##VIDEO ID:UvpgAEdmxq0## good evening welcome to B Township committee this is our regularly scheduled meeting for November 18 2024 said we have a quarum of Township committee and attendance with committee woman fernandz committe Stevenson and committee women resy has an excused absence Miss Ray may we please have the open public meetings at statement yes mayor adequate Jance of this meeting the township committee was sent to The Courier News Somerville Bernville news withing to all subcrib building january2 thank you please join me S for the pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all that's it's time of the meeting we open up the microphone up here for public comment any member of public wishing make a statement M O'Brien we just ask that you give your name and your street don't need your house number um Julia O'Brien um from Steven's court and I had two things first I wanted to congratulate you and councilwoman meski on your reelection and the the other thing I wanted to say was I sat here all day on Election Day and Robin and her staff Caitlyn and Karen were unfailingly professional kind helpful to V voters with issues and there were a lot of Voters with issues and they just were amazing so I wanted to put that on the record thank you thank you Miss O'Brien and um I will certainly Echo those sentiments regarding Robin um actually Julia and I were watching a disgruntled or or a questioned questionable uh well actually it was a voter who's questioning the machine and I guess we had the machine operator here and there was just um really no good answer at the time and Robin between you and Caitlyn you guys were were right on it delal with all those issues and Julia thank you so much for running um you know I think we talked about this at the last meeting that Anyone who puts their name out there and and runs for local office runs for state office runs for school board runs for anything it's an effort um and I certainly applaud you for doing so so thank you for um any other member of the public wishing to make a statement or comment or question and if you are participating by zoom and it looks like Amanda is here by zoom and the chap so I'll take that we've know for the coments seeds to the approval of the minutes we one said meeting minutes are approved that's November 4 2024 any comments or questions regarding those minutes see none take motion to approve the minutes for November 4th so moved second all in favor and we have no permits or Raffles Miss Ray we'll hand it over to you for just draw a vote for 2025 May great um so I this is the time of year when um in order for the future mayor to be able to reach out the volunteers for possible appointments uh to our various committees and commissions we take a straw pole vote um a nomination from the member the current Township committee members uh for mayor for 2025 so do I have any motions for mayor for 202 I I would like to nominate someone thank you for asking I would like to nominate Lawrence Jacobs do I have second second you all in favor I thank you you say I I don't to text you later tonight because you don't know you're wrong um thank you than for thank you forar for all that you do amen we are going to go into sub committee reports and start woman Fernandez thank you no actually I have a Rec meeting tomorrow so I'll have update after that I have no updates for right now okay committee thank you mayy good evening all uh just quick update on the board of health there is no November meeting however the board health is sponsoring an online class entitled food to good to waste learn how to stretch your food dollar it will be held on January 22nd 2025 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. it will be virtual and it will be done by the professionals at ruers and if you register by January 17th you will be entered into a raffle Rob not what what can you win free a free shot from Dr agathis or I'm not sure what it is but she still structure on that okay sounds good so we we'll get that out on the website and out to raate but we fig we try this as a virtual class and see how it goes and may that's all I have thank you commit Stevenson thank you mayor um commit hickey that I figured that out in high school that was called shephard's pie every time that was on the menu you knew that was whatever we ate over the previous two weeks was in there any updates this is just on DPW um Le pickup is continuing throughout this month so get the leaves picked up get them blown out to the street we'll get them picked up for you um we've got a condition over on Riverwood that we've been working on I get some soft road conditions we got to address that um they continue to work on the lot in pluck uh ring in our dirt roads working on always working on and um the oldstone paving project is nearing completion but we're just working on the paving um so that's what DPW has going on currently and U as I mentioned last time no November or December historic press meeting okay all right did uh the meeting between sort PE and wck did that get scheduled it's on 26 yeah I got scheduled 26 yes okay so I'll report briefly so last week we um had an lepc that's our Emergency Management emergency preparedness um committee um chis crra who is our lepc or OEM coordinator took us through a tabletop drill and um he did an excellent job of um taking some recent events um and coalescing them into a Cavalcade of misery and seeing how the First Responders um within Bedminster would address each of these issues um we had full participation from Bedminster fire parisville fire Far Hills Bedminster fire Far Hills Bedminster first aid uh the Bedminster School uh DPW uh the police um and I will uh near as the township of Representatives and let's see so it started with a combination of um a protest over at the corner an earthquake we've had those recently gas um the earthquake resulting in a gasma um Le which then uh also the earthquake also took down some trees or not sure if it was the earthquake taking down a tree or was a car startled by the earthquake running into a utility pole which took down the electricity so with the electricity gone our warming station which would typically be uh P still in library but they were offline because of the gas leak in the castle also Rees and evacuation within was um half mile radius yeah half mile radius of the gas leak and the gas leak was at delicious spread by delicious side so I guess I would be evacu um and it was just interesting once again this is the you know third or fourth table top drill we went through but it was everyone had their they were ready there were answers um if there was evacuation at the school you br it down here um so I think it was just a well done all and kud to Chris so thank you very much for everyone else participated L use board um there's one application uh that has recently came in it may or may not be scheduled for December 5 I think they're think the township professionals or lburg professionals are sing through some uh availability to see if they can make it on 125 or if actually yes get pushed to December 12th um so we'll work back on that uh Farmers Market um let's see we were at 700 something the week before and then 6 685 688 pretty good 688 okay 688 so um you know we can remember a couple years ago when that was that would be um the high for the year yeah y so so here we are in um you know sort of the depths of November we're still you know at 700 or just pushing it with um few more weeks ago so just overall success M Ray may we please have the administrat yes mayor busy busy two weeks that's all I can say um so uh prepared Frank Bernardo and I will preparing um much of the discovery documents for cin versus Bedminster um worked with Amanda who's been um putting together a salary ordinance study for us um we hopefully we'll have some updates on that going forward um on November 11th um I don't want to steal any of the chief Thunder I'll let him explain but we met with the uh school superintendent um police department and our finance team uh to discuss a school resource officer at the Bedminster School uh we also attended the lepc meeting along with the mayor and committee M hickey on the 13th we had a municipal managers meeting s County Municipal man managers meeting um that was headed by uh Colleen Maher um the topic of discussion was a pulled Bond program for the Emergency Services radios um and then um mayor Jacobs and I attended a some Public Safety Committee meeting and we had followed up on Friday with a um the leap Grant DCA uh leap Grant was announced and this is the time now to apply for the street sweeper shared street sweeper so um Jason and I met with the folks in CAC Gladstone and Far Hills to discuss uh applying to the the grant of this year okay so the chief isn't here so we'll skip the um he's online oh he's here oh I I don't see it on the agenda but just if there's any updates on community policing Chief uh yeah good evening uh we're going to be meeting with the this week with the staff at the Somerset Hills learning Institute to explore how we could better serve the special needs community in terms of outreaching community service programs and that's it for updates mayor great thank you Chief we have to uh ordinances scheduled for introduction for tonight first is ordinance 2024 024 this ordinance appropriates $530,000 from various cital funding sources for improvements to the Miller Lane pump station so we talked about this before Robin do you want to take this or Rodney do you well I can start it and then we'll let Rodney finish it how's that sound so um we've been as everybody knows the M Lane Pump Station project is upon us uh we went out to bid we received two bids um one was pretty close to our engineers's estimate um the engineer made a recommendation we're going with the lowest responsible bidder and um in order to award a contract we need to make sure that all of our funding sources are in place um so in addition to in your binders you have an addition to um this sheet right here that's in your binders so we know um there is a breakdown of the different awards that we received the cost share and the additional funds that are needed they're coming from various ta okay some of those uh some of the additional funds that we need are due to the fact that once we started this process we then discovered that we would have to keep our utilization tank and along with that consider the condition of that and we had to expand on our our cont contract with and specifications to do some rehab work to that tank along with then configuration of the actual Pump Station to have the ability to pump flow into that tank and then back out of that so that increased some of the some of the cost of the entire project so Rob these the funding sources that were taking I know they're they in this attachment so it's from the federal grants the ARP grants then we have the cash match was which was required from the Federal Federal grant right and the balance is coming from Bedminster Township St utility so coming from beder Super utility and then with uh the cost share from Hills in p and GL take a motion to introduce ordinance 2024 Z24 second call please Mr ston hi I Hernandez I and mayor Jacob I the public hearing for the ordinance is scheduled for December 2 2024 in these Chambers and just a quick note that um we went through this before that the funding for the Miller Lane pump station is not involved General Revenue from Bedminster Township but it's coming from the SE utility from the grants so it does not affect the bottom line of uh the municipal budget but rather through sewer utilities and uh next up for introduction is ordinance 2024 025 this ordinance and then section 114.1 entitled estblished um these are of the municipal roads this right what are we doing with our streets yes mayor um this ordinance hasn't been updated since 1999 there's a couple developments that have since gone in we thought we to add those people chased um behind the library pburg neighborhood as well as some up in the hills that b Township has taken possession of so this is an update of public Street PR handled in a different sections these are just strictly public street names um and some of them have descriptions that uh paulera engineer wanted to eliminate or keep in for further clarification so um we sat down with the police department Township engineer uh DPW and myself to make sure we crossed our te and DED all our eyes so in the red line where it says we're getting rid of memes so what's in red is being eliminated and what is being added is bolded and under Riverwood Avenue from T Avenue to L Township Line so that had to do I came to learn um thanks toen Kavanaugh and his institutional knowledge and fals was that um bernus Township obviously par was once part of bernus Township so that's how that that's how far back this yeah 1924 long timeo a lot of stuff just keeps getting you know recirculated so we figured let's do a deep dive and take the time to thank you so some of these roads are aren't even our roads no take motion to introduce ordinance number 2024 so second call go please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey I Mr Fernandez I and public hearing for the ordinance is scheduled for December 2 2024 we have one public hearing of employment is ordinance number 202 24023 this is a bond orance appropriating 226,000 and authorizing Nance of$ 1,874 th700 in bonds or notes of the for the opposition of May equipment by the take a motion to open the public hearing for ordinance 2024 023 so move all in favor hey Robin I know we talked about this before but once again we can just walk us through for the public hearing what we're doing with the U Bond ordinance and where the money that's being so um there's a number purposes that we are committed to U First is a tender for prod Volunteer Fire Company um the second is a remount of an ambulance on to a new chassis for the Far Hills beder first a squad and the third is for um actually emergency service radios for all Potterville farill bister fire farhills bister first state Squad the Far Hills Forin um pays 80% and Far Hills is contributing 20% of that cost and for the tender for Potter's bille um tub is contributing 40% and BST is paying 60% um when it comes to the radios tuber is not paying for the radio so we are only paying 60% of the cost of the rate the total cost of the radios per Potter bu um soorry is there anything else we want me to add to that or and if you can just explain the discrepancy between the appropriation and the bond so yes uh there's soft costs that are included in that um which are the costs for the uh Bond Council and the deposit that we've already made 5% deposit sorry that we budgeted in capital last year for this purpose so we've already put money so the difference between the 2 million that we're appropriating and the 1.87 that's going uh for bonds the reason that up is because we've already used cash to put down as those deposits for the public finan and there's a complete breakdown on page three of that ordinance any further questions comments from ttention committee open up for public comment any member public wishing to uh ask a question or comment on the ordinance now to do so seeing none I'll take a motion to close the public hearing for ordinance 202 24023 so moved second all in favor I thank you and take a motion to approve onance number 20240 second we call please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hickey i m hi and mayor Jacobs hi thank you okay all right the radios they've been appropriate money money will be there for the radios we talk about those radios since January January janary 2016 years ago yeah yeah um we have new items on the consent agenda we do have four items four resolutions for individual consideration uh the first I think we're taking the first one off we're taking the first one off no that's noer so so that was good okay okay I that statement sorry the first resolution is resolution 20241 152 this resolution points a full-time truck driver laborer to the Department of Works Jason turn it over to you uh this is to replace our our Forman that we promoted in house he was from driver labor and got promoted forment so we're back filling that position and this is for Manuel Shango yes and where does he um join us from he comes from another Department he's in North PL North PL okay any um questions comments from Township committee okay seeing none take a motion to approve resolution 20242 so moved second little call vote Please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hickey hi Mr Fernandez hi and may Jacob hi thank you all right thank you congratulations Jason and congratulations to uh Mr Cher next is um we usually do these on the consent agenda the um yeah we usually do but um we only had one so it seemed kind of silly to do a whole one agenda um so this is resolution 20241 153 this authorizes provision of a loan pursuant to the Bedminster Township affordability assistance program for the assume this is the purchase of um 82 lur questions or comments from committee none take a motion to approve resolution 2024 153 so move second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hicky hi hi and a thank you next is resolution 202454 this resolution authorizes an endorsement or an application of a treatment works approval for the replacement of the Miller Lane PK station it's happening it's happening happening Rodney you want you want this one I can take it it's just we're just rizing in the resolution and we're going to uh for the treat Works um application the E okay so treat Works approval application is uh tww is a permit issued by new and DDP under the national pollutant discharge elimination systems program yeah that times F well fortunately I can I do a little bit of my day job um so it's a it's a permit that requires DP approval when you are constructing sewer extensions or installing or amending your exist existing treatment facilities so since we will be amending the treatment facility in the form of Pump Station to the Rodney project um they requires DP Review and approval of all the steps that we're doing so um as part the TW application it requires an endorsement from the governing municipality which is us that we endorsing our own app any further questions or comments regarding resolution 202454 seeing none take a motion to approve so move second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson hi M mcky hi M Fernandez hi and mayor Jacob hi next is resolution number 2024 155 this resolution authorizes the award of a contract for the town hall roof replacement to Marshall Inc of Farmingdale New Jersey and the amount not to exceed 355,000 600 Jason y this is you so we had seven bids on the roof project uh out of the seven Marshall is number four the other three uh two had backed out they missed some stuff on the specs and one wasn't follow that's where we're at so at 300 and so I see that the base bid is 3 347 with an alternate of 8600 bring us to the 355 number um and I will note that number is significantly lower than what was it 600,000 what was it it was 550 550 550 when um I think we were looking at this uh just about a year ago right yeah so um that's great if we um if we proceed with this resolution and we sign the contract uh what's our schedule it's it's up in the air right now we might start this the fall now the winner um there's some him and H back that some people think we should start the spring so it's still up the air we probably start this any further questions comments from Township committee see none take a motion to approve resolution 20245 second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hickey hi M Fernandez hi and yes I take motion to approve the billis anding review of individual invoices so moved second call again please Mr Stevenson hi Mr hicky hi M Fernandez hi and mayor Jacobs hi thank you does any member of the township committee have any item they want to on for discussion you can do business no no J says no right that's good enough old business utility just a brief report mayor for jcpnl uh there was a brush fire on the corner of Old Dutch and Old Farm Road that occurred earlier this month it was caused by a dead a tree that fell on the power lines sparking a fire uh we reached out to jcpnl immediately had our forry team come out inspect the area and they identified no additional imminent hazards while then were found uh that general area will be trimmed uh later in the first quarter of next year so good news on that front but we're glad we found nothing else and we're glad obviously uh kudos to the fire department for getting tamping that down as quickly as possible given the dry conditions out there mayor that's all I have okay thank you um Doug and John anything further on plugman senior Park House plugman Park Senior you see no agree uh next would be Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee uh as Rob mentioned we had a u Public Safety Committee meeting last week couple developments several months ago um we've reached out to both New Jersey Conference of Mayors and I also asked Robin to reach out to the Le municipality regarding uh the steps that municipalities um are taking to redress uh car thefts and break related to car thefts and um was too late to get any of the seminars in place for this year's uh League um conference however um Robin did get a note from um was it from Frank Marshall um it wasn't Frank it was it was one of the other representes and um who said that they too late for the seminar on the topic but the league was ready to introduce a resolution um asking both the state and federal authorities to essentially pick up the initiatives that we have put forth um to a little more priority on combating the car thefts and the break-ins and putting some more police services and enforcement of those issues and uh they've asked the representatives from the S Health Public Safety Committee to both sponsor and to introduce this resolution tomorrow afternoon at the league uh conference um I will not be there for the introduction uh but I do support anre to sponsor it I believe that may bench mayor AC mayor Kos and mayor cigano will be there in person to handle the introduction and all six Mayors who are participating Public Safety Committee uh have agreed to sponsor so 're really glad to see that b pck uh the other topic that came up at the Public Safety Committee was something that was actually introduced um brought to my attention from May mench Bridge B was meeting with a vendor see specialized drones um and and Matt thought it might be of interest to the L Public Safety Committee meeting um we didn't have any details they hadn't met yet but certainly something that we brought to the intention of safety committee meeting and I believe it was um Mike haris from the chief of for Hills was going to reach out to the chief being in Bridgewater to see if they had the meeting were they interested was it something that they want to pursue was it something that U may be of interest to share jointly along with the six t in Public Safety Committee certainly got the impression that these would out cheap but they provide um some services such as you know if there's a 911 call or other call that the Drone could respond Direct bed on the phone coordinates just without anyone guiding it would just take off to the scene of whatever incident was being reported and Report information back to the First Responders whether it's fire first a or police event um and these Dr rather than going through a dispatch process and sending someone Road would shoot just right out there and would any manipulating joystick to get there um so it's certainly very paper interesting um so we have the next public safety committee meeting be have to rep back on world thought and I'll be seeing the mayor's tomorrow leave so I'll ask that and have Mar their reacs and that's what Public Safety committee and we have an executive session we are not taking any formal action after the direct session so we will go into Township committee comments with committee woman thank you thank you man um I just wanted to congratulate our DPW department for our new foreman and our truck driver labor addition it's very exciting to behold um I wanted to thank Robin and all the municipal staff for their hard work on Election Day it was no easy Fe so thank you for helping with everything and helping everything always runs so smoothly here um it takes a lot of preparation a lot of planning and a lot of um last minute decisions so thank you for all your skills Robin um and I just want to congratulate committee woman morassi who's not here tonight on all her on her election her win um Renee puts her heart into everything that has to do with governing our municipality so we really appreciate her and I like to congratulate mayor Lawrence Jacobs on his appointment to Mayor yet again I can you no I know like I la um I can think of no one more deserving than you mayor so thank you for all you do for us our town that's all thank you Comm you it's great to have her a lead off spot because she has so many beautiful words and you know and she never gets a chance because yeah don't take by get so you know everything has been said but just to dtail with those comments congratulations to both you and and Renee I know look being up here this is only a small part of the job serving on the committee serving the public takes a lot of work serving as mayor takes a lot more work and you do that day night weekend by way we will get the calls day night weekend as well but it's a good thing and bmin is well served by by your leadership and just thank you for all you do and thank you for agreeing to serve as mayor once again thank you thank Mar Stevenson thank you m it is a bit different going last repeat anyway no uh obviously I want I want to Echo your comments from at the beginning of the meeting and certainly M O'Brian Echo those comments thank you for putting your hat in the ring so to speak it's never easy to be judged by your peers or what have but that's what makes the system what it is so um thanks for that and certainly Echo mayor sentiment on on that he certainly you show up and we see that um as to uh Renee obviously she's not here but a big heartfelt congratulations to Renee and I'll catch up with her at the appropriate time we've got you here though so we can talk about you um and you know the straw pole boat we said sort of tongue and Chic about nominating you but in all seriousness you know I don't want anyone else leading this day as you are exceptional in what you do Larry um you know and what Colin just said about what we do it's it's you know meetings and it's leaon and reaching out and touching folks and trying to drive our initiatives right but you're the tip of the spear you lead us you send us in the direction and you're seeing stuff before it's even on our Radars and I always commend you on that and continue to commend you on that because you know you're seeing stuff again from 360 and sometimes you know we got our blinders on and I just I don't want anyone else lead my town as a taxpayer here you know if I'm on this Bas or not I want to see your tail in that share so thank you for agreeing to do it and glad to see that you won and good luck for next year thank you so I certainly thank you to members for your confidence um and your friendship and uh you know for being honest with me and uh if I go wrong you guys are right there to nudge me over um so thank you for all that and thank you to b or voters but once again for their confidence in both me and Renee and um you know don't need to labor it 7:40 take a motion to go to Executive session so move second all in favor I are we taking action no we will not be taking any formal action um after we return PR executive session it is 801 and the township committee has return from exective session as we discussed uh we are not taking any formal action take a motion toour for the evening so moved second all in favor all thank you and good night good night regular visitors I'm sure you want