimes even lower than the 2% increase after the meetings are concluded we prepare the two budgets for the state the normal budget and user friendly budget and everything gets introduced and hopefully within a month after that gets adopted I'm going to open it up to the floor in a minute but still I have one question I told you I was going to ask you this because more and more there's been referendums yes and there's a lot of information about if you borrow x amount of money you're going to be paying back x amount of money per household based on the value of your house how does the referendum money affect individual households for example there was a $45 million $44 million referendum for the high school and I was actually told that my taxes were going to go down um I I probably can't understand how that's possible but there's a lot of good information at information about referendums so if you could just give us a little bit of background on how that works for our residents the schools will normally contact me and ask for our assess value so they can put that into their calculations um I'll compare to something the township could do say we wanted to buy five vehicles and pay 30 roads that we didn't have the money for M for us to raise that in taxes it might be $4 million if we were to go to debt or a referendum we would push that over 10 20 years that's how I believe the schools are saying your taxes aren't going to go up because we're taking those expenses from 2024 and we're just extending them out but sometimes when you start doing that you get caught in a cycle where I did it this year I'm going to have to do it next year or the year after that so sometimes that savings isn't really there when you spread it out because every year you might be doing the the same thing and eating into that that cushion you think you built does anybody on the governing body have a question for Sylvio and Sylvio thank you very much you do great great work and uh this is my 11th budget with you guys and I really appreciate what you do anybody have any questions for s or something that might be helpful to the public in this process and we do get a lot of calls when the bills go out people complain about their taxes that's what they're right and that's what they do all the time they do have to understand there's there's fire district budgets they can vote on there's School District budgets they can go to and comment on as well as coming here to comment on our budget silly I got one question for you the question is uh you reference the town as portion of that $81 million being 23.6% 23% yes and local schools fire County coming in at 76 can you comment for us on the trend on those percentages are those percentages are they changing what what's place the township share has has been pretty constant in the the mid below 20s um and the two schools have pretty been constant as well those are the three big one the two fire districts are smaller um the county and the schools it's always in that range it may vary a couple perc higher or lower but it's always been pretty close to us being in the low 20s so we're pretty consistent being less than a quarter of of the tax bill that goes out to our residents yes and that does include the reserve for un collected taxes which last year was close to $4 million I think U Good Question John um I think a financial offic does a fantastic job of putting together for us consideration the budget book uh Township comme knows my position on some of these things and one of them is rateable base and uh r base has not increased this year so uh we'll have to take a look at that see what impact it's going to have on the budget overall before we make some decisions um inflation plays a role here snw never goes down uh cost of operations never goes down um medical insurance I show was one big jump this year so uh we'll sequester ourselves Saturday lock ourselves in and uh at the end of the day see if we can get this down to a reasonable reasonable percentage just a comment on the medical insurance you said there was a increase last year the state health insurance which the Township's no longer in went up almost 22% where the townships went up maybe 5 to 8% and that goes back to decades ago before I started Mr Mr zambo at the time joining the Insurance Fund which helps keeps our health insurance at a much better rate than any of the State Health Benefit plans are thank you the health insurance fund was started here in yeah so we along with Madison with the leaders and getting that started now it's proved to be a significant savings over the years there's no question about that but um again with the cost of operations you know like any business nothing nothing seems to go go down everything seems to go up you know I shared a thought for my Mr Mayor with uh Mr farasa not long ago after I saw the stats on the debt that the average American now is into on credit card debt 1.07 trillion in credit card debt up $50 billion from last year we consider all of these factors that trickles down even to municipalities so and the Municipal Employee does contribute uh almost all the employees contribute about 25% of the insurance cost on an employee basis so just the last point about the budget here's the last piece on how it actually works for us Sylvio gets the books Sylvio gets the wish list from all the Departments there's a certain piece that we can't touch and we have absolutely no control over and then Sylvio instructs us on what we have to cut in order to get to an acceptable tax increase and that's why a lot of times we don't get the amount of Roads done that we want to have done we don't have the upgrades and the vehicles that we would like to have On Any Given year so we try to break it up over different years but what we did do in Hand of toship 3 years ago was we took a specific line item for roads which is $1.2 million which is going to allow us to catch up of course the product goes up sometimes it goes down when I was on the board of Edward Bryan We priced out walking pads behind our schools they were too much money 2 years later the material went down significantly with we did all the schools and still saved money so that's also fluid on some of those costs but we do have a line item for our roads and we're well aware that a lot of our roads are in bad shape and we will put that front and center this coming Saturday does anybody from the public have any questions for Sylvia or anybody on the governing body so I guess you did a pretty good job thank you okay thank you very much thank you Kristen good evening ladies and gentlemen first on the agenda is a letter from Raquel husen Board of Health part-time registered environmental health specialist resigning from her position as of February 22nd 2024 may I please have a motion to accept her letter of resignation motion second all in favor I resignation accepted next on the agenda is the approval of the township committee meeting minutes the first is the reorganization meeting of January 4th the second is the regular meeting of January 11th and the final one is the special Township committee meeting of January 25th may have a motion to approve second so approved all in favor I'm sorry I forgot on important part okay next order of business is the public hearing and Adoption of ordinance number 1 d224 and 2224 proof of publication that the ordinances and their notices of introduction for both ordinances appeared in full in the January 11th 2024 for issue of the Daily Record in accordance with law at this time I would like to ask for a motion to convene the public hearing on both ordinances 1 and two I have a motion so move second second is there anyone in Chambers wishing to be heard concerning these ordinances if so please state your name and address for the record and which ordinance you would like to be heard about hearing none seeing none may I have a motion to close the public hearing so moved may I have a second second now on motion to for adoption may I have a motion to adopt ordin one and two a I want to read these names after we approve it okay um that's the reso May the mayor's Jo will that be the reso to do the names after the after okay now um on adoption may I roll call commit Mill commit farasa hi committe francoli hi committe Mahal yes mayor Gallagher hi so adopt it next on the agenda I'd like to introduce two ordinances this evening and I would like to read the titles into the record first is ordinance number 32024 an ordinance of the township Committee of the township of hover amending and supplementing section 125-450 of the code of the township entitled fees with the inclusion of new 2024 fees related to various recreation park administration department depents programs and activities and inclusion of new Resident and non-resident pool membership fees for the year 2024 B Meadow swimming pool season the next is ordinance number 42024 ordinance of the township Committee of the township of Handover amending chapter 166 land use and development of the code of the township of Handover to amend section 166-cc 9 following and reviews procedure me and sections 16613 required permits and approvals 1661 141 regulations app applicable in all zones and 166-168 o-s O RL OB DL I'm sorry obds I I2 I2 IP and I4 Zone districts I can't read that okay and article 20- signs I apologize for that I would like to State for the record that both ordinances and their respective notices of introduction will be published in full on The Daily Record in accordance with the law public hearing is scheduled for March 14th 2024 at 8:00 p.m. if any member of the public would like to be heard regarding these ordinances they will be given the opportunity to do so that evening now may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 32024 and 4-24 so move second on roll call uh ordinance number 32023 we'll do two separate votes is that what you would like me to do uh well Mike it was on the reso for number 40 that you were going to0 we didn't get there we didn't get there yet for reso yes okay on roll call committee M kahill yes committee M farasa committee m francioli i commit man Mahalo yes mayor Gallagher hi okay both ordinances are introduced our next order of business is the approval of resolutions as a consent agenda resolution numbers 37224 through 48224 do any member of the governing body have any questions regarding the mentioned resolutions Joe I'd like to comment would I comment after the approval yes yes okay yeah motion so move would you like to recuse yourself from one of them for 40 okay all in favor I recuse Michael from resolution 40 for the record now we have to pay the bills John's favor part motion to pay those bills well mayor wants to come I would like to make a comment on the mayor's well in this campaign and the appointments that we're making for this campaign it's a program that started really with the recreation department it ties nicely into what our mental health initiatives and what's really exciting about this group is a lot of times it's difficult to find people that want to volunteer when we began these initiatives years ago more and more people want to get involved they want to help and it's not just in name only they truly give a lot ofs El to help people that need help or may need help at one point so I'm just going to read the list of names that are appointed and we have a gentleman here from Planet Fitness right here in the whippy section of no CED and ol so Han the CED and all section um I just want to say that um and I'm going to probably pronounce your name wrong but I was corrected today it's Joseph Pacini it's a Brian Pini Pacini Brian Brian Pacini so it's you're the regional manager at Planet Fitness in Cedar Mills New Jersey well thank you very much for wanting to help us and thank you for coming in to be a major part of our town and our family so it's beautiful thank you [Applause] our our list is myself Denise Brennan Christine or Masano Christine Eggbert Carol Georgio and Joe it's going to be an honor working with Carol again she has quite a track record we have Tommy Levis Annie ma Howard Olson and Amy brron and Kathy Whitehead we have an Advisory Board of Lucy Deutsch Q Rim Joe samarco Brian Pacini okay that's correct right p and then we have a representative from whipy Park High School to be named later and we have John farasa so we have quite a group we're ready to go we're going to have our first meeting this month and we already have quite a few things that we're going to be aning so thank you very much it's all the time I needed guys thank you now can we pay our bills motion to pay those bills second should I read how much they are first 9,200 323 $20.99 you still want to pay them all in favor okay so approve lastly we have five raffle applications for approval RL 3425 RL 3426 RL 3427 7 RL 3428 and RL 3429 may have a motion to pass the raffle applications motion second all in favor mayor and the members of the committee that clears my agenda and I thank you very much great thank you very much good job Kristen thank you I'd like to open up to the floor second all in favor if anyone from the public would like to address the governing body please step up to the Podium state your name address and you have 4 minutes hello my name is Susanna I live at the Sterling Park um complex and I have quite a list of questions so I'm just going to read them out loud and then to make the best use of my time so um hello Mr M I just wanted to ask if you had received my emails regarding um um a zoom workshop for Transit funding uh that is being hosted by America walks and this is for active Transit so for walking and biking initiatives uh that will be on February 27th at 2 p.m. and the um smarter strategies for safe travel Workshop hosted by the VOR Transportation Center in Ruckers that is March 22nd and it's free of charge but spots are limited so that is um for local policy makers as well as Engineers to gain some like knowledge on like the newest um safest forms smartest forms of transportation so that's one of the questions I can just answer that I did receive your email and I was also notified by some of those organizations of those workshops I plan attending either myself for some okay great thank you um I wanted I'm sorry um I wanted to hear maybe an update on whether the council has considered more or spoken with the sheriff or um Mr M on the slow Sundays um initiative to block one lane of traffic some Sundays in the Sumer just for um biking and walking which is something I brought up in the last public uh comments and I also wanted to know whether the township had reached out to uh Avenue and motions previously trans options um on any walking or bike safety initiatives and then my last um ask is regarding the roads that are looking to be like repaved this year uh and um wanting to see if some of the budgeting can be set aside to also add some kind of bike Lanes or cycling infrastructure or sidewalk extensions to those roads so yes that's all I had so that's it yeah okay jar do you want to take the floor first start banging little bit Yeah the the slow Sunday I don't recall that I haven't met with the chief I'm not uh to discuss that um whether that's something that he would support um we you know there there's we'd have to take a lot into consideration obviously you want to have that slow Sunday something that you want public to engage in and you want to focus that in on retail sectors so there's there's there's really some more planning that needs to have happen on that and um again I haven't had a chance to really sit down and have sort of like a little workshop uh on that issue the trans options I know that um sometimes I not myself am fully in contact with them but there certainly are resource that we have in town uh that we've used in the past for different grant opportunities um so we we are in communication with them but um nothing like hot stove on the topic right now with them on on any other options um on the uh the road budget I don't have the list with me off the top of my head about what roads are being uh resurfaced obviously the goal is really to address some of the the pavement surface conditions uh we do when we do our road projects we do address Ada accessibility we want to make sure that curb ramps are installed and we address that so obviously that that is always uh cooked into those projects um this year we did have two sidewalk extension projects that that we we had some gas that we did um that one was completed on 26 Pary Road um and I think that was helpful to a lot of the student population in that area to to a quick check and we have another one that is uh just because of the weather um construction is being delayed to the spring that was on forceille road to help some of our um group homes in that area access the the retail on hand ravenue Gap in the sidewalk there that um that was budgeted in is is already contracted for so we'll see that in the spring for this year though um I think just because of the nature of the budget we did not identify a particular sidewalk project to to to implement this year um and I know that uh we will be looking at some trail expansions um in other in the SE section of town whether um it it may just be conceptual design at this point um but we do have phases uh three and four of the Bow Park uh Trail NE Trail construction that have been contracted um and construction will start as soon as the weather breaks a little bit so much update I think I can he okay thank you okay you you have my email if you have any other question anyone else four minutes scary out of zero to that Mr Mayor thank you Gary Kyer 161 terce whiy um I travel rout 10 East from Mars Plains to ridgge sale Avenue quite often and I knew uh pppi was building a lot of condos up there on on Route 10 and I see the building going on and on so when I was coming down to today as a matter of fact I was coming down I made it right on Ridge Deale I'm going to the CED old's Firehouse got a lot going on down there but it dawned on me if these vehicles coming out of that complex wants to come down and go westbound they're coming down 10 to silin way area to that jug CLE for silven way that's I believe it's going to call cause more hardship more calls for our police and pry Department EMS because you come down you want to go westbound you got to cut over another Lane of traffic and if you go down uh Rush Hour you're going to you have a backup now with the cars coming around that Jug Handle it's going to be a bottleneck there this could to be a severe problem and then we're talking about putting another a hotel in over that area it's going to be War traffic for us and that Jug Handle you're going to have cars stopped on 10 you go westbound especially on your West on your um Rush Hour mornings morning and afternoons it's it's going to be a problem there I think someone should look at that it's going to be a major problem at that intersection and if they don't want to go to that intersection go down to Jefferson Road you're going to have the same problem you have to come you have to cut over there was uh that one lane of traffic to make a left to go westbound so I don't know if what's happening with pany that Jug Handle coming eastbound to cut cut over to that new complex they have an entrance ramp to go to the back side of that is that part of Troy or is that Handover that that that section you're going to have you're going to have lav accidents there Gary I want to jump in real quick regarding that complex because we've spent a lot of time on that and I've been at about seven meetings with John face to face with precipi Mars Plains and Han Township and we had a gentleman's agreement that became much more serious and now it's illegal agreement well we spent a lot of time on disallowing traffic to go left on Johnson Road into malap Paris we also put a serious weight limit on malap partis to be consistent with Mars plaints I also want to tell you this is year 11 on the governing body and every single study I've seen for every complex said little or no impact to local traffic so it's our job to do everything we can to find out how they're going to remediate a problem before it even begins we've had countless conversations about this project it's very very big and it looks like it's going to be bigger than we even thought it was going to be our piece in the back of it is simply a hotel that's going to be just a small small portion of this Jerry do you have information on that Jug Handle because I've seen quite a bit on it but John and I were really focused on decimating not decimating the malapardis area and then kicking up into all our Cedar NOS neighborhoods what do you know about that specific area Gary's talking about yeah just for Gary and the public yeah that that development because it was on Route 10 and access from Route 10 U it required you know permits access permits from the do traffic reports to the dot the dot eventually approved that but was significant change to the circulation regarding um that dried and way um Jug Handle interchange areas so they did make improvements I think those improvements are under construction and um are required to there's a trigger point as to how much development occurs on that Pari site uh before you know they have to have those uh improvements completed uh and part of the concern for the community uh Morris Plains and Handover was that some of that traffic was going to be diverted onto the local Street in Alaris Road utilizing Johnson so that's the agreement that that mayor Gallagher was referring to and we have some controls and some um some conditions in effect that if we see a an impact on those local streets then uh parcion um in coordination with Handover and Mar PLS they can take into effect they kind of limit any um impacts to the local roads but on the highways you know that's Do's jurisdiction yeah I understand that and I know they come in and you talk but when I was traveling out today going down rich nice the J up the way silver way I'm talking about that that that intersection there going eastband you go past you go past the ridge Deale and make that choke handle coming around like if you're going to wag you go westbound you have to cut over that one lane traffic and that in that one white saw gwn that's almost to the to the intersection I think you're going to have a bottle I think we're going to have a lot of maybe fender benders there which will keep our our police busy or someone gets hurt know I don't know if that was that was looked at no I I know that the intersection of rout 10 and ridgel Avenue is a concern to even the police department we did um recently uh make some recommendations to the dot which they approved to kind of improve um that that right turn that channelized right turn to get on to the extension Avenue of ser way that was a concern uh the do agreed with our recommendations so I think those are implemented and I think that's really more the concern when you get move up to the dden way you have a longer period to make your merge yeah that's way up that's way up that's that's more up up on 10 that's one you were talking about if if you were going down 10 yeah you want a silver W if you're going to Wagman's right that's the one I'm that D dying up a little further that's that's mostly part Troy yeah and I think that's going to be the main access rout to get into in order for them to get there they have to go around they're going to have to come out make a right down East I think they just continue down where how they there's a barrier there there I don't are we talking the same thing I think maybe we need to I think we're talking two different things things yeah that's my main concern they coming out of that confli condo they're going to have to make a right down eastbound to go westbound around that drug handle will go back up that's it's going to be a problem I think John before we close it out are we missing something here is there any more information yeah I just just want to there's two issues going on first issue is there will be a full service drug handle that will allow you to access that apartment complex that sipy has built to be full service if you're go east west You' be able to get in through that drug handle that's that's a major change so that Jug Handle will also allow you if you're at that apartment complex to go out on it and go under route 10 and get out on to Dy it that's the first one the second one that Gary's talking about so everybody understands clearly if a vehicle is heading Northbound on rigal Avenue and wants to go right onto 10 going east they may encounter a vehicle that's trying to go through a jug handle that is servicing the traffic that's flowing on Route 10 going east and say they want to go to Wegman's so he's saying there's going to be a pinch point there and Jerry I think that's something you got to Alert state of New Jersey to look into because that could be a serious SN yeah yes thank you John thank you that's exactly what I'm talking the point being Jerry I I want this on record as an official concern and I'd like you to get back to us on what they say not just one phone call aail on a complain I want this on record as an official concern that we have and they've been pretty good with us um but not with this point Gary so thanks for bringing it to our attention thank you yeah this Gary brings up a a very critical point here this thing is a be moth that's that's being built over there now it's an actual uh metropolitan area within itself uh I've always said this I still say it mistake was that they didn't require from the the state of New Jersey for the dot an Excel and Dell Lane onto Route 10 period no other access should be given to them so that the concerns that Jason Carr has in Mars Township Mars PLS rather uh and uh use of Johnson Road which this by the way this govering body and uh mayor has been fighting uh to secure that uh don't become an issue it's big enough to require an egress agress onto a state highway of that size with an additional V cell and xcell Lane period that's my two sense but and by the way Gary I was being sarcastic when I said that all the reports come back with no impact to local traffic because it's I I know that a lot of those reports are just to make it seem like don't worry about it we have no problem until we start having problems that's why we're trying to get in front of a lot of this stuff we've had a lot of meetings little or no impact to local traffic that's how they all conclude and as far as I'm concerned it's not worth the paper it's written on anyone else in the public motion to close second I I I okay other business which is uh a short report starting with Brian this is going to be the shortest report ever did it I just want to remind everybody residents of Handover that on February 17th in both districts three Fire District 3 which is Cedar Nos and fire district 2 which is the whippity section uh they will be holding their elections um as I said February 17th between the hours of 2: and 9: District 3 will be held at Cedar no's Firehouse District 2 will be held at the whiy firehouse um in Cedar no section we've got two full three-year term seats that are open and one uh unexpired term that's open so there's three people to vote three Commissioners vot for Cedar NS and then on the district 2 side there are actually three full threeyear term seats that are looking to be filled so it's going be interesting I had three on their website did three but I'll go with two there's a few there's I would encourage I would encourage everybody to get out out and and go up on the on the district's websites information is up there and and get out and vote thank you Mike I'm not going to be that quick I'll try we'll have Joe set the timer like he did yeah give me the timer set we always got a lot going on so and I want to make sure everybody's informed take your time um I just want to start with cultural arts 17th we have the vote but on the 18th we have the Lunar New Year uh here at our uh Han Community Rec Center on Sunday 1:30 we celebrate the um uh the Chinese New Year there it's uh always a pack crowd come on out a lot of a lot of things going on a lot of dancing a lot of music food a lot of um Asian fashion is going on so so come on out to that it's a free event um also while we're at it February 25th Sunday there will also be a concert um for children themed concert um going on at the rec center also uh so keep that in mind just a few things with Recreation uh we had a trip plan for March 4th uh the Philadelphia Flower Show which is sold out already again another one of our trips as soon as we put them up they get they get filled out um we're already talking about Springtime so we got a lot of new things coming up we're starting to open up the signups for a lot of our events and registrations um One new thing that we have coming on is balloon sculpting um 8-week session beginning in February uh on Fridays so you can learn how to make balloon animals uh so that's uh that's something new um also we got returning chair yoga karate line dancing pickle ball Zumba all this stuff is is starting up getting ready for the spring so that's being coming soon uh always check out the website there's always new stuff coming on uh camp registration already begins March 4th um Hometown Heroes is now open also so if we saw the flags although they're down at the moment um the flags that have veterans from hover Township that are on the posts we start our next round of Hometown Heroes uh again check out the website it's going to be going up soon uh you can Now's the Time to register for the next round of uh of flags that are going out uh field permits have been set out um another thing I want to throw out there too B metal pool registrations already coming up March 6th those are going to be going out uh we had to have a small increase in the rates on B Meadow pool but we're adding more amenities to the pool uh and as everything else costs have gone up so we're doing our best to keep the cost down uh but the pool again just coming off of another popular year um so sign up early and take advantage there is also an early registration uh you get a little bit of a discount if you if you register early um you going to mention anything about the wellness uh Valentine's Day dinner dance if you say it I won't go ahead you're on the roll I keep going so we got a uh uh Valentine Day dinner dance on SE uh excuse me Saturday February 17th at the Ukrainian Center 7 to 10:00 uh who's playing in it I hear there's a good band playing I heard it really good yeah I heard it really good band playing there'll be music there'll be some dancing it'll be a lot of fun uh so come on out again check out the website you get all the information there and you can sign it up um that's it for now thank you Mike great work thank you all John okay thank you mayor um Green Team in conjunction with the River action committee which they call themselves rule act uh are planning some big events April 28th will be a clean up of central par um that that's significant it's a great commitment Barkley's Bank we thank them for continuing to supporting it in a big way on May 4th there'll be an Earth Day celebration and part of the May 4th Earth Day celebration will be a clean up of all the Trails um our engineer Mr masera spoke about the trail system well there's there's going to be lots of people out there cleaning up those Trails so that's a good thing Economic Development advisory Council continues to work on trying to promote our small businesses they have a shop local directory they're working on they also are highlighting a program that's Geared for small businesses from New Jersey state where small businesses are eligible uh for either grants or loans Andor economic website assistance so check it out um New Jersey Economic Development from the planning board standpoint I'm going to share with you what I call good news and bad news the good news is that tonight we heard the township committee affirm the agreement to move forward called the developers agreement for the Handover Town Center which is really good news it's going to be a good economic development for our town the bad news is is and the mayor's going to speak a lot more about this but you need to understand what's going on here in this state is that New Jersey State Management of affordable housing under Fair Share Housing Act during its lame duck session which was at the end of December demonstrated a lack of inclusiveness or transparency as to what they are trying to do unbelievable number two the promise to provide reasonable guidelines to the management of fair share housing was excluded as written in the New Jersey planner and the promise to include the public was also Viola many people need affordable housing hwn supports it but 60 the 60% that are not in low or moderate housing didn't get representative at all mayor Gallagher I'm sure we share more timely information on this and if you haven't already done it please sign up par that concludes my remarks thanks John Ron thank you Mr Mayor fair warning February the 14th is Valentine's Day bring home candy or flowers or don't go home uh from the uh Board of Health uh we're pleased to say that uh all of the issues that we suffered these last several years seem to be very all under control we're watching respiratory illnesses right now which seem to be on the rise uh but nothing of the strength of covid that we've just gone through so we're very pleased over that and Hanah did very very well through Co our incidents in Co we're probably one of the lowest in moris County so uh thank everyone for taking the cautions and be caution through that those days uh our Han Township Stonybrook farm and garden is doing very very well it's sold out but if you're interested in uh having a garden of your own and I hope you are uh you can get a hold of us through Recreation at 428 2465 428 2465 they will give you more information on how you can have your own garden here in Hanover Township at the Stony Brook Farm uh and we hope you do join us now also if you want to learn more about it uh on March the 17th the 7:00 in the evening here at the community center the garden will be holding an open house uh with our Master Gardener to discuss uh your opportunities to join us at the uh at the Garden and form um please mark note the date join us there as well um beyond that I think we're in very good shape Mr Mayor thank you very much thank you Ron I'm just going to begin I have some good news here but I'm just going to begin by the um the fair share housing law and the latest law and it's going to go into effect Monday according to my sources it came out of committee today but hanb Township had a very strong respon response to this proposal and I'm very proud to say that Joe Giorgio Fred and I spent quite a bit of time on this over the last two days our comment and our comment our our complete piece was read into the minutes at the assembly today on the floor uh newsbreak picked it up new jersey.com picked it up and I'm very happy to say that Han Township he's going to fight as hard as we can for it to be fair and fair to us because these obligations are not fair to many of us and it wasn't done properly according to many of us and it's going to be a real heavy lift but I want you to know as your elected officials we get it we're not just talking to talk we're fighting very hard I'm one of six Mayors that's going to be on a subcommittee for the county that's going to be working Statewide to talk about true fairness and we do understand and everybody says the same thing we understand Gary our First Responders our water our roads or schools the list is clear and it was in my comments that were read on the floor today so um round four the battle officially began today and your representatives are going to fight and we're going to fight smart and we're going to keep you guys in the loop on everything we do and as far as I'm concerned and to my knowledge and we interact with a lot of people our governing body was the only one that had a full fair share housing report monthly from Fred Samurai on where we are and where we think we're going to go we're going to bring back that section of our meetings to keep the public informed on where we are and how this is going to adversely affect us so much much more to come but please go to our website Handover township.com and read the comments that were read out loud today on the floor in the assembly and that's us representing you now on a plus side of things Friday night's at men and Arena law enforcement night March 15th Han of Township PD is front and center it's an incredible night with the sheriff's department and right now we have 11 police departments coming it's a great opportunity for our families to meet and greet all of our Local Heroes and I'm going to quote Chief Rody right now and I will quote this for the rest of my life unfortunately people only meet their First Responders on their worst day we work very hard with the 200 Club the sheriff's department and our local PD to have our our families interact with our First Responders on a very good day so if anybody's available March 15th men and Arena it's going to be an incredible event for everybody young kids and US big older kids it's really a lot of fun uh the other thing I want to say about Planet Fitness is our headquarters for the New Jersey Coalition for education and Positive Choices is the Jets training facility in Floren Park but Marcus graciously invited us to have Planet Fitness at our headquarters the partnership that we already have is incredible we have Park cocky that's going to have meetings in that building and then when they break loose they're all going to get the train there's programs that they have that I haven't heard another gym have in place yet and they're going to probably copy you guys from the end of the school year to the beginning of the school year students can train for free that's a pretty good deal that's a pretty good deal so us working closely with Planet we're going to bring all of those programs to us and share them with all our residents and the mayor's Wellness campaign is part of recreation so you guys are now part of our Recreation it's a beautiful thing and maybe it's not going to be that beautiful thing but we're going to have a lot of fun and we're going to benefit a lot of people and a lot of people that need the help you know it all comes down to mental health and wellness so that's a beautiful thing and thank you and the last thing I'll say about um the the grand opening is we did the mental health Symposium and uh Planet Fitness the senior vice president of marketing and Marcus got back to us and said that's what they're about so we went to the ribbon cutting and we stood in the order that we sat on the Das to to do our presentation for the mental health so we in total had 51 people at that ribbon cutting they said it's the biggest one that they've done in the country so we're doing something right in Mars County in this part of New Jersey and we're only going to build on it that's all I have for you guys tonight and that's I have for the public so thank you very much motion to close so move second all in favor I thank you very much everybody oh don't forget that we still have some more business in we still have some more business in conf to what's up G you got my note