##VIDEO ID:SdDlZMWuD3k## ladies and gentlemen I'd like to call the meeting to order meeting for Monday December 9th 2024 please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance if you can flag United States of America the it stands one nation God indivisible andice for all okay will move on to the open public meetings notice pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trent times and home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 post on the Township's website and send to those who requested a copy of this notice we'll move on to roll call Mr fronte here Mrs keram here Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and mayor betway here thank you thank you um we have an addition to our agenda today we are going to be sharing a resolution for our good friend and TC member Michael verante it's um would you like to read the resolution sure So Lisa will'll read our resolution and then we will share a few Thoughts with you Michael I did not uh rehearse this so neither did I believe it or not I have any pronunciation issues C toship resolution 12 24114 recognizing the service of Michael J fante on the township committee whereas Michael has been a cranberry resident since 1998 with his wife Deana and children Amelia and Andrew he has been actively involved in volunteering for the township serving on the cranbery board of education and the cranbery public library Foundation prior to being appointed to the township Committee in 2018 elected in 2018 and reelected in 20121 serving as mayor in 2021 and 2023 and whereas Michael was instrumental on the LI Library Board of Trustees where he worked closely to fundraise and help secure a New Jersey library Construction Bond act Grant to assist in the construction of a brand new freestanding Public Library which opened in 2022 and whereas under Michael's leadership The Village Park walking trail project was completed he additionally coordinated the execution of a pedestrian access easement between ingr cranberry Housing Association and the township to create a pedestrian path to link the residential development with the Village area and whereas Michael has served as a reliable and hardworking liaison to many boards and commissions Michael advocated for crosswalks throughout the township to establish traffic calming measures and promote pedestrian safety and whereas Michael demonstrated his passion for local government with his annual informational presentation of demystifying municipal government in which he answered common questions about the township and its inner workings and whereas during the covid-19 pandemic Michael led a campaign to increase Township communication by encouraging as many residents as possible to sign up for Township ews and nixel alerts and further created a regular weekly digest of mayor's updates and town news and whereas Michael con continues to volunteer his time and dedication to Cranberry Scout Troop 52 recently serving as the advancement chair and assuming the role of committee chair in early 2025 and now therefore be it resolved we the township committee to hereby thank Michael for his years of service to Cranberry and his dedication to the Cranberry Township committee [Applause] Michael I think everybody um here has a few words for you and I think a few people out there also have words for you but would you like to say anything no um no I just it's um it's been I mean it's amazing how many people I think Denise and Matt are the only people that are around this table when I joined in April of 2018 I think that was prior to to to when it was Kathy Cunningham so it's been interesting to sort of see the uh see the the the transition and the the growth on this board and I'm just I'm so proud of what this this board has does and continues to do you guys are so out there meeting with every Township commission and board and liaison and just every year we've up the game in terms of supporting our community so I think that's great um it's been great to support the members of the of the community and sort of uh you know the thing nothing's too big or too small that comes across our desk here so it's uh it's been fun so it's been a fun six and a half years so thank you very much for sure anybody else yeah if I may as the senior TC member um I I consider Mike a close friend and he's my neighbor he's two doors down but um you know more importantly I having Mike on the TC for for the past six and a half years to me has been just a very calming presence I I've relied on Mike a lot when I was a mayor um mike always has the best advice to give you do you do and and you have a a very unique ability to distill complex issues and and topics down to to their their Essence and to explain them clearly which is demonstrated by your um explaining local government talk which I think is fantastic which I hope is a tradition that will continue um when you leave um and again yeah just like to reiterate what's what's in the um um referendum uh that you know your service to the TC and to the town has been greatly appreciated you'll be missed on this board very much I'll still come down two doors down to seek your counsel and the next next two years while I'm still in the TC and uh thank you for everything you've done thank you um I always explain Michael as a clarifying Tab and any muddy water or murky water that's what you've been for me at least and I think for a lot of other people on the TC before us and and you know since so I just always you have a great way of distilling things like Matt said and getting to what we need to need to get at and just really appreciate your guidance and your mentorship and I learned so much from demystifying local government it's a small Bible for me so it was really helpful when I joined and it it served me really well to kind of remind myself of what what we're here to do and you're just a shining example of that thank you for your service mik it's been great um everyone's been saying some great things and uh I justen listen to that Proclamation if anyone just even did one of those things in this town it would be so great but all your accomplishments and I'm sure you're going to continue to accomplish more and uh you know we look forward to what you're going to be doing in the future with the town and whatever and enjoy your Mondays okay thank you you'll be missed Michael it's been uh what should I say I feel like I've I you're a person that I feel like I've known forever because in in so many ways you have uh touched different people's lives in my family and I think the first person you met in my family are actually my sheep when you came over with um the a member from the library board at the the library trust at the time and we were talking about the project and I think you all went out to the farm first and then you came to meet us and then I got to know you a little bit better when it was the new Resident sort of um uh welcome at the library at the old library and you just became this uh like just this person in town that everybody knew and loved it was in porch Fest we would all you know interact I still remember your words when my daughter graduated and you told me that this moment like you know you've done everything that you could have done to this moment and you know your child is now moving on and it's and it's good for them and it's good for you and um I you know my my child on Halloween when he got lost he said I'm going to go to Michael fante's house and I'm going to have him call my mom because I know that's I I know him and he's he's he's good he's safe in so many ways Michael you have left your your fingerprints your thumb prints um here in our hearts and our lives it's very reassuring that you are still within the town and that you still have interest in sharing your wisdom with us from time to time and as Barbara said though you um you've given so much to all of us and it's time for you to enjoy your time off a little bit and not just dive into other volunteer positions hope y Di has been a gracious wife to share her her husband with us for you know in such a capacity actually both of them just troubleshot my presentation just now within five minutes we've been doing this for an hour and they managed to get it on so perfect thank you so much we will open it up to the public to share a few words because these are just a few of the very dedicated friends that you have that are here to say a few words for you today and as you all come up to say a few words please take some cookies on your way back in celebration of Michael please um when you come up please push the red button so that we could um hear your audio welcome welcome um so grateful for everything you've done um in this town I I think two words that come to my mind is you're always there so you just walk around time there's Mike you know the pancake breakfast that teddies and you know just the little things that um really mean a lot to everyone in the town so you're always there thank you I think you're too young to be retiring from all these things I uh I've met Mike and Deanna um almost 30 years ago in Ann Arbor and who knew um back then that you'd be the mayor of this little town that we were going to stay in for a couple years you know Max um so anyway I think you're just such a high achieving guy and you guys are like a dynamic team together so a lot of um uh generosity with the time and talents that you share with everyone you know so thank you for all you did for the town and for all you continue to do for um 52 and so many other things so well done I'll be short Mike I promise boom okay Mike it has been an honor to work with you in every capacity whether it's a father of a kid who goes to the rec program father of a kid who works the rec program father of a scout um with everything that you have done you brought Integrity you brought kindness and compassion um you're truly a guy that I was told years ago when I first started teaching if you need something done ask the busiest person you know and that's why I always ask you and Susan and it always gets done but I want to thank you um and I know that your your work in Cranberry is never going to be done and whether it's cleaning out storm drains or or it's doing your job here you're there and uh we appreciate it thank you okay hi well I'm talking just from my point of view and just about the last six years years but and when I think about those six years it feels like a hundred doesn't it I mean we had pandemic and then the the library got kicked out of the school oh I'm sorry I'm sorry the library was asked to leave the school suddenly and uh and then we had important things like finding a temporary home and navigating the bid process and groundbreaking and the exciting first two years of operation this is all while you were on Township committee I'm not going back to other things this just six years so thank you Mike thank you for your service on the TC and as the mayor's rep to the library board um your leadership and your vision have been absolutely essential in bringing the dream of a freestanding library to Cranberry and the library next door stands as a physical Legacy of your service on the TC so I and our 1984 patrons thank you very [Applause] much you guys have to take Andre will take a cookie yeah all of you have to you'll take a cookie on you m I'd like to just say thank you it has been my pleasure to work with Mike and kiry from the initial stages of planning the library doing the fundraising going door too with you to beg for money and it has been my pleasure and a great experience I've worked with you on the board over these years and hopefully we're going to keep you on the board with us so we can continue doing the job for doing but thank you and good luck to you in the future anybody else yes please oh you're waving okay so Michael you are loved but people didn't take cookies so I'm still going to be a little offended you guys have to have some cookies a there you go nice Michael how do I how do I get this back on I might as well show it now because there's so more people I had presented I had presented I had prepared a little uh video montage of sort of our year in review and I was going to present it at my report but being that we have an audience right now um I I would like you all to stay and watch this little video right yes thank you why don't you sit here e e e e e e e e e e e e it's been a very very busy year and Michael has been there for so much of it and thank you again Michael and happy happy happy retirement from the TC at least um and all of you are welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting but if you have other things to do this evening feel free to go about them thank you all all right as we continue back on our agenda we have the township minutes from November 25th 2024 can I accept a motion to to accept I'm happy to move the minutes second it thank you move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs kumin Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott obain and may bway yes three a two abstentions thank you thank you very much we are up to our reports and Communications today who would like to start start sure it's gonna be short and sweet uh thank you very much for the meeting I missed last time for reading my update about HPC just to follow up on that I really want to thank the HPC and specifically Brendan on HBC for his very diligent work uh back with the planning board answering a lot of their questions putting together a presentation that I think was very well received and helped that meeting run a little bit smoother but he's he's one in a million that one and it really is his volunteer hours just are mindboggling on a weekly basis so thanks to him the zoning meeting was a crisp four minutes uh and only reason I went it was just to wish them happy holidays and thank them for their service but uh I was was exhausted after it that's all I have I'm happy to follow the because I can build on Brendan so um Brendan hle came to the planning board last week and you would have thought he was the township planner honest to goodness he is so good he is so professional the board started asking him for his qualifications because they thought he was a a planner and he's like no I'm a software engineer I do this for fun and I've only done it for like a year but he did such a good job explaining the the tweaks of the master plan amendment that after about 30 minutes the board had no more questions and this is a board that never has no more questions um so it was a very very good presentation the the the the way we summarized it was essentially as you know the the getting rid of the buffer zone but essentially with new properties coming in the buffer zone would have essentially have all overlapped the existing so this the new thing kind of clear it up and once Brandon sort of communicated that the board you could see light bulbs going on around the table and and it was very helpful that he came it was very helpful that booklet he put together um very helpful so I think I think you will find the planning board is well positioned to approve that amendment in early 2025 so that was that was well time well spent um the time not well spent was the the other hour and a half where we talked about dust collectors behind a a a pharmaceutical plant on um on Duncan Drive but it was the second time for the applicant and we got them through with appropriately screened dust collectors behind the building that face a forest so we we got that we got that done maybe as a group go tour the dust collectors we should we a hard tour that' be fun but um yeah so that was the the planning board was the only lay on Roll I had I still have the library board next week um but maybe Thursday this week that that was a solid three hours that meeting solid the planning board yeah I could feel my stomach growling at the end of it yeah wait so you'll come back and report on the library board meeting maybe not thank you any questions for Michael perfect anybody else go next um yeah I none of my commissions or boards uh met uh the environmental commission's meeting this coming Monday um I I will uh be on a zoom call about the community energy uh grant that we got on Monday Denise and John Ry uh Felder will be on that as well to find out more about it and um I I attended a an information webinar about another opportunity it's the uh next Master Plan update will include a vulnerability assessment um for climate change and um there is a technical technical assistance um it's not a grant it's just called a technical assistance um opportunity um so I attended an information about how to try and obtain technical assistance about the new climate vulnerability assessment action and um and we'll probably be applying for that and see whether uh we can get help with that but we would have to put in the budget um for next year um some hours for engineering and planner so I'm still in that information phase to see whether we should do this or not any questions excent and um I I had no liaison okay meeting so I have nothing to report perfect perfect um I will share a few thoughts Michael has already covered the planning board thank you so much for that uh the municipal Alliance meeting is cancelled for the for December I think we need to update that on the calendar if that's possible the secretary sends it in gets updated okay of today it wasn't updated yet so get up little matur stuff okay perfect um just so nobody shows up for that one and I am filling in the healthy Town application 2024 for the Mar's Wellness campaign it's a pretty hefty um you know like you go through every every board and commission's activities to see where we can collect the points that will then Propel us from just healthy Town upand coming to healthy town and then it's like the gold silver and bronze we try to move from bronze to Silver and and maybe even gold let's see because I think we've we've done a lot we just haven't collected it all so I'm I'm working on that one I wanted to share a little bit of Township news this evening with you all we are honoring our cranberry youth this evening uh Tennis champion asna bushan and her partner from Princeton repeated as the first doubles Champion for the second year in a row the tennis team made it to the state sectional finals upsetting the number one seed along the way yeah well done to them PHS boys varsity soccer won their second consecutive Central Jersey group for sectionals championship and our very own Chase hamerslag scored the winning goal assisted by Aaron Byam so kudos to both of them and PHS girls volleyball team repeated as group three state champions and our very own kayin babati whose dad was just here earlier was a key player and contributor on that team so congratulations to all of them I I share this because I'm very proud of our residents not only who are here like the adults but the children continue to really um you know hold their own in spaces that um that just just I'm I'm always in awe at what they do and if you are if you ever listen to the um to the news that comes out of PHS the cranberry students are always recommended they're always they receive accolades they receive Awards and I'm really really proud of them so well done um boards and Commissioners I just wanted to share uh sort of a little bit of thanks for some of those that have uh spent a lot of time on our boards and commissions in town who will be stepping down from their positions uh really a warm thanks from all of us and um that includes our Good Michael fante from RTC obviously um Dominique Jones is leaving the Board of Ed we had um marily mik will be leaving the zoning position as chair uh Shay Tre Bonnie Larson obviously we we congratulated her last time but also thanking her again today Board of Health um Laura zerf we thanked her earlier but Becky Lowry also was a longtime member she'll also be um um stepping down and our library Board of Trustees iron Negan Negan Negan right yeah so thank you to all of them and it's le le yes leis and from Sha tree that's right earlier this year as well thank you for that and um this again everything we do is run by volunteers and we thank all our volunteers for the dedicated time that they've given us so thank you uh Barbara shared with me something that I wanted to share with you all as a public service water supply drought update as of November 27th 2024 recent rain and snowfall Statewide has generally helped the water supply conditions across New Jersey but the accumulations were not enough to change the current water supply conditions and New Jersey remains in drought warning while fire restrictions have been lifted the public is strongly urged to continue voluntary water conservation practices and uh the fire department will be hosting an information session on its interest in moving into a fire district uh I think I believe it's tomorrow December 10th from 7:00 to 9: at the firehouse am I correct in that yeah right perfect thank you and because we are coming to the end of what um what will will be this is our last meeting yes perfect so I just wanted to share just a few thoughts as I um vacate my my uh seat as mayor this year and um you know we have very very we're blessed with amazing lives here in Cranberry neighbors neighborhoods um it really is a fulfilling life I think that I personally have loved here and it's been very difficult if you've um you know seen the news over the last year war and strife has been a constant for so many and I certainly pray for an end to violence and I Pray for Peace like so many of us um it's been a privilege to serve you all as mayor and I I really we we have something very very blessed here in cranberry and I hope we can continue to work to protect it um I wanted to extend my thanks very much to Deputy Mayor Lisa Canam and all of my TC members Matt and Michael and Barbara and Denise and Debbie and all the staff that makes this possible and I end tonight with wishes for a happy healthy and festive holiday season so happy wanza merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate so thank you all let us um head back to our agenda do we have any follow-up items for this evening seeing none we will move on I will share two mayoral appointment vacancies for this evening not that we're going to do anything about them but we do have two vacancies on the environmental commission one member expiring 12 3124 and a second member expiring 1231 26 it will be nice I hope that uh members of the public will look to fill that um that opening because the environmental commission does conduct very very great and important work within our community we have for ordinances we have first reading are none but second reading we do have one so tonight uh the ordinance that we have on second reading would be Cranberry Township ordinance number 11-4-1 15 an ordinance of the township of cranberry amending sewer rates and equivalent domestic consumption units I should open this up for the public would anybody in the public like to comment on this particular ordinance up for second reading seeing none I will close the public comment on the TC anybody here like to okay very good so I would like to entertain a motion I'm happy to move um passing of uh 11-2 24-15 one second thank you we're going to move on to roll call Mr Mr fronte yes Mrs kiram yes Dr Rogers Mr Scott yes and may bway yes thank you unanimous thank you I'm happy to move consent resolution items 11 a through e all second thank you move on to roll call Mr fronte yes Mrs Kum yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and may betway yes thank you excellent we are up to our public comment for this evening would the public like to speak about out share anything that they would like to share uh you have three minutes if you'd like to come up and share seeing then I will close public comment for this evening any action items for us captured I don't know of any either so we have a Clos session this evening and we thank the public for joining us and um if you don't mind we will ask you very kindly to vacate as we go into our Clos session thank you all so much can we do can we have a motion to go into Clos session I'll move second I'm going to move on to roll call for that uh we have Mr fronte yes Mrs Canam yes Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes may better way yes thank you just give me a moment