##VIDEO ID:NNMZ59qBpfU## provisions of the open public meetings act notice of this meeting was transmitted to 100 Democrat times of Trenton The Star Ledger on December 29 2023 posted on the township website the M Municipal Building bulletin board and F with the township for law p uh please rise for unedited States of America indivisible thank you here mayor W here okay we have a couple sets of meeting minutes to approve so the first set is June 10th 2024 regular meeting minutes and executive session uh minutes approv and hold uh like you get a motion in a second for those minutes any someone other than yes you were here for the June 10th Jun thank you uh any comments okay hearing none uh all those in favor to move the minutes I I extensions okay thank you uh we'll move forward with the uh July 8th 2024 regular meeting minutes uh to approve and executive session minutes approve and hold uh Davis is the one on thday if we could get a uh first and a second please to move the me minutes minutes okay any comments on the meeting minutes okay I'm hearing none all those in favor I I and exstension yes thank you Dave okay we're going to uh if I could have a motion to open to public comment and the this will be on agenda item only if you can please keep this to 3 minutes uh per person uh and if you coulde go to the podium and then state your name uh once called upon uh so if I motion thank you all those in favor I okay open for public comment sir Chuck cine resident uh my question is on resolution 24-18 I would like someone to please here now or when the resolutions are approved to explain that in more detail and even why it's even me the legislation is being presented I'll pull that for discussion thank you any other public comments Wallace project is massive and comes with a very big price on the entire Township I think decision to go forward with the bond should go to the voters before that I would like to see a public hearing um postponed until September when folks are not on vacation when the public concerns and comments can be heard Inc and adjusts made to thank you sir sir my name is way Fleming I'm a Air Force man I have lived here for over 50 years I knew Sarah DS she with two houses over from me she wanted this park for the children only not for pickle ball or not for any Improvement such as for adults hey you got to understand we don't want to be an IOU to borrow money to make the park look beautiful for 360 some kids and none of them show up okay you know we have a high school that has a lot of this uh uh Sports field athletic fields give it a break you know this is a community that loves their wide open spaces you guys prove it because of the land that you own Delaware township owns a lot of land and you're not getting any taxes from it are you no that is why please understand we' love Delaware Township to be reserved and preserved thank you very much amen thank you any other public comments sir I just had a question is there going to be sorry is there going to be another opportunity to to speak during the public hearing of the ordinance would you rather that we hold our comments and go it's up to you this is your your time to speak so you can speak now you coms okay fair enough don't know name I'm here to agree with you I feel that there's so many people in this town who are not aware what's going on a lot of people don't go to the website they're not left they don't know they don't know they don't they don't know what's going so I'm here to urge you not to vote I'm here to urge you to vote referendum after everyone has information because I we get we get a postcard in the mail you know Township exp about the rep commission event think about it but we don't get a postcard in the mail telling us we're about to go to bond for2 million plus and I think we really should have that I think everyone should have like that gentleman said there were so many people in this town whove been here for years and years but they're not involved not because they don't want because they have lives that are really busy so I think if people were aware of what's going on they want to have a say and I think that's the only fair way um I think what You' done is good but I think that I think that maybe people should have a I really urge you not to vote tonight please pleas for and to make it also very clear about what we know maybe if we get any more negative maybe they consider amendments focus on as she as Andrea said it's it's a lot of money and I know I know what the per annual increase for to be but still another addition on everything people should beware pop the V please and to have thank you sorry uh Ro by cour Farm I just want to concur with the two women who are saying that this should be postponed um I'm not a cynical person but the fact that you deferred the meeting from July the 12th to August the 12th um if I was a cynical person I'd say perhaps you were advised to do that so that we didn't you didn't get the out the turnout that you're getting tonight but even if you're getting a turnout here there's 4,700 residents in this C you're burdening them with this decision so I think the is President Dave and Sue remember other big issues that have been raised around election times have been either put on the referendum when you wanted to take money out of the preservation uh conservation money or when we were looking about U Down zoning pushing the decision until after the election so that you can the public can be able to let there all 4,700 of them their opinion be Hur so if you make if if since I'm not cynical I'll just I just accept that you made a very poor decision to have this meeting tonight and I concur with the two women who said postpone it and consider a referendum if you can't get your head around that push the decision to the other side of the election because you're making a decision that we're all going to be voting on and that's not right in the middle of August thank you m I also want to make the argument that this should be on the referendum and I want to amplify what said it was never Sarah's intention to have the hand of that you're designing and I also agree that this is not the most obvious time to get the Public's input on the vote we plan to take tonight also I want to point out that we don't only love our Open Spaces we love living in a community with farmers and teachers and people who will be hurt by raising taxes there is no excuse for raising taxes in this town to create a park such as you've designed thank you ma' I concur with all the above so I don't want to repeat all of that um use up my time um I wanted to go through um ordinance 20242 and understand if that ordinance it says providing various Capital Improvements in and by the debt toship of Delaware does that include for the authorization of 323,000 change bonds is that part of D par what do you mean what is various Capital Improvements in uh these are for public roads okay and then the resolution 24147 authorizing submission of Pon County Municipal Park and Recreation Grant application so is that safe to say that the application has it been submitted yet and this is author authorizing us to submit that particular application for for what amount uh I think the max award is 100,000 150,000 so would that possibly reduce the coordinance Bond why not why are we voting now why can't we wait until the grant is um approved because sometimes these uh award the award procedures take sometimes a significant amount of time that's why we put into the financials that were distributed to the committee members assuming that those awards were not granted so it's sort of the worst case scenario so the first 10 years that we've lived in Delaware Township our taxes have gone up $1,000 10 $1,010 which isn't that bad mhm however the past two years it's gone up $922 which is a significant increase current all Delaware Township uh residents pay for municipal open space and County open space through our real estate taxes for us my husband and I that equates to more than $560 a year and I'm very happy to do that but I think enough is enough it's time to stop incurring more debt and start being more responsible and I don't mean that as a as a negative to anybody here but I think as a homeowner I would love to complete all of our home Improv projects and property Improvement projects at once but we have had to phase our projects out over many many years because we couldn't afford to curve more debt I think the same should go for the tox sh thank you anybody else sir can I if you can withhold unless it's if it's in respect to this particular ordinance I ask that you defer until we actually open for public meeting for that because we've already have your opportuni is that I is that the subject matter I didn't have a full three minutes I'll give you extra time on the other end uh is this in respect to the ordinance uh that yes okay so uh if you could please wait until I open it for public comment during the ordinance period okay thank you I I I appreciate it anybody else okay uh seeing none if we could close public hearing please or make a motion all those in favor I okay let's move forward with uh Township committee lates on reports Mr bow yeah so I attended the rec commission meeting this past month uh just kind of following up on some of the items from the last meeting just want to say thank you to Diane for working with Diana to pull together a preferred vendor list that we'll be able to now hand over to re others I think it's a good idea secondly the the one open item is the U request for the surv green survey that's under review Once that's under review we'll make it available to uh to wck and as well so that we'll keep that on the radar until ready to release that in terms of just new items um I think everybody knows that the community day and the fireworks are coming up September the 7th uh the park will be open from 3:00 to 10: p.m uh the Garden State fireworks vendor the same vendor that we've used for years that's been approved resolution um the only thing we're waiting on is just to confirm the uh the permits so I think things are moving forward there uh DTA will be selling food there and also there'll be some local vendors so that's the uh Community Day in fireworks there's also a spook tacular um being planned for the month of October October the 19th what i' asked in our last meeting is that these guys just provide a list of events so that we can just give an idea of what events they're looking to hold at this spectacular that way we can review it make sure that we're all thank you anything further Mrs Blackwood looking through here I guess probably the most important thing which is also on the list of the resolutions that are going to be approved um and the consent agenda is that the um open space um committee met and um kind of at the request of our um we voted on um basically using the um land conservation folks for at least one year to see how that goes as the open space coordinator since the year was going and we still had no coordinator so we did follow up Diane um and uh Ros Westlake and I actually met with the folks from the Land Conservancy to make sure that what it was we were expecting and what they were and were not expecting from us um and we had the um resolution on the consent agenda to basically sign contract with them to see how it goes appr so um because again there a concern you know we are collecting money in our open space trust and we need to be using that and you can't do that if you don't have a coordinator just don't have the resources um that is actually on the agenda it is yes uh somewhere around here why again so do you want to have a poll for further discussion no I'm I'm with I'm just making sure that everyone knows it's on the consent agenda and and with the with the blessing of the open space commit and sube that and d a long time well we'll see how we'll see how it goes and we're hopeful that it'll be a positive because we can't function without a coordinator so and so I'm going to be honest I don't like we introduced this particular coordinator to the open space group 6 months ago and we went full circle here we are we wasted 6 months of opportunity to spend $1.5 million that's sitting in the open space trust is doing nothing for the residents well can I point out that had the committee not done what it did last year we would have saved money on the coordinator because this coordinator was costing us more than the coordinator we initi which which coordinator was that the one that the previous mayor scuttled after it was all set up so so I don't want to hear about wasting money cuz we're spending more money but that's okay we need to do it and I'm for it at this point but but the reason it took that long is because we had an opportunity which we squandered and now it's costing us a lot more money but more money so as I said so don't telling me that we could have done it before so anyway so I'm happy with it we need to do something and this is the only option we have currently and it's not a terrible option a that um the only other thing I can say is unfortunately I have had conflicts with the um mua I had a conflict this month and I have a conflict next month so I don't know me you know anyone wants to sit in way I kind of feel bad because I don't need that many meetings I haven't missed any before but I I had to miss August SE I probably so yeah you said for August or September September it's theth I have work evening work I thank all set that's good great thank you okay uh I just have a couple things I want to report on uh Sergeant Ellis who is our office of emergency management officer and I will be meeting with jcpnl on August 29th uh the representative has um stated that they actually have some infrastructure improvements planned for our area I don't know what the scope uh I do not know the locations I don't know how much money they're willing to spend uh but the good news is there are infrastructure improvements uh so I will know more at the meeting on obviously after uh August 29th and I'll report them back at the next Township meeting after after that meeting um I'll also make sure that I uh alert them to the problem roads that have been apparent throughout most of the outages that we've occurred uh for the past year I've noticed a you know certain roads that are always running out of always losing power so I'll make sure I identify those to jcpnl I'm sure they already know them as well but I want them to be aware that we have recurring issues there and our residents are are getting frustrated a bit so we'll see how far that takes us uh post office construction uh little update it's delayed again uh so unfortunately uh they had mentioned to us in the past they were going to start in April then it became May then it became July and obviously each of those time periods has passed us um the good news is uh we did or we were in receipt of course respondents from uh the post office that basically said because they're a federal agency they're not subject to permitting and inspection fees by the township so that's a good sign they're starting to plan ahead and save some money so uh I'm hopeful that this is the start of whatever process is in place at the post's office as an agency to actually get going and ripping down walls and whatnot at at the post office so uh as I get more information on it I'll be sure to share it with the folks here at the meetings and online um finally uh voting location changes will be made for two of the districts here in the township and has been done because of feedback associated with the primary elections was not positive apparently there wasn't enough room it was too noisy it was too hot um so the county and the election board has decided the best course of action would be to take two of our five districts move them to another location that is undis is undisclosed at this particular important time so I can't even tell you where you're going and what districts they are uh but the people that are affected will be receiving something in the mail from the election commission from the county stating where you need to go um and obviously when the township learns of the information I will make sure that we share them uh through the township website through these meetings put it online on the newslet we're hoping we can get that information the newslet hasn't gone yet and that's usually right on the front page so we have it set up on the front page um fortunately we didn't go yet so we can we can add that information we're hoping in the next4 hours thank you okay uh as soon as uh Diana as soon as you get anything if you could let us know we'll be able to disseminate it to you folks and obviously if you have any questions you know how to reach us you know how to reach Diana uh please do so if there's any confusion where you're going to vote for the general election uh that's all I have uh Mr V do you have any comments no Mr Von okay thank you okay uh administrator report Diane okay I only have three things um construction department has HED a newal okay to replace Chris Rose retire name is Dan um started last week contractor very happy to have him on board works in other um neighboring municipalities and so we're happy about that um you'll see a resolution um har great addition to our team um last thing I was just going to talk about the the resolution for the huning County minicipal Park and Recreation grant program um kind of touch on that 150 to 50 to 15,000 um we will have to contribute 25% and du and we're still being infastructure that okay that's thank you DPW report Mr swash all right we responded to 14 down trees in town trim back trees around several street signs drove through town two times picking up rush along the roadway and gr dishes completed roadside mowing for the second time this year removed the bus huts and destroyed the areas located on sutt Farm Road and Mason Farm Road uh dug out a path at the Village Green over here replaced it with DGA and stone dust Clean Catch space and tops throughout the town water the trees on Lower Creek Road and the plants located at the police station where SA referers to uh make it look nicer Robert groy helped us out with that which is really nice and a great contribution to the town I think yes uh we reset the we o Trail sign on Route 29 that fell over we placed several speed signs in town uh completed Paving on Gran Road uh regraded all the stone roads as well as the firehouse parking lot in bills Park Salt cut the parking lot out here we're going to be doing a drink job in the parking lot pave the section of lower Creek Road and started Paving sides of roads with the asphal on the sides of the road I also want to thank uh Mike Gis for your of service to retire two weeks ago 25 24 years here um want to grow Landscaping also for help out the police station uh we pick weeds help us plant some plants put new stone down mul things like that and also I want to congratulate um Harry on become permanent status here in town he's been a great addition to the town and look forward to work with him in the future fantastic thank you appreciate it okay all right we'll move on to ordinances what everyone's here for um uh so the first one is ordinance 20242 this Bond ordinance providing for various Capital Improvements in and by the township of Delaware in the county of hund in New Jersey appropriating $460,500 therefore and authorizing na of $323 $260 worth of bonds and Note and or notes of the township that Finance part of the cost thereof um if I could have a motion to thank you uh comment I I'll just lead off by saying this particular ordinance is for drainage issues on Mason Farm Road apparently we got a back a backup of water that refuses to drain it then becomes a skating Rank and unfortunately cars that drive on it can easily slide off the road if any Resident walks on it they can easily slip back their head Etc it's it's it's a liability uh the second portion of this is for Raven Rock Road uh continuing improvements there uh this is phase two I believe this is still phase one uh there is a phase two that's sometime down the road uh but this is a continuation thereof uh for a lot of drainage issues there as well so um any other comments from committee members okay hearing none if I could set public hearing on oh I'm sorry have a roll call please David B yes Chad yes sus yes Joseph yes mayor yes okay set public hearing is what's our next meeting date thank you okay ordinance 202 24-11 bot ordinance approving the improvements to dils Farm Park in and in and by the township of Delaware in the county of hun New Jersey appropriating 2,4,6 thereof and authorizing the issuance of 1,951 882 of bonds and or notes of the township that Finance to cost their uh if I could get a motion for a public hearing please second okay all those in favor okay uh any additional comments sir yes sir again my name is Bill Fleming I'm 78 years old and you know this money can be spent for senior citizens in housing okay instead of the park because the park Sarah dels wanted for the children to keep it simple all right now we have wild animals in there the uh game game warden goes in there and checks it all out but also we have to understand how important are our senior citizen I'm a Vietnam veteran what did you do for me nothing I don't see any senior housing there but then you take the housing that these old people want and you push them to another County you send them out of the area where they grew up they love and they nourished so therefore I challenge you to fix a a crosswalk on the lamberville headquarters road to uh I'll just say Sho uh excuses property there is no crosswalk for or sign that says children are going on a school bus there is nothing there you know you're talking about millions of dollars but let's face it it's all about the children all right let them play that's what the schools are for they've got the parks they've got the tracks they've got the football fields they've got the soccer fields how many more do you need to satisfy 360 some children that only go to this here Delaware Township school I had 365 people graduating me in 1964 when I was in high school so please be aware of the budget because they're spending money and the interest rate is going up we're in for a I want to tell you we're in for trouble ahead because Prosperity is not going to be as good as you think it might be so please please understand thank you County for your uh it took me 5 years to get that handicap sign over there across the street okay thank you five years different mayors and it is for me to say it's not only for me it's for other people senior citizens through are handicapped please I know you're going to be making some improvements by the store there are you not MH yes each and every one of you are responsible for making these improvements you've got the gentleman right there for the township who was working there great idea but you know what there's no crosswalk right there from the store to the end okay there's no and there's no crosswalk I'm sorry uh from the end to the other places which you take children walking into the firehouse understood all right thank you sir thank you for your time appreciate it yes yes sir um is it open for yes Sten wber president um just a little unclear now um we're in the third year now since the referend W funds um for that can be used for the open space Park um how much money is currently available you know between that some of the grants from wre you know I'm assuming there's some sort of interest in curred on the money that hasn't been spent yet like we at so we have uh we have $240,000 of a open space funds on hand that were collected through the uh referendum we have $18,000 in Elite W Grant that is accounted for and we have the uh letter of award for that we also have $140,000 of County open space funds that are awarded and uh set aside for this particular project so we're basically half a million dollars in money available to contribute towards yes which would go against that $500,000 or I'm sorry the 2 million yes um so then I'm a little confused that why are we talking about financing 95% of a job that we can we're not financing 95% job we're financing 34 for 1.95 million is $100,000 short of the total of the estimate well it it's different because some of this is paying for the interest on the notes only not for the entire principal amount but what we can do is I can defer to our financial advisor I don't want to get into the okay that level of detail because I have other questions but I just it seems like we're asking for more money than we need to do the work based on what's in the reserves right now for the for no yeah no no we're not asking for any more like this is the actual ordinance has a cap of $1.9 million on so so and uh there was a a post on the sville neighbors um which estimated that the additional cost tax cost would be $18 for a $450,000 assessment for the average yes is that that's based on all the numbers you just gave that is based on and based on what you're asking for yes um and then of course there's potentially another $250,000 in grants available through H County and for infrastructure the park so that money is just going to geted in to phase two no that would be utilized to offset some of the monies that we would need to borrow or pay off existing pay off part of that exactly because you know looking at the 2024 budget I mean the town right now is carrying a debt of 7,782 781 uh that's our debt service this year is $578,000 in change that's 15 cents of every Municipal tax we pay is going to pay debt service yes and now with another plus million we're going to be well north of 10 million which means next year we're going to have over $750,000 in debt Sur but if you look at where the township sits respect respective to our debt ratio we are one of the lowest debt ratio towns in in New Jersey but as my wife said earlier our taxes have gone up 4 and a half times more without any of this in the last two years than it did in the previous 10 years and we're guaranteeing it's going to go up that much more moving forward so well unfortunately a lot of that is out of our control because that's all health care costs and benefit costs well no but it's entirely within your control because we don't have to spend another $2 million on improvement tool okay I think there's no one in this room right now that would probably argue that the plan that was proposed you know it's will greatly improve you know the organization of the park certainly the safy you know the parking and and kids running across the streets you know it's going to make it much more accessible for people than it is right now and you know it's going to replace obsolute infrastructure but like we all do when we have to deal with issues with our own homes you know you can't do a whole house renovation when you don't have the funds to support it okay thank you any other comments sir Town resident uh I'm going to speak to the positives and say that this is a long time coming and a vote Yes tonight would be great for the kids in Mar Town talking about the kids we are in our highest numbers I've run baseball for DTI I'm on board for DTI we're at our highest numbers since before covid we host events at the park 26 out of 52 weeks a year our park is dated the infrastructure is bad anytime you drive through there you can see a kid almost getting hit by a car because lines aren't clearly defined so in terms of getting this done it should have done years ago we're not 8 flying at the park um and another 18 my taxes is well worth it for our kids a thank you thank you sir good evening my name is Joe Wy I'm a resident lamber um some of my questions have been have been answered um I wanted to ask about tax implications and I believe Mar you mentioned that in at the first reading was it $18 for average house per year or per there there's a lot of variables obviously that do on that but that's our our estimate is $18 to $20 uh based upon uh the current interest rate which we suspect is going to go down because but we're we're assuming that interest rates are going to stay currently where they are is that per per quarter or per year that's per year year on the median household in delor Township which has an assessment of $450,000 understood another question um there are there administrative costs that have not been included in monies uh uh being requested in the bond for example there's a mention of bond counil that may be needed at some point for the issuance of Bonds are there other administrative costs that have to be paid for outside of the cost of it would be Bond councel but we wouldn't necessarily be going to bond I think we're probably going to if we did move forward with this at least in the beginning roll notes because notes get reset on an interest rate basis annually and being that the trajectory of interest rate policy by the Federal Reserve is downwards uh I wouldn't fully Finance for 10 years right now this as much you wouldn't go out and buy a car uh and ask for a long-term financing at these interest rates you know other words there's going to be reducing them so you do the the financing that off affords you the reductions annually so and those do not have any sort of ancillary cost uh whereas if we went the bond route we would have to go get the bond rating reassured which does have a cost okay all right um another this is another another question and I do have a recommendation I don't disagree by the way with the the idea that we don't have to do this now having heard everybody I'm I'm in agreement with a lot of the people that maybe it should be a referend at the very least it should be postponed and get work foro public inut but that goes back to one other question I'm just curious have the Committees of the Township that have the most concern about Parks and Recreation IE the park the open space and Recreation both the recreation and open space committies been briefed on the proposed uh plan I know they are aware the plan that the bond or I'm sorry have they have the Committees that cognizant committees been briefed on bond Orin are they aware of the plan and who our committee the no the committee the subcommittee of the Town recreation and open space yes wck knows well wck knows but literally we didn't feel compelled I mean we're the financial arm of the township so really it's worldwise understand from from yeah okay um I I do have one suggestion I'm not opposed to the the overall uh and if you choose to vote on it tonight my recommendation is that you include uh if you can amend the ordinance hopefully without going back and reopening the hearing to include a phase a two phase approach in the first phase you would appropriate I sell the notes to cover the planning and design and get the detailed cost estimates you would then be able to go to the Committees the r committee and the open space other committees get public input on the detail Plan before proceeding with the full financing of the project that way is it everything is defined no what we don't have to worry tonight about do you really need uh a $350,000 um facility restroom or whatever is in in the estimate it hasn't been designed and you may have enough money and the estimate you may not have enough money so do not embarrass yourself if you go through planning and design nail all this down get more public by amending the ordinance to to provide that process I think everything would be a thank you sir yeah excuse my name is Jeff bar the budget that I saw indicated you were building three paddle ball courts yes sir are you building any pickle ball courts pickle ball I'm sorry says says b it's pickle ball all right and do you have a a detailed bit for uh your tennis Sports we have uh an estimate 250,000 for tennis and basketball separate facili I believe that's what it is I I don't have a bre down in front of me let's see here 280,000 28 that's what the bids well not the bits didn't this is an estimate of by the engineer as to what those bits should come in at approximately has he ever uh built the tennis facility I would hope so I want to that sure I'm actually building a pickle ball facility right now in white town so tennis facility not tennis pickle I said tennis I play I played tennis my whole lifee okay sir good evening everyone Brian saloi 44e resident of Delaware Township Mr Fleming thank you for your service to the country uh you kind of kind of touched on a point right Sarah dils built the park for the children yes correct what about the safety and health of the children is that is that you think that was in her mind when she gave the park or did did you think that she wants this piece of land that we're not going to maintain and make it unsafe for the children to play it is up to the people who are conducting the recreation to provide the safety so I'm one of those people I sit on cou of recreation right and the park is way an created right when I was there as a kid it looks exactly the same right actually it's probably more dangerous right for our residents I'm there every day dude almost every day right I see it okay excuse me I didn't mean to prefer you as dude we need to spend the money on fixing this park we don't need to add all these czy things but we just need to make it safe and we need to worry about the health of not only our residents and our guests who visit the park because I don't want to get a call or Jess will get that call now that the bathroom's not working because it hasn't been updated for 50 freaking years right it's disgusting I travel this state for lacrosse soccer baseball I've been all over the state actually been out of state right and I go to some private facilities like Diamond Nation but I go to mostly public parks and by far and this has nothing to do with Justin he's doing a great job over there our park is worse than a prison the bathrooms are disgusting right the entrances are tight so any visitor there if they're not paying attention they can drive off the road or crash into one of our kids and then what we get sued for millions of dollars then what who has to pay for this us all right correct correct me if I'm wrong you're right right so we need to we need to finally buck up right Co threw a ren of this thing we probably would have got this done sooner if Co didn't happen but it happened right Steve we were talking about this 2018 2019 and we brought it brought it up to you guys and then C derailed it but here we are let's move forward finally right before my kids graduate high school right they're going next year well two of them are going next year then I got two more and thank you for all your taxpayer dollars for my four kids in school but my point is I'm for this project enough is enough already let's do it it doesn't have to cost $2 million have you been to the grocery store things cost on the cheaper end of things sir yeah anybody else yeah sorry uh actually M galdi I had a question on the utility reconfiguration specifically the sewer when we have the money to build a new restroom as was just said eloquently probably um by the previous fellow we need a bathroom but what about the actual underground there was a couple meetings ago Susan I think you said you didn't know if it was a cesspool or a septic what's under there and is that part of the the funding to make that all that waste be environmentally cool I'm going to defer to on that sure yeah we actually looked into that the septic system that's on site is functional but it does need to be uh revised and updated so that's going to be part of the design process is replacing the the restroom facility the building that's there with a new pre-engineered building that has more modern and durable restrooms and also evaluating and reconstruction Port reconstructing portions of the septic system to make sure that we can manage the flows that we're experiencing so it is part of the septic is going to be it's going to be part of it cor that's all I have thank you and I also want to say there's no sense of entitlement just because you've been here for 44 years thank you Jan Weber Delaware Township resident so tonight is about whether we move forward with the funding for the park tonight is not about what amenities the park is going to contain it's not about making it safe for our children it's about the park it's about burden on us as taxpayers the burden on future Generations as taxpayers but to be fair park is there and we have a responsibility to Main maintain it the question is are we going to maintain the park or are we going to there's a difference between maintaining and making improvements that are appropriate to a rural SLS suburban community in Hunting County we are not Milburn we're not Short Hills we don't need custom tile in the bathrooms and we don't need um manicured perfect Playing Fields so we're not embarrassed in front of other parents we need something that will maintain the park and something that is appropriate dollarwise for our budgets okay so tonight is a go or no go decision correct okay thank you you're welcome sir uh my name is Roger Harris I live on Cover Bridge Road um been here at 35 years and uh raised two children they both went to uh DTS and members of dtaa um enjoyed many wonderful times at Dills Park a lot of laughs a lot of great times and I think it's a wonderful asset I'm sure that when Realtors show houses in Delaware Township they make sure the potential buyers know about DS Park it's it's a wonderful thing um but I'll also say that um as a a retiree um and a taxpayer I'm concerned about $2 million I think it's a lot of money for2 M $2 million you can get a lot of stuff and stuff requires to be maintained and maintenance cost money so it's not just the 2 million it's also going to be further maintenance going forward um today I spent a little time on the web and I looked at the census data for Delaware Township and going back to the year 2000 until now so about 25 years it's basically stagnant it's gone up a little bit down a little bit but there was one thing that caught my eye it said the the median age of the population and in the year 2000 the median age was 42 years old and in the year 2010 it was 49 years years old in the year 2020 it was 56 years old so it's gone up 7 years that's the median age so if you carry that forward in another 6 years it's probably going to be 61 I don't know how many 61 year olds use basketballs and uh snack shacks and so on but um that's not to say that we shouldn't maintain it like the the woman who spoke just before me I feel very strongly that we should I just think that we should we should limit it clely um the other thing that supports the the same thing about the population sir if you don't mind could I just interact on that last point you made if you don't have the facilities to attract young families to come to the township they're not going to come and the reason that you might see the the census sort of travel to towards the upper age bands is because young families aren't attracted in coming here well they they can't certain aspect ra taxes excuse me I'm talking thank you no excuse um sorry just move on move on you're talking please so anyway so you have to have something that attracts young families to come to the Township in order for the population to continue to grow here because if it doesn't then everyone's going to be left with higher and higher taxes we need more ratables in the township we cannot keep just preserving farmland or guess what everyone's taxes are going up they're going up so you need to make improvements here to to uh attract young families so anyway that was my point on that please proceed with with yours okay well yeah that there's a debate there too about whether or not Farmland preservation saves taxes or cost tax um I I don't think we're prepared to go into that I just agree with the comment that that the implication that uh the infrastructure at builts is not attracting young families I think young family drives through there say look at this it's great got basketball courts got tennis court ball fields they don't look to the B they don't go to the bathroom they drive but anyway that's need to hear me there the my point is that the the the population is aging I don't think that there's people they use uh as there used to be um so that's it basically um I I do support as the woman ahead of me said maintaining it it's a wonderful asset I just don't think the 2 million is uh I think it's Overkill and so I urge you to reject it and also consider a referendum thank you sir um I'm raising a different point R I'm reminded I didn't realize that these numbers are just uh estimates um I recall you know Dave and Sue do too when we decided to upgrade the police department and I think I'm right in remembering that we had a d was it 100% overrun on the original estimate for the police department it was it was enormous so if these numbers are just sort of estimates that you've drawn from other other projects I think we need firm budgets this is a lot of money we can't go to bed unless we have the authorization to do that this is the first step to do that we can't go hey let's make an imaginary bid if we were to able to contract you how much would it cost that's not how it works Roger we need this Bond we need this ordinance to go through in order for us to allow the engineer to go out and get act when we did that there was a similar meeting when you were talking about the police department you remember that whole Police Department we trusted you we trusted the okay it's going to be a million doll something like a million dollar being like million doll rep I mean that was a different engineering firm too okay different engineer yeah we fired point being the point being Dave and Sue and all of us have been here a long time trusted those estimates to go for the bond and a million dollars and I think I'm not wrong in saying it was like 2 million by the time the things finished so talking about increasing taxes it it's it's terrifying to make the commitments Jamie when we don't really know what we're making the commitments to and so if we can't do anything other tonight maybe J's suggestion of funding the design and planning phases and then letting everybody know we've done that we've done that Roger we've had a meeting at the pous were you there for that where we went up right so okay so you missed that um we did that we went over we planned everything we allow afforded the public the opportunity to speak about what was going into the park and we had a tremendous turnout but it's funny I look at at the crowd here I don't remember seeing men in your faces there you expect individuals and that's why about the pickle so guess what that plan is already appr okay so then put that to a referendum and then to referendum because people like me would then take the time to understand it I I can't keep up with all of the the things that you're doing because we put trust in you but when you come with a $2 million ask that is not firm it's a troubling thing so I really have request you defer it or vote it down and let's go back to the drawing board and we should have done that day with the police department really should okay thank thank you I can um before the next person speaks there were some there were some comments that from a local government contract law is inconsistent with New Jersey Law and as you indicated uh the engineer comes up with the estimates so that we can go out to B and get a bid right if a bidder responds and it's 100% over what the bid spec is by law you don't take it they're not a qualified bidder and the bid is rejected you go back to bid if it comes back over the bid specs again you reject it and at some point the engineer and I would be discussing with you about how under local contract you don't have to bid anymore you can go negotiate depending upon the situation so I I don't know anything specific about the police department but I know what was represented here is violative of New Jersey Law and I can tell you as an attorney could not have happened you would have as an operation of law you would have had to reject the bid and if there are costs overruns the engineer has to approve it and he's going to look at it and say no that's that's part of the bid specification well I didn't anticipate that the response is too bad you got to do it yeah you know so those are the types of things that go on now sometimes there are Quest overruns the contractor will go to the engineer the engineer will look at it and say that's legitimate I'm not suggesting that that a bid can never have an overrun but it it's not the private sector where you sign a contract for $200,000 and the the contract gives you a bill for 400 you have to pay doesn't work that way with taxpayer there are protections when it comes to government contracts correct certainly yeah that would be the first step you know and what what was being represented is we had a conceptual plan prepared by JD with the input of hundreds and hundreds of people at a duly advertised meeting there was so many people from Delaware Township it must been it was probably 15 times the size of people here tonight so our next our next step is as part of this um this vote we'll authorize our firm to go out perform a field survey do all the sort of nitty-gritty drainage design grading design uh addressing the traffic circulation safety elements uh handicap accessibility or uh you know making it a um a facility that's accessible to all you know all ages all abilities physical abilities and then also looking at you know some of those other Recreation yes there are basketball courts they're falling apart there are tennis courts they're falling apart they tripping hazards they're safety hazards the fences are falling over all of that needs to be fully reconstructed so um certainly you know I heard mention of larger municipalities more um you know uh more densely populated municipalities certainly we're not building proposing turf fields here or anything else I mean those would be I don't know maybe J tell me five times more expensive if we started putting in like artificial tur SOC