##VIDEO ID:wpMWEPAsXHY## [Music] [Music] the meeting of Atlanta County Board of Commissioners is called to order in compliance with the O colge meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the Atlanta County Board of commission was provided in the following manner published in the Press Atlantic City mailed to the Hamilton cazette and has been posted on the Bolton boards and the county office building in Atlantic City The Still Water building in Northfield and the county office parks in M Landing opening prayer dear Lord I pray that you guide us always satisfy the needs that need to be met during this meeting and strengthen us to make wise decisions the betterment of our Atlantic County Community amen all stand for the flag foot M CL call chairwoman commissioner bino was attending virtually and commissioner Cory may be attending virtually Alice I am here fortino here Burns here Cory da here G here Parker presid grizzley here K here the Commissioners had an opportunity to review the minutes from September 3rd 2024 on rain a motion to adopt the the September 3rd 2024 minutes as presented move by commissioner burn second by commissioner Gad father R Bas yes Martino AB Burns yes Cory J yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes anyone attending in person who would like to speak regarding an agenda item or a public comment please come to the podium speak into the microphone state your name and the town you reside you will be provided up three minutes to speak if you're attending virtually and would like to speak please raise your hand during the agenda item or at the public comment at the end I'll call upon your name and a request to unmute will be sent please state your name and the town you reside you will also be be provided up to three agist to speak okay at this time I will entertain a motion to move resolution 506 to the top of the agenda second moveed by commissioner G seconded by commissioner Parker any commissioner comments yeah Madam chair if I may um trying to see I don't know if Shannon was on yet she is just okay perfect um I wanted to um sorry she is not oh she's not okay well she may she may be joining us but we have a young lady um Shannon Hardy who um brought forward a uh request and resolution for us to recognize uh childhood can uh cancer awareness month which is uh the month of September um Shannon is currently uh going through some some other health uh difficulties but she's a 30-year uh Childhood cancer survivor and um I was lucky enough Shannon was my neighbor When We Were Young she lived behind us and we had to watch everything that she went through as a young child uh you know battling uh Childhood Cancer but she came out of it um extremely strong and has been a a pretty formidable young woman uh since that time um and she continues to just plow through other challenges that that come her way so she asked that we do a resolution um to recognize the month and she also asked if we could display a uh flag that commemorates uh Childhood Cancer Awareness Month uh at the county building in Maz Landing she's a ma Landing resident Jerry has the flag um and we've gotten confirmation from legal council uh that we can place it under the American flag and have it uh apply for the rest of the month as as long as the resolution passes which hopefully won't be Oh I thought we did a motion a second didn't do a motion in a second got a motion we well we did motion we brought the comments and the comments from the public and then a roll call right I'm making commissioner comments right now right yeah so the only thing I would like to do if we can I think um uh June you made the motion on it right did you make the motion we made the mo yes I'm going to ask you to amend it um if you wouldn't mind I'd like to add one whereas and I didn't want to do this in the version in the version that Shannon saw as we were passing it uh back and forth but I would like to just add one more where whereas in there that um would recognize Shannon um as a 30-year cancer survivor and uh her recognize her advocacy her bravery and her perseverance uh through the last 30 years uh as a Survivor so um so I amend I propose I moov to amend the resolution to add Shannon as a Sur 30-year Survivor of um child cancer thank you and I'll second that a moment um so the just just also wanted to just highlight um something that Shannon was involved with and I'm saying this because again um some issues that she's having uh prevents her from really being able to speak publicly at at this time but um about 5 years ago she started writing a children's uh children's book that would kind of act as a tool for counselors and teachers um as children try to navigate this um either as somebody going through it as a fellow student in the classroom or as U maybe a teammate or a teacher um so she started uh writing this book it's taking her a long time because of again some health issues that she's going through but she recently uh was able to announce a partnership that she's embarking on with Rowan University and a student run program that they have called uh Singularity press um so they will basically be helping her with illustrating the the book and sub subsequently being able to publish it and distribute it so pretty uh again remarkable things uh coming from somebody who is dealing with so much and we have probably a number of these stories in Atlanta County uh another special one that comes to mind is uh uh Christian klopp also from ma Landing if you guys can remember uh he passed away in 2012 after a pretty formidable battle uh his father was a uh police officer in Hamilton Township and um Chris if anybody knew Christian he taught you so much in nine short years of life um and through his perseverance um and we now have a handicap Park in Hamilton Township handicap accessible Park uh dedicated to Christian's memory and kind of keeping um that Spirit Alive so um I just highlight these things these things are happening to our families here and just um bringing that awareness of Childhood Cancer knowing that everybody's going through something out there right it might not be this but it could be something else and if we could just all have that that empathy take away you know pieces from um other people's struggle and be there to support people through their own struggles um I just think it's something to always kind of remind ourselves right um so with that I'll I'll shut up about the resolution that's very very nice thank you for that um I think we still need a roll call CL comments well we have comments after we read it too right any want other comments now again well we're in commissioner comments right okay yeah for bringing it to the floor okay any other commissioner comments that so um yeah it's pretty interesting that this is coming up today I mean just on the news the other day I was watching a rally that was going on in Pennsylvania somebody may have uh saw it and you know one of the points they were stressing was only 6% of all cancer research funding goes towards childood cancer which is amazing only six only 6% of all the funding for research goes to child of cancer and of course you know their their whole rally was to you know try and you know um get to the legislature to increase that funding you know a bigger percentage first child of cancer I mean any idea where majority that is that is so small I mean there so many different types of cancer you know so you know and every I mean every Cancer you know for any family family member that gets it is is heart-wrenching but you know to to see it right out there in front of your face that only 6% you know and and these are these are infants these are young children that you know have a whole life ahead of them but they really don't because you know maybe if there was more research and and more preventive medicines um maybe they would have a brigher Outlook and are you know several that that do survive but you know the ones that survive are you know very few compared to the ones that don't so um you know maybe someday we we look into you know passing a resolution to um to ask the the federal government state government to you know increase that that funding percentage research M we'll have do some research on it yeah I think be a great idea it is uh any other commissioner comments so you've got a motion to amend which you got to vote on you vote to amend the moot I'm sorry to amend the resolution and then you vote to approve the resolution again it's redundant but that's the way it's supposed to go okay okay you already voted to amend you made a motion but you didn't yeah we motion and we seconded to put it on the floor but we didn't roll call put on the floor so what are we doing now we're Mo we're voting on the amendment yeah you're going to vote to amend it as it was stated by commissioner and then you will vote to adop it so the vote on the amend the amended resolution okay got okay motion to amend we did that motion Bas yes bertino yes Burns yes corsey da yes G yes Parker yes rizley yes K yes motion carries so now we have to go back to the adoption the adoption okay so I'll have a motion to adopt second do we have commissioner comments on that had commer coms okay any comments from the public and we'll have a roll call Bas yes patino yes Burns yes Cory da yes G yes Parker yes rizley yes sure yes motion carries thank you and Madam chair I did get confirmation that um Shannon is on she is hearing us so Shannon um we did pass the resolution and again we just congratulate you on um the accomplishment of having your your book uh coming to life hopefully sooner than later and uh and we will have the flag uh being uh flown in front of the county building and the main stre of Main Street of ma Landing uh hopefully by the end of the week so uh um I know she's having a tough time speaking but um we're we're thinking of you Shannon and here for you thank you m chair I don't think she is she said say she'll be in touch with commissioner uh Ballas she'd like to talk to him about some of the research that you just mentioned so okay thank you guys for moving that up okay we now have Atlanta County Utilities Authority update by Matthew president and Matt I just I just want to say um something before you start if you don't mind sure um I you know it's just clearing up some misleading information that has been out there recently this commissioner board has never been responsible for the day-to-day operations at the ACA right correct thank you the AC has a board of directors that meets monthly I believe it's every third Wednesday correct and that's open to the public that is yes okay so thank you for that you know however you know as we are doing everything and as we're doing this today we're trying to assist the public and getting answers and stay on top of issues such as this and that's they effect them and we thank you for that Matt because you're here I don't know how many times this year you've been here numerous times but not only that you send us emails giving us updates on what you're doing not only about this but um our constituents really do want to know about this SM I do know that the county is authorizing 4.5 million to capping I believe I saw in the Press today and the legals uh was that you know committing and that it has to be done you know actually started before the end of the year and you know I would think that this would make a major impact on the odor situation but I want to hear from you if in fact that is the case because this is an issue it's important to this board we want to stay on top of it and we would like to hear from you on that so I have a short presentation but before I do that I always like to try to hand out some goodies to the board uh one is just the paper copy of what we're going to present today it's it's six or seven slides it's not going to be super long um and then there's also the stuff that I emailed out uh about two weeks ago just to frequent asked questions with some data and some fact sheets again um in a day of age where data is so readily available um accurate data is not as available so um everybody has a platform if you're on social media and you're you know posting whatever you want on there it it becomes a platform you know so just trying to make sure that everybody has the information uh and my goal you know from a year and a half ago presenting here is as much transparency and as much communication information that I can provide to this board and to the residents uh in L County as well thank so there yeah absolutely all right so hopefully once I get through this presentation um Cher Mur those answers will be kind of met for you um okay yeah it's it's serious and we get it all the time and you're I know you're well aware of that sure and and what I want to you know this isn't a secret uh in this room we have a lot of politicians but this is political season um so you know and I feel like it's on steroids right now because we are in this presidential election which is adds another layer of just intense whether it's infighting whether it's you know false information whatever it may be um but one thing I want to make very very clear is I know that there's been chatter throughout the county whether it's on the radio from one side of the aisle versus the other or just people on social media starting to pot CU they have nothing better to do nothing has changed um since probably about mid April when it comes to to complaints and I confirm this because I'm starting to kind of get a little paranoid I'm going wait a second there's you know uh people in the radio talking about it who have never been our site there's you know comments on Facebook and again it's it tends to be the people that don't have the information have the most amount to say uh so I I reached out to the county health department who usually gets the call from the D if there is an not complaint and said you know um am I am I misrepresenting this has there been an uptick has there been a change we have seen an exponential decrease in odor concerns complaints since I last presented here in February nothing has changed since probably about mid April other than its election season all right so I'm going to just again preface it with that so where I'd like to kind of um start off is that the next slide which is really just where we left off in February so I I mentioned bookmarking kind of an event that we had um with an increase in gas production that wasn't unique to the ACA or Atlanta County it was something that was seen across all 13 land fills in the state we had a a high rate of rain we had you know a lot of uh temperature moisture issues and that created a exponential um production of of landfill gas and as you're managing a landfill you're expecting a certain amount and then it starts to kind of change if if the weather patterns change and we we all know we can relate to the amount of rain that we got when it came to December January and February um so that was really a bookend starting and probably the end of October early November and really kind of capped off in March leading into a little bit of April but but a lot of this work that we kind of talked about February 20th when I was in front of this board is here and some of the stuff that we've done so you know back in February we talking about gas Wells and everybody says well you guys are always saying you're putting gas wells in yes you want to hear us always putting gas wells in that is how landfill is operating that is the best management practice that's your best defense against gas with gas Comes potential ERS so uh in February at that point we had installed 19 Wells everybody thinks when we install these Wells that boom magic you know all of a sudden turn the Wells on doesn't work that way as you're D digging in the trash and doing some improvements you're Excavating trash so we we handle the smelly stuff for the county so your waste water and your solad wasted everybody everybody put their trash out this week where did it go came to us so we manage that smelliness uh if you will and we try to make sure that you don't have to think twice about it after it goes to the end of your driveway and disappears magically uh so back in February we did the the the well expansion which was something we started planning the June prior February we installed almost a mile worth of 18inch header which is a giant 18-in pipe that pulls the vacuum on these gas Wells we have over 110 gas wells in our entire site 102 Acres over 100 ft deep April we were really working on kind of managing what we experienced when it came to heavy rainfall we were getting one to two Ines of rain on a weekly basis week after week after week anybody that's in conru ruction knows on the side of a Turnpike or driven down the road wherever it may be when you get a lot of rain you get wash outs you get dirt you get all sorts of uh runoff and and challenges so we spent most of April and into May really trying to manage those side slopes getting material back on and then starting to kind of establish vegetation to kind of help us get ready uh come June we had more utility lines going in so we announced that our our renewable natural gas project was coming online it's going to be coming online August of 202 uh five that excuse me broke ground in uh October so that work kind of continues and demolition for that was ongoing uh throughout August and that kind of brings us to today so again these are the plans that we kind of laid out most of them actually all of them got checked off except for the ones that were planned for at this point so next slide please so one of the things that I presented in February is one of the regulatory things that we are complied to do which is a orderly surface emissions monitoring it's a third party consultant that comes out and measures readings for methan anything over 500 parts per billion is out of compliance we have to measure this at over 640 spots 179 of those are actually penetrations in the landfill so you're actually sticking a meter inside a hole in the landfill um q1 of February again we were we were managing that excess gas we had gotten two points out of almost 700 points two points we're over we have 10 days we respond to it usually it's a boot fitting or something very very minor but two is again not an issue uh looking at July six points six points out of almost 700 points again this was kind of telling us okay we are in a very good spot right now when it comes to collection efficiency uh and then we just had our most recent uh third quarter which is a draft uh right now we're looking at six points and again within the you know hours of this report coming out our crews go out they identify the six areas and again they're usually either just kind of zipping up a um clamp or a certain um you know material that may have kind of washed away a little bit so this is kind of the state of where we're at right now again surface emission monitoring this is done and regulated by the D and EPA required on a cly basis by a third party engineer nothing homecooked as as uh you know people may conspire about uh but again third party engineer does this we are in very good shape the next slide is one that we brought up last year so we keep hearing HOA is out of compliance H is doing you know all these things that's uh causing harm to the environment please save the landfill stuff to landfill experts um here is this red line is our compliance we are required to stay within 30 parts per billion at our fence line every single day this is a uh measure that was uh put in place in 2015 2015 almost 10 years um we had one exceedance during that time frame where we had a lot of excess gas being produced and we were trying to capture it what happens when there's exceedance the bubble doesn't get deployed you know there we don't turn off the valve or or stop you know doing things you measure it again the next day if it's over 30 you measure it the next day if it's 3 days in a row you go out to the neighborhood and you measure it there if it's over 30 parts per billion there then you start an ing your gas control measures we're already doing those things we only had one exceedence since January 1st this is where our levels are at when it comes to our fence line requirement there's no question on where to take the test it's an approved odor management plan by the njd and again when it comes to compliance no issues the challenge with this and I I try to be as clear with this as possible to this board to the abin residents at at Town Hall meetings to swack meetings is the human nose can smell hydrogen sulfide at 0.5 parts per billion so because you smell something or could smell something doesn't mean we're out of compliance 05 all the way up to 30 is a big range so at 20 you're going to smell something um and again we are dealing with a landfill everyone's trash 102 Acres over 100 ft deep over 30 years old a lot of trash but again from a compliance perspective we are in great shape this is that period again where we had some excess gas and you can see some higher numbers and then we're kind of uh plateauing out uh the next uh slide is just really our buildout so this isn't like a hey today we're going to decide to put wells in here today we're going to decide to put pipes in here this is a full buildout and we shared this back in January uh and it's phased out we are in the I'm color blind so uh apologize I know this this is the Blue Area uh so last spring late spring we were doing all this header work here and now we're bringing it back around which is going to be our further spot from where our vacuum system is and what that's going to allow us to do is one draw more vacuum on the landfill but also prepare so this is where we're starting to prepare for future gas the trash we put in today does not create hydrogen sulfide and landfill gas for another 12 to 18 months it takes time for the air to um be eliminated from the process C becomes an anerobic process and that's when the landfill gas starts to be produced so we're preparing for 12 to 18 months from now to get this gas into our flare system or at that time will be our RNG project uh so this is our buildout and again we are probably closer to our third fourth fourth phase on that but again it looks like spaghetti because that's the coverage that we have you're looking at over 110 wells plus or minus five I would say the next slide I'm almost at the end the next slide is the work we're doing right now so again we're not just waiting for something to happen we're not going to not expect it to be raining this winter it's going to get cold it's going to rain we're going to have inversion events so how do we prepare so for the last several months we've been preparing on the side slopes getting everything kind of stabilized stormw channels getting Basin scarified so they drain properly and this is probably one of the biggest significant improvements to our system that we have done ever we've invested over $15 million in gas collection but have not done this in one single event so what's happening right now over the last several um last week or two we started is 30 plus landfill Wells we'll be Redd Drilling and adding new wells into our full buildout we'll be doing t two deing pumps which helps us with leachate or rain water as it touches trash not clog the pipes up so again expecting it to rain this winter expecting to rain this fall expecting this snow we're going to be prepared for um almost half a mile of again additional 18in header that's going to go all the way to that back side of our landfill that's our big artery think of it as a you know giant artery that's pumping instead of blood it's pulling gas um miles and miles of pipeline of smaller diameter that's connected to these Wells and then about 12,000 linear feet of smaller stuff for future buildout in another year from now cuz now we can do is start putting Wells that are pneumatic that require a vacuum and an air system to pull water out of the veral wells that I kind of explained back in Jan February what they do but pull the water out of them so they don't get watered in this work is all being done right now there's not a major odor issue right now it's all it's it's it's smoking mirrors it's it's a discussion it's something for people to talk about in the county but by all counts we are in good shape is it zero it's never been zero the expectation should never be zero it's pulled in to a very small amount should it be a couple times a month or a year maybe what's the expectation every day absolutely not but we are still dealing with a product of everybody in this room that smells you go to our waste or a treatment plant you're going to hold your nose when you first get there right we're not going to stop flushing the toilets we're not going to stop taking showers right there's a health impact to that so there's a need from society for all these Services un fortunately you know there's a byproduct for that um but again when it comes to the collection the regulation and continuing to push the envelope on making sure our site is as you know prepared as possible you're not going to find another site that does this almost there all right so uh um chairwoman current had brought up our landfill capping so it was advertised today as we build this landfill gas collection system out and we bring our trash up to our final grade which we did we're now able to cap it uh 16 Acres along the easterly portion of our landfill is being bid bids open today uh that is again not to be said it would not have been done without the support of Atlantic County County Executive uh Denny levenson uh the commission board County Administration this project is a is a project that's scheduled as part of a closure plan has a certain amount of funding that has to go towards it for each ton that comes in and at the end of that life that's when you can do it we're doing this 5 years in advance this will be the last little piece to this backside that'll really kind of again further help us with stormw and leech a generation potential off-site emissions this is really going to be helpful and this again would not have been helpful without the county Executives um assistant and also uh you know the support of Atlanta County in general uh again advertisement was in the paper today we have a bid opening scheduled for October 31st and then we'll start before the probably probably first quarter of uh 2025 so it has to be awarded before the end of the year for the arpa fund so that's where this funding is coming from and then the last slide is just an update on our RNG project again another we're going to be the first landfill in New Jersey to have an RNG Project online renewable natural gas we're using that gas now to produce um most of methane methane is not odor does have no odor in it it's it's almost 50% of the the landfill gas make up 35% of CO2 another 2% 3% is oxygen so about 90 some per of that landfill gas makeup is completely odorless but methane is is the one that has value to it that's what we use to cook and heat our houses with so first landfill in New Jersey that'll be taking that landfill gas cleaning it up putting in the pipeline and distributing it throughout the the county and the state that that'll be a 95% reduction to our onset emissions so once we collect all that gas right now it's being flared so it converts from methane to CO2 Which is less harmful when it comes to greenhouse gas gas impact that flare will pretty much be turned off and all those emissions will be eliminated that's where the 95% reduction in emissions again first one in the state you're not going to find another landfill that is more Progressive this more on top of things in the entire state that's it thank you that's I'm going to ask again we're going to go back to like the the 4.5 million so I don't know if you specifically answered that question with the odor is that something with the capping I don't know I mean I hear a lot what you say I don't exactly understand some of it um but that's why you do what you do and we do try to do what we do um is that going to do something with that smell so yeah will it contribute to aiding in it absolutely everybody thinks that if you just close and capit landfill that odor goes away it's a misconception it it seems simple right everybody wants a simple solution to trash and and I've said that before trash is not that that simple it's not just haul it dump it in a in a hole and be done with it um you need the gas collection system so all that infrastructure that we're putting in there if that was not there and we capped it we'd have a giant moon bounce on there that would be a really ticking Time Bomb you know cuz it' be it'd be filling up of gas the gas collection is really the root cause or the re root solution to eliminating any offside odors that's that's really what it is and then what the cap does it helps us make it more efficient so you know not to get too technical but when you're on a jeez when you're on a side slope um and you're trying to drill Wells into that you can't crank those Wells up too much cuz you'll pull oxygen into the landfill if you pull oxygen into the landfill you create a Landfill fire so having a cap on it helps us draw better and be more efficient with it so um is it a silver bullet no it's not there's no such thing as silver bullets in this I wish there you know um world would be a better place if there was silver bullets for for things but unfortunately it's not it so the combination of all these improvements and then not to say cap it off but cap it off with a permanent cap um is kind of like the full uh profile of abating that so our time frame with this I know you have a strict time frame with it because of the types of funding that you're getting just Federal funding that you're you're getting for this and there is a specific time frame for it so the time frame the strict time frame is really just awarding before the end of the year the construction can lag after that but the the construction really it's a matter of awarding this year and then having the weather cooperate for them to start earth work you can't do earth work while it's snowing or there's there's Heavy Rain uh but it's a six-month time frame on the construction so I would expect that the whole thing would be completely done by this time last year or this time next year um you know by probably mid July uh things will be pretty much wrapped up and then be bouncing trying to get things seated in July and kind of wait till the fall for that you we want to thank Jerry the administration to help moving some of those funds around to make them available now yes you to get this moving so we appreciate that but you know like we've said before we're extremely serious about this we hear about it we are very concerned about the quality of life of you know of our constituents especially they're out there we hear it all the time another question we have been hearing was expansion and some people are saying they're they're planning an expansion is there something out there that has an expansion is there a plan in place at this time for expansion so right now people get confused with our MSE wall construction as an expansion so our MSE wall is under construction it's been approved since 2006 we've had expansions half a dozen over the last 25 years right now we're currently permitted to fill until August I'm sorry July 2029 so it's a little bit of a moving Target when it comes to to the months but we have about 5 years left that's how we're currently permitted are we looking at every option possible 100% is there an expansion that we have that we're submitting right now no there is not there are plans for everything from waste conversion to looking at optimizing our landfill to diverting certain waste we're looking at everything again we can't just kind of stay on one track we have to look at all options um Burlington County for example their permitted capacity was August of 2025 nobody's freaking out about that they ever heard that right except for me um but what they did was they work through an expansion ah head space available but they work through again keeping the solid waste management system in Burlington County um if we hadn't gone through that same process and trying to optimize and figure out how to extend the life of it ATL would have Clos in 2016 a new point I wouldn't even be here you know so this is what the county needs is a solid waste disposal site uh when it comes to rate payers this is the best solution the AUA again everybody wants to look at it from the surface but the economic impact that the ACA has on every single municipality is incredible and people don't realize what those services are or what that funding looks like or what those grants look like until it's gone or the liability so we all sit here or you all sit there as as Commissioners if the AUA goes away the liability falls back on the rate payers taxpayers ATL County which falls on County Administration so two landfills that we've held as far as the liability for would fall back on Atlantic County so that's again something very important that we have to think about is that liability that that we hold uh for the county as well right we're concerned about every aspect and anything that affects our constituents you know throughout um any other Commissioners do you have anything you'd like to ask Matt at this time or have uh clarified Matt thank you again and again we stay on top of it you're concerned about the quality of life anything you have I know you're constantly looking at new technology everything is changing but whatever we can do to speed this up and get them happy out in our you know communities would be wonderful but you know again I just wanted to make sure that the information is out there people aren't being misled that you know about who who's overseeing way thank you I just want to also thank you know the commission board because I've been able to interact with just about everybody on this board you know when it comes to updates um commissioner bertino has been in constant contact with me I talked to commissioner G yesterday I talked to you know um commissioner woman uh K ker um Mr rizley I mean everybody really has days I I was talking to you last year when we were going through different constituents so I really appreciate that communication and and you guys are on top of it you guys are inquiring when it comes to questions so you know this this idea that nobody's doing anything again is this just this false idea um that's a good sound bite you know because I've had interactions with every person on this on this board asking questions you know wanting to know yeah we don't have a lot of oversight uh in certain aspects but we do have a right to know you do have a right to investigate you do have a right to ask questions and bring me here you know so that's the the difference between a public agency that's a sister to the county um is that we're here you know we are beholden to you whether it's formal or not um and and you guys have certainly done your due diligence and and have reached out and gotten information that's why I kind of try to continue to to feed it to you because you guys are um you know taking it and and and using it in a constructive way so thank you man we appreciate that I am going to ask because sometimes it's hard when somebody's online um is uh is our commissioner still on is pertina is min pertina still on commissioner pertina yes I am Phil AR um as Matt alluded to he hears from me quite often and um and I understand a little about what he has going on there um but I do appreciate him feeling in the public he understands that my concerns to make sure information uh he you gets out to the public directly he doesn't have to come and tell us that and I've asked him to be more proactive about that he knows the conversation we had um it's getting the information correct after the people so they understand the entire process um but it's also to challenge us to do a better job so he knows what we're looking for um as County Commissioners and also to the representatives that are board members over there the responsibility they have to a public to answer their questions as well thank you commissioner thank you I just just have one one question so right alongside of AUA um down on westc road you know they Tour all them trees out for that new housing complex um have you guys studied at all that um any kind of impact that that has had on the the odor um because I mean I assume the way trees work is they you know they pull in that oxygen and and you know not only that but the amount of wind now that from that big open field blowing towards AUA which is blowing towards you know it's East I guess towards ABA is is going to is going to help that blow the the smell from ACA um even greater I don't know if you guys have done any studies on that so I mean I I don't know um I can say this certainly doesn't help right I mean we're talking hundreds of Acres of trees that are being clearcut so it doesn't help whether there's a landfill next to it or there's the parkway next to it right I mean it's still filtering emissions from the thousands of of cars and trucks that go through there that no longer happens anymore the impact of the wind I mean again it really depends on you know we were already getting you already get influences from wind so did it I mean it' be hard to study too because there's no Baseline of say hey this is what it was before and this is what it is after but I can definiely say it didn't help wasn't the cause though you know wasn't wasn't the cause of the challenges we faced in the in the winter um you know cuz obviously we've seen a significant Improvement now trees haven't been put back up you know so again does it help absolutely not you know um doesn't help the situation but but is it the root cause I I'd be really hard pressed to say that and and it' be really difficult to I think try to find from a scientific point of view uh any kind of study when you don't have the Baseline and to compare this is what it looked like before this is what it looked like afterwards okay any the other thing I think from the last time you you did a presentation here um I'm not sure whether that new development is going to be um City border or Wells and you had mentioned and maybe you can just let the the public know and the public that's listening um as far as how you have CED underground so there's not a plume that is going from AA and contaminating ground water in you know in that immediate area especially me um not too far from there is the reservoir for Atlantic City's water supply sure so so two things that's City Water that's that's there and just about everything over there is City water not because of the AUA but because the price of fit super fun site one of the you know most toxic sites in in the nation um is just across the street so the there is a plume there and actually our site was Price's pit two or three there's three there's three pits when it comes to Price's pit ours was also contaminated uh prior getting that we had to do a certain amount of cleanup before we could even put the the landfill there um but that's the beauty of New Jersey and solways regulation again this is why there's so much regulation and so much control over Solid Waste is because of those types of things commissioner ball like you know if it was the Wild West like it was in the' 60s '70s 880s even in the early '90s we talked about 4 six online landfills in Atlantic County not not the state in Atlantic County ml septics um site over in Galloway another super fun site they're still cleaning it up so the AUA system is what was implemented in the early 80s and it's the system that has protected all the residents so there's a double liner system with you know backups clay liners bent night M uh mats and then there's regulations on how much liquid is to be in there at a certain time we're treating all the liquid that's being in contact with the trash there's monitoring wells around the entire landfill that gets monitor on a quarterly basis monthly basis storm basins we have three jees permits we have a solid relas permit we have a Title Five like the it sounds like a lot because it is and it's there for good reason because we don't want another prices pit we don't want cancer clusters um so the the water over there is contaminated I don't believe they're actually pulling off the reservoir for the the um the drinking water though I think they're using that to counter balance some of the wells that they have over there um but that's surface water that's not ground water so again it's a little bit different CU They Don't Really um have the same impact when you're talking about surface water versus groundw but it's City Water uh so there's already a lot of contamination over there um not that we're adding to it but again we're cleaning up that uh that's there so um and then one last thing I just want to make the public service an announcement because commissioner bertino had reminded me that all of our updates on our site since last October probably on a weekly basis are on our site construction activity anything that could potentially uh increase the chances of allsite odors we'll probably be sending an email out to our email database on the construction activity because again that could Elevate the chances of something coming off site as we're improving certain things again we're digging in trash uh we sent one out in the spring we're trying to again be as proactive and communicative as much as with the the residents as possible but that is a really good resource for all the activities that are happening there we have a small pump failure it's not something to to to sound the alarm Bells off but we want to make sure that we're notifying people or we're at least giving that information out there so there says you know what happened or there's something there um and then we're also getting blamed for everything so every odor every sewer leak there was a sewer leak in Pleasantville a week and a half ago and and and U Council um I'm sorry commissioner woman KR had reached out hey is this ACA we're the first one on Facebook we have people on Facebook that love to stir the pot they have nothing better to do with their lives besides they're the pot so they post on it and AUA AUA ACA doesn't have any infrastructure in that the same day we got a call from atan City we don't have any infrastructure in Atlantic City at all it comes right to our plant so we become the easy scapegoat uh for lot of blame so our goal is really just to be over the top with everything that we could possibly be when it comes to whether it's a sewer leag or an not complaint so uh anything I do to help you guys out with that please let me know and I'll continue to keep feeding you with uh information and updates thank you all right thank you m thanks everybody thank you thank you okay um I'm going to ask now since we have one of our favorite judges out here if we can take a resolution bring up resolution 503 gisser grizley Comission [Music] okay uh resolution [Music] 53 appointment of Erin lner EDS to the Atlanta County criminal justice Advisory board for a term to expire on April 1st 2025 hi let me just start my name is Mark Sanson I'm the chairman of the Atlantic County criminal justice Advisory board for some reason we've been getting a run on members now so we got a call from L wner who's here with me uh who I I have known my entire life I haven't seen her in many many moons but uh you know we kind of kind of intersected at various points in our lives called uh and she had a different name when she was when I knew her uh and she wants to join the Atlanta County criminal justice Advisory Board and then she gave me a resume and I was blown away uh that she wanted to do that so I just like to introduce you to Erin and eron just tell them who you are and why you want to do this good evening or good afternoon um thank you so much for having me um you know about two years ago I would have never thought that this would be something that I would be stepping into but um I'm currently working in Atlanta County Special Services as a director of instructions programs and services and one of the projects that I've been uh lucky enough to jump into is training our local law enforcement on recognition and response for um people with mental health needs disabilities autism I was in Atlantic City today we're doing their all of their in Services over the next next couple weeks um we've we've taught in many different municipalities and it just has become an interest and a passion I think a need um to to open up some of uh people's perspectives with our criminal justice system and how we can help the the members of our community so I'm grateful to be here well thank you for being here Aon I also heard from our prosecutor today that you may be wanting to uh come back and talk about some of these programs and he has something he wants to talk about as well so we'll uh uh T Tara will reach out and set some time for to get here and thank you for for doing that thank you thank you do we have any other comments good no I have nothing to say she's really qualified we're also going to be coming back to you very soon on the Consolidated Municipal Court to make that report and uh I've gotten some place in terms of getting a lot of data so we'll be talking about that our our next meeting in October will probably come to you before the end year to discuss that thank you presid great work uh any Comm from any comments from the commission see hearing none anything from the public alas yes fortino yes burs yes da yes G yes Parker yes Grizzly yes yes buing carries congratulations thank you everybody she's very good I'm really happy we have her what an interesting presentation that was before when he started oh no but it was actually a it thank you very much what your I stole it St EXC okay that brings us resolution 478 your an application and acceptance for the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission for the State Community Partnership and family court Grant am not to exceed $654,900 from the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission for the Atlantic County Youth Services Commission home electronic detention System case management program amount not to exceed $120,000 move by commissioner G second by commissioner B any commissioner comments see hearing n anything from the public koll call bastino yes Burns yes the yes G yes Parker yes rley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 480 Grant application and acceptance from the state of New Jersey Division of mental health and Addiction Services for the medication assisted treatment Grant amount not to exceed $3,985 moved second move by commissioner B second by commissioner G any commissioner comments see heing N9 public roll call Palace Martino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion car vares resolution 481 pleas for application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of State Division of Elections for the help America vote act 2024 physical security remediation Grant Mount now to exceed $1,950 she move second move by commissioner vley second by commissioner G any commissioner comments seeing hearing n from the public roll call Bas Martino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes rzz yes K yes motion carries resolution 482 482 482 amending resolution number 175 adopted on April 16 2024 a grant from the New Jersey Transit Corporation through the Corona virus response and relief supplemental appropriation act and American Rescue plan act to correct the total amount for the 2022 section 5310 grant funding net decrease $2 second move by commissioner G second by commissioner days any Comm your comments same hearing anything from the public alaso yes Burns yes yes G Parker grizzley yes yes motion carries now help resolution Grant application and acceptance from the state of New Jersey through the Local transportation project to allow the ly County transportation unit to continue to provide the 5440 community shuttle in the western part of Atlanta County and the English Creek Tilton Road Community shuttle known as the Cross County Connector amount not to exceed $450,000 second move by commissioner G second Mo by commissioner da any commissioner comments Madam chair I just want to um extend thanks to I think our state uh Representatives um as Jerry mentioned this I think this is the one here but this wasn't originally in the state budget uh to fund and our uh Representatives um did advocate for this funding to continue it is um a critical piece of uh uh part of our Transportation uh plan throughout the county and um it was really flourishing preco obviously took a hit but we are seeing it grow back so just glad to see those those funds continue again want to thank our state representatives for uh their advocacy any other commissioner comments anything from the public okay call Bas yes fortino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 484 amending resolution number 509 adopted on September 10th 2019 a competitive contract with Partners Pharmacy for the provision of pharmaceutical services for residents of metaview nursing and rehabilitation center to extend the term date net increase $332 33.33 second moveed by commissioner burn second by commissioner G any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public we have a roll call Bas yes fortino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes grizley yes K yes motion carries resolution 485 competitive contract with Dr Christopher Christopher J lucasi do to serve as medical director of meie nursing and rehabilitation center amount not to exceed $38,000 moved moved by commissioner Burn seconded by commissioner grizley any commissioner comments see he none call Bas yes fortino yeah Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 486 big contract with health mat's company for floor mat rental and cleaning services and mount n Reed $7,777 ,500 second mooved by commissioner K seconded by commissioner rley any commissioner comments I just want to say how nice everything is looking out there it really really is we're doing a great job out there and this the final this is the final piece this is it nice job it's never final final for now well of the stage of this stage whatever uh any comments on the public see hearing none well roll call Alice yes rotino Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries resolution 488 big contract with Atlantic salt Incorporated to furnish and deliver rock salt to participating members of the Atlanta County cooperative amount not to exceed $ 69,3 180 second move by commissioner G second by commissioner Grizzly any commissioner comments Madam chair get you to Jerry did we get the weather forecast yet or whater will not give it to me you will not give it to me all right hopefully won use a some kids want to off whatever so any other commissioner comments anything from the public any call Bas yes Martino yes Burns yes SE yes G yes Parker yes Grizzly yes F yes motion carries resolution 489 F contract with Providence Auto Group with preventative maintenance on County vehicles amount not to exceed $ 37,200 second move by commissioner G second by commissioner grizley any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public anyone have a roll call bastino yes Burns yes St yes GTO yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes motion car9 change order number two a contract with arak Paving Company Incorporated for 2022 on call maintenance resurfacing now increase $ 46,7 7.94 move second move by commissioner G second by commissioner Burns any commissioner comments seeing hearing none anything from the public we'll have a roll call yes Martino yes Burns yes SE yes G yes Parker yes rizley yes turn yes motion carries brings us to resolution 491 change order number one a contract with South State Incorporated for the Lake lenpy Dam Spillway in Hamilton Township to change the type of materials only no additional cost second move by commissioner G second by commissioner Kar any Kar commissioner Burns any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public any roll call Alice patino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes rizley yes Kar yes motion Carri resolution 492 pleas emergency contract the Z radar limited liability company doing business as reimbursement reimagine for the provision of MDS support services for meow viw nursing and rehabilitation center at Mount n Reed $660,000 move by commissioner Burn seconded by commissioner G any commissioner comments yeah mam chair um I think it's important to highlight um this is the company we had brought in or this is a part of um the um research we had done uh thanks to I think commissioner rizley found the gentleman who came in and did the um kind of research into how could we optimize our operation at me view and and I just want to commend County Administration I mean you you took on that task you're continuing that that path right of doing what we can as fast as we can now to optimize the operation while also exploring the other you know opportunities and and things that that we've been talking about um and this is just another piece of the recommendations that came out of the the findings um so we're continuing to kind of chip away at those findings and um I just again I want to say you know great work uh keeping that good path going while we're and and not letting a problem Fester while we're you know looking for other things so I just I think it's important to highlight that yeah thank you commissioner G I agree with you it's very it's very nice we staying on top of it and keeping this moving forward thank you for those comments any other commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public roll Palace yes rotino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes Grizzly yes turn yes motion carries resolution 493 please e us contract with insurance agencies Incorporated to purchase a treasurer's bond amount not to exceed $1,166 second move by commissioner G second in by commissioner rley any commission comments see here 9 from the public roll Alice yeso yeah Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes carries resolution 494 please alternate method contract with Atlantic care John Brooks Recovery Center for the operation Helping Hands program at Mount not toed $75,000 by commission second com anything from Al yeso yeah Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes Grizzly yes turn yes motion carries resolution 495 acceptance of deed easements from various granters in accordance with atena County Planning standards like commissioner da second can invite commissioner G any commissioner com hear none anything from the public call Alice yes Martino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker grizzley yes K yes motion carries brings us to resolution 504 496 Miss sorry the whole page amending resolution number 225 adopted on May 7 2024 in agreement with Atlantic City Electric company and the Atlantic County Workforce Development board to support Workforce Development initiatives to increase the Sion amount per participant for qualified candidates no additional cost moved by commissioner Burn seconded by commissioner G any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public you have a roll call Alice fortino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes turn yes motion carries I'll entertain a motion to combine and adopt resolution number 497 to 500 chapter 159 moved no we have to do that one now okay second move by commissioner B second by commissioner G any commissioner comments hear none comments from the public and roll call Dallas yes fortino yes Burns yes da yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes yes motion carries resolution 501 state of New Jersey Department Community Affairs Brigantine prom prominade refurbishment 2024 to 2026 in the amount of 1,1 8 5,837 with a county cash match of $62,400 second move by commissioner G second by commissioner days any commissioner comments no can we have Jerry or the engineer just give us a overview or give the public an overview of what is going to take place on this uh PR do you want to Doug do you want to do that I mean sure okay great yeah um so uh we are looking at just doing some uh refurbishment to the promade and Brigantine uh we have a consultant right now working on the plans uh they're uh looking at you know making some repairs to any uh damage concrete any of the damage uh vinyl sheeting on the structure as well as there's some uh I guess uh some C material um and I think we're looking at did I say lighting uh and the the handicapp rooms and uh I think the access to the uh beaches as well so I know the consultant is uh partially done their plans we're hoping to get final plans sometime later this month so that we be out to bid you want to put all also all all new railings liting said he mentioned the lighting yes it's like an over overall of the entire and there was some structural damage you know that you heard and talk about so so we're just coming up with the plan how do how do we apply for this almost 1.2 million almost 1.3 million if we don't know what we're actually doing well he just gave you what we knew the plan we knew what we knew what Bry te asked us to do that's what they gave us I mean you heard Doug talk about he's talking about more particular items they wanted they wanted all the railings all the handicap ramps there other skirting that he was talking about all the and what happened then was is we had to then put it was put in writing that they they wanted this then our Engineers the engineer that's working for is rington Vernick they went ahead an AC and looked at all of those issues and then put that in writing and the ranch you know about 100 pages long now they're actually doing what he's talking about is the actual specifications to go add into did it that that's the that's the distinction Doug is giving you more of the if I had answered that question I just giving you this this this this and this he's giving you all the technical issues that that's why he asked him to do that so what I what I was saying to is the basics the ramps the railings you know he's talking about some of the the uh the structural things that they found now that they've actually done the Redal the Grant had it in in a certain time frame and they funded it based on those you know based on on the request from bringing team Aon you know that the the things that I'm talking about so we're pretty confident that that this project will be able this funding will be able to cover this project yes yes absolutely yes correct all right perfect thank you any other commissioner comments anything from the public have a roll call valis yes rotino yes Burns yes St yes G yes par yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries resolution 502 please Grant application and acceptance through the national telecommunications and Information Administration United States Department of Commerce for the digital Equity competitive grant program funded amount 5, 78,500 County cash match 1,531 th000 I'm sorry 1,5 31,500 County inine match $645,000 moved second moved by commissioner burn second by commissioner G Jerry can you tell us a little bit about this sure I I have a Our IT director on uh Mr Ru so we met uh we met with uh Triad that's the our Brant writer and they they went through a series of things with us uh Brian Edon Brian really is director he had some great ideas for Med it probably equal about a million dollars the GR itself you know they're funding in $5 million levels and so we went through with with um Triad the variety of populations theyd like you to serve so so I I asked ran you know what do you think so we went through a series of issues with with County government and so let Let Brian explain you know what what what he came up with Brian Brian Brian are you on yes he's got his hand I unmuted him and he disar Bryan are you unmuted the same problem I yeah he was on here he's been unmuted he can speak he's muted on his end Brian you might be muted on your end Brian you need an IT guy can you hear me we can you have the floor I was just seeing if everybody was there so testing uh this is a rather this is a rather large brand application impacting many areas uh the Jus a facility Wireless infrastructure uh digital literacy lab with a teleah health setup uh The metav View nursing home as Jerry mentioned with Smart TVs in each bed uh voice over IP phones high-speed internet wireless infrastructure throughout the facility uh computer literacy lab and telea health ability at the bed uh this would also help service the Veterans office intergenerational services nutritional sites all with having digital literacy labs and long-term loader computers and access and then uh it would help with the transportation buses uh putting Wi-Fi on the transportation buses uh which will really help in the rural areas uh that are traveled where there's no cell service or any other access great opportunity great OPP thank Jerry did you have anything you want to add no it's a good plan B Bonnie's hitting me in the the head because it's one and half but but Brian thinks we would do this over a period of time so we we wouldn't have to come up with the money immedately B will have to you know work with his on this but so it it'll take a while to get all of all of the um if we get funded obviously it's it's a federal so you know we have to be funded first I think it's a really good opportunity for for County government great thank you just keep remembering 5 million savings just just keep that of mind you uh any commissioner comments any comments from the public and we will have a r Bas yes patino yes Burns yes stay yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes K yes motion carries brings us to 504 please authorizing consent for a roadway solicitation event by the abse and BFW post 9462 at the intersection of M Road County Route 65 6 51 and New Jersey Avenue County Route 601 in the city of abin on Saturday November 9th 2024 and Sunday November 10th 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. second move by commissioner G seconded by commissioner days any commissioner comments see hearing none anything from the public and we will have a roll call Palace yeso yes burs yes yes G yes Parker yes grizley yes turn yes motion carries resolution 505 resolution to have the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation review accident Pro roadways sponsor ernesty Cory move by commissioner G second by commissioner I don't believe Cory no M chair I spoke with commissioner Cory and um offered to kind of be a co-sponsor on this as well uh he wasn't sure that he would be able to um to get on in time but um I think everybody knows he brought this up at a prior meeting recently about the um the issues in the West atantic City Corridor of resar 322 and 40 the state owned um we were able to pull together actually I should say the county was able to pull together thank you um the uh statistics uh around some um of the the accident uh data which is a similar approach we took on Route 30 and cologne and uh I do appreciate commissioner Cory also including um rout 30 and cologne being incorporated into this resolution for that visit um I think we have a number of areas that really need some attention um this want in West lantic City uh being the focus of this resolution but uh you know certainly if we can um get the get the commissioner down here show them you know in person what's happening um The Dangers that it POS uh in each of these locations and um really try to get you know pedal on the gas to um get some activity happening in West Atlantic City um and also bring the colog and um blue3 project to a close uh I think we're all tired staring at the new lights just sitting there and not working yet so um yeah so that's uh I think all the highlights from commissioner for's perspective something tells me you're going to stay on top of but thank you very much for reporting that uh any other commissioner comments anything from the public okay we'll have a roll call Alice yes bertino yes Burns yes St yes G yes Parker yes grizzley yes F yes motion carries at this time I'll attain a motion to add resolution 507 to the agenda second move by commissioner G by commissioner Ballas any commissioner comments comments from the public you just need V to add okay this all in favor to all in favor to add I hi hi I Okay resolution 507 resolution to amend the board's public meeting scheduled to cancel the meeting on October 1st 2024 move by commissioner G second by commissioner Dallas any commissioner comments hearing none anything from the public roll call Bas yes Martino yes Burns yes da yes GTO yes Parker yes rley yes yes motion carries okay we've received if anyone has received copies of written Communications and petitions that would like to share at this time Jerry I've received a couple of emails recently about um the guard being down on moso road um in Smith R the dangerous C there between W Road and Pitney Road I think there are three three barrels that have been out there for quite a while um and I know we approved the contract to replace the guard barels throughout I think that was by state main dat or something um I you know if there was already a schedule for this and if so if this could be you know placed close to the top um because that's that's a dangerous curve and um you know especially at night the Barrel's there I I see people that can't for whatever reason maintain their Lane anyway as it is and other people swerving around the barrel so I just you know want to bring attention to that before hopefully nothing happens but want to see if Doug did you could you hear that that location yeah um I know uh we just sent over uh the bid specs for the new guy rail contract the old one has expired uh so we are getting ready to bid that contract and then we'll be able to take care of some of this type of work okay I mean I know the barrels are out there for a reason but the guess concern is that they're retreating into the road right on that curve there and it's a a dangerous situation potentially we have take a look at we have Greg no just going to say why we have Greg you guys uh talk every day anyway we have GRE go after look at that okay yeah across from the the steel plate where the work was being done to replace the levy there the opposite side of the RO can they put a human barricade there temp it's pretty narrow that would really stop people from they're follow I'll let you know let you know uh any other um Communications from the Commissioners okay any reports of special committees in the board any unfinish business sure yeah if um we could just get an update from Doug on the um Bridge replacement um in e Township you I've seen last week that they um paved roadway so it leads me to believe that hopefully it's they're ahead of schedule and the road should be opening soon but I could be wrong yeah we we were we're very close um I know this week they were working on the guide Rail and uh I mean there's probably a couple thousand feet of guy rail at that uh structure um they have to do the striping the uh raise pavement markers um and uh I know they have to do some landscape items we're looking at trying to have a uh final inspection either the end of this week or sometime next week and after that meeting we should have a good idea if there's any uh punchless items that would uh require the road to continue to be closed um if not not we would be looking at trying to get the uh Road open as soon as possible okay good we are well ahead of schedule right now um I think uh the road wasn't supposed to open till February so corre we're very close correct but your your landscaping and that kind of stuff can that be done um with the road open uh it's a little more dangerous CL close during the day when they do the work and open it yeah uh we could look at that um I have to uh right now we also are dealing with some weather so I'm not sure if the weather's going to delay us a bit because uh obviously we can't have a wet Road when we strike so it should be very soon though great okay appreciate it we can't talk we can't talk about hurricanes commissioner got them but we can rain the rest of week any other unfinished business any new business anyone attending in person that would like to speak now at public comment please come to the podium speak into the microphone state your name with to you deide if you're attending virtually and like to make a public comment please raise your hand I'll call upon your name and request to mute will be sent again state your name in the town you reside you will be provided up to three minutes to speak okay any comments for the good of the order I'll entertain a motion to adjourn second all those in favor all right thank you everyone for being here [Music] [Music] [Music]