##VIDEO ID:5jHlwN7KlOY## all right good evening in compliance with the open public meetings Act of Jersey adequate notice of this meeting was provided on December 21st 2023 by sending written notice and electronic notice to The Courier News and the breeze posting it on the website and the bulletin board in the municipal building and filing with the Township Clerk a subsequent notice of relocation of the meeting was provided on October 22nd 2024 roll call please councill here counc k here here here here if you're able I would ask you to please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I'll ask councilman pedo to lead us United States ofice all right before we get into um the agenda I will just uh quick comments as to why we are in this room uh when the meeting agenda was done last year we fully anticipated being able to use the courtroom tonight uh unfortunately the Bridgewater Township does uh serve as a early voting location and even though early voting doesn't start until Saturday uh they have already started to move equipment in uh and in order to maintain Integrity no one is allowed to be in the room because the equipment's in there um I couldn't even get in the hallway outside the room to come into the building tonight I had to come around so from a security point of view we were faced with either not having a meeting or moving it into this room um after some consultation the other day made the decision it was we would proceed with the meeting so I apologize we're going to be a little more Cozier tonight um I thank the office of constituent relations for being able to put together a temporary fix are live streaming this as well as we normally do so thank you to them for that and again I apologize but we will uh persevere through this tonight so with that um item four on the agenda is minutes for approval October 10th regular session make a motion to approve them have a motion we have a second a second roll call C yes my yes yes okay um yes you need to say abstain I'll say abstain was correct yes okay and Clos session meetings are being R Township Council reports I'll start all the way to my left with councilman pedroo thank you sir good evening everybody thank you for coming into our I guess our makeship Council Council room tonight uh I recently read a short statement I recently read a powerful statement from mayor Matthew MCH where he demonstrated true leadership by courageously calling out board of education member AJ Joshi for his blatant lies Mr Joshy stood before this governing body and falsely accused a Bridgewater police officer of racism against his son and another individual this was not just a lie it was a reckless attempt to divide our community for personal gain and public Grand standing like Mar mench I refuse to stay silent in the face of this dishonesty Mr josi's accusations were not only an insult to our dedicated police officers and the people of Bridgewater but also a disgrace to the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement his words diminish the struggles of those who have experienced real racism mocking the progress we fought for as a society AJ Josh's Behavior makes one thing clear he is unfit to serve on the board of education and the right thing and the decent thing would have been to step down but instead it clings to power and now seeks reelection what makes the situation the more outrageous is the hypocrisy while AJ josi fabricated a moment of victimhood for himself he faed to protect others when discrimination concerns were raised within the school system at a recent Board of Education meeting community members came forward with claims discrimination hoping for a voice and an advocate and yet Mr Joshi who claims to chant and fairness remains silent in the moment when he could have stood up for others he chose to do nothing our community deserves Leaders with Integrity those who do the right thing even when it's hard mayor mench exemplify discourage by speaking the truth no matter the controversy leadership isn't about chasing attention it's about standing firm for what's best for the people you serve AJ Josh's actions are not only un fit for someone in public office but they also send a dangerous message to the Next Generation he has shown himself to be a poor role model for our children one who wies divides and sh's responsibility when it matters the most and Bridgewater deserves better for those who want more information about this I have it on my on my Facebook page so Bridgewater I don't forget to vote thank you have a great night councilman kers uh thank you so I have several items I'll try to keep each of them brief first of all we might like this H format you never know you know it's it feels feels feels nice feels cozy feels cozy it feels nice uh but I do also want to compliment the staff for for putting together so quickly and and also accommoda for our animal shelter um board meeting that's uh going on right now down the hall so on October Sunday October 13th I attended along with councilman pedroo uh the skate for Skate for the skap for the PA skape for the pause skape for the Paw uh which was a great event um highlighting skap boarding out in the parking lot here and also uh partnership with the animal shelter money was raised and certainly awareness uh was generated there uh on Monday the 14th I attended over at The JCC uh a session on addressing uh anti-Semitism in schools that was a second annual session approximately 25 uh people were there mostly School leaders and and Board of Education members I felt my my presence there was a valuable uh statement about how um Bridgewater uh stands up to anti-Semitism and all hatred in all various forms um on Tuesday the 15th planning board met highlights there was was uh consideration of uh the Route 22 property uh for redevelopment um and uh that that that was U recommended for uh proceeding down the pathway and then began to to hear the case that maybe the one most uh being looked to a great deal looked forward to a great deal in Bridgewater the Chick-fil-A so that is now an active case for our planning board if approved and built that would be uh over in the Wegman shopping plaza uh on the site previously uh um uh accommodating uh Ruby Tuesday right yeah previous Ruby Tuesday uh on the 21st I was uh uh I had the privilege of uh a Food Network of Somerset County that was collected by B United soccer and our Recreation soccer uh with assistance of course from the DPW I did not personally love 700 pounds of food um but it was a sizable donation andly great appreciation to the community for the generosity uh following day um I had the privilege uh of uh delivering a proclamation for the 105th birthday you did hear that right of Margaret schacher who lives over at the car 1 facility on Route 22 uh she was living independ deply until age 100 and has uh lived The Last 5 Years over with us at Care One um so there's Proclamation uh celebrating her life and accomplishment uh and her her reaction uh she plans to be around till at least 110 uh so somebody will make a note of that um that that we will hopefully owe her a proclamation five years from now as well we should do one year every year all right well maybe maybe maybe we'll do that um uh so she she definitely she's she she she knew kind of who I was and what I was representing as soon as I was there she said you want to know who my favorite President was I was like oh boy this one could get interesting um her answer was Ronald Reagan um so uh you know she but born in 1919 she certainly uh you know seen a lot of American history on the 22nd I attended uh the um uh congressional district 7 election form over at Temple Shalom the two major party uh candidates for congressional district 7 were there uh also that night the zoning board met uh heard a case over in the um Bradley Gardens neighbor neighborhood for a covered deck that was over on Franklin Street uh one of our newest streets created over the last couple of years uh yesterday the 23rd attended the dedication of the turf field I'm not sure if there's uh maybe the administration will make the uh make make the the larger announcement there of what that was but we did formally name the you know the turf field outside our building also attended uh a meeting uh on subject of uh our uh sewers uh sewer system or you know sewer utility uh in attendance was our two Commissioners who represent us at srva Bob Albano and Joe lefair uh and then earlier today uh there was a budget committee meeting covering a few topics uh all of which will surface in the coming weeks and that's my report thank you councilman cill okay uh my report this evening is pretty brief I also attended the dedication of tur field uh Wednesday evening Wednesday Wednesday evening and uh I think it's very appropriate that the field is named in honor of past mayor Patricia Flanery who was absolutely instrumental in the municipal complex uh and the work that went into make sure that the township owned the property to uh get the field and everything installed other than that the only comment that I have is November 5th is coming up and while we have some discussions in the room at times I think the most important thing that each of us can do of the major religious groups that help make up the framework of Bridgewater Muslim Jewish and Hindu groups have already or will soon be gathering to celebrate marks of their religions because of the current drought and extremely dry vegetation the state is acting to ban fireworks displays I haven't heard any more of that over than they're working on it but that's an issue attended the Bridgewood Ron Hall of Fame induction dinner where my daughter Karen travisano and several members of our swim team were inducted into the best public schools in Somerset County here are the top 10 number one Montgomery number two Ridge number three burnard number four watch number five SU at votch number six is breachwater ritton seven is Hillsboro eight is Thomas Edison energy charter number nine Central Jersey College Prep charter and number 10 is Somerville lastly we are getting near the end of the year for those of you who are interested in performing work for the township the qualified purchasing agent Sarah Housman also known as the qpa has told me that the requests for proposals were published earlier this month if you have not seen them and are interested in participating contact Sarah directly that is my report thank you thank you couple things I'll just piggyback on uh councilman cilla's comments about November 5th um you do not need to wait till November 5th to vote starting this Saturday you can actually come here uh and vote in the uh Council chamber's Municipal courtroom uh and that runs through I believe till November 3rd uh and then they will shut down uh that operation for early voting um there's only six locations throughout Somerset County for early voting Bridgewater is one of the six so um you don't need to wait till November 5th I uh also did attend the um skate for Pauls event uh I know Jennifer is here who uh organized that event as a fundraiser for the animal shelter and I recognize her for her efforts uh and also participated in the budget meeting that councilman kers discussed already with that um any comments from the administration yes few thank you uh Mr Ring um the um uh several council members discussed that there was a meeting yesterday that uh several of us attended with Bridgewaters Representatives on the somerset Bron Regional sewage Authority and appreciate councilman kersh's attendance and members of our staff and certainly Mr Albano and Mr lafier uh they are uh very much interested and engaged in understanding the challenges that Bridgewater Township encounters periodically and as customers of the srva and we are grateful to them for their willingness to support and assist us um the U comments were made mayor was able to attend the dedication of fer field in honor of former mayor Patty fer and uh mayor appreciates the members of the council that were able to attend and certainly uh we're glad all of us that were able to participate we're glad that we could uh honor Miss fer in that manner the last thing that I have to report is a u um Department of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs requires each municipality to prepare a report it's referred to as the best practices inventory and this is a report that each as I said each municipal government uh is required to produce annually copies had already been provided to members of the township Council several days ago and again a hard copy tonight uh this certainly is available to anyone that might be interested uh what's significant about this is Department of Community Affairs which is a state agency that has some regulatory oversight over municipal government uh carry out this to encourage or encourage is probably a soft word a delicate word municipalities to uh engage in activities that could be considered best practices that would help for the efficiency of local government uh but what is important about this is there is a a score that is ultimately calculated and um if you achieve at least 35 among these numerous categories then there is uh not to be any uh Aid withheld from the state of New Jersey and I'm pleased report that once again Bridgewater Township is well over the 35 Point minimum uh what was unique about this year's best practices inventory is there were two categories that were added that had not appeared last year one was in the area of affordable housing because as many of us know there's new legislation that's been enacted that has imposed new requirements on municipalities as far as providing for affordable housing and the other is in the area of lead bait lead paint U compliance there are uh requirements that municipalities have in ensuring properties of a certain age are inspected and um those two categories or additions to this that U that had not been a part of it in in years past and that's all that I have thank you okay thank you next up we have uh chief mitac for swearing sounds good okay good evening everyone I'd like to welcome everyone to the saring end of off officer Adam Ru I like to thank the mayor and the council as always for their strong support of the police department officer Adam ruin comes to us as a fully sworn police officer he has worked for the r and burough Police Department for the past year background about Adam who was born and raised in Bridgewater and currently resides in Bridgewater Adam attended Bridgewater bar high school and sers County VCH where you're under an electrical construction certificate he currently attends to Ren Valley Community College working on his associ great prior becoming police officer he worked for Basking Ridge electric as an electrician Colonial Motors as a shop employee he worked for somerson County communications as a dispatcher and he also worked at the somerson county jail working as corrections officer in 2023 he attended the Morris County Police Academy and upon graduation he was hired by R and bar PD Adam is also a certified EMT and firefighter as we can see Adam brings a tremendous amount of work experience to Bridgewater PJ while interviewing Adam I asked him why he wanted to leave R and Barrow to work in the town next door Adam related that he was born and raised in Bridgewater and he has a tremendous amount of pride in our town he told me that he always wanted to be a police officer of bridgew and thrilled able to offer thank family we will provide you with the equipment training to have a safe and effective career sorry I'm talking to you back here you should be up here uh just remember Adam every badge you wear is a symbol of trust and responsibility serve with Integrity protect with courage and let your actions Inspire hope in your community I wish you all the health and success and safe you the next 25 to 30 years whatever you want to do as a brid police officer and I'll now invite council president ring to come up and say a few words and I'm gonna sit here for a moment just in the interest of the room but um walked out in the hallway before the meeting and the administrator said to me oh have you met our newest officer and I looked at Adam and I said how long have I known you and what' you say since I was 16 I met Adam H as a 16-year-old when he first joined the green all Rescue Squad so i' I've known Adam for a long time um there's one thing I can tell you that I've known for a long time about Adam and he's always wanted to be a police officer in Bridgewater um no question he has made that known over the last uh several years that I've known Adam so it it it's kind of interesting to be able tonight to fill in for the mayor and administer the oath of office and look forward to seeing you on the streets and and keeping everyone in Bridgewater safe and secure whatever Suzanne tells us that's what we do face the audience so everyone can watch all right ready I say your name hi Adam R do solemnly swear do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey I will bear true faith I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of Bridgewater Township police officer of bridge T police according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me go so help me go congratulations you want to give him off suzan try to get picture yes you one thing whenever you're in coun tell you to stand stand yeah come forward for me a all right me you guys look awesome don't lie I never lie good FL think everyone okay just want to give a moment for those that were leaving to leave um next up we have a presentation uh Mr B did you have any comments sure thank you um i' like uh to ask uh Christine Madrid our director of Human Services to come up and and introduce Mr suner this week is national health education week and uh we thought it was an appropriate time for uh Mr suar to provide an update there have been some questions that some members of the Govern governing body have had specifically about the commission's work here in Bridgewater and thought this would be a good opportunity for some comments Mrs Madrid could you introduce your staff as well um so Kevin su's here as all of you know he um is the health officer for the middle Brook Health commission um of which Bridgewater is a member so um all statutary health services are provided by summer um in recognition of um public health month we wanted to just kind of give you an overview of some things that are happening specifically in Bridgewater Township um as well as um some of the services that are being provided um statistics on what's Happening um so Kevin's going to do that and then also um P Co Parker is our health inspector she's going to do a little bit um she had presented um some information to our Code Department because there's a lot of overlap between the health department and code department so on kind of having that communication between the two divisions is extremely helpful um so she's going to kind of incorporate some of that um that information that's pretty specific to Bridgewater and which she does here for us Okay Kevin works thank you and good evening everybody thanks for uh allowing us to come and speak to you this evening about public health um I was watching the room vacate which is not an unusual occurrence when we talk about public health while especially fallowing the police department everybody disappears but um appreciate the time uh for those that don't know me and for the public that doesn't know me my name is Kevin sner I am the health officer for Middle pational Health commission of which Bridgewater uh is a member uh I have been with that uh Health commission for almost 40 years now in very incapacity as a um individual who came through the door knowing virtually nothing about public health when I started I was a wildlife biology wannabe um and I ended up working for the health department and learning a lot uh became a registered environmental health specialist Health educator and ultimately the health officer for the commission um and it has been an incredible ride for me to learn uh and to meet a lot of people and partner with a lot of people um and to uh work with Bridgewater and um within Bridgewater I have um Addy kco Parker who was hired at the height of Co to come in and uh work through the environmental health portion of the health department and as Miss Madrid said um she uh prepared a presentation to build some communication and collaboration and understanding amongst the Departments within the Township in particular The Code Department as part of her um Master's work pursuing a MERS in public health and um really to meet a need of assuring that we understand what other Department's needs are and they understand what our needs are so that communication is better so I am going to ask her to come up and do a um abbreviated version of what she presented to them hi good evening my name is caddy um thank you for the opportunity to be before you tonight to present um a project that I worked on for the last seven weeks um uh during um the last four years of working here um I have tried to develop um a communication with the zoning department with uh code with everybody and I think the most important place to start at is the services that I actually do so that people you know are aware of everything that we inspect um so of course you know you hear health inspector everybody's like oh you inspect restaurants absolutely restaurants are extremely important to ins to ensure the safety um food handling practices and to prevent food boring illness um in addition to the restaurant inspections um I also inspect um septic and Wells um septic systems um I started in hon County in 1995 and pretty much um did a lot of septic inspections and well SE then so I feel confident uh doing those um recreational bathing facilities um I think we have 16 or 17 in fridge water that get inspected we do pre-operational inspections and uh we do compliance inspections um during the season um for the summertime ones and then we have um uh recreational bathing facilities um the pools that you'll find within hotels that are open all year um we do massage therapy establishments um massage therapy gets licensed um through um our department and the health department and uh we review all the paperwork and then we conduct an inspection to uh ensure compliance with um the municipal codes and state codes as well um added to our list are all of the assisted living and long-term care facilities all the food service that occurs within them um we do body art we have a a body art code that um pertains to tattoo establishments any place that does piercing ears nose any kind of body piercing and um places that do permanent Cosmetics um during the summertime um we do Youth Camp inspections um some of the youth camps um have uh you know um pools they have um high-risk activities like archery um they have food service um and there's a whole um Youth Camp code that we enforce uh we have um three kennel well we have three kenel type inspections um within Bridgewater Township and um we have a really good relationship with the animal shelter next door who has Animal Control Officers that I work directly with and um they do a lot of the um RAB speciment testing for us um so they're an important um collaborator with us um also do mobile food establishments mobile food some are licensed yearly and some are on a temporary basis um the schools um Public School syst systems get are required by state law to be inspected um twice a year so those I will visit two times during the course of the year um daycare centers that provide food or have um storage of you know food brought from home get inspected and um all of the industrial cafeteria in bridgew get inspected as well some of the um other things that I do besides the um traditional inspections I want to say traditional meaning they you know mandated inp um people call and they have health related complaints as long as I have a code or a municipal ordinance um that I can um look to for enforcement um we investigate those animal bites um those are um conducted followup quarantine um establishing um that the animal is up to date on rabies um vaccination that all prevents the spread of GRA transmission um reportable communicable diseases um those are part of um the investigations that we do um particularly with me um anything that's foodborn illness um you know doing an interview and and immediately doing an inspection of the establishment that is suspected in the illness uh luckily I do not have a lot of moves um that I do in Bridge Water we also um help facilitate clinics um in the springtime we partner with Ron headwaters um and offer a wellwater testing event for residents November 16th um our rabies clinic in November is happening at the fer firehouse and um we are well underway with um advertising for that communicating to the public that we have that free service for them and they're usually very very excited at the beginning of the year to find out when it is people plan for this um and then in the fall um we have the fluent Co clinics and we've already had a couple of those and um I was able to attend one at the senior center so that was that good so the purpose of this project was to improve cross- sector collaboration and communication um for me communication is important I'm always a proponent of you know you can't tell somebody too much um so I work um the health division not just me there's another inspector um but we work with uh the code Department engineering zoning the clerk's office planning police Animal Control Office of constituent relations tax um all those internal departments and then um if a president needs something that internally we can't provide I I don't just say oh we don't have that I try and Link them to an outside resource and so um over the last four years I've been trying to develop um like sort of like an inventory of our outside resources um I think developing relationships and fostering communication is important and it's um fundamental it's one of the 10 Public Health essential services and that's where my part ends thank you thanks P so so Patty reviews what I think um is what most people connect with the health departments food inspections Environmental Health Services um and to some degree that the communication and collaboration but really it's what goes on behind the scenes to a large extent that is driving what what we do uh and is typically if we're doing our job right invisible to the public because our goal is to prevent things from happening in the first place and if we're doing that properly events don't occur people don't get sick people don't get injured um and so one of those activities is to work with Partners in the community as well as within the township and we partner with a number number of um Community uh agencies organizations individuals one of which is the hospital particularly healthier Somerset which was a um Coalition developed many years ago and is hosted by um Robert Wood Johnson sumerset set hospital and working with them I sit on their board um and every three years we go through a process of assessing the needs of the communities across somet County and identifying those needs and and activities to implement to address those needs uh the last one was done in in 2021 for the uh 2022 to 2024 cycle we're actually in the process right now of finalizing the community health assessment for the next three years and we'll issue um an implementation plan um shortly after that um and out of that process which has been going on for 12 15 plus years on a reg cycle the the priorities that have been identified have stayed fairly consistent we see um mental health and substance use as a as a major priority not just um countywide but in all of the communities of the County and in fact probably most of the communities of the state that's a number one priority obesity prevention which is tied very closely to um chronic diseases diabetes and other chronic illnesses as um a pro a priority and improving access to care uh even though Bridgewater is a fairly affluent Community if we look at the demographics we know that there are individuals who are you know in the middle of that may not have access to Insurance may not have access to health care we know that there are challenges with getting appointments even if people do have insurance so access to care is a challenge even though it may not be perceived as something that we would expect expect to see as as a challenge here um and so having identified the priorities we then use uh our activities to address those priorities the challenge here is that typically because these are such large issues it takes a fairly significant amount of time to see a change in those um when we look uh very closely at um the demographics and issues specific to Bridgewater um again fairly affluent fairly healthy I'll show you a chart in a minute um that uh Compares Bridgewater to much of the rest of the country um and overall Bridge order is a very healthy Community but we do know that we have some challenges and um one of those is language barriers and communication as as you've heard from Patty is one of our priorities so uh addressing the language um language barriers we have an aging Community uh which means that we have for for uh illness especially those chronic illnesses we have a fairly large number of long-term care facilities that we work very closely with to control outbreaks and illness within those facilities those relationships just a silver lining to the pandemic the relationships we develop with those facilities are much better than they were prior to prior to the pmic really all related to Communications and we address these issues through a couple of different Frameworks which are the pictures you see on the right side of this Slide the 10 essential services that Patty referenced in her words in the upper right hand corner but really the the bottom um right hand picture which is the foundational Public Health Services which defines the um the bottom of that the blue is kind of the infrastructure of the health department the resources we have to have the skill sets we have to have the epidemiology communication and other pieces to that um uh more more practical for uh these purposes are the foundational areas those include things like communicable disease control investigation and control chronic disease control the access to care issues we've identified as a as a priority maternal and child health and all those environmental health services that um PTY PTY reviewed and so uh we we focus on those five areas and then at the very top is the um those items that are Community specific um and I think one of the items that May resonate with that that py mentioned is the massage therapy work that we've been doing which is an issue that we've identified in um Bridgewater is one that we want to focus on from a public health perspective to make sure that those businesses are operating appropriately to prevent any infectious diseases uh transmission um so you know part of this uh timing is great because we did just issue the um 2023 commission Community report it is formatted based on those foundational um Public Health Services model uh and and some of the questions we received because that report covers the entire commission as a whole was what are some of the um Bridgewater specifics so here you can see from 2023 kind of on the left hand side the the routine or more routine inspections environmental health pieces you know 203 food inspections with four of them being conditional those are the ones that are questionable that we would go back to in short order to make make sure that they're operating properly um the recreational bathing facilities 45 complaints from residents that we responded to and address uh and then the other um uh environmental health inspections on the right hand side of that um those numbers are our infectious disease investigations that were conducted in 2023 the bulk of which were Co related um 1,700 plus but that's still left almost 200 diseases of which we had 18 um confirmed uh infectious diseases 169 that were probable and I'll explain these definitions in a second and then 22 that were were possible so these are slightly different um definitions than you might get if you go to a doctor a doctor will diagnose you with a disease we don't have those laboratory results that the doctor might have available to them and we're looking at disease from a different perspective we're looking at it to protect the entire public as opposed to focusing just on that individual and so our definitions are a little bit different um and so a little bit more flexible which is why we get this confirmed probable and suspect and so for example um many of the confirmed cases were tickborne diseases uh bosis which is a tick born disease we all know about Lyme disease but there are many others Alpha gal which you may have heard of is a fairly new syndrome associated with uh tickborne disease that essentially causes an allergy to proteins particularly red meat proteins in individuals um and we did have one confirmed case in Bri water in 2023 um and a number of waterborne diseases giac cryptosporidiosis waterborne illnesses so you know reasons we focus on well water and water sources and then um uh one case which is always a high concern of ours of hepatitis A in 2023 uh we left out in this case because this individual did not work in a food establishment but it's a disease that is very easily transmitted by hand food handlers and so we're very careful to follow up on those um very rapidly some of the more unusual ones we've had a number of Deni fever uh cases over the last couple of years all travel related people visiting um areas of the world where ding is more present and then bringing it back uh to this country and this community and then a number of other um tickborne diseases and then the one that frustrates me the most is um pusis we see uh A continuing Persistence of prosus or whooping cloth which is a vaccine preventable disease that um we just can't seem to uh control as well as we can control many of our other vaccine preventable diseases um and then some of our other public health services and a number of Clinical Services we um partner with Community visiting nurses Association zall Health Centers and other um providers Dr Frank is the commission commission physician he has a private practice in Greenbrook he provides um a lot of uh services for us to do vaccination clinics we just did our last clue and Co clinic today I got my co shot so I'll see how I feel in about five hours from that um uh we do blood pressure clinics well bab clinics um which are housed in Brickwater um because that's where the um highest number of participants in the well baby clinics come from um we uh do lead investigations you mentioned the lead paint um Mr papis earlier and so our part our function in that process is when we have a child in particular who tests high for blood lead levels we are mandated to go out and then do an environmental assessment to try and identify the source and actually what we're finding more frequently now is that it's not so much the paint um that that is the source but um cosmetics and spices particularly internationally obtained cosmetics and spices that are contaminated with lead and being used and causing those high blood lead bubes um emergency planning and response working with fle Fire EMS and others um responding to we had a um potentially contaminated water supply in 2023 that we uh responded to in Bridge Water notifying people not to drink the water until we were sure that that water supply was not contaminated um for H faar um this is really a tribute to the staff they go out and they inspect all the food establishments at the 4 H fair and as part of that process they identified some challenges that were going on with the food handlers and working with the health educator of the commission were able to develop an education program and this year we were able to bring all those vendors in talk to them about their food handling and how to improve and protect the public through those food handling efforts at the 4 a fair so um combination of Staff um both internal FR water the commission staff and the staff that work with the for a fair um hard to see at the bottom right um chart is the one I was referring to earlier this is a a new um online system that uh all the towns of the commission including Bridgewater were allowed to join this past year called City Health dashboard and they um we've always struggled to get local Municipal level data for public health this is a group that actually has some of that data and post that data on their website but what you can see um fairly but what you can if you can't I can point out there are check marks about those little yellow um marks that show that in almost every category Bridgewater is um well ahead of the the national average in in their health health status and so with that I will will stop and ask if there are any questions Kev could you provide a copy of that for us yes those sitting at this end of the room yeah I here yes I can s it absolutely just curious the um you talked about vaccines number of people getting vaccines this year over past years same up down um this is anecdotal anecdotal resp right so I let me go back a little bit so we used to do when I first started in the health department we would do hundreds of food shots every year maybe a thousand in each Clinic um and then by I would say the you know late 90s early 2000s we saw a significant drop off and the primary reason for that is because you could get your flu shot at shoppr or CS or everywhere and so we actually um stopped doing our our flu public flu clinics because we were only seeing 20 30 people and it wasn't worth the cost and the time and the effort to do it co hits and of course we had to do the co vaccinations and we merged the flu shots with those vaccinations and we saw a large uptake for some period of time up through last year um and we did about overall I would say between Co and flu probably 2,000 vaccinations last year um in the in the fall season I'm guessing that this year I don't have numbers yet I'm guessing this year we're probably going to be less than 500 so um whether that's because I think it's a combination of people being hesitant particularly with um the the numbers of vaccines and the availability everywhere of getting it all yeah so hopefully people are still getting their vaccinations they don't have to come to us to do that but we hope they get them somewhere I know a lot of employers even are doing in the work yes yeah larger employes yeah absolutely making it as convenient as possible as thank you very Council Nal thank you Kevin thank you for your participation today uh you mentioned that you do head the midbrook uh Health commission and uh I don't know if you mentioned the for uh components Bridgewater Green Brook Warren and watching those are the four pieces yes sir uh I I sat back and I I went back and I googled the size because I want to reference a conversation uh that director uh Madrid and administrator papis and I had last year uh Bridgewater is uh if I use population Bridgewater is 46,500 uh Green Brook is 7,300 Warren is 16,000 watching was 6500 total 76 in change uh when I do the math it winds up that the Bridgewater is from a population standpoint is 60% of your business uh if I did it on a landmass basis it winds up to 52% well the conversation I'm going to reference uh when we were talking last year prior to a commitment for this year uh it was uh director Madrid's striding view that uh the health officer had to spend two days a week in the office and I guess uh whether it was one day or two days I I guess I'm interested in do you have office hours in Bridgewater similar to if you were a professor at Duke uh you know one to three on Wednesday or something like that do you have office hours at all in Bridgewater I am here usually on Wednesdays um it varies some weeks because of other commitments but typically I'm here on on Wednesdays Che in is that all day on Wednesday half a day on wednes half a day on Wednesday usually I it varies by week I I've been here three days this week so it just depends on the week okay so from a practical standpoint uh from Miss Madrid's standpoint of saying she really wanted two days a week we don't have you for two days a week well you have me every day I I because I don't I have St not yours she wanted inhouse and and okay so now now I understand clearly see uh earlier this year uh in the January reorganization uh this body the council approved your contract for this year but we never did see a contract that specified ours and and as we're getting near the end of the year if there's a consideration for for another contract for next year uh I will be very interested in whether uh onsite hours are are any component uh in that in that discussion we we provide you have a Patty is the internal register environmental health specialist and the commission provides um 50% additional rehs who is inous um during the week typically three days a week she actually gives a little bit more than %. than thank you anyone else have any I I one of in the presentation you spoke about the uh mobile food trucks and I'm seeing a lot of them around town how how does I'm sure that's an impact on the work and inspections that you do is do you see that as a problem in town or is that something that being handled without issue I don't see the Mobile Food Trucks as too much of a problem because most of those will come in and get a license for the year right so they're they're getting an inspection if we get a complaint we follow up on it but otherwise they're getting an inspection they're getting a license and then they're operating through the year the greater challenge is with the um temporary events where you have a truck that comes in for a particular event and may not be operating in town at any other time other than that particular event um those have increased a lot over the years and um they're Challen everywhere so what most of us do is if you know if that vendor has been inspected within a reasonable amount of time typically less than a year or six months or you know so prior to their event by another health department and can provide a copy of that inspection report for our review and it was satisfactory if we like the report and we like we know who did the report and you know we we're comfortable with that then we we are allowed to accept that report under the under the state rules and so that lessens the burden there are some cases where the report isn't very favorable or you know it's just not a complete report coming out of someplace in which case we would require them to either come in and be inspected or we would attend the event and inspect it and so those are those are typically after hours things if we can't get them to come in during normal hours and that that is a challenge I have a story about that uh I was coming in for a council meeting there was a food truck right next door by Kid Street and I went over and I asked the person if he had inspection there was a little bit of a language problem but he found an envelope in his front and one of Patty's inspection sckers was on there and it was up to date and I said but you have to post it and he I think he understood that and that was fine and I have I have uh thought about doing that from time to time uh Costco there's a guy who hangs out in Costco Park mhm but cousin M Lobster Pard cousins main lobster we inspect them we great if they don't come to us they're very often in the vicinity of other food trucks so Patty will proactively go out and and set up inspections with them directly I have a question because i' I've been asked this question and uh you didn't make it part of your presentation but does is your department respond responsible or is a food truck that comes into the jurisdiction of Bridgewater Township responsible to provide your office with their um either report from another Health Department or are they required to get the bridgew Health Department's um review if they're if they're they juster operate in yes yes they have to have a license and in order to get that they have to have a Bridgewater license and in order to get that license either have to be inspected or have an inspection that we've accepted so the bottom line is if they know they're coming into Bridgewater Township to do an event or whatever it might be it's it's the one of their responsibilities is to come into the health department and say next listen next week I'm doing this event Bridgewater here's my license my past inspections and stuff and yes uh if you need to come out and check the out that's right can I interject for a moment course okay um so a large part of my job in addition to actually doing a physical inspection is education so I'm answering the phone several times a day lots of people calling saying I want to come in do a temporary food event I'm doing X Y and Z what do I need and so um the education part is huge um in this telling them what they need um walking them through it if they've never actually participated in a food event before I mean all of this is you know is so important for food safety and so um um you know I'll have conversations with them and then um we talk about collaboration the fire um Marshall he'll say Patty um did you know that there's supposed to be an event uh in Duke Park on Saturday food trucks are coming and I'll be like no I had no idea and he's coming up Tom office I'm talking to him we're trying to cover each other so that nobody gets lost in the mix do we have stuff on the web that we can direct people to we we do we have um the requirements are posted we have um Flyers um telling what the requirements are you know spelled out you need a food safety certificate you need the previous um health inspection satisfactory rating um if you're um participating in a fair we actually have like a a cheat sheet of things that you can U during Co it was huge everybody wanted to open a food truck I can't tell you the number of people that I spoke to regarding requirements for food trucks um you know like I said it's just it's so important the education aspect of it and uh when I'm driving around also eyes open who okay I don't know him oh yeah no he's good he's good he's good so it's also a bit of that too one last question sorry this will be my last one Mr I'm sorry but uh there are number of commercial establishments in in the township that um that have cooking classes or they have demonstrations are they required to be inspected by you folks if they're if they're serving food to their visitors if they're serving food yes what if they're just giving away beverages what they made they serving serving okay yeah thank you J cooking communication I have notepads here I'll leave some in the back to the you to take notes while you were speaking thanks for the opportunity thank you thank you thank you for the service all right next up is meeting open to the public motion to open meeting to the public open I'll second all those in favor I opposed all right the meeting is open to the public members of the public wishing to address the council in any matter will be allowed two minutes to speak unless there's unusual circumstances just ask try to make an extra effort tonight um given we do not have microphones in here but we are broadcasting um hi Jen loan um briw and uh I just wanted to thank Administration um particularly for putting up with my persistance but also for allowing us to host C for the pause in the parking lot on October 13th and thank you to council Council Joo and Council counc couldn't find me um but um I appreciate you coming out and showing support and uh I also wanted to express my gratitude for prioritizing the Compassionate Care of animals which is something that I learned tonight that not all municipalities in Somerset County do uh earlier I had the privilege of attending the Somerset County Regional animal shelter board meeting and presenting a check on behalf of the AR skes Foundation um it was a $1,200 check but unfortunately the donations for the event were down as well as donations at the shelves are in general um I've heard from other Charities and Foundations that with the recent hurricanes and um a lot of sports programs and world events that there is this sense of Charity fatigue um so I just wanted to encourage the community that you know all all causes are really important and essential but this shelter is truly essential they not only care for local animals but they also have recently taken in rescues from Hurricane affected areas um and during the board member or during the board meeting I learned that there's a Stark difference between what they do and what other shelters that are much cheaper that other that other municipalities in the county use um like some of these shelters only have like 7day hold periods and they're not they're not good holding periods um before the animals are euthanized uh in contrast our shelter gives animals the care and a chance at life that they deserve so as we approach the holiday season I just wanted to encourage the community to continue continue to support the shelter um and many of us you know we we can spend and receive more than we truly need so I hope you keep them in mind um do I know I'm running close on time do you mind if I just talk about my sponsors um so at the event we had a pro skateboarder that just happened to drop by and it's not even a small name big name New Jersey guy his name is John Gardner from skate John no idea who's coming uh I want to thank the Department of Public Works Recreation Gabriel's fountains for a free ice cream Martinsville rescue for looking out for safety uh Bora Township Police Department they donated a skateboard um which was received by a kid in the community I couldn't tell you deserved it more um Wegman they gave us a $100 gift card which we raffled Vans tons of stuff that were given out all to the kids um School of Rock dig gave us three gift cards and um one of them went to a really special family with um children of special needs uh the friends of Somerset County Regional animal shelter and J SK shop troop 60859 they came in and took pictures of all the cats and then made a book and we posted on social media they posted on all their social medias and anybody who's in the um the board meeting today would have heard that a lot of cats have been adopted so I love that effort and I hope we can continue it and then tro 46 they helped us do a lot of moving of ramps and packing of things because by the end of it all exhausted so I appreciate the effort so thank you thank you thank you m Mr president I just dovetail one one related item for the animal shelter speaking of their uh you need for um uh funds there is an upcoming fundraiser uh November 15 an evening of laughter uh suggested donation is $45 there will be uh three comedians there it is uh uh location again it's very small on my screen it's it's uh it's within Bridgewater uh on uh Friday November 15th so oh was it Nights of Columbus here he's got the better glasses on uh three comedians including my favorite of ventriloquist that's always my that's just my my uh a weak spot so be on the lookout for that anyone else Kathy Franco I'll try and keep this short but um let me start with thanking OCR and clerk's office for live streaming this and making it available to those who are otherwise unable to be present tonight either due to phisical or spul conflict I really appreciate the help uh report from Middlebrook um I did have a question that if there's a concern or a complaint do we make it directly to Middlebrook or do we call our local Township either way works okay just thank you for that clarification um um to my pre-planned notes um I also want to thank the bridgew police department for the statement that they made publicly regarding effective signs it's unfortunate that individuals are taking property from home homeowners property and this takes away from other safety issues potentially that the bridgew police department could be addressing um I noticed on the agenda there's a grant for Safety and Security um with an Dr some money that would be going into the budget in that resolution I did not see what that Grant was being used for so I would like clarification on that is that specifically going to go to the police department towards Safety and Security or is it going to go into the general funds and just get mixed um I and I hope that you discuss that during the discussion of the resolution um let me just make sure uh I'd also like to acknowledge the work of the clerk's office um they are always gracious and helpful to the extent permitted by the tantri administration as for of providing information it's unfortunate that residents are required at times to file o Oprah's request to get some information and even so I know um in the past some of these requests have offered information only to the extent that they're quote unquote permitted with things redacted with things whacked out um I would hope that we continue to have open lines of communication um and if anybody at this D has a comment to make to me before I leave the de I would ask that you do that so that you don't close public comment make a comment about myself or any other member of the public who has made a public comment um and not allow us to respond to those comments and finally councilman Koso I would ask that you please Let It Go your comments about Bo education members in this forum are totally inappropriate if you have a concern or complaint about the Board of Education go to a Board of Education meeting okay it's inappropriate for you to talk about it here I'm glad that this meeting was live streamed because I was able to listen to your comments on my way here they are on record but it's inappropriate okay board of education is a nonpartisan election so stay out of it thank you anyone else move to close public and a motion I'll second it all those in favor I opposed all right public meeting is closed we do not have any hearings or final action we do not have any ordinances being introduced moving on to the resolutions thank you uh first is uh resolution 13A requesting approval of items of Revenue and Appropriations in njs 4A col 4 487 D I'm sorry 487 budget chapter 159 for the safe and secure communities grant program in the amount of $12,750 I know there was some question monies that come into grants have to be accepted if it was not already in the budget um anything further yeah that those funds are sought and received I believe annually towards the traffic safety unit okay thank you any comments or questions I have none I'll make a motion to move it we got a motion do we have a second second roll call yes yes yes yes yes resolution 13B is appointing Jerry Black of 5an place to the Bridgewater Township veterans advisory committee I know Mr Black along with his family is here this evening um just for the Public's benefit um Mr Black does come from a uh long family of of having served in the military starting with his great-grandfather who served in the army during World War II his father is a veteran of the Air Force uh having served in Vietnam Jerry himself US Navy submarine force and New Jersey Army National Guard experience so Mr President if I can have the privilege of moving this I like to do that because the reason we're having this discussion is a the conversation I had with Jerry at a social event over the summer and expressed interest in getting more involved and I did a little bit thinking about it and and learned of his military background I thought this would be an outstanding fit and I'm very confident that Jerry will do a great job and um I'd certainly be privileged to move this resolution I will second it okay roll call to to know Sor yeah publicly thank Mr Black for his service to our country and also for stepping up now and serving your community as well as to take a moment to recognize all the men and women of our community that have served in the military and thank them as well for their service thank you sir any apologies any other comments if not call yes Crush yes yes yes yes all right 13 C request for waiver of fire permit in the amount of $100 for the Somerset County vocational and Technical High School scvths PTO in conjunction with a vendor fair event sched to be hold at 14 vot drive on Saturday November 16 2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 3M pretty self-explanatory I hope they're not serving any food but um 13 we have a move we have a second roll call yes yes yes yes yes and finally 13d is authorizing the 2025 fireworks display for the Somerset Patriots games at TD Bank ballpark I have one comment on there on Thursday June 26 the rain date is also June 26 I guess they're expecting a nice day it's my birthday that's what that's what they put in I know that's what yes yes I'll move it we have a move do we have a second second roll call yes yes and that is our agenda this evening we do not have a closed session so unless anybody has anything further Mr NIS would you like to um move jour I will second that all in favor I opposed we are adjourn thank you on the best practi