Dash e e e e e e Hillsboro New Jersey one of the 100 best places to live don't take our word for it experience Hillsboro Loc Lo ated in the heart of Somerset County there's something for everyone Community Parks hiking trails trendy eateries indoor rock climbing and Adventure arts and performances did we mention top-notch dining we've got activities for everyone to keep you healthy involved and entertained come see why everyone is talking about Hillsboro experience our community experience our Farms experience our [Music] events experience our [Applause] history experience Hillsboro did you guys like the video all right okay all right let's get this going good evening and welcome to the township committee meeting of May 14th 2024 Miss break please call the role committee woman hand here committee leani present committee woman Pay Here Deputy Mayor Chelli here mayor Bing here administrator Ferrera here attorney Bard here please join me to in a salute to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice the Girl Scouts always do a good job you can always hear the Girl Scouts right in the front all right fantastic job all right so please be advised in accordance with Section Five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 of the public laws of 7 1975 notice of this meeting was made by posting on the bulletin board at the Hillsboro Township municipal complex and notifying the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place tonight at the Hillsboro Township municipal complex at 7:30 p.m. on May 14th 2024 approval of minutes may I have a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of March March 12th 2024 so moves a second second okay roll call please Comm hand yes Comm leani yes Comm P yes Deputy Mayor Chelli yes mayor Bing yes may I now have a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of March 26 2024 all moved seconded all roll call please committee woman hand yes committee Pon yes committee woman pay yes deputy mayor chck R yes mayor bring uh yes may I have a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of April 9th 2024 give you a shot so moved a second second oh oh she got it all right give the committee woman pay roll call please committee woman hand yes committee Pani yep committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor chiarelli yes mayor bring yes all right now we're going to go to reports from each of our committee uh folks so uh committee woman hand is first committee woman hand is going to do it standing up because I am vertically challenged and behind some portraits all right so I've never done this standing up this will be fun all right so first of all I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day I got to see both of my daughters and some family and it was wonderful and I hope everyone out there had a a wonderful day with your friends and family all right Health Department there are free rate on tests get them why they last they are free one per household they're in the health department um check it out they are open Monday through Friday 8 to 4:30 and from the rec department we have a Memorial Day commemoration the um all Hillsboro military service Personnel are invited to participate in the salute to military service breakfast and um also lead the Hillsboro Memorial Day parade and program and this is on Saturday May 25th registration is required for the breakfast and can be completed online at the Township Park and wreck site there we're on Instagram it's everywhere so please um have folks sign up if appropriate um also the breakfast will um conclude and then the parade will start at 10 o'clock we hope to um then beat the garden of Honor by 11 o'clock and we have our own Hillsboro veteran Megan valo um who is the 2024 Grand Marshall very exciting stuff and last one was for some Camp um get ready again summer is coming it's warm today you know this is what we we are going to be able to look forward to camp registration is open and please um you know look at it there's a tremendous amount of opportunity no matter what your child is interested in there is something fun for them to do so please um get on the parks and wre site and um sign up for any of the camps before they fill up and um and your kids are looking at you asking what to do and telling you that they're bored right because it happens all right thank you mayor after four hours of playing right and then later totally get it we get it what's to eat all right totally get it committee V leani thank you mayor yeah I'm board ma ma good evening everybody uh again reiterating what Comm minim hand said Happy postm Mother's Day to all those who and we all love our moms for what they do for us um so today was the last day to register for vote for the primary election interested parties can register still to vote online that's the New Jersey Division of Elections primary election day is Tuesday June 4th in person early voting begins here at the municipal building on May 29th 2024 it will last until June 2nd of 2024 hours are Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. no appointment is necessary voters can also bring mail and ballots to the Dropbox outside municipal building until 8:00 p.m. on Election Day and the drop boox is Right Out by the front door Teen Speak do you want to learn skills to communicate better with your teenager the mayor's Wellness campaign and Empower Somerset are collaborating with to host teenp a two session event on June 12th and June 14th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. receive a $40 gift card when completing both sessions so again that's June 12th and June 14th here uh 6: to 8 p.m. uh the assessor's office Farmland applications for those who are from uh submitting for Farmland uh um credit uh applications will be mailed from the assessor's office in June to all qualified Farmland owners this is the important part completed Farmland applications should be returned to the assessor by August 1st so don't be late because then you you risk losing your Farmland Assessment The Economic and Business Development HBA social uh Hillsboro Business Association excited to announce that registration is now open for our next Network event which will be June 28th from 6: to8 p.m. at The Landing in Hillsboro it's a great opportunity to mingle with other business owners and professionals and meet the mayor and Township committee and other Associated guests the cost of the attendance is $18 and includes light appetizers and refreshments a cash bar will also be available so you can visit the HBA website page to register couple more um the National mental health awareness month was established in 1949 to raise awareness about importance of mental health and stop the stigma associated with mental health mental illness can affect anyone and can develop at any time it affects spread well beyond the individual to family friends and co-workers in the United States one in five adults will experience a mental illness each year 177% of Youth experience a mental health disorder each year and 50% of all lifetime me mental illnesses Begin by age 14 feelings of worthy stress or fear are normal during a crisis Hillsboro Township and Hillsboro School District have been designated a stigma-free community the stigma free initiative helps raise awareness surrounding mental health and strives to create an environment where individuals feel free to speak and support to enhance them their mental health without fear of being stigmatized with that um last Thursday we had a hope for tomorrow um I joined the residents as members of the Hillsboro Millstone Municipal Alliance borrow Weare burrow safe the hillsbor Education Association the Deputy Mayor John chy and committee Samantha H were present at at the annual Hope For Tomorrow event the event featured Games music inspirational makes and takes and plenty of free giveaways towards mental health awareness and education thank you to all the volunteers and and those sponsored including cater to Fair Roman Gourmet scrap you and Artistry 2 and the hea other otherwise known as the Hillsboro Education Association that's it May thank you thank you committee woman pay good evening everybody thank you girl scouts for the amazing pledge again uh so for the police there are several things going on uh in the upcoming weeks uh first and foremost there's a blanket Drive the hillsbor police are collecting clean and gently used solid colored sheets blankets to keep in the patrolled cars for use in emergencies the blanket Drive will begin the week of May 24th and conclude on June 3rd there will be bins placed in the front lobby of the municipal building over here and also at the rear of the building by the police department additionally members of the police department will be collecting blankets at the Green living and wellness Fair on June 1st Hillsboro residents always come through for our police department and we look forward to a great response to the blanket Drive there's also coffee with the cops stop by Starbucks this Thursday May 16th between 4: and 6:00 pm for coffee with cops members of the Hillsboro PD will be on hand to pour coffee and answer your questions there's also the National Police Week National Police Week offers honor I'm sorry National Police Week honors remembrance and peer support while allowing law enforcement survivors and citizens to gather to pay homage to those who have gave their lives in the line of duty finally the National Night Out save the date police uh will be hosting their second annual National Night Out on August 6th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Mountain View um sorry Mountain View Park come for fun games demonstrations and much more anyone interested in being a vendor at that event please email Sergeant Chris geraldi at Gerald C hillsbor pd.org no later than June 15th 2024 and that'll be in our newslet letter as well that's all mayor thank you Deputy Mayor chiarelli thank you um I also have to say Happy Mother's Day belated to those of you but if I don't say it my mother who watches these will surely make me pay um so from the building department the building department announces a new scheduling procedure New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs recently adopted several changes to the uniform construction code regulations one of them is one of these is to is how inspection requests must be made for construction permits written notifications are now the only way to request an inspection by all building departments in New Jersey so it's not just us um in order for Hillsboro permit holders to comply with this new change inspection requests may be submitted through the sdl portal for those who do not use the sdl portal the building department has created a construction permit inspection request form to complete and submit to a dedicated email address or drop off in person here at the municipal building beginning on May 13th or yesterday either method is to be used for all inspection requests the sdl portal inspection request option and the construction permit inspection request form are both available uh on the Department's web page to be used um the in the building department um our uh uh John our own John Field fieldler was awarded Ed the uh building inspector of the year uh the construction official was named building inspector by the uh building inspector of the Year by the New Jersey Building officials Association NJ boa John has been working with the township as a construction official since 2005 he quickly became uh an active member in the New Jersey Building officials Association Municipal construction officials of New Jersey International Code Council and Central Jersey Code officials Association serving on several committees for each organization he actually served as the NJ boa's Executive Board in 2011 and served as their immediate past president and on several committees so Hillsboro Township congratulates John on his commitment to the profession of code enforcement and service to the public so congratulations John uh engineering from the engineering department residents are reminded that drainage easements on your property are to allow water flow and specifically surface water water flow uh sometimes the easements uh is due to a a flood zone or wetlands and the area is to remain undisturbed a drainage easement should never be blocked by fences structures or yard debris to permit adequate drainage uh many times a cons conservation easement is created to protect the area itself uh this is to remind property owners that the area should be left in its natural state and be completely undisturbed trees should not be cut down in these areas and the New Jersey Department of Environmental protection or D has jurisdiction over conservation easements and residents can receive a violation from the D if they Disturb This the area that is within the wetlands or flood zones so please check your survey or contact the engineering department to determine if you have a drainage or conservation easement on your property um if you're thinking about taking some action um Planning and Zoning uh the planning and zoning department in conjunction with the township open space committee and agricultural advisory committee has developed the open space or Farmland preservation expression of Interest form that's a long it's a mouthful um this is a way for property owners to communicate their interest in selling or donating land for open space or to indicate their interest to preserve their Farmland once the form is completed it'll be reviewed by the township staff and shared with the appropriate committees for further review um Public Works the uh Hillsboro residents are asked to be mindful of the public works department staff who work in the roadway uh completing Road repairs hazardous tree removals and also Mo mowing lawns and grasses grass such work zones are marked by signs cones drums barriers pavement markings and other vehicles other work Vehicles the safety of the DPW staff is Department's number one priority so please pay attention as we head into the summer months when this type of work is more prevalent you'll see them around in their yellow trucks um sustainability arts in the park the sustainable Hillsboro steering committee's arts in the park program is off to a great start with the painting of sidewalk panels at Anan Middlesworth Park the program will bring color and creativity to Hillsboro's Parks so far 10 tiles have been painted with a variety of fun designs visit the experience Hillsboro page on the township website to see photos or stop by an van Middlesworth Park to take a look more projects are on the horizon for May 22nd and may uh 29th and volunteers are still needed there are a variety of designs available to choose from so you don't have to come up with your own you can contact the uh sustainability Department um and apparently no artistic skill is necessary and uh all materials will be provided so uh contact the Hillsboro sustainability office if you're interested in getting involved they're painting bumblebees and slices of watermelon with smiles on them so it's it's it's actually a fun event um s Sustainable New Jersey Hillsboro sustain ability office and the committee members uh attended Sustainable New Jersey annual Summit on May 3rd held in Homedale the summit had a variety of panels available to educate attendees and give tips on advancing sustainability in communities across the state Hillsboro has also submitted for a second round of review through the sustainable Jersey program the actions submitted in that submitt show Hillsboro's dedication to incorporating sustainability into Municipal polit policies and operations and this year will be Hills br's 10th straight year uh to maintain the highest certification level of silver and lastly the Municipal Utilities Authority the MUA would like to inform residents that pouring grease cooking oil or animal fat down the drain is unsafe doing so can lead to drain clogs environmental issues and health hazards so allow cooking oil to cool before disposing of it you can pour warm grease into a metal can or glass and let it cool uh alternatively you can wait for it to cool slightly and soak it up using paper towels which can then be tossed into the garbage um if you've already poured grease down a drain uh they suggest pouring a gallon or more of boiling water slowly and adding a bit of dish soap for maximum effect to clean out the uh your drains um proper disposal helps prevent costly repairs and keeps your plumbing system functioning properly so that's it mayor that's it want some more I think there a water get this man some water there's a gnarly picture up there so yeah we'll get past that picture all right I'll get through these in a reasonable period of time all right so all right so Green living and wellness fair so the annual Green living and wellness Fair will be held on on Saturday June 1st in conjunction with the Hillsboro YMCA hop 5K the fair is a rainish rain or shine event begins at 8:00 a.m. here at this municipal building and will end at 11:00 a.m. now the next part of that is participating local businesses will have informative presentations to raise awareness for many of the the facets of living healthy lifestyle including making sound nutritional choices long-term life planning decisions and the benefits of a green lifestyle there also be Health screenings and interactive dance and exercise demonstrations so that sounds like an interesting fun time Family Fund day and fireworks this is uh one of our biggest events of the year so the annual Hillsboro family Funday and fireworks will be held on Saturday June 29th mark your calendars it's a real fun day family fund day is one of Hillsboro's favorite events to connect with the community come early what's wrong 5:00 for food fun and music and then settle down after the dark to enjoy dazzling fireworks display they always do a really really nice job the Independence Day celebration will Fe feature inflatable uh amusements for children which my boys will be on constantly a food tent carnival games and uh promotional information from local organizations live music will be Pro provided by Gypsy a true Stevie band exp a true Stevie Nicks experience which stev Nick is pretty cool that's going to be fun leading up to the event and uh annual fireworks extrav GZA at the end so please mark your calendars again for Saturday June 29th from 5:00 until after dark and we'll have a good time all right so adopt the highway I'll let the pictures get up and I'll speak very briefly about this and also just turn over Deputy Mayor Chelli because he was there as well too we had the opportunity to work with a A young group of high school students and some of their mentors on on helping clean up 206 which I'm glad it was on 206 because it allows me to stay on message to the governor's office the NJ do and the other groups that are still slowing up 206 so um it was a great opportunity to to to watch the young um high school students uh and athletes out there picking up garbage on the side of the road I think it was it was a good experience for them too to give back to their Community Deputy Mayor is there anything there put you on the spot that you experienced while you're were there as well too uh just I I guess finding out realizing how the the township actually supports it the vests the tools the little grabby things that uh you know used to pick up cigarette butts all that is supplied by the the the township and uh had hadn't occurred to me right but so they they organized it and and then in Walking with the group I found out that there are several neighborhoods that do this on their own they don't uh you know they they don't they just do it to beautify their their own neighborhood so um and also that what was collected was just tied up and left on a corner and and it's all coordinated through the state so the state will come and and remove what we picked up so the adop the highway is pretty neat and I know there's other organizations that want to participate the volunteer hours so just contact the the office and uh we'll set it up so thanks great all right next we're going to jump on to news2 so I'll go to that so did you guys have a chance to see that we were live on news2 the other day it was last Thursday right Friday Friday it was Friday right yeah I'm trying to remember it was an early morning we were on from 5:00 until about 8 8:15 um we did I think six live spots 5 or six live spots we started in the municipal uh building we went to a few of our businesses we went to iron Peak we went to flounder Brewing we went to Amma pizza and we had an opportunity to talk about Hillsboro promote some of those businesses but allow the central part of New Jersey uh to see more about hillsb we had a chance to talk about our our our safety record and all the great things that we're trying to accomplish here in town um you know it was It was kind of fun I had some family members reach out even from Tom's River that had a chance to see it and they're like oh my gosh you guys are on TV so it got it got out to the new Central New Jersey crowd of people which was very important for us it's part of our job is to make sure that we remove remove barriers for businesses and promote as much as we can for our local economy so they can do as well as possible all right uh next we have on here uh 206 construction uh gon's Music Academy so I um that's the worst picture of me ever in the center which you know use against me if you want to anybody in the room um it's a fun one um but I will call you out for it on my own video If you do um so uh we this last week I did a video with uh uh Don Gon who is the drummer the Fuji who have you knew that the drummer of The Fuji is in Hillsboro how cool is that right that's pretty he owns gon's Music Academy right and um he set up shop a couple a bunch of years back but he relaunched his business two years ago from from how I understand it and when the 206 um uh construction started they took over the front of his business and took out his driveway and that's the picture that's legitimated the picture of his driveway and we did two videos so he came up to a Township committee meeting I think it was the last one with his his team and introduced himself and said I need some help uh he's asked for he have his voice heard so not only did we try to get his voice heard which was in the video I did today which is on the Township I'm going to send put it in all the community forums I see some of the community Forum leaders in the room I'll send it over to you later and um uh I had a chance to interview him last week with regards to his business last week was more promotional for him trying to help him out because he's been struggling with that but this part was really to get a message out to the NJ doot and the shy company that is frankly holding up the uh the project um so hopefully in the next few weeks we hear some good news so fingers crossed you see the polls are being moved to the side the utilities are being put there um you see a number of other Deputy Mayor chick earlier reached out and said he saw a few other groups too I checked in with the chief of staff of the dot so there's a number of good things happening so I think the pressure that all groups are involved they putting on is is important so we're going to keep doing that all right so um the next subject matter before I get to the last piece um do you have anything up there for Oprah or is it just we're going to speak to it and I could speak to this later as well too but we have a um a resolution that we had pulled from the agenda from this evening an Oprah reform uh Bill uh uh agenda item um it was uh you saw if you looked in the in the news today if you're connected to that type of news um you saw that is gone through uh and it's now on the governor's desk so we found it not necessary to have a vote on it this evening it's already past that um but we do want to keep a very um close eye on it in case there other insights that come from it or other debates that happen because I do understand there may be more that's coming from it so we want to give this this this governing body the opportunity um to see all the insights and be fully informed before we actually go forward and put any vote to it um so that this if you're looking for that on the on the agenda this evening that's no longer on the agenda so I wanted to make sure I I I address that because transparency to me is um incredibly important these videos aren't just fun to do I think it's very important to show you what goes on behind the curtain right I think it's very very important for you to see the reality of how things work so and I will continue to do that for you all right so you can always stay connected with all the events and more via the Wednesday mayor ews and Thursday's experience Hillsboro Bolton be sure to follow and like the official Hillsboro Township Facebook page Twitter X which is X now and Instagram tune in to the Hillsboro YouTube channel and sign up for hillsbor alerts for traffic and emergency notifications all right now we're going to get to some proclamations here's the fun part I think we have some really really good proclamations so I'm going to walk on down there now Kathleen would you like to come down Kathleen O'Brien all right oh it's behind me hello sorry about that I think most of the people here are for you tonight how cool is that it's pretty popular does a lot of good work and I also wanted to mention that we have Megan valo in the crowd too she's going to be our stand up stand up our Grand Marshall we spoke about that earlier Megan please stand up yeah yeah stand up there she is there she is I know I know but you listen I think it's this what Girl Scouts are all about is sharing those experiences with each other so why don't you hold that up and I'll read this out I forgot I was going to say it earlier about you Megan I saw you out there all right so Kathleen O'Brien is a senior at Hillsboro High School which I think all of you know she's a member of girl shout troop 60143 and earned her Gold Award it's awesome congratulations Kathleen's Gold Award project focused on emergency preparedness in the community she had over 120 people stopped by her table at Hillsboro's First National Night Out and her setember workshops held at the Hillsboro Library Kathleen subsidized subsidized a full CPR first aid certification for 25 people and hosted a handson CPR in partnership with the YMCA the project took over 100 hours to complete with the assistance of offices of Emergency Management fire police Somerset County library and the Hillsboro YMCA now that's that's what leadership's all about right it's it's being able to bring a lot of stakeholders together and do a great thing so that's good for you Kathleen earned the service to Girl Scout uh Kathleen are in the service to girl scouting bar community service bar and the leadership torch so just Round of Applause for that too that's fantastic you're going to get a lot of claps tonight Kathleen is a member of the Latin Honor Society and participates in soccer and softball do you sleep no no does she you make her sleep all right so Kathleen serves an example to the Youth of Hillsboro Township through her achievements leadership and community service we are very very proud that Kathleen is a member of our community now therefore be proclaimed that we the mayor and the Hillsboro Township committee do hereby recognize and extend our sincere congratulations to Kathleen O'Brien for her H having earned her Girl Scout Gold Award and honor for both her and for those who have guided her we wish Kathleen all the best in her future endeavors congratulations thank [Applause] you you want to say anything come on this is part of leadership public speaking is part of leadership so let's give her a shot um thank you to everyone who helped me with the project thank you for the people in the township with fire police OEM and the Hillsboro library for helping me out with my project um thank you for the Hillsboro YMCA for helping me host CPR classes and first aid certification um thank you to my project adviser Miss Briggs for helping me out through my whole project um and thank you for everyone else who I forgot good job [Applause] after this picture you want anybody else a favor for a picture there yeah come on come on mama daddy you guys it's your daughter you got her I'll go on the outside you big round of applause [Applause] conrat okay okay Governor's educator of the Year Proclamation there are a lot of Educators please come on up if you're one of the Educators that is going to be recognized this evening all of them at once please [Applause] wow this is cool yeah yeah yeah book end it there you [Laughter] go they were they were perfect they were Perfect all women huh all women good for you absolutely I Cod and agree more I think that's great I think that's great now every year the Hillsboro Township Board of Education recognizes one teacher and one Educational Services professional from each of the district schools as educator of the Year these individuals represent the best of the best in our schools the township committee looks forward to recognizing these outstanding individuals each year with a proclamation tonight we have with us a few of the Educators who are recognized they range from kindergarten teachers to a middle school health and physical education teacher as well as instructional assistants a media specialist and a school counselor we are so incredibly proud to honor and congratulate the following Educators I'm going to ask you to please state your name your school and your position I'll give you the mic and you guys can say anything else you'd like as well too so we'll start down here here you go wow put me in a room with seven to eighty olds and I'm good but with ad adult now like to thank the academy sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry um no you like me you really like me uh thank you may I really appreciate and the township committee I really appreciate and it's an honor to be here my teaching Journey has not been easy but um it is amazing to stand up here and look at all these awesome students and my dream was to become a teacher at Hillsboro and here I am living the dream and so each and every one of you who are looking at me now every student here you can do it so but thank you I really appreciate it and um it's an honor it's an honor and thank you to my family and Mrs PE there who's my instruction leid who's awesome thank you Mrs P oh and I I'm I'm Mrs sass by the way wood for wood for elementary school second grade yeah yeah do that do that first you just reminded me that I'm Shauna gazzy I teach kindergarten at Hillsboro Elementary School um I've been teaching there for 26 years so um it's a it's been a wonderful thank you all for having us here and for recognizing teachers I think I think we're all a team and we couldn't do it without each other so um I just appreciate getting recognized and having my colleagues recognize because it's a job that sometimes is difficult but we love it so that's why we're here so thank you very much my name is Mary Kesler I'm an instructional assistant and a c print captionist at Hillsboro High School thank you Mr Mayor and thank you to the township committee for having all of us here I think we all appreciate everything that we do every day to help all of you students and the community and I thank my husband for being here with me thank you okay my name is Nial hammad I'm a instruction assistant on sunade Elementary School I going to try to be too quickly but I want to share something with you so first of all thank you I'd like to thank the mayor and the township for this valuable recognition and this award has given me motivation and passion to continue giving it my all in my work and also I going to share like a card that my student give it to me when she know that I'm going to come today and she said you made me happy and I love how you help me every time you tried to uh you try treat me treat all of us like your kids I'm so happy to be your student and that make me so proud and all the world cannot express how I'm thankful for all of this thank you so much I'm s morali Sunny meets School third grade thank you Mr Mayor thank you committee for having us today and it gives me great pleasure to be with other Educators so thank you and thank you to all my stud students who showed up stand up stand up up there from last year this year these guys make my day they drive me nuts but they they make my day and nothing would be possible I wouldn't be here if not for my parents and my students my husband my family thank you thank you thank you I live in Hillsboro I always want to teach and uh to be at Sunny me is my dream and my preschool Mom's here uh so hi so thank you thank [Applause] you hi I'm Lisa Burgess I'm from Amsterdam Elementary School I've been an instructional assistant there for 15 years and it's an honor honor to be here thank you mayor thank you committee members we appreciate I know everyone appreciates being here thank you for the recognition I'm Erica KF um instructional assistant at Aon Road I've been there maybe eight years going on eight years um my children grew up here uh my husband grew up in Montgomery and we decided to stay here in Hillsboro yeah my children had a wonderful career and so I was happy to then be able to come into the school system and I get great joy from being with the kids that I'm with it's sometimes it's a thankless job but I get great rewards I tell stories too my husband all the time so thank you mayor thank you committee men and hello my name is Taisha G barera I'm the media specialist at the middle school this is my 22nd year in the district um and I prepared a few words um good evening I'm really I'm deeply honored and humbled to receive this recognition which is not just a testament to my individual efforts but a celebration and dedication of The Passion of my colleagues at HMS and throughout the district I would like to express my gratitude to my HMS colleagues one of whom is right here your support collaboration and commitment to our students success inspir me every day together we've truly created a special place nurturing a love for learning for reading and created an environment where every child can Thrive to the students of HMS and with deep gratitude to my talented library student volunteers your curiosity your energy Your Enthusiasm it really reminds me each day of of the profound impacts that Educators have on shaping lives thank you for inspiring me to be the best librarian I can be I am also incredibly grateful to my family thank you for your love and support so grateful for you lastly I would like to extend my sincerest appreciation to our mayor and to the township committee for this honor your recognition highlights the importance of Educators libraries and the important work we undertake every day thank you hi I'm Maria Atlas I'm a special education teacher at Triangle Elementary School TAA is a really hard act to follow I'd like to thank you mayor thank you committee members for this wonderful honor um I I raised my kids here in Hillsboro and I went back to work about 14 years ago and I am just so proud to be a member of the community and um most of all a member of the dedicated teachers that we we all um are are so lucky to be with every day and um most of all it's um all about the kids so I'd like to dedicate all of these Awards to the to the students thank you I'm Alison gelino I'm the school counselor at woodfern elementary school um thank you Mr Mayor thank you to the committee for again recognizing us I think everybody said something along lines of it's just nice to be recognized for some days feel a little thankless but these moments make it feel like everything that we do every day is worth it and to be honest seeing kids out here in the audience also makes it so worth it because we do everything for them um but I just wanted to say thank you for the recognition and um really appreciate you inviting us here today thank you hi I'm Jen pz uh Hillsboro middle school health and PE teacher um thank you mayor thank you committee for having us today and recognizing it it really does mean a lot to us um it's my 22nd year here and I've enjoyed almost every single day of those 22 years and I'm just excited to carry out the rest of my career in Hillsboro it's an awesome place to work all right before we before we take a quick picture I just want to share with the kids in the room a real life example of the impact a teacher had on somebody so when I was a little boy you know outside of my parents and my family the one person that truly impacted me to do the right thing when I got older was my fourth grade teacher Sandra Blackstone and she was a huge influence in my life and I think about every day and we still communicate fun fact her son is Adam Blackstone who is an executive prod producer with a Jay-Z and some other rock artists so so he's he's done very well for himself but her her she has been a huge in influence to me so your teacher work incredibly hard to do the right thing for you so just thank them every day listen to them because they're trying to teach you the right thing to do so thank you all for doing what you're doing God bless you guys [Music] thanks all right [Applause] come on all the kids come on teach you know [Music] turn around everybody say chees one more one more one more all right good [Applause] [Music] I forgot to say thank you for my husband awesome that's sweet yes that's it we all voted yes to that we thank you dear congratulations all right you're welcome thank you you're welcome okay now we have a very special moment for those of you that want to see something some some truly truly amazing artwork right so now at this time I'd like to call up Kevin Murphy the founder of art academy H wait what what H what's the matter what do you want me to do we keep going all right we have Kevin coming up founder of the Art Academy so Kevin and his talented students have been donating their time and talent to bring Hillsboro Township the amazing portraits of Township committee members you see displayed out in the main lobby uh area and the administration and mayor's office we have committee woman uh Katherine Payne and committee woman Samantha hand on you once you two go near your pictures and I'll get out of the way we don't know we don't know you we'll see you in a second we'll see you in a second so I'm also calling up the artists Julia Lee and Emily way so yep so so Julia's with Katherine and Emily is with Samantha right here we go here we go that's how I have the notes Here We Go you have to Swit switch spots oh switch them up switch them up no cther wait wait did you have it right no no no no one of you moves no I think they're good now are they good now I think so they're good okay cool okay now Kevin this is uh your moment if you'd like to say a few words for your team um good evening everybody I actually want to start by thanking I do this every year and Mr May I'm going to kind of step over you for a second Anthony ferer actually helped me to launch this program almost 15 years ago and when I first spoke to him where is 15 years we opened in 2009 so 15 years and um I tried to convince the township that we could build a historical collection and when you're doing it on year one it doesn't look like anything but now 15 years later when you look in the in the main Corridor of the municipal building you can see what we've begun to build this is just the beginning the goal is to have a a a body of work that spans a hundred years a 100 mayors and this is just the beginning of it and it's done with the labor of our students who contribute to the collection each time uh new politician has elected again Mr Mayor I do want to thank you for of course inviting us to do this again and of course the township committee as well um unless I I have to thank both Emily and Julia for contributing the time and making my school look so good and so um I'll step back and let them do their thing yeah would you yeah go ahead you want you want to unveil and then talk about it there you go maybe that's careful not to knock anything over yeah watch I CAU your face yeah I'll take that I'll take the uh I'll take that there you go go ahead would you like to come up and speak a little bit about your your um what do I think thank you to everyone here who let me have like this opportunity and like um I love to paint so yeah what what are and I'm in seventh grade seventh grade that's [Applause] amazing how many hours how long going it take you to paint it I don't know it took me like a month or like a month and a half I think wow very good okay how about we unveil committee woman pain just hold the bottom count very nice good job [Applause] oh U my name is Julie I'm in eth grade um it also took me around a month and a half uh I would like to thank the township and uh my teacher Mr Kevin I I just think it's just taking in for a moment the incredible seventh and eighth grade able to do something like this I think they deserve like a a huge round of applause for that that's that's really that's that's a real talent that means you can see things before they happen which is great great for you guys would we like to take a picture now we take individual pictures with each of your uh with your artists and your and your portraits sure all right app where do you what do you want them to yes so as they're moving the pictures around if you look around the room over here those famous paintings of those famous people the Art Academy actually painted those as well too so it's pretty incredible are you look at me I asked I asked if she had any makeup tips or anything she do a while yeah so the parents came in to the office earlier tonight and they were like oh my God we do exist after looking at us for a month and a half probably every day right sorry about that yeah yeah that's what our kids go through too so thank you guys appreciate you per thank you going to move these yep we have one other presentation I believe I don't have the title in front of me exactly yep I just want to read it off appropriately David yeah same yeah you are just give me the community equity and diversity profile a study that was done by thank you hello thank you for having us my name is Samantha ball I am office administrator of The Economic and Business Development and sustainability office good evening mayor Township committee uh Township staff and residents my name is David K and I'm the Hillsboro Township planning director so we are going to go to the first slide please is that the magic word uh so we're we're here to present uh an action that the township has been working on I'm here to give you some background the township has a really special sustainability program and it originally started in 2006 by the township Committee in 2007 uh the Hillsboro Township uh sustainability steering committee was created and later in 2009 uh it created its first strategic plan uh that same year in 2009 the sustainable Jersey program launched and Hillsboro Township was one of the first pioneer towns to receive uh certification since then the township has received a total of 12 certifications the first three being in bronze and the last nine being uh in silver which is currently the the highest certification available through the program uh to date uh Hillsboro Township is the most certified Township in summer County and the second most certified town in the entire state so again a really really special program and it was all started by the township committee a next slide please so this action uh was really important and it took a lot of collaboration and it was an initiative through the administration office clerk sustainable Hillsboro and the planning zoning department uh the sources of information uh that were used was through the census data and through the njd environmental justice mapping in accordance with the action next slide please the action is the community equity and diversity profile uh this action is really really important for the township to do especially because we are working on our Master Plan update this year and in addition to taking a really deep dive and looking at how this community is is made up uh demographically uh it's also really important for us to recognize any of the barriers or obstacles that might be out there when it comes to communicating with our residents and so you'll see through this action uh those are all the things that we had to take in uh into consideration uh also there was um so far there's only been two townships that have taken on this endeavor so we're only the third to take this action on and also additionally we are uh also oh excuse me I lost my yeah so we are GNA next move on to the demographic information thank you thank you mayor and Township committee I'm sorry I'm so much taller than you I can't get this up higher I can't get it up higher so I'm bending over I'm sorry I'm sorry I got to bend over okay um so I no we're um so some of the key demographics we're going to touch on are um languages spoken at home and race and countries of origin um so for languages spoken at home we have primarily English speaking and then we have Indo-European which is Polish German Greek Italian um and then Asian and Pacific Islander so Korean Japanese Hindi Chinese and then um Spanish at the end and then for race um primarily white so 65.7% and then 21.5% Asian so that also includes India Philippines um Hispanic 8.9% and then black would be 3.9% um and then the top three countries of or origin here are India China and the Philippines and as like a gauge we have about 21.1% of our population is foreign born um next slide um so a lot of this touched on what's called overburdened communities so overburdened communities are technically they're defined by the D and the state through a lot of regulations for things but um basically what we're thinking of is communities that are disproportionately affected by factors around them and um it's so they experience it comparatively on a higher scale rather than the communities around them so this could be um environmental health economic social um and it's not only the presence of negative but it's also the presence of or the lack of positive so there's negative things there and there's no POS positives um not to say that overburden communities are not thriving or anything but this is some of the things that are affecting them on the daily um overboarding communities are also they lack Green Space Transportation Recreation that kind of thing um so the two maps up at the front both of them were drafted up by our GIS specialist Joselyn Bellow in Planning and Zoning um and these are divided by census tract so on the left hand side you have the green map which is just overburden communities in general and then on the right you have the same sens census tracks but the purple you can see that that one is overburdened comparatively for socioeconomic factors so that one is 47% minority and 15% lwi income so that's just that one but then we also have spaces in the township that are primarily minority but they don't have low income so for instance on the left side of the map in the green and I think it's census track 53703 you have that of it it is overburdened but it's only yes thank you committee woman um it's only overburdened by minority status so not low income or anything like that um and also it touches on English proficiency so just like in the last slide with demographics language bases um these communities who are overburdened Tech like a lot of times don't speak English fluently or they don't speak it at home next slide please um some of the notable takeaways um uh we found while we were doing this presentation would be that a lot of times Communications tend to be given to a handful of very involved community members whether they're on a board of commission or say they work at the YMCA and they see a lot of people all day um and they're relied pretty heavily upon to disseminate information to their Community which isn't a bad thing because a lot of times some people in some communities don't want to reach out they don't want to look for help and a lot of times they're more comfortable with other people coming to them with the information rather than going and finding it themselves um community members over the age of 60 they prefer inperson interactions to receive information so um Flyers maybe their neighbors are speaking to them or the senior chapter groups that kind of thing um and then overall you know as with life in general taking a tailored approach to reaching these diverse groups will be a lot more successful than a one-sized fits-all not everybody is going to need a paper handout not everybody's going to be able to call over the phone and get the information so it's important to like have a lot of varied ways of communicating with our populations next slide please um so right now the township has a lot of great policies and programs in place um regarding Communications with vulnerable and marginalized populations so um most of the Flyers and physical information we hand out are available in both English and Spanish um our website is fantastic for audio and visual adjustments thank you Township Clerk um so it can get translated into 20 different languages you can increase the text size make it dyslexic friendly um there are screen readers so you have if you have any auditory or visual disabilities it's very easy to be able to function and find the information you need on the website um we also have a lot of great Outreach programs going on which would be specifically the Hispanic Outreach hilsboro Interfaith Community Network and the Mar's Wellness initiative um and just to touch on the Mar's Wellness initiative it's a great program that we have in place right now where um we're trying to get let me see what I wrote there it is Advanced Health wellness and especially in marginalized communities and a lot of lowcost and freeways so that's a really important part of our Township right now and it's a great way to get Communications out to marginalized people um and then this year um well last year into this year we were doing a local Health assessment which is basically surveying everybody in the town as many as possible we got over 400 responses which out of 43,000 people is really great um and so the responses in that indicated where people felt barriers in communication so either if it was language accessibility of the website if where they're getting their information um and people in those surveys identifi their barriers to that and we're going to be having what's called an action plan coming out in July and part of that is going to touch on Communications that are preferred by different groups next slide please um and just like I mentioned before the local Health assessment action plan is going to be done this year and that'll give a lot of great suggestions on updates Communications and Outreach we can do um as always it's important to engage and include a variety of population groups um by their preferred means of communication um and hoping that when you spread more information it'll get to more people and more people will want to be involved on boards commissions I think that's a huge thing is people being able to see themselves on boards and commissions and they'll be able to like interact better and get the information they need um it's a great thing I think that we already have in place is utilizing pre-existing groups to disseminate information so I know that for the health collaborative we are always spreading information and events and programs and things so that's a really great idea to continue that um some future ideas planning events specific to certain populations to increased engagements like dwali Festival I know we already do like Hanukkah and the monora lighting so that's great um and then uh potentially holding or taking part in Outreach events at location where they I put it in parenthesis are so these are places where people are already going to be already so you know on church or Sundays you go to church so to give information to people that are going to that church you would want to go to the church you don't necessarily want to have people have all their information here and they would have to come to us it's a lot better when we go to them and give the information in the format that they need so yes any questions thank you that's very good thank you no there's I there's a lot to there's a lot to absorb there so I think um could you just maybe answer for the group how many how many times is it every year do we do this every two years three years how does this work um so this is a sustainable Jersey action so we only have to do it now and then I think it expires in four years so we'd probably do the same thing again um I don't anticipate the demographics changing a lot cuz this is all from Census Data yeah um but you know probably give and take a little bit and obviously the action plan is going to address things so we'll look at this a lot differently once the action plan is done that's great thanks for all the action to it as well you know it's great thank you thank you thank you thank you everybody all right so now this concludes our proclamations of presentations congratulations to everybody who's still in the room and all the recipients thank you for joining us this evening we will take a brief pause and then we will commence the remainder of our business we'll take about 3 minute break than e e e e e e e e e e I think we're back huh are we back Sarah we we on we're live we're back we're live all right when I see the slide move I know they're watching here we go all right good stuff all right so now we have consent agenda items 1 through 7 may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items 1 through 7 so moved may I have a second okay comments from the deas comments from the floor Anthony miss Mr F sorry I was wasn't quick enough I apologize mayor uh just a few things uh first um on consideration uh number one I just wanted to uh congrat congratulate Michelle Dello uh being promoted to assistant supervisor as well as consideration number two uh for the hiring of Victoria massaga to the position of police operations assistant excited to have her on board as well uh with experience and uh those are the two really I wanted to uh to highlight uh today uh those two on the agenda so again went through the U employee uh training and the Hillsboro leadership training and uh we're happy to to have our internal folks move on with our training and with the experience here and keep them here in Hillsboro so proud of both of them thank you comments from the floor okay see none roll call please committee woman hand yes committee Lani yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor tielli yes mayor bring yes public hearings I see none we're going to go to introduction of new ordinances so the first ordinances 2024 d 06 an ordinance granting consent and permission to New Jersey American Water Company Inc to furnish Wastewater collection and conveyance service in a portion of the township of Hillsboro somerson County New Jersey further consideration and public hearing will be held on June 11th 2024 may I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2024 d06 motion to introduce may I have a second second roll call please committee woman hand yes committee man leani yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor Chelli yes mayor bring yes uh ordinance now uh 202 uh introduction of ordinance 20247 in ordinance amending chapter 188 land use and development Article 5 districts and standards section 18813 do7 mixed use inclusionary district-1 of the code of the township of Hillsboro somerson County New Jersey further consideration and public hearing will be held on June 11th 20124 May I have a motion to introduce ordinance 20247 so moved second second roll call please committee woman hand yes committee man Le Pon yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor Ry yes mayor BR yes 202 24-8 an ordinance amending uh attachment 8 development application guidelines and adding attachment 12- subdivision and or site plan green development checklist in chapter 188 land use and development of the code of Township of Hillsboro Somerset County New Jersey further consideration of public hearing to be held on June 11th 2024 may have a motion to introduce ordinance 20 24-8 motion second roll call please committee woman hand yes committee man Leon yes Comm woman Payne yes Deputy Mayor trelli yes mayor bring yes all right um ordinance uh 2014-09 in ordinance amending chapter 188 land use and development Article 1 titled purpose um definitions section 1883 words and terms define in article uh 4 design and perform standard section 18 88-68 off street parking and loading of the code of Township of Hillsboro seron County New Jersey to authorize and encourage electric vehicle supplys service equipment evse and make ready parking spaces further consideration and a public hearing to be held on June 11th 2024 may I have a motion to introduce ordinance 20249 so moved may I have a second second roll call please committee woman hand yes committee man leani yep committee woman Payne yes Deputy Mayor CH Ry yes mayor yes all right we're going to move to the budget now 202 24-10 ordinance to exceed the 2024 Municipal budget appro appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank further consideration and public hearing will be held on June 11 2024 may I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2024 d10 so moved have a second second roll call please committee woman hand no on this one okay uh committee man leani yep committee women pay yes Deputy Mayor tarelli yes mayor bring yes okay now um resolutions resolution authorizing the introduction of the 2024 Municipal budget and setting the public hearing for June 11th 2024 um and then uh number two that is resolution authorizing self-examination of the 2024 Municipal budget may I have a motion to approve bu resolutions one and two two and we did one already excuse me uh so two then yes written here excuse me they they're numbered sorry incorrectly on the main agenda but the two the two budget resolutions correct so moved second comments from the deis I plan to vote against this I will say I received this on Friday I did not have enough time to dig into this that being said um just from a high level perspective the fact that the um Surplus is going down the debt Services going up and not enough time with the budget um I plan to spend more time working with the not only the financal Liaisons but our CFO to understand more of why we've made some of these decisions um and then I would feel more comfortable but at this point um I will be voting no so okay any other comments comments from the floor I just a v yeah roll call please committee woman hand no for the reasons I've stated committee man leani yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor tarelli yes mayor B yes claims list may I have a motion to approve claims list 202 24-7 moved or you me me to it doesn't matter second it comments from the deas comments from the floor roll call please committee woman hand yes committee leani yep committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor Chelli yes mayor Bing yes new business I see none uh now uh public comments for matters not on the agenda Miss break please read the statement regarding public comment the township committee welcomes input from the public please state your name and address and please spell your name for the record you will be given one three minute allotment for your comments please understand that this public forum is not structured as a question and answer session commment are to be directed to the mayor again please keep your comments to three minutes thank you first come on up Susan Gord Hunt Club Road is that on uh oh one comment um on the adopter road cleanup where you were recognizing neighborhood groups I would like to recognize George Meyer he's the man with the white van yes yes that goes from Road I he doesn't just cover a development he covers like at least the east side of the township um the Fox Chase Pond uh a question was brought to me about one and a half to two years ago we got a grant for work there um some surveying work was done a few months ago this week when they mowed the grass they mowed down all the survey markers so I'm not sure what's going on over there but maybe at some point we can get an update on that yep okay um and the Oprah resolution that was ped I understand that bill is now on the governor's desk um I'm hoping pulled from the agenda not pulled from Trenton right that um we now consider studying the actual time and cost to Hillsboro Township before encouraging or discouraging the governor's signature or suggesting changes to the bill that might be [Music] implemented the other one is equity and sustainability and diversity I want to put a plugin for the ukrainians since that was my first experience when I met my husband's family in Hillsboro and they spoke Ukrainian and like most moms the first thing she taught me was sit eat so one for the family thank you very nice thank you any other comments public comments okay seeing none we're going to move into executive session miss break anything else there we a Section 8 of the open public meetings act permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances as and whereas the township committee is of the opinion that such circumstances exist now therefore be resolved by the township Committee of the township of Hillsburg County of Somerset state of New Jersey as follows one the public shall be excluded from discussion of the here and after specified subject subject matters two the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is as follows litigation Hillsboro properties and Warehouse ordinance pending litigation Hillsboro RB Lin Homestead Road Valley Industrial Partners three the township committee may take official action on those items discussed in the executive session upon completion of the executive session for the minutes of the discussion shall be made available to the public as soon as the matters under discussion are no longer of a confidential or sensitive nature five this resolution shall take effect immediately okay we're going to go into executive session um oh excuse me um uh I may have a motion to enter executive session it's all moved second second comments from the deis from the floor roll call committee one hand yes committee leani yes committee woman pay yes Deputy Mayor chick RI yes mayor yes we are an executive session come we had e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e