##VIDEO ID:jMjcbnNU7_s## e e e the hospitality aspect I open the burnard's township committee meeting for September 24th 20 yeah 2024 please stand for the flag salute IES andice all adequate notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board and municipal building one col your lane Basking Ridge on the township website an email to the Bernardsville news whiy The Courier News Bridgewater tap into. net patch.com and filed with the Township Clerk on December 18th 2023 any motion to go into closed session will include that matters discussed at such closed session will be disclosed to the public when such matters are finally determined and there is no further reason to prohibit the public from disclosure of information relating to such matters the meeting rules adopted by Township committee no new business will be introduced after 10:30 p.m. public comment will be accepted at all meetings speakers will be limited to 5 minutes each all meetings will adjourn no later than 11:30 p.m. that brings us to roll call please miss DTE McCarthy here miss fields here Mr MCN here mayor AC here and Mr Bowman is absent this evening thank you that brings us to Executive session none this evening mayor any presentations none Public Work session none this evening reports none this evening mayor correspondence none this evening that brings us to public comment comments are welcomed during the public comment period during the meeting on any agenda item or other matter over which township committee has jurisdiction however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comments for that particular public hearing the public comment portion of the agenda is not structured as a question and answer session but offers an opportunity to share your thoughts with the township committee the committee may or may not address these comments during the meeting however all comments are considered to address the body the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to 5 minutes the clerk will keep time please promptly yield the floor when the time is called and and return to your seat your cooperation adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting I open public comment seeing no movement I will close public comment that brings us to staff comments Township committee comments and board liaison reports Pat would you like to start please uh thank you mayor um just wanted to uh welcome our new hire our new senior staff engineer David quu uh we've been searching for quite a long time so glad that Mr Timco has another body down there also earlier this evening we had our Police Department promotions so I want to congratulate uh corpor Corporal zanowski uh Sergeant Neri uh lieutenant mcnight and deputy chief King so congratulations to all of them that's all I have thank you Christie none this evening thank you mayor Mr blardo nothing this evening mayor thank you Anna thank you mayor um I want to join and congratulating the individuals that were appointed this evening to their new titles and you've already named them so I won't repeat that but I think it's wonderful that the longevity of these folks their tenure goes anywhere from 16 to 25 years um it's wonderful that they've decided and continually said yes to being part of our burnish Township community I'm just really excited to have them in their new appointed roles and that we have that tenure and that commitment in these folks and then also want to congratulate David coru on his appointment which is terrific to senior staff engineer so a couple of updates mayor for the golf advisory committee um individuals can still join the kle rusa golf course at a pro-rated late season golf membership fee and this provides unlimited play through the closing date of November 17th and information is on the website on the Parks and Recreation the environmental commission met last evening and among our discussion points um is the Bernards Township Wildflower Meadow project that will be initiated in October the work will be performed through DPW and will create a meadow in the existing area next to the engineering building on South Maple and this is a great opportunity to repurpose that land which is currently just being mowed the design of the plan was provided from the environmental commission membership um leverages resources from from ritton headquarters uh follow State guidelines and the advice and experience from locals who have replaced lawn Wildflower Meadow so that should be wonderful to see that U come together probably for spring um the shade tree commission also meant the DPW will be planting 10 trees to replace some that are failing four at PVP four at Mountain Park and two at Southern Park and they're also planting seven Memorial trees from the program that our Parks and Recreation Department offers and then last ly um sort of a nod to my own cultural background uh September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic heres month which celebrates the history culture and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America and I looked at our census approximately 7% of our 28,000 residents uh are of Hispanic background so for those interested there are a number of offerings focused on Hispanic heritage being offered at at the Somerset Hills YMCA here in town um there is also an upcoming Somerset County diversity Festival this Sunday in Summerville from 12: to 4 that all County residents are welcome to go to and that'll have exhibits uh D diversity related materials and information and performances and unique cultural experiences and then lastly I want to wish our residents who will be observing Rashana asanova a blessing to you and yours for a good New Year thank you Andrew thank you mayor um I'd like to welcome David to our engineering department I'd like to uh say happy work anniversary to a great many people uh whose uh condemnations we've been uh signing tonight uh for five 10 20 year service here with the town um and certainly I would like to uh congratulate Sly Mark Alex and Tim on their promotions in the police department to Corporal sergeant lieutenant and deputy chief respectively uh I along with my colleague uh committee woman Janice Fields serve on the police subcommittee and we've gotten to know both these officers Department Brit large and its leadership extraordinarily well we are blessed to have the great men and women of the burners uh police department out there protecting us day in and day out and these great additions to the leadership ranks uh will serve our Town well and uh finally I did want to congratulate St James school on receiving the 2024 Blue Ribbon award uh this award is given by the US Department of Education to schools uh that exhibit outstanding act academic achievement uh St James is only one of 11 schools within the state receiving the award this year they join a number of other schools that have received it in burners Township over the years um and you can only win once every five years so no one should expect repeats but congratulations to the uh faculty staff and students at St James school thank you thank you Janice picky backing um picky backing off that I'd like to also uh congratulate St James school because I know it's such an honor to receive the uh Blue Ribbon award uh we've had it here in town and I know how important it is and a challenge to receive so congratulations to them also I'd like to also congratulate congratulate our new our officers on their promotion they work so hard to achieve the next level um and uh so uh congratulations to all of them and especially to our new deputy chief Tim King who will uh be receiving a lot of phone calls from me so uh I'd like to ask him for some patience but uh um also uh Farm said's always busy with activities and and different things going on over there so please uh visit the farmed website the same thing with the library Library board um which will be meeting tomorrow um a lot of construction projects are going uh going on at the uh Liberty Corner Library I'm on the uh on the liaison over there uh so that's what's going on in the library always have wonderful programs there's so many you can't even mention them all so you can always go to their their website um I too would like to wish everyone um a happy Russia Shana which I was celebrating with my family and just one quick thing I was cleaning out my house and I found um a map so what we used to do is uh we this is 20 years old we used to send a map to all the residents of The Pedestrian and uh and the and the bicycle Maps so so much has changed on here and so many roads do not I mean there's so many more roads added to this and now everything's online and there's GPS but back then we didn't have GPS and we didn't have Google so we used to mail each of our residents every in the beginning of the year we used to mail them a map so I just thought it was interesting it's 20 years old so I want everyone to see that and then I also found our old card to go to pill Hill you'd have this oldfashioned card and you'd have to get it punched and you know if you had too much it'd be punched twice so I thought this was really nostalgic to to show the old card and the funny thing is my husband says to me can we still use that card I said no it's so old I have to show the ladies in the Construction office this engineering office the cars so I just wanted to share that with you the looks of it committee woman you only used it once back in 1997 you should be able to go I know right so thank you Mary that's all awesome thank you well it's been very busy um so just to to catch you up since the last meeting um we conducted the September 11th ceremony and I wanted to thank all of those that contributed to that very um solemn event um especially our clergy um the rabbi um men shov as well as the uh Minister from Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church um one of the reasons why we asked him to participate is prior to him becoming a minister he was a first responder he was a police officer so Dennis Jones um was able to give some important remarks and again it was something that we tried to have a little bit of a focus not only on the 17 lives that we lost but also the First Responders so I was able to share the story of Teresa cedin one of our res and her two brothers that um that she lost so it was a very um wonderful event and again a huge thank you to all of our First Responders for being there and participating in this ceremony and all of the folks that came to acknowledge and honor um those memories um then the day after uh September the 12th I went to a film networking event so drove to New York um and met with some just a whole different variety of folks um and businesses that I had done before so I wanted to thank David shoner for that invitation and to again um you know help to establish Bernard's Township as a great place potentially for Film Production then we had an amazing event September the 14th at the Bernards Chinese American Association a huge shout out to the BCA leadership um for amassing such a talented group of folks and again closing out um having the sharp family singers that was a big surprise um for them to to close the event but to see all the different heritages um in the Asian culture celebrated and recognize and and seeing the youth and the adults perform was just awesome um then I attended September the 17 the Board of Ed did a Roundtable for grades 6 through 12 in their restoring focused um program and uh that was a very interesting event and again we're working closely with the Board of Ed on this topic um so I'll actually be going to an event they have for the elementary schools on Thursday morning so um staying engaged and I think they're doing a great a great job yesterday um Jen Gander in the Bernards Township parks and rec announced that the new Middle School Ski and Board program um will be available for Township 7eventh and eighth graders so that was the official announcement where we were asking alerting people to the program as well as requests for volunteers so um all of the information is on the website so there's now a page dedicated uh to this brand new program that the rck department and a huge thank you to Jen Gander for embracing that and and making that available to all seventh and eighth graders uh within our community um just prior to this event um I was able to speak with residents at Arbor Terrace and I got to meet the infamous Diana boquist a former mayor of Bernard's Township so Mr Bardo um she wanted me to give you a hug and a kiss since you're virtual I can't do that I did tell her I wouldn't do the Kiss Part uh but uh she said to tell tell you hello um so it was really an honor to meet one of our former mayors and um she is just sharp as a whip and and uh talking about uh answering questions and history about the community was wonderful so it was really a pleasure to spend time with them and I also wanted to thank Michelle matsakas prior to this event today um they were in our own room from 5:30 to 7:00 and had a mobile office so I know that the residents that took advantage of that um they're eager to get on those cases and to help them related to State program so again thank you to Michelle for providing that resource to us now looking forward understanding Bernards Shawn McCarthy is up on Thursday September the 26 7:00 p.m. how is our local tax money used to address the needs of this town so please come to this um um you know up until the affordable housing presentation um they were he was leading so it's fun to see the competition as to who is the most widely uh viewed YouTube video so I like to see numbers and such so we'll see if Sean can can take over the the lead um from a Fabrica burner's perspective working very closely with Christie and her office the business certification Workshop is going to take place October the 8th this is for small business um on this flyer it's important for folks that if you own a women's own business a minority owned business a veteran's own business there are specific requirements if you come to this program you bring the documentation that is outlined on the sheet you will leave certified so we're very excited about it and um I think we're going to record a video tomorrow and help to to uh get additional information out to our our local business owners so we're very excited and grateful to the state and the county for enabling that resource um October the 5th again super excited about that not only the mayor's Fall Festival from 2: to 5 but I think you guys have seen those beautiful blue and white um signs all throughout the town advertising the peek 5K run with me that's going to take place at 10:00 a.m. today is the last day to sign up for the discount so if you want to run at the lowest price please sign up today you're obviously welcome to come you know on the day and and such um but please if if that's important to you please sign up and come with us it's going to be an amazing day um October the 10th connected Minds protected Hearts discussion and strategies for managing use smartphone and social media use we are that is uh stacking up to be an amazing program and we will be sharing more information about it um very soon so that will be something that's coming and again working closely with the Board of Education and all the other uh schools within our community um we're looking forward to it I mentioned previously the townwide food drive that is the collaboration with the uh brba it is going to start October the 27th uh and end November the 17th and there is a flyer that will be issued yet this week to uh ensure that residents know that we're looking for only six items that um will help the items help the food pantry collect the items that they need that they give to the very um the the folks that that need the food and again they service our community in particular seniors at rid o veterans at the VA and um some local immigrants as well I'm almost there electric outage concerns in Bernard's Township so I'm happy to share that jcpnl did complete their reliability investigation and if you might have known the weather didn't just affect and and this did not just affect our town so we are competing for final date as to when we can have that presentation so we're going to host it for jcpnl to come and share what they found so we look forward to that information to be shared with everyone um it won't be surprising that a lot of it uh we understand is is uh likely due to trees so there'll be information as to what we as residents can do to help let JCP know where there might be some problem trees so more to come on that um so that date will be coming very soon and uh we will issue that for folks for their awareness and last but not least uh we are announcing today it was late in the day today um the second edition of the Bernard's Buzz which is a review of Township activities that occurred May through August it includes a summary of the highest um priority uh events and programs that we ran as a a Township committee so please take a look at that um and you know if you wanted to see what as a recap has happened since January then look at the first one so happy to have that as a resource for folks to be able to not forget tools and services and programs that are available online for folks to look back so with that I think we can move on on to Fire and Rescue appointments none this evening mayor then that takes us to unfinished business ordinance 2566 accepting a Wetlands conservation easement on property located at 50 Liberty Corner Road Block 7301 lot 51 from Stephanie P Adam and Michael dler to the township of Bernards and is a public hearing I open the public hearing and welcome comments seeing no movement I will close the public hearing may I have a motion mayor move that ordinance 2566 be adopted and advertised as required by law second clerk roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you that brings us to new business and consent agenda the items listed within the consent AG portion of the meeting have been referred to the township committee for reading and study are posted on the agenda on the website are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion of the township Comm with no separate discussion if separate discussion was required the item may be removed from the agenda by T Committee Action and placed on the regular agenda under new business would anyone like an item removed from the consent agenda then may I have a motion so moved second chrisy roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor Acy yes motion carried thank you that Tes us to Item B resolution 2024-25 approval of special event permit and temporary street closure Bernard's Township and Bernard's parents for exceptional children PE PEC run with me 5K for October 5th 2024 before we vote on this I just wanted to acknowledge and again thank parents of exceptional children for agreeing to host this 5K all proceeds of this is going to be given entirely to our house which is a nonprofit that provides Housing Solutions for special need adults so this is a need within our community and I couldn't be more proud and grateful to parents of exceptional children and I really do hope that everyone comes out and if you can't come out you can use the link for that run and you're also welcome to donate so either way it'd be wonderful to help and support and again kudos to the leadership both um and Lindsay in particular that are helping to lead this and working with Jennifer Gander the police department Department of Public Works everyone that it takes to put together an entire 5K and mayor if I may add to that uh thank you for your leadership in driving this initiative forward it's going to be a great event thank you may have a motion so moved second Christie roll call please miss DTE McCarthy yes Miss Fields yes Mr MCN yes mayor AC yes motion carried thank you then that takes us to item C please approval minutes SE September 10th 2024 Open Session minutes may I have a motion a motion to approve the minutes second all in favor I I that takes us to we're moving um executive session none this evening mayor and then adjournment may have a motion to adjourn I'll make the motion second all