##VIDEO ID:aOqRYecL-eo## welcome everybody I'd like to call a meeting to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance if you're able to the United States of America to the for stands one nation Gody and justice for all thank you we'll go on to the open public meeting statement pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was sent to the cranberry press Trend times and home News Tribune on January 5th 2024 post on the Township's website and sent to those requested a copy of this notice we'll move on to roll call Mr fonte here Mrs Kum is absent Dr Rogers here Mr Scott here and Mar bway here thank you thank you welcome everybody um do we have any agenda additions or changes for today yes we're going to be adding two resolutions to the consent um we will be adding resolution number 09-24-10 a resolution authorizing the repair and re Roofing to the Public Works building at 100 die Road and then we'll also be adding Cranberry Township resolution 09- 24-9 for a resolution authorizing the repair and reof P of the windows and entry doors to the Firehouse at 2 and4 South Lane Street excellent thank you um I hope everybody has had a chance to look at the minutes from last meeting any motion to accept I'm happy to move the minutes EXC of the meeting of September 9th I second excellent thank you thank you we'll move on to roll call and this vote is for both sets and minutes Mr fronte yes Mrs K has excused abs Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes mayor bedway yes thank you it's for is next excellent we're up to reports and Communications my friends who would like to go first how about I'm happy to go first um I two of my liaison roles um uh had their meetings one was the library board um and the library board um one thing they're doing they're doing a passive mailing a Township by mailing about the foundation and sort of about Library Services they have hit the 50% um residents having library cards which is like the highest in the county which is pretty cool but um one of the interesting things was um part of the mailing was they had all the Toll Brothers addresses on there and um we didn't want to mail to an empty lot without a house so I actually stopped by there and sort of see which houses were there or not and just started meeting meeting residents and knocking on doors and handing them um the mailer and it was uh it was pretty fun they were they're very nice very curious about the town um so I hope we think about how to plug them into the community they I think they feel more connected to Plainsboro almost than than cranberry but um there's a lot of people moving in there and they seem very nice and welcome to the community um uh moving on to parks and Rex was held last week a couple things um they're looking at doing a trail maintenance day non power tools but they're looking to coordinate with the EC about sort of some trail maintenance on that um they're coordinating a historic baseball event on the 5th of October as well as a townwide event a movie I think they landed on the 5th of October as well the evening um playing a I think a baseball themed movie is the plan and they did alert us that they're going to be um put uh getting quotes for a roof for the ailan in Village Park as part of the budget process so they're going to be looking at a cedar and an asphalt roof I know it's gone around before but they're going to bring that they're going to bring they're going to get quotes for that I think the repairs have have um have not been fruitful so I think they're being a little more pragmatic and they're willing to consider different materials but so I think they will do the work they know that now is the time to do that um and they will bring something forward for uh as part of the budget cycle so so um and the other kind of interesting thing is the um Parks and Rec commission put together what they call a snap pack which is like an information pack about parks and R and the new organization and they really have done a great job of taking the 11 points of what the both the operational and development activities that Parks and Rec does and they bro broke it down into six categories and five constituency groups and they're actually sub um children under 13 youth 13 to 21 adults seniors and pets and they're looking at sort of programming and events and opportunities for all um all those five groups across the across the dimension so they've done a really nice job s compiling all the work that's been done to date and they're going to have subcommittees looking at that so good good to see they're they're really starting to um merge as a as a combined committee it doesn't feel like Parks versus rck or or parks on one side and wck on the other they're really starting to think holistically a little bit more about sort of programming and less about sort of Maintenance and sort of I think the the rec director understanding what his role is in this and what the DPW you know director sort of so I think they're finding their way and figuring out this new committee so um and that's all I had let is any questions for me any questions for Mike I have a couple questions sure um probably don't know the answer but what is the occupancy rate over at Petty Road do we know um it's different um based on different streets some are zero some are 100 and some are in between so it's I think there's maybe what 115 places I don't know I don't know why was but uh but I think it's probably like 40 or 50% built and maybe 30% occupied um so yeah looks looks nice good um it's a historic baseball event would that um mean that they're not going to do one in August because I know they have one in August that they do they did they last year they did it in August this year they're doing it or not yeah Okay cool so do you mind I have a couple questions Mike um the some of the residents by the way from the new Regency development uh I met them at cranberry day so it was really nice that somehow that word got out to them um did you by any chance ask and when you interacted with them whether they signed up for the township e blast I did not I I was more asking them sort of generally what do you think of town and do you know you're in Cranberry okay things like that yeah so we'll we'll see if we can sort of push them to maybe register for that that'll be a great um that'll be a great capture for them yeah um I wanted to ask you about the roof for the Pavilion uh I I hope that when they get their numbers together it's for different materials right two different materials yeah you said Cedar and Cedar and asphalt asphalt traditional materials and sort of retro like for like materials and I I like how that park has come together in phases we had the walking path and we had the inclusive park now we'll do the roof so it it's happening in phases very nice thank you any other questions for Michael um the one thing I'm um maybe we could ask parks and wreck is um if they have any thoughts about how they might want to manage that rain Garden I know it was an EC project but it you know it's in a park so um the Boy Scouts usually do it for you know um you know usually in the fall and the spring but I I haven't heard from the Boy Scout I thought that was EC jurisdiction even though it's in the park it's EC jurisdiction but it might be something that we might want to okay talk about if they have I guess we'll we'll work with on that I was suggest let's have clear like clear who owns that because I think that that's that's where things don't happen but I think if if EC drives that I think Parks could probably help volunteer but I I think it should probably be an EC driven project okay yeah okay I just thought I'd bring that up okay thanks cool thanks fabulous Matt would you like to Sure share with us I only had one Le aison meeting it's a board of ed their first meeting of the Season unfortunately not 10 but I spoke with uh prade on the phone and um really not much opening of school went off very well uh School construction is um on time and on budget at this moment which is good um I did have a couple of residents reach out to me it's School related um about the late bus from PHS and there's been some issues with um with the timing of the late bus and I I spoke to to Karen weiner um they're they're aware of the issues um the buses for at least a couple days left early supposed to leave at 5:45 I left at 7:32 7:37 or 5:32 537 um and one day it left very late at 6:05 um so they're working on that they're they're trying to iron out the The Kinks there um that's all I have excellent and it's always good news that the project is continuing as it should and within the budget that is allotted so that's I'm encouraged and I'm excited for the school any question for mat excellent seeing none Barbara you good to um to share thank you um an East an environmental commission meeting and uh John the chair uh texted me um cranbery day was very successful based on number of interactions which were practically continuous and feedback um there was great feedback about the macro invertebrates uh it's nice to have a a professor that you know can go to those uh the streams and pull out some macro invertebrates um the trail um map poster was also uh you know um a good success and they gave away um quite a few small Maps um so um part of the update was about this storm um the inlets being macked and uh the volunteers have completed over 600 inlets um that was also they had an intern the summer that did over on the east side um uh the industrial area um and uh over 600 inlets were mapped and inventor and um that's all part of um meeting the ms4 permit requirements um which will also um help improve water quality um so then that's being handed over to the township engineer and those that mapping will support a number of different requirements for the ms4 permitting um I've also been working with Iman and um locating it's part of the sub um subcommittee on traffic um the five different gateways the first sign as you all have probably seen is on Plainsboro Road uh four more of those will be put around town and it's all based on a map from the um the bike um Network plan so these little stars are some of the locations where those will be um we've also had the traffic engineer uh place them on more uh better uh photos of where the locations are going to be so they are not halfhazard there's a reason for their locations um you know mostly in areas where we want them to slow down in the town you know use our roads for more than cars it's biking and pedestrians and um you know and bring attention to you know there's a downtown where people will be located there and you know slowed down in our town um so it's also traffic calming um and um just just FYI there's a lot of utilities um trimming pruning going on around town that is not the shade tree that is the utilities company so um you know just letting you know um also just a reminder if trees are going down um you know on personal properties we do have a a new uh policy that you need to fill out a tree removal and replacement form and that can be found on the website so those were little advertisements there okay any questions excellent I enjoyed um mapping those locations with you you have such good historic knowledge of what should be there what was there what will be there like you're you're good at your stuff so thank you scary I'm historic now that's scary that's if you're no when you have instit tion knowledge it makes you very very valuable so it even more scary that means I've been around thank you I will just quick while I'm ahead thank you you're welcome um all right uh I wanted to start out by offering condolences on the passing of longtime resident Rich deil um his wife Mary's a longtime resident of cranberry and previously the assistant nurse at cranberry school um this week also uh I would like to offer condolences on the passing of Harvey Davidson he comes from a long line of farmers in Cranberry well rooted and beloved often known for the spinach crop he produced up until a few years ago so these are tragic losses for our community and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families to shift gears a little bit uh this month is Latin American heritage month and I wanted to celebrate our cranberry residents who have Latin American Heritage uh this month we also celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival um the festival commem Ates and celebrates the end of the Autumn Harvest um I I share this because um I think this community is very rich with all our beautiful cultural components uh this month in a less um Township well official but less Township capacity I attended the topping off ceremony of the Helix in New Brunswick um the Helix is the new health and life science Exchange building and elected officials were invited to attend the ceremony where we got to sign our names on the last steel girder That Was Then hoisted up by a crane and placed on top of the building so it was pretty cool I also attended the replacement of the historic plaque on the old sites home and the plaque updates information regarding George Washington Lafayette and Hamilton it's pretty cool um our own resident historian researched that information and uh sort of was correcting some incorrect information on the previous plaque uh this month the municipal Alliance met and I was able to attend their meeting uh they welcomed the new Cranbury School representatives and they established their budget items for the year so it's amazing they're ahead of the game I love it they have several uh talks geared towards teen and family Healthy Living coming up and they shared those with us and to honor National world history they they are planning um they're going to be participating at the live life well van with information on mental health and substance abuse and that'll be this Wednesday I believe um the traffic subcommittee met as Barbara uh mentioned we certainly talked through some of the traffic complaints and uh we received updates from the county and the Gateway signs as Barbara mentioned are slowly but surely U being installed and I hope that people are noticing the permanent lighted speed signs that were installed on Station Road um having said that speeding continues to be an issue we've had a couple of um incidences these this week with accidents and it just requires us all to continue to be vigilant and follow the rules um the Live Well van just to be clear September 25th from 10: a.m. to 1 pm the van will be offering free flu vaccines blood pressure and A1C screenings and nutrition information and um the Women's Club I believe is also going to be hosting um a collections uh for military troops and so I'll put some of that information in my update uh the fire department is hosting an open house on October 6th that's always a very fun event if you want to see our firefighters in action they start a fire they put it out it's very exciting um so that's October 6 from 1: to 4 and that's all I have any questions for me excellent so we can continue down our agenda um at this point I'd like to invite any department heads I believe Chief is here welcome Chief Owens it's good to see you very well thank you yourself no that crash on plsb road was sleep related the individual fell asleep not speed related oh 4:30 in the morning fell asleep on the way back home to Plainsboro um I would like to begin by I have a long speech today so got some exciting things going on in our department just like take uh time to recognize the dedication and hard work of our cranberry Police Department in enforcing motor vehicle violation as demonstrated in our latest report our officers remain committed to ensuring the safety of our roads despite the ongoing challenges of Manpower shortages in a growing town we lost one of our officers he left for another agency uh it's putting some strain on our department at this point we have another one who uh might have uh some limited um capacity due to some medical stuff that came up and I'll talk further on that uh at another time while in traffic enforcement is a critical aspect of our duty it is important to recognize that the role of law enforcement has expanded in recent years especially in addressing mental health and substance abuse crisis across New Jersey two out of every three uses of force by law enforcement in 2020 involved individuals suffering from mental health or substance abuse issues over half of all those fatal over half of all fatal police encounters occurred under similar circumstances numbers that are simply unacceptable in response the New Jersey attorney general's office has launched the arrive together program uh arrive together initiative which pairs Law Enforcement Officers with mental health professionals to respond to behavioral health crises this in innovate Innovative approach has been piloted successfully across the state helping to achieve safer outcomes for our most vulnerable residents by reducing arrests uses of force and injuries while also eliminating eliminating racial disparities in these communities in these encounters excuse me arve has expanded to all 21 counties in New Jersey making our state the first in the nation to implement a Statewide Alternative Program response program for mental health emergencies by incorporating mental health professionals into these responses we are seeing a significant increase in the use of Mental Health Resources keeping individuals in the community and enhancing trust between law enforcement and the public this partnership driven approach allows officers to focus on law enforcement duties while trained Specialists provide the necessary care for individuals in crisis moving forward it is crucial for Cranberry Township to consider how we could support initiatives like arrive and continue to meet the complex needs of our community particularly in the light uh in light of the challenges opposed by growth and limited Manpower we have been able to join the arrive program by assigning one of our CIT officers which is uh Crisis Intervention training officers to the ared team I'm happy to announce that it's exciting that officer will be assigned once a month into a schedule with some of our surrounding Town officers to cover and arrive it's called the arrive South team consisting of Plainsboro South Brunswick Monroe South River and East Brunswick townships we will assist in providing coverage for calls involving people with mental health crises the arriv team will also conduct follow-up visits that's one of their strengths is that they're able to return to the people who are having issues and uh conduct follow-up visits for additional information if you wish to look further into the program you could go to New Jersey attorney general's website they have a nice little YouTube video for additional information describing the arrive program uh I look forward to working with the township committee to ensure that we have resources and support necessary to keep cranberry safe and welcoming Community for all does anyone have any questions could you like arrive a r r i v e correct does that stand for anything in particular I'm sure it does but I don't I don't know all okay okay I was just curious and and that is a who set this up this New Jersey State Attorney General's office and that's to train officers in our officers off are train it is to go with a social worker to people in crisis so the officers are not necessarily wearing uh the one officer is assigned to a social worker if they resp and they'll get called to respond to a person in crisis the officer is usually dressed uh in a soft softer uniform if you could put it that way uh plain clothes kind of uh with a social worker to respond to a call with somebody in crisis okay I I I just want to clear this up because this is really terrific I mean this is long time and coming I and I I'm really glad there's a partnership between um police officers and a social worker um so a call comes in to uh the station so then you have an officer or all officers are trained in this well we have multiple officers that are involved in a crisis intervention training CIT training but this particular program involves one officer assigned to a social worker so that officer is going to cover all those counties and all the towns that I mentioned South Brunswick uh the problem is it's it's limited on hours so it's during the daytime hours if we get a Call of a person in crisis we could have partic uh potentially a response from a a South River officer and a social worker responding into our town to assist with that person in crisis oh so each town has one okay no each this is part of a team so we have a a memorandum of understanding between all the towns so if uh Plainsboro off or if on a day that our officers assigned maybe in Plainsboro there's a person in crisis our officer will be going with the social worker out to Plainsboro to assist their officers on that call okay so this um do they have amount of time that the response is supposed to happen within I mean I'm really curious because if you're you know going somewhere else right well that work they're going to uh respond the best way they can on that and again it's within the hours that the social workers there and I think the strength of the program is that they do have a a good follow-up process so if we cranberry has a a frequent flyer that we deal with a lot that's a you know a person in crisis we could have the arrive members come in and address that issue uh and again it's a a social worker and an officer not necessarily in a full police uni do they arrive together uh the social worker and the officer they are teamed up for the day yes okay so the officer doesn't come and then the social workers correct they are partnered for the day thank you well thank you to the officer who's doing it too most uh towns assign uh somebody weekly uh I I was happy that we were allowed to get in at least once a month with uh with with that program so that we could join the team per se the chief this uh social worker is it State social worker yeah I believe it's a state trained social work yeah or County I believe maybe someone from the county I I'll follow up on that and they're um available during the day during the day correct we have followup so if there is something that happens overnight they can follow up correct and uh is call comes in is dispatch trained to figure out you know is this an intoxicated person or is it somebody who's having a crisis or we're gonna we're g see how it goes it's a new program that we're part of and uh I I hope to see benefits from it and I I wanted to be part of the team when it initially came out so that uh you know I didn't want to miss add on anything with that and and when does it roll out uh within the next month or so right excellent um and I googled it alternative response to reduce instances of violence and escalation thank you that's the Grits that's great I I love this because I think it's such a good learning opportunity for both the social worker and the officer and such a better way to handle these situations so I think that's great and I hope the officer like I think the hope is even though it's once a month I think that officer could probably bring some best practices or some learnings back to the force and say hey this is a Technique we learned or here's a you know I hope there's an opportunity for that sharing too right I I I do uh like to reiterate that we have several members of our our department that are CIT trained Crisis Intervention training there it's a pretty intense week-long program and we do have several members of our department that are trained in that can I ask you is this a voluntary like CIT training is that like a vol like you're interested in it or do they have to be CIT training uh it is not voluntary I'm sorry it is not mandated at this time I know the state's pushing to have all our officers trained in it and and we are we've been pretty Progressive in making sure that our officers are trained in CIT training I I'm just really curious about this because if if someone so the officer is there to see whether it's safe also for the social worker to be in that situation too right I mean correct yeah okay okay thank you that was fabulous like um and you show us every time you come here how you are constantly on the force thinking on your feet staying relevant you know being up with what exactly the challenges are that face us and so thank you thank you to all of you for for moving forward on something like this and just to um to take us back to your report with regards to the numbers for some of the road violations I was actually um you know pleased to see that some of these numbers are either stable or had come down a little and I wonder whether just the presence of our force and the presence of our speed signs and just hammering the message is is getting somewhere I hope so our I know our officers work uh hard to make sure that they're out there every day yeah they are they are and um thank you very much please take our thanks back to the to to everybody at the station as as always our officers continue to serve with professionalism integrity and courage every day and I'm proud to serve them as their Chief and I thank you I have uh nothing further anything else that's it thank you back have a good evening you too thank you all right so we have a little bit excitement this evening because we have a presentation from a member from the EC and I would like to call up uh Barbara do you want to introduce or is it okay for me okay so we had a I heard about a very amazing presentation at the EC meeting regarding uh storm drains uh in particular a program that uh Dr Rogers had been mentioning to us over the last couple of months it's called adopt a drain and so I think that it would be I would personally like to see this but I think it would be beneficial for all of us us to sort of absorb some of the information that you laid out for the EC so um with us this evening is um Gabe leaderman from the environmental commission welcome welcome and when I did my EC I did mention it quickly but I'm glad thank you for doing oh yeah for sure and this is gonna the the information we're going to hear of tonight is going to tie into a lot of what uh Dr Rogers has mentioned with regards to the the mapping of the the drains we're it's going to pull it together I should say good all right okay so number one thank you for the invitation to be here I appreciate that um and so I have learned about the adopted drain initiative several years ago um I work in the water Wastewater and storm water industry for 20 plus years so something that I'm passionate about um and something that I learned about was the adopted drain program um and the adopted drain program is a national clean water program that partners with cities to protect water um some of the things that they feel like are their key strong points is preventing pollution reduce localized flooding promote safety Community engagement and then the ability to track the impact um and one of the other nice things that ties back to what Barbara mentioned earlier with the mapping that the town did of the storm drains is that this program also ties into ms4 permitting as part of a public the public Outreach portion of the ms4 permit so this would be another addition that cranberry could tie into what we already have for our ms4 um ms4 uh Municipal separate storm water system uh where as opposed to having the sanitary and the storm system combined ours are separate so there's no combination of the S no more um can I just say that like it's really important to understand that the things that we do in our driveways and streets those go directly to streams um Rivers Etc so that's what this is addressing right so essentially um one of the the key things about preventing pollution um trash obviously um all these things get into the storm drains and make their way down to local waterways so with trash obviously you get Plastics and papers and things that are bad for the environment pet waste is high in phosphorus and Carries other diseases and can pollute the waterways uh road salt from our Winters um can damage the waterways as well and then leaves grasses and dirt so you may not think about it it's organic and all that other stuff but it does have high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus and all these throw off the Aquatic Life so um some key things that we can do there um there also touch on ways to promote safety um and tools that can be used not to remove the grates obviously when you're cleaning the drains uh you know safety first right um common sense right my mom always told me if they had to put a label on it somebody did it once you know um so yeah safety first um and always watch out in busy streets um the nice thing is that there are grants available for these things um sustainable Jersey um offers grants for this I'll touch on that in a couple of minutes as we move through um so there's a lot of help at the local level um from the state and also from the national adopted drain initiative um one of the the biggest things in terms of community engagement is how do you get the community engaged and then how do you keep them engaged and how do you make them want to continue to be a part of this and do this right um so there's a way where you can log in and you can track the amount of trash that you collect um there's some cities in New Jersey that have had naming contests like name your storm drain um you know like singing in the drain um you know crazy things like that so um Perth Amboy actually went as far as allowing artists to paint the storm drains as a way to combat graffiti um which I thought was a really cool kind of initiative to do um so there's Outreach materials yard signs promotional merchandise all these things that we can do as a community to try and get engaged um and then by getting out on on a bi-weekly basis for 10 or 15 minutes at a time to make sure that there's no brush or leaves or trash by the storm drains so that when we do get big rain events like we're supposed to get this week um that the rain goes down the drain and nothing else um when we get stuff going in the drain all that pipe Network underground um I used to crawl around those pipes for a long time and they get Pretty Dirty um and when you have a 30-inch pipe that's underground and you get all that debris that's stuck in there all of a sudden that 30inch pipe now becomes 15inch pipe and not only does that all allow stuff to go out but it also allows stuff to come back in so having a clean storm drain is going to effectively reduce the amount of localized flooding that's in the town as well um and again trapping tracking the impact um so you can quantify the impact there's a thing on the website where you can log in and you can track how much trash you collected um and you can log that and see what your community is doing and since it's Inception how many pounds of trash you collected how many storm drains have been adopted um how many storm drains there are left to be adopted um and you know it's funny hey you said the new community was it Regency over on Petty Road feels a little bit more like Plainsboro than it does here in Cranberry well just so you know that Plainsboro is part of the adopted drain program and when you do go to their website you can see all those little blue dots or all drains that you can adopt and you can click on and it'll give you the address and you put in your name and your address and your phone number and they send you a little welcome package and comes up there that your drain's adopted and here you can see the adopted drain um that's violia water um they had some Representatives come out after hasn't been started up yet but the Inception of the Princeton Meadows Water Treatment Facility um violia became a big sponsor of the adopted drain program there so um talks with American Water maybe helping us out a little bit um but you know some some things that that do go on there um and to take it a step further Berkeley Heights what they did um they tied this all back to how it can help them maintain their ms4 permitting and things like that so that was big on them and they started their program in 2021 and on their website they publish all their data um how many new participants they had how many drains were adopted how much trash was collected and as you can see when they started in 2021 they had 157 drains adopted and they collected about 670 pounds of trash years two and three you can see how many more drains were added how much more trash was collected and how much more obviously in 2023 um what they found in Berkeley Heights um Berkeley Heights got $2,000 from Sustainable New Jersey to become uh you know to to adopt this program there is a fee a associated with it the fee is based on the number of residents um that you have in town the number of storm drains that you have um one of the big benefits for us is our mapping is already done so we don't have that extra burden of having to supply that information so what they do is they take our GIS data that we've already mapped they put it into their system and that's how they're able to populate that map like you saw with Plainsboro um and then from there you have access to all the storm drains um the other big benefit that they found was that in Berkeley Heights they had the problem of the number of storm drains like you said how many storm drains were met and how many Public Works employees do we have here in town um the cycle at which the Public Works employees can get out and maintain those drains and clean those drains um obviously is not sufficient um so if we have how many Public Works employees yeah those are just inlets not even what those so if we have six I mean you put that on a rotational basis every drain is not going to get touched in a year so by having this kind of a program you reduce some of the stresses and some of the burden that's on public works like we heard the chief talk about their department is strling with Manpower I work in the industry I see it all the time I'm in treatment plants and Facilities every day and all the operators talk about is Manpower and struggling with Manpower um the other thing is the enhanced drain efficiency I know that cranberry does suffer a lot with localized area flooding um not going to say that all of that is due to maintenance of drains um but um it does help uh I I can say that um and you know the other thing is is that it is a community effort you know and and the one thing that I've learned about cranberry and moving here just about a year ago is that cranberry is very Community Based and when there's an initiative that people want to get behind it happens um and I've heard a lot of good things about this um I have been part of this program from my experience in work as a manufacturer and have helped cities do this and Implement these programs prrams um and it's something that I feel would benefit cranberry as a whole um I did reach out to the adopted drain organization um they sent me a bunch of information they have offered to have um a teams call or a zoom call with us to give us more information answer any questions that we have um and they wanted to set up a date to do that within the next couple of weeks so I I would like to you know obviously welcome your questions now and I'll do my best to answer what I can but if there are any questions that I can't answer obviously we can see if we can set up that meeting and and get those questions answered um but in terms of um that's what I have for you guys I have a question for you um and this is maybe this is counterintuitive to my thinking but so when you think about storm things collecting on storm drains like I almost thought it actually kind of helped the the peak loading during a rainstorm to have drains that drain slower because they're constrained by leaves and things like that but you're actually saying the opposite it's actually better so like all of us all of our drains on Main Street like roll right down to the lake and they FL and and our Lake floods and so like we have drains that fill up that leaves block the drain and sort of the whole road kind of fills in and then eventually it sort of slowly goes in so is it I'm just trying to proc I I've got I've got three daughters that live at home okay so we get hair in the drain a lot okay so you go to the shower you take the hair out of the drain of the shower and the the water all goes down right the same thing with the leaves on the drain right you move all the leaves the water goes down what does that what happens there is that when the water has the force to go down the drain is it actually helps to clean the pipes rather than that small trickle that goes down the drain when you have nothing that's impeding the flow of the water the water as fast as that water's coming down the street it's going in the drain from both directions if it's pitched right and it's flowing down the drain and it's pushing whatever debris that could be dislodged from the flow of that water it's dislodging that and you're that's good and that's good because then what you're doing is like I said earlier when you get all that build up in the pipe you're constricting the capacity of of your pipe so you know obviously it's like it's like like an artery right the artery gets clogged you get less blood flow through it okay same same kind of thing so so it's less about the speed of it getting to its end point and more about when you have a heavy flow event it the maximum flow through it actually cleans keeps the system 100% that's very helpful thank you absolutely cool I I would also think that not having that debris going into would also more space for water I was actually I was thinking about the example where it's leaves where they're literally blocking it not getting car not getting conveyed and I was just trying to process like how that's like in my mind it seemed like that was a benefit during a high peak event but I'm seeing now it's saying it's not so thank you flow uh Gabe I just want to clarify one main point with you the the program that is being proposed we're talking about today is in addition to DPW efforts it's not instead of No it's it's 100% in addition to DPW efforts yeah it's just going to assist like I said number of drains Manpower of DPW indeed we want to have a clean Dry Town you know not dry that you know now when you when you um now when you have but you know when you have residents that have that have sort of signed out you know let's say that we move ahead with this initiative and you have residents that have signed on to adopt that drain you know what do they receive is it training is it instruction so there's um there is a pamphlet that is available um they're all downloadable we can download them we can um uh tailor them to Cranberry Township we can put our logo we can put our name we can do all that stuff right there um print them out but yes there's a welcome packet um Berkeley Heights went as far as to use some of that money from the sustainable Jersey Grant to actually buy five gallon buckets and put gloves and like litter Pickers up you know and say okay the first 50 people that sign up to adopt a drain or however many of those they were able to get that many people got that little cleanup kit as part of you know this is what we're going to do and are they are they trained to have a schedule where they go out you know once a month to clean the drain or do they wait for a rain event or it's set up bi-weekly is what they they have done um which is good um however you bring up a good point is When Storms Come right so I've written storm water maintenance programs for municipalities and one of the things was bi-weekly maintenance as well as before large storms um hurricane season starts hurricane season ends you have a you know there's times when you if you're in the industry you know when things should be done kind of thing and and you map it out that way so I think that regular cleaning intervals of every other week like they suggest are good but I think that if we know that there's a storm approaching or you know best practices you know what what are we going to do we know a a ice or snow is coming we go out we salt the roads right so if we know a rainstorm is coming why not just go out and you know sweep the brush away from or you know pick up the bottle that's there and throw it in your recycling can or what and to be clear we're just talking about on the surface of the drain not reaching the drain just on the surface of the drain um you know inside the drain is a whole another situation that's Public Works related or outsourced or that kind of thing but no just clearly on top of the drain there are very clear instructions that are written in that pamphlet that are given out so um you know uh Perth Amboy and Newark went as far as to at their Community Days to have like little seminars to get people to sign up and then train them on how to do it and what to do um which we're going to try and if we can get this going try and put on our sleep for Community Day you know for for next year I saw from the the PowerPoint that these swns were weighing the debris so is that like how that yeah um the five gallon bucket they know holds X number of gallons which is converted to X number of pounds and it's nothing like putting it on a scale or anything like that Gab let me ask you this we we have residents that email us every time there's a rain event coming to tell us to tell DPW to come to their street to um to clean out the debris before the event so I first off on one level I love this because I'm like absolutely and like I I won right out inside in front of my house and I would love to do is how do you deal with the a Critic who would say we're basically a neighbor or we're absolving the DPW of you adop the drain in front of their house so they see you doing it and they come out and they ask you what you're doing and you tell them and maybe they adopt the one next door yeah but I mean I guess it's about it's about community outreach and getting the community that's how you do it um it's it's about engaging the community right you don't get the community behind a referendum to add to a school without I guess what I'm saying I guess I'm saying how would I say to a Critic who says why why should I adopt the drain that's the dpw's responsibilties there's something that like in terms of the scope of what the DPW is allowed to do around a drain versus what we as an adoptee of a drain would be doing so is there a different task that I guess DPW yes so a task that DPW would do DPW would remove the great and DPW would get I don't know Nikki soccer ball that went down the drain you know what I mean like that's the things that DPW would do so when they do regular cleaning are they taking off the drain and they're they're doing the the below the ground not always not always no they're not not always I think Michael to answer your question I I like the question because it's it's a reality check absolutely right and the truth is whenever we are asking residents to engage with us like this um you will have a group of people that see it as an invitation and you'll have a group of people that just don't and that's okay that's okay I think that we have to just be ready if if this is a program we're happy to get behind and I think that uh gave you hit it on the nail on the head that cranberry is definitely a town that likes to to step up to be part of that Community initiative and we can see how successful it is um I you know one question with regards to adopting a drain can you offload a drain yes you can so you you if you adopt it can it's one it's it's one year so you you adopt the drain for for one year but yes there are circumstances you can un unadopt your drain as what they call it so yeah if you decide that you know you don't want to do it anymore you can unadopt your drain 100% so so a person should not feel locked in and stuck no there's no there's no commitment other than hey I want to go out and clean my drain and you know what I forgot to put in I forgot to track it you know what no big deal um there's nothing that they're bound to that's going to force them to go out and do it if they sign up and they forget to do it they just didn't do and we don't have the the drain police that will com by and say Hey you adopted this drain but you haven't cleaned it for the last two months no absolutely so let me it seems like to me this would be the most palatable if you pitch it to Residents as in advance of an event that's what that's what I was just about to say like like because because like imagine if we're really gonna have a big storm event coming up this week and I didn't didn't know that but if if there was gonna if there would be a communication out to the adopters and basically say hey hey you know gab's Army the you know the the stuff the it's time to clean your drain there's a big event coming Friday that would sort of cement the idea that there's no way DPW could do that on an event driven basis all by themselves so that almost makes it that feels to me more palatable residence than sort of a frequency I think it I think it also empowers the residents to like you like there's going to be more you know nuisance flooding and it like hey if you want your street to not you know you're saying it pile the water piles up and then there's a a puddle there if you want your future to not have these things let's do this on a you know a routine basis to clean it up and then it's up to us I think at the township level when he's talking about Community engagement well we could incentivize some of these groups and you know Healy little competition hey we collected this much dirt you know you collected that much dirt we we could do something like that um how how uh when we talk about these Maps right so the data that um you know Dr Rogers and her and her group sort of collected to map those drains um does that information change and if it changes who will continuously update that so that won't change unless the drain is is either taken out of service or those those coordinates will never change because those it's like your house is never going to move from where your house is it's the same okay and and and there's never a I shouldn't say never because never is uh meaning you know when things are added let's say they choose to add additional drains to an area that's something that like the township is responsible for then or this initiative so no we would be so we would be responsible so that would be part of our mapping once it's mapped and the database gets refreshed then those inlets would be added again the township engineer has all that data now and um and that's being sent to the New Jersey DP so the the whole state eventually has um all of this map but um in response to your location you have a County Road I'm not sure if the county road so depending on who owns the road that's um we just did the municipal um inl yeah and I don't I'm not sure you know about certain there's also private store there's also private came up with us also is the new development has so these are questions that could I think be settled over that Zoom call and um so putting together that sort of Zoom meeting uh what do you need for that um well if anybody's interested in attending that would be be open to that number one obviously um and if there were any specific questions that you guys had that I wouldn't be able to answer before I set up that meeting I would be happy to take those questions and and come back and give you guys that feedback is there a decision we're taking on this I that's going to be my next question is uh you know you've given us this presentation you've given the presentation to the EC um are you looking for this for this body today to sort of say we'd like to move forward and investigate I I would love for you guys to say yes let's investigate this and obviously we're not going to move forward or the town's not going to move forward without doing their due diligence so yes this is my coming here to say let's do our due diligence and see if this is something that cranberry wants to move forward with and then leave it to you guys from that point to say yes we're going to do this and and move forward with it but yes I would like you guys to I would like to know what we would need to do to to make this happen in town and that's my ask I mean I will say as being mayor in 2021 when we had nine inches of rain in two and a half hours and having all of Main Street flood and there were leaves on the ground and there was debris and I I would say this feels like something we could actually take back some control of our storm water management it's not a huge infrastructure project it's Community involvement it's it's sort of good Common Sense program so I low cost and it it puts some control back in the residents's hands um and away from sort of bigger Bolder let the government fix this kind of a kind of a program so yeah I think Federal response um can I just ask one question how's the EC feel about this you have the backing of I yeah they were they were on board yeah the only the only question that came up was about leave the leaves for October and we had to clarify that these are from the street not from the the yard so there's a program that Dela um was brought forth which I forgot to mention um there's uh something called leave the leaves and fall which is uh really great you know for litter to DEC you know debris to go back in the soil Etc so um yeah that obviously would not she she raised that question with her that it was in the street and you know and not on the yards and things like that that was the only thing but no the EC was definitely on board yeah where do people put the debris that they've that's so that was that was the other thing so um Recycling and things like that people just put in their own recycling cans um people that actually had composting and stuff like that on their yard would take the leaves and put them in you know that kind of stuff or just put them in in their own trash um I have a friend who lives in a community where they do this and he says every garbage night you know once a week when they do garbage he has a storm drain he takes and he Scoops it and puts it in the garbage and they take it away in the morning and that's the end of so um pretty simple from that perspective as well if you look at it at doing I think you know even on just a public education sort of Vantage even if not everyone signs up for this the getting the knowledge out there that hey you know what you should actually kind of be responsible for your street train that DP is working on it but they might not get to it I think a lot of people look at their street trains think that yeah that's not me it's not my problem there there's adopting and then there's looking out for of a like there's a low level of adoption that's not coming up with purple drain right um you know well and I think it'll help us hold some people and landscapers a little bit accountable when they blow the leaves into the street and they're like well it actually goes somewhere in a storm so yeah we can actually and maybe people will talk to their landscapers hey I you know right it to become sort of a purposeful conversation so um just in the interest of time I think that uh we've heard you know great testimony about a program that we are just sort of sinking our teeth into and uh if you could all just help me maybe we take a small vote here just to see whether we would uh like Gabe and the EC to move forward with investigating this on behalf of Township we have uh yes from Matt and a yes from Michael and a yes from Barbara and a yes from me it's unanimous so please you know thank you so much for this effort and um I'd be interested in being on the phone call perfect but in a couple weeks yeah they they said in a few weeks so and and I think that Barbara being on that phone call uh will will we can just give our our questions and our thoughts um it'll be more than sufficient perfect you excellent thank you thank you than [Music] all right it's hard to follow storm drains that was very exciting wasn't it riveting and exciting it's really cool yeah I thought that was gonna be boring I I have to admit I thought that was gonna be really boring but it was we always deliver stay yeah I actually I I love the intersection of sort of the electronic database plus the ability to have a online program plus the community engagement plus the education I think it's a great idea yeah I'm excited for this as well so we will um you know thank you Barbara and thank you to the EC and we look forward to to seeing how all this can help our beautiful town I have one last question sorry is is Jerry Thorne aware of any of this I think that's part of our investigation right okay I yeah I don't think be yeah I think that's also yeah well we we just have to pitch this this is not doing the dpw's job this is partnering and it's not saying DPW is is not doing their job I mean they're doing what you know Yan's work I mean they're doing amazing work they're doing periodic they're doing deep deep they're doing obstructions they're they're doing but this is this to me feels more like a vent based local see something clean something kind of a kind of a program I like that that could be the the see what see something clean something the idea like we're all going to like yes it's like if you if it sort of raises the awareness instead of emailing us to say hey it's going to rain get get the crew out there just to go clean the drain in front of your house in front of your neighbor because DPW is not going to get to every house in the three three days before a major rain event it's just not indeed and um it's good for us to appreciate where our limitations are and so where we can sort of interject with Positive Solutions I think this is what this represents a positive solution all right heading back to our agenda any follow-up items no all right seeing none we will continue um our boards and commissions and vacancies so I would like to share with everybody we have a vacancy on the environmental commission member expiring 12 3124 so we're looking for a volunteer for the environmental commission and we are looking for a zoning Board member expiring 12 3124 so we're looking for another volunteer for the zoning board thank you we have no ordinances for first or second reading today however we do have resolutions ab and I believe C and D with the addition today would anybody like to move those I'm happy to move items 11 sorry should have asked can we pull uh Item B out separately sure we can pull Item B anything else to pull out to discuss all right should we discuss item do we pass a c and d first do you want us to pass it first yeah I I move that all right so okay I'm happy to Second 11 a c and d okay we're GNA move on to roll call for just those items uh Mr fronte yes Miss K Miss abson Dr Rogers yes Mr Scott yes and mayor betterway yes thank you you know yes uh item I just um I think it's a complicated issue and I know that it it does affect our local taxpayers but I think on a from my perspective on a national level the allowing the exploration um to allowing to pass allowing allowing the expiration um is a uh sort of giveway to to very rich people so I'm I'll probably abstain on Item B so you'll be abstaining for it from Item B I can't no oh then I'll say no okay do you do you care to discuss this to I mean I I I'm I was also a little conflicted by this I'm happy to support it because I think it's a Statewide thing but I also feel the same way that I feel like it's a I think a cap is not the worst thing in the world so I'm I'm I'm vaguely conflicted on this one too but but I'm happy to support if the majority does that be now this V well I had I had raised the issue a couple of weeks ago and I had shared it with us with our group twice to to sort of get the the questions and the queries out of the way so that we could come to this moment and be at a unanimous sort of uh you know be able to move forward with this well it's going to come to a vote yeah do I need to share what my vote is ahead of time or no just a motion and a second and a vote so we need a motion to to to move consent resolution B 0924 092 second oh I'll second I'm move on to uh Mr fronte yes and Miss can is absent Dr Rogers yes uh Mr Scott no and mayam bway yes okay it's unanimous thank you oh uh not unanimous I'm sorry three to one I written down correctly excellent uh thank you all it looks like we have come up to public comment and I would like to open public comment at this time for anybody who would like to share their thoughts going once going twice okay we will close public comment for this evening any action items for tonight um I captured the U the zoom meeting that Dr Rogers is going to join uh the EC on with regards to the storm to the adopt a drain initiative uh question if we if we approve of adopted dra is that an ordinance resolution maybe that's part of the investigation here there's there's dra draft resolution yeah it's not an ordinance because it won't become a law it'll be a resolution just supporting it but it's a program so I mean even without the resolution you could do it it's more about deciding how we're going to fund it like are we going to seek grants how are we going to fund it are we going to put it in the budget for next year more issues around that I think than than ordinance it's totally voluntary right yeah right and it makes sense to do all that work now before the budget cycle as well yeah uh so that's the only action item I picked up on anything else excellent seeing none then I will take a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I thank you