##VIDEO ID:ZO1JrPUerFE## good evening and welcome to the Bedminster Township committee this is our regular scheduled meeting of August 5 2024 recognize that we have a forum of Township committee participating here in person committee men hickey committee woman meski and participating via Zoom committeeman Stevenson committee woman Fernandez has an excused absence M Ray when we please have the open public meetings act statement yes mayor adequate notice of this meeting of the township committee was sent to The Courier News Somerville vernonville news whiy and to all subscribers and post at the Township Municipal Building on January 5th 2024 great thank you please join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with Justice Ro this is the time of the meeting that we open up the microphone or the zoom for public comment any member of the public wishing to make a statement raise your hand if you're here in person we'll recognize you then we'll call you up to the microphone if you're participating via Zoom click on reactions scroll down to the well scroll down to the bottom click on reactions click on Ray's hand and Miss Ray will introduce you into Q for public comment so let's start with anyone here in public Miss Ray anyone participating via Zoom so we just had someone join um from Zoom um but they joined during your direction so I don't know if you wanted to reiterate where we are at in the meeting if they have something to say so we at public comment if you are participating via Zoom you can scroll down to the bottom if uh is it a zoom participant or a telephone it's a telephone 246 2882 it looks like so if you're participating 283 yeah 28 what is it pound six or pound hold on pound six or pound n Rob pound pound if you wish to make a public statement or comment and you're participating via telephone click on pound n that will identify you as waiting for public comment did pound nine or Store Nine okay sorry all right you star nine it's pound n star nry star nine I'm not seeing a raised handm so I think we're safe to move forward okay let's move forward we have one set of meeting minutes to approve that's the July 15 2024 committee meeting minutes any comments questions that have not otherwise been provided to miss Ray seeing none take a motion to approve those minutes so moved second all in favor thank you we have no permits in Raffles tonight we have the reports discussion by subcommittee chair we'll start with committee man Stevenson all right uh thank you everybody uh nice little opportunity here before quinby barks at the next person that walks by here uh uh Jason's first uh update as our department lead um they've been very busy over the past couple weeks got um continue to work on the dead ash trees at Miller Lane um approximately 10 uh trees have now been removed we're also dealing with some dead ash trees around the art center so they've been working at those two spots um we recently contracted with the HVAC company to uh assess our uh infrastructure um based on their inspection we've got a couple units that uh have been identified for repair and um looks like we're going to get the those units both at the police station and and as well as Town Hall uh repaired so hopefully we'll see some relief um got a new uh Town Hall sign up on Miller Lane um and we are continuing to communicate with the community garden surveying uh working on the survey to communicate with the public about trying to make that project uh we say get it back on track and make sure that it's what the township and What the residents want um and then I'm sure we'll talk about it later but they've been spending some time getting the night out prepped up and then lastly happy to report that the initiative that uh was started by Kevin and that Jason's continuing about uh GPS locating the street lights um we've been able to identify and and coordinate if you will 830 street lights so that that initiative is going well so a lot of work there and um great job with Jason team the continuity and we just keep keep rowing so well done uh HPC meeting coming up later this month um nothing really substantive to report there that's that's all I've got just following up on the um Community garding do we have any updates on the uh the when I met with him uh Josh I talked to him out there and he said very little little was found so the reports going two to three weeks out so but there was very little found okay good so the what was what would be expected shards Potter shards minimal okay probably more in my backyard than probably yeah so that was a hunter research conducted the archaeological study okay great good to know commitment hickey thank you mayor good evening all Board of Health I mentioned previously the board has been working with the team from Rutgers to calendar some healthy eating programs they have now been scheduled as follows healthy eating and meal planning scheduled for Wednesday October 23rd in person at the Clarence zyan Public Library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. stretching your food dollar and food is that also going to be available um for remote participation you know what since we've got we're going to use that main room downstairs we can certainly put a zoom on no reason why not right okay so the second program stretching your food dollar and food good too good to waste will be a virtual program uh that will be held on Wednesday January 22nd since the middle of winter via Zoom from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. then finally herbs add flavor scheduled for Wednesday March 26 in person again at the clar Dyan Public Library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. as the dates get closer we will obviously get the word out to the public also dance for c will be attending the Farmers Market on Saturday aturday October 25th with breast cancer awareness information to hand out the board has been sponsoring this program every fall for the past few years as part of its mission to promote women's and preventative health and then just a quick update from Board of Ed I attended the July Board of Ed meeting and Dr Giordano and the board gave a big shout out to Jason and the entire DPW crew for the assistance for their assistance during a recent power outage the outage impacted Camp Bedminster and our dpw's actions helped to get things back on track which I'm sure came as a relief not only to the school but to parents everywhere and the counselors yes yes so thank you Jason and the board wanted me to extend their gratitude to you and mayor that's all I have okay committee women meski thank you mayor I don't have any updates we have an um environmental commission meeting on Wednesday so I will report back on the results of that at our next meeting okay um real quick from me um farmers market last Saturday we had ,80 the preceding week we had 1164 yeah so um two weeks in a row uh no rain no well no threats of rain and consistently uh breaking thousands so just a great showing um by the Bedminster Community uh supporting the local agriculture was great to say um land use board there is a luse board meeting this week uh we'll be considering um I think there's two residential projects single families one is a deck Edition the other is a riding rain a horse property and there's a matter that um committ hickey and I are not eligible for and that is the um Dunkin Donuts application on 206 that's a board of adjustment matter um and that is a continuation of a preceding um application I'm sorry preceding hearing from the last time so was carried over so anyone who's interested in that application uh that was Thursday evening here Library so at our last Library board uh meeting uh there are a coule C things I was taking back from Township committee and one of the things that I wanted to raise with the library board was putting some signage out by the library library patrons only for parking and uh having some dedicated spaces in front of the library for Library patrons only um senses from the library board was uh supported that and we'll U I'll be the subject of an ordinance that we're introducing in a few minutes and the only other thing this is really not necess subcommittee but um it's certainly something that we worked on the's board as well as the township committee on the rezoning for the um Advanced Property and this is the revisions to the office ORV ORV not the ORV muu the ORV so we did some adjustments to the zoning there's essentially two properties one was the Advanced Property on 206 and then a property down in plugman we expanded the lot coverage and also um allowed for retail uses to go in there so what we're seeing into construction right now is a result of that uh we had the groundbreaking two weeks ago were fresh um which is building a 30,000 foot um corporate Global headquarter space right there on um 206 the three of us were in attendance so was great to see nice crowd also had participation from we had Chanel Robinson Sarah sui from the uh somet County Commissioners we had state senator steinhardt um State assemblyman Peterson trying any other I think that that was mainly it but it was great showing um yep so it's great to see them all out there and it's great to see someone making that investment locally here on an office property and what we see there is really you know in conjunction with some other um projects that are going on at Bedminster Village the wer property was also approved a couple weeks ago um so we think that there's some Synergy there that we may see further growth and U increased Vitality in that that's all I have Miss Ray may we please have the administrator's report yes mayor as you know I've been on vacation I've been uh you know administrating things from afar so my reports very brief I just want to do a plug for um National Night Out Tomorrow which Neil Master Bono our rec director has been working on with the police chief um and that is 5 to8 at riverroad Park tomorrow um they're working with Pac Gladstone and Far Hills police as well now is there going to be dunk the mayor at National nightout sure I know there's duny Jason you say yes yeah we're gonna get dirty water out of the river which part of the river down street down stre uh do we have a rain date no rain date no rain date rain or shine we're going rain or shine pents are going up tomorrow rain or shine okay all right there were that was my app yeah I guess not no okay all right thank you Miss Ray uh community policing report well this is great segue for chief Bernardo yeah good evening I was I was just going to say Robin already covered it national tomorrow 5 to8 there's uh there's going to be face painters balloon Twisters dunk tanks uh some blowup slides and obstacle courses a whiffle ball Home Run Derby and uh we're g to have first responder vehicles from all three agencies and the SWAT team is also going to have some trucks there so it should be a good time as long as Mother Nature uh helps us out great all right thank thank you Chief and thank you to Lieutenant PLO for both of you for working with Neil and putting this together uh once again just a great introduction um or reintroduction of the police department for the community bringing folks out National Night Out it's been around for years I think this is I think it's first time I recall swing um program Robin you um years ago with the conjunction of recreation work with the beder police department we hold it at River Road Park but that's why I'm back about 8 years ago really I don't even remember that y okay all right movie night the whole thing great well look forward to participation tomorrow uh let's see we have one ordinance introduced this is ordinance number 2024 017 this ordinance amends chapter 7 of the township of Bedminster General ordinances entitled traffic uh this ordinance uh proposes a well doesn't propose if we introduce it it establishes a no stopping or standing or parking a vehicle along CS of clucas Brook uh the reason we're introducing this is that we've seen an increase in traffic uh creating noise and disruption to the neighborhoods um along ccus Brook uh so this is part of our efforts to curb uh that situation and um hopefully by putting this into effect in conjunction with some other moves that um been repl in DPW working on uh that this will um keep keep things at Bay and before they exacerbate into a worse condition the public hearing if we introduce this will be on August 19th and at that time we'll take um comments and questions regarding the ordinance so with that we have a motion to introduce ordinance ordinance number 2024 017 so moved second roll call vote Please Mr hickey I oh Mr Stevenson Mr Stevenson he's trying to get off mute hi sorry thank you sorry I skipped over you by accident quite all right moresi I and may Jacob I thank you thank you the public hearing for the Ord is scheduled for august 19 here we have no ordinances that are scheduled for public hearing tonight we have one two three items on the consent agenda these are items of routine nature any member of the township committee want to pull any of those resolutions out for individual consideration saying none take a motion to approve the consent agend so moved second roll call vote again please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey I miss morasky I and mayor Jacobs I thank you now I'll take a motion to approve the bill list pending review of individual invoices so moved second roll call vote Please Mr Stevenson I Mr hickey I miss moresi I and mayor Jacobs I thank you any items for consideration under new business no no no old business uh do improvements I'm still waiting on response from do for extending the um pedestrian Crossing at 206 and lington um continued followup with Meredith on utilities commit hickey I believe we've had a few incidents with jcpnl the last couple weeks we have mayor in addition to the outage we talked about involving the school two outages occurred over the last weekend in July both of which impacted many of the same customers the Saturday outage was caused by a down tree limb that actually caused a fire on the power line we were working at the farmers market when we saw 29 go flying down River Road to extinguish the fire then Sunday there was an outage attributed to a down primary line impacting the same circuit the same circuit exactly right no more details were provided but the mayor and I spent our Sunday evening banging the drum at 8 at jcpnl I think they heard us loud and clear both our voices as well as our dissatisfaction as a followup to the rash of oues we've seen over the summer we have asked jcpnl to do a reliability engineering study and present the results and an action plan at one of our upcoming meetings we will likely schedule that for September obviously more to follow but we'll be sure to get that word out well in advanced and just as we've done with with JC pel we brought them in we don't necessarily want their uh D liaison people because at that point you know you know what you're right we're committed to Excellence we're to repair structure and making yeah no dog and pony shows it's it's First Energy knew what they were bought yep and they were buy when they bought Jason puno and you know it requires investment and to the extent that they need approval from the BPU and they need support for the investment uh at the BPU we've worked with them to get them there um I'm not sure where they stand in that increase to provide additional funding for hardening the infrastructure but this is just seems to be us I mean you know it's one thing when a car hits a utility BL or you get the freak Windstorm right but those two days bright sunny not windy days no no exactly so like you said it's investment in the infrastructure which is sorely needed all right uh in terms of Alti New Jersey American water and PSG I have no updates I don't know Jason if you have anything on any of those providers no what you give me the contact of Verizon they came out was pretty PRT of what what he did so good good and Jason the schedule for old Stonehouse anything going on with the uh the gas line they're not even 100% complete with the main so really yeah okay I was out there Ms Right plucking Park Housing attorney Bardo and Doug any uh updates that can be discussed in public nothing here mayor nothing nothing mayor okay uh Somerset Hills Public Safety Committee um we've there was a discussion I think we had updated uh this at the last meeting uh there's there was an announcement a press release from Somerset County prosecutor's office um and no surprise um license plate readers in conjunction with some good police work uh by the folks in uh Bernard's Township and I know there was another town I think it was um green was it Greenbrook yes it was Greenbrook uh so burnage Township Greenbrook Somerset County prosecutor's office um helped bust up uh what we is part of a ring um stealing vehicles in burnard um highlights a couple thing one that these license plate readers they work they work and um bernsel news covered this I think big part of uh writing up about the apls and um the commitment from all the towns being working to prevent these crimes from happening so uh great to see and kudos to um all involved in you and we do have another I think our next Robin when's our next scheduled meeting with the Public Safety Committee I don't I don't remember the DAT I'm so sorry that's right I think it's probably I I think it may be in September I I don't remember it's okay I have to go back and look I'm sorry well whenever it is we'll I will report back on that still a vacation brain you're in time thank you because even on vacation we know you're still responding to emails and texts and everything else that's what we have for tonight's me so so we'll go through Township committee comments we do not have an executive session so when we go through committee comments we will then adjourn for the evening commit Stevenson thank you mayor no comments for me this evening commit hecky mayor thank you I have no comments committee women reses thank you mayor I'm just looking forward now to getting started with the community garden now that the uh the uh archaeological survey has been finished um it it won't be happening all that quickly but at least we can start to take steps so that's exciting okay my only um comments are um Colin has logged a lot of miles in all of his Years Happy Birthday he's logged a lot of miles oh he's it's not the age lot of donuts oh no a little chocolate donuts Breakfast of Champions Donuts of Champions happy birthday committee man hicky thank you mayor thank you all appreciate and that's all I have for tonight take a motion to adjourn for the evening so moved second all in favor hi hi thank you and good night happy birthday thank you I'll take a donut