I almost did that myself to order this regular meeting of the township Committee of the township of Mars this Wednesday July 17th 2024 the time is now 7.m this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act and adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law specifically notice of this meeting was emailed to the Daily Record and the mors News be on January 4th 2024 and posted on the T of Mars website the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available at Mars twp.com under agenda Center certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personel Andor other matters as outlined in the sunshine wall notice to members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records act Madam clerk roll call please Mr here Mr here Mr robits here Mr J here mayor here will everybody please rise United States Amer stand na jce just before we begin I'm going to make a short statement that I'd like to um as mayor political violence has no place in our country and our communities we cannot allow it in our political process we are grateful president Trump is okay we are heartbroken for the victim of the attack firefighter Corey compar to and we will keep him and his family in our thoughts this violence also shows us that we as a country must come together to ensure the safety of all of our community members each and every one of them we must remember that we must remember [Music] that we must remember that the strength of our democracy lies in our ability to accept varied viewpoints while we continue to Value the humanity in each other to remind each other that we are Americans before and over any political label we must choose unity and mutual respect as the foundation of our political and social discourse we must rise above our conflicts and focus on what unites us make race strength and dignity guide America forward thank you the next thing on the agenda is the approval of the minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes from April 17 2024 CL so moved second all in favor I I there are currently zero members of the public joining us on Zoom at this time will we open we will open the public meeting to comment we will take comments from inperson attendees first and then we'll switch over to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom if you would like to speak please state your name and address for the record before speaking please note the comments are limited to 5 minutes per speaker if you have questions you would like answered your remaining time to speak will be yielded back for this purpose is there a motion to open the public comment so removed second all in favor any member from the public who would like to speak mayor I move that we close public inquiry mayor there's a hand rais there is a hand rais Marlene mem yes good evening yes hello everyone Marlene mem 63 Independence Way this evening I just want to address a few comments in regard to resolution 18224 and installation of syn Synthetic Turf at ginty field I want to bring to your attention that an article that I remember reading from a conservation report on the subject in 2023 and there was a subsequent updated report on this issue this past month and I'd like to read some of the things that included in this article it had to do with synthetic uh Turf and basically it's um you know just let me just read some part so this Synthetic Turf Fields have a large greenhouse gas footprint due to their fossil fuel ingredients and the methane as it breaks down testing has also revealed the presence of per and poly floral oine substances which are pfas which is also known as chemical um forever chemicals in these products which was something that I didn't even realize until reading this um it goes the Artic goes on to say that the PFA chemical that buil up in the environment and are very harmful for our health especially to Children the heat island effect on turf fields is especially dangerous on clear warm temperatures these synthetic Fields surpass 120 degrees F so I just wanted to bring those comments to your attention and I agree with the article in that we need to invest in and it goes on to say we need to invest in natural play surfaces on Sports fields and playgrounds instead natural turf fields reduce the storm water runoff or cooler safer and overall more sustainable than Synthetic Turf I just wanted to bring that particular issue to your attention this evening thank you Marlene Mrs member just for it's t Quin here just for clarification this is not for a turf field this is a small amount of turf that's part of a batting cage replacement project project so all it is is replacing what was there we are upgrading the batting cages over at gy field okay thank you very much Mr Quin for that I had read that I did not know what a batting cage was so I'm glad for that clarification and and that leads me to you know ask field a question to you regarding what is our normal procedure for uh the surfaces of our athletic fields what do we normally use on them we have a cleaning that they are somewhat like a vacuum that they are cleaned by our Park staff yeah I'm not talking about this since I'm talking now about our regular Fields do we adhere to a um you know a grass field in all our locations we only have one turf field right the corn right yeah we have we have one turf field it's a multi-purpose field up at cornine and all of the other fields are natural natural grass they are natural Gras and so um I know there was a um you know a resident that was inquiring about Collinsville and uh these folks over there have been waiting a long time for their field and and uh areas to you know be rehabilitated and everything so can they uh be assured of the fact that we will be grow going to the Natural turf fields on that uh project also so buckerfield will be remain a Grassfield okay very good thank you very much that was my comments for this evening thank you all thank you seeing no other hands raised on Zoom is there a motion to close public comment so moved all in favor I we have two present presentations on our agenda tonight first we're going to have Valerie Dolan from nisia nasia there present the 2023 audit welcome Valerie do you want you want to take the seat here yeah yeah let us know if it's too hot this one's too hot I get no the seat no I mean it's your preference where if you rather sit is that good as long as you can hear me it's good so I have to yes you're you're fine the green light is on you're you're good to go okay got it now that we're all technically set up okay I just want to say once again obviously I'm Valerie Dolan with naaia we are the uh independent Auditors hired by the township to complete your annual audit and it was a pleasure as always to complete the audit um your finance department does a spectacular job and always have to be completely prepared for us and are very accommodating while we are here um a few financial highlights that I do want to go over from this year's audit um fund balance in the current fund was about a little over $12 million which is actually an increase of about a million from where you were last year however you did anticipate more of that fund balance to support your 24 budget so the additional fund balance is helping you through 24 you actually have a tax collection rate of 99.39% it's a pretty darn almost near perfect collection rate so that's to be commended um your fund balance and your sewer utility on the other hand is down $1.9 million however by Design you used an additional $1.9 million in 23 for Capital so it came down exactly what you were expecting it to come down the pool utility is continuing to remain pretty much flat it's got its operations are basically starting to Bas rebound from the pandemic your parking utility as we all know is re is not the one that's probably mostly not rebounding it's it's getting by you are about $50,000 lower than you were in fund balance the year before during the pandemic you did pass two covid emergencies for those utilities and those utilities were fully funded and paid back in by 20 in during 2023 you do have a a debt picture that I'll give you a little bit of information you have a little over $21 million in your general Capital debt it's comprised of a little over $10 million in serial bonds and about $ 11 million worth of bond anticipation notes which are short-term notes that get renewed each year your sewer utility has about $7.5 million in debt of which 4.8 is in bonds and another 2.7 is an infrastructure loan that will be paid being paid back uh your pool capital is about $2.3 million which is also comprised of $1.2 million in bonds and another million in notes your parking lot debt is down to $35,000 which is now officially paid off in 24 so the end of this year parking lot should be debt free um I am happy to report that the audit is a clean audit with no formal recommendations which means other than accepting the audit there is no required corrective action plan um in the report or required by uh the C by the committee we do have a few suggestions to management we feel those are the more important things those are the areas that are future coming areas we see that Improvement can be made but they're not the level of any type of corrective action required it's more to bring some information the first one is is there's a new standard I love to sit in front of everybody and tell you I'm going to change the way I report things again so we have a new standard coming that standard is for next year is under the area of compensated absences and the accured liability we have to show it a little differently in the reports going forward in the past we just tracked that liability um we will have to assess a probability to that liability now in addition so basically instead of just doing the calculation you'll have to look at the history of the township and say people and assign some probability to basically bring that liability so if you have people who are one to five years the likelihood of them retiring and receiving that is different than someone who's been here for 30 so they're asking you to apply some um probability to the number Federal funding as you have always have Federal funding and we're still in the area yes we've spent all of our covid funding however be feds can always come back in the next couple of years while that money is still out and available they can always come in and do an audit um you do have some older Capital ordinances it's always been a policy of the township to review those annually and cancel the older ones so we're just saying stay on that path and continue to cancel and then the last one which I'm aware I'm sure you're all aware of is your m of the Garden State Municipal joint Insurance Fund that fund is struggling and they are going to Pro reassess some additional assessments when you're a member of a joint Insurance Fund it's really great when they're doing well but when they have to go back and look at the old years for claims there is a potential for an additional liability through the um additional assessments fortunately moris Township is very very good and very conservative that you have always kind of hedged your bets on the joint Insurance fund and put money aside every year just in case that would happen so that money that you've set aside will probably be tapped into in the coming year two years but it won't have an impact to the residents because you have been diligently putting money aside for that potential um I want to say thank you for the township for having us conduct the audit and I am open to questions anybody have any questions just want to say I'm sorry yeah I did see yeah it was on are you had mentioned that the sewer utility collected $1.6 million less is that no your your fund balance is down $1.9 million but you used $1.9 million of surplus in the 23 budget for Capital so you basically your Surplus came down from where it was was it a about $4 million and it's down to about $2 million but when you developed and adopted your 23 budget your Capital went from a normal $ 1.6 million to almost $4 million you you utilize your Surplus for capital projects Jee we also had that clarifier project that was unanticipated so that was an emergency appropriation uh for that and then adding in the second clarifier to do that so that was a big part of why we went down and then um with covid and Office Buildings we've seeing a decline in the collection for on the commercial side um for that because not as much it's based on water consumption and not as much water has been being used by many of the uh Office Buildings and we also service The Office Buildings um in Marsh Plains too so which get build out directly by us yes great those are very two important points of clarification Y no pun no pun intended flid is still gold um so as part of your analysis also uh was the rate that we're collecting at for residential uh you know I'm wondering we haven't raised the rate in a while I'm not saying we're going to raise the rate uh did you make an analysis if we're currently charging we look at what you're currently charging based on consumption and do tests to make sure you're charging at that rate we have not projected out your rates to Future that would be a separate um rate study is what it's called it's a rate study where you look at all of your rates and you look at your protect pending future budgets and make sure that the rates that are charged are being are going to be enough to support the operations that's a separate engagement okay but but based on what you saw this year and the collections that we had and not given the the extraordinary circumstances extraordinary circumstances some extraordinary circumstances um does it appear that we're collecting at the appropriate rate you are a little bit low so if you like I you're probably like if you budgeted here's the the you budgeted sewer used about $6.3 million and you brought in about 5.9 and that really is the side of the commercial that Tim explained that your sewer rate is based off of water consumption you have less water consumption in the commercial buildings the commercial billing on sewer is on a lower end so you're you had about a shortfall of a little about $375,000 in revenue from what was anticipated right but we also Tim we also have a bunch of new con actions in the pipe right we do so to speak yes yeah we do and we'll be seeing um additional Revenue coming in um with some of these developments that will be will be built and what we worked out with a another development that's outside of mar toship but we are obligated to continue taking um the affluent and we're going to see a fairly significant increase in the amount of affluent that we're going to receive okay um and I had uh one other question for now just the uh opening page actually of the audit is the comparative balance sheet says regulatory basis yes and this is not my forte the accounting of it so walk us walk me through what a comparative I mean a comparative balance sheet but what a balance sheet is because I'm looking at the bottom just looking at the bottom line numbers where there's a $2 million approximately difference between the two years and what caused that from a balance sheet perspective it was 22 it was 24 milon 654 2022 and 22 million 501 so that what what caused that first of all what is the balance sheet supposed to reflect and then yeah what what what's being reflected here I mean when you look at your balance sheet um yeah so under a regulatory basis you basically are recognizing obviously Revenue at Cash levels you are not recognizing them there's not an acrel on those revenues you don't get to you don't get the benefit of the revenue if you don't physically receive the cash so under that's why it's a unique regulatory basis it's New Jersey the change mostly in your balance sheet and why you see that structure really Falls because under the current fund you also report all your grants grants fluctuate so significantly year to year and you're coming out of the biggest piece of your grant money that was in the audit as of last year was your American Rescue money which was spent so you saw that money going out this year and that was so the grant money's out actually were a swing of a little almost $2 million so that part of your balance sheet on the current side the swing was a little bit less but it really is in the sense of what types of payables you had less payable you had some less payables you had some additional um your receivables are down because you have a higher tax collection rate so because you collected more cash it's on the fund balance side versus being in the receivable side and the other that's the bigger swing is in the area of prepaid taxes prepaid taxes was as of December 22 you had almost a million dollars $900,000 in prepaid taxes you only had about 600,000 this year those are just taxes that come in people pay their taxes ahead of the game and so those numbers swing so the balance sheet can fluctuate in an audit on that basis but I think your biggest swing when you're looking at 24 versus 22 it's the grant money that was $2.2 million and is only about 100,000 in the balance sheet side for the current year okay y great thank you sure thing any other questions mark I'll some comments thank you mayor um just first off I just want to thank Valerie for the partnership as always working with our team as our auditing Partners thank you Sean and Tim and his whole team for put together bud every year as always I did just want to know and I read we talked about slasher to just wanted to reiterate uh to the residents watching or the recording uh in the future is that American Rescue plan funding unlike a lot of municipalities in the state we use strictly for capital projects a one-time funding project as opposed to plugging holes and we're still seeing municipalities across the state raising their Municipal tax rates significantly over 10% still because they use this money in 2021 2022 to fill their budget gaps and try to protect their residents for you know for tax increases that were going to be inevitable and they were just kicking the can down the road uh their residents are suffering because of it and I'm glad that this board uh in the past you know in years past when we had this money ready to go we were diligent and what we were using it for uh so we weren't going to be burden with that additional cost in these years so I just wanted to comment on that I know that's what Mr V you know recommended to us from the GetGo that's what our professionals were recommending and um the town's better for it and was already mentioned before Collinsville will shovels will be in the ground in within weeks and that was major that major project we fing for corre but just wanted to comment about that right thank you commit gey um if I just just on reference to the added assessment that we're looking at with the Garden State J um I anticipate formal action to be taken next week at the Joint Insurance Fund meeting okay and then I will have um an explanation letter and going out with the additional information as to how that is assessment but um we've always put away extra funds um in anticipation of added assessment so the good thing is we tap into that we don't have to raise it in future missal budgets to to do that it's going to be over a 10- year period and um that's money's already kind of Tu tucked away we tucked it away tucked away so it doesn't have an adverse impact um in in future budgets great again miss Dolan thank you so much for your excellent work and to Sean Ferguson our CFO his Department Tim Quinn and everybody here just uh thank you very much do such an excellent job thank you thank you have a great evening everyone thank you B um in just a minute I'm going to call up we're going to have our transportation advisory committee annual report but I would like to welcome our intern in the back of the room from the Mars newsby I met Andrew this afternoon and he said you would be here so welcome to our meeting at this time we would like to welcome the transportation advisory committee uh Jim hunt who wrote the report for 2023 the TAC annual report and Andy Feldman if you'd like to also come forward you're welcome got DJ to come oh and DJ was everybody gets recognized it takes team to do work so taking the mic whoever's going to speak either that mic or we have to turn this mic on thank you there's a I'm I was chair last year which is why I've prepared the report we've started a tradition where the chair of the Year reports the annual report and then the chair and the next year is chair this year will presumably do the report next year so that's why I'm giving the report now DJ was vice chair last year continues as Vice chair and uh last year we had a lot of fun a lot of work and we think some good accomplishments for a committee that's about three years old or so couldn't have happened without the commitment that the township committee made a long time ago to look forward a lot of what we're doing I think is focused not on today only but on what can happen in the future and that's important so important I think as we move forward with transportation that becomes even more critical as we move forward with new kinds of E Scooters and scooters and bikes and all kinds of things that are going to be on our roads the road space is limited the variety of ways to get about on the on the road space continues to proliferate so it's part of what we've tried to do in anticipation of the future what I'd like to do is the reports up on the screen for those who uh are looking perhaps rate here with us at home um largely I'll go through the the report Page by Page and please kick in guys if you have something you want to add uh I do want to mention that last year we we had as our committee Representatives Comm and grelle and the mayor uh and this year CA is with us in the transportation advisory committee and valuable contributions as well in their support as well as the township professionals with Tim Quinn and all the others who help engage in the activities that Tech is charged to do under the township ordinances running through the folks who are on the committee it's Rick B David Wilson uh and Betty Simmons Christina rer Steven drazo Andy of course uh and DJ page forward please page forward there here we are okay this the right page uh no we'll skip over this page I kind of summarize that one more there were pictures throughout here of some of the activities this is the Bike Rodeo when we were at let's forward another page and go to the accomplishments projects and accomplishments what I just gave you is somewhat of a a summary of of those kinds of things one of the major things we did and and happily it's continuing this year was Mars Township in motion those of you who have participated in the event I'm hope you enjoyed it we had this this year's version of Mars T and motion record turnout for the Normandy Park lo I think we had 20 almost 30 almost 30 people in Mars Township in motion and it was with the support of the Township community that we were able to uh take What Might Have Been a single event as many places do which is to take may as bike month and turn it into something that says let's get out let's be active let's explore the township let's look at the neighborhoods and talk about ways you can reach those neighborhoods perhaps not using a car because car-free movement activity of any kind is not only healthy but it's also good for civic engagement and so many other activities that we do along the way I think residents have begun to find that there there places in the township they never knew existed uh certainly I think some of us at least for me there were places in in the years I've been around that I had not been to so they're great ways for the township to get out and to suggest that you don't always have to use a car to get to those places along the way we had seven neighborhood park walks at Fairchild jockey holot toop joneswood Woods Collinsville twice e Green Cemetery a walk on laan for seniors two bicycle rides um we had some prizes that we gave away for some of those Mars tman motions events and um our professionals supported the publicizing of those events so we could get the the word out to people and the committee was kind enough to pass a resolution approving Mars Township a motion so that was one of the major things we did conduct a survey as a result of the Mars Township emotion events to continue to gather information the role I think that we really try to play is to reach out and listen and many times for people to dip in and tell you is hard at least for many citizens in town but if we reach out and try and listen a little bit we gather some more information and I think we've been able to do that with some of the work that we've been doing the discussions on many of these Mars tman motion walks have been Rich discussions about the things that have been going on in the township and and with Transportation next page please that community outreach I was just talking about here it is okay included a sign as you see that was put together Tim and his staff helped us get that together we wanted to get methods to utilize more of their input and make sure they had the that opportunity to ask questions so in that regard we also in addition of the motion events had an information table at Winters Farmers Market to answer questions about Tac and the New Jersey safe passing law which is new to a lot of people we got regular updates on Township Transportation projects police education enforcement actions recreational activities from the township professionals worked with the uh Tim to create a Tac Banner as I mentioned and increase the materials linked to the TAC tab on the township website and mapped EV charging stations in the township explore the use of mapping for other Mobility support such as parking lots bicycle parking glow speed road bicycle routes and Trail connections to the road Network all the activities I'm mentioning by the way continuing this year uh with Tac building out and building on what we did last year next page please um we call this connection Gap audits there's sidewalks that aren plugged there's a sidewalk and then not a sidewalk there are bike lanes that or places where bicycles May ride where suddenly it runs out there are mass transit gaps uh in the township we have the roots we don't necessarily have the directions or the way to support people might want to use mass transit of course we're all familiar with the convent train station but there's also the bus routes that run through uh the township that some some of our citizens make use of and that uh we've been exploring a lot Andy's been taking a lead on on the bus shelters and um I think TJ you've been involved in that as well have you not yeah okay um the audit of the sidewalks was conducted by our mayor and uh our administrator and our engineer and uh identify 14 gaps that could be added to the map and considered for funding on a priority basis and the bus routs as I mentioned uh I must say by the way that the sidewalk PRI I hope everybody's walked the sidewalk along Sussex everybody been there it's just such a terrific addition as is the I don't know when the ribbon cutting is but what we've what the township has been able to do on Southgate Parkway there there are so many examples of supporting the kinds of activities that we hope can happen more and in the township and those audits that these audits help us identify where we might prioritize and make those changes uh if we can move to the next page please we began last year to reach out to other Township advisory committees and departments to develop special activities and to be to look at the synergies that can go on between these between the advisory committees the township is set up the advisory committee system from at least from my perspective is such a fantastic way to get people involved in the kinds of things that they made be most concerned with the Morrison Township and motion events this year are taking advantage of that coordination by involving the historical committee the um environmental committee yeah senior committee so we're we're building on that cooperation learning from each other seeing what we can do to help the township move forward by listening by gathering that kind of information we were happy that we were asked to to uh help out with the Bike Rodeo we hope one's going to happen again us again this year we're looking forward to that uh I can remember I think DJ was Chief uh adjustment bike mechanic during that uh the senior Club helped with the walk along U the lon path last year the head of the environmental commission came and spoke to us and we had a number of webinars that we attended uh as did the mayor Avenues and motion had their first County Gathering to get gather information support of the township goals and uh we've also participated primarily with the work that I've been doing at a number of state level groups like the complete streets working group and the vision zero Alliance and a number of other groups so we can continually get an information about what's going on around us what's interesting about so much of the work that we hope to do in the township and elsewhere is that it's often styed by what is at the next level of government's responsibility the county road becomes a barrier when you want to do something or at least a challenge to do something the State Road even more so what's going on with the funding what's going on with the grants all those things are ways that that can either Foster or or block the kinds of things that a Township wants to do and moving forward to the next page thank you one of the major activities that we engaged in over the past last year and the year before was looking at a state enabling policy call complete and green streets this is a policy that encourages about 180 towns in New Jersey now with it about six counties I believe that have these completing green streets policy and basically what it says is you are going to look at this public resource the roadways and the the what goes along with the roadways and make it make it the highest and best use it can for all Road users and safe for all Road users within reason within the way in which a Township wants to design what it's going to do in some ways the had already been embarked on these kinds of activities with the traffic coming policy which was passed by which was shephered by DJ in 21 along with the township professionals I believe yeah Builds on that builds with with work that had been ongoing with the township professionals what a policy like this does I think one is outline clearly some ways in which Tac can work with the professionals the professionals can work with Tac as T being the completed Street completing green Street's advisory body but it's also a way to that when when the membership of a committee may change when this commitment that's been so strong by this committee may not be remembered as strongly that it's a policy that's in place and it says this is the way things are done in Mar statue it's safe streets for all in Mars Township these are the things we do in Mars just what we do even though it may have been done and may have may not be done a little bit more it's a way of ensuring for the future that what has to happen we believe at least and that is the balance of Transportation needs is met in the future and I won't go into detail on the policy it is there for your review as well and that's my very quick run through of a lot of activity that we had last year for T anything want to add no thanks for all your work last year and continued uh support this year J oh happy happy to do it Glenn Andy's taking over that's great and DJ's continued you're the original member and one of the original one of the original members of tech and thank you thank you to Jeff and Donna and C it good to be with you this year any questions for us any questions from the committee I I have comments but I have have questions but same I just have comments me too um thank you all three of you for all your hard work Jim I know we work together closely and DJ too when I was on Tac um I know you have a strong Advocate and former mayor Kathy Wilson who's on to listening to your report tonight she was a huge ADV for Tech I remember working on her on the ordinance to create it a few years ago but um your work is so important and I think you're seeing a lot of that work come to fruition with a lot of these projects that we're having not just Southgate but Normy Parkway Jim I know we talked about that for a long time and I was just reminding some of my colleagues about those public meetings about the design the site the design plan for the sidewalk and uh I think I was shocked with how much fear there was about a sidewalk and now every time I drive down Normy Parkway there's families going down the sidewalk there's um you know people running like getting around safely and that's what it's all about so thank you for all the hard work that you guys put in in the background thank you for advising us and supporting us on investing our town dollars in these projects that are beneficial to everyone um I did just want to comment or put this on your radar we'll be having probably hopefully later this year an information session on our community center project and I know we're going to need a lot of um I think input on how we're going to get residents there on gan stre whether it's people walking from the neighborhoods to get there coming from freeling heisen senior buses to get there and I would love to have you know some Tac members there once we get that meeting scheduled uh to advise us on what things we should think about um but again thank you for all your hard work um and you know keep pushing us to do more well thank you and I I think we've had some limited discussion about the new community center I know I've ridden through there and looked at some possibilities for for what can happen it's this exciting project naale and thank you for for mentioning Kathy Wilson all that all that she did on thank you Kathy U and instrumental by the way in helping us get the complete and green streets policy across the finish line so all all thanks to her for what she's done I just want to Echo what uh committee M deor had said I had not had the pleasure yet of being uh on on Tech I look forward to doing that in years to come what's has come out of the TAC Advisory Group has been nothing short of outstanding for Mars Township and I would love to see something like that done on a countywide level U what what you've done for the residence really is fantastic and I just want to say keep up the good work I know that there's going to be great ideas when we have residents who are and to continue to give their input and and with the guidance of the governing body I think we can all do great things so thank you very much and keep up the good work thank you thank you there's active work at at the county level trying to get a complete and green streets policy the njtpa is sponsoring a series of Safety Action plans that Mars county is engaged in that I'm working on that committee and we'll see what comes of uh the Safety Action Plan in clayon green streets but the county level there the counties that have it have been able to make more progress than the counties that don't absolutely good thank you any other yeah Mr yeah I'd like to thank you for doing the mors Township in motion because I last year when I was still a civilian I I I was in this Speedwell Avenue speed well walk and I enjoyed that very much and this year I was one of the nearly 30 people in the Normandy Park walk I'm going to talk a little about when I do my my own comments and I enjoyed that and it you really bring bring in the community with that and everything you do and plus the cross-pollination with the the other groups like historic preservation and environmental and it's a it's a model for what what can be done for anybody else thanks thank you plus I enjoy my time at Tech may I also want to thank you guys for a great presentation on the work you do some of the original things when we put together Tac was to get people out of their cars and onto their feet and bicycles and buses now that Andy's brought that into the mix too um just to put less cars on our roads uh which has the added benefits of less air pollution you know cleaner air for all of us to breathe and there are a lot of ancillary benefits uh to getting people out of their cars and into the different modes of transportation so it's really wonderful you know five years later seeing all of these things really come to fruition um so thank you guys for that and I also wanted to remind the public you know that these three gentlemen sitting before us are volunteers that are just giving their time to make Morris Township a better place for all of us so I really wanted to just thank you and the other members attack as well as all the other advisory committees that we have for really stepping up uh to lead the committee uh doing the good work that really benefits all of us so thank you for that thanks very much and not only that you know so um it's been a pleasure for me to have worked with all of you and Andy did after JY you came in stepped up and you've done a great job and um I just have to say especially these three but the whole uh Transportation advisory committee when called upon by whether it's parks and wck or any other of the standing committees they jump up and volunteer Andy just came out to the try harder Triathlon which was put on by parks and Rick and it was a rainy driz L 8:30 in the morning event to start or 7:30 in the night and and they were there so we really appreciate that support you guys really do an outstanding job and thank you so much well thanks to all of you thanks for setting the path and allowing us to work on it you're certainly welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but please don't feel OB if you have to be thank you very much thank you thanks for thanks thank you we have one ordinance for public hearing and adoption on tonight's [Music] agenda is there submarines Madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 204 into the record we will then open the public hearing ordinance 20-24 an ordinance amended chapter 88 entitled vehicles in traffic Article 2 a section 88-2 A two and schedule two handicapped parking space note handicapped parking space new hand we will take comments from in-person attendees first and then switch over to zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate if you would like to speak may I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 20- second one all in favor all seeing no members of the public and no hands raised is there someone would like to make a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor I I may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 20-24 move second is there any discussion or any questions Madame clerk may have a roll call Mr Griselle yes Mr JY yes Mr janata yes Mr robits yes mayor glia yes I Donna J glia mayor declare ordinance number 20-24 approved and adopted and direct the Township Clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper we have one ordinance for introduction on tonight's agenda Madame clerk please read oh wait we did this right 2124 okay yes please read the title of ordinance 21-24 into the record ordinance 21-24 an ordinance of the township of Morris County of morris state of New Jersey approving the financial agreement for tax exemption in connection with the Redevelopment of block 1041 lot 3.01 the retail project and block 1041 blot 3. 06 the grocery project in in accordance with the long-term tax exemption law njsa 4A semicolon 20-1 ET seek the exempt law note Financial agreement for pilot for Leal may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 21-24 so moved second is there any discussion or any question on this ordinance Madame Clark may I have a roll call vote Mr gazelle yes Mr janata yes Mr dorfy no Mr Ritz yes mayor glia yes the public hearing a final consideration and Adoption of ordinance number 21-24 will be held Tuesday July 30th 20124 at 5:00 p.m. for a special meeting in the municipal building 50 wood Avenue we have 19 resolutions on tonight's agenda may we are going to do the first one number 17624 separately may I have a motion to approve 175 17524 may I have a motion to approve resolution 175 we need to we need to read it yeah we need to read yes we need to read the amendment yes so mayor um there was um there is there was an amendment proposed um there to this resolution and then there was a further just cleanup of it so I'll read I know the goverment body has an amended version and there was just a few cleanup on it that are just um nothing substantive so uh the amendment that is proposed in the third where as Clause um the it'll Now read The Authority has made a representation that the proposed development will not impair the ability the Authority's ability to meet existing and reasonably for able service requirements within the district um there was also uh the addition um after there'll now be a sixth whereas clause which we'll read um whereas the township M warus entered into a certain Mutual cooperation agreement with the applicant in December 20120 which obligated the township to affirmatively support the applicant to secure any and all necessary approvals including a water purchase application from the authority and whereas the township believes that based on such Mutual cooperation agreement is now obligated to support the applicant's water purchase application Authority through the passage of this resolution and whereas the Township's adoption of this res resolution is strictly limited to the project located at block 23-h sorry2 lot five and in no way obligates the township to approve any further requests related to purchase applications to the authority of any other developers and whereas the Township's adoption of this resolution should not be considered the Township's acquiescence Andor acceptance of the authorities representation that capacity exists for this project or any future project um so mayor I I think there's I think we need a motion to amend the resolution as just proposed so first is there a motion to approve the amendment of resol resolution 1752 yes I I approve the amendment right is that the right wording I approve the amendment I propose that we approve the amendment or I move the I move the amended resolution as read into the record so so um what's the appropriate a motion to am a motion to amend the res resolution as proposed is there a motion to amend the resolution as proposed I make a motion to amend the resolution as proposed uh with the language that Mr caner just read into the record second no is there any discussion is there any discussion or any questions I would support the amendment the amended language okay and then you just need a roll call mayor vote then do we have to vote on the actual yes this is just the amendment this is just voting the amendment language and then we're voting on the amendment yes correct okay in case some because it is possible that a Committee Member would rather have the original language and then first we have to determine whether or not there's a consensus to amend it and then we'll see if there's a ases to approve it so we have a motion in a second and any other discussion hearing none Madam Clark may have a roll call vote Mr gazelle yes Mr ravitz yes Mr Dy yes Mr janata yes mayor ggia yes now may I have a motion to approve the amended resolution 17524 so moved I'll second that I would like to make a comment Y May uh thank you so um I thank you for agreeing to the Amendments uh to this resolution I just want to make uh one point that there's language in there the last whereas Clause it says whereas the Township's adoption of the resolution uh sorry the second to last adop second to last whereas Clause whereas the Township's adoption of this resolution is strictly limited to no sorry excuse me it was the last where CLA whereas the townships option of the resolution should not be considered the Township's acquiescence and or acceptance of the Authority's representation that capacity exists for this project or any future project I just want to go on record that you know based on the representations that we have received from SMC mua I personally am uh not uh feeling confident that we do have the capacity uh it's possible that we do uh but I am still looking forward to receiving additional information uh from SMC mua to assure not only us but the other three municipalities that the appropriate capacity does in in reality exist for this project um but I do support this resolution because we do are are obligated under the mutual cooperation agreement to to support this but I I am hopeful that SMC mua will provide all four municipalities with the additional information so that we can move forward confidently knowing that we have enough capacity in in the system thank you Deputy Mayor any other comments Madame clerk may I have a roll call vote Mr janada yes Mr gazelle yes Mr JY yes Mr Abit yes may yes and now can I please have a motion to approve resolutions number 17624 through 193 d24 by one motion so move second Madame clerk may I have a roll call vote Mr Dy yes Mr Jada yes Mr gazelle yes Mr RIT yes mayor Gia yes we have two items on the consent calendar this evening can I have a motion to approve the items on the consent calendar by one motion so moveed mayor second all in favor hi I consideration of monthly reports the following reports are on file in the office of the Township Clerk and Township administrator the June 2024 tax department and the Mars Town Mars Township and I have a motion to approve the monthly reports so move second all in favor claims for payment the total amount of bills and vouchers for this meeting is 10 million 84,85 17 we are also the tax collector for the school district the library and the county may have a motion to approve the list of bills and vouchers so moved second Madam Clark may have a roll call vote Mr robits yes Mr janada yes Mr gazelle yes Mr JY yes mayor gri yes yes at this time standing committee reports and general commentary will be provided by each Township Committee Member and we'll start with committee men thank you mayor before my committee highlights I just want to talk say the environmental commission is starting to look for into Community composting as such I intended the summer compost Cafe at Princeton at the dinky bar it was hosted by the New Jersey composting Council that's an actual group and we spoke about All Things Rotten I asked about Community composting and they said that there were state and federal grants available which we'll certainly look into and in addition the green team has continued to collect data sets for renewable Su renewal of sustainable Jersey bronze level and they're also developing a web page for the town on the township website in terms of TAC we just heard about that I as I mentioned they had the walking tour at Normandy Park held in June 29th it was well attended with about 30 people it was hosted by Carol Barkin of the historic preservation commission since Normandy Park is one of our historical districts and we also walked along the new sidewalk and we also walked along on the other side where there was no sidewalk and Carol bar and had gave brief history of of uh every part of the all the older dwellings some of them don't exist anymore for and she told us why some are burnt down some just knocked down but among the sites were 11 Oaks featherly estates and Fair Acres and a historic plaque will be installed on Norm Parkway near Madison Avenue so when anybody wants to walk there there there's a there's a marker for them to see and another walk was done this this past weekend but it was not as well attended only two people aside from the host one of them was me the other was my son but we still had a good time and and if you want to know some things about who are who our streets are named after that's a nice walk to go to so if you want to know who harder was for harder Road or Mr kemell was for Mount kemell that's the the the host was uh will tell you all about that and and future walks are going to be in my neighborhood in Jones woods and later on jockey holop and at Lewan there's going to be a senior walk in August and at uh September I think we're going to have one in Fairchild and the traction line will have a bike ride and at finally at the first mors we have we held the first mors town of Pride event on June 30th committee man Bud rabbits was the MC he told us more about it but I was more impressed by the keynote speaker Dean daffis who was the former mayor of Maplewood and current councilman he gave a very moving speech about his personal journey through his life and then as a public servant as the first opening gay gay person in elected official in New Jersey and normally I talk about local neighborhoods but I want to address the recent bouts of political violence the recent assassination attempt has shocked many of us and right now the motives of the shooter is still not known but what is known is that political rhetoric has recently increased and has been has increasingly been heed where we go from figurative demonization to literal de literal demonization I mean historically Americans have always been argumentative America is a land of dichotomies some mistake them for contradictions but we quite often find ways to work with each other and compromise be it foreign or domestic issues we find ways to speak with each other as president Lyndon Johnson often said let us reason together sometimes we change our minds sometimes we don't but we rarely resort to violence one major exception was the period before up to the Civil War but that was not without attempts to try to quell the pending conflict the war occurred because both neither side could find compromise and by the war's end the ultimate victim was President Abraham Lincoln himself I was reminded that Lincoln had a saying embroidered in his jacket which he wore at his assassination it was one country one destiny this means that we may have differences but we as a nation as a people have a common future a common Destiny in spite of our disagreements we can and must work together our dichotomies are not meant to be divisive but are two sides of the same coin we should heed Lincoln's own words we shall nobly save or meanly lose the ba last best hope of Earth the ultimate choice is ours where we decide as a people which direction we shall go Madame mayor thank you Kevin and JY thank you mayor um I'll start off by echoing Mr Jada's statements um I continue to be horrified by the events that unfolded over the weekend the assassination attempt was not just an attack on President Trump and his supporters but it was an attack on our democracy our Democratic process and our right to Peaceful elections in this nation we are better than this my condolences are with the families impacted by this violence I plead with all Americans that we abandon divisive violent and equal rhetoric that then we move forward in recommitting ourselves to building a better and brighter future for all Americans um for General commentary I did just want that I just have an an inquiry for um Mr Quin mayor on do we have a start date forville yet not an official dat we're working on all their submittals and they're under review right now by nv5 and then going to our Construction office for their review so we anticipate though by when we originally spoke to them and gave them the notice to proceed before the end of July but I don't have a dis definitive date until we finish up with their submittal review great so they have motion they have the notice to proceed yeah we we issued the notice to proed uh beginning of last week have notices gone to the resents about the work starting we have not um thank you for that um last month I testified in front of the State Assembly and Senate budget committees in support of a bill a446 one which is legislation that would directly impact Mars Township and more specifically the Fairchild neighborhood for several years now unregulated hemp products have been sold throughout New Jersey with little recourse having chaired our cannabis advisory committee last year I have heard directly from residents with their concerns about these sales taking place on stel Avenue at multiple locations within the close vicinity of Albert Vale and red oak schools St Virgil's church and of course the homes of the Fairchild neighborhood intoxicating THC products being sold in towns without consequence even if the town opted out a sales of cannabis products is just wrong these gaps in the law prevent our police from enforcing age requirements for these sales of these products and prevent our town from prohibiting their sales in sensitive areas such as school zones where they're currently being sold uh once inside one of these Stores um or at a gas station you can see packages on the shelves being labeled as Rice Krispie treats chocolate chip cookies and brownies which are directly targeted toward children uh and these labels say that they these products can have um 50 milligrams of THC or more despite the fact that the state of New Jersey works so hard to ensure quality and safety for consumers through its Landmark cannabis laws these unregulated products are on the shelves without safety checks quality controls or anything else to ensure their safety for those consuming them throughout the state regardless of the towns opted out of Canabis sales or not is a terrible irony that a municipality like ours which has well within our rights to opt out of posting these dispensaries has absolutely no enforcement power to stop these sales fortunately the legislation I went down to Trend to support received strong support in both Chambers and is awaiting the governor's signature the bill will protect the legislative intent of the state's cannabis laws by placing these products under the regulatory authority of the Cannabis Regulatory Commission which is the proper regulatory authority to ensure their safety and quality for those buying them and of course it'll ensure that these uh products are being sold to those of of age it also provides a saturator Authority for law enforcement to now start being able to enforce uh the sale of unregulated intoxicating products in these places that have no business selling them to begin with uh without this Common Sense clarification to the law more un unregulated businesses will continue to pop up selling these products so I urge the governor to sign this bill and I'm looking forward to um being able to make sure our residents and Fairchild um can rest easy knowing that children are no longer able to buy these products without any safety checks or whatsoever so um if the governor does sell the bill U sign the bill it should be be able to be enforceable I believe in 30 for 60 days um and I Know Chief sheer also went to Trend to support the this legislation as well um like I said it came up during our canas advisory committee meetings I've heard from residents directly who live right down the street from these uh stores and uh I appreciate all the support um from the industry who've been trying to get this legislation passed so with that I will you back mayor thank you JY and thank you for your all your hard work on that and for going down to Trenton and you know that was really not only for us here in the township but for everybody we appreciate that mayor rabbit may may I ask May uh committe for your question before we continue sure just for clarification so that those those hemp products that are for sale can anybody any age walk in and buy them like a 12-year-old can walk in and buy it really yes without recourse without recourse y wow and is the bill did you say it's on the governor's desk waiting to be signed so it's been passed by both houses was passed by both houses few weeks ago few weeks ago overwheling support and he's taken two weeks to sign it yes okay very good there was um a late Amendment to the bill which allows liquor stores to sell um and products with alcohol without being under the um basically as is and which again Municipal Authority so the cannabis laws were strong in my opinion because every town like ours had the authority to say where this these products being sold um that's not going to be the case for uh for tripping products with P so essentially uh even though we can control where cannabis retail is theoretically um these products can be sold at any liquor store throughout the state without um any oversight from the municipal authorities and that was added to the bill and that may be why the governor is part of the bill that's on his desk right so that was the Compromise to get it through the chambers was to support the alcohol liqu store L it wow okay thank you for the clarification committee man rabitz uh thank you mayor U I just really want to uh applaud my colleagues on the day as you know often times we you know we talk the talk but up here in in Mars Township up here on this day as we we also walk the walk and it's really such a pleasure to be up here with such an outstanding group of of individuals who do walk to walk and I think the residents of Mars Township are are very lucky to have such a thoughtful and and Discerning governing body U as as as committee janada had said you know we did have our first Annual Pride event which was held on June 30th and you know for all int to purposes it was a big success we did have nearly 40 people attending and uh a number of them had offered to help for our second annual event uh which will uh be bigger and better with with more advanced planning U we will have H quite a uh substantive uh Improvement on on what we were able to do and I'm thrilled that this is going to become an annual event and I want to thank all those people who have come up to us afterwards and have offered to help on the planning of the of the second annual event and we will start that planning uh toward the end of uh this year we also had a successful ribbon cutting ceremony finally at our new basketball at at Court located at giny field that was a lot of fun um please always visit the parks and rec website for all the latest postings about all the great things that are happening around town and I sure do hope that people are enjoying uh cool staying cool in our pools and our concerts and I I know a few of them have been um uh postponed due to the weather but you know we will get we will get them all in um and our and also our movie Nights it's it's our pleasure to do those for you regarding um the recent shooting in Pennsylvania I I want to be clear that I deplore and condemn political violence and violent rhetoric in all its ugly forms it has no place in civil uh any civil discourse period we should all be better than this and we should all demand better than this when someone or some group promotes violence as a tenant of their political ideology then should any of us be surprised when actual violence erupts have we not seen this play out before in all too many other shootings violent political rhetoric plus guns equal a recipe for actual political violence only one group today is calling for a ratcheting down of the violent rhetoric while some in another group are calling for more of it without telling you which is which I pose this question which side would you rather have have running our nation come November after you think about it for a moment ask yourself who are you voting for or against in November remember remember that answer that you're going to tell you've given yourself when it's time to cast your vote in November uh because that's all that matters and as always I'll say let's not marginalize or demonize the people who have less political or economic power that some of us currently enjoy rather let's stand up to those people who continue to profit from our division equal rights for all citizens doesn't diminish the rights of any other citizens we have more in common than should ever divide us which we will ReDiscover by talking to each other and that ties directly into what happened this past weekend in Pennsylvania amplifying misinformation and hateful or violent rhetoric is not part of any civil society and lastly before I turn it over back to the mayor remember that as you go uh throughout your day to be kind be kind to yourself and be kind to others because it matters thank you mayor thank you committeeman rabbits deputy mayor grel uh thank you mayor I'd first like to uh acknowledge and thank Mr rabitz for his opening comment about the work of this committee and the walk that we do uh in doing the good work of Morris Township thank thank you for those kind words my for my standing committee reports uh first one is edak the economic development advisory committee met last week as a reminder this committee meets every other month so six times a year we had a presentation from Andy Feldman of the transportation advisory committee who is here tonight uh to update the edac members on what Tac is up to we also discussed the edak initiative of creating a business signup form to post on our Municipal website so that we can start tracking all the businesses that are cited here in our town our new tax assessor Aaron Wilson was in attendance and I saw him taking copious notes so I am glad to see that Aaron has hit the ground running uh for police on tonight's agenda we appointed Karma pakola as it to the position of a special law enforcement officer the special officers are assigned to patrolling our schools located throughout the municipality most if not all are usually retired police officers and officer pakola recently retired from our own Morris Township Police Department for sewer on our agenda tonight was a resolution awarding a contract for the Styles Street and ggary Avenue pump station meter chamber Rehabilitation our sewer system takes sewage flows from several other municipalities including all of the sewage flow coming from Morris Plains and this particular project gauges the flow through a meter so that we know exactly how much flow is coming from Morris Plains and this project is yet another example of Morris Township continually investing in our infrastructure the Reconstruction project of Kennedy Gregory and Pine Tree Lane is ongoing and will be a a great upgrade to the neighborhood with new sidewalks Belgian block Curbing and upgraded drainage this is another great example of how we're continually investing in our community to make it nicer for our residents the construction of Overlook Road in Westminster Place should take place uh shortly and I get regular inquiries about bayy Hollow Road so I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind the public that this road is scheduled for resurfacing at the end of the summer or early fall so later this year we'll have a new biley Halla Road or at least a new Surface on bile Halla Road uh for my general commentary I will start my commentary by adding my voice to those of my colleagues condemning the act of hatred that occurred this past weekend against former president Trump we should all be thankful for the quick action of law enforcement who ensured the former president was safe and we should all the mourn we should all mourn the loss of the innocent bystander who is the father of two daughters one of the organizations that I do work for personally is Jewish Federation of New Jersey and I am on their Community Relations Committee one of the initiatives that I personally participate in is an interreligious group called Community leaders against hate so this is something I have actively been working on to combat and hate comes in many forms these days and I condemn all hate in all its forms it has no place in modern Civic Society whether it be religious hate ethnic or racial hate or political hate it is up to all of us to help put an end to it we must all call it out when we see it and we must all report it if it is threatening to another member of our community I believe that hate puts our democracy at risk it is completely antithetical to how our Founders designed our system which is rooted in the idea of rigorous debate of ideas that makes our country stronger so we all need to commit to the peaceful resolution of our differences sometimes to agree to respectfully disagree and call out words and deeds that threaten violence I'd also like to comment on the guilty verdict in the trial against New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez I would like to add my voice to the many calling on him to resign immediately from his senate seat New Jersey needs proper representation in the US Senate and Senator Menendez can no longer provide adequate represent representation for the citizens of this state or the citizens of our country now for my other General commentary um I would like to congratulate the Morris area Little League 12 youth team for winning the sectional one finals way to go boys and good luck in the next round and it's too bad that tonight's concert with the Handover wi syphony was postponed yet a second time because of weather concerns so let's hope that the third time's a charm so check the website for the uh Municipal website for the reschedule date and that's all I have thank you mayor thank you Deputy Mayor um just a quick update Menendez ising um as far as my updates I just have a couple uh things uh Transportation advisory committee I know committee and janata gave his updates I also just wanted to let everybody know that um we had a bus ridership inquiry and the results of that actually did show some very low numbers but we're going to continue for pursue more Transportation off options to help our seniors get around also the micro Mobility challenge that we did at both our pools was a great opportunity to educate the residents on what Tac does and we thank the volunteers for participating in that and they're continuing to look at other places to get out some of that same information marown in motion the events Outreach committee under Mars toown and motion is attending the movies and concerts and they're actually there to give out communication from tac to all the residents the next event is August 17th at jocky Hollow top nature walk and then the one after that is August 22nd and that is for our Senior Walk at lanica and that's a very easy one for the seniors at flat and we have a lot of people there to help if they need any type of help to go on that short walk the complete streets committee will meet again with surrounding municipalities to discuss some future plans and we'll be setting up a project with Avenues in motion on Speedwell Avenue along with our police department near the local business area there to inform the public of some safety best practices things like cars who pull up and they Park their car in the crosswalk and now they're blocking part of the crosswalk certain things like that um and I had mentioned about the try harder Triathlon and the TAC volunteers I did want to say that was the first time I got to be at that uh triathlon on and it is really nice to be in the shoot as the runners come down and you're handing out their medals and at all of them whether the little ones all the way up to the oldest participants just all have Smiles on their face so that was really special the senior citizens advisory committee we're working on more information being distributed and continue work on communication improvements I have to give Virginia Murphy a shout out here at Town Hall she's been excellent to the seniors on not only up the website but and also getting information out for them when needed uh they continue work on Health Resources and also on Transportation I also attended the senior lunch in at Fairchild Firehouse this week they had a great turn out and I have to tell you if you get a chance anyone else up here on the day is to attend um they have a DJ they all do line dancing they really have a good time and so many I went around to all the tables and so many residents and nonresidents are there as well but so many of them are so appreciative of what we do for our seniors so to your point committing and rabbits is just another thing that this group I think for a long time has been concentrating on and has done a really good job at uh they are also looking into doing some type of senior resources in health fair in the spring of 2025 that's something I'm sure they'll work closely with our health department on and at one point we also on the community center we will be looking to meet with the seniors just to get their input and feedback on some of the things they would like to see there as far as my commentary I do I want to give a lot of credit to committeeman rabbits I was at the pride event and not only did committee rabbits he was the one who did the proclamation and he brought this to our attention and with our support but in a very short period of time we put together a great event and we were surprised and how well a turnout we had thank you may and the amount of people that came up and said they want to be part of that going forward you did a great job on that one other thing I want to mention a little bit too because for all of our residents of course we've already heard but we'll be hearing more of it I just want to let you know as mayor I've been attending every webinar and session I can on the affordable housing we have a sp mayor group that we also get together we've all been looking for good governance and bipartisan support around reasonable laws to help guide us through this process the obligation obligations should be achievable so that housing can be affordable and follows the best practices not only here in the US and other parts of the country we might see but also internationally we can learn a lot we will at some point we will be holding some kind of public meeting for residents to learn more about the process and you will have the chance to ask us questions as we move forward on that and then I just wanted to mention that today uh business administrator Tim Quinn our engineer Jim slate and I we did attend a meeting in Hanover to hear about a documentary that they're putting together with other municipalities on the whiy Pake River flood remediation um they've created a task force and we will continue to consider whether or not we want to join the shared services agreement they had as they put together and help to try to dnag uh the whippy River um there is a lot more to it and I know both our engineer and and Mr Clin have some comments after we attended it but it is something that we all want to support they did get Federal funding and they're looking forward to doing some more there the last thing I want to say I had the opportunity especially over the last week to spend some time at Streeter pool near me my grandkids have been visiting and again I just have to also give um the township and parks and wreck a shout out the staff at both the pools they're amazing they're doing a really good job it's not always easy to keep everything going but my grandkids had a ball um and if you have anyone in your family whatever age especially with this heat try to get over to the pools and use them they're really a great asset for us so other than that I think it's time we have five members in the public joining us on Zoom we will now open the meeting to the second public comment portion for General commentary we'll take comments from inperson attendees first and then switch over Zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom if you would like to speak please state your name and address for the record before speaking please note the comments are limited to five minutes 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 comment second all in favor all right seeing no members of the public and seeing No Hands raised on Zoom is oh I'm sorry Miss mem yes sorry about that a last minute thought um in regards to the Cannabis um advisory committee has was there a final report on that and where can I find that website yes there was a final report and it is up on the township website under under that committee correct correct okay okay thank you very much and good evening to all thank you very much pamel Watson Pamela maybe check can you hear me now yes yes we can okay my name is Pamela Watson I resided to Corey Road Unit D for Township I I know the last meeting I attended you guys are going to be having a meeting to get a date on when con I guess the renovation would start for Collinsville playground and well I was in the meeting he said it was going to be in the fall but you going to meet with the I guess factors are they also agreeing in the fall Mr Quinn Miss wat I misunderstood your question and also from Mr dry last meeting as to the actual start date I thought that was the date that they had to get going by but it's been anticipated they will be starting at the end of July oh it is okay because when I first heard that it was going to start in the fall I thought that we would at least be able to have a summer concert in August but it's getting ready to start at the end of this month okay yeah yes ma'am we issued them the notice to proceed um earlier last week and we're waiting for some submittals and once they get the approvals that they will be able to begin the work up there we're hopefully that they'll be there before the end of July okay great thank you because I did reach out to bill of parks and wreck I'm on that committee to see if we could have a concert in July if it was going to be in the fall but I didn't reach out to him again let him know that's not going to be possible okay I believe believe he sent you back an email on that and Pamela what you know going forward that is the reason we didn't have any concerts or anything put over in the Cil area yes I figured there wouldn't be any concerts this year through there because the renovation but I always I thought it was going to start in the spring and the summer so it started it's going to start in this summer at the end of this month so thank you very much for that information we certainly will look to put concerts or movies or something over there next summer completed is Mrs memmer hand raised again or just mayor I make a motion to close second okay Z all those in favor I the town the the time is now 8:25 can I have a motion to adjourn the regular session so move second all in favor the next time that we will convene and this is a little bit different is on Tuesday July 30th 2024 at 5:00 pm for a special meeting the next regular Township committee meeting will be Wednesday August 21st 2024 at 7 p.m. in the municipal building 50 Woodland Avenue both meetings are in person and and with a courtesy Zoom link we are adjourned smack