put on the rec six o'clock okay all right so it is um ail the 8 and it's 6 o'clock and I'm calling the Beach Haven burrow meeting to order and the I I read through this the flag salute is led by I think to the flag of the United States of America to the rep one nation under God indivisible first into the New Jersey open public meetings act adequate and electronic notice of this meeting has been provided by posting on the bulletin board in the beachaven municipal building on the burrow website and mailing the same to the beach Haven times the Asbury Park Press and the Press of Atlantic City Mrs B Miller here miss Lambert here Mr mcaffrey here miss Snider here mayor Davis here we do have a presentation on the agenda for this evening um it's pertaining to what was formerly known as the chowderfest event we did receive um a message from the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce um that uh they will not be they are going to be stepping aside to allow um an alternative event to take place on this state and time uh that's focused on the Beach Haven businesses um the quote from them was that they commend the idea of a local showcase and wish the best for all the events taking place at this time so at this time we're going to hand it over to um I believe the peach Haven Chamber of Commerce that's going to discuss their plans for this the upcoming event for this year is it possible to bring it up on that you can't um that's right be long yeah please talk into the microphones too you can raise it it's much better [Music] now oh yeah go right ahead all right my name is Matt Fred I'm the president of the Beach Haven Chamber of Commerce um and we're here with the hunger Foundation just to present to you what we would like to do in collaboration for the event that was chowderfest uh so we have this presentation we're just going to go through a few points of why we think it's beneficial for the to and for both organizations as well so these are just a few points that we put together uh if you guys are not familiar with the Beach Haven Chamber of Commerce uh we do exist just to promote business um for the town to bring people to the town in a form of events uh we also try to provide support to the local businesses as well in any way that we can so a few things that we think will be beneficial to the businesses and the town I've listed up here um So the plan was to create a partnership with Beach Haven and the hunger Foundation of Southern Ocean County um I think our both vision for this is to always have some sort of charitable Focus for the event to make sure that some of the money that is brought in uh is given back to causes that are important to not just the business Community but also the residents of Beach Haven um so some of our goals up here sorry were to secure the long-term event um whether that's a contract with Beach Haven burough or that's a contract between the two organizations to work together to put on multiple events to support these causes uh to help provide funds necessary for each organization we do have some costs but both of us are volunteer-based organizations so we don't have many overhead costs most of the money that's made in any of these events don't go towards salaries they just go back to our causes uh and to Showcase local restaurants and vendors which is really important to a lot of people involved in shouter Fest so these are the points I was talking about specifically for the Beach Haven chain ber why we think it's beneficial uh is for us to have ownership of the event at least to own the permit will to be ensure that all the money brought in for the event uh is given back to Beach Haven in the forms of supporting businesses restaurants involved in some of the food parts of the event uh as well as the things we do afterwards things like providing the Fourth of July fireworks other events we the ones that put on the artw walk in the spring as well as historically Fall Fest and the fall we like to see a lot more of those things bring people spe specifically to the shoulder Seasons uh into Beach Haven and support businesses as I already said we're a volunteer-based organization so this money won't go directly to overhead or uh other budget line items because most of the revenue that we bring in just covers cost and any profit from events gets put back into what we're passionate about which is bringing business whether it's marketing events other events or anything else that uh the council may see necessary for the town uh right now our current budget is financed by memberships which is coming from the local businesses so having outside events kind of frees up those businesses from supporting everything right now for example the Fourth of July fireworks is a huge expense and it's paid 100% by businesses in Beach Haven so we're looking to provide financing that can kind of take that away from them as their responsibility uh and all the proceeds from this is going to will be reinvested so when we see long-term events it's it's going to compound because a lot of this isn't going into expenses year year we don't have budget line items that have to be covered by the event proceeds so every year it could be going into different causes can support different things uh and we would love the support of council obviously to to help highlight some things that would be great for the town in general uh and we hope that we can have a long-term partnership with the hunger Foundation as it is a great cause and it's a great cause related to the theme of chowderfest as a whole so I'll take it up here um I'm Todd I have panzones I sit on the board of The Hunger Foundation I've also run this event for a few years um family has run it since day W basically so um some of the things that uh we want to see happen with the event you know the hunger Foundation but also us as family um we want to see the money go back and it causes that are important for everybody so like Matt was saying you know bringing people to the town shoulder season is crucial to making sure the business Community can Thrive long term um making sure that we can take care of our you know the people that need it with the hunger Foundation makes a lot of sense I feel like that was one of the probably the core reason why we actually could pull a tasting off last year was because it's a lot easier for the restaurants to get behind something that kind of it hits home with us that's that's kind of what our mission is so feeding people that need it uh it's really not hard for us to get restaurants that want to get involved in that um so a little bit about The Hunger Foundation uh we currently serve 10 local food banks um we have two additional food banks that are looking for assistance quickly um which we are trying to figure out if this is kind of a big part of that if we can add on additional food banks in the future um we were able to donate $100,000 from the event last year I'd say that came out of the event um pretty much entirely so again just like the Beach Haven chamber we don't have payroll we don't have a building we don't have you know we have a little bit of insurance right Chris basically no there is no overhead for the foundation so whatever we bring in goes right back into the community um the reason why this partnership makes sense with Beach Haven chamber and us besides the restaurant uh aspect is we kind of have a lot of the experience running the event myself Chris Jeremy you know there's a large group of people on our board Sarah Dave was involved for a long time we've been a core group of people running the event for all these years we've all had our reasons and and moved on but we all kind of found oursel over here so it really makes a lot of sense for us to partner because we are the ones that have the experience to pull this off especially this late in the game um this is just a real quick slide about the food banks that we service and how many people those food banks serve and what their financial needs are um I don't think that this is a very well-known fact so I put it in here so you guys can kind of understand why we're fighting so hard to continue this event um you can see like the biggest one in there is Ken's kitchen they do 600 meals a day so you're talking 18,000 meals a week a month you know compound that that's a lot of people that they're feeding uh ocean Church uh down on 72 they're 9,000 people a year you that's the one that has a line down 72 every Wednesday I think is their day right there um you know Stockton 40 students High the high school 62 students you know these are all the people that we're trying to do this event for and bring the money into to help all this um the food banks that are coming in this the one that's pushing the hardest right now is the star poverty they're on 72 in barnegate in the old um barnegate Firehouse we were in there they do 6 to 700 people twice two or three times a week twice a week um they want to get on board with us we'd like to partner with them but we can't take obviously from what we have up there there's such a huge need so we have to kind of be you know I want to say selective but it's harder for us to grab more Banks to help if we don't have a large source of income to do that long term so I just put this up here so you guys can see it um I thought it was important that you see the need around and it is local and it is right in our backyard St Francis is a huge one um but you know if you guys have questions on that please feel free to call us uh and then so the goal for this year and we want to create a solid partnership with the Beach Haven chamber um it does make a lot of sense for the Beach Haven chamber to be involved in this they're always going to be here you know the foundation is always going to be as well but it's in Beach Haven's backyard so the Beach Haven chamber in my opinion should be the one to kind of take over the Reigns on this and partner with who they feel they want to partner with moving forward and right now the foundation seems to be that but down the road that could change you we don't you know who knows what the future is going to bring um we really still need need to create we need to repair the damage from covid for the event um you know we used to bring 12,000 people in last year we brought half of that if we don't do a tasing in this year I don't know that this event comes back I don't know that we can withstand you know or Chow tasting or something like that if we don't do something in that ballpark I don't know that we're ever going to be able to bring that amount of people back into town so that's the big push um again you know whatever you guys have for questions please feel free to ask you know open book here so I have a question um I last year I know I went it was a nice event um are you going to do the merchant Mark as well this year you didn't last year so that's a loaded question you were just talking about it actually we were just at the field talking about potentially you know I think the goal is to go back to a two-day event um I mean we're talking middle April right now usually you know in the past this is well we're we're done we're getting into season so uh I don't know that we can commit to it this year but that is the goal in the future is to go back to a two-day event where we can bring in as many vendors as possible the challenge this year is going to be time a quick question um I believe you covered this but this is 100% funded by all the participants yeah some sponsorships and things like that yeah not for the town I mean we're not looking for the town to invest anything in this um there's going to be some logistical issues if we go back on the field that maybe you guys can we can have a longer conversation about um but you know as far as the money going to throw this now we're we're good we don't we don't require anything from the town to do it will you be um the restaurants that participate in the past we've talked about this receive some some money to cover their costs are you I think that's first steps for us is the the two organizations to meet and determine exactly how this is going to break down because one of the things we're focused on is making sure those restaurants are earning something from the success of the event so we'll just make sure everything's allocated the way we want it before we continue from here so we should have that I would hope yeah past we've always done with the there's always a stien the stien was never enough to cover the cost of the event uh last year with the foundation we were able to give 4% back after expenses from the gate to each restaurant which was enough to cover expenses um most of us broke even maybe made a dollar or two some of us lost a couple bucks depending on what our recipes were but we pretty much nailed what we all spent um and that is a that's always been a major sticking point for getting involvement because it is such an expense to to do this event I mean you're talking 200 gallons of soup is not cheap especially if you're doing a white chatter you know you have the cream and the butter that's that that adds up fast so the hope is that we can come up with well the hope but we will come up with a a breakout where the restaurants are going to be covered and that should be more than enough to get more participation but even even so we don't we're not hurting for restaurants I mean I can name seven right now that are that are already committed um which you know the hope for this year would be 10 last year eight we'd like to bump it up to 10 this year you know kind of baby step it back to maybe maybe not quite what it was but enough where it's not falling on so much pressure is falling on each restaurant is this going to be just be chaven or you gonna allow allow certain people that have been here in the past so we would like to allow like some of the core group is obviously not in Beach Haven um so they obviously you know they bring they draw a crowd in themselves and they know what they're doing it's easier for us to bring them in for this year um and for the future because they already have the experience but I think ideally we' like to open it up first and foremost to all be shaven chamber members and then if we can't generate enough interest that way then we'd go on the island and if we need to go off Island that would be you know kind of the process we would follow the only thing I would think about that is to stay to I to say reach Haven first which I agree with to a to to a degree but if it if you perceive that is well they're kind of cutting off the rest of the island and the Chamber always welcomed the entire Island I I worry about that so I hope maybe you'll I don't know I just think the island all good and then after that because I mean let's face it we haven't had any or many soups so I think I don't know I wouldn't want I don't wouldn't want to turn anyone off or if another event happened to run on the mainland then maybe they jump over there so I don't know just I think that determines the size of the event like we're willing to grow this as quick as businesses are willing to participate so like like Todd said we're trying to add restaurants so we're not going to cut it off just because they're not in Beach we want to grow the event too like for example walles I mean they've been really active and really help I don't know just yeah like we we would never we all drive up the island for soup after Labor Day right so we're not GNA turn anybody away but I think that the goal of this originally was to kind of draw people into town so I feel like chamber like they should at least have the first go at it and then if they choose they don't want because let's face it Beach Haven's really busy so it's hard for a restaurant to staff their store and stack a boot right I mean should that hopefully that will be your problem you'll have too many you know last yeah I know I'm sure um so it's going to depend on the restaurants and and again you know like I said there we have a lot of core restaurants you know that are involved that are going to stay involved like lefties is baring it they still want to be a part of it not going to turn them down they've been Champion yeah so they have every right to be there in my opinion part of the history of it I yeah definitely um so I know and I don't I don't know the workings of the CH chowder Fest except I do know there are a lot of other things besides soup that need to be buttoned up and one of them is the beer bender and then the entertainment you guys you you're all super conf that you can well the chambers run the Fall Fest as well which has beer as well as bands and things like that so um we have a lot of people on our board that have connections that way and there's a ton of businesses in Beach Haven that everyone takes care of kind of part of that and we do it in our business normally so yeah we have enough resources I think especially with everyone who's done it before yeah I don't think that's even close to one of our worries yeah there's existing relationships there um with us and you know Richie and Paige you know vendors like that and I the the logistics of like that part of it believe it or not is the easy part okay so it's just a matter of spending the day and sending the emails out and you know getting the tents on order and getting the bathrooms on order that part of it's easy um I think volunteers will be that's the the most important part yeah I know that it's always a problem at that time of year for restaurants in the beginning when they started to pull out it's because you the labor is so difficult to get these days and so back in back when I first started doing this we like panz us to partner with Anderson agency so we would do the soup and run the store but Dan would send over a group of uh insurance agents or Realtors or whoever and they would come and man the booth with you know a couple of our core staff so like we can easily you know reach back out and try to facilitate something like that if you know if bucko wants to do soup can't run the store we can find somebody that they can partner with their health facilitate that partnership that's how it worked back in the day and I see no reason why we can't continue that some of the agencies have been great for volunteers for us to especially with Fall Fest that's who helped us run our beer trailer for at least one event as far as volunteers for for the event itself um we are going to try to reach out to the food banks and see if the food banks can send volunteers um if they're going to benefit I feel like they should have skin of the game also yeah so I and most of them have been very receptive to that so that's going to be a big draw for us and then we'll hit the high school like we always did and you know the interact club and all the kids that need hours for Honor Society hit Stockton too yeah Stockton we've done that like to volunteer and I I know you know being on the trustees there that there are kids that really this food coming into them they they just can't afford to eat yeah well trying to fix it so I have to get back with the maybe you get or Nan you may getting in touch with somebody okay to talk to down there that can send some up because that's always the challenge it's been the challenge for years is rangling volunteers getting them to kind of show up on time and be aware of what's going on and the high school kids are great but it's an event people are not nice to kids so you know we always want to try to get some older Volunteers in the mix which Foundation would be good for each of businesses that that can send somebody over be for so there's solutions to the problem um it's just figuring out what works um couple more things one I think um having some money to be able to go towards for example the fireworks is a great idea it's I think the businesses are hit up constantly for every single cause in this town and it's a burden on them and so I think it's important I think that would be that would be great great asset um one thing you said was that you would own the permit now what do you mean by that do you mean that you think as of this year you should just always get it every year as Cher Fest did I mean I I feel like at at least we should maybe have I don't know I'm I'm in favor of it but I think maybe it should be a one-year trial and then make sure it works before we completely give something away that someone else has had for so many years that that just worries me a little bit the problem with that is there's a lot of expenses to to to put out now to do this long term for both organizations you know there's infrastructure that needs to be repaired there's electrical issues over there that we need to figure out there's a ticketing system there's a voting system so we have a lot of expenses that you know we're willing to outline now to do this but to only get the return for a year you know that's that's a hard it puts us in a position where you know we're spending all this money and it's you know that's why we would like a longer term you know agreement down the road I mean again I understand what you're saying um because the chamber's been doing it for so long but you know you have people on the side here that have been doing it just as long as but many of you and I'm just many of you have been on the chamber president the past presidents of the chamber and been actively involved in the decisions that the chamber has made in the past so we've all we've all left for various reasons but most of those reasons were because this event or for me in my my opinion is this event it's frustrating when you're trying to go out and solicit sponsors or or vendors or restaurants and everybody asks you where's the money go and there's really no tangible answer to that it goes to marketing and that's like a big you know nothing you know yeah it does I understand that but people are smart they know that there's overhead over there but they know there's no overhead over here either so you know I think the community is is smart in that sense where you know we would have a little easier time because of that um but we've all left for various reasons and and you know I know that the concern is you know if we couldn't fix it back then what makes you think that we can do it right now but the reality is we had a we had a Cham a group of chatter Fest volunteers that just handled chatter Fest and the board of the chamber was an entirely separate group of people and the overlap was like two people three people so there was never enough there was never a loud enough voice in one room to to do what we really wanted to do if that makes sense it's only a couple people and everybody as many presidents we as we have over here nobody was really on the board at the same time like they've all kind of filtered through so I understand I understand what you're what you're saying Kitty and I totally respect that and it's good question that's our ini okay have you retained any profits from the last one to put this on because I me there are some expenses that can't be donated like police off duty no we're good yous so you did retain some of the profit from the coming up in a couple weeks so whatever we get from that we can filter into the the initial Ally for this and yeah I mean the the money part of it is not going to be will there be dominations made from the pro from the proceeds to the fire company the first aid we always have I don't see I don't foresee a reason why we can't work that any yeah we haven't worked all that out but I think that's our intention that's our intention was to try to you know Loop in everybody again you know bring everybody back to the table friends of Beach Haven as well 501c3 for Park improvements I don't think there's anything off the T I mean like I said we we're our mindset is is we would like this to benefit the most amount of people so that's the kind of mindset we we've come together with and that's going to be the goal going forward is whatever we can do to generate the most amount of impact for the most amount of people I would think that the first year you're putting it on yourselves you'd have to keep more money this year than you would next year because you're going to pay yourselves back for one's be yeah year one is is that's understandable yeah year one is going to be a little bit of a financial you know risk for the J for both yeah um we have a good event even if we have a mediocre event in in comparison to last year we're still good there's totally fun so you know so you'll keep enough money to keep it running year after year yeah and then the goal would be to you know put some in bank so like if we had a hurricane or whatever we can't do it and we're not stretching ourselves to pull it off again the F trying to do it a little bit more financially responsible I guess is the best way to put it do you purchase insurance to cover we can only we require it as a bur well we can only purchase insurance for a ticketed event so like we get rain insurance if it rains on in years past if it rained on Sunday we had a policy that covered uh some of the ticket sales that it was never the full amount but it was enough to cover you know what we had out um and we we we pull rain Insurance on everything we learned are you going to do a rain date since you're only do a one day if we do a one day then rain day would be Sunday um we really can't go into another weekend just because sou is yeah perishable and it is what it is right um but if it rains on Saturday like last year the rain date was Sunday so if we do a one day event this year then that would be the that would be the goal okay do you have access to an online ticketing system that you're going to use so we used we used the ticketing system last year and Adam couldn't make it he uh Adam berer did it he's with creative click he ran that last year um it worked there was flaws for sure um but we did like the base very base uh package they had so knowing that there's going to be a few more people you know we can ramp that up for sure that was an issue um voting was also an issue so we're looking into solutions for that also um but the hunger Foundation is the one that ran ticket sales last year yeah so that would be so how are who's going to actually obtain the alcohol permit we probably would well we haven't talked about it but so we're shifting our resources that we put in the Fall Fest would roll into this so we wouldn't do both events so are you the chamber is going to actually be the applicant for this event to for special event yeah okay I think that makes the most sense yeah to be honest with you I think I think eaching chamber should be should be the applicant you know and they should be the ones who kind of take over um guess the lead so to speak just because it makes sense to it makes sense for the Beach Haven chamber to run the biggest event in beachen doesn't make sense for a foundation that you know isn't necessarily beachaven focused Foundation to run this event I'm sure there's going to be a lot of uh little kinks to work out even though you have plenty of experience but now being the main source of the whole event um I think it's a great idea looking forward to seeing it I live in ground zero so parking will be a nightmare but despite that um I wish you well I think it's going to be great for the town make sure you get the school to give you the parking we already talked to them yeah I'm sure got an inside inside there but um and it's and what I liked what I heard when you said Matt that you will be actively working to bringing in more events in the shoulder season I think everybody agrees especially in the spring because everybody has their sta everybody's got plenty of employees and we've talked about it already win just pan zones and fantasy is trying to figure out what we can do so there's ideas out there okay and probably the chamber needs more um um members right we could always use more members yeah for sure I'm not gonna turn anyone down to that I like the idea that it's a home run uh event and the people in the town taking part in it and that's this is their VAP it's always what it used to be I I remember Frank telling me that Dicky cross used to come down and cut holes in the pavement to put to put all the the post in for the fence and you know half the stuff down there Dicky did so you know that's kind of what we're we're trying to do is bring it back to that that kind of homegrown this is Beach shaving look at what we can do and you know we'll put ourselves up against anybody and that's kind of the mindset that we have I always considered that that this was basically Beach haen no matter who was run it was just a thing for beachen Beach Haven you know Beach Haven always has the most to gain and the most to lose so I think this plan kind of puts the ball I guess in the court of Beach Haven more so than it did like there's you know it's not like beachen chamber is going to run in event outside of beach so right one question I I the Chen Chamber of Commerce you don't pay can you use your microphone oh sorry I'm always tell else uh and you know do you do you take a salary in whereas the Southern Ocean County members do I mean people that work there full-time do take salaries which maybe and I I mean I know nothing about it but maybe gave them more time to organize these things so this is really truly 100% volunteer it is yep in the past like you're right but the chatter Fest committee was always a volunteer-based committee there was always people that had businesses that that did certain things um I mean as much as the office step was a huge help because they answer the phones every day um you know they were always working with somebody on the committee like to to kind of facilitate that ad so vendors would call and then that would go to my wife Jill with handle you know that part of it so they would work in conjunction with a volunteer you know person on the committee so I don't think that that necessarily ever you know doesn't have to change it's not like it's a huge jump okay I think we're doing it already too you know we're all kind of sold out for events in the town so we're the ones that set up cones at three in the morning to make sure events go off and we're already there already there anyway so we're not that worried about that and there are lots of people that really enjoy volunteering they you know have a business community yeah does it yeah and the community would be very happy to see what chamber a chter Fest coming I think the community needs it I think they realized everybody kind of realized the value of this during Co you know not having it for a couple years and then last year bringing the tasting back and having that that group of people that came back um I think that kind of renewed the the need the volunteer you know forward that people want it so I don't think it's going to be as hard for us to find volunteers locally as it has been in the past but time will tell yeah there's Solutions you know we can figure out ways to make it a little less volunteer avue so that's part of the money we have to spend technology helps a lot so that's the that's the infrastructure things that we would like to invest in yeah that's let's go back to the chips in the bottles you know for voting it worked at worked worked forever you know how many volunteers that took you have can you weigh them we you know how heavy they are I see JB is here and I'm just going to remind him that he promised me he himself would aate that field after the chatter Fest okay just reminding you yeah that's the other part like if we do this event you know I think the plan is to potentially use the field again um with the B shell and trying to keep some people maybe not the heavy traffic over there but at least at least use the field I agree with that um you know it's it's this year is going to be a challenge just figuring out how to lay it out is it is a big change but that's the idea that's the Hope yeah you could always if you didn't do it this year next year put the merchant Mart it as long as the fire department's still at the firehouse at in veterans yeah there's a lot of options depends on Fire Company there a lot of options yeah so again you know bring the fire bring the fire department more involved in this and it's I don't see a problem with that see what we always work well we always send people over to the Firehouse after the merch was over um what would the hours be this year man you have good question I'm sorry I'll just wait till you send on all the paperwork I if we do a one day event we'd run 11 to six the tasting would end it four but the the vendors would have the extra couple hours um the reason we cut the tasting off so the restaurants can go back to work MH um if it was a two-day it' probably be 11 to 6 and 11 to 4 on Sunday it would be we haven't really discussed the today ter I think one day is a good idea this year that's a big ask um but down the road that's that's traditionally what we've done thank you very much great job thank you thank you see Lou here he's a big help I know he is where is he I saw them there's cash receipts in the current fund account for the period of March 1st to March 31st 2024 were $ 534,906 49 cash dispersements in the current fund account for the month of March 2024 totaled 1,453 522 cash receipts in the water utility account for the period of March 1st to March 31st were $1 6,597 Cash dispersements In The Water Utility account for this period total 66,1 14468 cash receipts in the sewer utility account for the period of March 1st to March 31st were 0,36 63 while the cash dispersements in the sewer sewer utility account for the month of March total $23,100 43 submitted by our Treasurer Sher bowler thank you you want me to proceed or did you want anything you wanted to discuss before I continue well maybe if some people want to leave it's probably a good idea if if we can instigate a a discussion and public comment uh related to the the chowderfest situation um that way the I've see many of you here for that reason so if anybody in the public would like to come up and say something regarding um the presentation we just had uh this would be a good time to do it instead of at the end is there anybody in the public yeah name and address Adam aler fire chief under South Bay have um so I heard this I think it's a great idea honestly bringing the Beach Haven chamber uh with the hunger Foundation uh since you guys came up here I actually thought about how we could help out as the fire company every year we do turkey dinner and every year we donate the leftover food to the food bank down at l City mostly because the stuff's perishable but if we're able to work with like the hunger Foundation to give food to Ken kitchen or wherever it's needed um you know I think it's a great thing I think it's great to keep it within Beach Haven um the only thing that I do have a slight concern with and it's something that we can always negotiate or see if there's some kind of compromise is we've always done our uh our block party on Saturday Merchant Mart used to be on Saturday with chowderfest being on Sunday after covid I know that switched over I don't know if that's one of the things that kind of hurt chowderfest and the fire company as far as having both events overlap on the same day um that being said I don't think that's any reason not to do either one of them um and it's something that we could work out but I think it's fantastic that the uh discussions are being made and hopefully we get some progress on this thank you thank you anybody else in the audience Sherry did you look on Zoom to see if anybody you had one but they put their hand down oh there you go don morisy oh hi there um I'm sorry I'm not sure if there'll be an opportunity later to make some comments on something other than chower Fest if there is I'd be happy yes yes this is just Chow Fest on at this moment okay my apologies thank you no problem any anybody else uh have a comment about Childer Fest no so many of you here I know well I thought the presentation was great I it answered a lot of my questions and um thank you uh thanks yeah um so if nobody else wants to to discuss what I said thank you for volunteering yeah yeah and you you can count on all of us to volunteer too so uh uh but basically thank you very much um for the presentation so if nobody wants to say anything we'll move on with our ordinances this is your last chance anybody okay all right so we have ordinance uh ordinance 2024 6C an ordinance amending chapter 184 tennis courts Municipal and chapter 145 pickle ball courts Municipal in the burrow code of the burough Beach Haven county of ocean state of New Jersey to adjust fees for pickle ball and Tennis final reading uh this is the final reading so we can open this up to the public if anybody wants to discuss uh the tennis and pickle ball fees please come forward state your name and address mayor before we do that can I just make a quick comment um yes course one of the members of The Parks and Rec committee uh reached out to me after the last meeting where this was introduced and uh there was a misprint in the paper and they were concerned that U misinformation was out there now and they asked me to correct it so it said that uh the uh daily fees have not changed they have changed they're going up from $7 to $10 um everything else was accurate as stated the other thing that they were concerned about was uh there was a misquote about the number of pickleball players they said there are 30 people with season passes down there at 8:00 and then 30 more would show up for the daily passes and you know creating a l much larger number they just seem to think there would only be 30 so I was asked to correct that as well so thank you thank you that's helpful we could also ask the Sandpaper to correct it as well uh anybody else anybody in the audience or on Zoom that would like to discuss this topic no okay so I'm closing the floor to a comment uh do we have a vote to approve ordinance um uh 6C motion to approve 2024 d6c second Mrs B Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor DAV yes ordinance 20247 C an ordinance amending chapter 199 vehicles in traffic section 30 schedule six no parking During certain period of the Year reserved parking in the buau code of the Burrow Beach Haven county of ocean state of New Jersey to prohibit parallel parking on the west side of Delaware Avenue from Taylor Avenue to Fifth Street final reading again uh this is final reading so we can open this to discussion is there anybody in the audience or on Zoom that would like to discuss this particular ordinance yes have to say a lot today uh same thing I think this is a great idea uh there's always been a lot of congestion and stuff we experience that every time we have to go and do the fireworks standbys um around that area the only consideration I ask is if we're able to make sure that there are uh spots for the fire trucks and for the ambulances for any of those events down there again if it's not permissible for the public maybe we can have the uh emergency vehicles just be able to park down there so we can get in and out it should be a little bit uh less congested now so thank you thank you anybody on Zoom like to speak to this no uh nobody else so if nobody else wants to talk I closing the floor in a public comment and we have a motion to approve ordinance um 7c I'll make the motion second second Mrs Paul Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes ordinance 2024 8C an ordinance supplementing chapter 45 alcoholic beverages section one number of licenses permitted in the burrow code of the Burrow Beach Haven county of ocean state of New Jersey to allow for One plenary retail consumption license theater exception first reading uh this is first reading so there's no public comment uh is there anybody on the council we did discuss this last time yeah I just have a question based on some uh emails we've received um the state sets the parameters correct or do we have the leeway to limit anything on the license we do we do okay I I I'm just curious because I know the concern was two hours and uh for 15 and uh just wanted to see if there was something we could do or if it was strictly regulated we we could do that I I talked to Steve Steiner and he has no intention of serving alcohol two hours before the show or two hours afterwards and you can only do that 15 times a year I mean he anticipates maybe somebody you know a few people buying a drink at intermission um but he I I you know I had some people as well call me and this and having I'm a theater goer and I go to a lot of theaters where they have bars and I've never seen anybody dominate a bar or the bar people stand around before and after the show drinking a lot I I I and Steve said in no way it are they going to be you know open for business for two hours and it it's a situation where there there's not going to be room for a lot of people in there there's not going to be seats for drinkers it's not a bar um it's just a chance to have a drink it you can't set up tables and chairs because there's too many people in in the lobby there uh that you know would it would um uh probably be against a fire code if you try to put tables and chairs so I I don't and but we could we could if we wanted say um I'm pretty sure we could do this we could modify the special conditions if we wanted to I the question came up about using the patio and I kind of naturally assume that they might but then now you're saying that they really don't because if it's if it's inside the theater I don't see a problem at all it's supposedly inside the theater and it's not like you can take your drink to your seat and you know basically you have to be a theater goer you can't be just walking off the street and saying oh I'm going to stand here and drink for two hours you you have to be somebody that's has a ticket for the show I'm assuming their prices are going to be a little higher than the bars as well I would think so I mean you know it's a it's really there to help them pay their bills and I've been to many shows sorry and and never yeah first of all in New York they don't let you in two hours early and second of all no one I mean I've never seen anyone just pounding drinks at a theater at a show it's just not there's there's been a lot of questions about people coming off the street and buying alcohol there and these are all conditions that we could set from what I understand that we could set up in their restriction well that's already a state regulation that you can't you have to be a you have to be a participant the show ticker there's other points we wanted to Li it to an hour and you know people coming in and serving it there's also like I said there's restrictions that we could put on there from what I understand to stop any of the problems that might I think so they do I agree yeah you're right anybody else Jamie no I think it's a great idea okay me too me too okay uh all right so uh do I have a motion to approve first I make a motion to approve 20248 is there second I'll second Mrs B Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes uh ordinance 20241 is the calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget Appropriations limit and to establish a cap Bank person into NJ sa 4A colon 4- 4.14 this is an ordinance we do every year to allow us to uh increase the Appropriations limit and Bank anything that we do not utilize and and as we say we do this every year so is this is this a first reading it is yes so anybody on Council want to comment on that if not do I have a motion to approve I'll make a motion second Mr B Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes all matters listed under item consent agenda considered to be routine by the municipal Council and will be enacted by one Motion in the form listed any items requiring expenditure supported by a certification of availability of funds and any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed separately all consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes resolution 96 authorizing an amendment to the scope of work for the 2023 local Recreation Improvement Grant uh for 0938 skate park 97 proclaiming the national service recognition day and National volunteer week 98 returning remaining escrow 99 releasing a performance bond 100 awarding the 2024 licenses for ice cream vending resolution 101 is authorizing the lease burrow owned property not needed for public use and an online auction this is the boat slips at Doc Road 102 awarding a contract to sports and Tennis Construction LLC for the 2024 basketball court reconstruction project and one3 approving an agreement with tuckeron seport and bayan's museum for this year's ferry service would anybody like to remove any of these um items off the agend off this list to for further discussion I'd like to remove 96 all right any anybody else all right so uh let's vote on 97 through 103 is there a motion motion to approve resolutions 97 through 103 thank you second Mrs PA Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes and resolution 9 6 2024 authorizing an amendment to the scope of work for the 2023 local Recreation Improvement Grant 0938 skate park so I pulled the resolution because originally this uh Grant was allocated towards the skate park so I just want an explanation on what exactly the new scope of work is for this grant so the grant that was awarded for the best project was 63,000 um we recently went out to bid for the basketball Improvement project and the bid came in at 96,000 including engineering and whatever change orders we may have so in order to utilize the $70,000 grant that we were also awarded for skate park before the expiration of this grant which is December um we were looking to combine so the scope of work would mirror the scope of work for the basketball project which would allow us to award the project and complete the basketball project so the project has to be bid awarded completed and closed out by December of this year so I my feeling Jamie is that we're GNA lose this money if we don't do this at this point in time there'll be other hopefully opportun ities to um readdress the skateboard park but I don't think we want to lose that additional money it just makes it just doesn't make sense to get let it go at this point but we're not saying that we're not still interested in a skateboard park if we can find the proper place anybody else want to comment okay is motion to approve 96 I will make a motion to approve 96- 2024 is there a second I'll second Mrs Paul Miller no Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes I have a bill list this evening in the amount of 1,233 39624 okay is there a motion to approve the bills I had a question what was a stupid question I I'll have to remember what it was in there Sher okay I already asked my questions answer it wasn't anything that's just something motion to approve the bills I'll second it thank you Mrs B Miller yes Miss Lambert yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Davis yes great okay now we're on to the big item the the budget budget shry welcome Harry bowler Chief Financial Officer hi um thank you so I'll just start I I did email out on Friday I hope everybody had a chance to review the worksheets I sent out on Friday that's usually the bulk of what takes the most time to go through these worksheets Page by Page um one thing I will just preface and tell you in advance my explanation and my words in the body of my email um where I mentioned the Appropriations cap where the the state maximizes the amount that we are allowed to increase our budget and I mentioned that we were in a little bit more of a bind than I've ever seen because we were over our cap and we were kind of forced to discuss and cut some items I will um tell you that I made an error in reviewing it further um I did notice in basically one of my calculations I didn't have something formulated properly so one I apologize for that error but that error that I made actually worked a little bit in our favor that when I reformulated everything and calculated it correctly we are within our cap limitations so the discussion won't be as um won't be as dire as I guess I made it sound and I figured that out this afternoon which caused a lot of these these these all these documents are Dynamic and with every little change you know I'm changing the spreadsheets I'm changing the budget document I'm changing other spreadsheets so it's one little change is kind of a domino effect so I apologize for that fixed it today um with that said I also mentioned that on Friday when I realized or thought we were in that shape um I did Sher and I sat and we we did go through and cut some items um so the the budget doc that I emailed out on Friday had it was after I I we removed some items there were a few things that we discussed today that I really we only cut because we were forced to cut something but they probably weren't really appropriate to cut so we added just a few of the items back in not all of them um but in order to just not take forever in this discussion I I'm not really sure which way you want to go we we usually we'll start with the salary and wage worksheet um I don't want to go too fast or too slow so I will try to Breeze through through it as quickly as I can um and maybe Identify some things of a discussion something you know highlight a change from the prior year but please at any moment tell me to stop if you have a question you know I don't know if you have questions on what you've seen thus far and I will at least identify maybe the items that we added back in So what you're looking at in front of you is slightly changed from what I emailed out not too much I ask you a question before you start the highlighted items is there a Rhyme or Reason between the coloring and the highlighted so the not entirely and I I kind of noticed that at the end as I went through this um the coloring scheme of it all kind of got away from me some I mean I thought well some would be an increase some would be a decrease it doesn't work it's not it's some of it is you know well it's a change it's a new item it's something that we added last year do we want to keep it this year then I you know I can clean that up but okay well I just I just was it just was confusing me a little bited yeah some things are may all the same color we've got multiple people working on the spreadsheets so it's you know and then I realized it it wasn't worth the time really to go back and change the coloring so okay um so if we start with the salary and wage again with salary and wages really for the most part everybody here is under a contract whether it's an individual Employment contract or you know a negotiated labor agreement so there is not a whole lot of discussion or leeway to change but you know as I said there are maybe a few things we can go through um on the right hand column is the percent increase um you know I I will just kind of Breeze through if you have any questions you know I don't stop me please okay um the one thing that we added back in on page two that you did not see in your email was um under the tax assessor we have been budgeting uh for the past couple years just a little bit 6,000 for a reval um and with that we know that there's a revaluation coming in order from the the county and it could happen at any moment so we just added that back in in the event that there will be hours more necessary um with the reval um not much else uh on page three um different from what you saw we added back in an item that we had taken out of the police in the effort to uh cut some costs was just the the promotion we've had that in there for the the past couple years they have been granted the approval to promote I think there's there is still the need to promote somebody but I believe it was a timing issue um and they were waiting for some test results to come back so we wanted to put that back in in the event that they are able to follow through with that promotion that they are um they were granted there is a vacancy in the police department also that was a prior year approval and so that remains in still a vacancy um page four um I don't see much of an issue or change other than an increase um also in the police for the the sleo budget there was a request um I think you know they were having issues uh maintaining or or filling the the full need of what was requested so there was a I think a request to increase the part-time hourly rage yes um page five not much of there things that are highlighted AR also maybe new over the prior year um you know public the buildings and grounds the reason that custodian is hired is because um we hired a part-time person as a cust Stan that wasn't there the prior year the maintenance of equipment that is not that looks a little bit off skewed that is offset by the prior page under sanitation we reallocated things correctly where we realized we had one person that replaced somebody in a prior year shifting of people from a different department we just really moved things around on that um parks and playground there is a an addition um salary 15 000 for a Recreations coordinator um that was that's a new position that was requested I guess uh with the Parks and Recreation committee for a part-time person in the summer so we added 15,000 for that page six not much there um to really go over page seven is our totals and um salary and wage to note also just the increase over the prior year was only 1.55% that's great so that's lower than we you know we've had a few retirees uh We've refilled positions with you know people coming more you know correct so that was that was nice um same thing water utility um not much of a change there is one vacancy now that we also have the sewer utility newly created that is on the last page um it's hard to really compare it to last year because last year we were on a femon budget versus an entire year but um we have one vacancy when the nice thing is that both utilities would be sharing in the cost of that vacancy 5050 that's really it for salary and wage unless you know if you have any questions and if not um I will move on to the other expense again um we try as part of a budgeting strategy from year to year especially as costs are rising um the state does not really account for Rising costs um like we passed the cola ordinance tonight which is the Appropriations cap um the state still limits the amount you can go up in your budget two and a half perc all that ordinance that we did is a formality we're going to they allow you to uh allow the budget to go up three and a half perc and then whatever you don't use you reserve in this bank for two years so that ordinance we passed tonight was a formality but one of the strategies that we do really typically from year to Year everybody kind you know requests often that costs are you know increasing and they're all having a harder time fitting their needs necessarily into their budget every year but we typically try to keep the other expense aspect of the budget at a 0% increase so the department heads are also kind of trained year after year that they just have to continue to fit within their their current budget without an increase unless there is you know a a request that seems fit um so this we can try to go through pretty quickly page one we had um Cherry has completed her her um education so that was a a nice accomplishment and so we were able to remove that amount uh so her budget did drop back down to what it was prior to the um education the rest you'll see on page one is um was 0% increase page two there was just an increase um in the auditing fee um our Auditors have uh you know increased if they haven't increased the fees really over the past few years this year we did see a small you know an increase we're going to absorb their increase with the split between the current budget the and both utility budgets as well so that fee just went up 5,000 they're also adding an audit of the library we have utilities yeah on page three one of the things we removed was we took out 15,000 for appraisals that was really a prior need when we were spending that we're we're not utilizing that money so we reduced the assessor o by that um legal is always really kind of a moving Target and we base it on the prior year last year we were transferring money at the end of the year into that budget um last year you know potentially there were some lawsuits that we might not you know we might get a relieve but I feel like there's a few that you know you never know that with the um the recent one with the the wind project so we typically leave the the legal line items based on the prior year so both of those went up a little bit um page four the very last item on the bottom of page four was something that I just I put in there today it was not in your drafts but it was um under the Construction office um for permit inspection fees for electric plumbing and fire for 15,000 really that is just um we pulled out of a shared agreement that we've had with Stafford for years and we contracted an independent company to do our inspections um I've analyzed what the fees were for the first quarter of the year you know I don't have a baseline for what it's going to cost us but based on what it was for the first couple months projected for the year I I threw in a $15,000 cost there we are generating a revenue from it to offset it um so but that's we needed that line item to charge against but we are getting revenue from it we are getting some revenue from it Sherry I don't know if I missed it or it's down here somewhere else the uh the lead inspections that we're now supposed to be having are they a line items somewhere is that under that be that's in the grant section okay thank you um page five uh all zero uh page five you know at the top of that that is the construction that's being totaled up there um the insurance those are items beyond our control our liability and workers comp insurance went up um health insurance health insurance didn't go up a whole lot um but one of the things that the state did allow us to do um if you recall last year they they made a one-time exception for certain items last year um with health insurance with um gasoline and oil um with pension cost Rising they allowed us to um remove a portion of the expense out of the incap and put it on a separate sheet in the budget which is out of cap just to help offset the fact that these increased these increases are beyond our control the the um insurances are all in cap expenses so regardless of how much they go up you know in total we are still limited to a total budget increase so we were able to this year the state only allowed us to pull out of cap um Rising Insurance costs liability and workers comp so um the amount of money I I know I have it written down here somewhere um what was just moved out of cap for workers comp was you know 60,000 liability insurance 18,000 based on certain calculations so it's doesn't affect our total budget it just helped us with our incap totals no relief on the group insurance no relief on the group Insurance the insurance didn't go up enough so we didn't have that large of an increase in order to pull out an outof cap expense for that um on page six the only increase there was um our Long Beach Township dispatch which is a shared service that is a contracted amount um the aid to the fire company in the first aid there was a request to increase those 2% over the prior year so those contributions went from 50 to 51,000 um on page [Music] seven all 0% increases on page eight um we've removed the charge for the rolloff disposal that was an a additional item last year in 2022 which is why it was highlighted in 22 uh we didn't spend that um that much that we budgeted for plus I believe we purchased something so that uh operating spense will eventually be eliminated but we reduced that from 18,750 to 5,000 we expect our delivery of the Roll Off by June on page nine um the only increase there was the Board of Health and again that's a shared service and a contracted amount that you know they dictate what our um contribution is annually the rest of the page is 0% change over the prior year on page 10 U the beach Patrol we just added $2,000 for some maintenance expenses and items for the Beach Taxi that was new last year and we didn't have budgeted for that and we've had some minor expenses so we added 2,000 there um at the bottom of the page and I apologize I wish I saw this was split over two pages but it the library again the library is kind of a unique situation that um the state dictates to us what our uh Library appropriation SL revenue is every year and so it's a full appropriation on the one side but then it's fully off you know uh raised as Library tax on the revenue side so they balance the budget um but you know I they are increasing this year from last year you can see the appropriation last year was 1,47 873 this year it's 1, 23518 and 36 so that's a 17 18.43% increase and that is also mandated by the um division beyond our control utilities um we just you know based on last year where we fell short and had to transfer a little bit of money in we increased some of the utilities there just looks like by about 15,000 the pension again um our pfrs and our Pur pensions increased and those are just direct bills a one-time annual bill that um I believe is on tonight's Bill list um but it's beyond our control that went up 6.61% that goes up about every year goes up every year and again that's another one that's in cap so it's they they put these things really out of our control inside the cap last year they allowed for that one-time exclusion for um the fire the police and this year we weren't allowed to do that so on page 12 um zeros across the board except down at the bottom is the grant section and Colleen that's what you you will see in there we did receive a $900 grant for the um the lead program um the grants you know it looks like it increased so much we just have more grants that we awarded so that's a that's a positive thing the grants are fully funded offset 100% on the revenue side so where it looks like it went up 100% it's you know it's it's completely offset with the exact same on a revenue our construction official will be handling doing those inspections so there's no increased cost for us okay um as a matter of fact if we do any which I don't think we have had any applicants yet um we'll collect a fee okay thank you right and we we use the 900 Grant for um the mailer for printing and mailing so we've utilized it for that purpose on page 13 um in the capital Improvement section last year we um raised 4,000 uh for the police station as a preliminary uh that was actually for the roof replacement that's the description is wrong but it was the roof replacement this year you know um the HVAC system went in the old police station where they utilize that as a gym and we've gotten some quotes that's going to be 50,000 for that repair so this is just an idea this is one way to fund it we can throw it in the budget as a under the capital section and it'll be available to spend against we can remove it from the budget the only other way to to spend the money we would have to uh adopt an ordinance so we can adopt an Capital ordinance um where we fully fund it with our our own monies or we do you put it into the bond ordinance which would wouldn't really happen until the the fall so Chris had requested that we try to get this project done sooner so being that we had the 40,000 in there last year I just put it in this spot but again that's maybe it that could be a questionable item and then Debt Service again um is we we keep the the same 1.2 million um if you recall last year we did add an extra million dollars to our note pay down to offset the fact that um in that prior year we received the um commun the CDL loan forgiveness which was in a the value of a million dollars that we were given and and after covid the state allowed us to uh they forgave that million dollar loan so we threw it last year in to payback no to be more proactive for purposes of this document to just not skew percentages since it was a one-time thing I I took it out of the prior year where it says these that should be 2023 heading um 20 I removed it just so for purposes of percentages for comparison um so the one thing to note our our interest on notes you know we had a an increase there from 175,000 in 2023 to 315,000 in 2024 again these are items beyond our control and with that the that is the end of that the total budget there went up for o and 7.94% um the next page is the water utility and really the the utilities we also don't really fluctuate those numbers they are pretty much static there's not much that changes in the utility budget um from year to year um one thing I apologize I don't have in here for the 2024 budget was interest on notes we do now actually have some Bond anticipation notes and I I added it into the budget dock but I didn't put it on this worksheet but that'll be um we have 75,000 in interest so I'm going to add that and I will offset it appropriately with Revenue there's the utilities are really unchanged I do not have attached to this the breakout for the sewer o that I'm still kind of drafting and working on just like I said I don't really have a prior your Baseline um I will when I complete that I will send that out to you um but we're you know there's not really a whole lot that I see as an issue with that so um are there any questions or anything that um after reviewing that that you would either want to add that is maybe not listed there or remove or change just um didn't I I didn't say it but it's probably here I know how thorough you are the library has the air conditioning and the um Heating we did a capital Improvement for that's all in um Capital we adopted uh I believe that was in the the last year's was in land okay I'm sorry I thought it was not in the budget though but in the that was in the ordinance so that's in our Capital we raised that in a um Bond ordinance in the fall for one of the items maybe not 50,000 was that for the roof or for the HVAC okay all right thank you so are we underap so we are underc um so really the only expenses that I added from yours was the um total dollar value of um the what I added back in from what you saw was um 48,500 but with that said my calculation was wrong we are under cap right now so again they take your prior years of Baseline you can add to it the 2 and a half% that the state allows um you can add the additional revenue generated from our increase in valuation a figure given to us from the tax assessor so if we were to just look at 2024 individually with what the state allows us at 2 and a half% plus the assess uh assessor additions um if you look at just those figures alone let's look at one year we would be we're overc cap by 990,000 and change um so that's what this Cola ordinance that we adopted tonight allows us to do it allows us one to add to those figures an additional 1% that additional 1% um equates to 105,000 and then we do have these banks that we've that we the money that we don't um appropriate that we're allowed to go up to our Max what if whatever we don't utilize in our budget um we have banks in 2022 that were still available about 95,000 and in 2023 about 100,000 so if I put all of the allowable increases into one pot utilizing the two years of banks plus the extra 1% looking at what our incap expenses are we are under cap by 163,000 so what that means means is we've taken the extra 1% we're using 195 of our bank and what the way our budget is right now we will then have available for future years for two years 163,000 so our banks are getting a little bit less we're still within our means but it is getting a little bit tighter every year um the state like I said this year they allowed these one-time exceptions out of cap which was about 78,000 so without those onetime exceptions you know our cap would be 880,000 our our bank would be 880,000 instead of you know 163 so just something to consider um I will read one little thing that the state you know they they' released these Finance notices every year and tell us all these laws that they're ever changing and all the things that they're allowing and disallowing year after year um with these exceptions that we're getting for workers comp and insurance it says you know the board has not granted these exceptions lightly and is expressed its reluctance to extend them beyond the calendar 2024 budget year municipalities are strongly encouraged to explore all avenues of cost savings including investigating shared service and closely analyzing labor agreements and discretionary spending to ensure a sustainable budget in future years so they're making these onetime exceptions last year was the very first time I've ever seen them do that they removed the exceptions from last year added to new ones this year so we don't know what they're going to do in future years but that's that's all not as Doom and Gloom as my email made it sound to be but um we are within our cap so what does all of that mean okay so what we do we take all of our expenses as you um heard me I feel like a robot here but we take take all of our expenses we put them in I populate the revenues and another strategy that we do uh for us that has worked every year is we really don't fluctuate our revenues a lot we leave them also kind of static from year to year um because it's just a strategy that is was before me um any excess in revenues every year gets dumped into this PO of surplus we utilize our Surplus we're utilizing more and more of our Surplus every year to fund the budget so it's it's kind of like a seesaw you could increase your revenues on the uh Revenue side which would fill the Gap but how you know that much that you're going to increase your revenues you'd be putting that much less into the pot at the end of the year you know so what does all this mean when we put all of these items in if you want to take this spreadsheet out um uh so I put to just start off to see where we're at in a baseline I put um last year um we put So Okay I lied if you want to grab this one spreadsheet that talks about our annual net debt and then shows our um Debt Service Appropriations year after year and our Surplus that we use to fund the budget year after year it's an eight and a half by sheet just a couple things so the question becomes how do we balance our budget and we balance our budget utilizing our own surplus funds and a combination of real estate taxes um when I plug all the values in um and if I were to leave the same Surplus as last year last year we so again I'm kind of for purposes of discussion last year we utilized 4.7 million of surplus but a million of that was a one-time so for purposes of our discussion to compare I'm removing that and I'm going to just keep saying last year we utilized 3.7 million um if we were to utilize the same amount of surplus as last year and all of these items plugged into the budget we have um a hole to fill like with this 8 and 1 12 by 14 legal size paper down at the bottom um 9,673 if we were to utilize the same as Surplus that would be what the only other item left would be our our tax levy and if we were to do that um if you're looking at this eight This legal size sheet of paper up at the top um um where I have fixed Levy dollar amount in need to support a budget the second item is highlighted in green with the same Surplus um with that amount of money in the budget would would generate a 2.1 Cent tax increase if we were so the the first couple items on this sheet are I'm just trying to give you guys an idea of how how it works here there's a couple ways you could say well I'm just going to plug a number in for um a dollar value for tax and see what it computes to the the levy if we were to the first line is where I said let's just leave the exact same dollar value for the levy as last year that drives down the tax rate a little bit because our valuation went up if you see our our valuation went up uh 1.14 27% um what does our net valuation mean that Square that's in green um 1 cent is valued at $218,800 61 so if we're going to add expenses to the budget or likewise a cent is$ 218,000 um the state also allows us to uh or the state also caps the amount that we are able to raise for the levy um after they pull out certain exceptions like Capital Debt Service things um are exclusions to the tax levy so I give you a couple figures here our 2024 Max Levy um without utilizing any banks they also allow you to use some prior your Banks here but our Max Levy if we took it to the maximum amount would be the 8.8 million that would utilize a little bit more in Surplus from last year that would be a 1.3 Cent tax increase so what they're saying is if you don't utilize any banks to take it to the max we're still having a tax increase of 1.3 cents we do have some banks over prior years um last year because we it's a little hard to explain but because we added that million dollars um in debt service that's an exclusion to the levy so we created this large Bank last year and I'm just giving you an example here that if we were to utilize all of our banks um our maximum amount with everything you know I'm just giving you it as an example then we would reduce our Surplus by a million and a half and that would create a 9.2 Cent increase that's just you know an extreme I'm just giving you some baseline figures here so what we usually do instead is um discuss you know you really decide here we could do a um zero increase to the tax rate if you look at the second half of this sheet where I give all the figures where it says fixed tax rate the first line hied highlighted in green is at the same tax rate as 2023 which is 393 which again this is just our Municipal portion of the total tax rate we're about a third the other 23ds being the county and the state tax or the um School tax levies so if we were to say we're not going to have an increase at all to our tax rate 393 our Surplus figure would go to 4,168 651 which would be $460,000 more than the prior year um just one thing to note last year even though we we funded the budget with an extra million with this CDL uh forgiveness in addition to that we utilized last year with last year we had a 1-cent tax increase and we also with that one-cent tax increase pulled an additional 642 th000 from our Surplus so we we are pulling from our Surplus um which is kind of what's on this 8 and a half by 11 we'll get to that in a second um but I'm um just kind of going down this list here and then these are scenarios on I gave the next few line items are what would our tax levy look like with our Surplus for um I did a half a cent increase one cent one and a half cent and two cents I gave those scenarios on what the tax levy would look like in dollars and then how do we balance our budget is that with Surplus um where I have that far right column that says the difference from the prior so for example the first a half cent increase we would still be pulling an additional 351,000 from our Surplus you know think every penny is 218,000 so if we were to go up one cent tax increase um our Surplus additional funds from last year I'm still using last year year as a baseline um you know we would still have to utilize an additional 241,000 so that would look like you know 3,950 from our Surplus so those are different scenarios um if you look at back to this sheet this just kind of highlights um what our annual net debt is a trend over the past 10 years um you know 10 years ago we were at 0.54% now we're at0 418 the state amazingly allows you to go up to 3.5% so we're still under half a percent for our net debt um but then I show you here for the past 10 years you know what our our debt service appropriation is in the budget compared to the total budget so it it as a percentage um you'll see last year it looks like a large increase maybe I should have removed that a million the but it that 2.5 million from last year was that one time appropriation um and then the right hand column is the amount of surplus that we've used over the past 10 years to fund the budget so you can see like pre- Sandy we were at 20 a half% of surplus utilized to fund the budget it dropped down after Sandy um you can see the percentages decreased and the reason for that decrease was when the state stepped in and gave us money during those years in that Community disaster loan that CDL loan they wanted you to take this loan to save your Surplus and then the nice thing about that as we saw La uh two years ago is when they forgave that loan which was a million dollars for us so that was really nice but as we're trending back after the use of that loan you know back 2019 we come back over the 20% Mark last year we utilized that million doll Surplus you know last year we funded the budget with 30% of it with Surplus and then the gray areas are the different scenarios um all for this year based on our budget appropriation with the total budget our debt services 10.98 2% of the budget and then those are the different scenarios you know a no tax increase would um we'd be pulling more from Surplus you know we that would create a 27% uh Surplus to fund the budget and then as if we were to balance it with the combination if we raise taxes a little bit you would see that percentage would go down a little bit um I hope you're still with me um what does that mean what does the tax increase look like so if you look at this sheet that is um has the yellow highlights it's called your annual tax liability per your assessed value um our average assessed home the average assessed value in be chaven is $854,000 so for the average assessed home if we obviously if we kept our tax rate the same there wouldn't be an increase for just the municipal portion so again we are only about a third um our tax rate is 393 the total tax rate is 1.2.11 for 2023 again the other 2/3 is your county and your school taxes which we cannot control we we're given those amounts um so if we were to go up a penny increase for the average home that would look like an $85 total increase for the year again as about a third of it so your total tax bill would be about three times that increase so those are just different scenarios on what those tax increases would be to the homeowner um with different values of your home kind of a chart there you find your assessed value the only thing really to point out on that second page of that you know um it's a lot more of just numbers where the net value is going up tax will value um I list there the tax rate increases by year so back you know around the time of Sandy you can see we did have some tax increases we stopped the increases in 2018 2017 was the year of the reval so the the reval C drives the tax rate down um because the evaluations are spread out um 2018 1920 there was no tax increase 21 we went up a cent 2022 no increase and 2023 last year one cent um what else do I have here I think for the most part that's it I did give you guys we don't have to go over it too much today but I also did give you um the spreadsheet that I detail out also our um every year when we talk about our our ordinances and our debt um it's because of the sewer utility now it's this has now Spann over two pages instead of one but this is something we'll talk more about in the fall when we um discuss our capital projects but just something to note um you know I outline here over the past 10 years the amount of money of our ordinances and what we're authorized to issue we are very aggressive in that legally we are only required to pay down on our note last year was 7.3 million I'm just looking at the current account right now we had 7.3 million in notes legally um we were we're only required to pay down I think it's about 350,000 is the legal requirement these notes have to be they rolled over every year and they mature in 10 years fully paid off so even though we're only legally required to pay 350,000 we're paying down 1.2 million that's what we decided a couple years ago to be very aggressive and it's worked for us but just to note um we are doing that same pay down this year of 1 point 240,000 but the new money that we're adding to these rollovers every year when we're adopting these new ordinances we are adding it so we're paying down the 1.2 million we're adding money so this year we're adding with um the prior year ordinances um and I'm only I try to pil this it's not really recommended to PEC mail it but it it's harder to manage but I'd rather not borrow everything if I don't have to but we're adding 1 point 1, 385,000 to the notes um so the value of our note is still increasing a little bit you know we're still going in that direction even with our aggressive pay down just something to keep in mind more for maybe when we talk about it in capital [Music] um Terry can you talk a little bit about how the Appropriations and the cuts in the Caps start to affect the amount of surplus that we're generating um the Caps aren't really what is what affects the Surplus what what affects Surplus is um a couple things one the um excess in revenues so we adopt uh we anticipate revenues in the budget and then everything that we uh receive um above and beyond that amount gets dumped into Surplus at the end of the year um unspent Appropriations so we budget you know we have 15 million in Appropriations let's say we spend 14 million we have a million in excess the the Appropriations sit for one year they have a lag we we also still have open our Reserve budget which is the 2023 budget which sits for a year to compensate any expenses that come up in the new year for the prior year which is uncommon because we appropriate everything before we purchase um but whatever is left in the reserve budget lapses into Surplus um so and any unspent um Debt Service is canceled to Surplus people cancel Appropriations they're going to um dump into Surplus immediately instead of having that one-ear lag um so those are the things that really affect like by us cutting things out of the budget what that really affects is our budgeted amount will go down so our our our unspent Appropriations will go down by that same amount and not dumped into um the bucket you know I'm not saying don't cut I mean of course it's we if the better off we are we if whatever we could cut out of the budget obviously would benefit us the only reason why we added a few things back in is if you cut it it there's your Baseline for the following year on your Appropriations cap so to cut something by saying well I'll just postpone it for the year really isn't helping us in order to truly cut we need to cut um we can't cut by just postponing because we might not be able to add it back in next year because our Baseline for our cap next year will be lower and you might not be able to add it back in so we didn't add back in every thing we we really went through the list again and we only added back in the things that pained us that were maybe a prior year approval to to cut in the first place um our Surplus you know we do have a healthy Surplus we utilize more of it as we see in our budget um last year we actually the goal is to regenerate at least the amount that you appropriate in your budget so you at least have a consistent you know consist consistent line or maybe a steady increase last year our Surplus actually went down um a little over 4% in you know value of 400,000 so last year we didn't we utilized a lot more to support our budget we went up to that 3.7 million um and we didn't regenerate that much so we we trended down after last year we've been tring up we have a healthy Surplus but you know things are more costly now so we're using budget we're using it we're using it so now the discussion becomes um I can take a breath maybe and you guys can discuss and you can stop listening to me but you can discuss now how do we balance our budget you know we have to balance the budget so we're going to balance it either with no tax increase and more Surplus um all in taxes no more Surplus cut the Surplus add more Surplus you know we just have to figure out a way to balance it I tried to give you some different scenarios um I will open the discussion to you all um for some thoughts or questions or you know a breath my head's about to explode but thank you stay with you for a while but then it really gets um now you've done a great job explaining everything and this is always probably least favorite thing to have to do to decide whether to raise taxes keep them the same I always get nervous with the Surplus because of where we live and I think we're always as good as the next storm that comes so I hate to take a whole lot out of surplus to balance the budget we have done it thankfully it worked out but that's always a crapshoot too wait I mean one thing I found though is if you have a big Surplus and you have a Sandy it and You' got this giant Surplus the government comes in and fixes the people that don't have this Surplus and you're screwed H and I mean that that happens too um we got lucky I think during Sandy we did get a good amount of um money coming in uh we got lucky um it it cost yep heck of a lot more than it you know did cost a lot and you can see that yeah I don't I hope we don't have another understand I mean I mean the only other thing you can do is think of other ways to increase revenues besides taxes one of which might be paid parking I mean that you know I I I lie awake at night trying to think how can we bring in more revenue and and it it's really difficult I mean grants everybody's looking for Grants but you know we have gotten some good ones over the years um what what other what other things can we do I mean we have bringing revenue from mertile licenses so business helps stuff like that but your biggest uh your biggest amount of money comes from the taxes so if anybody can come up with creative ways to raise excess revenues outside of taxes that would be great I mean if the cost of everything is going up I'm I'm not as much of a gambler as you and luck is great but you you can't count on it and um a healthy Surplus is valuable so do you want to talk about timing of the budget and so right um statutorily we do we should I mean if if if we can't we can and as long as it's explainable but statutorily we should introduce the budget at the next agenda meeting so um so that means we usually what we do after this because it is a lot to digest and a lot to process and I'm not asking for a definitive answer on the Fly here so usually what we do after this is process it think about it we can discuss it you can you know make usually we make some comments tonight um and then everybody kind of you know will individually email us and give their recommendation and then we will'll see you know are the recommendations all over the place and then we'll just have to have another discussion or is there a general consensus that you know we mostly agree you know we'll have to take it from there you know this is your Choice um I will listen you know and and answer any questions and take uh your requests kind of back to the draing board and plug in the numbers and and see where we're at but I guess you know with it said like I said if for no tax you know you're I think what we kind of try to discuss right now you know the one scenario for no tax increase you know we're now pulling 4.1 million from Surplus um that is doable we can do that I I don't believe we'll generate that at the year end because I have not ever seen that in my years but it's still doable um I'm not saying that's impossible uh you know we do have the Surplus to do it we're just we're trending we can't do that forever right um so then you decide you either want to go that route or you say no I don't you know I I want to balance it with a um real estate tax increase and the balance of surplus you know again we could say well we're then no we don't want to increase Surplus at all over the prior year we're going to leave that the same and remember last year's Baseline we didn't regenerate that so even if we left that amount alone we're still potentially not regenerating that again um but with leaving the Surplus alone you know it it forces the budget for a two cent tax increase so that's the situation that we're in um that's these are the discussions that you know we need to figure out how we're going to balance it I think um I one thing I my question you is um how do you think this upcoming reevaluation is going to affect this uh the taxes and I I I'd say the other thing that I think is frustrating is a majority of people that pay taxes I I think we keep our Municipal Taxes pretty down pretty well I I mean but when you add on school taxes and the County taxes um that's what really I I mean that that's what really incre if if we just dealt with Municipal Taxes so and people don't realize that I mean that's we only can control the municipal yes so the reval uh the reval will what the reval will do what will [Music] um change our total net net valuation so it will uh equalize everybody's taxes we're at a very low percentage right now off the top of my head I I don't know you know out of 100% are um I think we might be in the the 60 range which is very low meaning our market value and our cess values are are far apart so what it does is it equalizes and it brings the assessed value and the market value equalized across the board throughout our tax rate usually goes down the tax rate is driven down however remember the the the number to support our budget is the number to support our budget meaning it's what we need to plug into our budget to support it so it's going to drive the tax rate down but that means there are that's because some properties are going to increase in assist value some are going to decrease in assist value and some are going to stay the same it's not going to affect the dollar value that we need to support the budget if that makes sense you know we're still going to need raise the dollar value but the the tax rate's going to be driven down because some people are going to pay more in taxes because their values have gone up even if it happened this year it's not going to hit the books for right it takes a year or so to hit the books and the assessor is already the assessor Works in a year advance of us so the assessor right now is already working in 2025 the books are closed for 2024 meaning when you're tax bill is issued in the the summer it's based on your assessed value at you know already you know she certifies that by January 10th I believe of of you know for the prior year so any change really won't happen you wouldn't see it the time it takes for the reval to be done and then for it to hit the Assessor's books you know is the timing so if we hear from Council prior to the next meeting it can't be like the day before the next meeting because she has to plug these numbers whatever you decide into the actual budget documents for introduction so how much leeway do you need with the next agenda meeting or the next you know ideally the agenda meeting if we could aim for that meeting yeah ideally one yeah yeah not the regular meeting the regular meeting would' have to read for the first B adopt the budget right no it would be well that would be the introduction right yeah you would introduce I would introduce at the agenda meeting right and then you would adopt at the next agenda meeting okay okay okay you need that 30 which is the public hearing correct the adoption yeah after you advertise and right so so you we should be really thinking so the next agenda meeting is yeah so um maybe a week or so to um we need a decision by next week yeah would be great and like I said that's ideal that's statutory I mean if if we're at a very difficult impass then we just have to come back and do this again all right thank you very much sh thank you all right so should we open up the floor for public discussion ready for that so I'm open public discussion that means anybody on Zoom or in the audience this gentleman on Zoom has been waiting since uh yes the ordinance so Mr Don morisy oh hi uh good evening everyone and my name is Don morisy and I uh reside in the Renaissance Condo Association located next door to the seashell hotel and restaurant and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak at the at this evening's meeting and now now I know I'm joined by several of my neighbors including George S Sizer and Deb Greenwood and I believe Steve Pacho may also be joining as well but um we're here to express our concerns over the noise from the seashell uh particularly at night after 10:00 and I'm part of a subcommittee that was requested by the Renaissance board of directors to investigate and deal with the seashell noise issue now this is an issue that's harming the quality of life for me and other residents in the neighborhood and it's important to note that there are noise ordinances that have been enacted and have been on the books for many years and it appears that they've not been enforced and we like that to change and I've been coming to Beach Haven my entire life you know some 59 years uh the sea shell has been here most of that time and I've always enjoyed my experience at the seashell but something has changed in the past couple of years maybe it's attributable to covid pandemic but the noise is louder and goes beyond midnight many nights and my wife and I can cannot sleep as a result we've called the police we've invited the police into our home to listen to the noise from the seashell that we're hearing we've met the police on Center Street outside of the seashell and I've spoken to the owner and had been Shrugged off but uh as I've said um I'm here this evening with several of my neighbors to express our view uh that this really is intolerable and and we're looking to the council and the Beach Haven government uh government leadership including the police uh for your help in enforcing the noise regulations that are in place and and that's only fair you know 2023 was not fair and reasonable to the neighbors of the seashell and and we're here tonight before the 2024 summer season gets underway to to request that you do what's in your power to maintain the quality of life for the Neighbors of of of the seashell and uh again i' i' I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening uh you guys do an amazing job you guys are stepping up and clearly I'm seeing that based upon the thorough discussion that you've had on a number of issues tonight um but you know I'm here and and others are here really before things get underway before the season gets underway to put this on your radar this is something that that's truly very important to us again because uh we've been here for a long time and and and it's and it's uh deteriorating the experience for us and there are solutions in place there are ordinance that have been put in place and I think at this point we need to put the checks and balances uh such that uh everyone can get along I I would like to see the shell the seashell Thrive and do well but there's a time when you know they can move the music indoors and and be less disruptive to to the neighborhood but again thank you for the opportunity to uh speak tonight thank you thank you very much would anybody else like to speak anybody in audience toight is there anybody else on Zoom would like to speak Deborah Greenwood hi um yes I I am here also to just Echo um you just state your name and address please oh I'm sorry yes Deborah Greenwald um one Center Street unit 15 Beach Haven and um I'm here to Echo you know the issues that have been going on for the past few years and I do think some of it is that the music was moved Outdoors during Co um and you know like Dom um mentioned we have called the police many times we have gone to the parking lot we have begged please I mean I could be in my um my unit at 3:00 in the morning 2: in the morning and it is like I'm in a nightclub in New York City um and I I agree it's really really deteriorating our quality of life and our ability to enjoy our time at Beach Haven so thank you thank you thank you we do have a neighborhood watch um group that meets I don't know if they meet on Zoom but it might be helpful to have um uh you know representative come to those meetings as well I know it's a bad time of year for those of you that aren't you know V you haven't vacated your units but uh that that might be helpful as well is there anybody in the audience that would like to [Music] speak yes that's okay hi folks um Steve plan toway Fairview Beach Haven um I'm just I'm here to uh trying to uh get an understanding what's going on in the speaking the mic what's going on in the 200 block of fairw there's a a new some new construction that's going on next door to us and uh was a small uh, 1500 foot home that was there before was torn down and uh what's the address 216 216 yes and I'm right next door 208 okay and it's more or less it was the sister house so what can I just yeah yeah down this is after you could see that the lay of the land is pretty much the same as but since that time thank we didn't have any have any real issues here but since that time construction Tak place somewhere in the neighborhood 45 then wasn't everybody right oh jeez cross cross read is this it's on AC it's on the south side across from Abby and re Johnson yeah micone they put a pool in there and the pool was uh another uh I think it was a a 15 20 20 foot pool and with an outdoor kitchen uh during excavation or during the work for the pool work executive pools they were using my driveway going in and out with an excavator and uh dump trucks uh cleaner in the fill and I have some documentation pictures of it I called the Builder Builder uh said that they would make it good and so forth and uh last weekend my daughter was down and she uh she was having she was concerned about the amount of water that was in our driveway what in water oh water I'm sorry it's my my uh my accent that's back in the fall be um before the construction was was and the demolition work was done I I visited the burrow building I spoke to uh the folks at zoning I spoke to the folks up at the up at uh uh construction as well and he said you know they basically told gave me the wrong you know the idea what how things would work and uh it pretty much progressed that way until uh we had a problem with all this water uh the Water appears to have been caused by a lot of the trucks that were running up and down our driveway uh as well as the grading plants they built the pool in the back uh and the pool it brought about two and a half ft of fill along the real property line trying to shed the water towards the street the problem is is that now the our driveway is about 2 feet below that and in other construction there had been like around the corner K build a home they put uh retaining block with uh drainage tubes to collect the water from that property so it didn't go on any lower the older homes when I called uh Ocean County about about soil conservation uh I was able to get uh them to meet with me tomorrow at at our home to go over for some of these things but somewhere or another along this process here you got there's the uh the containment of the water on that site got missed because now it's affecting us so um before that house uh was get this a co uh I would like to make sure we get get you know try to get this matter resolved so that I don't have a an issue more than what it already is you know the home as I said it's a It's a 65 by 100 lot but they maxed it out at their maximum density they went to 50% they put a pool in and uh you know they're they're right there at uh you know 60% coverage if not more when you take you know the deductions for the right ways out so concerned uh like to try to get this matter resolved as I said before a CO is is issued I I spoke to Frank Frank little about it in the fall as well he said he'll keep us you know I made him aware of it we're going to supposed to put a Tickler in the uh in the file but you know as I said we have an issue here and uh if we're going to be utilizing these ORD as far as lot coverage and so forth we need to make sure that everything gets applied to it so can you um give me your contact number at the end of the meeting sure okay sure thank you folks thank you very much can I ask you just can I ask one quick question because it's getting late are you saying that there's no retaining wall there's no retaining W there's no retaining wall on that there should been there should have been on a design layout really do this but I talked to V the other day and I'm not on land use but according to her everyone has to put in a retaining W now I don't know this came to land use over this is a land use issue this is this a zoning it's a zoning issue yeah well the home I know but I mean I spoke to but it they should that they should have to have a retaining wall well it should because there those lots were some of those uh pictures you'll show it they were they were sister homes they were at the same elevation previously so that's when after they cleared it it was set to that the problem is is that they built the structure it's up on pilings which I you know I understand that but then they brought a pool in and the pool was not set to the right elevation the pool was set high and consequently they had they were bringing fill and around to compensate that which made my problem that much worse because now the water that used to flood over the the entire site is now on my sitting on on my driveway every time it rains and it's it's not it's it's two three inches of water you know so it is a problem and I'd like to have somebody take a look at it worse okay thank you thank you very much very much yeah sorry anybody else like to speak okay jinon 306 South Bay I just have a quick question about the um the lease of the boat slips that's the Pearl Street or the and is that an auction or a lease that's Dock Road oh they the do Road ones so it's like the normal auction it's an auction for a one-year lease okay um then my question is um the per I couldn't make the last Thursday meeting where the Pearl Street um did they were there any like I know all the other discussions was are there like determinations like as far as how many or uh boat sizes and all of that an ordinance was introduced yes I saw that that's like so in that ordinance is the details of what's being going to be permitted there and a public hearing will be at the next meeting about that okay that's what I was thank you it's been a while Jen yeah anybody else like to speak okay I'm closing the floor to public comment uh I I did want to Sher um put together a a little uh explanation of uh the beach replenishment situation that's coming up because it is a bit confusing um Sher do you want me to read this we'll just have to keep bringing it up so people are aware right Ju Just to make people aware of what's going on because we have met with the army core and they they they have a lot of constraints as well and and as many of you know that have walked the beaches there's a lot of beaches it's very hard to get on and off of uh at the street ends um you have to sort of Cl claw your way up the Doom at least I do because I'm getting old but I could make it um so uh Sher Sherry put this together so the Long Beach Island beach renourishment project is happening this year which includes love ladies Harvey seeders Beach Haven and North Beach Haven section of Long Beach Township and hallgate um the work schedule will be determined by the contractor who has awarded the job so the bids that the important thing is uh who who gets the uh the contract so the anticipated start date is July 1st 2024 which is the Summer with the completion date of March 10th 20 2 so if the contractor opts to start at the North End of the island uh it is likely that Beach Haven will not this will not begin until after the season's over but this totally depends upon what the contractor wants to do so if they want to start at the South End we're going to have a lot of disruption during the season um one of the things that uh is interesting to me uh is that we were hoping that they could take some of the sand out of the inlet area uh for replenishment um but they can't do that when the fish are migrating in and out of the inlet and that would be so if for us it would be advantageous if they started at the North End and moved down because by the time they get to Haven we might be able to have some of that sand which is really nice white sand removed from that Inlet and put on our beaches which would also help with the situation of getting boats in and out of our Inlet so we're hoping that might happen but at this point we just don't know we're sort of at the mercy of the Army Corps and the contractor and who gets the bid and how willing they are to work with us I don't know if if you have anything to add to that Sherry we wait and see yeah but that that's a you know this is a huge thing coming up got it's in the ball right yeah okay so I don't have anything else to say uh so we have last remarks by Council I don't know who would like to start Jamie you want to start um wow what a meeting thank you Sher bowler for your expertise on thei on the financials and the budget this is one of the hardest meetings to decide upon but I'll take everything that you've said to me in consideration and make the best decision for the town uh thank you to Matt you're the only one left here from everybody wow I can't believe you stayed this L um I look forward to what you and Todd are doing and as I can help in any way possible just please let me know and uh that's it uh Colleen um okay well as Jamie just said you know thanks to everybody did their presentation tonight Matt you're the only one here to accept the thank you uh looking forward to this kind of old new Venture um and whatever we can do to help Sherry as always a masterful job you know it's I hang in there with you and then all of a sudden it's like said my head explodes but thank you very much the wants the needs all that it's always the hardest part of this job for sure um I do want to offer my condolences to the mcaffrey family who lost councilman mcaffrey lost his sister today uh his nephew Mike Perkins is an officer in our police department and that's his mom too so our condolences to their family and uh I think that's it I hope you all enjoyed the eclipse and let's all go home soon Mike do you want to I appreciate the condolences um chatter Fest I'm glad to see that it's hopefully coming back and I'm sure you you know it is people in Beach Haven so I'm sure will come back and I'm I'm hoping for a success as far as you go this is my first budget thing I thought and this is nuts it's gonna take a lot to digest all this so I'm available anytime okay question we've got a good C I'm gonna have a whole bunch of stupid questions for well they can't be more stupid questions than I've already asked her and even if I ask her I still have to think hard about the answer and I I thank you you're you're really amazing thank you very much we're very lucky to have such a great team um my condolences to the mcaffrey family it's it's very difficult I'm sorry and for the um future of chow Fest I'm I'm optimistic and I'm really glad that it's um we're gonna see and I think I have great faith in all of you and um people like JB are here maybe not part of it but part completely part of it so I think it's going to be a great team effort and um I look forward to a very successful Childer Fest and to a couple of the people that spoke at the end of the meeting I think that we've heard you and we are um certainly working on situations in town um so we'll do our best thank you and my apologies JB you're sitting right here in front of me and you were one of the founding families so thank you I I I I'll end by saying very little um but I want to read everything everybody else said I totally agree I think all of us on Council really want the best for be chaven I think we want to work together to do what is the best for be Haven and um I think we we all work hard and and we all are committed and um and I I feel that we're communicating much better these days and um you know hopefully we'll have a great season coming up and thank you all for uh staying those of you that have stayed through this whole ordeal it's almost 8:30 uh and thank Council for their hard work and of course both Sherie and Sherry both and and Mary Claire who's held the fort down last week and has done a great job uh we have a good team and thank you all and with that is there a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn we need a second for that but Sher why you