I'd like to call the meeting to order for January 22 2024 please rise if you can for pledge of allegiance to the of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and jusice all thank you all for being here tonight welcome attendance welcome members of uh the township committee and uh Denise and Debbie um we are going to read open public meetings act notice uh pursuant to the open public meetings act notice that this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Tron times and home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 post on the Township's website and sent to those who requested a copy of this notice and we'll move on to roll call Mr fronte here Mrs kiram here Dr Rogers and Mr Scot absent and mayor Elway here thank you today is a little bit of a special day and I can see from a bunch of our attendance uh you guys got my memo that's awesome um I wanted to uh read a proclamation in honor of um Muslim American heritage month if I could find it what did I do with it I took it from you didn't I I apologize all right thank you very much um I want to read this Proclamation as it's written and uh yeah let me do that first all right so whereas on April 29th 2023 Governor Phil Murphy signed a joint resolution by the Senate and general assembly of the state of New Jersey designating the month of January of each year as Muslim American heritage month and whereas cranbery is proud to be the home to a vibrant Muslim American community that plays an essential role in forming and enich riching the unique character of our community and whereas Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.9 billion devotees worldwide and about 3.5 million in the United States there are nearly 300,000 Muslim Americans in New Jersey representing one of the largest Muslim American communities in the United States and whereas Muslim Americans have inhabited the land of the United States since before the Count's founding Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States of America with the Treaty of friendship in in 1786 which remains America's longest standing unbroken treaty and whereas Muslim Americans are strong contributors to the economic sectors and have particularly excelled in the areas of medicine law business education politics government military service technology science and culture and arts and whereas on this occasion we recommit ourselves to standing against hate and Injustice in all forms and fostering peace understanding and unity through awareness education community and meaningful action and whereas today cranberry residents of all faiths and backgrounds celebrate our Muslim friends and neighbors and the cultural and religion and religious Heritage of the Muslim Community that now therefore be it resolved that I emended by the we mayor of cranbery Township do hereby recognize the month of January as Muslim American Heritage Month congratulations to you thank you it's a privilege to be able to do that I'm I'm really grateful for those of you that have showed up but it's genuinely a privilege to be able to do that and this is a wonderful community that has embraced us all and I I I look forward to doing proclamations like that for other ethnicities other cultures other events because that is truly how we build a community um continuing on with our agenda do we have any changes or additions to our agenda none none no noted uh let us continue to accept our Township committee minutes from the reorganization meeting January 2nd do I have a motion to approve so moved all second thank you thank you I'll move on to roll call Mr fron yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers is absent Mr Scott abson and mayor Elway yes thank you it's unanimous for members present thank you uh let's do reports and Communications uh Mr franic we start with you sure absolutely I have a brief report I attended the Recreation Commission last Wednesday they reorganized and um Katie Harmon will be the chair for 2024 and they are working on proposals for pickle ball that will come to this Saturday's meeting I encourage them to keep it tight and brief and um recognize that it was not a work session but it was a very brief slot to cover that so we'll do our best with that item on Saturday um I was not able to attend the library commission reorg due to a conflict with the planning board but the library reorg um with Andre Mento as president and kiry panzi as vice president um I did attend the planning board meeting and on that same evening um Miss Evelyn span was named as the chair of the planning board and Wayne Whitman was named as the vice chair there were no applications that evening we had a closed session and last but not least um I attended the voice Scouts troop 52 80 uh court of honor yesterday which happened to occur on the 80th anniversary of the troop being founded um in 1944 so very nice event and Troop 52 is out of the gate strong with two Eagle Scouts having been awarded in already in the month of January um and with that I have no further updates unless anybody has any questions for me questions um uh Lisa are you good Miss K are good to keep your update yeah got a lot going on um I had mentioned that edux uh previous meeting was canceled until we could get some resolution on what we were going to do going forward um they're going to continue to work and finalize the TC presentation for the both surveys I think were on the docket for February 12th and then EDC was informed um all committee members that that committee is on hold for 2024 and the TC is going to revisit um that in 202 5 um cranberry historic preservation Society due to the shortness of our last TC meeting I was actually able to jump on over to the library and attend their meeting it was a formal recap of 2023 all their activities goals achievements um for that year and it was really great to see how much that they had accomplished in the community the Highlight was actually the presentation of Eileen and Steven CIO who portrayed William Henry Seward and his wife Francis Miller Seward I've got some fun facts for you all absolutely fascinating uh history of her work as an abolitionist and her friendship with Harriet Tubman and his journey into politics and becoming Secretary of State for President Abraham Lincoln I'm not sure if you know I did not uh that there were actually four um assassinations that were supposed to be carried out on the night of Abraham Lincoln fascinating one as we know was unfortunately successful Andrew Johnson attemp was aborted William Seward's was a brutal stabbing attempt that failed and the fourth they never heard from the guy again two of Seward's uh proudest accomplishments was negotiating the sale of Alaska from Russia to the US um it was approved with Congress for 7 million but he went rogue and he got got it through and agreed for 7.3 but Congress still approved it and the other was keeping UK and France out of their involvement in the Civil War there's so much more I could go on but it was absolutely fascinating stuff that I recommend uh the book itself uh is a is a great read and um his wife Francis Miller in her own right out of the spotlight uh but did a tremendous amount of work uh Karen Kelly will continue to be my point person for New Jersey Revolution HPC uh the meeting on the 16th of January was cancel due to weather so their meeting is this coming Wednesday the 24th um uh Wednesday will be in nomination meetings for all positions uh signage delivery asked for an update so I don't know if it was delayed it was expected early January I don't know the status so I'll make sure that I report out on that at our next meeting um there will be a special meeting that will be conducted at the library on Thursday January 25th from 7 to 8 open to the entire public in the large community room and this is for Charles grubin Associates to provide a review of cranberry's historic district this is where they've taken a full site survey and inventory of all existing properties and new properties and they'll kind of walk you through the uh architectural and um aesthetic um specifications to be uh denoted a historic home in within the historic district really exciting stuff I think it's 96 properties Al together so including the building that we're sitting in so if you can attend I encourage it uh zoning was January 10th I watched via YouTube um as well as my daughter's basketball game at the same time um it was basically a reorg meeting that lasted 11 minutes so their next meeting will be on February 7th uh Board of Health I think my followup from last meeting was to transfer a couple of action items to Matt I've already done that asked if you had any questions so let me know and then lastly I forgot to mention that um pack 52 b& invited me as a member of the TC to speak with uh the kids and talk about community service the Township committee and how to get involved in the community starting at a very early age I had a a very um thorough PowerPoint presentation prepared but it went wildly off the rails in a really good way uh these kids had incredibly intelligent and thoughtful questions of me and how to get involved in community service and how we they can have many US um and maybe create a mini TC and how they can Shadow us and Mentor us and learn from us and provide suggestions to us and it it was just great it was a wonderful evening and I received this thank you card which I'll pass around if anybody would like to read it but I neglected to mention that my my last meeting so I think I might be invited back but the verdicts out but that's all I got sorry for I had a lot that was awesome now unlike you I don't have too much to report because the weather provided so many derailments and and cancellations and um so I did um I did not I was supposed to attend the planning board meeting with you but that was a conflict that night with the with the band at the school and I apologized because it was a lot of it was congested right the parking lot was very congested and thank you all for managing the way you did um so I I really didn't have uh any of my boards and commissions meet I will be covering for Barbara Rogers and I will be doing my own boards and commissions moving forward the parks commission meeting is rescheduled for January 20 sorry June 20 yes January 24th 19 uh 9:15 and you mentioned the HPC as well as the meeting on the 25th with uh from that flyer we'll put that in the mayor's update thank you yes absolutely tomorrow morning right yes tomorrow morning yeah it'll tomorrow morning in the in the mayor's update we have our budget meeting uh coming up as well on the 27th of January that's the Saturday and I wanted to share two two notices from the school um career day March 1st they're looking for volunteers to share your career or to volunteer as a keynote speaker so this is the first time I've heard that they're looking for a keynote speaker in this manner but if any of you can volunteer we'll be sending uh we'll be attaching the the link for that Google form on the mayor's update tomorrow and the school wanted us to be aware as a community that they uh the musical this year is called Little Mermaid Jr it is scheduled for Thursday March 7th that's my mother's birthday um the Thursday Show event is always for seniors and tots and then the Saturday and Sunday March 8th and 9th is for the rest of the public and we look forward to that um that's all I have for reports do we have any uh um let me see any subcommittees or department heads with reports you did get the um November and December reports emailed to us was anybody we did the chief was on vacation he just returned today so he had the report sent out but he had training all day so he was unable to come tonight so okay well we'll thank him for sending that information forward uh any followup items none um sorry I did have a planning board follow item to the about sidewalks on the Cedarbrook property we got some data we got it back to the property owner and we have closed up that item excellent thank you excellent thank you thank you um all right swe boards and commissions we have so I want I want to amend this appointment is that right all right so I want to amend an appointment that we made at our last meeting uh mayoral appointment the correction for Dominique Jones planning board from three-year term to one-year term expiring December 31st 2024 absolutely so that's the correction and we have I'm going to read the vacancies we have uh two vacancies on Recreation committee uh um the recreation board sorry first alternate and second alternate we have an opening on the environmental for second alternate we have two openings on Parks a full membership that expires 2024 four and a second alternate so if any of you are looking to volunteer we have a couple of options for you what did I do oh here it is sorry um for tonight we have two ordinances up for second reading okay I'm going to start by reading the first um that we have for second reading which is ordinance number 01- 24-1 to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a kept Bank any members of the TC like to comment or discuss the issue no just for context this is kind of a housekeeping item just to just just to keep budget items in line so thank you Lisa you're good all good any members of the public would like to comment on this particular ordinance seeing none we can have the reading of the second ordinance I have a motion oh I have to I'm sorry we do them individually okay all right would anybody like to make a motion to accept ordinance a I would like to move ordinance 012 2401 I'll second thank you we're going to move on to roll call for that ordinance Mr fante yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers and Mr Scutter abson and marel bedway yes thank you and now we'll move on to the second okay let's move on to the second ordinance please okay and this is uh Again by title only uh ordinance number 01- 24-02 granting renewal of Municipal consent to Comcast of New Jersey LLC to construct connect operate and maintain a cable television and communication systems in the municipality of cranberry middlex County New Jersey excellent any TC members uh would like to discuss this um I just want to thank Bonnie Bonnie uh for her work on supporting as our liaison um and yeah many years on this and and I believe this might be could be the last time we do this I'm not sure this kind of a structure is going to exist um moving forward but this unfortunately this does not give us the ability to comment on quality or service levels it is just the right to operate within the town so with that context I think that's uh thank you yes thank you Michael Lisa no comments no comments and so I'd like to open it up to the public would anybody like to comment on this particular ordinance for tonight seeing none I'll close public comment for this particular ordinance um uh anybody would like to move to accept this ordinance I I'll move to uh ordinance 012 2402 call second okay we'll move on to roll call for that particular ordinance Mr fronte yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers and Mr Scot abson and mayor Abed yes thank you it's unanimous for the members present thank you we're moving fast today we are up to our resolution tonight we have consent resolutions a through G would anybody in the TC like to uh select any one of those for individual sort of discussion or anything no I'm happy to move items 12 a through G on the consent resolution I'll second and we'll move on to roll call Mr fonte yes Mrs kiram Dr Rogers and Mr Scutter abson and Mar bway yes thank you that's unanimous for all members present wow excellent that was so quick we are up to public comment tonight and this is where we get to invite our members of the public I see with us tonight maybe a scout and then residents of our town from many different areas um you will have three minutes to make your comments and if we are able to um handle if we're able to solve an issue at this time at the very end when everybody comments we'll certainly be happy to do that but this is your time please as you come up sign your name and you have 3 minutes would anybody like to make a public comment I thought she had and I did forget to acknowledge we do have a scout from Troop 759 in Plainsboro who's working on the the CR citizenship in the community merit badge and part of his responsibility is to observe a Township committee meeting and hopefully see an issue being debated um hotly um which is always an odd item so as much as we try to Stage an issue for us to develop tonight but they're so far none but any case sounds good sounds good okay sounds good welcome thank you you put just your name yeah first first and then you wanted the street street name no okay as long as I can read your name we good sounds would you like both of them to sign in if they're both going to speak they should will both of you be speaking tonight yes okay then would you sign in as well oh okay all right and then you would each get a a three minute time slot okay okay well um elain brushi and I'm from Bert at cranberry the senior building and uh we have some issue with uh George's Garage that abuts our um residents and um I would like to read um a little bit from one of our residents who gave me this letter who could not attend tonight she's been ill um she's on a side of the building next to George's Garage I am a resident at the Birch at cranberry I have been a resident here for more than a year my apartment directly backs George's AO service off of Route 130 I have often experienced strong fuel odors over the course of several hours the odor is nauseating and hard to dispel from my apartment also sometimes the trucks are noisy entering and exit the service station during daytime and nighttime hours whatever can be done to alleviate these two problems would be great greatly appreciated signed Rita P got Pascal um she um has also said to me that trucks seem to run sometimes all night and it it's very disturbing so I'm here for her behalf since she can't be here tonight okay thank you thank you um would you like to follow up yes my name is Vash Tha Goram and I'm also a resident at Birchwood at cranberry and um we have spoken um previously I did record that on May 3rd uh 2023 um Iman El body B yes BWI yes um did speak to the issue that Elaine addressed that uh George was going to construct an abutment for their property between Birchwood at cranberry and themselves um from it is my understanding that that has been a promise probably since the resident uh residence was developed um back in 2020 and and we don't see anything being constructed anything any progress so we would like to know um what their timeline is and people um we even have a resident who's here that lives on that side uh she's with us tonight as well and so she can um you know testify to the smell of the noxious fumes from the diesel trucks running all night coming into the departments and then it's very unsightly um for the residents on that side so that um was a major concern of ours um you know and so we have a you know a couple of other issues but uh that was Major and then um with the rent control issue I know that there's no rent control in the township of cranberry uh but just trying to to navigate and uh speak with someone has been very difficult uh we end up leaving messages quite a bit um and we don't get return calls so maybe that's something you all can help us with or address help us to address in some fashion thank you for your time was it anything yes it didn't turn off that thank you so much both of you and um both issues um before I address them any other public comment so we close okay so um I'd like to close public comment at this time and both issues are certainly um you know thank you for lifting those issues and we can address them we'll see how to address them I'm just curious if you could share with us maybe um after this meeting who you've been calling uh the name and the number of who it is that you've been calling and we can see I believe that when when George spoke of his project he came to the DRC at the time so it was still in the phase of planning and it does take a little while from the planning to you know to get to that next stage it was it was a rudimentary plan and now it's going to go through a process of like you know proper planning so um we can we can communicate with them well meaning that he he came to us to talk about a project that he wanted and he did receive sort of criticism and he received a lot of approval for for the people were very excited actually with the project for the reasons that the residents are mentioning right now um would it be appropriate to ask him where his project is at this point I mean you can ask him he may not be interested in pursuing it and we can't actually force him to pursue it he came with a concept idea to DRC perhaps after he got feedback he decided he didn't want to do it I don't know the next step would be obviously a planning board if he's going to move forward with it but he may not be prepared to do that right now okay um okay all right so maybe a direct communication with him you can ask I can ask yes I I can ask and we may not get the exact answer that we're looking for yeah and perhaps in that communication you could remind him about the state anti-idling ordinance yeah I think that's a useful it may not be his trucks it may be trucks pulling off the highway that are sitting in there yeah and that would be something we can ask the police to check on and they're on night Patrol um and regarding the other issue Maya by the way I did um when when the residents came a couple years ago about the issues with the rent increases I did we did research the New Jersey um rent uh housing like um advocacy organization and we sent them a link to that organization and unfortunately we don't have it's not a rent controlled building all we could provide the residents was a link to resources for residents um around rent landlord issues and there is a New Jersey office that we referred them to and uh do we have any capability to uh to ask that office to answer like um I mean we've given them we've given the resource but what they're saying is that the resource is not is not proving um beneficial yeah there's there's nothing I it's a state agency it's yeah unfortunately yeah yeah okay so so the encouragement then is to you know keep doing what you're doing yeah yeah thank you all right thank you all um we are at the end of our agenda for tonight I would like to take an a motion to adjourn the meeting I'll make that motion second it I I meeting adjourned thank you and