I can hear you now you're muted and we can hear you I here Madam cler thank you Mr Rabbits Mr Rabbits is here Mr janada here and mayor giglia here we have one Proclamation on the tonight's this evening's agenda we're honoring March 2024 as women's history month and the theme this year is women advocate for Equity diversity and inclusion I would like to welcome up to the podium if uh both Chief nun and chief sheer would come to the podium and are you thank [Music] you instead of reading through the proclamation I wanted to make some quick remarks before we honor our firefighters and police officers the theme is chosen by the national women's history Alliance and this year's theme is women who advocate for Equity diversity and inclusion We join in celebrating women who work to eliminate bias and discrimination from society and our institutions to all our female firefighters and police officers who continue to lead and perform the services that make them excel at their jobs we thank thank you and applaud your dedication to a service that many regardless of gender can endure it's a unique quality that calls those with The Bravery to risk their lives for a greater cause the level of responsibility that falls squarely on your shoulders to make quick decisions communicate and function under high levels of stress is seen in each of our recipients tonight while many still feel women do not have the mental or physical strength to compete alongside their male counterparts for positions in the police and fire departments our Township professionals have shown that not to be the case we continue to work towards a culture that is inclusive respectful and supportive of women in all ranks and roles of law enfor enforcement and Fire Protection as far back as 1845 two women served as matrons at the tombs the prison in New York City in 1908 Lola bald was the first for sworn female police officer in Portland Oregon in 1916 constant cap was New Jersey's first female deputy sheriff there's 73,000 women that serve as law enforcement officers in the US but still today only about 133% of sworn officers and only about 3% of police leadership are women firefighters in the US hover around 5% are females women Inspire trust especially in our communities by building relationships with citizens and can mediate interpersonal conflicts while assuring those involved remain safe the quality skills and strength both police and fire Prof professionals need are just as effective regard without regard to gender as we celebrate women history's month please join me in the township Committee in recognize and celebrating our professional women and police and fire departments so now I'd like to have Chief nun if you would call upen Bop Lieutenant Bop started her fire service career as a volunteer firefighter with the mar Fire Department in 2004 Lieutenant Bop joined the Malmo Fire Company where she served as a lieutenant and Captain in the volunteer ranks she also served in many other roles uh supporting the Mal Volunteer Fire Company Lieutenant Bishop was hired as a career firefighter in 2011 and promoted to the rank of lieutenant in January of 2023 in addition to her basic firefighter certifications Lieutenant Lieutenant Bishop has demonstrated her commitment to the fire department by further obtaining specialized many specialized certifications and courses that enhance her training and skills some of these include in incident level management three Fire officer fire instructor level two and Fire official congratulations ready stand and after um Chief n is done then you'll make remarks before we do the police okay okay you can switch up there firefighter Alder started her fire service PR as a volunteer for the PAC on fire department in 2008 after meeting her now husband Jay she moved to mendum Township in 2010 and became a volunteer member with the Brookside fire engine Brookside engine company where she served as lieutenant and Captain there volunteer firefighter aler moved to mors Township in 2016 joined the mors Township Fire Department as a volunteer with the member of faira Fire Company where she served as liutenant and Captain in the volunteer ranks firefigher alderon was hired as a career firefighter at the mor toship Fire Department in April of 2020 and currently serves as a union president for the fnba 70 in addition to her basic firefighting certifications skills fire Alder has also demonstrated her commitment to the fire department by further obtaining many specialized certifications to enhance her training skills some of which include uh again Incident Management level three instructor level one and Fire officer [Applause] congratulations and just before we move on to police committeeman rabbits would you like to say some words thank you mayor good evening everybody and Happy Spring got um I'm just going to say a few words because I've served on both the standing committees for the police and the fire so this is an appropriate time uh for me to give a couple of remarks uh As We Gather here today to commemorate women's History Month it's a profound moment to reflect on the incredible um the in the incredible strides women have made throughout history and continue to make you know through the present day it's also a time to honor and um and celebrate our Local Heroes in our midst the women who serve their communities with unwavering dedication as police officers and as firefighters in a world where gender stereotypes still persist these women stand as living proof that bravery resilience and Leadership know no bounds they embody the spirit of serving sacrificing their own safety to ensure the safety and well-being of others their courage inspires us all and reminds us of the power of determination and passion in Breaking barriers our local police officers often the first line of defense in times of Crisis demonstrate remarkable strength and compassion in the face of adversity they Patrol our streets enforce the law and build vital connections within our communities these women in blue not only protect and serve but also nurture trust and understanding Bridging the Gap between law enforcement and the public they serve similarly our firefighters with their unwavering commitment and selflessness Rush toward danger where others flee they battle raging fires conduct daring rescues and provide critical Aid in emergencies these women don't just fight fires they fight stereotypes challenging outdated Notions of what women can achieve in traditionally male-dominated Fields their presence in the fire service serves as a Beacon of Hope and inspiration for future Generations we owe a debt of gratitude to these local heroins who put their lives on the line day in and day out to keep our community safe their dedication sacrifice and resilience is a testament to the indomitable Spirit of women everywhere as we celebrate women's History Month let us not honor the Trailblazers not only honor the Trailblazers of the past but also recognize and uplift the women who continue to make history today let us pledge to support and Empower women in all Fields ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to thrive and succeed regardless of gender together let us build a future where equality Justice and opportunity are not just ideals but lived realities for all thank you Chief sheer would you like to come up now yes thank you everybody for coming out um I could go on and on for hours about all the things these these officers do for the the township day and in day out but I will keep it brief um first I'd like to talk about officer mckyer officer mckyer was hired here in Mars Township in 2006 uh I had the the uh the for the Good Fortune to work with officer mver I think from day one we were assigned to the same squad for a long time and somehow we always ended up in the same Zone and uh I would tell you that I took all the calls every single day and tia Shirley would tell you that she took all the calls every single day but most of the stories from that time I'll probably have to save for our retirement parties but what I like the most share about officer mver is she's um she's in freeling highis and middle school every single day teaching our young boys and girls um and is that bridge between kind of the the young community and and the police and and the things that she's done in the programs that she's implemented has been invaluable to the township and just seeing how she interacts with those kids day in and day out when she invites us to our breakfasts each year is just it's just great to see and uh we really appreciate everything she does in freeling heis and every single day and uh she's just truly an asset to mors Township so officer ryver thank you very much come on right over here congratulations that's it well off next I'd like to speak about officer Katherine Ridley officer Ridley was hired by Mars Township in 2019 and if I could best describe uh officer Ridley to everybody I would I would essentially call her our Swiss army knife she does everything for us she handles complex investigations she um does presentations in schools uh regular traffic enforcement day in and day out and and I can safely say I've never had a day where I've seen officer Ridley come in without a smile and um a warm gesture unless maybe when I turn around I don't know but I she certainly certainly has just been such a great asset and like I said if there's been something that's happened in Mars Township in the last four years that she's been here she somehow had a part in it whether it was being an initial responder or or helping the victims or or trying to identify the suspects and we really truly do appreciate the work that officer Ridley does day in and day out so thank [Applause] you Officer Nelson has only been with us since 2022 and she has the distinct honor of being my first official hire so she has uh you know some pressure on her that's for sure but she has certainly lived up to it thus far Officer Nelson during her short time here is really is just a calming presence um watching her on scenes and seeing how she's able to diffuse situations and and really just handers handle herself in the most stressful situations in a very calm C Manor and she's taken uh maybe an interest in kind of the medical calls that we have and she's been receiving more training for that and we'll continue to do so and for us the medical calls is usually what officers are um most stressed during and that's kind of where she's found her Niche thus far and we really appreciate the work that she does on those types of calls and we look forward to seeing how she progresses in her in her young career and Officer Taylor Nelson we appreciate all the work you do thank you congratulations last but certainly not least officer nkuzi those of you may remember we just uh swore her in I believe two or three meetings ago and and I had a nice speech prepared for her and I was unsure of of how her career was going to start and and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because either were first or second night shift um I get obviously alert of of what the officers did the night before and I see her badge number I see 179 uh DWI and I had a look and I said who's 179 you know I start the badge number start to blur a little bit when you didn't and then I said wow officer nzi already got her first DWI arrest and just the commitment that she's already taken in and keeping the resident safe is great and uh truly look forward again to see how her career develops because she certainly um has has some good instincts already so off Uzi we appreciate the work you do and and look forward to seeing what you continue to do congratulations um if we could get everybody we'd like to get a picture and we do have frames for you unfortunately when they came in they weren't appropriate frames we will get you H this is my side of the y make sure you're blinking all of them lean back a little more thank you thank you very much [Applause] man thank you sir you're welcome thank the next thing on our agenda is we have two presentations for tonight's for tonight and the first one we'd like to welcome up chair Brian Morgan of the inv enal commission to give the environmental commission annual report for 2023 right thank you mayor uh thanks for the opportunity to review the uh 2023 environmental commission annual report if I can ask that we get the cover of the report brought up that would be Bri Brian can you raise the microphone sure that better yes okay thank you okay so um the environmental commission and I'll use EC for short has had another very successful year due to the amazing effort of our dedicated volunteers who enabled by our Township professionals and Township committee Liaisons I'd like to start out with our cover well not our traditional ginty gazebo that we usually have um from the previous two years this cover underscores two successful initiatives that we had uh undertaken in 2023 first the completion and the opening ceremony of our Butterworth Park pollinator Garden that was funded by a $1,000 grant that we had won the concept project driven by one of our very dedicated EC members Charlie Sher um is a great example of the EC's push to not only educate residents about the benefits of planting native plants but putting it into practice the garden opening ceremony held unfortunately in the rain was a great celebration of that work I'm very thankful for of the attendance of the of nearly all the committee members and Mr Quinn in uh 2023 second our new logo it was created in part to celebrate the second grant that we've won in as many years this time it was the grant was one for improved Outreach materials this logo created by the Township's very talented professional Virginia Murphy with inputs by the EC is now used across all of our Outreach and materials and allows the EC to have a clear identity as always we're thankful to the very talented and supportive Professionals in the township 2023 contained many opportunities for continued Outreach the EC has regular has a regular spot at the winter Farmers Market over a Convent Station and at other events like the fall festival and Great Swamp music festival at these events we share information about who we are on the EC like what we do what our responsibilities are our priorities as well as we receive a lot of feedback from residents where we learn about their priorities and concerns this on top of our regular newsletter allows the EC to celebrate the great work done by the township educate residents on what their government professionals and volunteers are doing and inform them of what they can do to make mors Township a more sustainable place to live site reviews at the core of the EC responsibility are still one of our primary responsibilities uh 2023 was no different we had many site reviews to conduct ensuring the EC has input on development from an environmental impact the reports are submitted to the land use boards for their review and consideration provides an and provides an overview of the application the impact of that application and the EC's recommendation for the land use board our reports continue to mature as the EC has more training expertise and receives feedback the feedback thus far has been very positive and we continue to strive to make them better you'll find this and much more information in the report including the restart of our student poster contest a list of the extensive education taken by the volunteers a site visit to the recycling facility and other areas of collaboration so looking forward to 2024 we've already had a very busy first quarter with another Grant submitted poster contest awards ceremony and an extremely productive and educational discussion about trees with our senior Township professionals from the DPW parks and wck and engineering we're hopeful we can build off of that discussion to explore how to best protect our tree canopy knowing our trees are critical to the character of the township and essential to both the local ecology and stormwater runoff educ uh stormwater runoff reduction other goals for 2024 include preparing for Sustainable New Jersey certification renewal and possible expansion from bronze certification to Silver certification improving the site review process making sure we are well informed and if making sure we are well informed and if a recommendation is warranted around the around areas such as a sha tree commission and learning more about the Morristown gas leaf blower band and last but not least composting it's a priority for us in 2024 I need to recognize professionals that make our progress possible there are too many to to name but I have to call out vanise Rush our amazing secret the EC secretary Virginia Murphy who I mentioned has been invaluable helping us with our newsletter and our new logo Jim Slate from the engineering department and Mr Tim Quinn thank you for your time and effort I'd like to thank all of our dedicated EC members again all volunteers they volunteer countless hours taking training conducting Outreach attending meetings collaborating on best practices and doing what they can to make Morris Township a better and more sustainable place to live and did I mention those long meetings they keep putting up with them so i' like to thank them for that I'd like to thank the governing body for their continued support especially the TC members that attend our meetings CA and Jeff grel this their support is crucial to ensure our priorities are aligned to the Township committees and can become a reality thank you and I look forward to a successful and Greener [Applause] 2024 mayor sure uh Brian I'd like to thank you personally for your commitment to everything you've done for EC you've been a true driving force in this community and as I always always like to say the volunteers that we have on all our boards and committees do that as in a volunteer role to make our town better for everybody else and Brian in particular I believe has had a a huge impact on our town and the quality of life and always having the environment in the Forefront um because I'm personally I love everything that you're doing and I look forward to working on composting as well this year uh getting getting garbage out of the garbage stream um is a benefit to everybody so thank you so much Brian and thank you to everybody else on the EC thank you i' just add to that I'm looking forward to well it had been my pleasure to work with with you last year cath with Kathy Wilson and I'm looking forward to seeing what the EC comes up with uh for the governing body this year so you know kudos to you all for your continued dedication and hard work you and even though I'm now uh TC the TC last year I was on the EC so this report that uh I although I didn't do as much as I did as previously I think you were you know the EC has done an excellent job in the last few years especially last year doing all all this with the the pollinator garden and I'm sure there's much on the plate this year and I'm looking forward to it thank you and Brian again thank you to you and all your volunteer members because you do outstanding work and they really you having appreciate you coming out tonight thanks so much thanks thanks everybody okay the next um year end report we have is the senior citizens advisory committee or esac and that is being given by our own Kathy Wilson welcome back to [Applause] the actually we need to get set up here wow little Tech brought your own tech support what's that you brought your own tech support huh right Mary's gonna if all goes well you're hired okay well not sure about that did we join yet Kathy oh note that I'm assisant did you join yet I did okay were we made the P not oh you need to shut the volume off I did okay okay so share screen so while Mary's getting set up maybe I'll clarify one point here I'm not actually presenting the end of the year report for the seniors committee I'm presenting the results of the uh survey and the focus groups that were done last year so it's similar but not the same and the report that's out uh there's a different report that highlights the results of the survey in the focus group yeah I'm actually prepared we don't want to un stay muted okay is it showing yeah yeah this is the first time I've done a PowerPoint in a long time so that was a learning experience anyone hello hello everyone it's nice to see you again and for those who may not know me my name is Kathy Wilson I served as the chair of moris Township senior citizens advisory committee which I'm going to refer to as escac uh since it began in 2022 I'm now a retired Alum of the governing body and I as I said I'm here tonight to present the results of the needs survey and the focus group event that esak conducted last year in 2023 next slide um per its founding ordinance esc's mission is to make recommendations regarding the needs of senior citizens and to assist in fulfilling those needs especially in the areas of Transportation housing Medical Care and related issues affecting seniors next slide um from the beginning escat knew that it to fulfill its Mission they wanted to find ways to gather input put from our residents the first thing they decided to do was plan a needs survey at their first meeting in April 2022 they set up a survey committee headed by Noel Robinson throughout 2022 the survey committee did a lot of research on surveys that other towns the county other organizations had conducted they also spent a lot of time sharing And discussing draft content and questions with the full uh committee's membership in January 2023 after months of deliberation esak finalized the questions and the content for their own needs survey from February through mid April of last year the survey was distributed to Township residents electronically as well as in person at various events and locations uh via hard copy responses were obtained from 589 residents the results of the need survey can be viewed on esc's portion of the township website which I will say a little more about later um next slide this slide shows the top five responses to the survey's last question which was which of the following topics and services is most important to you so there were 24 choices presented these were the top five choices exercise programs repairs and handyman services social and recreational activities trips and volunteer activities um escac viewed these responses as particularly important in clarifying the needs and interests of our seniors each of these topics is addressed in the final report uh these topics also influenced their approach to developing the focus group event next slide please um escac was committed from the outset to the importance of supplementing the survey results with input obtained through focus group discussions they knew that from a resident perspective answering written survey questions is a very different experience than discussing your thoughts with others in a small group setting escac wanted to ensure that our residents had access to both options they also wanted access to both types of inputs esca did a uh as they worked to accomplish their mission of crafting well-informed advisory recommendations the task of developing organizing and implementing a focus group event was a large and challenging project and a centerpiece of their work in 2023 as with the survey Noel at a subgroup that spent a lot of time working offline from the regular meetings to develop plans for making the focus group event come to life there were many considerations that had to come into play how to make space at town hall for multiple small groups to meet during business hour hours which topics to focus on how to structure the questions how to enlist volunteers how to train the volunteers the focus group committee spent many hours working amongst themselves with all the escac members and with Township staff to address every issue that needed attention these efforts culminated in an event that was held right here in this room on October 10th 2023 at that time 41 seniors gathered in small groups of seven to 10 people throughout the building and discuss their responses to the following questions um in thinking about the factors that contribute to a positive quality of life for older adults what suggestions do you have for actions programs or services that would better address the needs and interests of our seniors what are the strengths of the social recreational and educational activities in the town what would you suggest be added or changed if the township provided transportation for seniors how would you use it and any additional topics you'd like to bring to our attention notes from the focus groups are posted on ESC uh website um next slide please um a review of the survey and the focus group data leads these are leads to several big picture observations about the needs and interests of our seniors uh at the top of the list our seniors are experiencing they expressed that they're experiencing a lot of problems with communication and Technology communication was energetically cited by every focus group as their top concern a lot of many seniors said they feel like they don't know what's going on they feel out of touch there were a lot of comments about challenges and frustrations with technology phones computers internet a lot of the participants knew nothing about the Township's email system the messenger um even our more Tech savy seniors Express concern with difficulty navigating the Township's website um another important finding which I know the governing body is very familiar with is widespread lack of awareness of resources that already exist this pattern was repeated over and over in the survey and the focus group results people would Express needs for things that they did not realize are already available this is a pervasive problem it's longstanding and there are no easy answers but finding new ways to build awareness of existing resources is a top priority in all areas um also going through this quickly there were many comments and suggestions in such areas as lifelong learning volunteer related activities partnership building suggestions and transportation concerns all of which are addressed in the recommendations section of this report um one topic that came up repeatedly but is not addressed as a recommendation is the Need For assistance with household repairs uh clearly this is an important need but for many reasons it's not an appropriate topic for the township to get involved in there is a section however on esc's website um that points to organiz ations that can help with referrals another topic that came up repeatedly and which we're all familiar with um is the need for a senior center everyone was thrilled to hear of the Township's plan to purchase the school on Jean Street and eventually turn it into a senior center or to a community center the the news of this purchase um could not be more timely everyone was very appreciative came out when it did and thank you for that um so so on recommendations in the time I have I want to highlight a few of the key recommendations for addressing the needs of our seniors um there's a lot more info in the final report so I encourage you to take a look at that when you have time um communication and Technology was an important topic and the the blocks top and bottom do have some significance here on the one hand per the top row one important set of recommendations is to find ways to help seniors build their own Tech skills so from some examples listed here work with the school system to develop a tech buddy tutoring program that pairs techsavvy students with tech challenged seniors um this suggestion was brought up over and over by um many people who attended the focus group event along with the suggestion also repeated um a lot was to that perhaps the kids could get community service credit for their work um there were also lots of suggestions for various Tech workshops tech training experiences uh two that kind of caught my eye or ear Township website 101 basic training for seniors escac website onstop access for all things seniors um another recommendation was to create a one-page dock of top suggestions for utilizing the Township's existing communication resources I thought that was a good idea but that's a challenging pro pro project actually um on the other hand bottom row um it's also important it came up repeatedly it's important to honor the preference of many seniors to receive information in more old-fashioned ways so some suggestions along that front uh consider creating an all things seniors newsletter letter that's sent once a year by regular mail to all seniors in the township explore keep in mind the need for you know you can find uh creative lowcost ways to include hard hard copy info for example in tax bills or sewer bills and consider possibilities for establishing an all things senior's phone number I know it's hard but it's worth considering a lot of seniors brought that up as something that would be helpful to them um there were also lots of Interest among our seniors in educational and learning opportunities um this is one of those places where there's a ton of resources locally for us to choose from and I would say that the web page that cak has esak has put together has compiled this incredible list of resourc are really helpful so I encourage everybody to check that out so making use of existing resources is one recommendation and another is there were a lot of um suggestions for particular topics that you could have guest speakers on that people would be interested in examples included art estate planning local history and artificial intelligence on recreational activities um a few points here again the ongoing theme look for ways to promote awareness of um existing classes and activities of which there are many offered by our uh Recreation Department um two others stood out to me continue working with the transportation advisory committee to create a walking group for seniors they started this work last year tax sponsored one walking event for seniors and there was a lot of interest on the part of both committees both the transportation and the seniors um this collaborative effort is definitely worth um continuing and expanding and you may remember that um trips were one of the F top five list of topics of interest to seniors many seniors are not aware of the large number and really great selection of trips that are offered by our seniors club together with our Recreation Department the recommendations here include I'm encouraging the senior club and the parks and recck Department to work together to develop new ways of promoting awareness and to post a descriptor of trip offerings um on the on esc's web section of the website um this recommendation's already been implemented and you can find info about trips on there on volunteers there again the boxes there were two kind of categories of volunteers that uh recommendations that came out um one is f finding ways to um match seniors up with volunteers who can help the seniors so for example um finding ways to put seniors in touch with volunteers who might help with you know raking leaves or shoveling snow um we ALS we talked about the tech that's another good volunteer pairing um also I was surprised by the amount of um discussion there was at the focus groups of seniors um wanting ways to be in touch with each other and the a lot of discussion about how we're here we can help each other but maybe there should be a database with different interests or I mean there's a lot of possibilities here I thought that was an interesting suggestion um on the bottom row there's a lot of interest among our seniors in serving as volunteers themselves and here again there's just an enormous number of resources in our community for people who want to volunteer and esak did a wonderful job of compiling them in one location um next slide please there were repeated suggestions came up to look for ways to expand communication and build Partnerships with various groups um and organizations in ways that promote shared interests so there were several different um groups that were mentioned three that came up repeatedly were the school district the library and the transportation committee so a beginning recommendation is for esak to consider setting up liaison positions with each of these groups um in the area of Transportation um while it's clear that transportation is a concern for many of our seniors for many different reasons the survey and focus groups did not yield enough information for escac to make informed recommendations for meeting the transportation needs of our seniors um more information is about how many people are affected what their needs actually are and to identify the best options for meeting those needs so the recommendations on the transportation front are for esak to conduct more research into Transportation options that other towns offer there's a lot of examples um compile a report that summarizes how various options work how widely they're used and how much they cost as part of conducting This research cak should look closely at the transportation needs of Morris Muse's residents uh they Merit specialized attention um next slide please um I wanted to say a couple of words about esc's web page or website um as you've heard tonight I've made repeated reference to their web presence on the Township's website esak members especially Mary V who's with us tonight right here um have put a countless number of hours into creating this site creating this the web presence that's up there now has been a centerpiece of esc's work over the last two years and it's a huge contribution to accomplishing their mission so I just want if you could go to the next slide I just want to show two quick slide this is what it looks like um if you go on the esak website and you can see on the left Transportation Health Medical housing these are um there's a lot there's a lot of existing resource resources currently in our community that are available there and I think that's a big step forward for anybody looking for information and if you can go to the next one social recreational and educational activities this is where um esak really put a lot of work into this they added new parts you can see along the left hand side there's um links for lifelong learning the the senior's Club Performing Arts the technology resources is really good I think trips and volunteering so there's a lot of information just on that section that is um should be of interest to a lot of our seniors and true to form are what the esak website is um underutilized because it's not well known so that's one of the the goals for the year ahead is to uh promote awareness and finally um I would say that esak made a lot of progress last year in fulfilling its Mission the committee itself is well positioned to fill most of the recommendations that came out of the survey and focus group from last year um they do need to do more research on transportation and in the years ahead they will need to look more closely at housing and medical needs as well but in the meantime I know I and I thank all the es people who are here tonight thank you for coming and um I know they're the members are very motivated and committed and that they'll no doubt continue working very hard to make quality of life for our seniors as best as it can be and um finally very finally um acknowledgments and thank yous there's way more people than I can um mention by individual names tonight but I would like to just say that we had many staff members who helped us all the members of the the committee uh a lot of people I think 15 or 17 people served as pH facilitators and scribes we had 589 residents who participated in the survey and we had 41 people show up for the uh focus group event so it takes a village and we did it and I'm very proud of what was accomplished and I thank everyone for uh joining us tonight thank [Music] you thank you very much again such a great job really appreciate it I just have a quick comment I personally want to make because I've had the pleasure of being on the senior citizens advisory committee with Kathy and also want to acknowledge that Noel Robinson and Barbara sairi the two co-chairs now are here with us tonight so again um such good work being done there and a lot of the collaboration that we are starting to see with our other advisory groups is really happening so it's very it is and there's a lot of interest in it I so thank you thank you at this time is the public comment there are currently 10 members of the public joining us on Zoom at this time we'll open the meeting to public comment we'll take comments from iners attend first over please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate please your name and address for the record please your comments are Li to minutes speak if you have questions you would like answer your remaining time to speak will be yielded back for this purpose is there a motion to open public second all in favor I I are there any members from the public good evening I'm Dian Holland I live at 26 Northbridge place um I walk frequently on the uh traction line and I'm curious why there or who owns the property that is what we would consider attached to the gate house the old con Gate House the property the Land There is that owned by the town or is who who owns that we own that property the okay so um I often see Vehicles parked there and jcpnl trucks is there some reason since they have a three- Deck Parking Garage that's not for the trucks of course those are public service trucks and that's a jcpnl they're not the same entity and we have some work that we do at Public Service where they're doing work in the area and then we work out agreements where there use our parking lot but then we get roads repaved and those kinds of things I'm I didn't we get roads repaved with them when they're finishing up their work and we have a good relationship with them for other services they can provide us sometimes I okay all right um but sometimes I think there are jcpnl trucks there no it's the only Public Service um that we've been working with over there okay if there is Jersey Central they shouldn't be because okay they're not part of it but the ones I've seen are all public service and there's usually two or three trucks there but they're doing a lot of work on the Woodland Avenue side of Morris Township right now great thank you very much Tim Tim on the other side of Prescott Road there's there is a jcpnl Transformer facility is that correct but I believe that has been taken out of service oh okay I will double check going and out okay so maybe that's what you saw for JCP I don't know you saw it in the other parking lot okay over by the public there's a gravel dirt yeah um dust Road uh parking lot and it's um mostly public service that we've been working with with all the work they've been doing down at this end of town thank you hi I'm Lauren Miller I live at 23 Fieldstone drive and I'm here to talk about pickle ball but before I do I want to say to Tim that I understand your wife isn't returning to Streeter pool this summer and that's a huge loss so there's big shoes to fill with that um there's two things I want to talk about with pickleball as you know it's exploding all over the place there's two new indoor clubs that are opening close by ginty the ginty uh cords are beautiful and they're used as you know all the time rules were put in a year ago to help sort of manage um the onslaught to gindy um one was the institution of badge purchasing and I'd like to talk about that for a minute I've never been checked my badge has never been checked and most of the people I play with said their badges have never been checked so as a res and I know there are people playing there who haven't purchased Badges and feeling is why should we there's nobody checking um other people have said why buy another badge nobody checked me and for outof Township residents that's $175 that we're losing and they don't have to pay so that's a concern because I think there were over 600 badges sold last year and when I went to pick mine up on Friday that was well down to about 400 so those people aren't going elsewhere to find a better deal they're probably coming without paying so I understand two people were hired I think to check badges yes ma'am yeah um one of those people I've only see play well you can't I don't know what his hours are and that's another question what are the hours of the badge Checkers and if he is being paid by the township should he be playing or should he be at the gate checking badges the other issue is there's two different kinds of play at ginty there's something called open Play where you put your paddles on a que and when your paddles up and some and a spot opens up you go on and then there's something called non-open play where you can play with a group for an hour and it changes every hour on the hour for certain parts of the day so at that hour everybody's supposed to get off and then rotate so that everybody has a chance to then come back on again I I've been I play there a lot that's never been in forced while I was there ever so I've gone there with a group of four on an non-open play day and we get there at about five of two at two o'clock everybody's supposed to get off well people don't nobody did so unfortunately for the people on court one where the gate is they got us and we came on and said it's two o00 it's time to get off and there was a lot of tension they were very upset there was yelling um where the rules rules were right behind us um so that issue of non-open play it's it's complicated people should play by the rules but they don't so it seems that there should be somebody there to facilitate that non-open play so while the rules put in place were really good idea I think they need to be re-evaluated as was said last year that would be done that leads me to my last point there were changes in the schedule in the time allowed for open play versus non-open playay well I'm not sure because I didn't receive one I wasn't asked how I felt about that there was no survey that went out as far as I know to any stakeholders which is defined or people that bought badges so I don't know how that decision was made I think that everybody who bought the badges should have been asked in a a simple survey using Survey Monkey how they feel about it so that was discussed a year ago and it didn't happen this year so the badge issue and the monitoring of the badges needs to be addressed I feel as well as the enforcement of open Play rules non-open playay rules and then asking the stakeholders who were there all the time how they feel about the structure thank you very much for your comments and um I it's my understanding though that the pickle bable monitors are they there day they're not there all day they're their Peak periods are supposed to be there there's two of them I think I know who she's referring to is the one there he's been there with us for several years we have a second person um I know they I I apologize I don't have the I can't hear you at all this any better okay sorry about that you start over because I'm interested in what you're saying nope I will um follow up with our Parks and Recreation Department we do have monitors there they they don't have steady hours we move them around depending on what it is but knowing that there's maybe an issue there a change over time is good information to have and I will relay that on I know they were working on a server I should have a better answer for that that I they do have a server that it will be coming out um I know there was checking for badges right and checking for badges right so I will um certainly pass that along okay um to our Parks and Recreation folk and then I will get back to you on that great thank you you're welcome thank you for your input and Tim yes did we already decide on the allocation of I know we talked about changing the allocation of time between open play and group play has has that been decided upon yet and announced or still the air yeah that was part of the Parks and Recreation advisory committee um and they made some adjustments to but has that gone out to the public yet yeah okay I just want to make sure thank you hi I'm Lou is this too loud I don't no you're fine okay I'm Louise carer I live at 137 Hillcrest and I'm a pickle ball nut so I I have one other thing to say that um it has to do with your understanding of what how pickle ball works so that you can make decisions or or talk to the parks and me commission uh or what they're whatever they're called so the way things are ginty they're two distinct groups of people they're the really good players they're they're unbelievable I would call them Advanced intermediate Advanced players and then there are those of us myself included that I would call intermediate we're not as good we couldn't be on the court with these people at all they wouldn't want us there the um the standard ethos in pickle ball is the idea that you can just walk on you can be totally by yourself you have your paddle in your hand you stick it up on the rack and then when your paddle comes to the top of the stack um you get to go on the court which is great and that works if the people are at the same level but on honestly those people wouldn't want me on the court they they it wouldn't be fun for them and I don't mind having them on my court because they can always if they are nice people they can what's called play Down In other words they can modify their game I play with people who aren't as good as me and I I find different ways of challenging myself uh that don't involve being super aggressive um so when you think about what to do about the Open Play time I would really like you to consider and by the way the numbers of people in these two groups are roughly equal um you know there those those of us who are you know intermediates we like to have a good time um are about the same number if you go if you go to the courts on any given day you'll see about the same number of those really good people that I like to watch you know I'm like whoa um and those the rest of us um so I think there needs to be there there's six courts there so there's one rack on one end where you can put your paddles up and there's one rack on the on and so courts one to three have AQ and courts four to six have AQ and if the first three courts could be designated for one group and the other three Courts for another the other group in other words we're we're equal we're it's not like they have a lot of people and we don't have as many these are equal uh groups um and so if if we could have one rack for each group then we could rotate in at our own level and everybody would be happier um so this is for open Play This is how open Play works I'm not going to talk about the other play but that's how open Play Works um so and I want to Second the fact that I'm I'm there a lot I'm I'm an addict there's one person who checks badges that I do see there and who go goes there to play and he doesn't he kind of knows us so he kind of knows that some of us have badges so he doesn't have to go and check my badge I know him um but I have not seen a second person there honest honest I play peak times I play at 1212 and then in the summertime I play at 8 9 when it's cooler um and I'm I'm there you know when things are happening courts are full you know and one person I I saw a woman there once or twice last year um I haven't seen anyone yet in this season and um again the other gentleman who who comes he he he's a he's one of those good players um he plays that's great um and I have nothing against that but I I don't see him checking Badges and I don't even know if the people who are playing with him have badges because my impression is that those of us who are some of the less skillful players are also the township residents um and my impression is that the people who are coming that who are playing at that higher level in all likelihood possibly are coming from other places and I don't even know if they've bought badges or not so I just want people to understand how it works because um so I think the court should be divided up three Courts for those wonderful Advanced players and three Courts for us intermediate players and we can all rotate in on our own courts that's that's the main thing I want to convey so thank you thank you if I can any questions we have a park and recre advisory committee meeting um and they're the ones that kind of lead for the rules and presenting them when are they when is that's I will send that to you if you can leave me your email address or a phone number and I'm happy to um get that information for you and and send it to okay I can just send you have is your email on the website yes ma'am it is great thank you thank you there I put a timer on so I can try to stay timely my name is Teresa piliero I live at 23 Pippin's way and I'm here to talk about pickle ball also um I'm here to just share with you my experience of in February it was posted on social media the calendar change Jeff um without any warning without any discussion without any input I think it was a pretty contentious discussion that occurred prior to the initial one coming out and I think somebody on this committee sits on that Park and wreck committee so who's advocating for the community members or the people that are paying for passes when there are seems to me to be a unilateral decision that was made I tried to buy a badge in January or February and it kept saying it was an out of town resident so I I was like okay whatever I have to figure this out and it wanted to charge me 150 and then when that was posted I was like whoa what's going on let me see if I can go get a badge and I went into the that room and there was a lady there and there was a man in an office and there was a man over to the right and I said I I need to buy buy a badge and first they couldn't find me in the system and as it turns out if you live on Pippen way you cannot be recognized as a resident unless you have an apostrophe between your n and your s because that's how the text record holds it so that was my problem okay so I I got the badge and then I said and I don't understand who made this decision to change these hours and basically I was told that the Parks and Rec committee has full power without any votes to do what they want and they discussed it with the two people that were hired ma mag and I don't know somebody else and and I was surprised and quite frankly very disappointed that there's this major change made it's not communicated I said you didn't send an email we sent an email to the badge holders I said to the current badge holders like how many people had bought badges by February 22nd or whenever that email went out it didn't go to all Township residents I had to find out about it on social media that didn't feel good as a person who pays taxes here in Morris County um so I I I I'm I'm usually disappointed I'm also going to be moving I live at 23 P I'm going to be moving back to Connecticut so I I'm standing here before you with no vested interest in this other than it's unfair and I expect my elected representatives to like have my back no one had our back that's how I feel so thank you thank you and again couple things one we apologize for the issue on Pippen's way for that glitch for whatever reason um because I think if we were made aware of that we could have gotten that straightened out um and again um good luck to you in Connecticut we do appreciate your feedback and I do know that parks and recck the committee is pickle ball is one of their number one priority concerns it is and I will say and we love the fact that we have so many residents and others who want to use the pickle B courts um and appreciate that we're we too are trying to fix the rules and make everything so that everybody has an enjoyable experience we understand that's not always easy and the explosion of how popular this sport became so rapidly I think is part of the reason and again I apologize to you for because I think that was part of the reason that we weren't aware either how quickly it was going to become so popular so many people so we're working through those and we will find Solutions and appreciate the public mayor if I may may I just real quickly Mark um because I know Mark and I both serve on the advisory committee for uh Parks and Recreation and we were both at the last advisory committee meeting um there were members of the public that came in and provided a lot of input uh about uh pick a ball and in hours and whatnot so I just want to be clear for the record that we did not make the change in a vacuum we did get a lot of input um we we know that you know a survey is long overdue and that's in the works as as you know U the administrator had said but I just wanted to let you know that you know it's a lot of you know when we first started pick a ball and I I had said that you know there's a lot that we don't know we don't know what we don't know and we're learning and the feedback that we're getting from from folks like you and others who are either on one side or the other on more open Play Less open Play we're not making decisions in the vacuum we are we are taking all the input and we're we're trying to accommodate as many people as we can and make the uh make the play as as as Fair as possible not only people at all levels but for Township residents and those who buy badges from out of town thank you um and and JY you have a comment thank you mayor and hi Teresa um hey I don't remember voting on this in Parks Rec because we didn't I wasn't under the impression that the parks department was supposed to be sending out a new schedule without us reviewing it or a survey going out to uh the pickle ball badge holders so I'm as surprised as you were because I wasn't this wasn't communicated to me as a member of the parks and wreck advisory committee that this schedule change was going into effect my my understanding from the meeting was after our meeting some of the members of the advisory committee were going to meet with Parks and Rec staff um those members being pickle ball players to then talk about a proposal for schedule changes I was under the impression a survey would be going out before any decisions were being finalized and that final decision would be communicated to The Advisory Board before it got communicated to the pickle ball players well that's great it's Teresa again thank you uh that makes me feel a lot better uh so when you say you didn't do this in a vacuum I appreciate hearing that too but it feels like a vacuum to People Like Us who didn't know about it right and to and to and to Mark's point we we did not coming out of that meeting we did not agree on any changes there were discussions that were taking place subsequent that um we were not aware of so um I was hoping you know to hear good feedback I I myself didn't even know there were changes um um but you know they all I can say is that they weren't made with a vac in the vacuum but they weren't made with our M or Mark's knowledge well thank you I hear from you that you guys are going to do better and so I I I urge you to intervene we are we are striving to do better thank you are there any other members from the public who'd like to speak just just one thing we thly you get to come up once oh okay just is there a way of are knowing like when these meetings are they they are posted online The Parks and Rec all of our meetings are posted online there's a calendar and there's there trying to get you the date before you leave um if I can for the next one usually they're every other month for the parks and record advisory committee thank you yes I and if I could just add uh tangentially you know mortown has approved uh pickle ball court installation at lwood Park and I I think they're going to come on on line this season so hopefully that'll take some pressure off uh some people coming over to ginty okay hopeful thank you thank you Deputy Mayor I seeing no other if there's nobody else from the public I'm not seeing any hands raised oh I'm sorry if you'd like to speak you have to come to the podium and state your name and address please thank you mayor I have I see a hand raised virtually too oh okay hi I'm Sanya ban and I live at 10 Victor Lan I was just wondering at lwood how many of the courts would be converted to pickle ball that's that's in Morristown okay so yeah that's not moristown I definitely play a lot of tennis and I don't think that like everything should be replaced yeah okay yeah you better go talk to the moristown council about what they do there we we built new pickle ball courts we did not replace tennis courts with pickleball so we still have our courts of ginty are right same with yeah same same as streer so but no no tennis courts were re were um replaced with pickle ball courts in Mar Township okay yeah well at ginty I thought they replaced the old tennis courts with those were an old parking lot area um the ones but you had the other ones that are all brand new that are right behind the field there yeah those get field yeah yeah all right thank you thank you seeing nobody else from the public I would like to now uh Dr Lyn Sebert do you have a question I just I Dr Lin seber at 178 Hillcrest a I just wanted to uh to commend um Kathy Wilson on the report for the senior citizen advisory committee um it was very informative to hear the summation and uh know I applaud the township for taking that on I think it's something that uh will benefit a lot of people I also wanted to thank uh Brian Morgan uh for his uh efforts um and the environmental commission for initiating um a very productive and comprehensive meeting the other night on uh the tree ordinance issue um I hope hope that the township committee will uh continue in its efforts and work with the environmental commission to uh move ahead with formulating uh a comprehensive and and effective um environmental uh sound uh tree ordinance that addresses both private and public property so I just wanted to say I appreciate the efforts that have been made so far and uh I compliment uh the environmental commission's uh leadership in that so I hope that the township committee will continue working closely with them and move forward on that so that was all I just wanted to say it's it's a pleasure to uh to see uh the involvement uh of so many good people on that thank you thank you Dr seber and uh also we agree and we that um we appreciate all the hard work that you continue to do for the township and especially in your community there thank you seeing no other hands being raised is there a motion to close the public comment so moved second is there a second second yes all those in favor I we have two ordinances for public hearing and adoption on tonight's agenda Madame clerk please read the title of the first ordinance into the record and we will then open the public hearing ordinance number 0324 an ordinance of the township of Morris County of Morris concerning salaries for non-union Personnel note establishing salary ranges for non-union Personnel for 2022 we will take comments from in-person attendees first and then switch over to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate you would like to speak may have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 03- 24 so second all in favor I I any discussion see that anybody seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak Michelle Esposito you have your hand up Michelle do you have a question or a comment Michelle if we can um hear you if you are trying to speak can you hear me now now we can hear okay here's Joe yeah Joe Adam a 52 fair amount I had my hand raised apparently no one saw it so I'm on my wife's computer if that's okay can you hear me wait sir hey I'm sorry we apologize but you have to wait for the second public comments section we're in the middle of voting on an ordinance so we can't stop I had my hand raised earlier uh Jeff and uh for some reason it didn't come through I wanted to speak about the environmental commission meeting but someone no one saw that I apologize virtual is always you know as needed we apologize so when will I have the opportunity to speak Jeff uh right after we finish our business there's a second public comment section we should get through our business quickly okay thank you yeah I'm guessing that'll be about 15 minutes Joe okay thank you thanks something happened so Mary you need a motion to close the public hearing can I have a motion to close the public hearing so moved second hi may you need a motion to adopt the ordinance is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 0324 I move that we adopt 0324 yes yes Mr yes yes may mayor declare ordinance number 0324 approved and adopted and direct the time should FLIR he publish proper notice thereof the official News Adam CL please read the title of the second ordinance into the record for public hearing and adoption and we will then open the public hearing ordinance 0424 of the township of Morris Morris County New Jersey concerning salaries for non-un personnel Fire Work establishing salaries ranges for nonunion fire department personnel for 2024 mayor just for the record uh committee major recus from this ordinance we will take comments from inperson attendees first and then switch over the zoom please virtually raise your hand and zoom to indicate if you would like to speak I have a motion open the public hearing on ordinance number 0424 so moved there a second second all in favor I I seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak will someone make a motion to close the public comment so moved all in favor I I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 0424 so moved Madam CL all call V Mr rits yes Mr J yes Mr yes Mr Dy May yes I Donna j grigley a mayor declar ordinance number 0424 approved and adopted and direct the Township Clerk to publish proper notice there up in the official newspaper we have three ordinances for uction on tonight's agenda Madame clerk please read the title of the first ordinance into the record ordinance 0524 and ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a c bank for calendar year 2024 njsa 4A semicolon 4-44 note requirement for municipal budget may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 05 24 I'll make that motion and also ask if Mr Quinn could give a little background so that so the members of the public here understand what this one is all about I think we should get a second first second thank you thank you sir um this isn't really a bank um this is a as a tach expends money they're subject to a 2% tax levy cap um on the budget when we don't exceed that goes into this bank for future years so we would ever need it so it doesn't have to go out the referendum if um we exceeded it is that clear enough or it's a it's a requirement of the budget but it's um it's there's no real money in it yeah and have we ever utilized it yes we did yes we did after Co we had to use it right but usually this we don't use this Bank ever but under those extenda circumstances we had to dip into those funds that is correct because we had a loss in Revenue um coming out of Co thank you thank you any other discussion or questions Madame clerk may I have a roll call vote Mr gazelle yes Mr janata yes Mr dorfy yes yes Mr Ritz yes mayor glia yes the public hearing and final consideration and Adoption of ordinance number 0524 will be held at the next regular Township committee meeting on Wednesday April 17th 2024 at 700 p.m. Madame clerk please read the title of the second ordinance into the record ordinance 0624 an ordinance of the township Committee of the township of Morris amending chapter 15 of the Township Code note amendment to Personnel policies may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 0624 [Music] second second any discussion or questions Madame Clark may have a roll call vote Mr janata yes Mr Griselle yes Mr JY yes yes Mr Ritz yes mayor ggia yes the public hearing and final consideration and Adoption of ordinance number 06-2017 20 24 at 7 p.m. Madam clerk please read the title of the last ordinance into the record ordinance 0724 an ordinance of the township of Morris authorizing the execution of a shared service agreement with a burrow of FL florum Park concerning the operations of a sewer pump station and governing the treatment of sew flow note Sisters of Charity of St Elizabeth may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 0724 second is there any discussion or any questions Madame clerk may I have a roll call vote Mr janata yes Mr ravit yes Mr gazelle yes Mr JY yes yes mayor Greg yes the public hearing and final consideration and adoption for ordinance number 07- 24 will be held at the next regular Township committee meeting on Wednesday April 17 2024 at 7 p.m. next we have the introduction of the municipal budget for calendar year 2024 resolution administrator Quinn will provide an overview of the budget and read the resolution language into the record thank you mayor um in front of you you have the budget document for 2024 it contains actually Four budgets it will be the current budget for the Miss which is most of our operating expenses and then for the three utilities of the sewer utility the swim pool utility and the parking utility whereas the current budget is from revenue sources and municial taxes the three utilities are fee based um I am pleased to present that budget to you um and I will read the resolution and then I will ask for um a motion to introduce the budget so the municipal budget of the township of March the county of March for fiscal year 2024 be resolved that the following statements of revenues and Appropriations shall constitute the missile budget for the year 2024 be a further resolve that sub budget be published in the daily record in the issue of March 24th 2024 the governing body of the township Mars does hereby approve the following as the budget for the year 2024 mayor I would ask that you call for a motion for approval of the 2024 missal budget introduction may I have a motion to approve the 2024 am May I'll make that motion thank you second Madame clerk may I have a roll call Mr dorfy yes Mr janata yes Mr gazelle yes Mr Ritz yes mayor grigia yes he's done okay sorry about that it's okay okay so are we finish there I have one more statement to read okay thank you this is the most I talking a whole year I know um notice is hereby given that the budget and tax resolution was approved by the committee persons of the township of Mars County of Mars on March 20th 2024 a hearing on the budget and tax resolution will be held at the mar Stan missal building 50 Woodland Avenue on April 17 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at which time in place objections to said budget and tax resolution for the year 2024 may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons and that will conclude the introduction mpal Bud thank you thank you Mr Quinn and also thank you to you and all the department heads and everyone committee JY and I serve on the finance committee and again um and all the input from the rest of the committee members done a great job on this year's budget so we look forward to next month and the presentation of the budget the next thing on the agenda are our resolutions we have 20 resolutions on tonight's agenda we are going to pull resolution 90-24 and vote on it separately may I have a motion to approve resolutions 88- 2489 d24 and resolutions 91-203 107-296 to Brinley Mountain Fire Apparatus through sourcewell National Cooperative contract 12921 BL for additional refurbished repair on Engine 5 a 2007 E1 pumper for the fire department in the amount not to exceed $ 38,39 mayor for the record committee M Jor recuse from this resolution thank you Mr K may I have a motion to approve resolution 90-24 so moved second Madame clerk may I have a roll call on vote a roll call vote on resolution 90-24 Mr Ritz yes Mr janata yes Mr gazelle yes mayor GG yes thank you consideration of monthly reports we have received reports for January 2024 from police fire and the mar marwn Mars Township Library tax department and February 2024 from the tax department police the Mars toown Mars Township library and Joint court and I have a motion to approve the monthly reports so I'm moved second all in favor I I the total number of bills and vouchers for this meeting is 9,175 44711 we are also the tax collector for the school B School District the library and the county may I have a motion to approve the list of bills and vouchers second Madame clerk may I have a roll call Mr janada yes Mr gazelle yes Mr dorfy yes yes Mr abitz yes mayor glia yes we receed for the record the environmental commission 2023 annual report and one and one tax appeal next we'll move to our standing committee reports and commentary by the township committee at this time standing committee reports and commentary will be provided first by committeeman janana thank you mayor just want to get brief uh review of what I did last at least last month actually last week the we River Watershed action committee had their annual pH at the around the Beth Church site at horen at least 100 people took part in the event and among the sponsors were Earth aware which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and the mors County Historical Society because they were feading up a s site in Spring Street which was the personage the original parsonage of the E Church and the first school for African-American children the attendees included Scout Troops loal and we collected over 150 bags of trash most of them were bottles and cans same last year for the second year in a [Music] row Mr janat hold up somebody's somebody's unmuted needs be on mute on Zoom right now she is okay go ahead sorry about that yes for the second year in a row you did not find any plastic bags which means that the plastic bag then from from 2021 is working in terms of not having PL plastic bags in our Water Street at least around here and then last Thursday uh as was mentioned the environmental commission had a talk with our Township professionals which were're thankful with for um Tim Quinn for running and and they spoke for two hours which was an incredible feat for us it of the longest EC meetings that I have ever intended but the professionals did answer our questions and they were thorough and very helpful and among the issues that were discussed was the over overall strategy of maintenance feasibility of updating the free ordinance and feasibility ofet tree there's much more to discuss in the coming weeks but this was a good start so more to come put this one off and plus I also attended my first Transportation action committee advisory committee that and they discussed things like parking updates senior Transportation options and also they're looking at e scooter and ebike education opportunities I guess there's some issues of safety issues on there and they also want to provide Outreach to for town at township events and one of the concepts that they want to introduce is the idea of know your neighborhood and that dub tails with my monthly talk on local neighborhoods and as I mentioned my previous ones I talk wanted give a brief historical overview of different parts of the town and today I'm talking talk about Collinsville Collinsville is located in the North Northeast part of town around marking King Avenue Cory Road and Border CED NOS at Handover Township it was named after two brothers Sydney and William Collins who owned a prosperous local shoe store it is also a thriving African-American community community since 1912 and since they were also excluded and from other parts of town also in 1912 a firehouse was established at what is now mou bouard and that fire station was torn down the back night back in 74 and but a new one is built along White whiy Road a school was also built back in 1904 on Cleveland Avenue and was active it was active for kindergarten to third or fourth grade until 1954 after the building was closed as a school it was used as a neighborhood community center but for 20 years until it was torn down without warning and so they they did not have any Community input which is something that we do we do not take lightly nowadays but back then somehow the was once a community center was gone there was also a local ball field in Colville field which is where I heard was now tuckeri and was used by Semi-Pro baseball teams and one opponent team had a first baseman named L long who had two home runs Lou Long's real name was Lou gar the Iron Horse F of the Yankees so among other other things that happened to the town L gar once played in our Township at wow incredible wow but also he had musician who was born and raised here lived in Collinsville all his life and his name is Bobby Tucker F famed Jazz accompanist for Billy Holiday In the late 40 1940s but after he was ously fired from that that that job Billy ex another vocalist hired him and they played together for nearly 45 years until xin's death in 199 herro lived in Cory Road and was affectionately known as Mr B and he had many fed jazz singers and musicians who visited him there aside from Billy Holiday and and X time he also worked with among others Lena horn Sarah BAU Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones so if you don't know these names please be sure you do because this was this was an incredible person who worked with other incredible people and he lived in our town now today the area continue to continues to thrive because we're also going to look at uh improving col Park and chucker field which we now know was a place where L gar because they're going to be going undergoing major upgrades and will be used by The Neighborhood residents once again and I'm glad thankful that I've been assisted by Betty Simmons Pam Watson and Ron Kimbro Ron Kimbro I should add was the one who gave me the idea of talking about neighborhoods when he talked up uh Bobby tuckler and what he did so thank you I yield my time thank you Mr janada committee and JY thank you mayor I'll keep my comments brief um first I'd like to thank Brian Morgan and members of the EC who presented and prepared tonight's report I also like to thank uh Kathy Wilson and Mary V for coming in tonight to present the S um escac report as well um really appreciate the time being put to put those uh both of those reports uh before the township committee um as chair of the finance committee uh most of my work with mayor GG has been focused on the budget uh working with Tim Quinn and our um Chief Financial Officer Sean Ferguson and I'll have more to say about the introduced budget at the budget presentation next month um with that I will yield back mayor thank you committee Min rabitz uh thank you mayor see uh good evening everybody again and Happy Spring once again and thank you for sticking with us and in your local government as as I always like to say National politics gets all the spotlight but it's what we do here in this room that has the biggest impact in in your quality and economic uh impact of your lives I I like to say that please do sign up for the municipal messenger it is the absolute best way to to uh get updates from the town um and there's there's no better way to stay in touch with the town the municipal messenger uh let's see for standing committee updates I on the fire on the fire department the uh Mars Township was awarded $35,000 uh through the American Rescue fire American Rescue plan firefighter grant program for 2024 we are purchasing 12 new sets of turnout gear which comes to the um amount of 42,000 just over $42,000 so think of it as purchasing two sets and getting 10 free so um we are also submitting for the assistance to Firefighters grants program uh those funds would be for safety and training plus updating specific equipment that is used um to rescue firefighters that have become trapped while operating inside burning buildings and I want to thank Lieutenant MOSI for working really really hard last few months on on those grants for the police department I know this has been mentioned before by by uh Deputy Mayor gazelle and even myself um the arrive together program uh if you don't know what the arriv together program is I really encourage you to visit the uh Mars Township Police Department's website where you can navigate to it and learn all about it it is it is a pilot program program one of the first in the nation uh between us Mars Township Madison Mars Plains and the marown and the prosecutor's office it's it's a phenomenal program and if it works it'll hopefully be rolled out in more and more cities across the uh Across the Nation uh not much going on in parks and rec stay tuned you know always always stay up with the parks and rck website um finding out what programs are available for people of all ages for and the residents of our town couple couple things we're doing we're just doing some replacing of fencing at Veterans Field installing some fencing around the new basketball court at guiny and then installing some fencing over at the Valley View Reserve uh for my commentary tonight congrats to the martown high school girls basketball season uh they had a stellar run I think they just lost in the final game so you know Kudos kudos to them um I spoke a little earlier about um women's women's History Month the the journey for True gender equality is is far from over women continue to face systemic challenges from gender-based violence to unequal pay to limited res representation in positions of power and control over their own bodies and family plan but the spirit of women's history month is not about celebrating the past it really is about galvanizing action for the future and as always um I like to end my commentary with this we have more in common than should ever divide us which we will all ReDiscover by talking to each other and not at each other amplifying misinformation and hateful or violent rhetoric is not part of any civiliz civilized society and lastly as we go about our business is each and every day just remember to be kind kind to others and kind to yourselves because kindness matters mayor thank you comman ravitz and Deputy Mayor ril thank you mayor uh first I want to say that it's great to see Kathy Wilson back in the room here welcome I want to thank Kathy and Brian Morgan for their reports tonight and also for their leadership of their respective committees I also want to thank all the members of the senior citizens advisory committee and the environmental commission for all their hard work as I said before the volunteers in our town volunteer their time for the benefit of everybody else to make Morris Township a better place for all of us and from the bottom of my heart I thank you for giving of your time uh to make our town better we had a great meeting of the economic development advisory committee a couple of weeks ago congratulations to the three new appointees to our e a who attended their very first meeting of this committee um and two of them stepped up right away to work on projects which was great uh the initiative now underway is the pre-work for reaching out to businesses in our town and creating an interface on our website where businesses can register and find information that they might need so more on that later in the year I also participated in the environmental commission meeting uh that committee janard was was also a participant of um and again I want to uh thank everybody there for their hard work and all the initiatives that are going to be coming out uh in 20124 look forward to announcing those um in the future for engineering I am excited to announce that the work on Southgate Parkway has finally started earlier this week uh we are transforming Southgate Parkway into a m multifunctional uh pathway that's going to accommodate cars bikes and pedestrians with an added sidewalk with added bike Lanes in both directions and a very nice uh tree buffer in between both lanes it'll be a very nice prominade uh that's going to get a lot of use I believe uh later this year we're also going to be connecting that via a sidewalk and a crosswalk across South Street to ginty pool and the guy recreation facility so it's a great Improvement and it's part of your tax dollar at work uh the next Road reconstruction project is going to be on Gregory Kennedy and pine tree roadways uh tonight we had a resolution on our agenda to add a little more money for the engineering consultant uh for some additional work and the construction is going to commence Mr Quinn when do you think in April in April very good so we're getting very close and then the next roadway project after that is going to be Overlook Road and we'll have more information on that again later in the year for my general commentary I would like to acknowledge the passing of Dr Robert zual MD who is the founder of Zu zufall health clinics in mortown and Dover he passed away earlier this month on March 5th just three months short of his 100th birthday these two local health clinics are an important support system to so many residents in our area and today zufall health is a nationally recognized nonprofit Community Health Center serving more than 48,000 patients annually at service sites on two mobile units uh and in seven New Jersey counties a memorial service for Dr zual is going to be held on Sunday April 21st at 1:30 p.m at County College of Mars in Randolph um he made a great impact on our community and I'm sorry for his loss uh next a billion Muslims around the world are celebrating the holy month of Ramadan which began on March 10th Muslims Mark the holy month by fasting considered to be one of the five pillars of Islam during sunlight hours the pre-dawn meal is called a suor while the fast is broken at dusk with an ifar traditionally starting with a few sips of water and then some dates I am very excited to have been invited to an ifar dinner celebration this coming Sunday at the Islamic community Cultural Center in parsipany I would like to thank them for the invitation and I would like to wish all our Muslim neighbors a Ramadan Kareem and hope they have a generous Ramadan season thank you Deputy Mayor my reports the first all uh committee man jat mentioned a couple things um about Tac but um I serve on Tac and uh we are focusing on Mobility our events and Outreach for this year and complete streets on March 27th I'll attend Avenues in motion the County transportation Forum at CCM we talked about how we do would like to come up with a know your neighborhoods list for the township we'll be have many spring and summer Mobility scheduled events and we'll get that up and share that with everyone as well we're encouraging walking hiking trails and biking especially in the spring and summer we plan to have a walk to Marist toown day where we pass out routs from from different neighborhoods and encourage families to walk into Marist toown and back instead of taking their cars we're also discussing bus routes and bus shelters along with the senior citizens advisory committee we're sharing we're working together on that and the ebike registration and insurance needs that we see for the future we also are going to look to have some kind of a complete streets Round Table discussion maybe with some of our other municip IP alties on the senior citizens advisory committee um other than the work that we're doing with the Trans uh with tech and Andy Feldman the new chair has shared his proposal on a potential bus stop on Hanover Avenue up by the Mars Muse our um committee there on Tac headed up by Noel Robinson contacted 10 different municipalities in the area to get feedback on how they meet the transer ation needs of their seniors so we'll discuss that as well um on the Health Resources we have a collaboration with the health department and Barbara seiri who's the other chair of escac um is looking to work with them and H and also distribute the Mars County resource directory if we could leave some copies here at Town Hall we're looking to have uh they are looking to have an event called Aging in your own space and they will also continue to work with parks and wreck on things for seniors I want to let everybody know that on March 2nd at Fairchild fir house we had our first coffee with the mayor I want to thank Tim Quinn for coming out and making sure that we had coffee and Munchkins for those who did attend and committee committee and janata also came and we had a great turnout on a really horrible rainy day so please join us at the next one we'll be getting that date out to you it'll probably be near the end of may maybe beginning of June at one of the other firehouses I also want to let you know that the entire Mars Township committee all marched in the St Patrick's Day Parade which also wasn't the best of weather but that was a nice event and um last Friday night I attended the law enforcement First Responders night hosted by the 200 Club am Mars County and the New Jersey Coalition for education and Positive Choices at men and Arena our police officers participated and others from the Mars County from Mars County the Sheriff's Office the K9 unit and hope one were also there adding to committee men rabbit's congratulations to the marown basketball team we will also be having at one of our next meetings we will celebrate them and bring them in um so we can all congratulate them on an unbelievable Unforgettable season so for me in closing I just want want to say over time we continue to find so many women who never received the recognition they deserved for the duty they performed in contributing to so many great things towards our history every year we still highlight all the contributions great female leaders have made what we fail to do many times is to recognize the devotion of those women in our own lives whether they are our colleagues our family members our spiritual leaders mentors or others who enhance the lives not only our lives but others and help us just cope every single day remember to honor and thank the women in your life as you celebrate women's history month and don't take for granted the empathy compassion and understanding that comes naturally to them especially to all those they care about at this time we're going to open our second public commentary there are currently seven members of the public joining us on Zoom um we will take comments from inperson attendees first and then we'll switch over to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate if you would like to speak state your name and address for the record before speaking please note your comments are limited to five minutes per speaker if you have questions you would like answered your remaining time to speak will be yielded back for this person is there a motion to open open the public comment all moved second all in favor I I are there any members from the public who would like to speak I think we still have one hand raised on Zoom I think we should recognize Mr adamante first if he's still there yeah I think he's that's who it is yes go ahead can you hear me yes hi Joe adamante 52 Fairmount Avenue well ask she'll be first I suppose um I attended the EC meeting and I'd like to uh comment on some of the things I heard there um one of the things I noticed and I believe it was uh Tom Ashman who mentioned it was that um 40% of our tree cover are ash trees and of course they're coming down because they pose a hazard um he also mentioned that uh there's Beach tree Wilt and I can attest to that I was uh a member of uh Senator Smith's uh energy who's the chair of the energy and uh environmental committee was created U it was a forest task force we served for about a year and um it was created to advise on legislation particularly to mitigate climate change and that's where I can attest to the number of trees are coming down and there are a lot of trees coming down um as you very well know um so we need to do all we can do to medicate that and to prevent trees from coming down needlessly as you know many trees provide prot protect soil and they provide shelter and food and they mainly also hold soil in place so they they've served many many uh good purposes uh uh something that's a misnomer however with trees is that um if one tree comes down say a specimen tree um I believe the township says or many other municipalities also say that will just plant six or seven trees that is a misnomer and this is well documented it takes something like 40 trees 40 uh uh saplings over a number of years to take up the amount of carbon dioxide and sequester that carbon as one specimen tree will now as you know uh the njd is requiring that all municipalities um come up with a um a a tree ordinance which will protect then replace trees and um back in 2009 I believe it began two EC's the last one headed by Ted lman um came up with consulted with a lot of people and came up with an ordinance that ordinance did not go through in 2012 and 2013 um Committee Member Goldman worked on that um and also I was was I was asked to offer my input which I did and I was honored to do that right now uh with this new mandate from the D we have an opportunity to craft a new ordinance to support our commitment and the about about the importance of trees particularly in mitigating climate change which is a Statewide in fact a nationwide initiative so and in preventing erosion and so on so I I just note before I come to my concluding a point that uh at that meeting the EC meeting several residents and I was heartened to hear this said the trees increase property values and make our Township a desirable place to live and that's also very important you can't put a money value on it but it's very important so I would suggest you have this ordinance that was crafted and I can supply it to you if you don't have it on hand in 2012 and 2013 and you can manipulate it and adjust it as you will um and also a thing that's recommended those certain people would serve on a shade tree commission you would establish a shade tree commission and they would oversee and guide uh uh folks on what to do with trees and also the nuts and bolts actually of the issue and also appoint a u a u certified Arborist with those things I think we can truly achieve a good shade tree order I suggest that um and I encourage you to look at it I I plan to follow up I've already begun it uh with a letter to offer you more details on on on the matter but I think it's very important that we follow through uh with this cheers thank you very much thank you for your input and um yeah we've already have received a couple other letters from residents so if you good feel if you want to write please do absolutely thank you appreciate it thank you see if are there any other hands seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak will someone make a motion to close the public comment so moved all in favor hi hi the time is now 8:58 can I have a motion to adjourn the regular session so moved all in favor I the next regular Township committee meeting will be held on Wednesday April 17 2024 at 700 p.m. in person and Via Zoom thank you all very much have a great night