##VIDEO ID:_LWd0rZh3Uc## Delano Township committee meeting of December 16 2024 beginning at 7 p.m at the Delano Township Municipal Building 770 coopertown Road Delano New Jersey December 16th Township committee meeting held at 7:00 p.m. at the municipal building 770 coopertown Road in Delano kind of a roll call please Janice Mrs Patrick here Mr alette here m here Mr Templeton here Mr Bartlett here also present Mr Schwab our Township administrator Mr heinold our solicitor Mrs lore our municipal clerk Mrs Russell our Deputy municipal clerk and Lieutenant Warren from the police department please rise for the flag salute flag unit States Amica [Music] naisy andice for [Music] all the sunshine statement Janice please please be advised that proper notice of this meeting has been given in compliance with the open public meetings act in the following manner written notice has been mailed to the Bron County Times and Courier Post and published in the January 4th 2024 editions written notice has been posted on the official bul and board of the the township of Delano at least 48 hours prior to the meeting this meeting of the Delano Township committee may be transmitted via live stream on YouTube video The streaming of the meeting is not intended to be Rel relied upon as formal Public Access under the open public meetings act and if the technology is disrupted for any reason the township meeting will proceed in person as an official meeting in accord with the official notice thank you Janice uh before we begin Mr Templeton can you please step down am I in trouble already good time right down there so some of you may know and this is probably why everybody's here this evening this is m last Township committee meeting after done all here 18 years have a resolution I'll read it out loud Township of resolution 20241 166 honoring Mike temp whereas C of the L of contributes and services so graciously given by those willing to serve their Community should not go unnoticed and where is Michael M temp and has served this community as a member of the Bento Township committee for 18 years including 3 years as mayor and one year as Deputy Mayor and whereas the dedication insight and knowledge brought to the banro coun committee by Mike Templeton and his tireless work behind the scenes serving on the environmental Advisory Board and also researching subjects such as storm order regulation flood management and gra quor on beh of Township surely appreciate by all now therefore being resolved by the township Committee of the township of Delano County of BR state of New Jersey the C of the citizens of the township ofo the township committee does hereby express its gratitude and sincere appreciation to my for his outstanding contributions to the township of Theo as mayor and Deputy Mayor and many for men his many years of service as a member of the O Township commit municipal hereby directly to spread upon the minutes of this meeting which this resolution is adopted the comments of this resolution so all may understand High esteem which Mike tempt contribution Community are congratulations Mike [Applause] and with that I'll ask for a motion to approve the resolution that we just handed to Mike resolution 2024 166 so move second motion by Fern second by Kate all in favor I I all right next item on the agenda ordinance 2024-25 authorizing acquisition of property at 401 Creek Road Block 2100 lot 11 within the township of Delano second reading by title only and public hearing Mr heinold before we open the hearing to the public would you please read the uh rules that public comment is governed by sure uh in anticipation of a lot of public comment tonight and in order to make sure that we have time to um adequately hear from everyone and do it in an orderly fashion we're just going to read the uh the rules that are going to be established tonight for uh public comment period pursuant to provisions of the open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-12 Delano Township committee is entitled to permit regulate or prohibit public comment uh in its meetings subject to the ACT public part participation and comment shall be governed by the the following rules to maintain order and prevent disruption of the meeting each speaker will have a maximum of 3 minutes to speak and shall should limit comments to the matter at hand the speaker will be directed to conclude their remarks once the speaker's time is expired no time may be yielded to a speaker by another speaker groups are asked to select a spokesperson to speak on their behalf speakers will address the township committee from the podium and are asked to begin their remarks with their name and address for the record Township committee members are not obligated to answer impromptu questions or address remarks from members of the public during the public comment period speakers should expect the committee to refrain from engaging in a dialogue except to the extent necessary to clarify the speaker's comments the allotted time frame for speaking from the podium is the method to address the township committee during the public comment period committee will not entertain questions or comments called out from the audience speakers and members of the public should at all times M maintain proper deorum and shall make their comments in a civil manner person tax obscenity derogatory or slander remarks will not be tolerated thank you for your cooperation in this matter thank you Doug uh with that I will open the hearing to the public for ordinance 2024-25 as Doug stated uh you have any comments please approach the podium and give your name and address for the record I saw Carl's hand first come up Carl Carl residing at 55 Bennington Court Bano New Jersey I would like to call everyone's attention to the fact that I am both a member of the uh joint land use commission and a member of the shade tree commission here in town I'd also like to call people's attention to the diagram that you have on the board which shows that uh Woody some trucks are to be parked on the property here and that it drains into uh the uh wetlands area below the property which then drain into the uh Delaware I'm sorry the Rancocas Creek I would like to uh read an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer dated November 29 2024 which is the basis for why I voted against this application by the applicant for uh the uh use of a tractor trailer rehabilitation area the article says wetlands are well known for their extraordinary environmental benefits along with providing wildlife habitat and absorbing carbon dioxide in their soil they also act as filters siphoning off human waste chemicals fertilizers and other pollutants before they reach rivers and Bays my wife has suggested to me and I suggest to you that you proceed with the purchase of this property but in doing so perhaps Mr Schwab can look forward to uh investigating whether or not there is a program available by the state of New Jersey to preserve Wetlands which would help decrease the cost to us in any event I recommend that the township proceed to purchase this property because of the way it drains into the wetlands thank you you thank you car right all right next he's coming up this guy sorry I'll get him then I saw Ray and then Vera my name is Frank Dolan I live at 33 Pennington Court in the Newton Landing community the back of our home at 33 Pennington butts up directly to the 401 Creek Road site with a little wooded separation between over the years we've lived there there have been a variety of proposals to occupy that site and each time we've had concerns and issues regarding how those previous perspective occupants would affect our home life those concerns include the obvious proximity to our house at 33 Pennington any activity would be very close to our backyard uh there would have been an obvious reduction of property values not only ours but the entire Newton's Landing Community from the previous outside proposals that were contemplated especially the latest one regarding the truck and trailer repair proposal we had concerns about possible substantial increased activity hours of op operation noise pollution Etc we were unsure about the potential increased traffic on the road behind our and close to our house there's a possible impact on the loss of trees from prior proposals and we have as I said a wooded area just behind us and the disruption of wildlife that often pass through and behind our property and in general uh a combination of UNR nuisance items in the past the township committee has always considered the interests and concerns of its constituents and supported our community in any needs or emergencies that had unexpectedly surfaced in turn we have supported the township on community projects school and Library participation Bond issues and similar activities I think that the initiative to have the township purchase the 401 Creek Road site is consistent with those considerations and relationships uh some of the potential advantages are the purchase of the site by the township would stabilize the situation for now and for the foreseeable future uh we had a run of additional proposals over the years we've lived here it would further and certainly alleviate the issues and concerns that we've had with prior outside proposals any additional assessment to the citizens would be presumably reasonable and not overly burdensome but most of all the township would benefit especially considering the flexibility and uses that could be available to it so therefore I urge the township committee to follow through with this initiative to purchase the 401 Creek Road site I believe it's a win-win situation for all concerned thank you very much thank you thank you right road we 22 ships way the 401 Creek Road property has crossed from it two truck repair places already and between the township here we have at least between 300 500 trailers already parked on this one our properties along the Creek Road if you look at them there's a lot of them back there and you don't see them because they they hide them behind trees and everything else we don't need more trucks and trailers sitting out there because those trailers some of those trailers have been sitting out there for 3 four years they've never been both this company they're going to put store 140 8 trailers or 124 trailers and 24 uh tractors they going to sit there for a while too you take down those trees that help hurt the environment and everything else if you go down Creek Road at 6:30 in the morning 6:00 in the morning there trailers parked on those on that street because the other places aren't open yet we've got to do something about that if they put that in there you're going to have the same damn problem again look down at waah wa that parking lot over there is filled with the trailers the tractors waiting for to come in because the places aren't open yet so we've got to buy that property take care of the environment take care of everything else that we need because it's our responsibility to take care of the environment and putting trucks in there and stuff like that that you get more pollution thank you thank you R you m Dara you're a Dharma 65 Hickory Street I don't really live near there but I walk uh Pennington the park uh the trail to Pennington Park and I was always worried about that area because I saw that the boundary of what was County Land the park land and what was not it's very close to the park park there I wish we had a better map we spend all this money on this nice viewing screen and I know the joint land use board projects stuff so I don't know why it's not projected but um ultimately you know it's do you value nature did does that make you feel better when you walk in nature some people don't care about that at all so they they're not even here or uh they just care about their property tax which is a valid point and uh I am a penny pincher um but I don't I would be willing to pay more to preserve land the problem is with this ordinance is that it doesn't say that um it's for any open space preservation so I want to preserve the land but I don't understand why at least for the environmentally sensitive areas why isn't that set off as okay we we're definitely going to preserve that for open space maybe some of the other areas okay maybe we will look to sell that to defay um the cost to the township but this ordinance doesn't say anything about preserving open space but still even with that I rather take a gamble with that than uh than lose that property because that will involve contamination and if you look at the Joint land use board um minute which um which I did look at they they talk about the contamination that will occur that they'll have to change out the sand because of contamination I mean it's a it's a dirty use for that site and um but ultimately you know I'm willing to pay to preserve it and I'm willing to take a gamble on this ordinance so that's it thank you Mr Arma have anybody else Miss Holland he uh Christine Holland 319 delare Avenue and I'm with like I I'm put your mouth literally up on microphone I am in favor of preserving this if it were for actual preservation but it isn't and the ordinance as written specifically says that it's not going to be part of Green Acres um so I don't really know why we're doing this I if it is for potential contamination there are federal and state rules that prevent uh companies from contaminating so why are we not just holding whatever company comes before the joint land use board hold their feet to the fire and say we're not going to authorize this plan unless you're going to abide by the rules that are already in existence this $3.5 million plan to to come at the the um the taxpayers is just irresponsible and my last year on Township committee when we talked about ran ccus Avenue we talked about Ash Street the second parcel we said that we were not in the business of purchasing property without a plan and here we are looking at $3.5 million and we're going to ask our our residents to put the bill for that just on the off chance that someone comes along and purchases it and we feel that they're a more responsible Builder I'm I'm disappointed I thought that we were better than this and I I no one loves nature trees spending more time in nature than I do but this isn't this isn't the answer we need to just be more responsible have our land use board be more d in in vetting the companies that are coming before us and I thank Fern for bringing this to the attention of the town I feel like at least half the room wouldn't be aware of this if not for that so thank you because I I think that I'm pretty aware and I would have missed this one so thank you um I don't live in an um you know my my house doesn't abut this property and I feel for the people in in mut Landing but the reality is Creek Road is for industrial building so you know it it is what it is we're trying to do our best for the town deal with the ratables but this is this isn't something that our our Township committee should be putting money towards right now so thank you thank you Christine just just for clarification The Joint land use board already approved the application so there's they're not going back to the Joint land use board anyone that moves into this property this didn't here you the joint land use board already approved the application so there there is no going back to the Joint land use board and the joint land use board will look at whoever moves in here because it was already approved by them there no sense of us come on up that was Chris Todd Burke I'm at 1506 Second Street thank you Fern uh I pretty much agree with the last speaker there's no provision for preserving the property for open space what this does is it helps a couple of people who are worried about property values but it decreases the tax base for the township and it increases what the taxpayers are going to be paying not by the the amount specified here but by all the extraneous costs that are outlined in the sheet that was left at my home thankfully so that I'm aware of this as well and what you have is a piece of property that is being supposed to be purchased for almost twice of what it was sold for three years ago now I really want to know who are the principles behind the out ofate LLC that currently own own this property now and why it is that we feel it's important to harm everybody in the township through their tax bills in return for unnamed outof State LLC that's going to gather almost twice as what they paid for it three years ago makes no sense to me especially because there's no provision for preserving the property as open space exactly right we're not in the business of buying and selling property we're in the business of improving the township and this is not going to improve the township if there were Provisions to improve the township fine but it's not it's simply a bad idea thank you thank [Applause] you who's next glor sure glor Fister 7 Edwards Avenue thank you to the people who brought this to my attention I'm in agreement with the previous two speakers I would love to see preserved open space but there is no provision for that I don't know there have been a lot of projects in town that have negatively impacted myself the people in my neighborhood or other people in other neighborhoods in town and it's unfortunate that these projects went ahead anyway this decision is being made to benefit a relative few just as the decisions made that affected me impacted just that relative few and I do not see the sense in spending all this money when there is no provision to preservatives up for open space when in a year we're going to be in the same situation or Worse we don't know what's going to happen with flood zones and with laws regarding that and uh I really don't see why I should have to spend $120 $130 extra per year for I don't know how many years to rever the space to benefit just a few people so I really urge you to uh not move ahead with this ordinance thank you thank you [Applause] Lord yeah Nancy mutnick 100 lilac Lan um I feel along with the other preserve people that there isn't plan for green space and I'm standing almost eating the microphone so there isn't a plan for green space and my taxes would go up about $500 a year so I feel as though if if you're going to do this it also I also feel really upset about the fact that if Fern had been given out the papers I wouldn't have known anything about this and it feels like the Schoolboard business with closing Walnut that it took we don't even know how the news got out but it it get out and we all had to come rush to a meeting only to find out it's a feda comp ple so it feels like it's the same thing here you're saying the land use board already approved it so why are we all here if it's a Fed comp what and things are done that we can't undo then why bother just go ahead and do whatever you want ju just for clarification uh miss m the L use board approved the criterion's application to do the trailer repair and storage facility we're here tonight to discuss the purchase of the property yes but the point is we already have a problem because you approved their application so what can we do about it purchase the property that's the whole point of this don't you see that that agreement puts us in a box we either have a choice of letting them go ahead and put all these trucks on there or buying the property at this outrageous amount of money basically if you have if you have Wetlands that are 4 Acres and the whole property is 11 acres you're now talking about what Seven Acres that we're paying a half probably a half a million dollars an acre in what world does that make any sense so if we're going to do that much money then certainly should be for the benefit of the entire town by giving us Green Space not by saying we're going to buy it and then maybe somebody more stupid than us is going to come along and pay us three and a half or $4 million really I mean who is going to pay $4 million for it who knows how many years from now I'm sorry I've been sick so my voice is terrible but I guess you get the point if you want us to pay for it then it should belong to us not that we're going to turn into real estate dealers and hope that you're going to get the money back it makes no sense to me thank [Applause] you and just for a further clarification um Nancy you mentioned that it would be over $500 and change of year increase for you if you're going by the calculations on the papers that Mr olette handed out you're correct unfortunately those aren't the correct calculations at all the numbers that were on the paper are entirely incorrect that's small point I mean my point is if we're going to pay for this then it should be ours Sor can you then tell us what the correct calculation is then yeah the correct yeah come come want you uh come up Megan Armstrong 407 Del youw can you please then tell us what the correct calculation is if you use the instructions he gave it would be divide your assess value by 2052 not 20. 52 252 252 and since I'm standing up here can you also tell us what Revenue that is that the trucking business is going to bring to Zeno there would be no revenue for us there's so there's no revenue for us just the property taxes we don't own the property so we wouldn't get revenue from that so what kind of taxes will that bring us I couldn't even tell you that's once the um facility is built then the tax assessor would assess the facility okay how much how much taxes a revenue does I'm sorry how much revenue in taxes does the building next to us bring in the warehouse warehouse next door I have no idea actually what's the next door is 780 can look I P I could pull it up right here yes they have the warehouse I'm refering to thank you the one next door at 780 Cooper town is 195 and change 195,000 and change currently 401's taxes are 23,000 a year thank you you're [Music] welcome see a hand in the [Music] back hello my name's Harold Kingler and live at 509 Buttonwood Street and the interest that I have in this whole thing is that just recently we had an election and during that election we voted on whether to put a roof on a school at a million and a half and I know that was a big issue for a lot of people and but here we are at an election and voting on it and tonight we're here talking about 3 and A5 million that most people didn't even know about and I'm just wondering how this happens that we can go to election for a million and a half and show up here tonight 3 and2 million that we didn't even know about the school board they are their own operating entity we have no association with their budget their budget process their need for a special referendum for any sort of um Bond like that that has nothing to do with the township committee here we do not control the schools we do not control their budgets so I I understand it that it is separate what I don't understand is why the township can spend three and a half million Without Really advertising or asking anybody in the general public if that's okay because if that's okay why don't you spend a trillion I mean why don't we just go for it so if if I could just interject on on the legal side of things the school board has its own separate laws they have to on their um Capital Improvement projects go out to referendum municipality does not have the same set of laws governing it why the legislature has chosen to do it that way over the years um is a valid question but that is what the law provides so anytime you see a school project you're going to see a referendum on it but municipalities we've purchased property in the past we've built buildings in the past we built this building in the past that was not part of a referend process that's not what the the law requires on the local government side so that's the part we're missing here we need a referendum for when the township decides to spend a lot of money I mean I would think there would be some kind of Maximum I mean i' I've dealt with places where they said and and this is not big as a to sh but small places that said if you're going to spend $500 well then people need to know about now that was small clubs and things like that and I realize this is a Township and I'm guessing it's under the county regulations which is under the state regulations which is God knows where it ends but I would think that come on check your phone off it's a timer it's a timer ma'am oh please don't fall like continue half I would think that we uh in good conscience that the people of the township should know when we're spending a lot of money because they're the ones that are spending it right and that's exactly why we had these public hearings so we could hear what the community wants thank you and just to clarify the school referendum was $3.5 Million for the roof not one .5 it was 3.5 but it was voted on yes mhm excellent so we all voted it did then that's why the I would like to just add that the township does in fact have a website has a uh where every person in this town can sign up at theot township.com all of this is posted fact sheets posted all the information that we do at any of these meetings is posted and available to the residents uh we also do email blasts for certain things so I think that if you're not signed up for our website you certainly should do it uh do so so that you receive all the information that we're dealing this is on our website and has been on there for some time this fact sheet so that um the residents would be aware of what what we're doing but every month it's on there what we're doing we're not trying to do anything or hide anything from any Resident so the information is available to you and uh we meet the first and third Monday of the month and we welcome all of you to come to any meeting when you have anything you'd like to see addressed for any concerns so I think that's important that you know that this isn't something we're trying to slip under the table this is something that um we feel will benefit the entire town because of the location between a park and a residential area so I just wanted to point that out to you that um this has been publicized and the information that we publicized was correct some of this is not correct just to also make another note uh this Committee in the past two years has made sure that these meetings are broadcast live via YouTube and then posted to YouTube as well so people can watch them that cannot be here that was not done until until we got on committee and insisted because we know a lot of people cannot attend so you are able to watch previous meetings and see that we've been talking about this since I guess the beginning of November sir hi my name is Tim kishler I live at 12 Harris Court over here in Newton's Landing I've spoke about this before here I don't have any prepared remarks but um there are 250 or so units in uh Newton's Landing we all have a little plot of land there uh I can't remember the exact figure of what it's going to cost to buy this land but while all this is going on I saw something on the Internet about Hillsboro New Jersey and that they were uh congratulating themselves if they will about the tens of millions of dollars that they spent to keep a couple of warehouses out of their Little Slice of Heaven and unfortunately for us the warehouses have already been built here in uh in Delano fortunately for us they still are unoccupied because when when they start being occupied if they start being occupied a lot of people are going to be upset with the degree of traffic and noise and other things that are going on and then it's going to and it's going to be too late for that regarding this property it's still not too late we can still do something and just to get back to the residents at Newton's Landing there are 250 of us or so we pay about $10 million in in I'm sorry $10,000 in taxes and we don't have any kids going to schools here and we don't go play ball in the ball fields but that's how taxes work you pay the tax and everybody benefits and this is going to be a benefit to everyone whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not thanks thank you thank [Music] [Applause] you anyone else I think he's coming up this coming up all right then you then you I see your hand Scott bu 18 Pennington Court you should pretty well know me by now um Mr Templeton you had mentioned I think at the last meeting that the open space Green Acres money from the county hasn't been used for a while has anybody has any progress been made or any calls to the county asking what's going on with that as far as the county know but the the state New Jersey uh New Jersey Green Acres fund opens up in February for applications yes so that seems like it would be something to obviously focus on from the new year um I'm a new resident in Newton's Landing but I did share the same zip code for 34 years over in Delan so I pulled last year's tax bill out and for the county open space I paid $83 now no that's not a lot of money but times 34 years and something less of that over the years that's a lot of money for however many people are in Tempi Chase or in Delan let alone in Riverside let alone in Delano and I think that U I think it's time that they come up with the money to the people that think it might be an kept as an industrial site I don't think there's any intention to clear the property uh there's been mentioned about the current Barns and some of the facilities on there that could be used to the benefit of Delano because they need some space one thing that always frustrated me in Delan is I'd see millions of dollars of equipment just parked outside when not being used it needs to be covered up that saves a lot of money in the long term uh and then I can also see uh a big majority of that property being maintained as open space but unfortunately the the land use didn't give us a whole lot of time to plan ahead for this kind of dropped it in everybody's lap and uh um so for the people that are here tonight that are frustrated that they didn't hear anything about it um it's been rather hectic for the last what 90 days three months or so trying to get this all together and I'm a newbie here and and uh it's it's uh it's frustrating the hell out of me too um as for the letter that a councilman apparently put in a lot of people's doors I did not get one I sure wish I had gotten one because I'd like to see the numbers I think that was really a uh a cheap shot in the way that that was handled I apologize sir I covered close to 98% of the t uh yes there are probably 325 houses that I I was not able to walk I walked the entire town uh unfortunately uh I did not finish up Pennington court and then there was over in the main section of town uh near the school I believe it's uh fenmore and uh Magnolia I think we the streets over there uh I have a map that's okay I mean maybe maybe on the township website would have been better or something else but you know the fly is on the town the correct flyer that the township issued is on the township website it is with the correct information but was but but his flyer was not no cuz we didn't even I first saw his flyer when he put it on my door well that's that's it has in correct information well yeah it's just a I'm not sure why we were put because I'm taking responsibility for what I put out I put my name on it okay this side here all the written stuff the type stuff stuff in the back is on the township website right okay this here we my notes because at township meeting when this was brought up is uh I committed to try and put some facts and numbers together this was the best that I could do it may not be good enough but this is what I had and I felt because you folks are my boss and if I had to explain to my boss that I was going to spend $3.5 million and how's this going to go well hey boss you know they they said property's worth 4 million okay but I'm going to get it for 3.5 million isn't that a great deal oh yeah okay but we have cost in there we're going to spend $175,000 to bond it and then we have interest of 157 oh it gets better I've got all these other expenses but I don't know how much it's going to be you know what my boss is going to tell me go back to go back to the land use board and tell them that the decades that they've spent putting things together for the township benefited all the people where it hasn't so this is this this property just I mean it's it's it's going to affect everybody again we've talked about the kids in the playing fields I don't know how the the D ever allowed it to be approved and and from the land use and the things that that got passed that night when they passed it it just boggles the mind how it got through true so don't blame them for asking for the price that they want to get for it if that's what they want to get for it it never should have gotten to that point in the beginning and hindsight you know years ago we probably should have zoned that as uh open space or future open space or park or Recreation and made that part of our PL master plan but that wasn't uh what occurred here the developer got came before The Joint L use for there was some going back and forth we tried to change or we did change from an I2 Zone to an I3 zone for that area uh again trying to prevent further Warehouse building over in that area and the developer came in and uh he's not tearing down the main Warehouse or the building that was uh friend of Cyrus in the front Okay if you look at the uh layout that he has there the storm water piece and all the drainage okay uh he's got to spend money for that when I walk the site with Brian I think it's Amos um I I asked him I said how much is it going to cost you to take care of all the water regulations and stuff and he said $2 million is what it's going to cost him to do that and uh I I'm going to put Mr Schwab on on the uh hot seat for a second there because he was standing there when the gentleman gave me that uh that figure so he's got $2 million to clean up that site yes they're taking out trees but they're putting in 700 more trees in there and you take a look at the plan that's the uh Landscaping plan and the burms and the trees that they're putting in there they're try and buffer uh Newton's Landing mainly along the the back of the property right uh if you take a look at at that I I think that'll say a lot um would you would you like some of the buffers that that are in some of these new uh uh main warehouses up here in your front yard or your backyard the backyard yes because then with that screening that's there or at least what I've seen on the on the blueprints all right and having walked the site I'd rather look at that than what you currently have there now there are trailers back there there's a house there's a garage there's uh propane tanks uh you have a house that's got an oil tank in the ground or inside the house and they weren't able to do the environmental study on that sir and you want to look at 125 White probably white trailers back there you have storm water management here that you're going to talk on next and you talk about the grit and the dirt and the salt that these trucks will bring down the road in addition to what's already doing it I I've gone to Produce Junction and I come back straight across 130 and I come down through I guess it's Beverly down Cooper Town whatever I am appalled by the trucks from the industry coming out of even Delano that go up there don't even go to the Wawa Jug Handle they go beyond to come out because of the truck traffic going on storm waterer management you you might as well throw it out for that property and all it doesn't you're you're you're not you're not equaling things out you say one thing here you're doing something else here totally contrary against each other it just doesn't make sense to let this thing go through that's all I have to say thank you again thank Mr I apologize for interrupting you but I felt I had to clear up know before I got here so okay who's next raise your hand Mr sickler I 800 Pennsylvania the record his last name sickler sichler yep so I know a lot of people they have a problem with these trucks we live in a world today where we all want to get on our phones and we want to order something we want to here tomorrow these trucks carry all that it's it's the business and you know all these townships are are against these trucks nobody wants trucks but without these trucks we wouldn't have any of this stuff we wouldn't be able to go to store our our food our our our Goods you know these townships are pushing these trucks out I mean it's approved for it I don't know why we're in the business of buying up property when if we don't like something that's going to go in there we're just going to buy up the property you know it starts here and what we're going to continue to do this on the tax dollar you know I think it's crazy I think you know Fern I appreciate you leaving that thing at everyone's house cuz I wouldn't have known about it either so that's just my two cents on them thank you Mr s next come on up than um David sud at 725 Delaware Avenue um I do feel the pain and disconnect that Newton's Landing might have about this project but there's so much going on that seems a little bit hinky we do zoning in order to master plan and follow plan and and make sure that things are done in a judicious way uh this thing has been zoned industrial since what 1968 the land use board is not the big mean bad person here basically somebody came to them with a plan and it met the zoning and they got the push back that they needed from our Township in order to make sure they're going to take care of storm drain stuff if it happens and it got approved by the board which is not necessarily a bad thing and it's not necessarily a good thing is just the way it should work you guys should have changed the Zone a long time ago if you wanted that to happen what we have now is you guys walking into the middle of it saying it's not going to be open space we don't know what it's going to be but it won't be a trucking plant that's unfair to your taxpayers for a couple of reasons and it's not the fact that we don't control the school board and yeah we're all going to pay a little bit more money to their Capital project but you're doubling that up on us by coming back to it with your project and you're a little bit tonee about that right now when you say it's only a couple hundred to this person or a couple hundred to that person you're going to double whatever the bond payment is going to be for these two different projects and I agree you don't have any responsibility for the school board but you guys know the school board is not nearly done fixing things that they need to fix they have some horrific problems that they haven't solved in the last decade it's not on you but this whole thing that's going on with the entire town coming out has something to do with that so you have to answer the question what are you going to do with this property not just we'll hang on to it until something better comes along because you're asking us to dig into our pockets and shell it out and this sort of smacks of the Scarlet O'Hara public planning PD I'll think about it tomorrow it doesn't work that way before you come to us and ask for money have a plan please thank you for your time thank you Mr [Applause] stud next please raise your hand ma' in the [Music] back Jean Smith 1113 Burlington Avenue I'm sorry what was your name again Jean Smith Jean Smith keep keep the the microphone down we're not goingon to be able to hear you keep it down yep right to your mouth okay um my question is you keep saying that it's going to benefit the whole town and I really came here with an open mind um but I don't see how it's going to benefit the whole town everything I've heard tonight makes me think it's not so can you explain to me how it's going to be for the whole town well I I'll add some comments for you uh number one dat suor made a good point in saying that it should have been rezoned years ago and it wasn't right it should not be an industrial site between a residential development and a park where our children play right so that is the first thing that we would do when we purchase it is to change the zoning the reason why we aren't clarifying it as total open space number one if we use open space money we can't use it for anything else but open space there is a building in the front that we may be able to use to utilize IES for our facilities for storage for recreation for the history board so there are things that we would like to utilize that property for and also down the road we may need to have more housing for to take care of our affordable housing that's coming up I mean you have to think about these things so but if we use open space funds which may not even be available to us it's totally open space it's open to the entire public not just Toano and it they have certain roles forever so yes they stay with the property but what we feel is a good use for this property is for delango to purchase it to stop this tractor trailer truck repair they would even stack trailers it would benefit this entire town for our children if we have to expand our park and if we had to have more housing back there to actually protect the wetlands there's so many things that we could do that we can't put it all in one plan right now because there are options and we have to take that into consideration and decide what we want to do with it when we bought the Mansion we didn't buy the mansion thinking we were going to sell it originally right we wanted to preserve that for the town for the town to utilize that building and I understand that because of where it's located exactly that's a very different but what we did get out of that purchase was we got a Riverfront Park right and we got 27 affordable housing senior units in there apartments and we got a good tax base no I I agree that was a good I mean this is there has to be a vision and it's not like we're trying to take tax dollars just to willy-nilly we're not doing that we're thinking for the future and uh an industrial site does not belong between those two and unfortunately it should have been the zoning should have been changed years ago it wasn't so we're going to try to correct the situation and I think it will benefit all the people in this town not just the people that live there I think it will benefit all the residents in the long run thank you thank you Miss SM how we got to Hope hold on there's people in the room that still got to go you already went so is there anyone in the room that has sir no Carl behind you Carl behind you Peter Peter I'm sorry Peter it's Peter yeah dare Peter silverberg 30 Wolverton place I'm going to talk about trucks and baseball field the other side of the property we all know Newton's Landing we've got a good complaint but you're going to have trucks parked there the baseball field no place for the deal and the anvelope to play so they're going to go on the baseball field and uh chop it up kids will have broken legs now that's one of these things you don't think about the noise they're going to get the the balls stuck between the trucks they're going to get and washed out the sea and I'm just saying so you're not just benefiting one side it's the park on the other side and a park is for everyone that's all I'm going to say thank you Mr [Applause] Silber Mr V vog 224 Rand cookus um I kind of think you are doing this really nearly because you're backp you you you you don't have a plan in place you're just telling us what you're really going to do and I get you're doing it for the township you think you know and I get that and I'm all that open space but I pay a county tax for open space that should that if you didn't already look into that you should have already had that in place if you're going to spend $35 million and it's going to be a lot more than that you know that in the long run of taxpayers money the taxpayers should vote on it that's all I'm saying the um the one thing about the county Jay I'd like to tell you is that most of the uh Park that we did we got County grants on they used to do Municipal uh grants every year they haven't done any Municipal grants in the last I don't know four or five years ago but um the county isn't purchasing anything right now but we would like to address them and have them actually purchase the wetlands I mean it would make sense that they should have them the wetlands because it's all back there I mean the County Trail and everything would yeah exactly we did actually already reach out to the county about that yeah we've reached out to the county on other purchases as well um but um yeah it it should have been done but I guess it wasn't even thought about to tell you the truth and uh I'm not a landuse person I'm not on the joint land use board I'm I don't know joint land use law I worked for a law firm for 40 years but that was one phase I didn't work in but um it was obviously an oversight not necessarily of this committee but happened years ago and um I don't think the use that's in there now was not that invasive apparently but it will become invasive so I just want to make a comment about we don't have a plan this is willy-nilly we're backpedaling so this is all moving very quickly um once they got their approvals and we sat down we thought about it we heard you know the outcry from the public about the facility we said why don't we look into purchasing this and this was literally in October when they got their approval so we sat down and said we should we have an obligation we should look into purchasing this making sure this repair facility this truck storage facility doesn't go here it's not a good use it's not a go rable it's in a terrible area you know we don't need more truck traffic cuz let's face it once those warehouses are occupied there's going to be a lot more truck traffic and then we're going to have this facility on top of it and then you have 450 and 500 across the street that are currently empty that are approved for trucks so we're talking a lot more trucks and I don't want to see you all in 2 years going why didn't the township do something about it we're trying to be proactive now and do something about it when I got on this committee the first month I got on this committee two years ago I took the opportunity to rezone the entire I2 and i1 Zone and made it I3 to make sure no more warehouses were permitted in this town unfortunately I came into this picture a little too late and those warehouses were built on cornfields and I couldn't do anything about it but but I made sure there's no more warehouses in this town I did that and I also don't want to make sure there's a truck repair facility next to the creek next to the uh Park and next to Newton's Landing we don't need trucks going in and out you know you guys know when you go around that curve in the DMV and you're going to have a truck pulling out there you have to slam your brakes on and it's going to take them five minutes to get to the speed that they need to and nobody wants to be stuck behind these trucks and it's going to happen because we we have these warehouses so we have a vision to we don't have a concrete plan yet because literally this is 2 months old we have some ideas we can't obviously classify it as open space because then we're restricted to open space for the rest of the life of the property and then we have to carry those costs regardless if we can afford it or not so we have some ideas and we're we want to do what's best for the town long term trust me I don't want anybody to have to pay more money in taxes but honestly it's a quality of life issue and it will benefit the town in the bigger picture that's my should be over right now [Applause] yes who if there's anyone who has not yet spoken and would like to I promise how I'll get to you as soon as the people who have who haven't spoken real quick one come on up Hal speak up right into the mic yeah this might be a question for the solicitor I'm sorry we know who you are but just for the Harold Kingler 509 buttw street thank you and this may be a question for I guess the solicitor and that I we we talked a lot about the zoning and what we should have done about the zoning at one time but we didn't uh and then I just heard that will we buy this property if we buy this property we'll rezone it is there any law or rule or says that we can't reone it right now well we could we could pass an ordinance to amend the zoning but the property owner is entitled to rely upon their existing approvals so it would have effect on paper only meaning that they'd still have the ability to pursue what they just had appr right CU they would have uh they had vested rights right but then when they were gone that that use is not tied to the user it's tied to the property so they could sell it for that continued use okay so then all right so now that's that's what I didn't understand okay we also can't just rezone one property that's called spot zoning and that's not permitted okay right okay fine than thank you thank you uh Steve scoffield 230 Walter Avenue um Kate you you mentioned something about um what's it called the the um open space no not open space I my my just went um Cola affordable housing affordable housing if I'm how much open space do we have now that in the future we would be forced to put COA in our open space is not subject to to COA because I open I guess what I'm getting at is you said that if we purchase that property that in the future it could be used for affordable housing if we the you know the new numbers are coming out now and um Delano will be charged with something but we've been very proactive where we even have credits so um but where do you put it well that's my question do you mean vacant land not open space but vacant land than vacant land can they force you to do it in industrial land that's open that that's my question okay yes uh my other question is uh with Fern's uh document that I received I know we're buying this to 3.5 million but can you put in a guessing amount an estimate on other fees that we might be required to do we have to take the oil tank out if there's one there is that the is that the responsibility of the property owner or the seller I mean there's a list of things here uh engineering costs closing cost planning cost demolation cost is there any amount that you can so Steve we have what's called a due diligence period to where we will have uh Environmental Studies done investigative studies and engineering studies and um Doug can speak more about how that works exactly yeah I mean assuming if the governing body ceeds uh with the with the ordinance to authorize the acquisition The Next Step would be that we would negotiate a formal agreement of sale that would have a a number of Provisions about due diligence um to ensure that you know we're not inheriting problems uh environmental issues in particular um if we discover those it can be either the sale is not going to occur or there's further discussion about what the costes of acquisition acquisition would be um I think a lot of the costs that are being raised um could be potential cost if the township was going to affirmatively do some construction on the site my view and I I can talk a little bit more about this later I don't want to take too much time from public comment but we talk about the zoning along there that was all industrial Zone at one point this wasn't zoned affirmatively industrial everything else around it the field before it was a field was Zone industrial Newton's Landing you know th those areas were not intended to be residential initially so what happened was everything kind of changed around it and that you know sometimes we see the missing tooth well this was the tooth that was left basically um and so the the response I think from the community is the concern about the impact it's going to have on that side of the street and that really that whole side of the street is not industrial anymore and that shouldn't be the use there um we we if we don't if the town decides not to purchase the property you will get the use that was approved by the land use board you will get the truck repair facility it will be in active use those sites are in demand on unlike empty warehouses which I I don't know any of us can still figure out why exactly that's happening but it's happening um and and so there will be an impact I think that's a uh significant change from what has been happening previously for years Mr Kennedy open had that site he's some of you may know him he's a solo operator if you will he not a large corporation they're not leasing out to large tenants so I do think there will be a significant change if that use goes forward on that site and uh to the point that's about sort of future planning the governing body and I do think it's somewhat like the Mansion which we live through we can if if we don't do this we know what we're going to get and it's going to be permanent it's going to be there for decades to come if the acquisition happens at least we can hit the pause button and say okay we're not going to have an industrial use on this site portion of it could be for open space and preservation we already know there's Wetlands restrictions as as you approach the creek portion of it could be for f future housing needs again the township the whole state of New Jersey is under affordable housing obligations those rounds come out every 10 years it's a demand on the town it's a cost on the town um having a piece of property to address that is not is is good is good planning um I do think that the highest and best use for that property maybe somewhat portion of it will be residential if you look at you know sort of the transition from Newton's landing and up the street it would make some sense so I think what the governing body at least the most of the conversations I've been involved in and I've been working mostly with the subcommittee who are the two members to my right um you know it's not about um putting us in a situation where we're going to be locked in long term and that that we need to have the flexibility to be able to say okay we're not going to let this use Happ that doesn't mean the property has no value if we put in an open space we're locked in so we're not going to go that route it doesn't mean a portion of it may not future but maybe uh that's a discussion for after acquisition and that um this will give us time to sit down where we don't have an aggravated or AG grieved other party on the other side of the table and say okay now we can plan for this site in a way that's not going to have a negative impact on Newton's landing on the fields and uh hopefully over time whether that means sale portion it back to the uh suitable uses um recoup some of those costs if not all those costs yeah I I came here with an open mind I know the sale price is 3.5 but I guess the main one of the main things is how much additional expense that we don't know yet you know is it is it going to come out to 4 million at the end or 4.5 million that's an open question that concerns me thank you thank you Steve thank you Steve see hand in the back [Music] yep thank you Mike o' Donald 17 Emory way someone mentioned that it's only for a select few um imagine she's referring to Newton's Landing Newton's Landing residents uh by my figures about $2.3 million in taxes that we pay to the county and Delano of course gets some of that not much but some um so I don't think it's a select few it's about 500 residents when you take in spouses it's 177% of our tax r okay it's Newton's Landing thank you yeah uh the lane use board I feel they could have stopped this if they didn't make the concessions there were quite a few concessions to this land which made the property bigger so these people are saying just keep it the way it was it's not it's like taking an airport and saying it's only general aviation and somebody comes in and remat said we're going to extend the runway now it's going to be Jets and this is the same thing we're making that property bigger also um on the Mansion my question with that there are homes built around the Mansion did the township get any profit from those sale okay yes so this is possible that we could be plus those homes are on the tax rolls right we also received as as part of the sale of the Mansion to gra thine we received a c a su certain for each one as it was built and I believe it was $2,000 each or 2500 as each townhouse was built we got that in addition to the sale price plus we kept the waterfront property right so we're thinking that maybe this could be transferred into some sort of residen and if we do that we're going to get revenue from it yes and lastly I'll just say as a parent if I see my child made a mistake I see that somebody made a mistake years ago not and that's fine but do we let the child continue with the mistake we try to correct it right and I I commend you for trying to correct something that was wrongly done to the township thank you thank you thank you Mr Adon I just want to I just want to also make a note um it's it's my opinion that if we do um reone as residential that it would be age restricted residential to make sure there's no impact on the schools with any more additional children right next up we over okay yes hello my name's Joan Rino 7:3 3rd Street Del Lono New Jersey so we're here but this plot of land is is already purchased no no no that's why we're here to talk about entering into agreement to purchase it I thought you said it was already purchased it's a done deal we never said that whatsoever we said that the joint land use board approved criterion's application for the car repair or the uh truck repair and storage facility Well I don't think it's a good idea you have what about these buildings right adjacent to the municipal building are they occupied no no what don't you think is a good idea which part the purchase of the property or putting the repair facility there I don't think it's good to put another building up big building that's not used if you ever go past Edge Park see the square up there none of those buildings are in use the Builder backed out so how do we know that's not going to [Music] happen I mean that's what we're trying to prevent here tonight right I don't think it's a good idea I'm 77 years old I can't afford my taxes to go up that's my big deal so I'm confused I'm confused you're saying you don't want us you don't want the facility there but you also don't want your taxes to go up so I'm not sure what I don't want that there you say it again I don't want that in back of Newton's Landing that's what we're trying to prevent we're trying to buy the land so that it doesn't buying the land is it's cost a lot of money that's going to go to the taxpayer so the option then is to let them build the facility which you're saying you don't want you don't want either I mean I would love neither as well I'm not sure where we going here Mrs R explain that again you're you're saying you don't want that truck repair facility over there correct doesn't the ground get um you know like buds gas station contamin contaminated that's a certain possibility in the future anything is I can't predict the future but that's certainly a possibility but and then there's a cleanup right but you're saying you don't want us to purchase it as well right yeah okay thank you so much duly noted so how do we know if it's going to be purchased or not when come back in two weeks guilty of not coming to the yeah it it'll be voted on tonight correct oh it'll be voted on tonight by you guys yes and you people have been here turning over turning over turning over every year no no we have three year maybe we just gave Mike an award for being here 18 years yeah he's been here for 18 years and we know here for 22 years she tells us that all the time okay that's what I'm saying's been here 20 years something years you're the same people that keep turning over turning over turning over I just got here three years ago my term ends in two weeks okay and Miss s got here two years ago hi I'm the deputy mayor yes yeah you're a deputy mayor yes what are you Kate I'm a Township committee person I'm for you well I don't agree with any of this okay cuz I won't be able to live in Lano anymore because I'm going to have to get out and move my move myself well we hope that doesn't happen pardon we hope that does Happ oh it is I live on my Social Security thank you so much okay anybody else [Music] next I I see you Carl I'm trying to get to anyone who hasn't been up yet raise your hand High anybody else I promise I'll get back to you Carl uh good evening my name is Charles BR with at 35 Walton Way first I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to have this dialogue this evening I think it's very beneficial um the other issue is that um again there's nothing that's been cast in stone yet and even if the vote goes towards purchasing the property the opportunity that exists through the process of due diligence May about such that you determine that it's not a viable solution and you decide to turn away from the situation in which case the approval will go forward in that case I think we need to have the the most um appreciation and um fortitude of our planner and our Engineers who are responsible to see the oversight development as it's uh completed and know that um uh they'll hold the the developer accountable for all the aspects of uh soil management storm water management that are required and do cost a significant amount of money um uh as far as going forward I think it's a great opportunity to re-evaluate the situation in preparation for tonight I've looked at um uh Creek Road uh realignment studies master plan examinations Redevelopment plans all of which identify that this property as it currently exists is in its best use as it was as it's been identified but on the other hand as a developer myself I see the opportunities in a piece of property this holds as things change in the future so as you look at the possibility of changing its use from industrial to residential I think you need to look at also the zoning or excuse me the density of the property um I I've seen uh it identified as low density I think the greatest best use is a higher density for seniors there's a beautiful project on Centerton Road Mound called Parker's Bend um that this is a a gateway to to uh Toano some a project like that would would be a true winner um but uh it seems like um you have a fair understanding of what's going on and appreciate uh you taking me up opportunity to he the community thank you very much thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] Mr Carl you're going to stare me down till you get up to that microphone so come on up thank you sorry to bother you folks again no bother Carl soski at 55 Pennington qut I've heard both sides now from the audience those who say don't raise my taxes I can't afford it and those who say you know we have to look at the future we have to understand how as a group of people we have to move forward you're good and in doing so we have to do in a way that protects our own health I heard some people say I'm such and such years old and I need my health but your health comes from not polluting the Waterway and unfortunately as you've all mentioned a decision many years ago left this in an area where it did cause a pollution when it was to be developed as the current applicant has applied for it and received approval from the land use Board of which I voted against it why did I vote against it as I said before for the protection of everyone and that may cause us temporarily to increase our taxes my first real estate taxes were after I was married for 2 years and rented an apartment and I moved into Willingboro a brand new house that cost me $10,500 brand new today I pay something like $10,200 a year in taxes and I don't mind although I have only my social security I'm retired that's it but for the benefit of all of us we have to buy this property and see how it works out in the future and I'm going to have to to pay my taxes even if I don't like to thank you so much thank you thank you Carl thank you [Applause] car okay [Music] man I I was a little shy about coming up um s rexen I live at 208 Larchmont Drive um I want to thank Fern for going out on that rainy night and putting that on my doorstep because otherwise I would not have known about this even though I know it's on the dilanka website I just sorry I live my life when I don't do that and I want to thank everybody on the committee for for everything that you do for this Township it is a wonderful place to live and it is the gem of the Delaware River and the um Waterway in the Watershed of the ranov creek have always been a part of my life and um I support the purchase of this property um as a realtor I have some questions about the process and in reading this and and some of my questions have been answered tonight um Criterion group is uh an investor from New York you know and I'm sure that they have other buyers and I have to be honest when I got this I called one of my clients I'm sorry I called a client of mine to purchase this so there's going to be other purchasers out there and as we as a Township are trying to make a decision on what to do with this there are other investors out there that will be purchasing this property I'm a little confused about the price the 3.5 I understand there was an appraisal but there's been no formal offer made and there's been no counter offer there's been no mention of contingencies in that offer that the seller would be responsible for the remediation if there's buried oil tanks that should be a seller there should be some concessions financially to help the township with that I think that in the future looking forward we can't look backwards this is a very smart and good move I really appreciate the corrected figure of 2052 and not 2052 because that would have meant my taxes would have been going up over $2,000 for the year right so that um you know all these people that got that flyer if they did the math they would probably be very concerned so I did get that answer those that aren't going to look at the website I don't know put it on the little flashing thing you go buy 40 miles an hour make the correction but I do want to say thank you and um I would say do the due diligence as quickly as possible put aside some of those costs that that are uh part of the purchase um onto the seller yes thank so thank you and just so you aware we will be I'm sorry Doug oh Doug's gonna okay he's probably going to say the same thing I was going to say but go ahead no did you what did you want to say real quickly I was going I was going to say that our contract will have a due diligence period where we will be able to do any of the Environmental Studies and anything else we need to do out there to determine if the property is a uh good purchase for us to make sure we're not going to get into a hole our contracts Mr heinold is an expert negotiator and he will be negotiating all the terms that protect the township into the contract so it's a little different than residential I don't know if you be commercial and residential but we have to do a letter of intent first we have to pass resolutions and and ordinances before we can sign that contract so that's part of the process right right I do appreciate that and um not knowing what contingencies you can and cannot put on to the seller I I don't know how flexible they are um but I do have um industrial purchasers right now and this is a good value for those people that don't know the 3.5 million is a good value and if we look forward and the township owns this property we have control over this property and then we can take our time to do what you have to do to get funding from whomever to take care of open space Watershed things like that in the future we're going to need housing we're not getting smaller so so thank you thank you thank you m Rex Doug did you want to chime anything in there or to death cover I just want to add a couple of things because there's been some discussion about value a couple of key points I think are we all know that industrial property value Whoever has their hand up you can just start coming up to them may you can probably call them out I don't want you to have to hold your hand up the whole time I'm talking I'm an attorney I'm usually not super concise with what I say um can I say something to oh if you want to spend money get some new microphones so people can hear what's going on we literally just bought [Laughter] them I just want to say man before you speak a couple things about value uh the assessment on this property and other industrial properties we know it's under assessed that is true probably for a lot of properties across the town but particularly for the industrial sector not just in Delano but in across the state State as reassessments eventually happen that will ultimately equalize out but the my point is the current assess value is not really a good indicator of value there's also indication that the property was purchased for $2 million it was also purchased as part of a portfolio sale meaning it included other properties all of that sale was marked non-usable by the County Tax Board because when you have three properties they allocated for financing purposes how they wanted to lay out the values it's not true to market value we did confer with uh a commercial appraiser uh Jerry male's office they're very well known in this area um and and across all of South Jersey and probably the state worked with them many times I have a lot of confidence in their opinion we did we we did get because this is moving quickly we did get um them to do an analysis and provide a verbal report back to us that supports uh what's been represented which is that they believe the property is worth at least $4 million and that the negotiations with the property owner were with that information at hand thank you D hey M your turn okay Mary Ellen Davidson I'm sorry can you all hear me let's talk right into the microphone Mary Ellen Davidson 216 Center Avenue when I got this leaflet when I came home Saturday night from The Mansion uh I read wrote very carefully then I went back through it again I read the issues part where you said you had issues about the reason that you wanted to deal with this but I'm not seeing maybe it's just me but I'm not seeing anything that's telling me that you have resolutions to these issues and I think $3.5 million has a lot of money to spend and I'm very concerned about the area that Fern was talking about where he couldn't fill out the numbers of these other expenses that are going to come with it on top of the 3.5 million you all know what I'm talking about you all the paper all those empty spots what are they are they going to cost the taxpayers for are they is that going to cost the taxpayers too I mean is that something we're going to have to pay for in the future on top of the tax increase already to purchase the property I don't know some of them won't be I would think some of them be considered the sell's responsibility I would think some of them would be considered the seller's responsibility so I I'll just briefly address some of the immediate costs there will be closing costs just like any real estate transaction and where does that come from that will be part of the Township's expense and also the seller's expense in getting to the closing table and if the township is paying expenses that mean the taxpayers are paying that yes but but in the what I would say in relation to the 3.5 million purchase price it's not a c change in value um engineering costs environmental costs we're going to do our due diligence just like any transaction on a significant piece of property we're going to pay our professionals to make sure that we're not buying a problem every deal is entered with the understanding that we're buying a clean piece of property if it turns out that it's not a clean piece of property there will be further discussions what do you mean by Clean s not contaminated no contamination no environmental problems no nothing that needs to be a subject of further expense or concern determined yet no that will be part of the pre-closing process okay the other the only other thing I will say ma'am is that a lot of the other costs that are are listed if the township decides for example to do something with the property in terms of an affirmative project there may be planning costs if they decide that one of the buildings needs to come down rather than selling it off to somebody and letting them deal with that issue there could be demolition costs and that goes to the taxpayer through the township also ultimately yes yes but I I think in those costs in terms of the overall cost of the $3.5 million purchase price are not so significant that it will change that 3.5 million figure into something drastically higher well I don't know how significant it will be but I'm also living on a social security and a small pension and at this point in my life I'm alone taking care of my house and I'm struggle to make sure that I can pay my taxes now so if the taxes are going to go up and then they're going to continue to be added to for all these other things that are coming along after the fact that's going to be a real problem not only just for myself but I'm sure other people who are on living on a limited income and just don't have any other way to bring money in now I'm not I don't disapprove of buying the property and keeping it for the township but I think you guys need to get your sell together and decide what you're going to do with the property so that the people know what they're paying for if we're going to have to pay for demolishing houses or fixing a house um I know I heard Kate say something about the um uh Delano history board that's a lot to pay for the history board to have a place to meet right and keep their stuff not that I have a problem with them having that but I just think you guys really need to get this plan together so that it makes more sense to more people before you ask us to go ahead and give our approval for a $3.5 million purchase that's going to come up and fight Us in the butt later on with more costs for demolition for building for unbuilding for whatever I just don't think you have your plan together yet and I find that rather disturbing I guess is a good word to use because you're asking us for a lot of money so I just I would really rather have a much better proposal a much more complete proposal if that makes any sense to any of you because this as it stands do does not make a lot of sense to me I saw all your issues but none of it tells me what you're going to do about the issues just that you're going to address them and that could be turning around saying hello issue now we're done we address that one I want to see I I think we should all see plans and and something specific that is going to be and wants to be done so that we can all see where our tax dollars are going to pay for this so the issue is Criterion has their approvals for their truck repair facility we need to swoop in and buy this now before another developer does understand so we can't take the time to do the planning process that we need to do I totally understand that I totally get it to do with the property once you get it understood understood and trust me we would love to share that with you if we had that information information we have ideas we have to purchase the property before somebody else you certainly strategize those ideas before you purchase the property and we have the township knows where you're going and where our taxpayers dollars are going okay all right I'm done and I'm out thank you m thank you Mar drive safe she said M drop she said M drop um my name is Joan copani one John marway in Newton's Landing um I was just going to ask the question because it was mentioned by the lady who a realtor that other people may be interested so this 3.5 million that you have on the piece of paper is that absolute or can somebody come in and bid higher and if that's the case is there a maximum that we don't know about at this point in time that we would be willing to pay for this property I'm not against it or for it I'm not sure where I stand with it I don't want my taxes go up but nobody else does you know so the agreed upon price is 3.5 million both parties have agreed to that okay and uh you're going to vote on it today so you need to know obviously right away whether you're going to you know go forward or not correct right right all right that's all I want she's got her hand Gloria and then I'm going to go to you right there in third row Lor Fister 7 Edwards Avenue thank you for letting me have another moment sure so not just to the township committee but to pretty much everybody in town there's been a lot of like Boogeyman talking about industrial and the savior of 55 and older housing and it is wonderful have beautiful little houses however the people who live in Newton's landing and in the 55 and older community do not share the same concerns as I do I live right over here on Edwards Avenue we are not selling to the same pool of people at this point the only people with kids who want to buy into lka who are people who cannot afford to care about schools or who just don't know enough to care about schools our school budget has been defeated for 20 odd years at this point we're in the bottom five of the County residential industrial is not a terrible thing just keep your property values in mind Township commit I urge you it is not whoever it is that you have in mind to buy this whatever their plan is to flip it into 55 and older housing there's more people live here than just Newton's Landing this is my property value I'm not on a fixed income I am dependent on selling my home for a profit and at this point it is laughable so there are worse things than industrial building and I think we can do better than residential thank you thank you L can we close we're done with people go ahead the last ones I'm still Tim kishler I live at 12 haris Court in Newton's Landing um I think I think it's kind of unusual that um so many people are against a concept of a plan um I would think at least half of the people would be okay with that anyway um there's a lot of things that have been thrown out and one has to do with the uh Gone With the Wind and uh waiting till tomorrow tomorrow is here and we have to do something and we have the opportunity to do something um the question is not maybe what to do but what not to do or what not to allow to have happen and again I I really guess I didn't make myself clear regarding my ignorance of how taxes work but in one of the previous meetings here we had a woman whose life was saved burning house over by L Deli and the police whose taxes whose salary is supported by my taxes didn't say oh she lives over there so we're not going to um rescue her you have to realize that it's for everyone the taxes go to support I don't know where the boundaries of Delano are necessarily but you don't pick and choose what things you're going to support based on where you live and how many children you have and what schools they go to it's it's it's a pot of money that goes to benefit the community as a whole or at least prevents things that are the that are going to be to the detriment of the community as a whole and having this proposed truck thing you don't have to be really smart to see that that's not a good thing we all breathe the same air we all drink the same water and it's all and it's and it's going to be affect it I think that's it thank you Tim thank you once there's anyone else who hasn't spoke yet hold on ver one second is there anyone else that has not yet spoke that would still like to speak all right seeing none I will'll wrap it up with Miss Dharma just right up to the mic please here like this is a real issue of cost I'm sorry so I have to say my name again yeah when does the minute she's not going to know who's talking you're at Dharma 605 heory Street it really is a serious issue people can't afford their bills I know that so that's why it is going to be a tough vote but like a lot of people they say you know New Jersey I'm getting out of here I'm moving out blah blah blah sometimes there's there's no place to move to anymore like my husband moved here from another country his country was all polluted he came here So eventually there's not going to be places to move to preserving this land as best we can is going to be like an oasis in New Jersey okay I'm not moving out of Delano okay my daughter bought a house here I'm going to have grand children here and um I'm here long term so I would love for my property to go down so I could pay less taxes I'm not selling so that's why I want to you and me both thank you ver all right can we take a five minute break given that uh I will close this portion of the meeting to the public and I heard a request for a 5 minute recess yeah all right yes we'll take 5 minute recess it is 8:50 on the clock we'll be back at [Music] 8:55 so we're going to have our comments call the meeting back to order all right all right so we were we almost had the five minutes down we were we were close um to those that are still here thank you for staying I would like to thank all of you for all the decorum this evening I I understand that this is an emotional issue for everybody some people don't want taxes High well nobody wants taxes High some people are against taxes some people uh when we reason the other you all have your reasons but thank you all who spoke and the rest in the room for just being in a professional manner this evening it's completely noticed completely appreciated and you know we were all listening intently to what you have said this evening I have four pages of notes I wasn't just looking down at my phone texting someone I was taking notes on everybody so it's you know thank you all so we're going to let's you were watching Monday Night Football I one one could only wish I have it on the big screen Matt doesn't even know how to get to the channel for Monday Night Football you're right I really don't all right we'll uh I guess we'll go across the day for comments before we go uh for a vote on this I'll start to my far left let uh Mike go since far left my your right far my far right it's late sorry I'm in bed usually at 9:15 all right this would be the last meeting of 18-year tour up here so anyway um try to put my comments in some coherent order um Mike could you just pull the microphone like right up to the mountain there you go thanks is it coming out I is the want to hear me um through great efforts of Mr heinhold I was able to get the uh phase one study that was done on the 41 property and uh 450 and 500 so it was quite voluminous some uh 800 Pages plus and so forth so I spent uh a long flight back from Phoenix Arizona last week reading that in the dark of an airplane and uh couple times over the weekend as well um very Illuminating a lot of the information I I already knew about but um uh there were some things that that kind of you know small red flags uh in short you know the phase one it's really a document search it was done by an outfit that does that for their business out in Aran Ohio so they can just access a lot of these things on the web so um it's unlikely anyone put actually boots on the ground over at 401 or 450 and so forth but it was interesting some of the things that kind of um you know the hairs on the back of your neck go up a little bit um they had sent an inquiry to the uh professional the civil engineer for Criterion company it's you've heard mentioned up in New York and uh he did not respond to their questionnaire uh they also attempted contact with the previous longtime owner of the property at 401 and others in town to determine um history and activity and what's going on there and uh they were unable to contact that person um who's still around um but there was a lot of historical information in the uh in this 800 page document uh noteworthy trailers have been on that site since roughly 1984 uh there's been a machine shop and other businesses of similar metal working um uh stamping bending welding things like that uh compressors things like has been on that site since 1984 so yes what's been approved for Criterion to sell to another what what the current approvals are is a little more than what has been going on there in the past uh being up here for 18 years um I've had a little tinge of guilt um because as Mr heinold said this is kind of like the missing tooth along Creek Road there and it's been kind of in hiding in plain sight but the thing that allowed at the hide in plain sight was it's a very benign business was operating back there for the last 30 years or so um and wasn't really bothering anybody but as I said that those activities trailer storage and a machine shop of various sorts has been going on for the last several decades um I know there's been a lot of talk of environmental impact and so forth and again one of the things that a couple things caught my eye in this report and I'm always in now the D website I've been involved in some land issues over 18 years here and so I kind of know my way around on some things enough to be dangerous but um one of the pages and this was just a copy uh on the report they have surrounding Property database records as I said this was a company that does this for their business and they were looking up surrounding businesses for 401 and 450 as I said it it encompasses all three lots but they have nine pages of surrounding properties with addresses in Albuquerque New Mexico so somebody clearly did not look at the final product um another thing um was as far as chem uh the state the EPA at the federal level um has databases to record and document various levels of chemical spills hazardous materials uh even if you've just got it on site and nothing bad has happened that you have that there it has to be uh documented and registered in various state and federal databases this report the 800 Pages 700 pages is list all the hazardous materials and Spills and accidents and oil tanks and everything else around this area so it's not just that site it's all on Creek Road Cooper Street 700 pages of listings of everything from a truck was being unloaded and a 55 gallon drum of hydraulic fluid broke you know split open or something like that two we removed an oil tank at a residence across the street and this is what we did and cleaned up and that's all all done so there's a hell of a lot of activity that's that's here now and goes back several decades as well so what's going to occur there isn't really much different than what's already in place right now um there was even one of one of the the findings on page 500 was in 2013 there was runoff from the deep and Watson fire that was picked up over at 401 Creek Road so stuff travels a couple things I've kind of gone through the history of of this report and so forth um the cost that we've been talking around a lot tonight um yeah three three 3.5 mil yeah that's that's that's tough to take um we've had other uh the Waterfront down at the zerb I think we paid it was like 230,000 and we actually got a Green Acres reimbursement for that if I remember correctly we had litigation over the dunes and that that was about a quar million dollars in litigation to Def defend that from uh what D wanted to do with it um and this town is very tax sensitive wherever you live every you know the whole Community is tax sensitive and uh you know getting back to that parcel sitting as an industrial Zone the missing tooth uh as I started out talking about for the 18 years sitting here um you're always in a yin-yang dilemma if you you know what do you do with it if it's industrial and it's not hurting anything you leave it at that because you're there's pressure from the taxpayers to increase radal um if it goes residential now you've got a potential impact on the school and you're going to start busting their budget or busting their classrooms and so forth so there's always a push back uh or attention there and I would love to have a bank account which is your bank account uh to buy land and we TR we try to save our dollars to have that opportunity to do that and we've you know spent dollars to defend the dunes and we spent dollars to uh buy the zerb Waterfront there and we you know spent dollars and other ways to um acquire things on Hawk Island and so forth um and people have asked about the the Green Acres funding or County funding and so forth so those those questions are still to be asked answered uh just to clarify the Green Acres funding uh the deadline is February 5th it's not that that funding opportunity opens as far as future uses the I'm concerned about the future risk to that property um some of the discussions the committee has had um in acquiring it is to turn the property over to a developer for residential or affordable housing or senior housing uh there's also been discussions whether Public Works will be able to use that facility over there so mentioned you know we've got a half million 3/4 of a million dollars of equipment sitting out in the open it' be nice to get that into the shelter and that's one of the the programs or one of the capital projects that we want to have is to build a pole barn and redo the fuel Farm there that our neighboring communities use to gas up fire trucks ambulances and dump trucks um but the future uh New Jersey over the last couple years and going forward in the coming year has aggressively been changing regulations regarding development near Waterfront wetlands and adjusting for climate change and the thing that I see kind of coming together that presents a risk for the Township in this property is the flood rules the flood demarcation for the new base flood elevation is proposed to go up 5 ft uh next year um that would significantly reduce the available land that could be buildable possibly buildable at 4 401 Creek so the return on getting our money back on buying this now may not be as much as we hope or expect or would get so that's that's something that needs to be realized and considered um it's all guesswork as to what those rules will actually look like when they come down how that will be applied interpreted but it's something that's very concerning that is sign ific part of 401's property is potentially inside that new envelope of higher flood flood restrictions I think I covered just about all the points that I brought up there so um Circle back to the cost uh the township is in an extremely good financial position now that's taken a long time coming and it due to sever events the new warehouses the new empty warehouses uh the way they added assessments and so forth has come in that has increased our U it's a bad term Surplus but our uh Revenue that the township has basically available um Mr alette this Patrick uh we've been here long enough that we were here during lean time times when things were kind of very tight and uh uh don't want to see that again so the committee going forward and doing the budget for 2025 uh I I hope that we look at that seriously and not put the township financially in a hole um we're at a financial position that uh we're unable to do some of the things that need to be done so I think I've aired out everything I wanted to talk about thank you for the time and um I'm done thank you Mike sir walking the town this past week delivering the Flyers to let our residents know that we were looking to uh bond for 3.5 million in the purchase of this it's very humbling as I walked up to each building or each home uh you know there are some homes that are really nice you there's some homes that could use some upgrades or you know fixing up and now the figure of average I think was $95 a year well for some folks that's a week of groceries for some folks if we pass this it's going to affect their rents because the landlord passes that on to the tenants so take those people into consider he we or many folks are you know we cons consider ourselves middle class and we do the best that we can uh and paying our bills and taking a vacation and you know maybe we like to get a new car and you know we save and we're be a we're able to do some of those things we folks I've got neighbors behind me that they bought a used car and fortunately uh the man that lives there you know has some smarts and he was pulling brakes apart and trying to fix something inside the car but his wife is sick and she can't work you so those things hit me you know I'm going to ask those people to contribute uh you know because we're we're going to tax them then I walked up to the one house which I consider it's not the Zer Brook Mansion but a mansion on the river and I said you know how much is this guy you know he's got a lot of money he he has this well it when I looked at the value of his property his tax bill is going to go up close to $500 a year so I look at it from taking money from people and yes seniors you know if uh you're in a senior freeze tax you know tax increas is not going to my understanding affect you because your taxes are frozen so that portion I think I had a figure of like 2,200 residential uh homes uh in Delano well we have and I have no idea uh how many uh of us seniors have a senior freeze I don't um but you know so any tax increases that are passed on are not going to be impacted uh to their budget you know Social Security yeah they give us a little bit more here but they're taking more over here you know uh so I I really struggle with uh deep down inside of taking uh taking money to purchase this land from from no that money from those folks that are really in need uh yes I would love to be able to preserve that land you know if we could get a developer ideally for me if a developer could come into the mix and say you know I can do condos or tow houses and I can make money doing that and pull us out of the mix so we don't have to put all this upfront money I know that's not the real world I guess you know but I think maybe out there in my imagination that developers over here you know they got this property here and this one's got property over here oh I could do a project over here you know and get them together let them you know so what we as a governing body you know we talk about zoning or changing the zoning you know I don't know it's possible I hear it's possible we're going to take $3.5 million from the taxpayers why the heck can't we take uh the time and do an overlay you know hey Mr developer you know you got this approval for doing trucks over here you know if we do an for housing you know is that something you can do can you make more money doing that versus you know fixing up and putting in the uh the trucking outfit over there now those are things that went through my mind as I'm walking through town delivering so um I think that's about all I have to say at the moment sir thank you thank you f work my way back Kate so many things uh have been brought up tonight um but to me um we aren't making any more land and this is an asset for Delano Township and it is an asset that will benefit all the residents in this town one way or another everyone will benefit and I realize it is a chunk of change and um but all the other purchases that we have made in this town and we've made some purchases uh of open that have been preserved for open space and I don't want to limit open space but I'd like a portion of it for open space but I really think it's a win-win for Delano and that we have an opportunity we are in a good financial position to do this to put a decent amount down that will not affect the tax rate and that we can turn this around to be of good use for Delano Township and I have listened to everyone no one likes their bills increased I appreciate that um and I've sat up here long enough to know that the different purchases that we've made we could have pought these two lots right here where there's two empty warehouses but the township committee wouldn't agree to the sale so I mean they may not be here if we agreed so for me to have for you to have a facility between a Housing Development and a park a children's park where even you may go at times it just doesn't fit it's like Doug said it's you know that missing tooth that missing tooth and why wasn't the zoning changed I really don't know but at one time that Park was was zoned industry we did not pick that Park out for us the county that was the three-party agreement with py the county and Delano Township where we swapped land that we owned on the Delaware on the ranas creek to the county for their Trail and they gave us that property for our Field of Dreams so we didn't purchase that and we didn't change the zoning we were given that to put our park on so it it wasn't even a consideration that oh my gosh we better change the zoning over there never even entered my mind to tell you the truth but I think it is a good I know it's a big purchase but I can tell you that this Township committee will protect it and we'll do whatever we can to give back to the community and to not have it be a burden to have it become something that we'll all be proud of and be able to have a benefit from and it could be cutting the tax that we may have to raise initially I just think it's a win-win you're not going to get another asset like this in town and I think that's how I feel thank you thank you Kate car hold on making one note okay I wrote down some remarks so that I could gather my thoughts make sense uh there's been many times in the past when the township committee has taken action in order to protect to protect the quality of life in Delano for example the dunes uh the committee voted to fight New Jersey D in court as other members have mentioned to protect the dunes that's now West Avenue nature trails from becoming an active disposal facility for dredge spoils behind a residential neighborhood which would have caused significantly significant traffic uh up West Avenue and potentially all the way down to Burlington Avenue and Cooper Street not to mention all the trees that would have been cut down and we wouldn't have that beautiful nature Park back there uh second we have zerber Mansion obviously you all know the township committee stepped in and bought that Mansion years ago to prevent the state from turning it into a home for kids with behavioral issues in the middle of a residential neighborhood including along Long deler Avenue Second Street Union Willow as we all know the township sold that property soon after and it's now a beautiful home for seniors uh with affordable rents uh there's also additional ratables as we know built on the grounds that are surrounding the Mansions the town homes um Hulk Island which we recently opened for Public Access again uh which we extremely proud of uh Township committee we took action to acquire Parcels of land on Haw Island for preservation I couldn't imagine what would have been done if those Parcels were allowed to be developed and if they were managed to get their hands on them it would not have guaranteed that these parcels were preserved for the residents of Delano um we are excited that that you're able to access them uh there's now the proposal for the truck facility along Creek Road between the residential neighborhood and the recck facility which is predominantly used by Delano's youth the facility once an operation would most likely cause additional truck traffic as I mentioned down Creek Road exacting and already well-known issues for Mists and obviously with the warehouses is going to continue to be an issue it's important for the township committee to continue work in helping preserve the quality of life for all residents we are one town regardless if you live near there or not we like one of the gentlemen spoke here earlier we have one pool of money we all have to contribute to it we can't pick and choose you know what we do with that money um in in the proposal for the truck facility they are removing 788 trees from that 11 acres there's only a 15t buffer that's going to be around that entire truck facility 15 ft that's between here in Mrs lore it's only yeah maybe even like that's not a big buffer yeah they may be replanting 700 trees but you're talking a bush a tree that could be this big it'll take Generations before those trees are mature again those trees are very old obviously um the township needs to purchase that property to control what happens there whether we put age restricted homes whether we choose to preserve the land put a park there at least we have control now that we know there's other developers other interest it's more important now more than ever to purchase that property who knows what is going to go there if the truck facility doesn't go there we need to have control to make sure it's the best use for this town for the long run we have to think longterm yes nobody wants a tax increase of course not but we're talking an average of $90 to $100 a year does it suck yes is it affordable to most people I would hope so it's like $10 a month honestly it's not it's not a huge amount and I think it's worth it to preserve the quality of this town we don't want more trucks here New Jersey is supposed to be the Garden State and honestly it's the concrete truck State Warehouse State anymore it's awful I don't even like traveling to New Jersey it gives me anxiety because there's literally no no land up there um we're going to do what we can to make sure that this use is its best use and that the tax increas is minimal we are in the best financial situ sitation we have ever been in we have a very healthy Surplus it is My Prerogative and other members on the committee to take at least a million dollars out of that Surplus to put down towards the purchase of property to help alleviate the tax burden therefore we'd only be financing about $2.5 million and I know there's been misinformation out there that this tax increase will be for 30 years that it's a permanent tax increase and that is incorrect absolutely incorrect our financing would be for a bond that is shortterm now we have up to 9 years to continue to do that short-term financing at these interest rates and then when the time is right and interest rates are right within those 9 years we can convert to permanent financing if we get to that point but we are going to take the time to do the planning that we need to do this committee is committed to that to make sure that we get the best use for this town to get a great rateable in there because what's there is is not honestly $3,000 a year for 11 acres is a joke so we need to we need the taxpayers to have faith in us that we know what we're doing and we really want to protect this town and do what's best for it long term that's it thank you Carolyn I guess the benefit of going last you know everyone has had great ideas I'm not going to rehash what everyone has said up here so far on you know everybody you know it's everyone has valid points and just like everybody in the audience has had valid points this evening you know it's your wallet it's your town know just on the tax impact itself if we did bond which there's no intent to but if we did bond for the full three and a half million I I punched my numbers up here my my estimated tax is 168 bucks a year that's $3 a week the average person is $90 a year I'm not going to divide you'd help me with the math on that 90 divided by 52 was it a 50 a week whatever less than a cup of coffee that's what we're talking about here and that's assuming we B we bond for the full amount and I fully understand that there's people out there where every dollar counts where you know we're all in financial situations these days where everything is more expensive I was grocery shopping last week I saw on shoppr right a box of um Fruity Pebbles and I know I shouldn't buy them but my son likes them $5.99 for the small for the small box are you kidding me everything is more expensive there was a report today that um the prices on eggs are going up but I spent uh for an 18 pack of eggs a couple weeks ago for Thanksgiving God it was almost $9 it's it's absurd and I almost want to um get a hen license to have my own chickens now but you everything everything goes up but as uh some members have said we need to think forward into the future here you know we got to think of the town in the long term and it's not about um one side of the town or serving for a select few when the property was purchased for the Mansion um a decade or whatever it was ago the zerber Mansion it wasn't purchased just to prevent or to save the neighborhood for the residents on Delaware and SE and Willow and Union for the whole town the whole town benefits so that's that's really all my comments I'm not going to try to pontificate more than I have already because that's a big word it is a big word everyone has um you know everyone has also chimed in tonight so let's with with that I will ask May yes you may actually asked Doug a question um we received two uh Emil letters of Correspondence do they have to be entered onto the record regarding this um issue no the uh the law requires or proposes a public uh hearing period uh we do not accept written submissions as a part of the formal record on a public comment period um we can note them as general correspondents to the governing body okay um but they are not considered part of the public comment period thank you then I will enter them as correspondence later thank you thank you Jess all right with that I will ask for a motion on ordinance 2024 d26 on second reading so moved well the motion was for to approve it correct I'm asking for motion oh yeah I'm sorry motion to approve ordinance 2024 d26 second I think Mike second I didn't hear that's fine I didn't hear it I couldn't hear you Mike you have to speak in the mic all right motion by Miss Seuss second by Mr Templeton to adopt 202 24-26 on second reading roll call please Janice Mrs Patrick yes Mr alette I'm a no and it's for the folks that can't afford the extra tax or struggling out there pay their bills we've got the school bond tax that's going to hit them uh and we have our normal operating expenses uh for the town that are going to go up and this added uh cost in my opinion uh is going to have an impact on folks so my vote is now miss my vote is yes Mr Templeton this would be at the last meeting of my 18 years here right um yeah I've said pretty much my piece on this um but I hope that some of my comments the 2025 committee will U uh take into consideration uh especially the due diligence and deep investigation of what's there um and hopefully that the property can be turned uh and not U not lose the potential um reimbursement it's not the right term but uh I think what Mr heinold's comments were when I had stepped out of the room and was later relayed to me that it gives us a choice and uh I did receive a response from one of the County Commissioners that they were going to look into it um wherever that goes hopefully again that they would uh after the township acquires it maybe we could subdivide it subdivide off the wetlands area and at least uh um acquire a buffer zone a permanent buffer zone so uh I'm going to vote [Music] Yes and Mr Bartlett uh for the reasons were mentioned I will vote Yes thank you everyone thank you not to outdo ourselves we will go to ordinance 2024-25 we're at the bottom of the first page now at 9:35 so uh this is um an ordinance adopting First Amendment to the quote industrial Rehabilitation areas Redevelopment plan quotee specific to block 2000 lot 13.04 500 Creek Road second reading by title only and public hearing and I will open the hearing to the public on ordinance 2024-25 same rules apply please approach the podium name and address for the record if you choose to speak and mayor yes for the record you have correspondence from the um joint land use board secretary Beverly that the U board did cons as required by the municipal L use law uh did find that the this ordinance is consistent with the master plan thank you Janice just come up to the mic there okay this is not just I know for the Board of Ed meetings we have time to ask questions about things that aren't on the agenda is that at the very end or no that'll be after this public hearing and the next one so roughly five 10 minutes okay I'll wait okay close anyone on this one going once twice and I will close this one to the public and ask for a motion to adopt ordinance 2024-25 on second reading motion to approve second motion by Miss Seuss second by Mr olette roll call please Janice Mrs Patrick yes Mr olette yes Miss Seuss yes Mr Templeton yes Mr Bartlett yes all right want to tell hold on a second here I got to move the binder clip all right ordinance 2024 D28 an ordinance by the township committee amending the Delano Township Code of ordinances to add chapter 248 storm water management a new article Roman numeral 8 to regulate storage of deicing materials on private property and providing for severability and and effective date second reading by title only and public hearing I'll open the hearing to the public for ordinance 202 2428 and this was the ordinance required by the state yeah yep so stage salt storage you have a question about salt storage Ray Weber 22 ships this you say that this year is the second reading by TI alone when was the first reading the meeting uh no was the meeting before November because I went back to the all the way back to September when there wasn't anything in there for this particular ordinance yeah J show have the exact committee at the bottom is the notice where it was I didn't seeet I'm looking here Ray was not it was not on the agenda that night but it was introduced that night after discussion yeah the agenda wasn't there but it was adopted introduced that night after discussion okay thank you I thought I was remembering things is trying to keep us in line huh yeah okay that's why we love him here he a meeting auditor all right um all right anyone have any questions or comments on this one all right seeing none I'll close this hearing to the public and ask for a motion to adopt ordinance 2024 28 on second reading Mo I'll second motion by Miss Fitzpatrick second by Miss Seuss to adopt 202 2428 roll call please Janice Mrs pck yes Mr alette yes M SE yes Mr templon yes Mr Bart yes all right meeting is now open to the public for any comments or questions this is session number one if you have any comments or questions please come up approach the podium and give your name and address for the record even though we know it already ver okay you're in DMO 605 Hickory Street um this question is regarding the um the general election that happened in November I was reading I think when the in the pine baren Tribune I think it was that um the public information office of the county said that when they were deciding how many voting machines to deploy to a site that they took into account the vendor recommendation the the um right the the whatever that machine company is I forget their name the minion yes and they also said that they also consulted municipal clks but hesport their uh committee person was uh at the meeting I think that was November 27th um with the County Commissioners and she said her County Clerk may have gotten something vague or I wasn't so sure so I wanted to ask Del Lanka were uh were was Janice lur you're the municipal clerk I am were you ever contacted by the county about how many machines to deploy where did they send you um a a request and did you tell them how many machines that were needed at each site please proceed there was a email um that had at the very bottom of the email oh and let us know uh what you think you're going to need for the uh general election very vague so that town was correct it was a very vague email I sent an email back requesting more machines and actually even said what was supplied for the primary which was the roll out of the new machines was going to be woefully inadequate for the uh general election we were assigned the exact same amount of machines for the general election that we were for the primary and you specifically requested more I requested more particularly for the Pearson school can you um tell me who was the person who sent you the request or what office I have to look back at the email I can get that for you R yes if you could give that to me because um supposedly when I uh attended the county commissioner meeting um they said that they were going to conduct their own investigation and the results would be uh done by sometime in January but several people who you know they were talking about handic people elderly people so many people with job responsibilities Child Care responsibilities could not vote they had to leave it was a very important issue and a lot of people stood up and said we need an outside entity I don't know who that would be but to investigate and um none of the Commissioners said that they would do that they said it's going to be internal so um yes if you could uh somehow get me that information or um and it was just the the one email that I had sent saying that we were particularly for the pean school we were going to need more than what was supplied for the primary um and that was basically it uh I will say that given these new machines even if they had Supply double the amount of um you know machines the the I call them validators uh the marking you still would have had very long lines it was but um we did see that as a municipal clerk and our municipal clerk Association we did see where it said the municipal clerks were consulted you know did your Association make any statement formal statement not officially that I'm aware of could you ask them to well we have a president and we have a process so because that's important for the voters this is no light issue the people might have been denied the ability to vote that's very serious and I hope we all focus on that and when this invest I mean I said at the meeting November 27th that we as um citizens we can sort of do our own investigation and that's why I'm asking about it because I'm not going to just take the words of people who are investigating their own mistakes so those were my um that's my comment thank you for for that and somehow if you can contact me with that uh letter and your reply to it yeah if you could just um I can email it if you can just give me your email address U if you want to okay we could do that after the meeting if you want after after the meeting or or just email me yes I'll email you that's better yeah okay than em me and then I can get you that information okay thank you so much thank you thank you Mr Arma and and I completely 100 million per agree with everything ver just said it was incredibly disappointing to see those lines at the election it's encouraging that all these people came out to vote but it was incredibly disappointing the cluster F of what it was like the guy sing or sing I for sing he said oh I'll take responsibility just me like saying oh no one wants to take responsibility I'll do it okay then pay a price Y and then they blame record turnout yeah and and at a various point you they need an independent body investigating exactly what happened there you you don't investigate yourselves no that looks good to me can the mayor's Association or whatever associations you belong to put pressure on the county because I'm like one person we got some reporters like they're not and it was only Burlington County that had these issues everyone else in the state was fine so go figure they blamed record Roo turnout but as you put that spreadsheet together turnout was actually down across the board by double Jes in every single County I did a complete analysis on that 100% correct carollyn and the and you know when I saw the statement they released the next day where they threw the clerks under the bus for saying yeah the clerk said it was fine I called BS because I talked to Janice and the same thing about the email no it's know liar liar pants on fire to the county so that's really what it is come on up Sir Brian Green 14 Charles Circle and Newton's Ling um I'm just wondering it's well known throughout the state that Burlington County screwed it up worse than any other county in the state in terms of how the election was managed did all of our local problems basically are of what Burlington County was undergoing there's not enough machines not enough manpower not enough of anything so basically it just was handed down to us and us and all the other towns we were far from the only one I made a good move this year I voted early same here yeah um and I was you know and I was telling my wife a week before the election I said look uh we can go over to um uh Willingboro over at the library and a couple days before it was a mess but it was Sunday afternoon I said let's give it a look maybe it'll be The Sweet Spot and it was there was no wine and I was by there yet you know the day before that and there were 200 people inway yes so I was fortunate at least but I hope that we can manage to not have another screw up countywide the way it was here so I didn't see the line think the air wasn't in line but it was the first time I ever voted early yeah same here I went to willing bro to the library the was the Wednesday or Thursday before the election and I went there about 45 minutes before closing I only spent a half hour there three hours I was in line three hours ouch I submitted my vote by mail application the next day I'll never stand in line ever again certainly nobody wants to go through that stuff and we're at a we're at a point with technology now yeah God we do everything online we should be able to log into some your site online that's unhackable if you could believe that that you could just cast your vote right from your home your phone your tablet instead of standing for hours on make sense we can do everything else you renew your passport online now you should be able to vote yeah yeah and you know and I went through all the aggravation of dealing with the yellow star driver license two appointments and they blew up the first one um we're all preaching to the same choir here we all know the complete screw up by the county but you know but I'm sure that we can get some resolution from the county I'm not sure why it was such a train rck over there was it their lack of preparation was it lack of money what happened does anyone know know that's why they're investigating they don't there's no answers right now there just wasn't enough machines poor planning and the county runs that the township is literally just a vehicle that that hosts the voters and the county does everything so well you know I mean there were counties nearby that are run by political machine it shall remain Nal and they appear to have handled this a whole lot better than BR so I don't think they got much of an excuse all right thank you fail to plan plan to fail and I I will just add we um have to wait until every polling place reports at the end of the night and I thought we were bad getting um Bev and I getting out of here at quarter after midnight there were clerks that were still there at 2:00 and 3 in the morning waiting for the polls to the polling places to report back to the municipal buildings that's bad unac it so it wasn't just um a delango thing it was pretty County spread out throughout the county and then and there was a late Court filing by the AG to extend it extend the closing for an hour however after the polls had closed the decision came after the polls closed and nobody knew about it because it was after the polls closed we already had we already had one District back already right and well it was this District yes and then the AG's determination came down and it was like the machine machine's down it's already tallied out you know so uh it was a very interesting evening and I I do hope and as every municipal clerk hopes that um it will not repeat amen Peter Peter Fritz 303 Union Avenue knew and I just felt compelled to say briefly that I signed up to get my uh ballot early several years ago and I automatically get it for each election and it arrives at the house and I vote a month ahead of time and I either put it in the mail or a secure Dropbox it takes me that long to do it and I don't know why everybody doesn't do it that way maybe that's what they're trying to force us to do I just I was horrified for the stories that I heard even wife went to to vote at the at the school and she was in line for a couple of hours yeah so anyway I think it I hope it's fixable thank you you and me both sir Ray Ray whober 22 ships uh retention Basin when are they going to cut them as the as the contract and sent out I thought they cut are they thought they cut it already I thought John said they were cutting them at the last come CL well we have to check with John then because he had arranged it and I thought it was already done likewise ISS yeah yeah we'll follow up with them we'll send you an email yeah John was supposed to be here tonight he was home ill but we will certainly yeah you you guys can get in touch with me yep we know how to get you I know smoke signal got your number Ray yeah going Tom Tom no you're not thank you for gracing us with your presence Tom L 312 Center Avenue God bless you Beverly from a while ago sorry bless you uh I just wanted to say thank you to Mike peton for his service for the 18 years when you're on the township committee and so was Kate at the same time you know we we did a pretty good job of uh doing what we had to do what you guys just had to do sometimes you just got to do what you got to do um as a Township committee so Mike thank you for your service for those years just want to say that thank you you guys for your services representing everybody that you possibly can so we see what happens next election for the election stuff we are out of town we are out of country that's the way to do it a good place to be we thank you Tom thanks Tom Chuck uh Charles gross 35 Walton Way so um I see that tonight was very difficult but um I wanted to talk a little about civic pride um first of all again Mike thank you very much for your service and Leadership um the field the dreams lighting component I think is outstanding um I'm not exactly sure what the scope was and whether we met it but what is out there is just absolutely fantastic from a night sky initiative I think it lights the field beautifully uh you drive by it's something to look at um I did drive by the other night it was pouring rain there was nobody playing or using the the fields but the lights were still on so I'm not sure how that is regulated if there's a Time clock or if it's only on when when it's uh scheduled but uh huge Improvement um and and uh I I I'm grateful for that I think you guys did a great job on that also the uh park at the at the river um seems to be coming along great um very much looking forward to that uh a relatively new neighbor in in town um I found that the uh river walk walk at dusk is a beautiful place to be and I'm looking forward to spending some time there and um experiencing that new park um uh and that's pretty much about it so I just want to wish you all a happy holiday and a happy new year thanks thank you Chuck we we'll try to figure out why those lights were on I don't know who contr odd that's really crazy we'll talk to the chairs of wck in the back there canel the game that was probably my I I pre-program it and probably forgot to turn them off that day sorry you threw yourself under the bus I've kind of been a little busy all right uh anyone else have any public comments all right I will close this session to the public and if you really didn't have enough they'll be another session later on in the meeting hopefully which isn't too late well past my that time all right we'll go to comments and reports professionals the only professional here no offense is uh Doug um I'll be relatively brief just a couple quick points I just want to Echo the mayor's comments about the civility in the room tonight I do a lot of representation I'm out at meetings like this three nights a week on average and um you have a lot to be proud of I'm proud of the Lang go tonight for the civility in the room and um the difficult issues that this town unfortunately has to seem to face over and over again uh with affordable housing issues with uh the dunes with the Mansion uh no Town keeps me staring at my ceiling at night more than Delano but I love this town and I think again I I speak at the league of municipalities on civility it's declining it was not on decline tonight in this room and you have a lot to be proud of for that so thank you to the residents um I also think it's an example of what the governing body sets these people all care deeply about the town and put a lot of thought and effort and review Into the issues before them um Mike I did some math not my strong suit but I did some math I've been doing this for 27 years two-thirds of that has been with you and uh talk about you know some of the issues we had to face and being in the trenches together Mike and I really uh spent a ton of time together working on the dunes litigation and good better and different there's no dredge spils out there so uh you know that has a lot to do with what Mike did in terms of putting in time and effort uh during that time frame and so um you know Mike thank you for all your years of service it's been a pleasure working with you um the last thing I want say is just about some of the ongoing business we talked a little bit about affordable housing if you read about affordable housing across the state of New Jersey uh a lot of towns are pulling their hair out um this governing body has done an excellent job of planning for affirmatively planning for affordable housing um some may say a hard lesson earned because the first run of affordable housing resulted in dense development of River's Edge um and and so the town has taken the by the horns and been very um upfront and forward looking in terms of their affordable housing planning we stand in very good shape relative to that issue as we go into this next round of affordable housing um the subcommittee which uh Kate Carol and I and Janice are basically the subcommittee for affordable housing will be meeting with Mary Beth lonigan our affordable housing planner this coming Wednesday and start the process as we go into the new year to address our obligations but the township um by all parameters is in a very good situation for this 10e round of affordable housing based upon what uh planning has already taken place over the years and what development has taken place so we'll keep reporting on that as it develops Doug Delano loves you back thank you thank you for your app how many years of service he's he's been on as long as I had yeah longer well a long time we started together there we we'll get you an award one year as well Doug that's all right just keep bringing me back and I'll keep me happy thank you Doug all right uh Township administrator Mr Schwab just uh remind every we we are starting to work detail on our 25 budget all the Departments and offices and organizations have submitted their things so I'll be working with the new CFO putting that together for you for January meetings I just want to note that in the consent agenda you have things that uh relate to that uh we have budget transfers from 24 which means that what you adopt doesn't necessarily end up being what we actually do so we make those changes after November so we make sure that we are in good shape uh we also uh have two SE areas where we're going to be entering a Cooperative pricing agreement and a shared service agreement with the county in both cases in order to get the best prices for the the items that we need and do it without a lot of special cost and effort and you also have a uh a change to the Personnel policy that deals with mandating direct deposit in order to save some money and uh the other thing that's on there is renewal of our contract with Del Ran uh Emergency Management Services uh for the next two years to continue with the ambulance service so we've been working on that and uh I'm not sure uh Carolyn if you want to talk about the contracts Professional Services or you want me to handle that uh sure I can do that so in your packet you have um two contract proposals from Taylor design and from ER uh for the park plan at Waterfront Park AKA zerber and uh we made sure heard that they were official and send us what they're doing and how much it's going to cost um we met with Scott and Harry and went over this in detail uh exactly who was going to handle what aspect of the park came up with a timeline that Mr Schwab put together for me I read that at the last meeting so we are on track meeting that deadline and this is their proposals um you anticipate about 20% of the total Park cost in profession services and we're pretty much at that and um just to make a quick note this is the maximum that they're going to charge uh and this is like worst case scenario kind of thing so um we're hoping you know that the total will come in less and uh they will be monitored and invoices you know will be submitted throughout the project to make sure we are on budget so uh we again have a deadline uh an opening for July so right now that's that's what we have going on here um in detail so we were happy to get them and make sure everybody's on the same page and we don't get some crazy bills after services are done so if you guys would like to approve that that's in the consent agenda just in case anyone had any questions yeah you want pull it out we can discuss it further later talk about it I kind of went over it in detail with Mr Schwab the only thing that we were GNA uh speak to Scott about was that first part uh first portion number one about like Park design um because we feel like that's already been done and I can't find it right now but um we're going to get clarification on that so there might be about 5 to six, actually coming off of that but again it's worst case scenario maximum amounts so we have an idea so seem to be right on track with what we thought questions great that's all I have thank you uh the um history board had uh a sign that they were concerned about it its uh placement is that already in in water fromont park yes yes there's two signs that are going to be there that we just put in the budget to pay for and we will work with the history board about design thank you MH okay all right thank you Richard and Carolyn department heads Lieutenant Lieutenant bow War Le Township Police for the month of December to date uh we have uh 15 police cases there were 565 calls for service with a total for the year of 10,957 uh there were 42 motor vehicle stops uh this month with a total for the year of 1,390 and there were 11 summonses issued this month with a total for the year of 642 um sure everyone obviously seen the news uh reference to the Drone issue no what's your own issue we have no idea what you're talking about so there was a meeting held last Thursday in regards to the best way for reporting um a800 number was actually given and we placed on our website because residents were calling all over state were calling to Central Dispatch but they have no means but they gave provide information so they're just tying up the lines so with this 1800 number you're calling directly to the FBI and you report it to them and then they'll to subit information to local PD as necessary um for us and our officers when they take a call they have a separate process that's just for law enforcement but they're encouraging the residents to call that 1800 number um one of the things that's kind of troubling for me uh we're being told that there's no cause for alarm but you don't know what it is so how can you tell me I can't be alarm if I don't know what it is so we just help people be diligent if you see him report them and we'll kind of go from there because that's pretty much where we are right now um we also know letter note we received uh our Offroad terrain vehicle it's at the John Deere uh facility now waiting for some other parts for fabrication so we should have that soon and be able to have it operational awesome oh good yeah great okay that's all I have can I do Lieutenant yes do we need get a trailer for that we did we did yeah on that uh the Drone topic we got an email uh last say Monday at 6:52 p.m. from the governor's office asking um to RSVP by noon the next day to attend a meeting up at the Rock in Trenton to discuss with the Mayors the Drone issue I have work and I said all right my Deputy Mayor will go they flat out refused it they said nope mayor's only too bad so sad we called the Senator's office to see if they could push that matter along because that's literally the purpose of the Deputy to go somewhere when the mayor can't they told the Senator's office nope imagine that which is glad I didn't waste my time because it literally was a was time it sound like the end result is they knew nothing they're not telling anything so it's if I can reiterate something too I was in contact with a company um looking at purchasing a vone a drone for our department uh based out of and I received correspondence from them uh last Friday in regards to the same thing they were able to deploy different means to try to get an eye on what's going on and from them they believe that there isn't any issues because they're unmanned and they're not operating in restricted space so that's why nothing's really being done because our question was like why hasn't State Police or the FBI or any other entity in our government space done something at least get an understanding or idea what we're dealing with and we were told well they are you know but I have my own theories but yeah we won't get into that but no the all day yeah so all right oh can I do public works if you really want to fill in for John tonight we collected 14 tons of Leaves we turned the compost four times that's sounds about right um um no they want I just wanted to report that we do have a trailer for the UT uh we the Public Works put the stone bed down and it was supposed to be delivered tomorrow it's a 20ft trailer that was used um we got for about 2200 bucks um but due to the Rain he wants to wait till next week so Kenny rescheduled delivery to next week so it will be delivered then um and we're going to see how it works out if it's a good quality we're going to go ahead and purchase more to replace the one that's West Avenue and then get another one right next to it so we can store more stuff down there yeah but it was cheaper to buy a used one they wanted like five grand for a new one so we were fiscally responsible and bought one for 2200 awesome thank you mhm very good and I believe this is the this or next week is the last week of leaf pickup if I remember correctly I saw a message that came out that said that all right um clerk's office Janice yes a couple items first one is a reorganization meeting of the Delan Township committee will take place on January 2nd 2025 here at the municipal building at 6:00 p.m. so that's re organization I'm going to ask the township committee to please um provide a motion and to approve the payment of bills there are you have a bill list for tonight's and it's on um your agenda but to Al to approve any bills that may become due and payable between this meeting and the end of the year actually to our next business meeting which is January Monday January 6th so um that way if there's anything that cannot wait till the January 6th meeting that the um finance department is authorized to uh make those uh make that payment so you need a motion a motion would be great thank you I'll make that motion second motion By Carolyn second by Kate fa all in favor I hi thank you and that's all I have and B has something Bev wants to go to bed it looks like I'll leave Santa your report oh okay uh Township committee I'll start with my let's see far left this time I'm going to the left Miss Fitzpatrick you have anything thank you um I don't have two pages or two and a half pages tonight so I'm sure everybody's Rel but um Del Riv dice meeting was cancelled but I know basketball's scheduled to start in January uh Recreation I did attend that meeting regarding the storage container and I'm so glad we got it and it's going to be delivered uh I missed their December meeting uh however I would really like to give a shout out to the members of recreation who assisted in decorating Gateway Park I mean it really does take a village but a special note should be made for Carolyn and Al who went over and above um what it the park look like our holiday visit or Village and Santa visit looked like something right out of the North Pole I'm telling you they did an excellent job and they should definitely be noticed for that um I enjoyed the carriage ride on December 14th and after that I did actually work after Jen left I took over her position until the end of the night and uh I was tired it was it was a long night but it was fun it was good to see everybody um and the 15th was just a special with the Santa and Mrs Claus were at both of our activities and um we he did help us light the tree with h the mayor the deputy mayor and myself so uh that was a lot of fun the vendors had some great items and I was able to purchase a few gifts for Christmas and a big thank you to lose Deli cuz that's that's what I have for dinner that night and and dessert and dessert yes breakfast yeah his daughter is a excellent Baker um and at 401 Creek Road I did work on drafting part of that fact sheet and um I'm glad that went through tonight uh and the seniors the Delano seniors had their holiday lunch in at forelli in Burlington on December 10th it was a festive celebration sharing good food with good friends and neighbors their next meeting is January 14th at the firehouse uh the Sewer Authority met on December 10th uh the trunk line project the final payment to Vortex was authorized they're now on a 2-year maintenance Bond uh the pump station is still a work in progress the main control panel is in and they're still working on the bypass system 989 coopertown Road uh it was reported that they may have a new tenant so our engineer is checking into the status and he'll advise uh stylex uh there's going to be a site visit there in March uh discussions are still underway regarding raising the tanks at the plant uh due to flooding uh although we haven't had any flooding for a while because we have had a lack of rain but we'll see what happens now uh the operator's report is on file and our budget was adopted and uh changed order for modifications and repairs to the concrete blocks uh surrounding the wet well uh we replace two discharge pumps and also the thermostat was replaced to ensure proper operations and mayor that's the end of my report thank you thank you Kate Mr Templeton thank you report last report make it good last report no no no uh board met back on uh December 4th most of our discussion was about the uh uh Municipal land use law was amended a couple years ago and it requires municipalities to compile a climate change related Hazard Vol vulnerability assessment and U so we had big discussion about that because sustainable Jersey came out with a program to provide technical assistance and I did an online webinar for that and we listened to what they had to say and I said well one of my questions at the end was what's the technical assistance you're going to provide and they said we don't know yet so I followed that up with an email the deadline was a think last Friday and um but uh had some back and forth correspondence with Michelle tayor who's the planning board uh uh planner and she said well that's not really required until we do the next me master plan or the next reexamination report so that can has been kicked down the road a little bit but the environmental board is going to some components of that Climate Change Report that state mandated um there's some public Outreach public information public education uh things that are components of that and so uh we're going to work in that direction so um this is my last uh last ra I guess yeah and uh uh it's been a pleasure uh to represent Delano uh at various meetings and places and meeting people and say I'm Township Committee Member from Delano Township or for the couple years I was the mayor um and a great privilege um democracy and being up here it's a it's a participation activity and uh uh it's it's incumbent on on residents and the citizens um it takes you have to participate and even if it's at home on a website or the newspaper or whatever um uh it's it's to participate in a democracy you have to there's an effort that uh has to be uh put forth to educate yourself and stay up on what's in the community and how things are going because uh the public you're really the rudder of of where this ship goes and uh I've had the privilege to working with a lot of great people up here over the 18 years we come from all different backgrounds and experiences and everything but we still depend on uh some suggestions and answers and and hints from the public um and I've been fortunate in in my time up here and six elections to great support across the community uh and most of all at home for my wife Marie so I was not going to do that P it together but uh too [Applause] many 10 um it's not easy uh as we heard over the last couple hours and stuff through 18 years um never at allll moment around here no uh but I do want this um uh close my comments with you know we hear things in the news or uh from things unfortunately from various people of the deep state that uh that needs to be eradicated or whatever well at either end of the V here is the Deep state for Delano this these are the people that have the corporate knowledge and the history and the experience that keep this place straight um and the experience here um I was representative for the town for 10 years to the Joint Insurance Fund and you get to meet people from other towns and you get to hear not that often but some real horror stories about things that are going off the rails in other towns and thatw U people like Mrs lure Mr Schwab uh Doug heinold U be Russell um and the staff that's that's in the back office there that does so so so much um our Police Department you know had the privilege of working with uh for different Chiefs and another one and uh our our staff there police officers of second to none and compassionate I've I've had brief glimpses now and then of of really the tough tough work that they do um last meeting we heard from the fire company and volunteers that uh responded to the fire and our officers that rescued the woman off the roof um God we luck and so um it's been a pleasure it's been a privilege thank you Michael I need your keys now please you know it's two more weeks two more weeks okay you know everyone knows none of us ever agree on everything total but you have to put put aside that for anyone to spend 18 long years up here you're either crazy or you really care about the town I I it might be a mixture of both but I've pulled this line out a couple times uh and I mentioned it to Mr heinold some couple weeks ago after the room got done that I knew I would finish in a padded [Laughter] room very true yeah but no um Matt it's been a pleasure uh your year as mayor and if I was here in a couple weeks you get my vote again so appr appreciate that thank you sir all right Fern did you do anything besides your frequent fire feet walking miles this uh week know this month nor normally when you're out walking the town it's in the fall or you know for campaigning and uh handing out flyers and talking to people and you see the nice fall decorations uh throughout the town had a different look this past week saw the winner or Christmas holiday uh decorations and we got some pretty nice decorations out there in town uh was it I guess it was last night because I was in Newton's landing and walking a few of those streets there uh and the lights and the decoration had it was a good feeling so uh other than that pass on to the next one all right thank you for depy mayor okay last three weeks are a blur but [Music] [Laughter] um I November 19th was my tayor design tree Grant discussion I don't remember what happened then to be honest with you 10 20 night you don't remember was a month ago um project management meetings Storage storage container meetings camera meetings we have all that worked out we have the camera proposal uh finalized so we're going to be getting the security cameras uh replaced within the township building and upgraded so we have some Cloud software get up with the times um November 27th we had a code enforcement meeting I attended virtually just talked about the various you know issues with the different enforcement um problems what else do we have here uh December 2nd I attended a meeting at tayor design with Criterion to talk about 450 and 500 as far as what they needed for their planning um then I went to Florida and got my teeth cleaned and here we are that's it there we go I think you did something yesterday at the uh Christmas Village I know that whole day was a blur and the whole weekend was a blur you know thank you to you and Al and the rest of wreck for doing that cuz without it it would have been a wreck and no pun intended no my husband kind of took the lead on that and he got some of his guys from work to help him decorate and I don't like the cold so I went out there very minimally and decorated the tree and barked a lot of orders and pointed and made them rewrap the lights because they weren't tight enough and somebody hates me kind of like you were at home out yeah you know but that's why it look so nice right because we had a super yeah thanks it was really a good time I'm going to keep my report nice and short because it's 1025 I think that says I'm usually in bed an hour and a half ago because I get up early um I ended the Christmas V Village yesterday we did the tree lighting it was a great event I tried to go to the sleigh ride the other night my head was not having it it was pounding it was the first year I've missed in quite some time it's still pounding right now as a matter of fact but why no idea why um this weekend coming up Saturday Santa Claus will be around town we're going to be starting around 11 a.m. in fact check me here Terry 11: a.m. no it's 11 I thought it was 11 it says 11 we put 11 on the flyer so we 11 but I thought we said 10 o well when you hear the sirens going we're coming around we we'll be around um so if you go to Delano fire.com there will be a link at the top for Santa Tracker and you could find out exactly where in town the big man is um and I think that's all I have to report this evening you just did mayor things for yeah I did mayor things the last month it's been I I'd like to say quiet but there was a lot of stuff going on but um there's no need to pontificate at this time tce word we go all right let's get these resolu uh we have a long consent agenda to read and um this will be my last one to read thank you God consent agenda items are considered to be routine and will be enacted in uh with a single motion any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda all consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes is there anything on the consent agenda that anybody needs pulled and discussed separately please say no no no no thank you all right resolution 2024 155 authorizing application and execution of fiscal year 2025 local Recreation Improvement Grant lri 2024 156 a resolution authorizing the township of Delano to enter into a Cooperative pricing agreement resolution 2024 157 resolution to cancel taxes and refund tax overpayment due to Total veteran exemption pursuant to njsa 54 4-33 a alpha resolution 2024 158 resolution adopting amendments to the Delano Personnel policies and procedures manual resolution 2024 1559 authorizing change order number two for the Field of Dreams irrigation well installation project resolution 2024-25 budget Appropriations transfers resolution 2024 161 authorizing the renewal of a contract for Emergency Medical Services to Delran emergency Squad resolution 202462 authorizing execution of Shar service agreement with the board of County commissioners of the county of Burlington for snow removal and Associated uses for January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2027 resolution 2024 163 resolution awarding contract for Professional Services for tal Design Group 2024 164 resolution awarding contract for Professional Services environmental resolutions resolution 2024 165 resolution authorizing and directing the execution of a letter of intent with Criterion Group LLC for the property at 401 Creek Road payment of bills current fund $193,600 54593 Capital fund $1,234 66 the puppy fund otherwise known as the dog fund $625 escrow trust $ 17,398 7 cops cares trust $1,333 33 cents approval of minutes for October 7th and 21st November 18th and December 2nd 2024 approval of departmental reports can I have a motion please to approve that long consent agenda so move second motion By Carolyn second by Kate roll call please Jan Mr Patrick yes Mr alette yes M yes Mr temp and Mr Bartlet yes uh correspondence please Janice yes we received today um I just want to ackn on the record a letter from the New Jersey Department of Transportation regarding their alternative set aside program request for application this is for those Intermodal um Transportation uh improvements highways of which we don't really qualify for something like that but I just wanted to acknowledge that we did receive that we received a letter an email letter from a Jessica Guera um regarding 401 Creek Road tax impact we received a letter from Mr John P uh W Lane um regarding the uh tax impact for 401 Creek Road um everyone did receive those that those two pieces correspondence as fored emails to you sure approve that and that's what I have for correspondence thank you thank you Janice all right meeting is now open to the public for comments and questions this is session number two you have any comments or questions and you missed the instructions 18 times this evening so far you're going to approach the podium give your name and address for the record meeting is now open to the public for the last time in 2024 nothing Ray okay good chuck all right seeing no one because everyone wants to be in bed right now I'll close this portion of the meeting to the public thankfully I see nothing under discussion items here because I think if we did we would table them to another meeting nobody needs an executive session tonight do they no no thank you Mike do you want to make the motion to adjourn well before we adjourn I think we'd like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas a happy New Year happy holiday whatever you do enjoy and thank you for being here tonight yes thank you thank you than you with that I I would love a motion for adjournment so moved no Mike mik oh Mike oh I'm sorry second all in favor Sor sorry no I'm usually have a very very good night and very Merry Christmas and everything else yeah yeah wow [Music] what's up Colin