24 in council chambers Sparta Township Municipal Building 65 Main Street Sparta New Jersey the regular meeting is opened at 7:04 p.m. all Council meetings are now live streamed and can be viewed at the following link www.youtube.com at Sparta wp/ streams adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 5th 2024 by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice may we have a roll call please councilwoman Quinn here councilman shell I am here mayor Clark here and now may we salute the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all tonight I have the distinct honor of presenting a proclamation uh and as I present this Proclamation I'm kind of reminded of a uh quote that uh Mother Teresa had which is love cannot remain by itself it has no meaning love has to be put into action that action is service and so tonight uh we recognize uh two young men who have put uh their love of their Community the love of their hobby chess into action um this group is chess for charity and I'll read about that them in the proclamation but I will say they have through their efforts uh through chess for charity uh raised over $1,510 [Applause] um and the beneficiaries of this include uh Jenny's house which we all know uh does a huge service um to uh people who have been abused uh particularly children uh also the sparta food pantry and there's like 12 other organizations that this money has been donated to and it really is organizations like yours uh that help this town Thrive it's not just the officials up here and our wonderful staff and the employees we rely on committed citizens like you um who step up and do that and we have a lot of wonderful nonprofits and organizations throughout but you have really distinguished yourself so it's really my distinct honor I know it's the honor of my fellow Council people to honor to you tonight so with that I I will read the proclamation whereas chess for charity is a charitable Venture founded by three brothers who enjoy the game of chess and have been playing since elementary school they have won various State and National level chess championships with Sparta schools chess club and whereas Ash y I'm going to BR your name I apologize um and anise ER who founded CH chess for charity when they started a summer camp for kids in 2017 and during Co formed a nonprofit 501c3 when they saw that food banks were struggling and whereas the brothers have been offering one-on-one chess lessons both virtual and in person these consist of senior classes for Parks and Recreation after school lessons for the hilltop County Day School USCF rated chess tournaments and summer chess camps to raise funds to donate to charitable causes and whereas chess for charity has donated to date $15,512.71 Town Hospital nurses in addition they have also donated to International Rescue committee for Ukraine Refugee relief and the Neuroscience Department of milenberg college Jenny's house and the rep and the laap nation um now therefore be it resolved that the township Council of the township of Sparta hereby extends their congratulations and best wishes to the chess for charity and their incredible and well-deserved victories and urges all residents to join in in on EX sending congratulations to them for their outstanding achievements so thank you very much for what you've done and what you canb and thank you very much for what you've done um at such a young age to realize that um it really is about what you give to your community that matters it's not what you take um and youve boys have exemplified that and I hope that the grown-ups watching uh will pay attention to this and emulate that as best they can we have plenty of wonderful adults here but we could use more to contribute to the community in the ways that you have so congratulations I know you have you want to say a few word so I'll pass the mic okay all right thank you thank you um hello everyone uh I'm aaya and I am the CEO of chess for charity and a senior spot high school I'd like to start by thaning the Town Council and our mayor Mr Clark for this recognition we would have never imagined when we originally started teaching chess in our basement 7 years ago that we would end up here in our first year we had about 10 students But as time went on the SP Community helped us grow year after year and then Co happened which ended up shutting everything down including our summer camp but when one door opens another when when one door closes another opens one evening while watching the news of long lines at our summer at our spider Food Bank uh we decided to help and use our chess for good at that time our mission was to help the SPO Bank known as the spider Community Food Pantry fast forward 3 years and we have donated to 12 communities and I'm currently working on a fundraiser for Alzheimer's New Jersey and as we plan to continue to make a difference and help more communities to this day it is truly an honor to be here and we cannot help but thank you for recognizing ches for charity thank you hello everybody my name is Anish and I'm the CT of chess for charity when we first started this company it was like 2017 so I was only 9 years old at the time which is kind of crazy to think about I was like this little iy saw when I um I've got to see this company grow along with myself over the past couple of years and it's like been kind of magnificent and I'd also like to give a few thanks to numerous people so I'd like to thank first our oldest brother and adviser oot who he's um he's the third one of us actually but he's in col so he can't be here unfortunately uh he our advisor he's like the he was the one who was like the main teacher at the time or when he was still here and he's been supporting us ever since even in college which is awesome and now people that are here I'd like to thank our youngest sister Vanya could give a round of applause she's our store manager and also our youngest sister and her like confidence it or inspires me and I can tell that by the time I graduate the company will still be in good hands with her leading it I'd like to thank my dad another round of applause he's our chief TD for most of our tournaments and he does a really good job at making it run like efficiently and smoothly as possible and we can't do any of it without him I'd like to thank my mom a lot because she [Applause] y she continuously supports us through all of our endeavors and always pushes us to do for and better we would not be here she's I think the one who actually encouraged us to start Chesser to move on from teaching into our basement to actually like you know donating it uh our money to foundations in need so we quite literally wouldn't be here without it and lastly I'd like to thank all of our sponsors students along with their parents cuz we would not be here like in this position without any of them they played a vital role in like helping us grow and pretty awesome uh thank you all for being here and supporting us tonight we could not have done it without you and we hope that as we grow we can continue supporting more people great job Mom and Dad y'all should be really proud um you know we could only hope to raise Sons as committed as yours so thank you thank you get one do you have a website or a Facebook page or someplace where people can go and find out more about the organization. is chess last name okay all right thank you right I don't know how we're going to top that for the rest of the evening but we'll try but I don't think we will um so I welcome everyone today um I think it's we've seen the change in weather uh it kind of reminds me of um there's a quote from Great Expectations that it was that Charles Dickens said it's one of those March days when the Sun Signs hot and the wind blows cold when it's summer in the light and winter in the shade and I think that kind of described what today was like but I I love seeing the sun I know our DPW is hopefully glad to hopefully see the snow behind us even though they do a fantastic job of of getting rid of it and moving it all right we are now at the point where we have to approve certain minutes of um prior meetings and so may I have a motion to approve the December 12th 2023 regular meeting minutes as presented I move that we approve the regular meeting minutes from December 12th 2023 as presented may I have a second I'll second all in favor I I the motion carries the regular meeting minutes of December 12th 2023 are approved may I have a motion to app approv the January 9th 2024 regular meeting minutes as presented so moved may I have a second I have will second that all in favor I I I motion carries the regular meeting minutes of January 9th 2024 are approved now at this point I will kick it to our uh able Town manager Mr Jim Zep and M may I have the manager report Mr Zep thank you mayor good evening mayor council Sparta residents uh you may have not you may not have noticed entering uh however the lights in the front of town hall columns are dark green which commemorates the 110th anniversary celebration of the Girl Scouts in the public works department I've already started getting inquiries to when the paper shredding event is the annual Sparta Township free paper shredding event is scheduled for Saturday May 4th from 9:00 a.m. to noon in the town hall lower parking lot the event is rain or shine and is open to all Sparta residents businesses and nonprofits details can be found on our website the Public Works building and ground staff completed Renovations and improvements at the Public Works building the improvements were necessary making the front administrative offices more secure for visitors and deliveries in our Parks and Recreation Department the recreation and senior citizen division is currently taking registrations for this year's Sussex County Senior Olympics which will take place in May if if any seniors are interested in this event as well as other opportunities as in the monthly craft program and bingo they can call 973 729 2383 or visit the parks and wreck office located underneath the sparta Library the parks maintenance staff has begun preliminary field preparations most fields are closed due to the wet weather however recreational staff will email sports groups when the fields are open Park staff also continues working on new picnic tables benches and Performing the required small machine maintenance on tools and equipment the SP of Library the next Council connect is scheduled for Friday March 22nd during the day from 11:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. this program continues to Foster good conversations between the residents and Town Council Members in their utilities department onor about April 1st the first round of lead and copper testing of the Township's water supply system will start the water utility director appreciates the anticipated cooperation in helping them complete the state required testing by following the included instructions when a bottle is left at a resident doorstep the township utilities department recently received and reviewed proposals from four vendors for interior water water storage tank inspections at various locations this should be done every 5 years to best plan our tar M our tank maintenance program construction Department continues to accept lead inspection requests for rental properties in the township as well as completing the administrative processing of them starting March 18th the lead testing will be handled by a certified lead evaluation contractor that the township has contracted with this should alleviate the task of the homeowner or landlord having to find someone to perform the inspection this new process is a result of the recent ordinance passed on February 27th construction Department staff will provide information on the new process as the requests come in for the months of January and February the construction department has issued 259 permits and performed 750 inspections through uh for our fire department through uh the New Jersey uh Department of Community Affairs uh we're fortunate enough to be awarded $50,000 in a grant that the fire department had uh had applied for and this would be used for self-contained breathing apparatus or SCBA units and in firefighter hoods Chief mccarrick will now read his portion of the May's report this concludes my report thank you mayor council and Sparta residence thank you manager Zep thank you mayor thank you Council February 26th through March 1st lead instructor class was hosted at the sparta Mohawk Avenue School we had six of our officers become certified in in K through 12 this is the first time that a full uh lead training has been hosted in a school and we're proud to do it here in Sp Florida we had uh officers as far as Ohio come to this training I'd like to thank Dr Beck and the mulab staff for accommodating this training and we're going to continue to grow our program and we look forward to this year's lead day for fifth graders which takes place on June 6 by the permitting the sparta Police Department recently purchased a drone to assist with dealing with emergency incidents with this equipment it will assist with attempting to locate missing or endangered individuals such as individuals who may have been suffering ing from a medical episode and have wandered off or individuals are simply lost in the woods and we've had that happen plenty of times here before additionally it can be utilized to locate individual that committed a crime and have fled during the attempted apprehension on an oem level it could be utilized to assess damage from natural disasters in a safe Manner and the Drone was purchased utilizing grant funding detective Steven Guido has recently been trained and certified as a drone pilot with the FAA this past week we had our Top Cop 2023 top cop and top props award and what that is is we had a uh sworn police officer and a civil employee who were honored by the the police department these honor honoraries were named by members of the department as being the top employees of 2023 this is the first year that we actually did a top civilian employee uh we've been doing the Top Cop for the past three years so examples of of criteria that could be considered um for the civilian employee could be anybody that's a civilian employee such as a dispatcher a records Clerk Administrative Assistant Animal control officer it and support staff um and it could be voted on with many of different uh skills that they have and and characteristics and it can only be voted on by anybody with the exception of Command Staff so Command Staff uh myself and my lieutenants have uh no say in this it comes from sergeant and and Below but they voted on the communication skills integrity and transparency willing to learn and grow community service involvement and the ability to get work done in an efficient manner and that's just a few of the things so this 2023 tops prop for the sparta Police Department's first top props award goes to Marie Morrow uh who is the administrative assistant with our police department and you know what the officers and and what the employees do is they anonymously uh vote they put in why they think this person should be named as a as a top employee of the year and give a bunch of different examples but uh uh two of the things that really stand out to me is her high level of Integrity um and uh someone wrote It's hard to have a bad day when you see her smile and she's a chief of police must have which I could definitely say that's true uh last but not least she's the mom of the police department I think we all feel that way about her so uh well-deserved congratulations to Marie Morrow for the clop props award for the Top Cop um any officer without rank could vote on this so primarily it's voted by an officer by their peers uh no lieutenants no sergeants no Chief vote on this and again communication skills Integrity transparency ability to take leadership stance willing to learn and grow uh how specific incidents were handled and how they responded to them community service involvement and how officer conducts them eles off duty and obviously mentorship skills are just some of them uh this year's recipient uh is Officer Christopher B and I know we had officer B up here a few weeks ago when he delivered a baby and I just want to make it very clear that these votes had came in before that incident even happened wow um you know officer B is a young man with the Department as I said before some of the things that his officers his peers described him as as uh hardworking knowledgeable always willing to lend a hand incredible communication skills a true student of profession always looking to grow constantly mentoring younger officers respectful humble empathetic self-motivated proud to work alongside him he's a people's cop which is is such a great statement right there because he truly is uh somebody for the people the drive and work ethic are onm match dedicated to his career um he has the skills and attitude to become a leader and he never shies away from uh helping um and I I did mention to my staff you know one thing that stood out there was he has the skills um to become a leader and I've said this in the past before you don't need to have rank to be a leader um I think it's special characteristics to make up a person that uh they it's just a natural thing that comes and you don't need any kind of rank or supervision to to be a leader and uh he truly is going is in that position as a leader here with our department amongst the uh young men and women downstairs so congratulations to offic B so delivering the baby was just spiking the football is what you're saying that was that was just the the uh the dance I guess you could say but uh congratulations to both and that concludes my report thank you yeah thank you and please send our uh congratulations to miss Morrow and officer B I'm extremely proud of both of them abolutely um and there's a reason why you know we have the top police force as far I'm concern in the state of New Jersey so thank you wel thank you and may I have a motion to accept the manager's report I move oh go ahead I move that we accept the manager report as presented may I have a second I'll second all in favor I I I the manager's report is approved and before I move to public comment um one thing I wanted to uh ask I think with the State of the Union address it kind of got me thinking about um you know what's the state of the the sparta Union um and by my measure two of the ways that you measure uh sort of the health of a town um is one is what are your outstanding debt obligations where are you you know do you where where are you with paying off bonds um do you have looming debt next is another metric is well what have you done about infrastructure do you have looming infrastructure projects that come down the pike that you haven't addressed or that you need to deal with and so with that I would just you know ask Sam who's our financial expert how are we with you know our debt obligations with our debt obligations most of our bonds in the general fund the the general Capital fund uh they will be paid off this year um we have probably about four million outstanding in notes that basically notes you have a 10-year period to pay those off without going out to permanent financing um we're on schedule to have those all paid off within that 10-year period um so debt wise we are very good shape um right now on the it's going to be a tougher budget year this year obviously we we've had it pretty easy here for a pretty good run because the economy was was decent but the way the prices have started to go up now Fuel and everything else and the last it's it's going to be tight so this year we may have to we may have to increase the budget a couple of cents just to you know the the tax are at a couple of cents just to to keep up with where the economy is going and the higher pricing that's coming out right now and I'm sure everybody sees it at home uh you know we're just getting it on a much larger scale here from what we buy with the town but you know my wife and I live you know basically at at home uh we we buy enough food when we go shopping once a week um you know basically so so we can eat at home and those prices have gone up so much now that we went from probably about an average of A4 to 150 a week last year we're over $250 now every time we go to the grocery store just to get enough food to eat for the week so as you can see the prices are going up and you know we we try to manage this in a way here that we tried to you know we we know you all work you all got to feed your families you you got to do your stuff and you know we try to be very easy on the taxes um and honestly I could say as far as the taxes go and again we're the funnel through for the school board we're the funnel through for the county so all of the county to tax and Schoolboard tax comes through here and we pay it to them so we try to make it so that you know we try to keep it as stable as possible and um you know so we're financially pretty sound great thank you and Jim you've had your PS on sort of infrastructure and you know I I I as I stay in this position and I learned more about it and that this is where you know towns have gotten into trouble is they they' kind of deferred infrastructure improvements uh for a long time until it becomes a crisis and at that point they have to say oh my gosh we need to deal with this project and I know we just approved a bond for our water infrastructure to improve that but what's sort of the state of our infrastructure that that's correct uh mayor and we had this conversation before and I I was assuring you that the town is doing very well in my opinion on infrastructure and I started nameing stuff that that that we've done um we've taken all the underground storage tanks out of the ground we we dodged the liability on that we put uh the above ground fuel system up at the DPW stay of thee art facility it's an outstanding uh uh asset now and it's uh safe the insurance company likes it I I was really pleased with the way that project went um then uh Town Hall here as you may or may not have known we had some roof troubles and uh it took a little while but we finally addressed the roof and we have a a fairly new metal roof that is going to last a a long time and they've got the solar panels on them and the solar panels don't penetrate the roof they actually tag onto the seam so uh we haven't seen any roof leaks so the town hall is doing well uh Station Park we added the extension garage uh on the maintenance there um that's that's doing well um a lot of the facilities are in in really good shape and one of the last areas that needs addressing is the water department and hence the 2.2 bond that we've just done and uh we're looking at doing uh all kinds of upgrades for that system um the the headquarters out in Germany Flats is is relatively in very good shape it's the The Pump Station assets that and the tanks that I had mentioned in the report today uh that we're working on now but overall we got a pretty good hand on it so I I'm pleased with that and just to clarify that a little bit more the way it's structured out with our utilities now obviously we have three Utilities in town we have the solid waste utility which is basically all of the users that are regular residents all part participate in the garbage collection it's $75 a quarter to have your garbage picked up two times a week every week it's a pretty darn good deal I mean I live in wage uh I take my garbage over and at the landfill and I'm paying 50 bucks for maybe two or three bags and that's like every two weeks so it you're getting a real sweet deal with the garbage um we're going out to bid again hopefully it'll be the end ofth we're we're thinking it looks pretty favorable because uh uh the hauler we've gotten is really decent and uh I think they've got a sweet deal here as well as far as their travel and everything else so hopefully it'll give us a good price and we could you know be real good with that as far as the water and sewer goes if you have Water Town water or town sewer you pay for that by the rate and it doesn't get passed on to any of the taxpayers that don't have water or sewers so if you you know live out and you have your own well and and your own septic system you're not paying anything on on that it's it's all separate utilities and all that money that comes in from the users is used to pay off the debt and pay off pay the budget expenses thank you building off of that um we should be having a budget meeting soonish right isn't it around this time every year or yeah I've been working on the budget pretty much uh we're we're hopefully by the end of the week I'll be there that to have everything tied out and tied in I've got most of lines in but it's just doing the final tie in okay I'll get something on the schedule excellent thank you right thank you and chief we're still the as far as you know the safest town in New Jersey right we're in the top 10 all right so you heard it here the state of the sparta Union is very strong uh with uh low debt um you know fome infrastructure and uh Safe Streets so thank you to all of our staff uh and our leaders who who make that happen we really appreciate it I know that the town appreciates it so thank you we are now at the first uh open to the public section uh this is limited to items not on the agenda so if you're looking at the agenda and you see something you want to talk about now's not the time uh now's the time to talk about something that's not on the agenda uh also we have a 5 minute limit so that we can um give everyone want an opportunity to speak so if you have anything that you'd like to tell us uh that's not on the agenda please step up to the mic and hold fourth come on Beth you know you want to do you guys know me yet or do I have to do this you have to do it every time for the record I broke it don't start the five minutes yet you can hold in your hand just no I'm still on North sure and I'm still bath um I just have to follow up on the last meeting cuz I emailed you guys about short-term rentals and I just wanted to follow up um to the email about short-term rentals and affordable housing and if that could please be considered because I know it's a concern for town the town and the residents to make sure that we have enough affordable housing for the seniors and the young families that are moving in the airbnbs are kind of taking away the opportunity for people that have been here for 38 or 40 or 50 years if they need to downsize not just in the lake but also in Sparta alog together and if we have people that are saying yeah I live here here and here and I have a short I have an airb and Bay you're taking all of those houses off the market not just in town but also in like Mohawk where there's already a rule or a law in place I know that came up last meeting too they're not allowed to they're not supposed to do them for Less Than 3 months so we could kind of keep that in and if also we could again talk about the safety because I know there have been issues with Airbnb people that are renting them not the owners but the people that are renting them and causing issues where the police are called out we have a lot of seniors and again a lot of kids and we can't have an issue with safety where people that are partying and out and doing all kinds of stuff until 3:00 in the morning being A disruption to to it I mean we're a residential area if there's part of Sparta that you can stick them in go for it but not in the primarily residential areas and the other thing was and I know you guys saw this with we had like guys say well it's great for the tax revenue but if you have people that are invested in the community they're going to go to the restaurants and the doctor's offices and the banks and everything else and they're going to be spending money too it's not just hey I rented my house for five grand so I'm going to pay taxes on that because if you have people that are going to crows and go into Cafe perau and everywhere else you're going to have them around using the stuff and they're going to take more care in the community than people that are thinking oh I'm just at the lake it doesn't matter or I'm out on a farm doing whatever so if you could please take that into account do I have time all right that's all I got for now can I save my two minutes can't Bank time I'm sorry all right but you said you said it all so thank you that's all I got yeah thank you anyone else uh wishing to have public comment on an item that's not on the agenda hi I'm Barbara Bea 94 West short trail and I spent some time writing notes but there pretty much the same as what she just said so if you can stand listening to it over again but I did have some um comments um first of all I want to thank you guys for entertaining these concerns I know it's a difficult situation um but I did research the zoning um and zoning laws and I came up with that it is a um it's in place as a nu a nuisance preventing tax IC to separate incompatible uses to prevent new development from harming existing existing residents to provide stability to property values in in essence it's protecting factories from encroaching on retail retail zones from encroaching on residential zones and of course residential zones being encroached from vacation rentals and tourism when I retire as a widow to my dream home in the R3 single family dwelling Zone I was buying into a way of life I knew there were limits on the principal and conditional uses required there were setbacks there was a long list of restrictions in that zone and they are there to protect this way of life and to protect our safety and our property values currently my neighbors are amazing we are all engaged in this way of life um some are elected officials we are volunteers there are School teachers there are coaches we shop locally we eat out at our Sparta restaurants and we respect our neighbors in our community and those seeking this family residential way of life cannot be guaranteed if short-term rentals are allowed my concerns and questions are if my neighbors which are literally her deck and her swimming pool are 15 ft away from my living room um rents every weekend to strangers I'm concerned about safety I'm concerned could they be registered sex offenders uh could they um I'm concerned about the noise and I'm concerned about the burden it puts on our police force to enforce this is the outcome if what is the outcome if short-term rentals become more prevalent what if it's highly successful and everybody joins up on the bandwagon is vacation rentals tourism and economic development really going to be enhanced over the same property being housing a family even if they are a family that's a long long-term rentals renters is providing supplemental income for short-term landlords more important than our community if so is that more important than the well-being of our neighborhoods thank you thank you br I'm Julie Kellan I also am very concerned about the short-term rentals I am a realator New Jersey protects the tenant not the agent or not the landlord if someone moves in and doesn't pay their rent the utilities that landlord has to pay it all or his house freezes in the winter and his pipes break no no one vets these people we have no idea who they are are they sex offenders we have to come up with some kind of program that protects us and not just these short-term rentals and vrbos nobody checks those they're not supposed to use the facilities in the town they do everything so I'm very concerned thank you thank you thank you J and just to clarify um one point I'd like to make um I've been a landlord most of my life and there are a lot of landlord protections as well um but you're right that there there are also significant amounts of rental protections no I want I want to thank everyone for if there's anyone else that wants to speak on this I encourage you to do so um you know as it stands right now as you can see you know we've had I think a total now of three sessions on public sessions about short-term rentals we take this very seriously we take the input of the community very seriously and I know I I've done my own independent both into the legal and and policy implications of short-term rentals and while I can't tell you where I've precisely landed I will tell you soort of the so you can get a window into my thinking and I can't speak for any of my other Council people but I will tell you that something that does concern me is that we do have a housing issue in Sparta there are people who need to have long-term rentals there's people who need to have houses and we are a primarily residential Community now maybe back in 1936 where this was a summer Community we've evolved from that it's a residential Community where that we have uh residential zones and what I know my fellow councel I think I can speak for they don't want to changed the character of these zones um I can I think that being primarily residential is is a serious factor that does weigh against short-term rentals uh and anything that would change the character of that is something that concerns me and I know it concerns my fellow Council people and I know from you know short-term rentals have gotten a lot of policy analysis from groups as you know the economic policy Institute has looked at it and they've made the deter ation that if you the more you expand short-term rentals the more that you then lower the accessibility of both long-term rentals and and people who in houses that would be for uh purchase and also it raises rental rates and so communities have looked at that and so those are factors that I'm you know considering when we come up with this I do also know that we have short-term lodging issues in Sussex County there is not a lot of hotels there's not a lot of places to stay I get that and I think you know people know that I'm very interested in um you know generating movie production in Sparta well one of the things that you would need would be someplace for these people to stay and so if I was only acting in that interest then it would be easy to do short-term rentals but that's not the job that this it requires it requires looking long term and what is in the best interest of the people who live here now not necessarily the people who want to come here and so I know that that's something that um I'm weighing but I I felt it was necessary for at least the public to know where my thinking is going the factors that I'm considered and please know that whatever in ordinance we introduced it's been the product of a lot of diligence by not just me but councilwoman Quinn councilman chello they've all looked into this very thoroughly and I think the people of Sparta should be very pleased with who they have representing them because they take the job seriously and they dive into it and I've benefited from my conversations the input they've provided and so when we introduce this ordinance soon please know it's not going to make everyone happy but please know it's the product of a lot of work and trying to do what's best for uh the people of Sparta so thank you I'll add something real quick and I don't want to have a a structured policy decision because I think all council members should be present for that um and we will have that discussion when we introduce the ordinance that aforementioned ordinance um but um uh especially with that comes to housing um housing is a very hard problem uh we're not the only community in in the country that the state or the country that faces the housing problem but this is pretty much ubiquitous across the country and pretty much in Europe and many other places Canada and um it housing and Australia has a huge housing problem housing is getting more and more expensive um and if anybody had a solution to that um I that I think we would seen uh we would have seen that um there are a couple of very structural problems That's Unique here in this country with housing uh one is that um our our tax code and our our our um wealth is is structured around property ownership so much of it is around property that's why you get uh interest mortgage interest rate deductions on your property ownership um it's it's a very it's fundamental to Growing wealth in the country is is property ownership uh that makes it that provides an unnatural incentive to make sure your property is worth as much as possible and keeps going up because that's where that's that's where the structure points it to um and secondly you know single family zoning uh requires an awful lot of property for a smaller house across a big big areas and that naturally takes the uh shrinks the available land for for a a property for a home uh on the size of your Township um I I I can say I live when I lived in in Europe in Germany for a while I I lived in a neighbor Town very similar size to Sparta um very similar type of neighborhood or type of Township about the same number of people living there uh and there were you know I lived in a Triplex there were huge homes there were small homes there was four unit apartment building down the street that my aunt lived in uh it was a wonderful neighborhood um but it didn't look anything like the single family sprawling front lawn zones here that's just what we've become used to in America um and that's I'm not qualifying that at all that's fine but the byproduct of that is a lot of land is used up in the township and that's it makes it even more expensive to buy house anyway the point is that there are struct very serious structural change uh structural uh conditions that make it hard to solve this problem um but we all take it very seriously we've we've talked amongst ourselves many times about what we can do um there are there are very few Clear and Present options oh yeah of course we if we just did this we would have affordable housing it's not that simple um but uh but know that we are we've all we've been working on this for a long time and and we will continue to work on it and we'll find we're to continue to try to find some solutions that um are attainable thank you we're now up to the um expenditures uh council member Quinn could you please read the expenditures for March 12th 20124 I move that we expand uh funds to meet the bill list in the amount of 2,497 3721 funds permitting may I have a second I will second then all in favor say i i i u the uh Bill list uh for March 12th 2024 is approved uh we do not have an introduction of an ordinance nor do we have a hearing of an ordinance so that gets us to the second public comment period and this is limited to items that are on the agenda which would be uh the resolutions and so looking over at the resolutions does anyone uh of the public wish to have a comment related to the resolutions okay seeing none um I would like to uh carve out uh four five and six just so we can get an explanation to the public of what those are about uh so I I will may I have a motion to approve resolutions 91 through 93 I move that we approve resolutions 9-1 through 9-3 may I have a second I'll second all in favor of approving resolutions 91 through 993 I I so resolutions 91 and 93 are passed that now brings us to resolution uh 94 uh may I have a a motion to approve resolution 94 so move uh may I have a second I will second it okay and if before we get to the roll call vote uh Mr Zep could you tell us what this uh it's a resolution authorizing the township of Sparta to enter into the north Jersey Wastewater Cooperative pricing system so what's the Wastewater Cooperative pricing system what does it do and why do we need this ordinance it's a purchasing Co-op like many of the other co-ops that when we did our first meeting we enter into to like the state contract uh like uh uh the Mars County Co-op the es andj Co-op and basically these are are um groups usually with the lead Agency on this one the P pic Valley sewage commission leads this Co-op up and kind of related to the topic we just talked about we have a 2.2 uh million dollar bond for water our water utility well that Co-op has chemical pumps Wastewater pumps they also provide services for pumps uh and they do chemicals and uh they also have guidance for troubleshooting uh all out of that Co-op so um it was uh brought to our attention uh that this I didn't know this Co-op existed that uh and and we're in a lot of co-ops and the benefit of the co-op I have you know Sam would could speak better to it but uh you don't have to go out the quote you don't have to go out the bid all that work has already been done so it's a very efficient way of purchasing products and uh the the idea though we do our due diligence the idea is that you're going to find your best pricing in the co-ops because the vetting has already been done uh all the members are listed in that Co-op and uh uh the vendors uh work hard to become part of that Co-op so that's a a short explanation of of of of that so I'm asking that we approve to be uh membership into that Co-op so we can take advantage of the products for uh our water utility great thank you for that explanation so all those in favor of approving resolution 94 say I I I'm uh resolution 94 pass may I have a motion to approve resolution 95 so moved uh may I have a second can you second it yeah I will second the motion to approve resolution 95 and before we go to a vote I'll uh ask um uh manager Zep to explain what this uh resolution is about or Sam whoever is most feels most capable we we brought this up before so uh jcpnl uh we've been working a lot with jcpnl because of all the activity in the town and whatnot U but jcpnl is uh petitioning the the Board of Public Utilities um to entertain their largest infrastructure project uh to date um the resolution in the bid in your packet your agenda explains it pretty well but what it doesn't explain is that they want a petition for five years $935 million that would go towards uh the upgrades in in the infrastructure of all the electric uh in the state so you dig deeper on on some of the information that's not listed here what does that mean to Sparta I'm being told from jcpnl was proposing to invest over $53 million in subst stations circuits serving Sparta Township customers alone to strengthen the backbone of the local Electric System by modernizing the grid and making the system more resilient in modernizing substations so when I see it benefits Sparta at 53 million that's when I say okay I I bring it to you guys to to support this because um you know JC Pano has been catching a lot of flak especially a few years ago when we had a lot of vegetation issues and they put that big program out is a very similar program to this except this one's even much bigger than that program so um they're asking all the entities who are affected to um U by resolution support the project as they presented to the BPU thank you I've a couple questions um so you're saying it references almost a billion dollars 935 million in targeted Investments you're saying out of that 935 million 53 53 milon is so more than 10% is coming or Sparta just Sparta yes just to Sparta and uh that's over five over five year period the other 600 communities carved are getting the rest of the money but 53 is just for Sparta it's what I got okay um and and does Sparta play a role in approving this or what I mean this is going to the BPU right support letter it's a support letter for for jcpnl the First Energy uh in their Petition of the BPU to allow them to to uh you know acquire the 935 million and proceed with the infrastructure project um in the resolution it breaks down what that increase would be on an average uh user of 783 kilowatt hours per month you know the the bill is typically 11688 the increase would be $416 or 3.6% over the course of a 5-year period that's what the increase would be to to the average electric user in that example thanks and thanks for explaining it and I don't have any I mean it I don't have any issue with um know I don't want to qualify the rate going up or the rate going down or by how much it's really to me is um it's it's not my not my job right this is the bpu's job to evaluate their um you know their request and let the BPU handle it and and um and I've typically abstain from um Motions like this in the past um but it wasn't spelled out here that that n that 53 out of the 950 something million I don't have my glasses on anymore but um are just a spa that sounds like that was in in this my this email to me on this so okay um that is Dan just you it caught my eye too I I looked at that and I'm like wow that that's significant and then I'm like well I have to bring it to you guys so that get moreart I find that hard to believe um anyway um thank you so I just want to say um we have written these letters of support before so while it is not us that is approving it or making the final decision it's obviously the BPU all letters of support go um when jcpnl goes before the BPU so we have we have definitely done this before but we are not the decision makers so just as at the expectation we could write this letter and they could we could be supportive and BPU could say no um or vice versa so just to to properly set the expectation the other thing is I will say as well for anyone who's lived in Sparta for any amount of time um I think that we can all appreciate everything that JCP L has done over the past several years to really improve the services that we have gotten um through mainly proactive measures they really several years back there was a change in leadership um and at least from from my time on the council which is 12 years the change in leadership was absolutely instrumental in the entire company going in a different direction pivoting away from just putting out buyers and really investing the time the effort the resources into proactive measures so instead of just worrying about how we're going to fix it quickly we're worrying about replacing Antiquated equipment clearing brush clearing debris so I think in my in my dealings with them over the past time here anyway and and um and also being a customer for 30 years since I lived here I would like to speak to the fact that I think that they have proven themselves to be a worthy partner a very effective very important partner and I think the other thing that we can all appreciate is with the way of the world right now there's not much you're going to be doing if the power is out there really is not much you're going to be doing and it's very important um you know that we do everything possible or support them in any way possible in my opinion to make sure that we are quote keeping the lights on so I personally um you know that's that's my reasons for supporting this resolution but I I did want to set the expectation that uh just because we support it or would regardless of the vote it doesn't mean it's going to be approved you and uh thank you Council Pell councilman Quinn thank you manager z uh for your comments on that um and so we will take it to may I have all those in favor of passing resolution 95 say I I I so resolution 95 passes uh may I have a resolution to approve resolution uh 96 so moved uh and I will second the motion uh for resolution 96 and before we get to that um I think if you would manager Zep it's a resolution appointing the 2024 Pac uh to a water and wastewater advisory committee and so what is the water and wastewater advisory committee and what do they do if you know I do okay the uh susus County water quality management uh plan policy advisory committee is an advisory committee to the susus County Board of County Commissioners under the federal Clean Water Act the PAC or the what you know the policy advisory committee reviews amendments to the susus County Wastewater management plan that involves sewer service areas and Wastewater facilities its membership consists of a representative from each municipality and up to seven at large members appointed by the County Board of Commissioners uh the pack meets monthly uh every first Thursday uh this is similar to the swack committee that I sat on for several years for the town um what happened was if you go to the website right now uh the representative for Sparta is Ed hack our former engineer um so um I had made the request that uh we had hired our assistant engineer in house here Ralph ktia uh to be our primary rep on this committee and Cory Stoner it will be the alternate and um that's what the water committee does it's an advisory committee and they they review these amendments that we're becoming more and more aware of and and they make sure at the county level um that Sparta's interests are protected that's why we have a Sparta right there okay great okay thank you so with that may we I uh we will all those in favor of resolution 96 say I I resolution 96 is approved and I believe that does it for our resolutions and we are now up to council liaison updates and so I will start uh with councilwoman Quinn if she's ready thank you mayor sure uh a couple updates the senior advisory uh committee will be meeting um in two in a week so they meet the third week so they'll be meeting um meeting then so that's what our next meeting is Sparta um Parks and Recreation advisory committee will be having their meeting this coming week on the 19th at 7 o'clock um lots of really great things going on there super excited about um about some of the initiatives that we're looking on and and looking forward to being able to at our next meeting the next council meeting giving some great updates um also salute 07871 I'm happy to um report to everybody that we had for our 2024 campaign of Hometown Heroes we had 71 new orders for banners so Vanessa now um Vanessa Sano is our representative who I work with on this initiative she started sending out all the emails again for anybody watching or listening or or that's going to be reading about this the process is we take all of the applications for our hometown hero banners into a database um once a year we run a campaign we order new banners for that year the process is you put your form in online and then we contact you via email we do that so that we can get an electronic copy of a photograph of the service men or woman that we will then use for the banner so for anyone who has put in a form in 2023 or early 2024 please be on the lookout for an email back from Vanessa it will come from the hometown hero mailbox just uh make sure that you respond to that in a timely fashion so we can get the uh the orders in so super excited about that and um our next meeting is the 18th of March at the BFW with regard to the health committee there have been several numerous I will say updates made to the website in our um Health Corner so anyone who is interested please go out and and take a look there's a lot of really great information out there and with regard to the municipal Alliance we had an amazing meeting last week this um this meeting really was the the jump point of a lot of very exciting things that are going on so I wanted to just take a minute and go through some of the things that we talked about if it's okay sir so um we have you know I had mentioned before that we had set our budget we did a lot of the groundwork that we needed to do to be able to accommodate the things we wanted to do in 2024 so what are some of the things that happened well we had Tina AI come from the center for prevention and counseling and gave us a really good overview um of of a lot of really important information statistically about substance abuse and whatnot in and around the county interestingly enough she said um and Jen is here so keep me honest Jen on this one she said surprisingly um the numbers around um over uh you know people actually doing that are really struggling with substance abuse and one that are are much lower in a lot of areas than they've ever seen before the other problem is that they're going up in others so there is an increase in um you know for anyone that may take a particular medication regardless of what it might be there's an alarming rate of fake medications or one-offs if you will they look exactly the same as the medication you might be ordering but you're ordering it online and when you're ordering it you don't know what you're getting so something that looks like a certain pill May in fact not be tested might have fentanyl might be whatever but it looks exactly like it so when you get it you open it up you think oh it's my adderal or oh it's my XYZ and in in fact yeah it's it's bad so that's an area that they're seeing in um and also another thing is there's so many medications out there now there's a lot of misunderstandings from people that are taking a lot of these medications as to what the side effects and the interactions are um so Tina did a great job she's going to be coming back to our next meeting in May and she's going to be giving us a full rundown of all the new programs that are going on so that are offered through the center for prevention and counseling as well uh collectively we all agreed on the speakers for the school so we're really excited the alliance um members all voted on Keith Hawkins so we're now in the stages of reaching out to Keith and we're going to get him to come to our schools we could not be happier and again the schools that are impacted or affected and involved in our alliance the sparta school system Pope John Reverend Brown um Charter School votch um as well so we're super excited about that so we really are representative of all the schools in Sparta uh also we talked about branding so we are now kicking around some Concepts we're very excited about we wanted to Rebrand so that we're in a better position to be able to Market our program and what it means and and we've donated a lot of t-shirts in the past for different groups um that we support through the alliance so we're very excited and hopefully at the next meeting I'll I'll have something to share there as well we also are going to be offering mental health first aid courses for um stakeholders in the community and if we have room we'll offer it also to um to our residents if anyone is interested it's a great program and we're very excited to be able to be partnering with Tina to be able to deliver that so stay tuned for more information um one of the things that we have been asked to escalate at our alliance as far as what we um the the programs that we support and the messages is social media and it affects and and the effects it's having not only on our on our youth but on our communities in general so we did agree at the last meeting that we were going to bump that up we had identified it something for something that was really going to happen next year but we're going to escalate it because there's just a growing concern and we did um also confirm with our members who on The Alliance who are representing all the different schools and the seniors as well that this is really becoming a huge problem um so we're going to escalate that and put that into uh what we're doing so I mean for right now those are the the key updates from what happened at our last meeting I do want to again just thank everybody who's participating in it it's really I think it's something we should be very proud of the support that we're able to give um when it comes to mental health mental well-being uh substance um you know making sure that we're steering clear of substances but also supporting people that are in recovery from any kind of substance abuse and whatnot it's really something to be really proud of to see how far this Alliance has come and also the impact it's it has not just to those in our schools but also to our seniors and to our adult community as well so thank you to everyone on the alliance and I look forward to a big new update with maybe some logo pictures at our next meeting that's it for me all right thank you and thanks again for all your hard work with Municipal Alliance it's a a very important group and you do a lot of fantastic work for them so thank you and I will go to councilman jell and uh if you want to handle the Revolutionary 250 upate as well thank you thanks actually I have a number of updates um so starting with the revolution NJ uh our committee met again on March 4th uh to further refine our plan so again we're planning for the 4th of July or thereabouts the Revolutionary War Independence celebrations from 2026 so we're two years out um a lot of the grants however have a deadline of uh April so we're trying we're trying to accelerate our plans to see where we need to ask for grant money um and we've got a plan we're meeting with the grant writer Friday this Friday yep um but um I we have some as I mentioned before really cool stuff planned one of the things that I'll mention uh that I'm excited about in particular is uh we had an historian who remarked that um did I mention about the monument um the last meeting but I don't know if I'll say it again um we mentioned that we had a a story mentioned that you know we have about two dozen uh Revolutionary War veterans that are buried in the um in the Presbyterian Church sem cemeterian and and some others that are that are over in the other material for Father John's Lane and so and those names are starting to hard to get hard to read so um one of the things we're we're trying to see if we can get money for is to build a a memorial a monument to memorize commemorate the uh memorialize the the those that served uh from Sparta in the Revolutionary War um I think I think that's I think monuments are cool and I'm looking forward to that um U there I have no Board of V update um no County Commissioner update um Business Development Committee meets next tomorrow the environmental commission meets next on Thursday um I wanted to ask did we fill the role of the student we did we excellent um is that person so that person's Now official right yes yes excellent that will be I was going to say that for new business oh sorry never mind I didn't say that um I will mention that um I think I mentioned before that the committee is planning an Arbor Day event I'll mention again it's on April 26th it'll run from 9:00 a.m. to 12: sorry to 2:00 p.m. uh the event is organized by the sparta environmental commission to replace asht trees lost in the sparta Glen due to the invasion of the emerald ashor um The Association of New Jersey environmental commissions an Jack awarded a grant to the environmental commission to plant 150 new native saplings and install educational signs within the park students from the Sparta Middle School um environmental Club the high school schols that Colley Club have invited to attend um also participating are the walkill River Management Group uh walkill River watershed management group The New Jersey invasive species Strike Team New Jersey Highland Coalition the americore New Jersey Watershed ambassador program New Jersey forest fire service activities include invasive species ENT identification planting the trees that for mention trees aquatic insect identification forest fire education and a hike through the wooded trails in the sparta Glen that's my plug for the event event um uh also very excited the culture and arts committee met for the first time for the year to plan out their concert series on March 5th was a great planning meeting um the concert series is um uh going to begin going on for about eight or nine weeks starting July 5th uh one thing I can say there are a lot of bands that have already asked us uh asked to come backpart is becoming recognized in the in that Community as um as a place that that uh that that values that values them uh and again the sporta um concert series focuses on local artists that U that um write their own music and so we don't offer cover band so to say um so it's local artists doing their own music um the shows are very well received and the people love playing here so I hope everybody will take advantage of them when they come but one thing I'll mention in particular is where they they were thinking about adding a different uh uh type of show that they used to offer a dozen more years ago uh to try to attract a uh maybe a more younger crowd and so one of the things they're trying to plan for is a battle of the bands competition featuring people from Sparta so if um if you have an aspiring Sparta band um uh we're trying to trying to fit that in um something that they're excited about um having a couple of guest U um judges um so um anyway more on that to come but um I'm hopefully we'll get some get some uh EXC excitement for that um last I'll mention is I mentioned before that um uh I have been involved with a counterpart of of of ours uh on the uh now on the council in Sparta in Greece uh also uh involved as the one of the leaders of the Historical Society in Greece in Sparta Greece um we are sister cities uh and um so anyway I was uh they invited me to attend an annual historical architect AR ological Symposium in Greece and I'm happy to do so so um uh if anybody wants to join me from the council it's September 7th and 8th um looking forward to that very much um and uh but uh fostering and you we'll we'll meet with the council and uh and again fostering our ties as sister cities um I'm starting to think maybe we we should talk about this a little bit further but U maybe we should consider forming a small committee like subcommittee maybe under the culture and arts committee like we did for the film to study ways that we can engage with sport agre as our sister city and as I mentioned before the in in Sparta they're all they're trying to create a network of towns around the world named spart I think there's about 40 of them um and so to create some kind of a cultural or or network um so anyway they're working on that in Sparta uh we're trying to do our part here um there might be some cool things to do so we'll talk about that further if that it makes sense to do um and and one thing I didn't mention if I can go back to the NJ Revolution committee um I I meant to send you a note on this I wonder if we could set up a an email address to gather stories because one of the things that we're considering in the uh planning for our events is gathering local stories you know I my great great great whatever you know from Sparta uh has a Revolutionary War Story we we're trying we're starting we've already started Gathering some stories from the community um having them funnel through a common email address might be helpful um so I I'll see if we can set that up and maybe a web page to just for announcements and stuff um and I I've talked a lot so I'll stop there thank you great thank you um so I'm on the recreation committee so I will you know councilman councilwoman she um Quinn handled that ably uh also on the Revolutionary 250 committee and thank you uh councilman cherell for all your hard work with that and I I have nothing to add um to what you said uh with we are I'm also a liaison with Lake Mohawk and and we'll be meeting probably in the next few weeks so we try to meet every four to six weeks and those have been productive meetings um and then uh last week we had our very first meeting of the subcommittee of the cultural Affairs for Sparta film Readiness and so we have um we were able to get all members to attend and our the first order of business is to get our application in to the New Jersey Economic Development Association so they're the ones that take the application and look it over and determine uh whether you can be properly designated as a film ready Community as part of that uh the first thing you have to do though is attend the workshop that's put on by the New Jersey film commission and so the way the film commission has done this is they've taken they started with counties um kind of do it almost Three Counties at a time you know Sussex is one of the last ones and so that um Workshop will be in April I will be attending probably some other folks from the um committee will attend and you because you have to attend that and that's just the first step in the application the next step is you have to then prepare um some visuals photos of uh Sparta and sort of sell your town uh we were very fortunate that we have filmmakers who are already interested in already filming uh in Sparta who have agreed to you know assist with that and least give us input into you know if I were going to make a movie here's are the places I would include and so we're very lucky to have sort of professional subject matter experts to advise us on that um and so I think we'll be able to put together a fantastic presentation so the hope is shortly after that Workshop we will be able to submit the application and then I don't know what the turnaround time is as far as is hearing whether we get designated or not at our next council meeting uh we will have uh mayor Janice kovat who is the mayor of Clinton but she's also on the New Jersey film commission she was appointed by Governor Murphy in um January and she will be just speaking to council uh to tell us more about the program what an involves what are the benefits uh what are some things that you need to consider so she is um very Grace you know gracefully agreed to uh come and speak to us March 26 so I'm uh very much looking forward to that so with that that is all my Council EAS on updates and so there anything that you think now that you left out all right uh we'll move to unfinished and new business and my uh new business was as uh councilman Chella alluded to uh I appointed our new student liaison to the environmental commission her name is aelyn Solace so I'm very happy that um she put her hat into the ring and agreed to be part of this very important advisory committee and I'm also uh very happy to have you know our our students our young people get involved in Township Affairs I think you you can't really start too early as our folks from chess for charity can attest to thinking about your community and how you can contribute you're never too young so um I'm very happy that we're able to appoint this person and with that that is all my new and unfinished business so I will kick it to councilwoman Quinn if you have any thank you um uh one of the one of the new pieces of um of business I'm going to go ahead and move I think to the next or maybe we could just talk about it here really quickly I know we've talked about it numerous times over the years which is this initiative um down at and kind of looking at um a a rebirth or a renovation if you will maybe just an update or a facelift is a better way to kind of say it so I know um this is something we've talked about on the council it's something we've talked about on the rec advisory committee and um Jean uh I know is working on some some information and hopefully will be coming to us or coming to the manager rather and and back to us or coming up through the advisory program I'm not sure how it's going to come but um as to pricing and whatnot and I think um this is a a great Testament to uh really our commitment and furthering our commitment to all of our facilities our quality of life and everything here so I'm super excited about that I know we're we're behind that and we've been looking at that now for for quite a while so I'm very excited to get some information on that um also a lot of people are very concerned now um with regard to food that has a lot of chemicals in it and products there's big shift um it was going organic but now a lot of people really are wanting to grow their own food and do different heste setting things in an effort to really kind of go back to watching your food come a large or at least a part of your food come out of the ground not be touched by any kind of products and things like that so I just am very excited that um as we had said to the rec advisory committee just want to let everybody know that is interested in this um Jean is looking at and working with an to really see if there is additional space that the township owns so that we can U build on another you know the community garden that already exists so I just would ask anyone who's interested in that um you know don't get don't worry we're looking at it and hope within uh a very you know hopefully in a short period of time we'll have a path forward and we'll let everybody know um but I've had people come up to me and say I want to put a vegetable garden or a big thing in my backyard and you know I'm not sure that you know I have the right setup or I don't know what I'm doing I need some help so we're looking at that I just want to let people know excuse me other than that I have nothing great thank you and and just with respect to angman I think you know I think that's great I know that we were talking about you know having you know the the rec committee do kind of a capital project to tell us hey what is it and what's your priority and you know you and I talked and I I look at our Parks no differently than I look at our water pipes it's infrastructure that we have to look at and to see if it needs Improvement and not let it deteriorate um where then you know the use of it declines because it's you know it's a component of our town that benefits so many people and really adds to the quality and character of it so you know thank you to councilwoman Quinn for that and and to our able uh head of the recreation department Jee Monero so thank you and councilman Chell uh the only new business I want to introduce is I would like to make a motion to put on the agenda for the next council meeting uh that we uh fly the Earth Day flag uh on from the week of April 21st to 27th again this is just to put on the agenda for formal approval at the next meeting um made that motion so the motion uh you need a second the motion is to put on the uh agenda to fly the Earth flag uh April 21st through 27th and again is to put it on the agenda that right that's just that is correct I made the motion okay and I will second the motion all in favor say I I I motion carries the uh if we can roxan put on March 26 a uh motion to fly the Earth flag for April 21st through 27th thank you thank you okay anything else that anyone can think of before we move to our uh final public uh comment period okay uh seeing nothing this is our final public comment period um and if you have anything that you want to address to the public please do and please state your name and record a name and and address for the records I don't have a record Jenny Derek's Happ to Sparta um I do want to thank the town for hiring raisha to help with the minutes um but they are so far behind and it's not just planning board this is also all the statutory boards except I think council is in good shape right Sam thank you um but but the zoning planning and um environmental are zoning and planning haven't had something really in in all of 23 maybe one meeting if the minutes are there Jenny just so you know the 2018 planning board minutes you had asked for yeah there was a slight delay tomorrow they're being posted thank you I appreciate that um so 2022 is posted for planning board but a lot of them say see attached transcript and they're never going to get out of this hole as hard as they work and I know they're working hard and I appreciate the work that they're doing just to try and keep up with what's going on currently they're never going to get out of the hole if we have to go all the way back to 2022 and listen to minutes and get them put in uh listen to the meeting audio and put it into minutes and this is an opma issue so we're at we're I'm asking you to maybe consider hiring another person it would might even be just a short-term thing to to let them get get this taken care of this is a huge hole for Sparta 2022 going forward is almost non-existent for our statutory boards and that's like I said an open an open issue I do appreciate the work that's being done by Dory and Risha currently but that that's Troublesome and thank you for the 2018 issue um being taken care of um I think that's all I have for today thank you just just one question you said that some of the minutes reference a transcript is a transcript attached of them but not all of them okay and a transcript obviously we were talking about the meetings for the diamond ship hearings and those transcripts are pages and Pages transcripts are not minutes as you well know so um where in some cases maybe for the diamond ship meetings maybe it has to be transcripts but that doesn't there are other times when it says transcripts attached and and it's a shell of a minute the minutes are a shell basically the agenda and then it's a c attached transcript sometimes the transcript is there sometimes it's not okay thank you anyone else uh public comment on uh any issue you'd like to raise with the council all right seeing none um we are now at the closing the adjournment so may I have a motion to adjourn so moved may I have a second I will second it all in favor say I I I motion carries the meeting is a ger