e e e e e e e e e e e all on good evening everyone uh I'd like to open up the meeting at 7:35 sorry for the delay uh would everybody please rise and join me in a pledge of allegiance IED aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Megan please kindly take roll in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included in the meeting that was electronically sent to the echo set all and posted on the tamire website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www.long Hill nj.gov a public comment period will be held in the order is listed on the meeting agenda committee dorsy here committee man ray is absent committee man valza present deputy mayor lavender here mayor Pia present so uh we're going to start off with a presentation from uh public safety director Mike peoples he's going to give the township an update on uh the accreditation process for those who remember at the state of the municipality of long Gill Township in January uh this committee um committed whoever was coming in uh to work on the accreditation process as uh soon as practicable and so I think now Mike if I can call you up or I should say I apologize Director people if I can call you up and uh give a presentation or an update thank you mayor could be good to be uh before this governing body uh once again um as you may know the New Jersey State Chiefs Association um uh came to our Police Headquarters uh on May 30th to uh what we call uh an onsite uh inspection uh prior to uh arriving at Police Headquarters they examined all our policies and uh procedures uh to determine compliance with over 120 State accreditation law enforcement standards uh as you may know uh long tacha police department has had a long history of being accredited all the way back from to 1985 where we were the first accredited uh police department uh and that was through the Kalia program first accredited in the state of newers in the state of New Jersey uh a designation uh we held uh up until 2013 at the time the police department transitioned to the um to the state program uh the Kalia program the national program at that time um was was extreme was a bit burdensome for a smaller Police Department like ours the the Chiefs Association New Jersey Chiefs Association program uh was a better fit uh a at that time so the police department transitioned to that uh that program uh the police department held that designation up until uh June of uh 2022 so one of the first uh challenges that this governing body gave me when you hired me is to um obtain our accreditation uh certification again uh myself along with uh executive assistant Shan Brown Sergeant Sagi um all the members of the police department had some role in the on onsite uh um when the assessors uh come to Police Headquarters uh they now want to see if we are actually doing what we're saying in our policy so if we have to generate a a form um as a result of an arrest uh um generate some type of proof uh that we're checking our Patrol vehicle before we go out on patrol and after we uh uh complete uh Patrol uh that process of proving your compliance with the accreditation standards um is really the focus of the onsite uh again there's a about 120 standards they have multiple bullets in each of the standards um so it's it's uh quite um uh involved in uh uh generating those proofs of compliance for the uh the team of assessors so I'm pleased to report that we had no issues uh the final decision on accreditation rests with the uh Chief's Association uh commission we actually go before that Commission uh tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. not an anticipating uh you know any issues uh hopefully it's more of a a formality at this point but just you know publicly I want to thank the this you know the support of the governing body as well as the support of the officers um you know of the police department because it is an accomplishment um and it follows the long tradition of this Police Department of leading the way when it comes to best practices in in in law enforcement so so beyond this are we going to pursue Kalia accreditation as well uh that is my intent um I've already uh reached out to Kalia and secured the uh standards um fortunately a majority of the standards that we comply with in the New Jersey program um they're also included in the Kalia program uh but there are some some additional standards we'll need to um uh uh comply with um one actually I I sent a draft uh policy last week we have a number of service members uh um in our department one of the Kalia standards is that we have a comprehensive military uh leave policy incorporating federal state law um how we handle when the officer uh returns from uh you know deployment in terms of training and integrating the officer back into the police department so that's a small example of an additional policy that we would have to comply with uh for Kalia accreditation and and then what are the the benefits to the Department of the kala um accreditation are there benefits in terms of federal funding or anything like that since it's a nationwide accreditation there are for uh federal grants the um there was an executive order uh um that was issued by um the federal government that not necessarily that you would had to be Kalia accredited but you had to um demonstrate um compliance with some of the federal standards to be eligible for the federal federal grants so this would assure us becoming a cleia accredited that we're following those uh those Federal standards um so in the event that we wanted to potentially apply for a Federal Grant and that was a requirement of the Federal grant uh we would be in compliance yeah this is terrific and I know this was your main um your main task coming on board was to regain the accreditation that we lost so let's assume that we get this done and it sounds like we will uh Kalia will probably be an activity that goes on I would say through the end of the summer I'm just guessing it's going to be a little more involved than uh the the Chiefs assoc the New Jersey chief Association we had the foundation of our policies and procedures within the Departments I I equated it to you know we had all the pieces to the puzzle we just had to bring the P the puzzle together since since the department hasn't been CLE accredited in over you know 10 years the what we call the self assessment period is going to take a little longer than it did with the Chiefs Association but this was a this was a phenomenal first uh you know uh step there's probably close to 300 police departments in the state of New Jersey that have the chiefs assoc New Jersey Chiefs Association accreditation there's only a handful probably less than five that have the K accreditation and um I I I certainly think that that's that's a a short to median medium term goal for me right and I think the thing that that you know people don't understand um or or maybe it's a subtle point this is not a report that gets filled out and thrown in a drawer uh this is the creation of an ongoing process process because every single day the department is maintaining accreditation by keeping the evidence that they're operating according to the policy so you know this is a major change in culture um and and process which is like thank you I have a couple it did how long did it take to get to this point like weeks when did you start director that's what I was going to ask question Sean and I started on March 15th our our positions and we started accreditation on March now Alex say to the officer in charge had this started started it you guys got there right uh she she was in the right in the process of you know up updating all the you know the policies so and they needed to be updated because they weren't updated for at least three years correct um in various stages they were I think you know I think Sean and I you know were a fce a force multiplier to uh Lieutenant you know Cham chambrell she had a lot on her you know she had heavy work load there before Sean and I uh you know arrived I'm just saying it's fair to say that they were way behind where they should have been and has to do with Lieutenant shamb brolo that's correct well the okay next question you didn't ask for any extension did you did I from from K not from Clear from uh the state there was no extension needed was there no you didn't need any help from the Rogers group or any Outside Agency to come in and two you and hold your hand did you well the the um the township had contracted with the lexo which is forly the Rogers Group um to provide those policy updates so those policies were being um they were being updated um I had to go I had to go back and we had to go back and we had to do a little more updating so um there was assistance there uh you know by uh you know Alexa Paul yes and my final question is the people that were working on inside the apartment were the same people that were there three years ago trying to get this process moving forward correct except for Sean and I correct thank you no further question so so now now that we have this um and again you know this this was always the number one priority coming in what's the next big thing you're working on I think I know but tell us well as outlined in uh Chief Alano's um report um any you know you as the committee long-term residents of this community um you know where our Police Headquarters is located is just um it's in a it's in a flood zone it's just not conducive for the police department to be dealing with multiple emergencies in the community during a flood a flooding event and then at the same time having to deal with our building being you know 2 to three feet you know underwater and uh this has been a long identified Pro problem um it seems like over the last decade the flooding has events have been increasing um when was the last one you know 2021 I believe um so I'd really like to start you know beginning the be beginning to take a look at our options there for you know Police Headquarters I think it's I think it's time I think Chief F Reno has made that recommendation and uh I think that's a longstanding you know issue we need to address and and currently you're looking at I would assume um what the capacity of the facility would look like I mean coming out of accreditation and getting all the processes and everything done um parking equipment communication all that stuff because we have to identify a property and and it it's obviously has to fit the requirements of what this the PD needs yeah that's correct um but I do think the piece of property is going to obviously design Drive the ultimate square footage and obviously you know the design if it's a smaller footprint you know are we going up you know a story It's a larger piece of property you know a a single um floor you know building you know uh you know my background in County with Morris County when we built a public safety complex is we identified the property first and that gave us an idea of what we had to you know to work with because you tend when you design these buildings you start here but where do you end up here for for various reasons it could be um the property uh restrictions you know you know cost you know Etc so I think that's really the the first step that I would like to see us take okay and Joe Vu is engaged he will yeah okay Joe Vu our engineer okay yeah okay yeah director and I have been talking of us getting a subcommittee together um and and drafting a RFQ for architectural study um so these are these are the beginning steps of where we need to go and obviously U we'll evaluate uh properties that the township currently owns um and evaluate vacant properties throughout the town also yeah and I know we'll get to it later this is something also that is in our long-term um capital u budget plan um great and we and we will pursue grants there are grants out there for police stations we did apply for one unfortunately we didn't get that one but there are others yeah I think we could potentially take some uh look hopefully at some federal uh grants uh that are focused on you know mitigation of uh you know public facilities um I think he might be a good fit given our um you know propensity to flood all the time okay all right well great do you have any questions nope comments so please thank you thank you and please thank everybody uh all the offic yes sir again you know all the officers you know had a had a hand in this we may have needed a proof from our Evidence Officer Sergeant Thompson and we had to you know to go to him we may need some assistance from our detective Bureau detective REI detective nney on producing proov for you know criminal investigations and you know certainly want to thank liutenant chambrell who T mareski and uh you know everybody in the department it was a you know team effort we just had to bring all the pieces to the puzzle uh together well let's just do the timeline you've been here less than three months and here we are thank you for the opportunity and support thank you thank you sir if I could uh next on the agenda uh the Long Hill Township Ka board of education has kindly come here this evening I think they're going to give a presentation uh if I could miss Robin and I apologize bmer or bamer bmer bmer and business administrator George Alexis school superintendent sorry okay good evening good evening and thank you for inviting us here we're uh happy to be here and we also just going to take this we're pleased to share the budget with you and with the wider community Through the broadcast um we're pleased with the way the budget came together this year the process starts probably as early as September or October and continues throughout the year um until we have it approved in uh early May uh our budget for next year is and this is what we're proud of it's student centered it's strategically aligned and it's fiscally responsible now before Robin Bomer steps forward and shares the presentation and gives you some of the numbers and details I just want to emphasize a few highlights uh first the budget is aligned with our district and board goals and with our District's strategic plan we've prioritized the instructional needs of our students and the professional development of our staff we have added a steam teacher at the middle school for next year a full-time teacher and this is the first time that we've had a full-time steam teacher in the past there was a part-time uh teacher there at the middle school so we're excited about that and we've also made a significant investment in instructional resources we had introduced uh an instructional platform called I ready uh earlier this year and we were able to work it into the budget for next year and we're pleased with that to continue we also have a instructional consultant to help us with the multi-tier systems of support initiative and intervention process uh likewise the budget includes a significant investment in technology uh this year we were able to uh take some of the existing funds and bring our second grade second graders um into the one toone program where they previously we're not so right now we have full implementation of the on toone device with grades 2 through eight and for next year's budget and the the one the year after we have our uh site set on our youngest Learners our kindergarten and first graders and we are purchasing we have a plan to purchase iPads over the next two years so that we have full implementation for the entire District which is important with the instructional I ready platform that I I mentioned uh we also found a way and I was pleased about this to continue our summer Institute this was a program that started it's designed as an intervention program to help students who uh may need additional Support over the summer and it was started when the ARP Esser funds came out when those expired and we had spent all of them uh we were concerned we wouldn't be able to run it but we found a way to continue that and that's starting in a couple of weeks uh also in the budget and we're excited about this too we have funds reserved to transform the Millington media center and also an outdated technology room at the Middle School uh into flexible learning spaces that are going to support inquiry based learning collaboration and creative problem solving and we have a new website that's in our budget to uh enhance our Communications to enhance our digital footprint in the community and Beyond uh and that will be rolled out uh later this summer we've pursued shared services opportunities uh we have an esy and extended school year program over the summer that begins in about two weeks uh and we're doing that in collaboration with Watchung so they'll be sharing in some of the expenses and costs uh we'll be hosting it here uh but their students will be joining in the program along with ours uh and we also are pursuing a shared service with Hudson Way immersion school um which we are looking forward to uh another way that we've uh tried to maximize our uh budget dollars is through uh accepting tuition paying students so we have a new uh special education class at Gillette school selfcontained class and we had additional spaces so we sought out tuition paying students and we were pleased when Somerset Hill sent us a student uh earlier this year and that student will be continuing next year and now we're anticipating the enrollment of another student from suers SI Hills so we're excited about that uh cost savings and being able to proide provide that kind of service to our neighboring districts um it it's been a complete team effort and we have some board members here this evening we have some of our staff here um and I want to thank and recognize the board its finance committee for their hard work on this certainly Mrs Bower and the business office and Technology staff uh and our entire administrative leadership team for for all their efforts and for creating a a budget that's designed to advance student learning and with that I'll turn this over to to Robin thank you thank you very much and thank you for inviting me I appreciate it that I'd like to to present the final school budget to you um the budget was presented at our March meeting that that was the tentative budget for the board approval and then submitted to Morris County Superintendent for her approval it was advertised to the public on a April 25th and it was adopted by our board on May 6th that I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our LGH Hill board members and all those who sit on our finance committee as they are an integral part of our budget process every school district's budget is a thoughtful plan of that community's value values and priorities budget planning starts for us in early November with the need to project what's going to occur as of June 30th 2025 we used our very best efforts to anticipate at that point in time where the district will finish in 20 months this year we held budget meetings with our admin team and supplied them with budget worksheets and historical budget data from which they provided us with their proposed budgets in January additional information is then added and refined by myself Mr Alexis and our finance committee in addition outside sources such as our Insurance Advisors our Auditors State sources and Consultants are consulted in order to arrive at the budget that we're going to view tonight hey hey Megan I'm sorry if I could interrupt you um since we're looking at slides maybe we do want to get rid of that yeah there you go thank you okay good yeah okay this slide shows the audited budgeted per pupil amounts of neighboring districts as well as those in Morris County that have 751 or more enrollment Long Hill is nicely positioned within the grouping neither over or under spending districts of similar size within our area how how do you calculate that number that that is not a calculated number by me it comes off the new jersey.gov site um it's the taxpayers GU to educational spending okay so they calculate they calculate it and you know the formula for it uh it's involved okay that but like there's a whole bunch of calculations if you go to the um the NJ dooe website on the right hand side you'll find a whole bunch of um uh ways that they calculate per pupil spending but this is place there we're kind of like we're right in the middle midd lower on the lower end of the mid yeah that's nice yeah not overspending not under spending that I think I think we're very good can I ask a question sure so you said there's a formula involved the simplistic way to look at it would be the total operating budget divided by the total number of students and that's clearly not what's happening there no you have go to the website and take a good look and they'll show you everything that is calculated in that to come up with those figures thank you the total school budget for 2425 is 22 m938 N9 which includes three capital projects with Mr leus has discussed and which I'll discuss a little later this slide details a I'm sorry provides a detailed representation of costs as they are submitted to the New Jersey Department of Education in the budget Software System I'd like to highlight a few of the categories the first one that you see uh is for our general programs which the state calls regular programs instruction it includes regular education teachers in kindergarten through 8th grade substitutes class coverage costs regular Ed home instruction instructional staff travel instructional supplies textbook and it also includes curricular items for uh the K to5 programs the special education instruction section includes salaries for teachers in learning language disabled behavioral disabilities resource room and preschool it also includes things like special ed home instruction and related supplies if you skip down a few that outof District tuition includes public and private special education out of District tuition and this is offset by idea funding this year's out of District tuition is presently calculated $1,730 from which we are required to subtract the anticipated idea funds of 191,000 what is idea um give me a hint special education law what does it stand for though again um individual yeah with disabilities and education okay yeah yeah I got you and your your your your salaries for teachers is that's in regular programs yes regular programs and special ed programs depending on what they're teaching yeah if you skip to the second column Midway down transportation services that includes our our busing but it also includes routing software Aid and loop payments uh regular education transportation is is approximately I thing what it I'm sorry I don't I forgot the number in here and it also includes special education Transportation so transportation is all of our transportation that and then we have the employee benefits right under that that includes uh pension uh Social Security Medicare that group life insurance our health care uh tuition reimbursements and cash incentives for medical waivers thank you ask Qui question transportation services you said it include special uh needs Transportation yes how much of the 1.2 million is is special ed Transportation yes I'm sorry I don't have the breakdown here for that but I can get that for you that would be great Y and then employee benefits I remember a few years ago um the then superintendent reported that the Family Health Plan was about $42,000 a year this year it's about 47 blood he yeah 47 um if they're in the uh NJ and I'm sorry in the um Horizon 1525 plan and about 45 if they're in the Educator's Health Plan is there an option of the new teacher starts they have to be they have to be in the Educator's plan if it's a brand new teacher to our district they go into Educators plan we do have about 40 teachers who were still in the old plan and to and to be fair I mean from back then to today uh there's a significant contribution that comes from the employee based on salary uh it's based on it's it's right it's based on salary in the Educators plan um our contract also has it that if they're in the 1825 plan it's supposed to be chapter 78 which is a percentage of Premium but our teachers contract um defines that also it is that can be no more than 5% of their single salary 6.5% of their parent child salary or 9.5% of family coverage salary okay so it is different than what the state employee pays the state it is it is a contra yes it is it is something that they negotiated into the contract say 45 or whatever it is th000 if you work for the state of New Jersey and you're above $100,000 you pay a third of that you pay 15 yeah thank you okay uh the last one I want to look at is the final one the debt repayment so the district issued Bonds in 2012 and 2014 the 2012 Bonds were retired retired in 2024 the 2014 Bonds were refunded through the issuance of 2021 refunding bonds and these bonds are repaid with uh payments of principal and interest every year in July and January how long do you think it'll be do that's gets paid off a 2029 okay thank you okay so the next uh graph the pie chart shows expenditures as a visual representation of the budget expenditures and you'll note that 88% of the district's expenditures are allocated to fixed and contractual cost costs encompassing salaries benefits maintenance and operations Transportation special education tuition and Debt Service I'm sorry so the the blue wedge is what Sal so the big blue wedge is salaries right okay the um the light blue is special ed yep the Orange is benefits Mak sense and then the gray is um maintenance and Ops okay I'm I'm seeing it now I'm a little right so what it really comes down to that we only have 12% that is that is variable that we can spend everything else is is already pretty much part of the budget not a lot we can do about it and what makes up that 12% that the 12% then is um your classroom supplies your textbooks all those those variable things um we listed other expenses and what else that it's little sections in here some Capital outlay seven yep all right makes sense okay thank you so in the budgeting process once expenditures are determined it is time to turn to revenues or how are we going to fund those expenditures in every budget we make sure that revenues match expenditures can you go back once sline I'm sorry y got it okay when when do you know what the state aid is uh the state a is announced in February and with the governor's address it's a little different on the municipal side for anybody who's going to ask why is the municipal budget not pass because we're dependent on the state budget that yeah we all hold our breaths that we get the budget as close as we can and we hold our breath in February to see where where it comes that so let's look at our revenues in the F following chart the sources of revenue in any District are limited the local tax levy is the primary source of funding in Long Hill representing 81% of the operating budget that this is the amount in dark blue this does not include capital projects this year state aid represented by the light blue comprises 6.2% of the district's revenues following the governor's address in February we were awarded in an additional $155,000 in state aid over last year the next highest source of Revenue is the use of our own fund balance which is 3363600214 [Music] while we always hope to finish a year with excess Surplus it is not reasonable to believe we can generate this amount of money each year and therefore we don't want to become reliant on fund balance for the payment of salaries or benefits as it's not likely to be sustainable in the long term and where is fund balance on this uh fund balance is uh the do you see the little purple little tiny one like two from the bottom yeah the light pink yeah mhm how how much is in the Surplus uh Surplus isn't here fund balance is here fund balance is 336,000 so at the end of the year when we have Surplus we're able to put some into capital reserve some into maintenance reserve and then we designate some to go back into a budget to get returned to the taxpayer is it a target for how much is considered like say you have a 202 million budget or whatever it was 23 I guess um is there a minimum that is cons like your auditor does he sit with you or she and say this is the number you should Target um yes the Auditors are great we have the Auditors work with us 100% on that they they come up with what the actual excess balance is and then we look at it and say how much do we need in cap Reserve I'm trying to keep a certain amount every year so that we can always do projects and keep our buildings up to date there's a certain amount I want for maintenance Reserve right and that I am limited on it can only be a certain per of my comprehensive maintenance plan that so I'm limited on that and the rest would go into fund balance I am trying to keep fund balance right around 300,000 that's a sustainable number for us when you get much higher than that I you don't know that you can sustain it that that every budget is going to come up with that much in excess balance um if I get below that that means that I have to that find some way to come up with that money that means we have to cut something right find some program or or a salary or something that we're we're going to cut 300,000 out so that you don't want to do either so the 300,000 Mark is a really nice Mark for Long Hill makes sense what but what's your fiscal year by the way you're not calendar year right no no no July 1st to June 30th got it all right oh I'm sorry you know what I didn't tell you about the other ones we got on fund balance and I let's go back as slide okay so another source of Revenue is anticipated federal aid of 272,000 which includes our title money and our Ida money the Ida is what we spoke of before that uh the federal initiatives help us improve basic programs such as uh development of teachers and principles it supports multilanguage Learners and it provides funding for special education tuition and services that the combined tuition transportation fees rentals and miscellaneous income line is 495,000 and it includes things like pre- School tuition facilities rental subscription busing fees anticipated Insurance dividends and interest earned at the bank this year and most years we do not budget extraordinary Aid that extraordinary Aid is not budgeted because it's not guaranteed that's just something that we get can I ask a question about subscription plus service what percentage of the students what you're roughly 8850 I forget what it is now uh how many students we have 855 855 what percentage take the bus and what percentage of those or what number I can do that our subscription correct um I can't tell you how much I can tell you I budgeted about 50,000 for subscription busing at 900 a family that um one of the things with subscription busing is that our free and reduced lunch population which is increasing gets free subscription busing that so I brought the number down this year from last year because that number has gone up so seats are going to be taken by some of these children who who don't have the resources I I know there was that little period of time where folks took to social media complaining about the transportation bus has it gotten better I don't yes yes it is significantly better um the bus drivers seem to have Blended in and become part of our community we had families calling a Christmas to find out the name of the bus driver they want to get them a little gift that part is all good um there's always things that you can work on we actually have a meeting with the busing company next week um there you know there there's always something um and and we're working on it hopefully it's getting better they promised us for next year we have the same busing company that next year they were going to try to hold the same bus drivers so part of the problem in the beginning was it was a brand new company um coming out to little tiny lill and I S most of the bus drivers didn't even know where Morris County was much less long haill and it took them just a while to figure out where they were where the streets were and when when a road is flooded how do you get around it to get the kids you know to the other side I mean sometimes they just got lost to be fair I haven't seen any noise on Facebook in quite some time so I assume it was a good answer yeah well we're we're trying we're trying the the problem that we have right now is Subs when they when a driver calls out and again then they send us a sub who we trying to help him find Morris County much lless longale it just takes a while little see your story oakl the new Brewery it's been there for some time now they they were selling hats for a brief period And it says oakl obviously but it also on the front says I know where Long Hill is there you go so uh you know what I may go over there and grab I'm going to grab some from our drivers should buy some hats and give it to the yeah absolutely okay so on this Slide the district will be funding three capital projects the funds for which will be taken out of our capital reserve and has no impact at all on our tax levy the capital reserve account is where money is set aside specifically to support the district's long range facility plan the three projects that we're going to be doing this summer are the replacement of the Gillette school fire alarm system that transforming the instructional space at Millington library and the renovation of a room at Central Middle School uh into a versatile multi-use space catering to the diverse needs of our students and facil facil facilitating a variety of educational activities and events again it's going to be a million dollars in projects no impact on tax levy and that's because of our excess fund balance that we're able to put aside so where does that put us financially the district is not us utilizing any adjustments or waivers in this budget and the district has $17,000 in banked cap from prior years that we're not utilizing which means that we could have gone over the 2% in tax and we chose not to the 2% tax levy increase over the 2324 budget is approximately $362,000 so how do we calculate a tax levy the tax levy is derived by dividing the total tax levy of 9,312 573 by the assessed valuations which are provided by LGH Hill Township this amount is then multiplied by the average assessed home value that is also provided by the township for the average home having an assessed value of 59635 this will equate to an additional $220 12 per year it's important to not that the average assessed valuation of a home in Long Hill increased from the 2324 school year the total tax levy increase as we said was $362,000 over the prior year for the average home having an assessed value of $596,500 is based on a we'll say $600,000 assess value mhm got you it's clear thank you yes okay I love this slide that this graph presents a historical look at the tax levy over the past 15 years you'll notice that the last four years the tax Le Levy has consistently been at a 2% rate and again it's at a 2% rate that makes it very nice the green bar there is on my goal that we are going to keep the tax levy always within that bar so that we're not so that we're being fiscally responsible to our community that and yet still providing everything that the school needs um and supporting our students yeah couldn't agree with you more um because we're following the same uh the same principle yeah I think it's just a great a great model because you never want to be in a position where you have to catch up later because then you have that that big jump that right well that's that's what you see you see on the lower ones and then look what happened we don't want to do that no it's terrific thank you and thank you for your cons continued support of our education of our children any questions I just have a couple sure um what was the program Mr Alex said about the creek emerging School you guys doing with them the Hudson emersion school oh we we've been in talks with them because they want to um increase the number of older students in their program so they are hopeful that they can send us some some sixth grade students that we can uh provide science instruction for and then they in turn would provide us with some cost savings and also provide us with an opportunity to have some Mandarin Chinese uh instruction for our students who are interested all right this is probably question for you the the prek program I know a lot of young families have been talking about the pre prek program are you trying to expand that or I know you have an issue with space correct we we do have uh an issue with space and there was a committee formed uh prior to my arriving here and they determined that there really was not enough space um we are exploring other possible opportunities of expanding preschool uh but right now we are limited by the space Factor but that that exploration continues to to go forward I'd imagine that program's capped almost immediately correct it it fills up very quickly yeah yeah and then my last question is this could be for both of you is it more cost effective to send kids out of District or to hire somebody just to to help with that specific student sometimes the the transportation to get a kid from here to wherever they're going might be more expensive than even hiring a an employee the the transportation is a small part of it the what's the real cost is the amount of tuition for some of these out of District placements uh but philosophically it's always better to keep as many students in in your District in the home district and in the least restrictive environment it's not always possible but I will say that over the course of the last several years and we continue to move in this direction the number of out of District placements continues to decrease um to a number that that's more consistent with you know for a district this size thank you sir so we continue to work on that thank you both of you you good no so if I could I want to thank business administrator bmer and uh superintendent Alexis we've and a number of members of the school board we've looked for to this for a number of years uh and we really appreciate you coming in I think it's uh we appreciate it thank you well thank you very much I'm glad we could come yeah I would just I would just add to that um we're going to be doing our budget presentation after a couple bits of business please stick around for that I'm really pleased to see got an early day our numbers line up pretty well I'd say the one difference will be since you're on a fiscal year uh the slice of the pie for the the overall Levy is is going to be a little bit different because we're doing it from January 1st to December 31st but philosophically I can tell we're aligned with the same way of thinking I really like that green bar because that's that's the principle that we're following as well fabulous yeah so thank you very much I know the residents appreciate this thank you for coming yes it was ni okay I'm just getting this sorry thank you don't for I mean I know uh Deputy Mayor lavend that put you on the spot there if you if you need to leave please feel free okay so page two we're on to ordinance right no no we are these are all ordinance first reading 54124 uh model ordinance to exceed Municipal Appropriations limit and to establish a cap Bank uh this is always a fun one every year it sounds more complicated than it really is so I'll turn it over well I think I should turn it over to you no Randy yeah that's fine um so what this ordinance does is uh allows us to go to a 32% appropriation cap um the current allowable cap by the division local government Services 1% so this will give us an additional 2 1/2% um not that uh we intend to use the 2 1/2% um we you'll see in the budget uh projections we have used some of uh previous uh Bank numbers to come in line with the budget requirements um however this is just a a safety mechanism for future if uh something um were to come about disastrous before the budget adopted and we need to increase our Appropriations uh this is where this would come into uh come into play yeah and and can I you correct me if I'm wrong but it's a rolling threee I think and so it whatever was four years ago rolls off uh and and the 15 years I've been fortunate enough to be up here um the township committee has never used the cap Bank yeah the this cap bank is a two-year uh Revenue the tax cap bank got a rolling threee okay thank you um any questions from the township committee this is only first reading no questions uh Megan can you take motions Oh I thought I had new Authority tonight no can I have a motion to pass ordinance yes committeeman lavender I'm sorry committeeman verza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes carried uh second reading will be July 17 2024 next ordinance ordinance 54224 first reading introduction salaries and wages ordinance I don't know if you wanted to add any color probably made a few adjustments um yeah this ordinance is only uh making one adjustment it's adding the title police police officer trainee at a salary of 35,000 to 42,000 um this would allow the police department to open um interviews for candidates who are not uh certified through one of the um many um police emies in the state of New Jersey so it would allow us to hire somebody at a at a lower rate and send them to the academy at the town's expense hence the lower rate so this is allowing this is setting up for for that possibility uh if we should need it and and Randy I know we had a conversation U uh previously this is something that's I think becoming relatively common throughout the state as the need for law enforcement officers yeah I'm going to I'm going to um age myself here this was the common practice when I started actually because uh they didn't have the uh um training program that individuals could could go to so so uh this this is uh if if you're talking to older Finance officers this is the norm uh then they came with the the U program where you can send yourself to the academy and pay for it yourself and get a degree if you will through the academy and become a certified U licens officer well this year license officer and um then the towns would grab you out of the cies because now we save 6 months we don't have to pay for the academy and this was working out very very well and until uh these last couple recent years um you may have heard uh there was a lot of shortages of of certified uh police officers and um now uh towns are starting to look at these options to get a wide variety of candidates uh that can potentially be great candidates and then send them to the academy and then go from there that's great Randy I appreciate it any questions for Randy for director peoples he's here uh but I don't you know just Vic you good good all right I'm looking for a motion to approve ordinance 542 d2424 first reading so moved second committeeman dorsy yes committeeman verza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes also carried or I should say second reading will be July 17th uh ordinance 5432 for first reading again establishing establishing a construction records clearance certificate and supplementing and amending chapter 29 of the Township Code entitled uniform construction code and construction requirements Jack you want to take this one sure mayor this ordinance requires anyone selling his or her house to get a clearance certificate from the Construction office and the purpose is to make sure that all construction permits have been closed out and that final inspections have been conducted I I must say I'm a little surp surprised that didn't already exist I agree it came up once before and the T committee decided not to do it h it actually is helpful to the resident the property owner absolutely and the buyer yeah and I'd like to I'd like to make a shout out to Denise Murphy um who kind of brought this forward to Jack and I ah okay that was okay now I'm yeah all the reals are happy about it yeah yeah yeah because nobody I mean we we hear all the time from somebody who either bought a house and somehow it slipped through the cracks and they have open permits that they had nothing to do with we hear from residents who all of a sudden are told they have an open permit and they they are pretty certain they have in fact closed them so this will keep everything up to date absolutely Vic no like it any other all right I'm getting uh what is that what does that mean means carry on my friend carry on all right I'm uh looking for a motion to approve 542 what it was I said earlier so moved I'll second committee man dorsy yes committee man valza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Bia yes now ordinance 544 d24 an ordinance concerning Police Department discipline procedures and amending chapter 2 of the Township Code entitled Administration that sounds for boing but uh and I'm going to steal a little Jack Thunder this simply is removing duplicative language uh that that's already covered by the state statute I believe but I'll turn it over to you Jack that's one of the two purposes mayor and it was at the recommendation of director peoples and it's a good idea because if the state law gets amended and our ordinance doesn't then they inconsistent and the state law prevails anyway that the second purpose was and this is something we would have done in any event was to change the hearing officer uh and the person who chooses the hearing officer to the appropriate Authority Fair um and then it the appropriate Authority can retain the hearing officer uh the hearing officer then makes a recommendation which the appropriate Authority will send along with his recommendation to the chall committee for final action in the case of major discipline it really doesn't make any substantive changes it's more procedural thank you Jack any questions for Jack yeah I have a jack where it says obviously I guess used to be in our ordinance used to be the chief of police would do that yes so let's say for example we had a chief of police today would that make a difference or there still should be the appropriate Authority it still should be the appropriate Authority all right so it's nothing to do with the position it should always be the appropriate Authority that's correct okay that's all I wanted to know that good looking for a motion so moved second committee vend dorsy Yes committe Man verza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Bia yes and uh I know item number six is the budget presentation but what we're going to do is jump ahead to do the consent agenda for people that may have to leave uh before we start I'm going to pull 24175 uh for further discussion any other ordinance I should say uh resolution that needs to be pulled or any extensions hearing none up want to do this first acceptation well we're going to be quicking somebody so just in order probably want to do that first adop that one first so I have come well all right so if I can have uh OEM director Joe yubert come to the mic I don't think he knew I was going to ask him to come to the mic sorry if I could hello Joe yubert OEM director outgoing I say the jokes yeah Scott did you want to say I yield my time is that that what you're supposed to say you yield you yield your time that's that's what you should say no Joe on behalf of the committee um and I know when when when Mike peoples came on board you and I talked right away and I know this job has been a lot of work for you and um you know you've got a real life and a and a and a professional career and stuff like that and um you know so I know you want to get back to that and I was absolutely amazed at the amount of rigor and process you put into the OEM position um I'm I'm just dumbfounded that every time it rains Joe can tell within uh about a fifth of an inch where we are in terms of flooding and I am not exaggerating he has historical information he has a spreadsheet tool he knows by looking at the Millington river gauge um what our risk is and it has been just absolutely instrumental in getting the police department and the DPW aligned uh to go into emergency mode if we have to and Joe has been dead accurate every time and um I just think that's a phenomenal job and uh I know it was a lot of work for you uh and I've attended some of your meetings I think they're very thorough and everything um and I know you're pleased that now that's in Mike's hands and he can he can take that load off your back I really appreciate we appreciate the fact that you're going to stay on as a deputy uh OEM director but thank you so much you definitely raised the bar and wasn't his first day or first week with the major FL no no hold on a second I you know we have to reality here what you've done is invaluable is invaluable for the for the groups that uh Deputy Mayor lavend just said but also to our first aid Squad our our OEM our c um and our fire companies because that helps them prepare if they have to move Vehicles into certain sections of town so what you did blueprint you are providing for direct the uh peoples is phenomenal and no it was not a week Joe it was 24 hours that was actually short we flooded yeah the next day yes it was within 24 hours absolutely I have to take accountability for that but uh no um thank you for all the kind words and I do thank everybody up here I've worked with everyone in some capacity over the years and uh you'll be in good hands uh smoke to my peoples John Brown already so made some good progress uh and we have more to do in the transition but as you say I'll be you know coming on as a deputy or you know joining as a deputy back to the same team there so there should be a pretty seamless transition and uh that's that's all I have thank you everybody especially uh do want to call out a few people uh on the from the first responder Community uh Shane Daly first and foremost Linda Olstead for a little bit there was and Larry fast they were were very instrumental in my transition on and kind of maintaining continuity over uh over my tenure and they passed along to me a lot of good information and and good practice so that was very helpful and also of obviously all of our first responder department heads have every one of them has been great um Al Gallow Chief Naga when he was here Lieutenant jimo when she was officer in charge liutenant marcheski continues uh to always be uh valuable resource uh so all those uh and Bob English over at first aid Squad uh pretty much everybody in town that I've worked with has been great so uh keep up the good work from my standpoint and uh thank you than Joe and you're you're you're you're still in the role until middle of July right yes uh effective is to 15 July or something I think it's because I think you've got some reports with the state that you're going to mop up or something so but staying on as deputy director in a volunteer yep cool excellent thanks Joe fantastic thank you guys thank you Joe okay so we'll put it back in 24- 175 any other uh resolution that needs to be pulled I need to abstain from 164 164 okay Vick you good good Scott all good all right so looking for a motion 24- 24159 to 24-1 176 uh committed mend dors is abstaining from 164 uh um that's it looking for a motion so move committee man dorsy committee man vza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayia yes uh should we go right now back into the uh budget presentation yes we're going to do that uh last year I know we did it from out there but uh we're going to do it from from the deis this time right okay is that it sound okay do you want me to give a quick uh over overview and then we'll get into the granula stuff yeah um first Megan if you can share my screen and you can take that little there you go take that little box out I'm good like that or do I need to do that is the state awardwinning Photograph by Mr Ed zendell there we go beautiful all right so give a quick over go ahead all right and much like the school board just did and I do appreciate that chart uh that Scott complimented so much so I'll give you a high level overview before we get into the granular stuff 15 years or so ago we were just three years removed from what was uh 3 years earlier proposed 166% increase in the municipal budget in the 15 years much like was presented this evening in the last four years right and I you you ride at the ship in my opinion in the township committee we've averaged about 1.6% uh per year never exceeded the uh 2% uh budget nor have we ever used uh the um misleadingly titled cap Bank in addition 15 years ago we had 600,000 or so in Municipal Surplus today we have north of 3 million we also have 2 million plus in asset sale reserves so if you total them which I know you cannot but I can uh it's over $5 million so we are in a very good position we have no Municipal bonded debt you've corrected me in the past uh and uh that's the situation we are now in uh a lot of work was put in by this committee and the Committees that came before it uh and by Randy who has a CFO for many years and now our CFO and administrators worked very very hard on what we are about to present Scott do you go first or just Randy I I'll go first and you know Randy is the uh is the expert here being the CFO um so real quick um let me just kind of briefly talk about what we're going to talk about um we'll give a second or two to uh just how the budget process works with the timeline is we'll talk about our financial report card um then we'll get into the municipal Revenue plan and that in there we'll compare our 2024 to last year 2023 we'll explain some of our local Revenue news we'll talk about the uh the uh the overall tax levy for lill and split that down so you understand where your tax dollars are going as everybody should know the township Administration collects all the taxes for all the different services that we have not only Municipal but Long Hill schools Watchung Hill schools uh County open space and library but we'll talk about the tax sources what's going on within assessments what the new rates are and what our Appropriations and spending is going into next year budget allocations by category and Department how we're funding things and a little bit about our six-year Capital plan so um here here's the process very similar to last year I would say you know in the fall the Departments work on their budgets uh as we get into the winter months a preliminary budget is created by Randy working with the department heads in uh in the spring the committee get get involved reviewing and in discussions we eventually sign off directionally on where things go uh in June we're in June now we're doing the ordinance introduction and the Public Presentation and then once we uh vote on that for first reading we have to wait 30 days right Megan uh to adopt as a as as as as official let me just add one thing to that uh once every three years we have to get reviewed by the state of New Jersey uh and so what we do is when the budget's introduced we send all the paperwork down to them uh they have uh they have to review it hopefully before the our public hearing and adoption date um and then they give us the blessing to adopt this is our lucky year so we will be sting everything down as soon as uh this is introduced all the paperwork to them they'll review it they'll probably give us uh report of of you know things they want to see a little more about and then we'll comply and hopefully uh during that time is uh this is actually a little longer than a 30 days so uh we're going to give him a few extra days to uh get that approval done right and then one other thing that we should mention is every year our Auditors go through the books right when does that happen uh that has happened already and in fact uh the aror uh the the partner in charge of lill um has reviewed the budget and he and I uh talked about a couple things making uh making some minor adjustments uh that it didn't affect the taxes or anything else but uh there's a lot of paperwork that goes along with the budget for Le Levy cap um and other the some other caps uh so we we had to make a couple adjustments right and that and and this presentation will be on the website people wake up tomorrow and they can also go see the audit report as well right not yet not yet they they're finished with the audit we haven't uh accepted the audit okay as a as a but that will be publicly on the website absolutely okay all right so let's get into the good stuff the report card another good year so we're looking at three different um aspects of this um how we performed in 2023 where we're at in terms of financial reserves and where we're at in terms of debt so we budgeted um 16.6 uh Million last year um and that was an adjusted budget that occurred during the year so it doesn't quite match exactly um what was in our presentation last year we did collect 17.8 million and spent 15 uh 15.7 I'll say is what we spent with which left us with um uh 2.2 million um over what we um um you know spent versus collected and so Randy can you explain that 2.1 2.2 number yeah some of that will go directly into uh our fund balance also known as Surplus um and some of that will go into what's called The Reserve budget for uh the following year so 900 uh approximately 956 th000 will of that 2.1 will go into the reserve budget uh the other amount went into directly into Surplus right so that's like 1.9 in Surplus right correct and that 1.9 just to be clear 1.9 is in the 16 six budgeted and comes out the other end again along with um The the Reserve so we look at the financial reserves we're going to take a three-year view on this in 2022 we were at 2.9 Million um and that's guy that goes back to the Sewer sale that was the the the big win that we had there that's what fed that Surplus right not all of it not all of it but some of it most of it um last January 1st 2023 we saw that go up uh to 3.5 and this year we're at 32 37 which is a very comfortable place to be our our our goal is to keep that somewhere just north of three right uh I want to give some context there back to those 15 years ago we were we were struggling to keep it at $600 and $700,000 the auditor at the time said I'm not all that comfortable with you at this level uh at this level I think he thinks it's uh uh outstanding right and it and and so what that does that gives us optionality for projects in the future things like a police department uh and other projects as well um if we look at the third metric debt as a percentage of assessed value and we're allowed to have up to 3.5% of the total assessed value of the Town what is that if you look at all the properties in town residence commercial uh business utilities Farmland vacant land and you look at the total assessments that is $1.9 billion of assessed value and if you think about it we're allowed up to 3.5% of that to take on debt we could technically issue bonds up to 65 million we would never do that it wouldn't be that wouldn't be uh fiscally responsible our debt ratio is 111% so it's tenth of a percent um and um you know our goal is to keep that as low as possible we may have to issue some debt at some point when we get to building a new facility for the police you know uh by my assessment we should not see that uh that debt percentage go above 1% right so that is an and we're we're in an excellent position there so green across the board um so now let's talk about the revenue plan and this is where I'm going to lean on Randy a little bit so you know we're comparing 23 against 24 and you can see the modified 2023 budget uh was 16.6 last year uh this year we're at 17 uh the year-to-year Delta on that is 2.2% in terms of uh Revenue we expect to to bring in Randy can you kind of explain some of the details around this sure um as you can see uh you know what we try to do is come up with a similar to what the Board of Ed did we we come up with what we need to in in order to operate the town that that includes salary and wages it includes um the pensions includes benefits includes operating include statutory expenses um and then we we then look at the revenue and say okay um what are we getting in state aid uh and our state aid has been pretty flat we have a little higher amount this year but we um we're we're losing that next year so that's going to be a $140,000 roughly of extra state aid this year that we have not received in the past um but again that that's shortlived um so we take in all the grants and then then uh come up with uh reasonable revenues uh by rule of thumb you cannot anticipate a higher amount of Revenue than what you collected in the previous uh calendar year unless there's um contractual agreements or unless there's there's a a reason why you can you can anticipate more a good example uh is um or cable franchise taxes which we get in January so we have that number already one of them unfortunately we got a little less than last year and one of them we got a little more so that's where we would anticipate a little more so going through the revenues the revenue other than taxes is is uh what we call local revenues which will go on the next slide and here it is it's it breaks it all down into all those different categories um so we have uh various um numbers one of the things you'll notice right off the top is the uh ARA funds second trunch uh that is from uh covid uh monies um we got the first one last year and the second one uh I'm sorry the first one in 2022 the second one last year so that falls off this year um so the reserve for debt payment uh that L money last year was actually FEMA money that we got for the flooding of the police department so that went in last year's budget went directly to pay off uh the debt issued for that uh Renovations of the police department uh uh for the flood um one of the new things you'll see is the sale of Municipal assets um this is Prim this is money that we got from the sale of the sore utility uh the committee is um is very aware and and and keeps us money for capital projects so for instance we have $400,000 in this uh year's Capital uh program to pay down debt for the fire engines while we don't need $400,000 to to keep if you will tax stability uh we're only using 270,000 so we're we're very cognisance of that and and we'll move forward cautiously um to make sure that that money goes for capital projects that um that really was was built uh from the capital from the Sal uh um sword utility that had some Capital funds in it so uh that's that's where that is so so a couple questions of clarification so the sale of Municipal assets that 270 that's really a transfer from that lump sum that we got from the sewer which is coming in to offset um the loss of the well the the discontinuation of the arpa funds and um and that reserve for debt payment but that's actually in there to offset the cost of uh of of capital for the fire trucks correct okay and then the second thing because I know this is there's been a a thread of conversation on Facebook about construction code fees and you and I had a conversation about that I think the law is that the fees that we collect can only be used for the management of the construction office correct yeah that's correct any kind any construction code fees uh you cannot generate a profit from the construction code office so we we were actually losing money for since I got here in 2018 on the construction code office uh so taxpayers were subsidizing that office uh so the township committee along with the recommendation of the construction code official raised some fees so that we can cover the cost of the construction code office and it is not not um and I I read some of those uh concerns also it's not a money pit we don't increase these fees just to make money and and use it to offset taxes uh every year there's there's two reports that need to be filed with the state one filed by the finance officer and also signed by the construction code official and uh the Auditors are also required to take a look at that and report to the state to see if the any municipalities are making money off of the construction court office so that net is that's closely monitored it's audited and we're in full compliance correct okay all right great so let's take a look at the tax levy um and uh you know going back to George you know when you were doing your numbers because your numbers are on a fiscal year you know offset by 6 months of course our numbers are going to look a little bit different because we've got to normalize them according to Jan one to December 31 but roughly we're in the ballpark as it works um we take a look at that pie chart uh every dollar that is um is taxed um the uh obviously the school is the major expense in town right we have a lot of people assets that that um teachers and everything like that that we have to pay for the municipal tax is next at 24% uh Watchung Hills uh 7 1% goes there Morris County um maintaining those roads and County assets that are within our borders 11% uh the library tax is required and open space taxes required so the total tax levy uh this year is 43.8 million if we look at um the sources of that and we're going to just drill down into the municipal portion the municipal tax levy of 10.6 million um 88% of that driven by residential property taxes 1.1 from commercial um vacant properties 95,000 business which is really you know telephone poles and gas lines and things like that business utilities about 25,000 and farming about 27,000 so that's the pie chart um as as it winds up obviously you know some of the things we need to do from a planning perspective is maybe get that commercial number up and take some of the burden off of our residents and I you know I think that's not lost on the committee and it's something that um we're especially focused on we take a look at assessments and this is a comparison against um assessments between 23 and uh 2023 and 2024 and I want to make a point here these are assessments these are not based on what things are selling in the market everybody has heard stories in town about houses that are selling above their Mark market price above their assessed price these are assessments assessments move at a at a at a at a regular rate markets fluctuate based upon how people feel right we take a look at uh the Assessments in town um you can see that everything has gone up um quite a bit the year-to-year change for residential is um about 2.8% um commercial up a bit more at 45 vacant land um nine and business utilities down a little bit which kind of makes sense because those things depreciate right and those numbers are given to us by the state of New Jersey they're given to us by the state of New Jersey so when we take a look at well the allocation to the total Levy you can see how it's roughly the same year to year you know it goes down a fraction of percent it goes up a fraction of percent but it's pretty much balanced make sense it makes sense if I could just add one thing I think there's always misunderstanding you can double that number you can make it two you can make it four you can make it 10 million let's just say we'll take the first example double that does not mean your taxes go up double everybody pays the same rate the increase is going to be based on the uh municiple tax increase which we are about to get into what the school tax increas is etc etc it's not the assessed increase that residents should focus on right it is the tax rate right and so let's talk about that micp I tax rates now we're going to look at the Last 5 Years 2020 to 2024 well let's focus on 23 to 24 so the rate the municipal taxation rate is uh 0.542 compared to 549 last year it actually goes down .007 um we look at the average residential assessment and George we match up directly on this $596,000 compared to 578 last year um the average Municipal tax on a house of that value would be uh 3232 and the average residential Municipal tax increase over the course of a year is an additional $49 so we kind of divide that by 12 I think we're getting into what about four and a half bucks 4 half bucks a month so the average Municipal tax increase is 1.55% um and if you take a look at it you know last year it was 1.75% that's in actual dollars right yeah and keep in mind this is this is the residential average assessment so if you look back at the previous screen there was a a various um percentages of increasing so you see where where the commercial and vacant land were higher as as the total assessments they're not going to have have the same increase as the residential they're going to have a slightly higher increase uh because you know while while this the assess values is not 100% market value the assessor you we have a reassessment every year the assessor uses current usable sales as a tool to come up with uh as close to market value as possible we never want to come up to um if you if you will a true 100% because if the market goes down uh then then there's a a a um fluctuation of of uh unbalanced assessments but we are very close I think we're at 97% of of True Value so right there's a smoothing to it is what you're saying yeah yeah and and maybe because we have a lot of new residents that have moved into town since we started doing this about 10 years back I don't remember the exact year uh we went to annual assessments because we found that the percentage uh with the state has a law right 70% 7 doesn't matter we went to annual assessments so um and the intent there was to stay ahead of especially tax appeals we we we were settling a lot of tax appeals Jack remembers that um and the tax appeals have really dwindled Down To None exactly none exactly none one was filed this year and it was withdrawn so and I do want to I do want to it accomplished I just want to put a point on that there there were three areas we were concerned with uh Renovations that were done by permit at work that maybe the assessment was not keeping up with what was appropriate people who were doing non-permitted work which means they weren't being taxed appropriate at all and the especially we had so many tax appeals and we wanted to limit those so we went to an annual uh tax appeal with the vision that in fact it would limit and reduce the number of tax appeals and Jack I did not know that so zero is the number yes right and the last point that I'll make here and this is going back to Robin's presentation where she had that green strip where they're keeping it within that 2% that's what we're trying to do here I would we're going to put that green strip in next year a match up so that 1.55 stays in that zone which is the place to be you never want to come in with zero you don't want to be in a position where you got to catch up later on and it's a very ugly situation right you think about it that 1.55 is a lot less than what the rate of inflation was for you know people go to the supermarket and and buying things or gasoline or what right we're in a good spot there um so let's kind of look at the budget allocations by category and Randy this is where um you know I'm gonna ask your help but um a lot of different categories here why don't you walk us through it okay so we we kind of uh group these and and similar to what the grouping for the for the school board does in different areas the fund ordinances is is simple that's funding um ordinances that have been approved for capital projects that include debt there's $400,000 uh spefic specifically will be uh to pay down the um debt that we issued that we we didn't issue that we permitted to issue by Bond ordinance uh for the fire engine for the fire apparatus we bought so this have reduced uh that obligation by $400,000 uh this year insurances are all of our insurances are or DF cost or unemployment insurance or health benefit insurance um the Li Library costs is the uh Library tax and any additional monies that we would give the library for the operations employer pension costs is simply that that's the uh police and fire pension costs and the public employees pension costs operating expenditures is for um the uh operations in totality for the whole depart for the whole town so from police services to court services to Administration to Street uh street sweeping um next one is the total saling wages for the uh entire uh municipality utilities are exactly that the street lighting the electric gas um natural gas uh and uh obviously gasoline and Fuel and diesel fuel um tax Reserve is also called uh known as reserve for uncollected taxes the municip uh has that line item um mostly for the people that do not pay taxes currently so if you know your neighbor doesn't pay taxes go yell at them um uh only kidding but uh we as uh the deputy mayor mentioned before we collect all the taxes for all entities we have to give the entities 100% of their taxes so any anybody that doesn't pay taxes falls upon us to uh to balance our books if you will that number there is is the reserve to help us balance the books uh for people that don't pay taxes and and that's not only the municipal share that's also the schools that's everybody's share the county school uh open space um Library so it's it's everybody's share uh dcrp is is a a newer pension similar um I'm sure you've heard where the state has has changed change pension programs change pension plans uh so this is where uh some of the people that don't meet the requirements to basically go into PS which is the public employees retirement system they'll go into dcrp solid waste disposal is excuse me um for recycling um the landfill and the garbage pickup uh actually we are very fortunate uh for this number because we exercised a um I think our final year one more year so we we're exercising our um extra years in our original contract we are getting reports from other municipalities that are going out to bid for garbage services anywhere is from 15 to 25% increase um in cost so we're we were able to utilize our old contract and and and keep it at a flat level um so you know we if I would strongly urge the committee if we have one more year to go we'll we'll optimize that and and go another year so uh that's that's huge Capital Improvements um again that's that's for all our Capital Improvements that we'll talk about in a in a uh screen down the road uh $1.6 million it's down a little bit from from last year because we were using the um the uh tranch money for capital projects um so we we didn't want to use that for similar to what the school is saying we didn't want to use that for for ongoing expenses because then when it disappears you have a hole in your budget so uh that that's why that's uh decrease this year and grants these are the grants that we know about right now um last year uh if you recall we had zero in the budget and and we ended up with 107 uh 107,000 so uh as we uh get new grants uh and confirmation for those new grants will add them into the budget as we go along through the year okay and then so um this kind of drills down a little bit into how we're funding our our departments and accounts do you want to just make some comments here sure the the administration is um basically all the Departments that don't fall into the categories of uh Public Safety uh which encompasses fire Rescue Squad uh um municipal court and police Capital divert charges are those Capital programs in that uh funding of the ordinance that we talked about Public Works will take on the Public Works roads uh buildings and grounds um the um um the garbage that we just talked about um library and education is is a library expenses utilities and bulk purchases that is basically all our utility cost for electric gasoline and so forth parks of recreation I think self-explanatory Health and Human Services U that's a category that's has increased uh we have a shared service with health with um Bernards and also included in this is our um say newly new Department of two three years or community services so that falls under this category okay all right and then lastly um our Capital plan and so there's a number of things that we funded for this year uh building improvements um Emergency Equipment DPW equipment uh work on the roads Recreation and some Recreation uh equipment but we're also looking out um six years and as you can see here that one big number in there 135 for future year funding the uh the lon share of that gentlemen is the um is the what we uh currently are using as the placeholder for the police department right and so that number will sharpen up as we get a little bit tighter on our plans but you know we're serious about moving that forward Randy you want to kind of drill into this a little bit more for folks yeah uh you know we're going to have a more definitive uh plan um presented uh actually probably introduced at the next um committee meeting but uh again building improvements would be anything uh involving any buildings and grounds throughout the town Emergency Equipment encompasses um all the emergency um affiliations police fire the two fire departments Rescue Squad DPW equipment I think is self-explanatory Road Improvement so you know why $11.22 million um you know 400,000 doesn't go as long as it used to go so we we have an annual program of uh milling and repaving that program is now about $500,000 and and it will be $500,000 in this and I'm sure people are are in the audience and and listening what are what's the other uh the other main project that's in this is Long Hill Road which we have a DOT Grant with um we most the best scenario I I can honestly say will prob would might be a fall Paving but realistically probably next spring um everybody's uh wondering about Northfield that I didn't mention that Northfield what has been funded already we are currently um finishing up and and actually the plans are down all the plans and paperwork are down at dot because it is a DOT project for their approval and then we'll be ready to go out the bid now with that um there's always a contingency with with roads uh we just met with public service today that are going to be doing uh gas uh new gas lines in town Northfield is one of those streets that they want to do so we told them today um you need to get in there yesterday so they are rearranging their whole projection of work to put Northfield in front of the other roads that they're projected and we'll get we'll get more information out to the public uh as the time comes but they're going to Fast Track Northfield because they know we want to get this done and we told them look we need to get this done this year so they will be uh starting mid July end of July uh time frame in uh Northfield they'll be out there for approximately a month so they're replacing the main pressured line with all the connections um and they'll be um also uh checking with any vacant property owners to see if they are interested in having service um you know obviously those prop Property Owners would have to pay for a connection uh but we we do have meetings with utility companies when we do road projects and and uh this came up pretty quickly when and this is all um I'll call it covid money still with the grants with the public service so they they're e going to get started um they have their permits already in the process that they need to get from the state or um other New Jersey um entities and uh hopefully we'll be able to move forward with that in July and then uh pretty quickly after that follow through uh providing the do doesn't have any issues with the plans I think uh usually they if there are any issues they're very minor and we correct them pretty quickly So Randy I have a question this year this may sound a little disingenuous but the reality is utilities when they dig up a road in any municipality basically pay something or all towards the uh repair of that road correct okay so in this instance they're going to dig up our road so have we asked them if they can contribute a little bit for the good we are talking to them about some of the other projects that will come up with a dollar amount of what it would cost them to re refurbish this Road Northfield and we may e you know we have choices we could either collect money and offset offset ours or what we'll do is there's I think a couple roads that are on the fourth year of moratorium will have them instead of Paving half the road pave Cur the Cur so we will we'll have a credit with that fair enough that that that's what I was so I think I think we're going to move in that direction because we don't we don't want to leave um half Patch Road it's nicer to do the curb to curb and these things so we may uh want to go that route but we'll we'll again we'll we'll keep you guys informed as we move along with this and if I get just move on a little bit I want to add a little context yeah $400,000 doesn't go as long far you said long as far whatever you want to word you want to use as it used to so hence that number but to give a little perspective on the that number number I don't know if it was 9 and 10 or 10 or 11 we didn't do any roads in town and then for a number of years we were at that $400,000 level yes that's due to inflation Etc but it's also due to prudent planning we have put together a six-year Capital plan going back I don't know how many years now that's why that number can look like that because we plan ahead correct thank you back to you so real quick I just want to uh touch upon the recreation facility because one of the things that we've been talking about there's money in here that we um for refurbishing the tennis courts out on cter Park if anybody's been out there they they're they're in dire need of refurbishing so that money is included in in uh this year's capital budget good well that is the budget so um yeah I think I we're so close to um public session maybe we hold off questions to that because we got a few things before that public session people can ask a comment at that point yeah I don't think that's a bad idea and I will say uh you know as the mayor's going to announce uh ask for a motion the public hearing this is no different than uh similar to an ordinance where there will be a public hearing on July 17th um so the budget um and this this presentation will get on the website tomorrow I can't I can't foray uh tell you it will be on there when you wake up like the deputy mayor said but it will get on there tomorrow sometime beautiful all right any questions or comments from Randy no from the committee Rand well I I want to thank Randy for all the work he does um Randy you're you're a great CFO thank you and a Gentleman too um and I want to I also want to um hold at let's see there we go um I want to correct the record on something um I did um in consent I did abstain from 24168 I just went into put a record I went into mental blck on that okay all right thank you I just had one clarification well I don't know if it's a clarification uh when Randy referenced Long Hill Road I want to be clear that's Long Hill Road where Mountain Mars town and marswell Road intersect east east that's what Long Hill township owns uh as you go west that is a county road so what we are referring to correct me if I'm wrong is the Long Hill portion which goes from the intersection I just referenced to chatam okay ready so I'm looking for a motion to approve resolution 24-58 so moved second committee M dorsy yeah commit verza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes committee reports Matt let's see hold on from the M yes hang on Al sent me from the fire department they've so far this year they've combined 102 calls that's a significant amount oh and both Sterling and Millington participated last week in the fire madx competition it's like an Olympic event for the fire for volunteer fire departments at Bernards um they did obviously they placed well in all four events and then the new engine 22 will be in service for the next two weeks so before the end of the month one of the new engines will be in service so keep an eye on it on the road and that's it beautiful oh wait yes once again the 2024 can skin cancer screening Monday May 15 1 to5 Fellowship Village in Liberty Corner to make an appointment please call 908 2042 20 and don't ask for Megan Phillips registration begins June 3rd all you have to do is 18 years or older so free skin cancer treating screening at Fellowship Village just register by anytime after last week thank you okay Scott um planning board um Tom Jones continues to lead the discussion on uh ordinance changes uh that are are are being that will be sent up here for um deliberation and hopefully change so um that works ongoing I know that um Don Richardson I believe he had met with hpac as you recall we've met with shade tree the environmental commission and now hpac going through the master plan and um getting their feedback on next steps and things like that so we continue to socialize this and you know prioritize these ordinance uh changes and one of the things that uh Don and I were on the phone with um on a zoom with Liz leaney our planner the other day uh one of the things we do need to do is kind of take a look at at at ordinances that uh you know may potentially slow down the variance process we need to do some work there and you know helping people get through that process a little bit quicker so you know stay tuned on that that's something that we're definitely focused on that's it that's great Scott and thank you Tom and Don out there and the the entire planning board thck all right directly aison report it's that time wait a minute you this the exuberance what something's missing here the exuberance I'll get there okay all right Sterling lake season has begun memberships are still available on community pass last Friday night we hosted the Spring Lake dance at Sterling lake we had 196 Middle School students attend a good time was had by all they danced The Night Away listening to the sounds of our DJ RTX extreme thank you to our chaperons this event would not happen unless we have plenty of chaperons thank you to C for helping with traffic control we can't tell you how much we appre appreciate having you there thank you to our Police Department who routinely came by all through the night we were even able to coach to coax officers kroer and Napolitano into doing a round of Limbo with the kids thank you to the all the neighbors around Sterling lake for your patience as your neighborhood was transformed uh for a couple of hours thank you to all who came out for our Memorial Day Parade in observance we truly got lck we truly got very lucky with the weather squeezing in the parade and observ it sandwiched in between the bands of rain special thank you to Larry binski and lmb audio uh along with Ernie later for working with us all weekend long before the event to get things set up for for providing the sound and audio at the event thank you to all who marched in the parade and those who took part in the program at Central School we had a beautiful observance to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we do today special thank you for the guidance of Dick dorsy former post commander of the Long Hill American Legion all right here we go the pickle ball court continues to be busy Long Hill residents can Reserve Court times on community pass at no charge and while you're at the pickle ball ports enjoying them please remember to dink responsibly come on guys give me a little love here registration is open for swim lessons with Lee at Sterling lake we will start this weekend and go through the summer check out the schedule on our website registration for Le for lessons is on community pass come take a class with us at the lake sounds like it's time for a cheese Burger in Paradise join us on Friday 62 6:21 at Sterling lake 7pm for parrot Beach a Jimmy Buffett tribute band and a real crowd favorite bring your bring a pack of picnic basket and join us on the beach for this free concert we can't think of a better way to welcome in the summer remember parking is limited so we encourage car pooling and walking to the the event and uh different from the other concert this one again remember this one's at Sterling lake not at caner all right I edit that in on my own but all right finally slide eight mark your calendars for all of our dog days of summer concerts and come enjoy some great bands all concerts are again free make sure to uh make sure also to mark your calendar for National Night Out in caner park on Tuesday August 8th from 6:00 p.m. to 900 p.m. watch uh watch for more details but Long Hill has a lot of fun in store for National Night Out a perfect night out for the family and that concludes the recreation liaison report well done Vic well thank you and and Randy I hope I'm not letting the C out of the bag uh in the near future we're going to have a sign out here at outside Town Hall so these concerts and other timely announcements will be there so uh I know in the past Vic you have mentioned maybe the attendance is a little bit lower than it would be at those free concerts uh just because people don't know yep uh but that's going to be uh rectified in short order aome is that okay Randy y all right so here just a couple of announcements blood drive at St Vincent dep Paul Tuesday June 18th that's next Tuesday 1 P PM to 7 PM I think everybody knows where uh St Vincent the pole is it's on Main Avenue um you can go to the go to their website you go to New York nybc.org NJ Drive I've been going to this blood drive twice a year for when I'm in town uh for 30 years it's an important critical need in town um so please if you're able to and you are available please St Vincent dep Paul blood drive Tuesday June 18th 1: to 7: p.m. uh and again St Vincent dep Paul so just a um the first a squad I think most if not all residents in town have received the letter this is their annual fund drive and I thought it would be um uh the right thing to do to read the letter dear friends and neighbors you are the reason our ambulances and volunteers can respond to Medical emergencies stand at sporting events house fires and police emergencies together we provide emergency medical care 7 days a week 24 hours per day providing emergency medical care for your family your neighbors and perhaps someday even you and I know my family uh has been attended to by the first aid Squad and the fire company uh and the police I didn't commit a crime uh last year first aid Squad volunteers responded to 717 first aid calls this is relatively understand that tends to be average two a day of course sometimes there are five sometimes there are none but it averages out to about 2 a day and it has for years uh and this is the critical part none of our patients received the bill for our services now I'm speaking on behalf of the first aid Squad your generous donation is for Squad training ambulance and building maintenance replacement equipment and personal protective equipment uh they are also saving for replacement ambulance in 5 years will cost about 200 Grand and another replacement ambulance in about 10 years hopefully the committee is still in a great financial position and we will certainly help we being the residents you taxpayers every month we have several simultaneous calls requiring two and sometimes three ambulances hence anybody who was curious why we have three ambulances we remain in all volunteer service and it is your contribution that makes this possible checks may be made payable to the Long Hill first aid Squad enclosed in the envelope provided if you have one if you don't you could just drop it off at the first aid Squad building uh any questions you can contact the treasurer at long at lill fasir aad.org um and this letter is kindly signed by Bob English Captain Lisa scanland president and Scott Oran Treasurer um so please if you were able to know the invaluable work that the first aid Squad does uh and remember they are 100% volunteer organization now just one other minor announcement well it's not minor actually I should have said that regarding a first aid Squad member and Amanda ksky Miss Amanda ksky if you're out there Bob English said I had permission to do this if I do not uh have your dad Ed take it up with him Ed I played basketball with for many years and I think he was trying to hurt me all those years um and some times did so here the announcement is this Amanda kski MD has her medical school graduation tomorrow she is a Long Hill resident and began her medical career at the Long Hill first a squad that is not uncommon many medical uh folks here in town who've gone on to school medical nursing Etc have started right here at the first aid Squad uh she is graduating from uh the American University of Antigua College of Medicine I don't know if I'm supposed to get this granula her commencement is Thursday June 13th at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center there must be some friends of Amanda out there and this part is the most stunning of all and again Amanda I apologize Captain English said I could say this if that wasn't enough graduating medical school getting her medical degree on Saturday she is getting married so uh God bless and God speed uh to you Amanda um and if your dad's mad I made all those announcements uh tell them to go see Bob sure she's watching she was watching all right so uh I think we go right now to the administrator got another announcement a brief one okay I know it's half over but I'd like to wish a happy pride month to all our friends family and neighbors and the LBG TQ Community thank you Matt you're welcome b a r okay um I already spoke about public service which was one of my things the other thing uh that's going on uh poplular Road they started concrete work uh today this work will go on for approximately a week and Paving milling and Paving will occur next week weather permitting so that uh depending on the weather that may be postponed uh but um you know when the paving is going on if you know popular drive that side exit out of uh shoppr and going into shoppr uh will not be available so uh just um be aware of that uh make other plans uh we do have something on the website uh referring to this so um once we get a um uh no punt on Words a concrete date for the paving we'll throw that up on on the uh website also from the beginning of uh the project to the end how long how many days did you say beginning to the end uh of the actual work it's um less than two weeks have we notified uh the owners of shopright and that and the allall they are aware yes because that is that is going to be a little bit of a challenge yeah that was a big communication we're going to have officers out there I was just going to say we've notified the police directing traffic uh actually uh thee tenant uh was here talking about um National Night Out and I I dragged him into a meeting because uh this is going to be tricky obviously it is uh because um they probably going to have to allow leftand turns out of um out on the valley so you know police will be there to assist uh people getting in and out of uh the shopway more yeah that parking lot is a challenge on the best of days so so the paving itself should only be two days okay so thead will have access yeah the road will have access during the mill but during the paving portion it will be closed understood perfect that's all I have all we have one discussion item any other announcements no we're we're good good all right so we're going to go discussion vacating paper streets I think I've seen this before yeah you have and it was a mistake the first time we tried mistake not proceeding so this this specifically refers to uh discussion with vacating Carol Lane and Manuel Street right can you give more information as to where that is we know where it is but I don't think the public does it's at the far end of L Hill Road uh Carol Lane goes off Long Hill Manuel goes behind the the properties in front on Long Hill Road on the long well there it goes there we go again the Long Hill Road in Long in that Long Hill township owns it's just past that it's just past that S turn on Long Hill Road where there's that pond right right and both of these roads go nowhere correct really can go nowhere one of them is a residence driveway or at least half of it and the other is a Road to Nowhere behind that which is edged up against state land now when we first uh this was first brought to our attention we thought maybe we would go through and address paper roads everywhere and then we quickly found out out every single one of these is a corner case and we'll just troubleshoot the ones that are a problem as they come up and so this cleans this one up and kind of gets it off our our book so to speak right jack we probably have more paper streets than any town in the state because there must have been subdivisions laid out right before the 1929 crash so so down on the brookley heights end there all these Orange Street and Roseville Avenue nor streets with 50ft lots right that have been laid yeah but yeah so and the town has the right to vacate by ordinance paper streets that have never been accepted uh by the township um all we have to do is reserve rights to any utilities that may be in them uh and as long as they're not needed for public use we can vacate them we we never had title to them and that's the common misconception so we vacate them all we're doing is saying the public no longer has a right and then it's up to the property owners to determine title and maintain and maintain that's correct so I think you had did you write up an ordinance on this or yeah I I did submit an ordinance uh and it's right there yes and like I said it it vacates Carol Lane and Manuel Street and reserves any can we do it now or we need yes you can introduce it tonight yes I mean I second reading will still come and the public can comment on this but I I would suggest unless there's there are any objections from the commit committee uh to look for a motion to approve and you have a number for it Jack 54524 so moved 545 d24 can you say the title of it an ordinance vacating paper streets known as Carol Lane and Manuel Street I'll second Miss Megan committee man dorsy yes committee man verza yes Deputy Mayor lavender yes mayor Pia yes and the second reading and adoption and public hearing will be on July 17th 2024 thank you Megan old and new business announcements I think I jumped uh I think we beat announcements to death so if anybody no other announcements what I'll do now is I will open up the meeting to the public uh please kindly uh keep your remarks and statements pertaining to any matter well remarks and statements pertaining to any matter uh not just what was discussed tonight any and all uh if you could kindly keep your comments and remarks to three minutes I see an energetic who is this gentleman name and address please um Tom Gru Gillette could hardly hear you guys before I'm very glad that L Hill Road the Eastern section of it is going to be milled and repaved that's fantastic sorry to say there's a dead Branch hanging over it hopeing hopefully nobody gets hit while that's being milled I'll report it tomorrow for you let you know where it is actually I'm here because I've been uh driving around the town and I've noticed some signs and they seem to be faded weathered and they're old and I think the concept might be uh that might have slipped us for a little while neighborhood watch the number reported is the number listed is the Police Department's number I don't know if this is a solely a police function or is it a function of the township uh I don't know if there's ever been in the recent past any meetings of these people how go forward the section I live in which is Fen view Deer Path we had a neighborhood watch group for many many years and it kind of faded away and I don't know directed people if you have any color you can add to those things I don't know whose purview that is is it under the purview of the Police Department theie police department probably early 2000s it has not been an active program for many I I know I just put you on a spot is that something you think is a good idea to uh bring back certainly it's a good idea to you know uh consider the you know the interest yes fair enough here's what Tom you know how it works the person that comes up with a good idea at that mic now leads the charge Joe Joe I think Joe has a yeah Joe okay Joe would you mind coming up to the mic and saying it so yeah [Music] so I I did look into the neighborhood watch at one point um and some of the training that I've done in my three years uh the neighborhood watch progr progr has tailed off a little bit Nationwide uh not accidentally um it was kind of sheld a little bit and kind of came up in uh one of the in I think it was an incident down in in Florida or Georgia there was an incident with neighborhood watch that became challenging from from like a a racial profiling standpoint remember I forget the name of the gentleman that uh was was shot unfortunately that kind of gave a left a cloud over I think the program that was my perception of reading some of the commentary and and some of the social media remarks about it and not that it's not a valid program I think it's still out there from a national perspective you can still do it I kind of once I saw that didn't pursue it any further um and like I said there's value there it's been a good program for decades in the country but you know obviously it ran into some challenge that's something to consider either way so director peoples I apologize that kind of did put you on a spot and you as well Joe it's worth looking into so we we'll have a discussion and we'll see if it makes sense in today's day and age and technology has changed things too with ring cameras and other things so right perhaps we that's one of the things that if this starts up again maybe it starts up with a new Focus or emphasis and was are you thinking of the Trayvon Martin killing is that who that was no that that wasn't the one down in uh Florida anyway doesn't matter we don't have to go down that path what else is on your mind Mr grof more things that I can say here so I'll just leave it be at that and just if we could think about something like that because we we know that there's been a couple of uh things that tells me that crime in this town where we've been blessed in the past we might our blessings might be wearing thin so might be time to get people's eyes out all right thank you thank you gentlemen thank you Tom thank you Tom and Lady any other member of the public who is in this courtroom sing n Megan home maryan nun would like to speak Maryann please state your name and where you live ish is I just unmuted myself um Maran in 110 laana Boulevard in Gillette hi um do you want to take notes on my questions sorry guys um number one um I just can you please define um for the residents exactly what the C Bank is um I do have my degree in accounting uh it's a different nen clature when it comes to a Township and I just want to make sure that residents aren't confused used um you know that a c bank is a helic versus an interest bearing account okay that that's my first question um oh second question Randy yeah would you prefer if I go through my questions and then yes okay second question uh welcome uh director pups um I do have some questions one of which I'm going to start with the township committee um I had spoken I'm not sure with whom but um you know I mentioned maybe um and and this goes back in terms of what was just spoken about uh with regards to a neighborhood watch um you know whether or not we can establish a basic selfdefense class uh for members members of our Township ESP especially women with children entering their cars and parking lots Etc um you know that that was one of the questions I had and one of my recommendations um so who would I direct this question to at this point formally I'm sorry so we have both questions was there a third yes you got more sorry okay this is a big thank you to Joe Hubert okay um and also I just want to also comments on the neighborhood watch on laana Boulevard we also have a neighborhood watch sign um and just to tell off from want Joe huberts um I've been watching some of the other townships um they're trying to incorporate the same policy uh problem being um or status quo I'm put it politically correct as as best I can a neighborhood watch is no longer you know good bunch of people you know checking out their areas Etc um there's been a lot more turmoil okay in the news with regards to that um and last question with paper roads okay um specifically the one that was spoken about was only one today that that's accurate um I know in the past meetings with regards to the planning board um you know there was a going to be a deep dive into these paper roads and my question is you know is there a liability who how do you assume um ownership of these roads and and that's it I'm sorry I know I have a lot of questions no no no that's that's perfect the easy one is that thank you to Joe Hubert so you we can all agree with that um cap bank's probably a little bit more extensive so Jack could I go to paper roads as far as liability yeah there there's no liability as I said the township never owned them the public had the right they're similar to an easement we've never used Carol Lane or manual Street uh they're no longer needed for public use so there's no liability whatsoever and as I said title it reverts to the prior owner or his or her successor or predecessor successor in title so as I said we don't get into the title we're just abandoning the Public's right uh usually it goes half and half what 50% to one side and half to the other side of the paper street but that's not always the case thank you second question regarding uh self-defense uh administrative bar pointed out to me that might be something we can do through the recreation department bring in uh certified instructors I don't I don't know if from a liability perspective no reason why not we do we do CPR trainings and etc etc So Lisa is watching we can refer that on to Lisa I'll I'll talk to her about that uh cap cap Bank there we go that's the one okay cap Bank uh take out the word bank and and substitute it with allowance uh a cap allowance allows the town in any given year where they do not meet an appropriation cap which is expenses they can reserve that for up to two years to use in a future budget the tax cap allowance is a similar allowance if you don't use uh the 2% cap allowance and there are exceptions to the to each of the Caps that don't apply um you can save that for a three-year period to use in a future period now if you don't do this this appropriation cap ordinance you're tied to the 1% that the cap that the uh State determines for this year uh what we did is increase at the three and a half so we we are uh saving if you will saving the allowance the cap allowance of 22% into uh the next two future years so it's it's not a bank at all it's not actual money it's just um allows the town to either increase taxes over the tax cap bank or increase Appropriations over the appropriation cap Bank okay so it's like a temporary um account per se it's it's not in just bearing nor bearing no there's no no money involved or anything it's just an allowance to increase uh uh a tax amount higher than the 2% or or increase Appropriations higher than the cap that the state sets every year yeah to be clear at very end the reason it's not non-est bearing it's not real money it's fake it should never have been called CAP Bank the good news for you and all residents is the uh Township committee has never used either of those uh as I called them earlier misleadingly it's a safety valve that's never been used yep and we will never use it perfect thank you Maryann thank you have a great evening thank you thank you Maran you too Megan anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor motion journ so moved all in favor I I have a wonderful evening everybody and thank you for those who have attended either at home or here in the audience director peoples that was a heroic effort you stayed for the entire evening so thank you thank you that was a surprise of offic