##VIDEO ID:7epnOYJA57o## fabulous welcome everybody uh let's please stand for a pledge of allegiance if we're able to flag of the United States of America to the repic for it stands one nation God indivisible andice sorry we'll move on to the open public meeting statement pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trenton Times and home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 posted on the Township's website and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice now we'll move on to roll call Mr fron here Mrs kiram here Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and May way here thank you thank you welcome everybody it feels like a long time since we had a meeting um do we have any agenda additions or changes yes we're removing the work session off this evening okay so we'll be removing the work session item number 10 excellent thank you um I hope everybody had a chance to look at the township minutes from uh August 12th meeting uh who would like to move those minutes I'll move I'm happy to Second thank you move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott abstain and mayor betway yes thank you for as one Obion thank you we are up to reports my friends who would like to go first I'm happy to give a quick report yes um so not too much to report on Parks and Rex did not meet um but we'll be meeting resuming this month I did attend a wonderful outdoor concert at the library which was great um two weeks ago um I also uh personally uh had a sold a vehicle and used the police meeting spot so if people don't know this there's a designated meeting spot at the police station where if you're having a private transaction um you can go it's designated and you can meet someone there you can give them that address it's a designated spot it's police surveilled if you're handling a large cash transaction you can actually go inside the police station if you want to do that and it's a it's a very nice service that I availed of myself to uh unload uh my teens's car um I did attend the inclusive playground ceremony very nice ceremony last week I also attended cranberry day and uh I attended the uh September fifth planning board where we heard an application for a air dust collect three dust collectors being added behind a uh facility in the um the industrial Commons up in um up in near Route 130 and it was tabled for uh to the continue to the next month so and that's about all I have unless anybody has any questions for me is it painful yeah it was P it was it was pain it was a lot of detail on something that's behind a building in the very back that faces a wooded plot of land so it's um yeah it's part of the process yeah I mean it's you know it's a credit to the planning board and the work that they do it is a lot of minutia yep it's good so thank you thank you very much Matt would you like to go I really don't have much to update I've been out of town quite a bit I was at cranberry days excellent turnout as always um I will just comment um I happened to go into the cranberry convenience store and and they they knew nothing about cranberry day I don't think the other businesses did too so I know it's not uh up to the T to to reach out to them but I think it'd be important that um uh cranberry day be inclusive to all the businesses so the future I would just recommend that they that's good feedback for you right yeah that's good feedback for you and we have been I mean to the extent that it was um put in our e uh that it was requested to be put in our eblast we have been putting it in our eblasts yeah and I that's a good point by the way I wonder if our businesses over at the cranberry Commons have signed up for eblast probably not yeah take that I know I know one of the stores knew about it they did yeah yeah but they just didn't uh there was a mixup on them trying to get a table so but yeah that's right that's right one of the businesses yeah one of the businesses but maybe if if you don't mind if you're reaching out that would be great yeah we we do appreciate and want to make sure that people know of things that go on in town so yes thank you for that sure to my right any of you'd like to present yeah um I had a um a shade tree meeting on September 5th um uh they're they're just amazing group they just do so much for this town in the uh Street trees um currently they're identifying consultants for various projects such as the canopy assessment and there's going to be a little tiny Forest being put in Village Park which is like just a way of getting a lot of diverse trees um uh species in one location um their tree management continues of planting pruning Etc they did have three tree inquiries about the tree removal and replacement um and they added the appendices necessary for that ordinance um um there was a volunteer service um project um but it was also really um interesting um that I you know I think people really need to know um there's a Cranberry Township volunteer service project guidelines and form and um you know if there's a volunteer project they people need to go through certain steps and it's all laid out on the website so um that was good to have that included uh at the Shay tree meeting um EC um they met in August so um their August meeting was uh on the 19th um it was after our EC meeting um they're they're doing an adopted a drain program um a storm drain program um Gabe is going to attend an an meeting this that's the association for New Jersey environmental commission um on how to have people look after their storm drains um if they so want to do that because right now DPW does it all um unless people notice that they have storm drains out in front and do their own um mapping of storm water um inlets continues there's about 400 of them and I think there's about like 20 left to be um mapped um on an inter on an arcgis program that's on the on the on the phone volunteers are doing that um just a reminder that water goes directly into our streams ponds and rivers and what you do you know on your street and in your driveways uh eventually ends up in our natural resources that's a bu side like cigarette butts and trash Etc um so um uh they had a gray cranberry day I saw them they had set up a really cool little micro invertebrate Discovery tank which I thought was fantastic to to um uh vertebrates not just inverte uh vertebrates in um are used uh for water quality evaluation so if we have more diverse you know types that's our water quality is better if not anyway and they continue to do preserve management um they looked at Reinhardt and pin oaks um and their next meeting is next Monday September 16th um so that's just some of their initiatives um and uh a Gateway sign now up on Plainsboro Road there'll be several others eventually put in and it's um basically to help delineate where traffic is slowing down um and where historic village can start Etc so you know we're trying to do traffic calming measures and this is one of those traffic calling measures um I attended um my girls both attended and ran and I Mike ran the Helen Cody um and we attended cranberry day really quickly and Iman and any mayor knows trying to do your speech at cranberry day and then running over to Cranberry day and doing a speech to open up cranberry is a mighty task and you did it good joban um and he did it really nicely all you know was great and um any questions I was just going to comment I I was actually at someone's house who lives right opposite the 25 M per hour Zone um of the the Gateway sign and the person was a little mystified they thought they now live in Plainsboro because of that sign being there but once I actually explained it was meant to coincide with the 25 M per hour and the traffic calming the person's like oh that makes sense um so I'm very grateful that it says historic cranberry and not entering cranberry because it's about a mile from the actual border yeah yeah yeah yeah no it looks it looks nice yeah thank you excellent if no more questions Lisa sure um HBC attended uh the August 20th meeting um basically that meeting was centered on um planning for cranberry day which I thought they did an excellent job at I had a blast on cranberry day personally it was kind of cool because it was almost like a little histo historic row um the way that it was set up it was nice to see a lot of the boards and commissions together um because it was just a continuous process of learning uh I think the HBC did a great job at educating um people they did a nice little giveaway spin wheel learn something about what that commission does and it was good learning um there next meeting is September 17th which is my daughter's birthday so I unfortunately won't be able to attend that but as normal I will get with either Susan or Jennifer S Meer and if there's anything critical I'll get back to everybody here then chips same thing uh their tent was right to the um left of HBC so was easy to kind of help both of those tents a reminder even though it's going out every Tuesday uh Tavern tidbits at cranberry in a reenactment interesting trivia uh is going to be September 21st and then one week later um will be the historic housing Tour on September the 28th and tickets were sold throughout the day looked like they got a good amount of tickets that they were selling during cranberry day the wasle uh is officially scheduled for December 7th it will be in the Shadow Oaks neighborhood uh I believe four homes have been identified and more details to come on that but it's 7 to 10 p.m. so I think um we can get that form filled out that can now be included it's a little far out but yeah uh CBA again I think Christine and Julie just deserve thanks from our entire Community for pulling off just an unbelievable day um I was saw so many of our residents out and talk to a lot of people from neighboring towns which I I just always like to see that because it continues to be a draw for us and being that the Business Association puts this on it's really good for the town's businesses so that's great and it seems that a lot of people make this an annual event to coincide with granberry day to come here and visit their friends and family so I talked to a couple people that like that did do that too so it was kind of cute um CBA will officially be doing The Luminaries and taking that over from the now um dissolved CCOC uh so that's a go and then zoning I attended their September 4th meeting uh the resolution was passed for the hot dog stand on T Station Road and they've approved a nail spa uh and that resolution will go in uh in their October meeting so they can open that business and that's on Maple Wood and I think that's all I got and I need new printer ink so I'm doing this from memory because it faded terribly um yeah I think it's great that we're thinking on the CBA I also would like to thank the DPW because they do Yen's work of getting that organized too so please let Jerry know that we really appreciate his his group but thank you for that too Lisa did I hear correctly a hot dog stand yeah it's a hot dog it's a private um land owner there that went before uh zoning they the gentleman also sells firewood and fresh produce and it's just like if you were in New York it's a rolling hot dog cart that he would bring out and it'll enable a lot of the warehouse workers around there to grab a quick hot dog and they um yeah it's was a two meeting process it was quite a lot of dialogue around it sounds much like a zoning board meeting it was a lot of discussion but it's uh approved and then the resolution went through okay all right very clever very clever and I guess a very nice service also for the warehouse entrepreneurial right why not thank you very much any more questions for Lisa all right I will share my report I wanted to start out with um offering condolences to the family of Frank puskus um Mr Frank was um the custodian at cranberry school for very very very many years and um this one hit me a little hard because last year cranberry day the last thing I did was I walked him to his car and we put his chair in his car and I said goodbye to him and um so he will be missed very very much so um we also I wanted to offer condolences to the family of the Conrad star uh family uh he was a longtime resident here and um his celebration of life was today so condolences to both those families um it's been a very busy time for me not necessarily with uh Township meetings because a lot of them were on a little bit of a Hiatus but I did um I was in the Pakistani Independence Day Parade on September 1st so I got to climb afloat and uh it was really something I've never experienced it was very cool um and there were many many other state elected leaders and uh it was just nice to share words of Welcome to the Pakistani American community and have them um you know just reinforce the message that our diversity is a strength in this country so it was a pretty cool event to attend uh like many of you on this board we attended the ribbon cutting uh event at the at the Village Park and this was for an inclusive playground and we did have Senator Greenstein assemblywoman McCoy and assemblyman D'Angelo and uh our TC members and our pox and wreck members and it was just a real happy day like it was an amazing thing to celebrate U from idea phase all the way to um you know to implementation so well done the Helen Cody race was held the same day as uh cranberry day and um I found it really cool that at the award ceremony there was a gold medalist Olympian who stood for photos with all of the award winners so pretty cool including Barbara's daughters who won I think first and third in their age category yes and and on the half it says first place or third place so it's quite interesting it was it was pretty cool pretty cool event and so and cranberry day as you all mentioned was absolutely fabulous and lots of work done by Julie Leo Christin Thompson DPW cranber police cranber fire department the vendors and attendees it was just uh exactly what you need you need everybody to pitch in and it was very successful so thank you all uh on the official side uh Municipal Alliance will be meeting September 17th we haven't had a meeting since um the traffic subcommittee will be meeting later this week uh the planning board meeting that Michael mentioned I I attended as well it was um you know flushing through some ISS issues that we want to be more refined and so that's that's the way they've uh decided to go uh we will be having a meeting in close session this evening about affordable housing or or land acquisition I should say so we'll we will update the TC on that um I did want to share a note for shade tree Barbara uh very recently the utility companies have been coming by to to take off Limbs and overhanging Limbs and dead Limbs and uh in Cranberry Road in particular it looks like all the trees are in demise soon to be more in demise and so they are sort of wondering what what will H like when these need to be removed what will happen because it's it's County R of way isn't it and so I think um I'm not sure exactly what the process is with that but it may be something that shade tree might want to think on I'm I'm not exactly sure what the ask is is that they need to look at the trees that CG uh most of those trees are dead or dying most of those trees are dead or dying so they will have to be they have that tree inventory and they have a um that they just completed and they have a list of high priorities and and so um you know uh but I'll I'll let them know and have a look at what what how that tree inventory has identified those trees on cranber neck and what the plan might be if there has to be a larger scale removal of trees in that area and I don't know what that would look like PNG is like really um they're really focused on their transmission lines and so however they have to cut back those trees to remove them from their trans transmission lines that's what they do that's what they do but when the tree is dead yeah then what happens with that well it depends on the budget we have every year to remove trees and it depends on the tree inventory list which trees take priority those might not be As Dead As other ones they might not be as unsafe as other ones and so Shad Tre and Public Works determine each year what the budget we have which ones remove um but being being that it's County right away we couldn't get the any County input County funds County doesn't have have a shade tree so it falls to the municipality yeah okay that's a little we just had that it was a really great discussion about what trees are shade trees you know responsibilities and that was one thing that was brought up that's going to be a little painful I think you guys should take a a trek down cranberry neck they have really bad haircuts all those trees um that's what I got my friends uh there will be voter registration September 11th no sorry September 17th at the library with our very own Debbie Ruben we'll be Fielding questions I'm so excited like 17th 17th yeah thank you so much for doing that I think it's gonna be very valuable and I wanted to resurrect and remind September 25th we have the Living Well van coming in uh in front of the library they'll be offering vaccines and health screening so the flu vaccine the A1C and blood pressure checks and this is all for free and it'll be in front of the Cranberry Public Library any questions for me uh just want to bring up one thing I forgot to mention in my report um the inclusive playground when I was on wreck before parks and wreck uh became one and we were in the final staging plans for the uh inclusive playground there was talk of removing one of the trees adjacent to the playground it's I don't I don't know the species of tree but it's it drops uh these giant seed pods that are spiked sweet pum what is it yeah yeah like little Corona viruses yeah and that was um yes exactly they look like Giant giant macro viruses um and I was I was just over the inclusive playground playing tennis with my wife this afternoon and they are all over the playground um and we had discussed in wreck about removing that particular tree um and I believe it got approved so I just want whoever is on Park did that get approved I didn't hear that that got approved I I don't think I mean I do know that when they put the playground in their goal was to their mandate from the shers observe as much as they could and I they kept to that so would help shade I know those balls kind of and we went through that we looked at the canopy but we decided that was a nuisance tree just because of I do know when they when they were actually digging to put the thing in the entire base of the playground was roots and they had to rip up a lot of roots and so it's well I was going to say unintended consequences if a tree if one tree was super close or structure was very close it may be on the watch out for so it may take care of whether we choose to or not it may s correcting may self-correct but um they their mandate was to try to preserve as much as they could so um I think we also have to appreciate that what may be a nuisance in terms of uh you know seeds that they drop really isn't ausus it's a native tree and it you know provides the shade and so it has its own um value um in addition to those little gumdrops there's a lot of acorn seeds as well and so prior to our ribbon cutting DPW actually went in there and did a lot of blowing to clean it out um I'm sure that it's going to be something that we visit and revisit as as we progress in our time with this um inclusive Park I'm just happy it's there so congratulations guys so we'll move along in our agenda we don't have any subcommittees or Department heads today um I do have one follow-up item when it comes to that um Oma the Scout who presented the um bike racks sent an email to Jerry today and confirming the placement of those bike racks and Jerry confirmed that the placement that the Scout proposed is acceptable and so the Scout will be placing those the nice thing is if if it becomes a problem and they're down we can they're very easily movable so I think gave the right guidance to put them down and we'll see how it lands and works out so you should see those very soon they're very they look very similar to the one in the library um sort of dark wood stained wooden nice bike racks with room for scooters and bikes so just I just want to let you know that gumballs the gumballs are swept by DPW as well so just letting you know they're maintained saying fabulous and we appreciate followup like that Michael that's really nice to see that um you know the appropriate communication came through and and that this project is moving forward that's wonderful um moving along boards and commissions so we have okay so so so to announce the vacancies at this time the environmental commission member with term expiring 12 3124 and we have a vacancy on the Zoning Board member with term expiring 12 3127 so two vacancies we would love any and all applicants um we are moving past our work session and we are on to ordinances we have none for first reading and none for second reading that was easy but we do have our consent resolutions would anybody like to move items a through C uh so moved move consent resolutions a through C I'm happy a second you we'll move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor betway yes thank you unanimous thank you and mayor if I can to just to comment on the last one um awarding of our contracts for the 2024 Road improvements as everybody knows we have a list of Road improvements that we work on and there's a priority list and every year we chip away at those list and Ms marabello and the township engineer bundle those items and put things on the list for consideration and and so that that chips away at everything on the 2024 list fabulous thank you yes that's exactly what that resolution is about um fabulous so we are actually right up to our public comment this evening and so at this time I would like to invite members of the public to come and comment you have three minutes and uh we will this is our time to listen to you we may or may not be able to respond to your uh thoughts or questions at this time but welcome welcome please sit down and if you can push the button until it turns red then we will be able to hear you and the recording will pick up you could just mention your name my name is can you Buton again there you go my name is Martin Herring um I live in uh 44 La Bo drive down at the 4 Seasons development I happen to be the board president these ladies here are also on the board of trust uh what I'm here for is the status of our roads now about a year ago I came here and I talked to uh Mr fan and basically gave him the same information that I have today they're in terrible shape we got uh potholes we got cracks all over the place our whole development was put in in 2004 and they haven't been touched since then uh we have you know it's it's a hazard because we got it's a 55 plus a lot of the people are the original owners we got people 85 into 90 years old uh we got a few people in there who are younger but a lot of them are in their 70s 80s and 90s so what happens is that they tend to walk their dogs and they don't walk on the sidewalk so they walk on the street and they hit these potholes and we're afraid somebody's going to get hurt so we'd like to get our property on the list to have the roads fixed I mean we don't have a lot of traffic through there uh which means if you fix the roads probably another 30 years from now somebody GNA come back and say can you fix the roads so we really like to have them done I mean we're a Titan the community we uh we're voters we have no kids in school we're we spend a lot of money around here and I really like cranberry day I've been going to for years I was formerly from Monroe used to go for the last 34 years my daughter lives in town uh my grandson's here and I really like this town I really like to have those roads fixed I mean we get the uh engineer down now I have a what do you call that Zip drive which has the pictures of all the all the stuff because last year you asked me we didn't have that but now I got it so we can give it to the engineer and have him you know take a look at it um it probably wouldn't take that long to do I'm not sure how you get the funds but maybe there's a grant out there somewhere where you can take advantage of it's got to be something for seniors that's all I got to say thank you very much so who do I get this to thank you Mr Herring do we have any other public comment what welcome thank you microphone's still on um I'm Amy Freeman I live at six spraw also in uh uh Four Seasons and I'm the one that took the pictures and I went back and Revisited and some of them have really gotten worse especially by the sores they're starting to hollow out I have two dogs and I fell in one of the holes um and it's steep the picture on there has it with water I need somebody to go out there with me and take a picture of my foot inside the hole um so Martin did a great job I really don't want to spend too much time on that but I have a question for you um we had an issue with a homeowner whose adult child was changing order oil or radiator fluid um when I came back from walking the dogs there was cat um kitty litter spread all over the driveway the houses between two storm drains um she's not easy to approach and our last property manager um called and wanted to get somebody out there because you could see where the entire driveway was covered on one side with something that shouldn't be there and when they backed up and went down um the ball there was a trail going down to our entrance you can't see it that much anymore but I wonder if you have any suggestions I mean we're looking looking at maybe putting something in our bylaws but we run into the problem is someone wants to put a washer fluid in their their windshield wipers that's not exactly the same as changing your oil and our community really isn't that kind of community where people should be doing that but if you can give us any assistance on how we should approach that or if you have any language you know that you have other communities that that do that we'd very much appreciate it thank you anybody else for public comment this evening yes please welcome thank you hi Kathy Lair one litkey drive in the Four Seasons and I'm no longer on the board that's represented here tonight but I was at one time so I have a great appreciation for what they do and also you know being on that board gives us a teeny appreciation for what you do which is like on so so much bigger a scale so I have great appreciation for both but um I just want to reinforce a little bit about what they said because we had talked to um the township about the roads in 2017 and we got some information from from Denise about where we stood you know in the uh in the lineup of things we were among the 12 best at that time and then we were just looking at cracks you know looking to have things um sealed and crack repairs but now as you know as you've heard we've got some holes and being a dog walker as well it is um you know it's just it's not so good so hopefully you'll be able to uh to help us with that appreciate it thank you absolutely thank you thank you the other side thank you sorry you're good we loveing the beeping no problem um would anybody else like to comment all right seeing no more comments I will close public comment for this evening um do we have uh I mean just if I could comment a little bit before we discuss our action items I mean I I really appreciate hearing from different um sections of our town you definitely are the eyes and ears of what's going on in your community and I appreciate that you've come to this board before and you're coming again and it just um it just really shows your diligence and your attention to uh your residents and their quality of life and obviously their ability to walk safely in their community so um I'm happy to look at this I don't know do we have any anything with regards to a date do we know when that Community is slated to right now they're in the capital plan for 2026 2024 is done that's what we just awarded the bid for um and we have other roads that are in worse condition um that are probably ahead of Four Seasons so they're on our Capital plan for 2026 but it gets looked at every year so you know Jerry and the engine near we'll take a look at the road and see um if there's potholes yeah we can fill in small potholes but anything bigger deep it's just gonna the coal patch is just going to come right back out again so if it's if it's that bad it probably needs a Mill and paave and that would be on 2026 right now we'll have to have the engineer take a look at it m does that mean that so 2026 break that down that means in in the January of 2026 it would be approved for sort of summer fall correct of 2026 correct okay great thank you and with regards to the size of these potholes is that something that we could take a quick look at to see if there's a a potential for a patch versus having to I mean Jerry can take a look but if they're too big he'll tell me right away cold patch is going to come right out of them and it won't help so what I suggest is you let your community members know not to walk in the streets I I I know but that's what the sidewalks are for and until it gets patched it's going to be a hazard for for everyone so so thank you I appreciate all the conversation and I think that um if we can have Jerry look at the side of what could be patched and to make an assessment on that we have a plan with regards to 2026 I think that's very important and it's not wrong I think it's absolutely correct that that you keep sharing that's that's that's part of how we get the information as well so I really you know you're welcomed here thank you so much for sharing with us and um I appreciate the information and with regards to some of that language I actually don't know what we would would do with something like that that's I think part of your HOA and um yeah I'm not sure with regards to how you would handle that but um that would be HOA responsibility and I suggest they speak with their attorney about language to put in their bylaws yeah I would also suggest maybe I don't know an um a n JC they're the association for environmental commissions maybe they might have some kind of uh person to point to like what a group to point to yeah but I just want to say that I I appre how thought I appreciate how how thoughtful that approach is it's it's you you're saying let's let's let's create the language and the laws that will protect us all in this incident so that's very very thoughtful yeah Miss Marabella do we we have ordinances about automotive repair and driveways I I don't believe so obviously things like that shouldn't be going to the Into the Storm green but that's a d issue um as far as as their Community though that's why they have an HOA they're supposed to govern those things and and to be fair the HOA there's there's State rules for runoff that you can look at but the enforceability is more likely to you're you're likely to get more Satisfaction by writing wording into your HOA because then you have a cycle of of bylaws and enforceability within the same within the same cycle so um even though even if there is an ordinance or a state rule you're probably going to get the most satisfaction and the most compliance in enforcement with something in your HOA yeah yeah yeah completely true excellent all right do we have any action items for this evening I uh for you I'm sorry Lisa yeah I'm gonna follow up CBA yes on the cranberry Commons and then um also just some other feedback that we received from cranberry J that I'll provide provide them excellent um any other public I'm sorry any other action items I didn't quite pick up anything no okay go see Debbie at the library on the 17th that's a good action and then if you want to get your A1 SE check the following week right um we are going to be entering a closed session and so we thank our public for attending this evening it's been fabulous and um apologies but this is the time that we will have to ourselves thank you and excellent I'll move to enter close session I'll second to roll call for this um so Mr fron yes M caner yes Dr Rogers uh yes Mr Scott yes and marel bway yes thank you everyone wait till I shut off all the recording and I'm going to turn off that as well and I'm ending the stream and I'm shutting off the other everything