as your uh concerns regarding the noise abatement we have been assured by Township engineer that the distance between the pickle ball courts and the nearest Residence uh the amount of noise that will carry that distance is di Minimus uh that is why we took the additional steps of planning the trees so that that too would sort of be the belt and suspend approach to this whole uh issue regarding noise and hopefully the combination of the distance plus the plantings will totally eliminate that uh the noise as as far as an issue is concerned if it doesn't then the township is willing to take additional uh means necessary to take care of the problem for the residents that surround the park thank you you're welcome okay uh we will now move on to Township um I'm sorry yes Township committee leaz on reports uh Joe if I can start with you please uh yeah we had the uh budget meeting the other week and Chad but I guess we'll be hearing more about that later good thank you soon the newsletter next newsletter will be ENT out to f to reach their homes by June 1st so our deadline is April 26th so if anyone has anything that the newsletter please let me know um the storm water committee is actually um kind of awaiting a meeting with the township engineer um you know again we're open to you know working with anyone on any project but at this point we're kind of waiting for feedback um there was a question which I'm not sure belongs here or if it belongs elsewhere I I'm not sure if someone asked a question regarding the um May our engineer not the the Basin at Higgins Farm okay they were wondering I guess who's responsible for that I don't know I think it's any because I guess there might have been some issue about water backing up in the really bad storm or something okay so that was somebody raised the question uh at the storm water management committee meeting okay we're fortunate to have DPW here so if you could check that out for us um actually from shade tree I don't know if they reached out to Justin okay but um they were going to offer you if you need it the core training did he reach out and yes okay good because um I guess we have uh we have money budgeted and we need people who are train so anyway and then um uh also the shade tree committee looked at the uh model ordinance the tree ordinance I guess I see it's later on our agenda yes um and then the MUA um I think I mentioned before there have been some issues with how things have been going since they switched over to like 100% sort of contracted um so the uh their engineer met with them this month and went through several different fixes okay um and some of the cost that would be associated with that and I think um he said the next step really was to um I don't know do a real study to see what each of these things are and what each cost is and what might work and what might I mean we're talking fixes ranging from you know let's see you know $500,000 um I think some stuff but $800,000 all kinds of different things and $200,000 so the question was basically um we need to have all of those things outlined in such a way and know what you know someone said you need to do all of those things we don't know we did not answer that for time that would be um something that would have to be better after okay okay and the only thing I can say from open space is of course they would still a coordinator and recognize that I believe there was some interest by third party organization that that Miss weslake was looking into okay secretary and okay I don't know okay so that's that's all thank you Mr B yes so a couple things one is this is in the packet for tonight uh March 27th the uh qcc met to review the Cory's annual license submitt form and you we're happy to report that um tra Rock continues to be in good standing and meeting all the um requirements so at this point there's no recommendations that we have for the township to consider um on that topic secondly is the quy inspections So based on uh the actual ordinance there's a requirement for the Cory to be inspected twice a year now there's zero plans and it was outlined in the submitt form this year for the Cory to resume any operations So based on that the recommendation and this is you know discussing this with the township engineer is that we wave the April inspection as we did last year and then have them do a full inspection in the month of November okay that's really that's the only action we're requesting from the committee to approve that okay and is that on the agenda for this evening I didn't see anything I don't think it has to the agenda oh okay just we're just looking for a wa okay just a wa okay that's it thank you Mr Bond yes DPW report I have it here what they did they respond to 30 down trees blocking the roadway by removing or putting road signs up so the power company knew how to respond they cleaned up any down trees at Dill Park and removed all branches in the Park Town maintenance they clean and prepared the bathrooms and turned water back on after the uh state water test they hauled out eight dumpsters of recycled material from our recycling day which was metal cardboard mixed electronics and refrigerators they cleared the catch baces Tops on each roads nine roads and they started cutting grass at bu Park as well as a town hall and other locations and then uh they regraded and filled potholes on six stain Stone roads in the town Brook Hollow Grafton Old Mill stomp Road Upper Creek and War they dug out grain ditches at five location spanning approximately 1,000 ft they filled eight potholes with temporary Pat for calls from residents they fixed two catch basins and one outflow pipe uh seven groundy Road at the corner of lower Ferry and Higgins farm and at the uh pight DS Park vehicle maintenance I replace the radiator wheel pushings and so forth on T 100 lawnmower put a new alternator on the silver crown diagnosed replac a U joint on police car number 14 replace Tire on back fix the windows in the tan of truck and service to cat litter and uh uh our our road supervisor attended monthly jef safety meetings on 420 2024 so of course from the storm and the dead trees they've been they've been pretty well tired I I was down there this morning and they have a new uh demonstration from a machine that carries a couple three ton of patch goes along and puts the patch out and they they T it down with their motorized tamper I don't know what offal name is but they had just gotten that that just come in that's done demonstration so I asked my on demonstration last and said he for about a week so they get lot done on demonstration that way that's all I know PR impressive okay uh I wanted to address the uh power outage that we all experienced uh I guess it was last began last Thursday um we had a total of 653 homes affected by the power outage uh power outage was caused by uh two major infrastructure damage reports uh one of those major infrastructure uh damages if you will was a transmission line uh transmission line is higher in volt Ag and requires an additional expertise over and above the typical linemen that you see throughout the town throughout the township when we have a power outage uh there were 33 minor damage reports and those include typical wires down tree uh trees down and Transformer damage um I wanted to mention that a lot of the long etrs that folks are seeing that and that's the acronym for estimated time of restoration that you see when you go to the JCP website is mostly due to the assessment of major damage and they have to go house to house to determine the ability for them to be able to isolate you from the major damage so when there's a major damage event they look at all the homes that are that are supplied by that particular transmission line for example and then they go they say all right we know that transmission line is probably going to take a day or two to repair because of the extent of the damage they then go and look at all the individual houses and see whether they can turn each one on by isolating them and that's why you'll see the long run times in the beginning and then hopefully you see your times drop immediately down from two days to 6 hours so uh I just urge everyone to have some patience especially when you see those long etrs that doesn't necessarily mean that's what it's going to take uh you just have to allow them the afford them the opportunity go out and make the proper assessments and safely turn everyone back on um the other issue that they experienced in this particular storm was the fact that they were able to isolate a bunch of people but they had to turn them back off in order to work on the transmission line to turn everyone back on uh so I know that some people had experienced power coming up and then immediately going back down uh that's just unfortunately the whole notion of how you turn power back on and off so I I don't know know the exact technical reasons for that but it certainly uh makes a little bit of sense um I did want to mention that the rep was very responsive to my requests for information and addressing specific resident uh concerns and needs uh throughout this particular event um I thought she did a great job um she obviously is the face person for jcpnl to our Township um she's very good um she is willing to come and meet with us and the township uh residents again to uh listen to any concerns or questions you folks might have um so if you folks think that that's something that you would be interested in in entertaining and and asking those questions please let me know uh I will certainly set that up uh as far as the uh actual storm uh we actually made it through and I believe we had everyone turned back on on by Saturday uh which considering the the amount of dams that we had I thought they did a pretty decent job um that's all I had in respect to the storm uh the only other thing I wanted to address uh we had a uh resident who was at the last meeting who mentioned that she was concerned with the CO2 levels in the room so I went about and purchase a CO2 meter to make sure that everyone is safe and I'm looking at it right now we have 700 ppms of Co CO2 in the meeting so everyone can uh breathe easy uh we're within the guidelines so uh with that being said uh I would like to move on to the I guess Justin did you want to add anything to Dave's report on the DPW side um as far as like future stuff going on we're working onole replacement right now Pooles and things like that and we're still Di all the rain would begin so we trying to alleviate some of the flooding down okay that's pretty much what's going on and obviously our regular maintenance as far as cutting grass and and things like that so great thank you uh we'll move on now to the budget introduction so I'm going to hand it off to you D if you don't mind tonight is the introduction of the 2024 budget um the budget reflects a 1 and a half increase tax increase for Municipal Taxes that's $60 on a $400,000 home about $15 a quarter um all requests were honored um we kept all services U I wanted to give you a little facts about our financial status um right now our um fund balance is um 1,700 our collection of taxes is 70 almost 99% um which we never have to worry about cash flow and we have a very good tax collector and good residents that pay their taxes and our net value assessment has gone up every year a little bit so we hold it steady and our net debt is under 1% it's pretty awesome and has been for many years so um the public hearing will be May 13th um at that time um we'll have a public comment and I can answer questions any of the committee members have a question like that and I did meet with the finance committee which is joei and didn't know if gentleman wanted to provide any other information over and above what that said I thought everything that she laid out was very clear uh what I was impressed by is the just the amount of assets that we have it's almost a billion dollars in assets that um we have within the township so the way that that's been managed is pretty impressive Joe just yeah how well we've been maintaining it over years yeah I I think the main takeaway here is the cost of um the cost of benefits the cost of employing people quality people which I think we really do have in this Township and inflation that's been unfortun fortunately been over 6% uh you know for the year prior to this particular one we're still running at 32% on a national basis um people need to go out and pay for everyday items in order to live and that includes our own employees so um I think it's necessary for them to to live uh you know happy lives and happy employees are good for Town Township employees and good for the township residents so uh with that being said the the cost of benefits is just going up and that's just something that happens every year so uh frankly a pending and a half considering the inflation that we've had uh the last two years I think uh kind of comes under what I was originally expecting so good news I read today that the county went County went down so hopefully that offsets our Penny and a half um so we'll go into further detail at the next meeting uh do we need a any sort of approval of resolution or something introduction it's three resolutions on okay the budget introduction either do them together or separately however you want to handle okay um think the aor wanted a roll yeah but there have to be a roll okay she said separate that's fine so no consent no consent later on the rest of them will be okay as we go uh well considering we're not doing the consent I can just go right into it so resolution 24- 84 is authorizing items of General Revenue for the 2024 budget um could I have a motion in a second for discussion I'll make that motion second okay my understanding Dian with this this is anticipated revenue from Grants and other uh sources of income to the Township and we're just anticipating them and setting up a general fund for for those anticipated funds okay uh so if uh I guess with that resolution so uh we need a roll call Diana hey David Bond yes Chad bow yes Susan lock yes josephi yes mayor Walton yes Okay resolution 24-85 deferred School tax uh Delaware Township School District and may I have a person second make that motion all those in favor oh sorry sorry uh so Diane on this one this is a we're allowed to defer half of the school taxes right this is um to record the difference between the school which is a fiscal year and the municipality which is a calendar year okay and we're allowed to take uh 50% or less okay any other questions or discussion by the committee members okay roll call please Dan David B yes Chad B yes Susan yes Joseph yes may yes and uh finally resolution 2486 uh full year 2024 Municipal budget introduction uh could I have the first and second I'll make that motion second any discussion by the township committee members roll call please David Bond Chad B yes Locker yes Joseph yes thank you okay we have the introduction of some ordinances uh ordinance 20245 an ordinance to amend chapter 315 of the code of Township of Delaware entitled storm water quality to add arle it's been a long time since I've done this 14 14 uh tree removal and replacement uh so this is the read by title uh is it this is the first time so we're going to read by title and set a uh a public meeting dat for this which would be okay so I need a motion a motion and a second for the introduction of this of ordinance 24 20240 I make that motion second okay this is all roll call roll call please di David B yes Chad B yes Susan abstain Jose V yes and may yes okay we're moving on to ordinance 20246 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hund in state of New Jersey chapter 7 thereof entitled traffic to amend section 7-3 parking schedule of section I'm sorry schedule one of section 7-14 no parking and schedule uh schedule 4 of section 7-17 time limit parking uh this is an introduction so if I could have a first and a second please I'll make that motion second okay we're going to set a public meeting date of May 13th okay you said meeting date I'm sorry hearing public hearing date of May 13th I a roll call please okay David bad yes yes Joseph mayor W yes okay and finally on the ordinance front ordinance 20 2407 an ordinance of the Township Delaware County of hun and state of New Jersey to authorize an expenditure and appropriation from the reserve for police vehicle equipment $55,000 for the purchase of a police utility Interceptor all-wheel drive and accessories uh if I can get a first in a second please okay we're going to yes um section two says dou CH authorizes an appropriation and expenditure for the vehicle to exceed 55,000 is that supposed to be to exceed or not to exed C okay thank you the next one is right I discuss that we rotate every years we purchase a car and take one out of rotation for a spare thank you uh so we will have uh we will set public hearing for that on May May 13th as well uh Diana call please David B yes Chad B Susan yes yes yes okay so we have the public hearings for the adoption of the pre previously introduced ordinances so first of those we have ordinance 20 24-3 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hund state of New Jersey chapter 381 thereof entitled sewage disposal to amend the perk test fees uh if I could get a motion and a second to open the public hearing please I make that motion second okay uh all do I need all in no all in favor to uh open for public hearing on ordinance 22403 say I I any Nays any extensions okay uh we are now open to public hearing on ordinance 20243 so if you have any comments you could please come to the podium again uh or any questions for that matter okay seeing none and hearing none uh could I have a motion to close the public hearing on ordinance 2024 make motion second all those in favor okay and then I uh I'm going to go to commit you're going to do a motion to approve to approve second and then comment and then a roll call okay so if I can have a motion to approve ordinance 20243 make the motion second all those in favor no no you have to do a it's a roll call on ordinances and if anybody if anybody on the township committee wants to comment or discuss or ask questions I would ask that first and then do the roll call okay my apologies I thought I had to introduce it first so okay so uh any comments or questions from the committee members so do we know off hand one the last time was we increas the a while update at their request okay that's fine I'm fine okay very good any other any other comments questions from the committee members okay uh hearing none we could move forward with the roll call please okay David Chad yes sus yes yes may yes thank you uh ordinance 20244 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hun state of New Jersey chapter 369 thereof entitled food establishments and vending machines to amend the food hermit I move that we open to public hearing second all those in favor any n any exensions okay we're now open for public hearing so anyone's interesting opening a vending machine here's your opportunity all right uh hearing and seeing none uh could I have a motion to close public hearing please so move second okay any discussion by the you can say all in favor this what I I thought I did that before and you do yelled you could do it all you can do it all in favor to open and close the public hearing when you're voting on the but I thought that's what I was going before by my my apologies there's three of them yeah right right and I thought I was at I thought I was at two previously anyway okay all those in favor for closing public hearing please say I I any any NS any exensions okay uh any discussion we already have that okay I a motion to approve thank you thank you second second okay Diana roll call please comments no no no oh for no public com committee comments committee you have any comments sry to put you three of this guys and GS it's been a long day solar eclipse and everything okay now we're ready let's go David what okay Chad B yes Susan L yes Joseph yes mayor yes okay praise the Lord we're done with Oran okay we're moving on to a consent agenda even though I can do this one so uh I'm going to read them off uh before I read should I read them in then ask if they want to be pulled it doesn't you can ask first if okay let's do that so does anyone have any of these particular resolutions they need pulled from the consent agenda for individual discussion you're good Joe gentlemen good okay okay so I'm going to go ahead and read these resolution 24-87 appointing alternate uh Solid Waste what was it SWAT Solid Waste advisory committee is that what it is uh representative uh resolution 2488 authorizing refund of perk witness fee uh second date of block 46 Lot 8 resolution 2489 uh hiring of Public Works labor Class E resolution 24-9 authorizing fire department shared services agreement and finally resolution 24- 91 authorizing application of NJ Lea implementation Grant uh can I get a first second on these please I'll make a motion we approve second okay a roll call please thank David Bond Chad B yes susanwood yes Joseph yes mayor W yes Okay resolution 2492 authorizing payment of Municipal obligations in the amount of $63,800 okay hearing U call please I David yes Susan yes Joseph yes James yes thank you okay we're going to move proceed with old business uh so we're uh first going to deal with the corresponds from the environmental commission regarding the lower Delaware wild and scenic what was it committee designation designation thank you so I don't know if my recollection was that uh Mr toriello recommended that we not join in with the designation simply because there was some concerns regarding the language and the ability of us to be able to deal with our own property properties and our own residence properties within within the confines of of the the creeks and streams that would be part of this uh designation is is that correct yes that's the general and again we had people come and give presentations as to the benefit of it and the only benefit that they said was they would support application for Grants and funding and I think it was up to $5,000 and and given the the extensive um layer Federal Regulation that would encumber and burden private property if you were just to whiteboard in terms of the positive and the negative the negative far exceeds the positive of $5,000 in my so I was uh speaking with one of the representatives the U woman that's here in the audience prior to the meeting and she indicated to me that if there was any possibility for you to look look at the agreement that we would ultimately be signing and make amendments to the point in which you would feel comfortable that's not my concern the concern is the the thousands of pages of Federal Regulation that include for example if if the federal government is like it they can Institute a condemnation proceed and take the prop the property property now whether they do it or not it's in the document it's in the statute so my you know to get $5,000 to expose a private property owner to the to the taking uh by the federal government I I don't I don't see the benefit of it and and and again when we had the discussion we made query of how many municipalities have done this and there really were not many so just like with the Cannabis the recommendation was let others be the uh the guinea pigs on this and let's see where things shake out we don't need to be leading the charge on this we are we already sign and and that's fine I mean the mayor's I mean ultimately you guys it's it's certainly you know your vote to have but um we've been a member of this for years and not only that but if we don't sign on we kind of muck it up for all the towns that did so the the gentleman who is putting this group together he would have to go back and basically undo everything that he's done or redo everything he's done if we're not a member because we're supposed to be all doing this as a group together I understand Sue I understand your concern there but I think our concern is with the residents of Del Township so I don't care what he has to go and do but our resents and their residents would have the same issues if there were to be had um the federal government has no interest in taking proper unless they doing a highway or something we're not talking about that it's wild and gives it a protective layer an additional protective layer that's all it does it doesn't stop anyone from doing anything on their property and it probably only applies to other government entities the same way like a historic designation does it doesn't even apply to individuals It generally those things only apply to government entities for example it would protect against some do project that might be going to you know expand in an area where we may not want to expand it or some of the rockfall projects where they're trying to blow out the double seat table if it's wild and Scenic that they may not be able to do that it does not affect individual Property Owners because any more so than a historic district would affect them historic district does not depends which level of historic district we're talking about we do not a historic district VI beds MH just protects against government action it does not stop an individual from doing anything on their property at the federal level but there are there are Lo Municipal and local local and and state historic designations that do require you to paint your house a certain way if you have to do you have to pass your own local ordinance right right and we don't have it no no no I'm not saying that but I'm just guess my point is as it is you know unless we pass something to do more these things do not affect individual property rights well I'm listening to council and he's suggesting that it could possibly affect that right and and affording the federal government additional Powers over and above if I'm a land owner I'm not for that personally um affects government entities who have whether they're doing like a do getting that's not how that's not how I this this is very different Su from how what I I'm hearing from Council I and again you know I know there's a lot of pages and statutes but I I too have been you know I'm not a lawyer however I have dealt with these agencies in my other life four years you know and I know how these things do and don't work and they do not I mean they do not affect individual property rights ever because the federal government again as I say I suppose you are you know interstate highway you'd be taken from property but a wild and scen designation is not going to take someone's proper rights based on our attorney's advice I make a motion that we don't join this out but we're already part of it already already any further the ticket no no y from the audience please thank you now what I don't understand is how can we be a part of this why do we need to sign it because it's an an additional stream that's all it is the streams that we're in already we're in on the other streams this is an additional stream that they're trying to get protection for so we're talking about one stream well you know the old accent the rule the rule of holes when we in when stop digging I'm sorry could you repeat that I couldn't hear you yeah my recommendation is now you guys can now the the my only argument is I know our residents and I know the township and I know how important the streams are and how environmentally conscious all of our residents in this particular Township are if we join this group we're not doing anything more we're we're not obligating us to do anything more than we already are so the only benefit that I see from this is you suggesting that I'm preventing a highway going through near these streams I'm basically saying that the protection is afforded if a federal project comes along that want to change that right that would be detrimental in some way it doesn't even necessarily stop them it puts them through a review to make sure that there's no alternative to not do it the way they're proposing to do it and if there is no alternative does that prevent that no they probably be allowed to do it anyway in fact I mean you again for not to the only similar thing I have again goes back to Historic when a a cell tower that's a federal approval so they would have to get an approval if they're trying to do that in hav't seen it they had to do that for the cell tower that went into the Rosemont area again because of that designation so that's the kind of thing it effects you know I mean if someone went to put a cell tower in they'd have to get through the wild andic issue and again did it stop it the one in Rosemont didn't yeah I had nothing to do with it so I guess my so coupled with the fact that I think we're already doing whatever additional Environmental Protections would be afforded to these three stream streams that we're talking about um coupled with your argument that we're preventing the possibility of the federal government approving either a cell phone tower or a road or whatever going through the streams um that does offer a benefit obviously but I think the impact to the particular resident and the fact that they might through you know through advice of council that they might subject themselves to power of the federal government to I know you're suggesting that they you think that they can't take land but I heard very differently that it could it's very open-ended and possibly there's two things there there's a conversation about a hypothetical of whether they would or they wouldn't that's not interest as as an attorney I have zero interest in what they may or may not do and engageing hypothetical right under the statute they have the legal right to that's what I'm Focus all matter that's all that matters and there was a gentleman who came here and gave a presentation yes and the township committee said if we join this give us a list of all of the benefits what's in it for Delaware there is no discussion about anything other than two things we will support you we will write a letter of support in an application for Grants right and you can get up to $5,000 what I'm suggesting is if you ever need $5,000 my recommendation would be take it out of your budget and not expose yourself to thousands of pages of federal regulations for $5,000 it's not worth the five grand now the gentleman who wanted this had an opportunity to say give us a list of all of the benefits he came up with two a letter of support for Grants and $5,000 those two benefits balanced against the owner federal regulations that you would Place upon private property owners I believe that my recommendation is in the best interest of the property owners of Delaware n that's my opinion all right so I saw a couple folks from the audience that expressed interest to be able to say something if it's okay with the committee I would like to open public hearing so that these particular individuals could come up have their 3 minutes to say what's on their mind um and that way we can make a decision based upon their comments you know not wholly on their comments but uh in consideration of this so sure okay first first second okay all those in favor I I okay uh I saw someone yes sir chairs are creaky though John KY T president um I wrote the letter on the environmental commission chairperson and I guess um I don't disagree with the initial reservations that were expressed last year um but a slightly different composition of of the uh the township committee and I also con see that the presentation might have given all the benefits potential benefits of the township through this designation instead of coming to a final decision would it be possible have a dialogue either with your attorney through you or us directly about his reservations maybe not an exhaustive list but some of them that we can look at the environmental commission and say Hey you know maybe they're right about this thing or that thing what can we do about I'll talk to Rob you know can we go back and forth just a little did I didn't write that letter and have a decision tonight okay if this takes two months it takes a year it takes whenever I want to get to the best possible resolution with the most facts on the table and if we don't satisfy those concerns of both the committee and the residents then it's not going to work but if we can have the opportunity to answer some specific questions that you might have I think before you having to take our time out to do that for you so that's essentially my thank you I appreciate it man' my name is Martha I'm a town resident I'm here in support of this designation I know that we are part of this already um I I understand the world is caught up in this where too much oversight too much oversight and the legalistic part I totally understand to protect us I think I'm going to to say that this gentleman has said my words we somewhat spoke I spoke to the mayor prior to the meeting and that I would just like a discussion with you if possible and there to create maybe a different verbage to continue on with this this is our Township has always been about our our our creeks and our clean it took so long to get the back up and I know that's maybe a little bit a part of this but this town we utilize our trails and our stream so much here I just I can't I don't see the negative part I mean I understand I'm not a lawyer and I don't see all of that but to protect us when we're already part of it and haven't had an upset I just I don't see I don't see it anyway I'm going to stop and say that this gentleman I would love to have some of verbage with everyone to see if there's some way we can go forward with this and not to just act upon it tonight and not um and have fin thank you anyone else okay seeing none if I could get a motion to close public hearing please don't move second okay all those in favor um so listening to that I I believe it would be premature to close the door on this I'd very much end of the day and I think everyone on this committee feels the same way if there's any way to help the environment without affecting the individual rights of property owners I'm 100% for it and I think any resident here would say the same thing uh by listening to C council's concerns I think it would be premature for us to vote Yes to this but at the same time like I said I think it's a little early to shut the door so hopefully um Council will be willing to speak with the proper individuals and uh let's see if we can't find a common ground and that way hopefully be able to uh satisfy everyone's concerns just two things sure certainly I'm always willing to do that I just need permission from the township committee to do that okay um and secondarily I would ask where's the general oh right here um I have an argument before The Supreme Court on May 1st that I need to prepare for so I would just ask that we delay it until after May 1st when I can get back you know focused very fair enough so uh hearing that if I could have a uh resolution first and a second on uh authorizing uh Council to speak with u Mr I said that correctly right you did thank you uh regarding the uh the lower Delaware wild and Scenic uh designation I just actually have a question um would Mr toriello would you feel better if you actually spoke to someone from the National Park Service I don't know if they have someone assigned to this but again you know the National Park Service oversees the Wild and scen I think we could start uh this conversation first and then depending upon what comes out of it that may be that may be helpful so just a thought okay uh need it first in a second I'll make that motion okay so we're authorizing Dave for JT to speak to Mr Kar perhaps uh the uh defer based on the outcome of that conversation persuades or changes it point of view what was the agency that's in than the national park okay uh I all those in favor I any extensions or Nam okay he n okay okay thank you uh so let's move with the park concept plan approval so as essentially uh what we're trying to do here is as Mrs Weber properly indicated if we kept talking about you know what would we like adding to the park Etc this conversation would probably last you know forever so I think we need a clean cut of what we're going to approve and this would be considered phase one um and that was ultimately what was presented to everyone that was in attendance at the special meeting at the firehouse I guess it's about a month ago um and if anyone ever has any questions about you know what we're speaking of this evening like I mentioned it's available on the township website and we actually have the full drawings downstairs in one of the meeting rooms um I welcome you to take a look at them um the only difference between the one that hopefully we're approving this evening and the one that is in the drawings was the inclusion of a previously existing but omitted volleyball court uh the park planner did not realize there was a volleyball court in DS Park in existence um we want after we had heard back from several resident said that they utilize this uh volleyball court and they would you know taking it away essentially does not allow them to uh continue to utilize the park and for volleyball purposes uh we decided to ask Jay to put that back in and the monetary uh addition to do so was fairly the Minimus um so what we're hopefully approving this evening is a finalizing this is the plan that we would like to go to bid for them to spec for bid uh so that we can go out to the various contractors that would be interested we can get a price on how much the the park uh plan is going to cost and then ultimately we can have that budgetary discussion once we have the proper information in respect to that um so what I'm hoping is that we could have a discussion about uh the park plan see if there was any concerns uh before we ultimately uh go ahead and vote and say this is the final Park plan uh we would like to go to Bay so with that being said I'm going to open it up to the committee for any questions or comments uh just one quick question where where's the location of this volleyball I think it's kind the batting cage I believe is my understanding batting cage and there were people playing the other night but they weren playing volleyball they had had the screen right on the ground had to call it what is that uh they was kind of playing like volleyball but it wasn't because the uh this high from the ground I don't know I never seen anything like it I thought I didn't know what it was but I don't get around that much I sat there watching for a while and uh they was having a good time whatever they was doing and they each had a whole basket of tennis ball back and forth back andth but all the screen the net I guess I should say instead of being up you know we for volleyball it was down on the ground up about from the ground up high as this table between the poles so whatever is it is and maybe I don't know but that that's where it is that's volb is that's a good place because just a little bit east of it is the uh yeah back stop I don't know they were having fun no matter what they were doing there's a couple gentlem I mean they was you know I don't know what happened I'm not touching anything so that's the only I know test that you're getting a signal okay sorry about that aftershocks so the only question I had I mean of everything I heard that the only maybe concern was that with the sort of re configuring of things that like maybe parking was being lost so some individuals suggested that that may be the case but after speaking with Jay he suggested that he suggested that all of the roadways would have parking to the side now that wouldn't be designated parking spots but that would be set up to the point where you would have almost cavers that allow grass to grow through it so that if you required overflow parking all of the roads would allow for that overflow parking so even though there weren't designated parking areas there's a tremendous amount of this overflow parking that's available and um he we indicated to him such as when we had the event with the fireworks which I think is a little bit extreme as far as parking's concerned he didn't suggest that they would be able to hold that amount of cars but he said for example the season opener or whatnot he didn't feel it so that that would be an issue as I said I think that was the only thing that like right really an issue is potential issue I don't know what yeah I think let's keep it away from the mayor trying to get back to my training thought so so we don't think it's an issue I I addressed that with Jay and he said he does not think it's going to be an issue at all I think when you look at the concept plan it doesn't make it clear that there is that supplemental parking along the road the right place I think that's unfortunately the is yeah I thought the uh I mean I thought the assessment that was done objectively was uh no surprise I think the issues that were identified were pry Prett clear need to be addressed plus the feedback that um was provided by the public at the um the meeting at the firehouse was very favorable based on that I'd be in favor of moving forward and requesting quotes to start moving sets what the impact is going to be okay Dave did you have anything no I think sorry and work alongside is good because most of the time the part is being used the ground is dry enough to do that so still just do it on grass you don't even have to put papers down as far as I'm concerned I've been here a few times like fireworks last fall I mean the place was Jam but everybody's having a good time and people par on the grass once again it was was late season ground's hard and it's an old side and the and the park lays high so the water drains off of it so it's you know you can probably get a lot of rain and still go par off the driveway if you have to right right okay I I think the only thing that I just wanted to mention was the whole reason that we sort of embarked on this whole park plan was for safety concerns uh we have a tremendous amount of safety concerns not only for the kids that are playing the kids that aren't playing running through the parking lots uh the the traffic flow doesn't make a lot of sense the traffic uh the existing parking spaces aren't large enough to accommodate the larger SUVs that are are around today so you have a lot of folks backing in backing up and backing into each other potentially little kids that are running from Snack Shack which is on one side of the parking lot to the micro soccer field or the jungle gym it's very discombobulated the whole setup um that and our facilities aren't ADA Compliant we have no ramps we have no handles in the bathrooms we have a whole bunch of ADA concerns that need to be addressed by this um we have flooding and erosion issues um that need to be addressed by this as well and frankly we're spending lots of money every year uh reclaim the baseball fields and frankly that just is not necessary if we have the proper uh means by which to to guide the water to the the closest stream or whatnot um so I think you there aren't any really new shiny new toys down there except for the pickle ball courts um everyone has seemed very interested in us installing but the rest of it really is a much needed refurb of a very outdated Park um so you know that's I I I'm very much in favor of moving forward and and frankly at at the end of the day if we don't refer what's there it's just going to cost us more more and more money on a on a general funds basis to maintain the existing buildings and structures that are there um and and as as you folks know all of that has to come from General funds it can't come from open space money uh the open space money is essentially that the referendum approved allows us to make these Capital Improvements that will mitigate against the need for the general funds and hence raising your taxes for this so with that being said uh if I could get a motion to wording everybody should have the wording we have with a motion thank you okay so if I could have a motion for uh Park concept plan approval uh we move to adopt the park concept plan as presented with the inclusion of the existing volleyball court that was omitted in the previous plan in order to proceed with the bids spe preparation so if I could get a first and a second please second okay uh roll call please David yes Chad yes Susan yes yes yes halfway okay uh we will now move on to let's see here here okay so we have the grant subcommittee signage approval for the sustainable Jersey Grant and that is the um did we have anyone that wanted to present that Mrs cats please come on up you're the next contestant go make this quick if you recall year ago may we Township received $3,000 Grant from sustainable Jersey to map all of our Public Access open spaces and make that available to the residents and get it up on the website um just to give you a quick update we have probably 99.9% done with the draft for the website it's um been reviewed by at least one two members of the environmental commission that actually went out followed my directions to see if they could locate the parcels got feedback from them did some updating actually did mileage from intersections to help people locate where these facilities are where the open parking spaces are we are going to share the open space committee all the members wanted to see the website mockup final version as does the Environ commission so my goal is to get that out to them this week I three more Parcels I got to go get the mileage on and that will be done the planner is mapping the parcels now on the Township's uh map lot block map he's supposed to have it completed and back to us by the 20th of this month so the goal is to get the website up and going get it to the website company beginning May followed by by the postcard the mailing newsletter doing the drum roll hopefully back in June to give you a full presentation of what the final product is what we had up with but the $2,000 it looks like we're going to have about 400 or so left over that we have to use sustainable Jersey makes you use all of the money so we I think I was here in January um I had talked about the subcommittee had talked about possibly trying to do a map a trail map for guils because a lot of people don't know where the walking trails are on the reer property will we talk to the planner to Colliers about that and given the fact that they're working on the park master plan they didn't want to spend the time and the resource to do that mapping for us to do the GPS so we kind of tabled that for now okay still have the money so one of the members Steve came up with the idea of why don't we do a sign that announces the public access Open Spaces with the QR code because if you remember you gave us the approval right to have a QR code that people can scan that will bring them right to the website page that lists all the information about the parcels so what our astute graphic designer and our subcommittee did was put together a mockup of a sign that we were envisioning having which basically unveils the project what the name of the project is is cute little map to get you out hiking with all the you know Trails on it um little information and the QR code and the bottom is the disclaimer that sustainable sustain sustainable Jersey requires on any sign um don't have a location yet for this the environmental committee commission when we spoke I spoke to them at our last meeting thought builts would be a good spot for it my colleagues on the grant subcommittee were concerned with all the renovations at dils is DTS really appropriate perhaps the Green Town green across the street or in town hall um we don't have to decide at this very moment but just know that we'd be looking I think I put in the email to Diana it's 18 by 24 so it basically what we're envisioning is this 18 by 24 on a metal post on a 45° angle so that it it'll be laminated in color so it get your attention you you read it you'd say hey what's this about let you scan it oh wow look I want to go here and let me you know read information and then go out and get out and see the nature right um so that's what we're looking for is your approval because then once you approve it then hopefully tonight because then I have to go back to sustainable Jersey because they have to do the final approval of the sign that is there they want that sign off so okay um that's basically it I if you have any questions if not I'm GNA I that would be about the same cost as this yeah $400 yeah the quote we have right now is from River signs in lville we told them our budget was 400 and they said they could do an 18 by 24 for 400 and yes I know we need a purchase agreement in the W4 and have question does the gr cover the plannner cost yes okay yes we Bud very good did that last year if you remember we did the budget and the planner even though we got the estimate from him last January we have it in writing he's honoring the proposal from last year so we're good with that I I don't have any questions if I can make a comment absolutely I just want to recognize you for all the the work that you and your husband have put in to mapping this out just the hours you guys have gone around driving to make sure that this is very accurate this ESS so thank you it was it's been a labor of love as I call it I now know the town if anyone wants I will give guided tours I won't charge much but yes it's it's actually was very eye opening when my husband and I spent six 6 afternoons driving around and now I can just go there like just like that okay well then thank you thank you uh anybody have any comments or questions okay could I get a motion to there's any specific language for this is there just allowing them to app approve the signs okay all those in roll call please it's a sign yes Chad yes Susan yes those yes yes thank you for the presentation okay uh we are now moving on to new business uh acknowledging retirement of Michelle trno tax assessor um so Mr bno uh we're very uh sad that she's going to be leaving our Township for greener pastures um the one thing that I know that Miss trno used to do uh for the township was if someone suggested they had a pole barn a lot of times the tax assess will look at the plans for the pole barn and say okay you know so many square feet I'm going to assess it at this amount of of of um assess value she would actually physically go out to each of the locations and to the dismay of all the residents who put up these pole barns she would find fairly elaborate pole barns that required probably assessed at a much higher value so that brought in ratables to the township kept everyone's taxes down Etc she went the extra mile um she's going to be sorely missed and uh we certainly wish her the best of luck with uh her her next Endeavors so uh she is not here this evening but just wanted to say thank you for many years of great service she actually got us on a regular schedule for assessing reassessing right yes so that we wouldn't go years without massive inre you know she got us we we were kind of floundering around for a while our previous assessor could telling us we needed to do something but he never told us what we needed to do he just kept saying you know we got a problem here but he never came up with a solution and literally that's why we picked her when we hired her and she got us in shap in no time and we' stayed in shape she defitely absolutely miss her very much she did she always had time seemed like she had time for everybody so many problems people come to naturally because sheor but she she explain things to him and uh going to be tough this make it to replace it we're very un because we have over 630 Farmland applications really that's a lot well she understood the program she understood everything and she understood people's concerns absolutely absolutely um next I'm going to move on to correspondence from I'm sorry resident correspondence for in grandry Road uh so the process here in determining what roads get paved there's like a rotating schedule and we've always let epw determine using their expertise because I certainly don't know I can tell if a road needs to be paved or something but obviously there's levels of degradation that you have to take care of before uh a road that is in much better shape in so we've always gone with the knowledge deferred to the knowledge of the DPW um so I asked uh Justin our new head of DPW to take a look at gr your road and make his assessment as far as what he felt uh the current condition is and whether or not it warranted any immediate work and if you don't mind explaining your you know what sort of you determined from your fact finding Mission over there well I think we definitely have some Advantage issues over there especially with the heavy rains and everything but uh also um because it's a Stone Road it's a lot of Maintenance down there and um we've been down there constantly trying to regrade it Granary so that's the oh I'm sorry Granary I'm sorry I'm sorry Gran I assess Granary and um looking at it it looks like it's in pretty good shape um it was crack sealed recently probably in the last like 5 years I would say but I don't see there's no potholes or anything that's really worth milling and Bing I think okay okay and so is there and I addressing her letter she had indicated that kids like the bicycle on there did you see anywhere where there might be some danger to any of the kids that might be bicycling there I know one of the basins you had mentioned needed to be repaired we fixed one of the basins on Gran right in front of number seven Granary um there was a noticeable Hole by the Basin which we U removed the catch base top repaired the block inside and um filled it with asphalt so there's no longer a hole there cone is that the sink hole by the sewer gate yes but I assess the road and I don't see anything that's really you know in bad shape so okay so no no visible Boles no no cracks on the just crack SE right yeah is go ahead and say something you go to the par you you folks mind the speak um I from neighbor that you down Road did you walk the road yes and you saw many many cracks y you don't think that that road after 46 years needs to be back I don't see any visible indication that it would be un resident walking biking or anything like that well one one of the reasons we also would like to have the road P besides this the security of the children riding and biking and sping and all and it's not just the children that live on gry road it's also the children that come to grany road because it's such a safe road that they come over to learn how to ride their bicycles Etc and so on the other reason to pave the road is that we are part of the village and in we despite the fact that our homes are 46 years old everybody takes very good care of their homes very good care of their properties we' like to have the road reflect that and I'm just wondering what would be the cost to do something like that that we can't get on to the uh that we can't get on a list we've asked I I wrote a letter that was a petition a number of years ago and we were turned down because the budget then the following year another letter an answer we've been on we've been asking for a while so we' really appreciate it whether you feel that is a danger or not aesthetically and if you would walk if any of you want to come over and walk the road with me you would see that if you patch every single crack on that road would be 50% black top anyway it's also pulling away from the curves so that means that all of the grass is growing up and we're all out there cleaning it up we take pride in that street and we like to have a very reflected change mind we also have the engineer go out and look at the roads and I believe that's the same schedule okay do we so have you and the engineer constructed a new schedule of roads that need to be addressed yet uh we haven't met yet but we're in the process of meeting and going over some roads okay okay there okay so there is a list so um perhaps you could let us know bring the engineer over there let him take a look and get his go there we we'll have the engineer go over I'd like to meet with them when they come over and walk with them would that be possible so that I know what you're doing sure okay thank you we're just going to assess the road that's what yeah I just want to walk with you sure fair enough you're welcome thanks for waiting no problem uh could you provide your contact information to to DPW that'd be great thank you okay also okay fair enough uh correspondence from tubry uh Township of tubry regarding fair chance in Housing Act I don't remember seeing this resp so I apologize want table it did anyone have a chance to look at this I read it um I can give you a background yeah pleas okay um so I have some knowledge about what happened there's a there's a public park there's a uh rental places right across the street from the park for children but and there is a as my understanding a level two sex offender that moved into the area um the reason that the mayor of Toth faury wrote wrote the letter to the governor and is asking other municipali the letter is um there State regulation which prohibits a landlord from doing a background check prior to offering um the tenant elase once you offer the lease you could do a background check but again under the state regulation you have to do a balancing test and you know I don't want to from a legal perspective the the mayor writes that the standard is um is V and he's correct because the standard is that in order to withdraw an offer of tency you have to fulfill a substantial legitimate and non-discriminatory interest wall School 101 is there's three tiers there's a legitimate there's a strict scrutiny there's a compelling interest this standard typical New Jersey fashion they can flate all three so you don't know whether it's a strict strict scrutiny intermediate or rational basis so and there are significant fines posed to the landlord even if they act in good faith by withdrawing afterwards so in essence the landlords are handcuffed and under the regulation they can't lease their own property to to to they can't have a policy of we're going to lease but you can't be a criminal to to so the state says no even though it's your property we're going to control it we're going to tell you you have to lease it to and as with most regulation um there's unintended consequences the unintended consequence here is the landlord is now forced to provide housing to a sex offender right across the street where children f um and there's nothing that the landlord can do about it so that's what prompted um that's what prompted the this action and and the mayor to reach out to other municipalities in essence to join requesting to join uh and expressing concern for the regulation for the protection of so wouldn't it make more sense I mean this would it make more sense for them to specifically say to the governor legislature whatever what do you do when this law conflicts with the the sex offender I mean law because I mean that's the question the question is you know I understand you know they they passed the law to try and get people housing right that the the flip side is there's also a law that says you're not supposed to have you know registered sex offend are supposed to be certain you know not supposed to be living next to the school so I think maybe the focus should be you know you've got two things that are conflicting here and someone can someone do something to to address the conflict especially when we're concerned about kids in defend because I think if you just put it simply that way it would I mean there's a lot in here a lot and I think there's more you know I think that's the question right that's the thing we've got a conflict and an important one you know can someone address that in some way I mean that seems to be what you should be approaching them with instead of well they they say that in the second to last paragraph to your point you know but they they they ult they get there they I mean that I think if you put it in those more straightforward terms I think everyone will [Music] understand you having again we understand the purpose of the law is to give people who are out of jail a second chance somewhere however you also have a law that says sex Defender doesn't get to live anywhere they want can you not reconcile those so that we don't get in the situation of accidentally allowing this to happen that's the question so do you feel as though we should write based upon that do you think we should write our own letter or do you think I it's it's or do we I have no opinion it's whatever whatever you want to do as a Township committee you can do nothing you can let tubry you know address the issue you could we have to do something join you know you could whatever whatever you want to do I mean seems like maybe a scaled back letter that says we have the concern that you know again there's a there's a really bad conflict between two things can some help us reconcile that without any because we're not trying to keep everybody out of housing but on the other hand the L just just recommendation I don't know if you want I didn't plan on this but here any my name is Steve I'm C president for the last 36 years uh and I was here actually to support Joan broke today CU I'm and everything she said is right okay so I won't comment on that but on this uh issue about the sex attendant um I had a lot of years as a prosecutor and defense ATT I would recommend strongly this is a really important issue really import the fact that TB sent this letter is sort of aides the point it's a big issue for you I would recommend that you contact the Hun County prosecutor office I'm ask to speak to the prosecutor uh they have a Megan's Law unit right and they would be willing to come out here either in a public session or executive session and give you information about how these people are teared and registered and where they're allowed to be and not allowed to be and what kind of information you're able to get because some of it they would love to give you but they can't some of it they can give you depending on how serious I think you said second level Defender that was Min right so there's a certain level uh of information certain people get it right schools get it on the first level nobody has it right um but in terms of how you I I think you should put the County prosecutor's office you know uh to task you should say to them what do we do we don't want to violate the law uh on this fair housing law but we also feel that we have an obligation for our citizens let them tell you how you should really work on this this is something they should be doing and maybe they ordered to have a meeting not just with you maybe they ought to have a meeting with all the TS right I don't know it's something I would recommend if I was in the office still today I'd be recommending that that would be out so that's just my thank you sir appreciate um do we write a letter to the prosecutor's office and to I I I like the gentleman suggestion okay let's uh can I have move that second okay uh all those in favor for allowing me to uh this gentleman to pen a letter for me and for me to sign um in order get gain clarification on this particular issue all those in favor I okay thank you thank you sir welcome okay that's disturbing to say the least um okay bear with me folks okay so we're going to uh go ahead and approve open space committee appointments so we have a reassignment of Josh Goldman as alternate at large member and Peter mccorn at to an atlarge member appointment of Kevin EET as an atlarge member as well these are are these um mayoral appointments or are these by um open space I'm going to be honest with you I don't know on top of my head so so I guess just to be sure okay I'll make a motion to uh do the reassignment as as described okay second anyone second okay any discussion the only reason this was happening is again because certain members are able to attend and not so much so just around make sure we have the one thing that I just want to uh use this opportunity to discuss is the fact that we had a planning board meeting the other night that was advertised as a zoom meeting that had to be cancelled because of know how to use the zoom not well but same issue it's the same issue so and so I but there was 10 people that came to the meeting and we had you know I took time out of my busy day and I went home with nothing accompl so I am 100% I saw firsthand if we can stay away from Zoom technology here is terrible as it is um so I think we're just asking for you know further difficulty so anyway I use that as a PL um but I totally agree uh let's go ahead uh and do uh do we need a roll call for that do you think or just no all okay so I had it first I had a second any disc question further discussion okay all those in favor I any uh nams or extensions okay uh we have a second uh so we have approved environmental commission appointments reassignment of Diana gab Baldi to member Kathy clink to alternate one and Donna D Mato to alternate 2 uh appointment of Jane Engle and Robert Weber as advisors should we do the same thing yes I I'll make a motion second any discussion again this was a little bit of we did lose some MERS we had some people resign after the beginning of the year so we need fill our spots appropriately fair enough okay uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I N or extensions okay may I have a motion to to open for public comment now this is going to be does not have to be uh in respect to the agenda it's free mic if you will uh could I have that motion sove yes okay all those in favor I I here we go again Jan weather Township resident what a great Segway um last end of 2023 the township committee made a commitment to move forward with recording the meetings M so they'd be readily available to Township residents in a video format posted on something like YouTube on the township website I've been waiting I've been doing it myself uh we had 139 views of the last meeting so clearly members of the township are finding value okay so I'd love to come to these meetings because I enjoy them so much so do I yeah but I feel an obligation to members of the community to continue recording them until you guys take over doing that so if you would put that back on your radar I'd appreciate it anyone else Mr excuse my name is Jack Skuse I've been a resident in Delaware Township for 61 years I know I don't look that old but I really am on February 5th Karena sent a letter to the township listing violations it was a four Page Letter a tremendous amount of time to write this letter and it enumerates the violations concerns and observations of Mr alaro at last month's meeting we asked had it been sent to the ca DB has it been sent to the ca DB today can I'm sorry sir count County Agricultural Development okay thank you yes do we know whether that complaint has been sent no think so I'm sure I haven't heard anything about it h no I'm sure it has not been say but let me we do have some information no I don't have information I just have the facts that this information seems like it's not going out of this room let me read what the ca what the the U Right to Farm requirements are for reviewing a process it says Municipal officers who believe a farm is violating an ordinance must file a complaint with the cadv now this is already two months he has been there 9 months the violations are incredible just from observations let me give you a prime example on the 26th was only a few days ago an neighbor gave me a call and said there's black buzzards in the field to the left of your property could you go out and take a look well I out there took a look and there was a a lamb trying to have uh babies mhm around the Land There were nine black buzzards the black buzzards are waiting for the lamb to arrive so they can eat the lamb there is no people on that farm mhm I went in to get the black buzzards away I had to fire shots to keep them off and they only went to the fence I waited there for 45 minutes until that lamb had her babies and delivered and they were up and they were fine okay now that is just one example of what's going on there and we in my opinion are getting no satisfaction from this board I ask has anything been done we're working on it may I repeat the words that you said at this last meeting on the meeting of the 12 we promise you we will do everything we can to to solve and make this situation correct this situation mhm I implore you has anything been done on this I will discuss this when the public comments closed what has been done and we have done everything that's within our legal power to try to address this particular issue are you aware that Mr alaro has made a motion to have that property accepted into his previous bankruptcy I'm not a bankruptcy attorney sir so okay he has made that request if no one objects by tomorrow the piece of property that is at 31 lamberville headquarters Road will be incorporated into his existing bankruptcy okay there it is undetermined if that gets accepted it is undetermined his back taxes will also fall into that bankruptcy that bankruptcy has been in here since 2021 mhm and the trustees determine how much money gets paid out and right the the mortgage holder has $650,000 our little $4,000 doesn't even compare to what's there and what is going to happen we don't know what's going to happen next quarter we don't know that either but he is a master of manipulation when it comes to bankruptcies and unfortunately the Predators get left in the dust so it it is a situation the example was put out last week last last meeting the tornado is coming the tornado is on our roof right now if this guy continues he in Pennsylvania he's going to he has already said I move out of Pennsylvania I'm moving my operation to New Jersey he has U he's talking about putting in a 5,000 ft retail retail store that will be open from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night 365 days a year we talk about roads go up and down that lamberville headquarters Road we're talking about potholes we're talking about Pooles at a basketball could fit in and now he is predicting that it is really bad and it unfortunately is on a curve and on a hill now he has predicted that he has 200 Cars a weekend a week come if you go over to his location in Pennsylvania you can't find a parking spot on the entire piece of property it I think is beyond the scope of this Township M committee if they don't move and move on it quickly that's all we ask and in in 9 months those violations were known then and here we are n months 10 months later and we're still in exactly the same position but he's not he he has taken an 18wheeler worth of goods from Home Depot and we have pictures of it they were all unloaded there and he has to our know no permit requested so somewhere along the line what is required of the residents in this room and the residence in the rest of the township is not required by him and I don't understand what the reluctance is thank you for your time thank you I hope we don't have the same conversation next month I have one question yes you said he's going to move that bankruptcy into his other uh Bankruptcy Court that's right if someone didn't complain who should who is eligible to complain well you know it's kind of a funny question we made a request and this is an old request to put in a proof of proof of claim proof of claim if we had submitted a proof of claim we would be preferential on that list of preditors we could have voted and objected to the vote that is going to be finished tomorrow on whether the bankruptcy will allow his property which was illegally and fraudulently purchased and I can tell you why in the bankruptcy paperwork he is he he is required to report per any purchase that impacts him financially but what he did he on the bill of sale he changed his name it was Al Alberto and went under Waldo so if you looked it up you wouldn't have found his name in in the search for bankruptcies and circumstances and I'll say it that way circumstances revealed to the the doj and the US trustee USD program that he had made that purchases and that's what prompted him to request 9 months later that the property that he illegally purchased be absorbed into his bankruptcy so this is not a guy that we ar in our Township he he he has absolutely no regard for the law at all multiple times he brought up on animal cruelty he he has animal cruelty charges in this Township I know and there were were unfounded they went and inspected that and didn't find anything I spoke to the Animal control officer he said he went there and looked at it and there's nothing illegal about what he did would you like me to show you the video of these two Great Pyrenees that ears were just your ears were bleeding I'm not an animal control officer I apologize I I asked our experts to go out when we hear a complain about something we asked them to go out and take a look at the situation when they come back and say there's nothing illegal about what he's doing there's nothing more I can do and and may I ask are these videos from his Farm in Pennsylvania or they no they are right in our backyard they're right in par backyard so we asked the Animal control officer to go there and he came back with nothing to report these dogs were matted with blood on their ears and they were thrashing back and forth because they had ear infections and it if if you would like me to show you the video I video it right over the fence so I if you'd like I suggest you call the Animal control officer and say suggest to him that you have evidence for him to to consider that's that's his job yeah I would be more effective in calling that portrait of George Washington right now than get results from Mr Murphy he is he he he is he is not he he dismisses things and if you could see these four dogs I'm not going to continue but he is and I don't well I'll have a subsequent conversation with him because I never heard any complaints about Mr Murphy before but I will certainly inquire and find out what's going on um the only other point I would make is you initially and this is on the animal cruelty issue of lamb having babies in a field that's the natural course of things when a buzzard shows up and what is this particular gentleman supposed to do I mean it it might not be what you and I would do but from my understanding for Mr Murphy he said there was a dead horse in The Paddock when he went over there okay he is totally allowed to let that horse sit there and decompose if that's his wish until until what no until that odor stretches across to our home and I had Two Fellas helping me paint my garage they said the stench was so bad that they had to leave they came back the next day and said we can't work here we'll come on back l so that's a violation then that you have to file against them saying that uh essentially it's you know a nuisance so you have you have the means by which to go and complain about this particular nuisance and get whatever sort of um you know reprieve that you're looking for unfortunately that that's not us we're doing everything within our power for example they had millings that were placed on the driveway we sent that to our zoning officer our zoning officer then wrote a letter to the EPA saying this gentleman is putting down illegal millings on this driveway our tax assessor in in response to your question regarding the bankruptcy we have to be very careful that we do not treat this particular resident any differently than we would any other resident so not no no no so if if we don't let this particular resident go delinquent as long as any other resident he can come back and say that we're targeting him and in this Township it has always been the procedure that you go two quarters without hearing from us before we reach out and say guess what you're delinquent on your taxes if we go to Mr far and say you're delinquent on your taxes because you're a quarterly he can turn around and file suit against this Township even if it's he's in bankruptcy that does not matter okay it's our procedure and whenever we break from our procedure we're setting ourselves up to be sued for discrimination upon that gentl so we as a Township are doing everything we possibly can to help you folks but you have to let us do it and we have to stay within the procedures that that we have and unfortunately a lot of those procedures require time and so even though we have this tornado coming we have to wait for it and once that time crosses and we're able to go and file with the bankruptcy judge we can do you know do all these things we have the fire inspector showing up uh hopefully within you know a couple weeks here for the surprise visit um unfortunately that's the county level we have no not a surprise now yeah it's not a surprise now but this is part of the problem of discussing yeah that's the problem of having these conversations sure right so helpful it isn't helpful just let us do we understand your concerns we're concerned too because this is our Township you folks are our residents you just got to afford us a little time to do something and doing them in the public forum is probably self-defeating if you will but so and I understand and I feel for your situations we're doing everything we possibly can and I thank you for that thank you sir thank yes no problem d h just mild amount of col um won't go forward I won't talk about the motion n proton which this Township can certainly file a response in that bankruptcy certainly could file a appr claim in that bankruptcy um I don't know how many how many residents in this community for example are currently in a Chapter 13 where Delaware Township would not already be a creditor the only reason this property was obtained in the fashion it was is because he violated the law in order to obtain the property one of the conditions of buying a property when you're in Chapter 13 is you must seek permission from the bankruptcy trustee and the creditors or the court did not do that hence the reason for the uh numr motion that was filed excuse me on the 9th um or excuse me on the uh 26th I believe um the responses are du back on the N with respect and that's all I'm going to say on that I do think we should file a motion I do know our our our tax collector has been in direct contact with the trustee of the bankruptcy what those conversations have led to I'm un unsure of at this particular point in time because they just happen recently but she is in contact with them so we're we're working behind the scenes to get things right and within our legal bounds okay let's move on from that now okay driveway the driveway the millings is part one or part two really part one was the widening of the driveway which okay and that was in in strict viol a of the codee the code was provided to the township the pictures there was videographic evidence provided as well we sent him a letter saying you violated the driveway ordinance you have to fix that if you don't fix it you're subjecting yourself to possible fines okay that letter was sent to Mr this is the first I've ever heard well that a letter was sent it was sent and do you think Mr alaro is going to change his driveway do you think he's going to pay the fine I don't know I have no idea I no let's I at this point my legal advice is to shut this down right now it's gone already revealed the surprise and I'm going to end it my recommendation is ended this way as the mayor said we are going to treat every resident of Delaware Township identical we are not going to deviate any standard operating procedures for a particular individual um to act responsive or reactive to a hypothetical fear of a tornado coming we must deal with not a discussion of a possible hurricane coming we must deal with what actually has occurred and when there are violations for any Resident regardless of the address regardless of the blocker lot we will handle them in the exact fashion and just like the mayor said with with respect to any delinquent taxes we will not change our procedure for a single resident we will do it with absolute Fidelity to our standard operating procedures every resident gets treated equally no one is discriminated and no one is targeted rest assured whatever violation actually occurs and has been documented by the appropriate official which the appropriate official so everybody understands is no one in this room no one in this room is charged or tasked to address the violations there are people who are employed by the township that is their sole Province and responsibility those people will discharge their duties if they don't discharge their duties and you you have examples of that you bring that to the mayor or any other toship Committee Member and that they can do in terms of following up to make sure that people --------- as your uh concerns regarding the noise abatement we have been assured by Township engineer that the distance between the pickle ball courts and the nearest Residence uh the amount of noise that will carry that distance is di Minimus uh that is why we took the additional steps of planning the trees so that that too would sort of be the belt and suspend approach to this whole uh issue regarding noise and hopefully the combination of the distance plus the plantings will totally eliminate that uh the noise as as far as an issue is concerned if it doesn't then the township is willing to take additional uh means necessary to take care of the problem for the residents that surround the park thank you you're welcome okay uh we will now move on to Township um I'm sorry yes Township committee leaz on reports uh Joe if I can start with you please uh yeah we had the uh budget meeting the other week and Chad but I guess we'll be hearing more about that later good thank you soon the newsletter next newsletter will be ENT out to f to reach their homes by June 1st so our deadline is April 26th so if anyone has anything that newsletter please let me know um the storm water committee is actually um kind of awaiting a meeting with the township engineer um you know again we're open to you know working with anyone on any project but at this point we're kind of waiting for feedback um there was a question which I'm not sure belongs here or if it belongs elsewhere I I'm not sure if someone asked a question regarding the um May our engineer not the the Basin at Higgins Farm okay they were wondering I guess who's responsible for that I don't know I think it's any because I guess there might have been some issue about water backing up in the really bad storm or something okay so that was somebody raised the question uh at the storm water management committee meeting okay we're fortunate to have DPW here so if you could check that out for us um actually from shade tree I don't know if they reached out to Justin okay but um they were going to offer you if you need it the core training did he reach out and yes okay good because um I guess we have uh we have money budgeted and we need people who are po train so anyway and then um uh also the shade tree committee looked at the uh model ordinance the tree ordinance I guess I see it's later on our agenda yes um and then the MUA um I think I mentioned before there have been some issues with how things have been going since they switched over to like 100% sort of contracted um so the uh their engineer met with them this month and went through several different fixes okay um and some of the cost that would be associated with that and I think um he said the next step really was to um I don't know do a real study to see what each of these things are and what each cost is and what might work and what might and I mean we're talking fixes ranging from you know let's see you know $500,000 um I think some stuff but $800,000 all kinds of different things and $200,000 so the question was basically um we need to have all of those things outlined in such a way and know what you know someone said you need to do all of those things we don't know we did not answer that for time that would be um something that would have to be better after okay okay and the only thing I can say from open space is of course they would still love a coordinator and recognize that I believe there was some interest by third party organization that that Miss weslake was looking into okay secretary and okay I don't know okay so that's that's all thank you Mr B yes so a couple things one is this is in the packet for tonight uh March 27th the uh qcc met to review the Cory's annual license submitt form and you we're happy to report that um tra Rock continues to be in good standing and meeting all the um requirements so at this point there's no recommendations that we have for the township to consider um on that topic secondly is the quy inspections So based on uh the actual ordinance there's a requirement for the Cory to be inspected twice a year now there's zero plans and it was outlined in the submitt form this year for the Cory to resume any operations So based on that the recommendation and this is you know discussing this with the township engineer is that we wave the April inspection as we did last year and then have them do a full inspection in the month of November okay that's really that's the only action we're requesting from the committee to approve that okay and is that on the agenda for this evening I didn't see anything I don't think it has to the agenda oh okay just we're just looking for a wa okay just a wa okay that's it thank you Mr Bond yes DPW report I have it here what they did they respond to 30 down trees blocking the roadway by removing or putting road signs up so the power company knew how to respond they cleaned up any down trees at Dill Park and removed all branches in the Park Town maintenance they clean and prepared the bathrooms and turned water back on after the uh state water test they hauled out eight dumpsters of recycled material from our recycling day which was metal cardboard mixed electronics and refrigerators they cleared the catch baces Tops on each roads nine roads and they started cutting grass at bu Park as well as a town hall and other locations and then uh they regraded and filled potholes on six stain Stone roads in the town Brook Hollow Grafton Old Mill stomp Road Upper Creek and War they dug out grain ditches at five location spanning approximately 1,000 ft they filled eight potholes with temporary Pat for calls from residents they fixed two catch basins and one outflow pipe uh seven groundy Road at the corner of lower Ferry and Higgins farm and at the uh pight DS Park vehicle maintenance I replace the radiator wheel pushings and so forth on T 100 lawnmower put a new alternator on the silver crown diagnosed replac a U joint on police car number 14 replace Tire on back fix the windows in the tan of truck and service to cat litter and uh uh our our road supervisor attended monthly jef safety meetings on 420 2024 so of course from the storm and the dead trees they've been they've been pretty well tired I I was down there this morning and they have a new uh demonstration from a machine that carries a couple three ton of patch goes along and puts the patch out and they they T it down with their motorized tamper I don't know what name is but they had just gotten that that just come in that's done demonstration so I guess my on demonstration last and said he for about a week they get lot done on demonstration that way that's all I know impressive okay uh I wanted to address the uh power outage that we all experienced uh I guess it was last began last Thursday um we had a total of 653 homes affected by the power outage uh power outage was caused by uh two major infrastructure damage reports uh one of those major infrastructure uh damages if you will was a transmission line uh transmission line is higher in volt Ag and requires an additional expertise over and above the typical linemen that you see throughout the town throughout the township when we have a power outage uh there were 33 minor damage reports and those include typical wires down tree uh trees down and Transformer damage um I wanted to mention that a lot of the long etrs that folks are seeing that and that's the acronym for estimated time of restoration that you see when you go to the JCP website is mostly due to the assessment of major damage and they have to go house to house to determine the ability for them to be able to isolate you from the major damage so when there's a major damage event they look at all the homes that are that are supplied by that particular transmission line for example and then they go they say all right we know that transmission line is probably going to take a day or two to repair because of the extent of the damage they then go and look at all the individual houses and see whether they can turn each one on by isolating them and that's why you'll see the long run times in the beginning and then hopefully you see your times drop immediately down from two days to 6 hours so uh I just urge everyone to have some patience especially when you see those long etrs that doesn't necessarily mean that's what it's going to take uh you just have to allow them the afford them the opportunity go out and make the proper assessments and safely turn everyone back on um the other issue that they experienced in this particular storm was the fact that they were able to isolate a bunch of people but they had to turn them back off in order to work on the transmission line to turn everyone back on uh so I know that some people had experienced power coming up and then immediately going back down uh that's just unfortunately the whole notion of how you turn power back on and off so I I don't know the exact technical reasons for that but it certainly uh makes a little bit of sense um I did want to mention that the rep was very responsive to my requests for information and addressing specific resident uh concerns and needs uh throughout this particular event um I thought she did a great job um she obviously is the face person for jcpnl to our Township um she's very good um she is willing to come and meet with us and the township uh residents again to uh listen to any concerns or questions you folks might have um so if you folks think that that's something that you would be interested in in entertaining and and asking those questions please let me know uh I will certainly set that up uh as far as the uh actual storm uh we actually made it through and I believe we had everyone turned back on on by Saturday uh which considering the the amount of dams that we had I thought they did a pretty decent job um that's all I had in respect to the storm uh the only other thing I wanted to address uh we had a uh resident who was at the last meeting who mentioned that she was concerned with the CO2 levels in the room so I went about and purchase a CO2 meter to make sure that everyone is safe and I'm looking at it right now we have 700 ppms of Co CO2 in the meeting so everyone can uh breathe easy uh we're within the guidelines so uh with that being said uh I would like to move on to the I guess Justin did you want to add anything to Dave's report on the DPW side um as far as like future stuff going on we're working on Poole replacement right now P Pooles and things like that and we're still Di all the rain would begin so we trying to alleviate some of the flooding down okay that's pretty much what's going on and obviously our regular maintenance as far as cutting grass and and things like that so great thank you uh we'll move on now to the budget introduction so I'm going to hand it off to you D if you don't mind tonight is the introduction of the 2024 budget um the budget reflects a 1 and a half increase tax increase for Municipal Taxes that's $60 on a $400,000 home about $15 a quarter um all requests were honored um we kept all services U I wanted to give you a little facts about our financial status um right now our um fund balance is um 1,700 our collection of taxes is 70 almost 99% um which we never have to worry about cash flow and we have a very good tax collector and good residents that pay their taxes and our net value assessment has gone up every year a little bit so we hold it steady and our net debt is under 1% it's pretty awesome and has been for many years so um the public hearing will be May 13th um at that time um we'll have a public comment and I can answer questions any of the committee members have a question like that and I did meet with the finance committee which is joei and didn't know if gentleman wanted to provide any other information over and above what I said I thought everything that she laid out was very clear uh what I was impressed by is the just the amount of assets that we have it's almost a billion dollars in assets that um we have within the township so the way that that's been managed is pretty impressive Joe just yeah how well we've been maintaining it over years yeah I I think the main takeaway here is the cost of um the cost of benefits the cost of employing people quality people which I think we really do have in this Township and inflation that's been un fortunately been over 6% uh you know for the year prior to this particular one we're still running at 32% on a national basis um people need to go out and pay for everyday items in order to live and that includes our own employees so um I think it's necessary for them to to live uh you know happy lives and happy employees are good for Town Township employees and good for the township residents so uh with that being said the the cost of benefits is just going up and that's just something that happens every year so uh frankly a pending and a half considering the inflation that we've had uh the last two years I think uh kind of comes under what I was originally expecting so good news I read today that the county went County went down so hopefully that offsets our Penny and a half um so we'll go into further detail at the next meeting uh do we need a any sort of approval of resolution or something introduction it's three resolutions on okay the budget introduction either do them together or separately however you want to handle okay um think the aor wanted a roll yeah but there have to be a roll okay she said separate that's fine so no consent no consent later on the rest of them will be okay as we go uh well considering we're not doing the consent I can just go right into it so resolution 24- 84 is authorizing items of General Revenue for the 2024 budget um could I have a motion in a second for discussion I'll make that motion second okay my understanding Dian with this this is anticipated revenue from Grants and other uh sources of income to the Township and we're just anticipating them and setting up a general fund for for those anticipated funds okay uh so if uh I guess with that resolution so uh we need a roll call Diana hey David Bond yes Chad bow yes Susan lock yes josephi yes mayor Walton yes Okay resolution 24-85 deferred School tax uh Delaware Township School District and may I have a person second make that motion all those in favor oh sorry sorry uh so Diane on this one this is a we're allowed to defer half of the school taxes right this is um to record the difference between the school which is a fiscal year and the municipality which is a calendar year okay and we're allowed to take uh 50% or less okay any other questions or discussion by the committee members okay roll call please Dan David B yes Chad B yes Susan yes Joseph yes may yes and uh finally resolution 2486 uh full year 2024 Municipal budget introduction uh could I have the first and second I'll make that motion second any discussion by the township committee members roll call please David Bond Chad B yes Locker yes Joseph yes yes thank you okay we have the introduction of some ordinances uh ordinance 20245 an ordinance to amend chapter 315 of the code of Township of Delaware entitled storm water quality to add arle it's been a long time since I've done this 14 14 uh tree removal and replacement uh so this is the read by title uh is it this is the first time so we're going to read by title and set a uh a public meeting dat for this which would be okay so I need a motion a motion and a second for the introduction of this of ordinance 24 20240 I make that motion second okay this is all roll call roll call please di David B yes Chad B yes Susan abstain Jose V yes and may yes okay we're moving on to ordinance 20246 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hund in state of New Jersey chapter 7 thereof entitled traffic to amend section 7-3 parking schedule of section I'm sorry schedule one of section 7-14 no parking and schedule uh schedule 4 of section 7-17 time limit parking uh this is an introduction so if I could have a first and a second please I'll make that motion second okay we're going to set a public meeting date of May 13th okay you said meeting date I'm sorry hearing public hearing date of May 13th I a roll call please okay David bad yes yes Joseph mayor W yes okay and finally on the ordinance front ordinance 20 2407 an ordinance of the Township Delaware County of hun and state of New Jersey to authorize an expenditure and appropriation from the reserve for police vehicle SL equipment $55,000 for the purchase of a police utility Interceptor all-wheel drive and accessories uh if I can get a first in a second please okay we're going to yes um section two says dou CH authorizes an appropriation and expenditure for the vehicle to exceed 55,000 is that supposed to be to exceed or not to exceed C okay thank you the next one is right I discuss that we rotate every years we purchase a car and take one out of rotation for a spare thank you uh so we will have uh we will set public hearing for that on May May 13th as well uh Diana call please David B yes Chad B Susan yes yes yes okay so we have the public hearings for the adoption of the pre previously introduced ordinances so first of those we have ordinance 20 24-3 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hund state of New Jersey chapter 381 thereof entitled sewage disposal to amend the perk test fees uh if I could get a motion and a second to open the public hearing please make that motion second okay uh all do I need all in no all in favor to uh open for public hearing on ordinance 22403 say I I any nay any extensions okay uh we are now open to public hearing on ordinance 20243 so if you have any comments you could please come to the podium again uh or any questions for that matter okay seeing none and hearing none uh could I have a motion to close the public hearing on ordinance 2024 make motion second all those in favor okay and then I uh I'm going to go to commit you're going to do a motion to approve to approve second and then comment and then a roll call okay so if I can have a motion to approve ordinance 20243 make the motion second all those in favor no no you have to do a it's a roll call on ordinances and if anybody if anybody on the township committee wants to comment or discuss or ask questions I would ask that first and then do the roll call okay my apologies I thought I had to introduce it first so okay so uh any comments or questions from the committee members so do we know off hand one the last time was we increas the a while update at their request okay that's fine I'm fine okay very good any other any other comments questions from the committee members okay uh hearing none we could move forward with the roll call please okay David Chad yes sus yes yes may yes thank you uh ordinance 20244 an ordinance to amend the code of Township of Delaware County of hun state of New Jersey chapter 369 thereof entitled food establishments and vending machines to amend the food hermit I move that we open to public hearing second all those in favor any n any exensions okay we're now open for public hearing so anyone's interesting opening a vending machine here's your opportunity all right uh hearing and seeing none uh could I have a motion to close public hearing please so move second okay any discussion by the you can say all in favor this what I I thought I did that before and you do yelled you could do it all you can do it all in favor to open and close the public hearing when you're voting on the but I thought that's what I was going before by my my apologies there's three of them yeah right right and I thought I was at I thought I was at two previously anyway okay all those in favor for closing public hearing please say I I any any NS any exensions okay uh any discussion we already have that okay I a motion to approve thank you thank you second second okay Diana roll call please comments no no no oh for no public com committee comments committee you have any comments sry to put you three of this guys and GS it's been a long day solar eclipse and everything okay now we're ready let's go David what okay Chad B yes Susan L yes Joseph yes mayor yes okay praise the Lord we're done with Oran okay we're moving on to a consent agenda even though I can do this one so uh I'm going to read them off uh before I read should I read them in then ask if they want to be pulled it doesn't you can ask first if okay let's do that so does anyone have any of these particular resolutions they need pulled from the consent agenda for individual discussion you're good Joe gentlemen good okay okay so I'm going to go ahead and read these resolution 24-87 appointing alternate uh Solid Waste what was it SWAT Solid Waste advisory committee is that what it is uh representative uh resolution 2488 authorizing refund of perk witness fee uh second date of block 46 Lot 8 resolution 2489 uh hiring of Public Works labor Class E resolution 24-9 authorizing fire department shared services agreement and finally resolution 24- 91 authorizing application of NJ Lea implementation Grant uh can I get a first second on these please I'll make a motion we approve second okay a roll call please thank David Bond Chad B yes susanwood yes Joseph yes mayor W yes Okay resolution 24- 92 authorizing payment of Municipal obligations in the amount of $63,800 okay hearing U call please I David yes Susan yes Joseph yes James yes thank you okay we're going to move proceed with old business uh so we're uh first going to deal with the corresponds from the environmental commission regarding the lower Delaware wild and scenic what was it committee designation designation thank you so I don't know if my recollection was that Mr toriello recommended that we not join in with the designation simply because there was some concerns regarding the language and the ability of us to be able to deal with our own property properties and our own residence properties within within the confines of of the the creeks and streams that would be part of this uh designation is is that correct yes that's the general and again we had people come and give presentations as to the benefit of it and the only benefit that they said was they would support application for Grants and funding and I think it was up to $5,000 and and given the the extensive um layer Federal Regulation that would encumber and burden private property if you were just to whiteboard in terms of the positive and the negative the negative far exceeds the positive of $5,000 in my so I was uh speaking with one of the representatives the U woman that's here in the audience prior to the meeting and she indicated to me that if there was any possibility for you to look look at the agreement that we would ultimately be signing and make amendments to the point in which you would feel comfortable that's not my concern the concern is the the thousands of pages of Federal Regulation that include for example if if the federal government is like it they can Institute a condemnation proceed and take the prop the property property now whether they do it or not it's in the document it's in the statute so my you know to get $5,000 to expose a private property owner to the to the taking uh by the federal government I I don't I don't see the benefit of it and and and again when we had the discussion we made query of how many municipalities have done this and there really were not many so just like with the Cannabis the recommendation was let others be the uh the guinea pigs on this and let's see where things shake out we don't need to be leading the charge on this we are we already sign and and that's fine I mean the mayor's I mean ultimately you guys it's it's certainly you know your vote to have but um we've been a member of this for years and not only that but if we don't sign on we kind of muck it up for all the towns that did so the the gentleman who is putting this group together he would have to go back and basically undo everything that he's done or redo everything he's done if we're not a member because we're supposed to be all doing this as a group together I understand Sue I understand your concern there but I think our concern is with the residents of Del Township so I don't care what he has to go and do but our residents and their residents would have the same issues if there were to be had um the federal government has no interest in taking propert unless they doing a highway or something we're not talking about that it's wild and gives it a protective layer an additional protective layer that's all it does it doesn't stop anyone from doing anything on their property and it probably only applies to other government entities the same way like a historic designation does it doesn't even apply to individuals It generally those things only apply to government entities for example it would protect against some do project that might be going to you know expand in an area where we may not want to expand it or some of the rockfall projects where they're trying to blow out the double seat table if it's wild and Scenic that they may not be able to do that it does not affect individual Property Owners because any more so than a historic district would affect them historic district does not depends which level of historic district we're talking about we do not a historic district VI beds MH just protects against government action it does not stop an individual from doing anything on their property at the federal level but there are there are Lo Municipal and local local and and state historic designations that do require you to paint your house a certain way if you have to do you have to pass your own local ordinance right right and we don't have it no no no I'm not saying that but I'm just guess my point is as it is you know unless we pass something to do more these things do not affect individual property rights well I'm listening to council and he's suggesting that it could possibly affect that right and and affording the federal government additional Powers over and above if I'm a land owner I'm not for that personally um affects government entities who have whether they're doing like a do is getting that's not how I that's not how I read this this is very different Su from how what I'm I'm hearing from Council I and again you know I know there's a lot of pages and statutes but I I I too have been you know I'm not a lawyer however I have dealt with these agencies in my other life four years you know and I know how these things do and don't work and they do not I mean they do not affect individual property rights ever because the federal government again as I say I suppose you are you know interstate highway you'd be taken from property but a wild and scen designation is not going to take someone's proper rights based on our attorney's advice I make a motion that we don't join this outf but we're already part of it already already any further ticket no no y from the audience please thank you now what I don't understand is how can we be a part of this why do we need to sign it because it's an an additional stream that's all it is the streams that we're in already we're in on the other streams this is an additional stream that they're trying to get protection for so we're talking about one stream well you know the old accent the rule the rule of holes when we in when stop digging I'm sorry could you repeat that I couldn't hear you yeah my recommendation is now you guys can now the the my only argument is I know our residents and I know the township and I know how important the streams are and how environmentally conscious all of our residents in this particular Township are if we join this group we're not doing anything more we're we're not obligating us to do anything more than we already are so the only benefit that I see from this is you suggesting that I'm preventing a highway going through near these streams I'm basically saying that the protection is afforded if a federal project comes along that want to change that right that would be detrimental in some way it doesn't even necessarily stop them it puts them through a review to make sure that there's no alternative to not do it the way they're proposing to do it and if there is no alternative does that prevent that no they probably be allowed to do it anyway in fact I mean you again for not to the only similar thing I have again goes back to Historic when a a cell tower that's a federal approval so they would have to get an approval if they're trying to do that in hav't seen it they had to do that for the cell tower that went into the Rosemont area again because of that designation so that's the kind of thing it effects you know I mean if someone went to put a cell tower in they'd have to get through the wild andic issue and again did it stop it the one in Rosemont didn't yeah I had nothing to do with it so I guess my so coupled with the fact that I think we're already doing whatever additional Environmental Protections would be afforded to these three stream streams that we're talking about um coupled with your argument that we're preventing the possibility of the federal government approving either a cell phone tower or a road or whatever going through the streams um that does offer a benefit obviously but I think the impact to the particular resident and the fact that they might through you know through advice of council that they might subject themselves to power of the federal government to I know you're suggesting that they you think that they can't take land but I heard very differently that it could it's very open-ended and possibly there's two things there there's a conversation about a hypothetical of whether they would or they wouldn't that's not interest as as an attorney I have zero interest in what they may or may not do and engageing hypothetical right under the statute they have the legal right to that's what I'm Focus all matter that's all that matters and there was a gentleman who came here and gave a presentation yes and the township committee said if we join this give us a list of all of the benefits what's in it for Delaware there was no discussion about anything other than two things we will support you we will write a letter of support in an application for Grants right and you can get up to $5,000 what I'm suggesting is if you ever need $5,000 my recommendation would be take it out of your budget and not expose yourself to thousands of pages of federal regulations for $5,000 it's not worth the five grand now the gentleman who wanted this had an opportunity to say give us a list of all of the benefits he came up with two a letter of support for Grants and $5,000 those two benefits balanced against the owner federal regulations that you would Place upon private property owners I believe that my recommendation is in the best interest of the property owners of Delaware n that's my opinion all right so I saw a couple folks from the audience that expressed interest to be able to say something if it's okay with the committee I would like to open public hearing so that these particular individuals could come up have their 3 minutes to say what's on their mind um and that way we can make a decision based upon their comments you know not wholly on their comments but uh in consideration of this so sure okay first first second okay all those in favor I I okay uh I saw someone yes sir chairs are creaky though John KY T president um I wrote the letter on the environmental commission chairperson and I guess um I don't disagree with the initial reservations that were expressed last year um but a slightly different composition of of the uh the township committee and I also con see that the presentation might have given all the benefits potential benefits of the township through this designation instead of coming to a final decision would it be possible to have a dialogue either with your attorney through you or us directly about his reservations maybe not an exhaustive list but some of them that we can look at the environmental commission and say Hey you know maybe they're right about this thing or that thing what can we do about I'll talk to Rob you know can we go back and forth just a little dat I didn't write that letter and have a decision tonight okay if this takes two months it takes a year it takes whenever I want to get to the best possible resolution with the most facts on the table and if we don't satisfy those concerns of both the committee and the residents then it's not going to work but if we can have the opportunity to answer some specific questions that we might have I think before you inh to take our time out to do that for you so that's essentially my thank you I appreciate it man' my name is Martha I'm a town resident I'm here in support of this designation I know that we are part of this already um I I understand the world is caught up in this where too much oversight too much oversight and the legalistic part I totally understand to protect us I think I'm going to to say that this gentleman has said my words we somewhat spoke I spoke to the mayor prior to the meeting and that I would just like a discussion with you if possible and there to create maybe a different verbage to continue on with this this is our Township has always been about our our our creeks and our clean it took so long to get the back up and I know that's maybe a little bit a part of this but this town we utilize our trails and our stream so much here I just I can't I don't see the negative part I mean I understand I'm not a lawyer and I don't see all of that but to protect us when we're already part of it and haven't had an upset I just I don't see I don't see it anyway I'm going to stop and say that this gentleman I would love to have some of verbage with everyone to see if there's some way we can go forward with this and not to just act upon it tonight and not um and have fin thank you anyone else okay seeing none if I could get a motion to close public hearing please don't move second okay all those in favor um so listening to that I I believe it would be premature to close the door on this I'd very much end of the day and I think everyone on this committee feels the same way if there's any way to help the environment without affecting the individual rights of property owners I'm 100% for it and I think any resident here would say the same thing uh by listening to C council's concerns I think it would be premature for us to vote Yes to this but at the same time like I said I think it's a little early to shut the door so hopefully um Council will be willing to speak with the proper individuals and uh let's see if we can't find a common ground and that way hopefully be able to uh satisfy everyone's concerns just two things sure certainly I'm always willing to do that I just need permission from the township committee to do that okay um and secondarily I would ask where's the general oh right here um I have an argument before The Supreme Court on May 1st that I need to prepare for so I would just ask that we delay it until after May 1st when I can get back you know focused very fair enough so uh hearing that if I could have a uh resolution first and a second on uh authorizing uh Council to speak with u Mr I said that correctly right you did thank you uh regarding the uh the lower Delaware wild and Scenic uh designation I just actually have a question um would Mr toriello would you feel better if you actually spoke to someone from the National Park Service I don't know if they have someone assigned to this but again you know the National Park Service oversees the Wild and scen I think we could start uh this conversation first and then depending upon what comes out of it that may be that may be helpful so just a thought okay uh need it first in a second I'll make that motion okay so we're authorizing Dave for JT to speak to Mr Kar perhaps uh the uh defer based on the outcome of that conversation persuades or changes it point of view what was the agency that's in than the national park okay uh I all those in favor I any extensions or Nam he n okay okay thank you uh so let's move with the park concept plan approval so essentially uh what we're trying to do here is as Mrs Weber properly indicated if we kept talking about you know what would we like adding to the park Etc this conversation would probably last you know forever so I think we need a clean cut of what we're going to approve and this would be considered phase one um and that was ultimately what was presented to everyone that was in attendance at the special meeting at the firehouse I guess it's about a month ago um and if anyone ever has any questions about you know what we're speaking of this evening like I mentioned it's available on the township website and we actually have the full drawings downstairs in one of the meeting rooms um I welcome you to take a look at them um the only difference between the one that hopefully we're approving this evening and the one that is in the drawings was the inclusion of a previously existing but omitted volleyball court uh the park planner did not realize there was a volleyball court in DS Park in existence um we want after we had heard back from several resident said that they utilize this uh volleyball court and they would you know taking it away essentially does not allow them to uh continue to utilize the park and for volleyball purposes uh we decided to ask Jay to put that back in and the monetary uh addition to do so was fairly the Minimus um so what we're hopefully approving this evening is a finalizing this is the plan that we would like to go to bid for them to spec for bid uh so that we can go out to the various contractors that would be interested we can get a price on how much the the park uh plan is going to cost and then ultimately we can have that budgetary discussion once we have the proper information in respect to that um so what I'm hoping is that we could have a discussion about uh the park plan see if there was any concerns uh before we ultimately uh go ahead and vote and say this is the final Park plan uh we would like to go to Bay so with that being said I'm going to open it up to the committee for any questions or comments uh just one quick question where where's the location of this volleyball I think it's kind the batting cage I believe is my understanding batting cage and there were people playing the other night but they weren playing volleyball they had had the screen right on the ground had to call it what is that uh they was kind of playing like volleyball but it wasn't because the uh this high from the ground I don't know I never seen anything like it I thought I didn't know what it was but I don't get around that much I sat there watching for a while and uh they was having a good time whatever they was doing and they each had a whole basket of tennis ball back and forth back andth but all the screen the net I guess I should say instead of being up you know we for volleyball it was down on the ground up about from the ground up high as this table between the poles so whatever is it is and maybe I don't know but that that's where it is that's volb is that's a good place because just a little bit east of it is the uh yeah back stop I don't know they were having fun no matter what they were doing there's a couple gentlem I mean they was you know I don't know what happened I'm not touching anything so that's the only I know test that you're getting a signal okay sorry about that aftershocks so the only question I had I mean of everything I heard that the only maybe concern was that with the sort of re configuring of things that like maybe parking was being lost so some individuals suggested that that may be the case but after speaking with Jay he suggested that he suggested that all of the roadways would have parking to the side now that wouldn't be designated parking spots but that would be set up to the point where you would have almost cavers that allow grass to grow through it so that if you required overflow parking all of the roads would allow for that overflow parking so even though there weren't designated parking areas there's a tremendous amount of this overflow parking that's available and um he we indicated to him such as when we had the event with the fireworks which I think is a little bit extreme as far as parking's concerned he didn't suggest that they would be able to hold that amount of cars but he said for example the season opener or whatnot he didn't feel it so that that would be an issue as I said I think that was the only thing that like right really an issue is potential issue I don't know what yeah I think let's keep it away from the mayor trying to get back to my training thought so so we don't think it's an issue I I addressed that with Jay and he said he does not think it's going to be an issue at all I think when you look at the concept plan it doesn't make it clear that there is that supplemental parking along the road the right place I think that's unfortunately the is yeah I thought the uh I mean I thought the assessment that was done objectively was uh no surprise I think the issues that were identified were pry Prett clear need to be addressed plus the feedback that um was provided by the public at the um the meeting at the firehouse was very favorable based on that I'd be in favor of moving forward and requesting quotes to start moving sets what the impact is going to be okay Dave did you have anything no I think sorry and work along side is good because most of the time the dep is being used the ground is dry enough to do that so still just do it on grass you don't even have to put papers down as far as I'm concerned I've been here a few times like fireworks last fall I mean the place was Jam but everybody's having a good time and people par on the grass once again it was was late season ground's hard and it's an old side and the and the park lays high so the water drains off of it so it's you know you can probably get a lot of rain and still go par off the driveway if you have to right right okay I I think the only thing that I just wanted to mention was the whole reason that we sort of embarked on this whole park plan was for safety concerns uh we have a tremendous amount of safety concerns not only for the kids that are playing the kids that aren't playing running through the parking lots uh the the traffic flow doesn't make a lot of sense the traffic uh the existing parking spaces aren't large enough to accommodate the larger SUVs that are are around today so you have a lot of folks backing in backing up and backing into each other potentially little kids that are running from Snack Shack which is on one side of the parking lot to the micro soccer field or the jungle gym it's very discombobulated the whole setup um that and our facilities aren't ADA Compliant we have no ramps we have no handles in the bathrooms we have a whole bunch of ADA concerns that need to be addressed by this um we have flooding and erosion issues um that need to be addressed by this as well and frankly we're spending lots of money every year uh reclaim the baseball fields and frankly that just is not necessary if we have the proper uh means by which to to guide the water to the the closest stream or whatnot um so I think you there aren't any really new shiny new toys down there except for the pickle ball courts um everyone has seemed very interested in us installing but the rest of it really is a much needed refurb of a very outdated Park um so you know that's I I I'm very much in favor of moving forward and and frankly at at the end of the day if we don't refer what's there it's just going to cost us more more and more money on a on a general funds basis to maintain the existing buildings and structures that are there um and and as as you folks know all of that has to come from General funds it can't come from open space money uh the open space money is essentially that the referendum approved allows us to make these Capital Improvements that will mitigate against the need for the general funds and hence raising your taxes for this so with that being said uh if I could get a motion to wording everybody should have the wording we have with a motion thank you okay so if I could have a motion for uh Park concept plan approval uh we move to adopt the park concept plan as presented with the inclusion of the existing volleyball court that was omitted in the previous plan in order to proceed with the bids spe preparation so if I could get a first and a second please second okay uh roll call please David yes Chad yes Susan yes yes yes halfway okay uh we will now move on to let's see here here okay so we have the grant subcommittee signage approval for the sustainable Jersey Grant and that is the um did we have anyone that wanted to present that Mrs cats please come on up you're the next contestant go make this quick if you recall year ago may we Township received $3,000 Grant from sustainable Jersey to map all of our Public Access open spaces and make that available to the residents and get it up on the website um just to give you a quick update we have probably 99.9% done with the draft for the website it's um been reviewed by at least one two members of the environmental commission that actually went out followed my directions to see if they could locate the parcels got feedback from them did some updating actually did mileage from intersections to help people locate where these facilities are where the open parking spaces are we are going to share the open space committee all the members wanted to see the website mockup final version as does the environment commission so my goal is to get that out to them this week I three more Parcels I got to go get the mileage on and that will be done the planner is mapping the parcels now on the Township's uh map lot block map he's supposed to have it completed and back to us by the 20th of this month so the goal is to get the website up and going get it to the website company beginning May followed by by the postcard the mailing newsletter doing the drum roll hopefully back in June to give you a full presentation of what the final product is what we had up with but the $2,000 it looks like we're going to have about 400 or so left over that we have to use sustainable Jersey makes you use all of the money so we I think I was here in January um I had talked about the subcommittee had talked about possibly trying to do a map a trail map for guils because a lot of people don't know where the walking trails are on the reer property will we talk to the planner to Colliers about that and given the fact that they're working on the park master plan they didn't want to spend the time and the resource to do that mapping for us to do the GPS so we kind of tabled that for now okay still have the money so one of the members Steve came up with the idea of why don't we do a sign that announces the public access Open Spaces with the QR code because if you remember you gave us the approval right to have a QR code that people can scan that will bring them right to the website page that lists all the information about the parcels so what our astute graphic designer and our subcommittee did was put together a mockup of a sign that we were envisioning having which basically unveils the project what the name of the project is is cute little map to get you out hiking with all the you know Trails on it um little information and the QR code and the bottom is the disclaimer that sustainable sustain sustainable Jersey requires on any sign um don't have a location yet for this the environmental committee commission when we spoke I spoke to them at our last meeting thought builts would be a good spot for it my colleagues on the grant subcommittee were concerned with all the renovations at dils is DTS really appropriate perhaps the Green Town green across the street or in town hall um we don't have to decide at this very moment but just know that we'd be looking I think I put in the email to Diana it's 18 by 24 so it basically what we're envisioning is this 18 by 24 on a metal post on a 45° angle so that it it'll be laminated in color so it get your attention you you read it you'd say hey what's this about let you scan it oh wow look I want to go here and let me you know read information and then go out and get out and see the nature right um so that's what we're looking for is your approval because then once you approve it then hopefully tonight because then I have to go back to sustainable Jersey because they have to do the final approval of the sign that is there they want that sign off so okay um that's basically it I if you have any questions if not I'm GNA I that would be about the same cost as this yeah $400 yeah the quote we have right now is from River signs in lville we told them our budget was 400 and they said they could do an 18 by 24 for 400 and yes I know we need a purchase agreement in the W4 and I question does the cover the plannner cost yes okay yes we Bud very good did that last year if you remember we did the budget and the planner even though we got the estimate from him last January we have it in writing he's honoring the proposal from last year so we're good with that I I don't have any questions if I can make a comment absolutely I just want to recognize you for all the the work that you and your husband have put in to mapping this out just the hours you guys have gone around driving to make sure that this is very accurate this ESS so thank you it was it's been a labor of love as I call it I now know the town if anyone wants I will give guided tours I won't charge much but yes it's it's actually was very eye opening when my husband and I spent six 6 afternoons driving around and now I can just go there like just like that okay well then thank you thank you uh anybody have any comments or questions okay could I get a motion to there's any specific language for this is there just allowing them to app approve the signs okay all those in roll call please it's a sign yes Chad yes Susan yes those yes yes thank you for the presentation okay uh we are now moving on to new business uh acknowledging retirement of Michelle trno tax assessor um so Mr bno uh we're very uh sad that she's going to be leaving our Township for greener pastures um the one thing that I know that Miss trno used to do uh for the township was if someone suggested they had a pole barn a lot of times the tax assess will look at the plans for the pole barn and say okay you know so many square feet I'm going to assess it at this amount of of of um assess value she would actually physically go out to each of the locations and to the dismay of all the residents who put up these pole barns she would find fairly elaborate pole barns that required probably assessed at a much higher value so that brought in ratables to the township kept everyone's taxes down Etc she went the extra mile um she's going to be sorely missed and uh we certainly wish her the best of luck with uh her her next Endeavors so uh she is not here this evening but just wanted to say thank you for many years of great service she actually got us on a regular schedule for assessing reassessing right yes so that we wouldn't go years without massive inre you know she got us we we were kind of floundering around for a while our previous assessor could telling us we needed to do something but he never told us what we needed to do he just kept saying you know we got a problem here but he never came up with a solution and literally that's why we picked her when we hired her and she got us in shap in no time and we' stayed in shape she defitely absolutely miss her very much she did she always had time seemed like she had time for everybody so many problems people come to naturally because sheor but she she explain things to him and uh going to be tough this make it to replace it we're very un because we have over 630 Farmland applications really that's a lot well she understood the program she understood everything and she understood people's concerns absolutely absolutely um next I'm going to move on to correspondence from I'm sorry resident correspondence for in grandry Road uh so the process here in determining what roads get paved there's like a rotating schedule and we've always let epw determine using their expertise because I certainly don't know I can tell if a road needs to be paved or something but obviously there's levels of degradation that you have to take care of before uh a road that is in much better shape in so we've always gone with the knowledge deferred to the knowledge of the DPW um so I asked uh Justin our new head of DPW to take a look at gr your road and make his assessment as far as what he felt uh the current condition is and whether or not it warranted any immediate work and if you don't mind explaining your you know what sort of you determined from your fact finding Mission over there well I think we definitely have some Advantage issues over there especially with the heavy rains and everything uh also um because it's a Stone Road it's a lot of Maintenance down there and um we've been down there constantly trying to regrade it grany so that's the oh I'm sorry Granary I'm sorry I'm sorry Gran I assess Granary and um looking at it it looks like it's in pretty good shape um it was crack sealed recently probably in the last like 5 years I would say but I don't see there's no potholes or anything that's really worth milling and Bing I think okay okay and so is there and I addressing her letter she had indicated that kids like the bicycle on there did you see anywhere where there might be some danger to any of the kids that might be bicycling there I know one of the basins you had mentioned needed to be repaired we fixed one of the basins on Gran right in front of number seven Gran um there was a noticeable Hole by the Basin which we um removed the catch base top repaired the block inside and um filled it with asphalt so there's no longer a hole there cone is that the sink hole by the sewer gate yes but I assess the road and I don't see anything that's really you know in bad shape so okay so no no visible Boles no no cracks on the just crack SE right yeah is go ahead and say something you go to the par you you folks mind the opp speak um from neighbor that you down Road did you walk the road yes and you saw many many cracks y you don't think that that road after 46 years needs to be back I don't see any visible indication that it would be UNS resident walking biking or anything like that well one one of the reasons we also would like to have the road P besides this the security of the children riding and biking and sking and all and it's not just the children that live on gry road it's also the children that come to grany road because it's such a safe road that they come over to learn how to ride their bicycles Etc and so on the other reason to pave the road is that we are part of the village and in we despite the fact that our homes are 46 years old everybody takes very good care of their homes very good care of their properties we' like to have the road reflect that and I'm just wondering what would be the cost to do something like that that we can't get on to the uh that we can't get on a list we've asked I I wrote a letter that was a petition a number of years ago and we were turned down because a budget then the following year another letter an answer we've been on we've been asking for a while so we' really appreciate it whether you feel that is a danger or not aesthetically and if you would walk if any of you want to come over and walk the road with me you would see that if you patch every single crack on that road would be 50% black top anyway it's also pulling away from the curves so that means that all of the grass is growing up and we're all out there cleaning it up we take pride in that street and we like to have a very reflected change mind we also have the engineer go out and look at the roads and I believe that's the same schedule okay do we so have you and the engineer constructed a new schedule of roads that need to be addressed yet uh we haven't met yet but we're in the process of meeting and going over some roads okay okay there okay so there is a list so um perhaps you could let us know bring the engineer over there let him take a look and get his go there we we'll have the engineer go over I'd like to meet with them when they come over and walk with them would that be possible so that I know what you're doing sure okay thank you we're just going to assess the road that's what yeah I just want to walk with you sure fair enough you're welcome thanks for waiting no problem uh could you provide your contact information to to DPW that'd be great thank you okay also okay fair enough uh correspondence from tubry uh Township of tubry regarding fair chance in Housing Act I don't remember seeing this resp so I apologize want table it did anyone have a chance to look at this I read it um I can give you a background yeah pleas okay um so I have some knowledge about what happened there's a there's a public park there's a uh rental places right across the street from the park for children but and there is a as my understanding a level two sex offender that moved into the area um the reason that the mayor of Toth faury wrote wrote the letter to the governor and is asking other municipali the letter is um there State regulation which prohibits a landlord from doing a background check prior to offering um the tenant elase once you offer the lease you could do a background check but again under the state regulation you have to do a balancing test and you know I don't want to from a legal perspective the the mayor writes that the standard is um is V and he's correct because the standard is that in order to withdraw an offer of tency you have to fulfill a substantial legitimate and non-discriminatory interest wall School 101 is there's three tiers there's a legitimate there's a strict scrutiny there's a compelling interest this standard typical New Jersey fashion they canate all three so you don't know whether it's a strict strict scrutiny intermediate or rational basis so and there are significant fines posed to the landlord even if they act in good faith by withdrawing afterwards so in essence the landlords are handcuffed and under the regulation they can't lease their own property to to to they can't have a policy of we're going to lease but you can't be a criminal to to so the state says no even though it's your property we're going to control it we're going to tell you you have to lease it to and as with most regulation um there's unintended consequences the unintended consequence here is the landlord is now forced to provide housing to a sex offender right across the street where children f um and there's nothing that the landlord can do about it so that's what prompted um that's what prompted the this action and and the mayor to reach out to other municipalities in essence to join requesting to join uh and expressing concern for the regulation for the protection of so wouldn't it make more sense I mean this would it make more sense for them to specifically say to the governor legislature whatever what do you do when this law conflicts with the the sex offender I mean law because I mean that's the question the question is you know I understand you know they they passed the law to try to get people housing right that the the flip side is there's also a law that says you're not supposed to have you know registered sex offend are supposed to be certain you know not supposed to be living next to the school so I think maybe the focus should be you know you've got two things that are conflicting here and some can someone do something to to address the conflict especially when we're concerned about kids in defend because I think if you just put it simply that way it would I mean there's a lot in here a lot and I think there's more you know I think that's the question right that's the thing we've got a conflict and an important one you know can someone address that in some way I mean that seems to be what you should be approaching them with instead of well they they say that in the second to last paragraph to your point you know but they they they ult they get there I mean that I think if you put it in those more straightforward terms I think everyone will [Music] understand you having again we understand the purpose of the law is to give people who are out of jail a second chance somewhere however you also have a law that says sex Defender doesn't get to live anywhere they want can you not reconcile those so that we don't get in the situation of accidentally allowing this to happen that's the question so do you feel as though we should write based upon that do you think we should write our own letter or do you think I it's it's or do we I have no opinion it's whatever whatever you want to do as a Township committee you can do nothing you can let tubry you know address the issue you could we have to do something join you know you could whatever whatever you want to do I mean seems like maybe a scaled back letter that says we have the concern that you know again there's a there's a really bad conflict between two things can some help us reconcile that without any because we're not trying to keep everybody out of housing but on the other hand the L just just recommendation I don't know if you want I didn't plan on this but here any my name is Steve I'm C president for the last 36 years uh and I was here actually to support Joan Boke today CU I'm and everything she said is right okay so I won't comment on that but on this uh issue about the sex attendant um I had a lot of years as a prosecutor and defense ATT now I would recommend strongly this is a really important issue really import the fact that TB sent this letter is sort of aides the point it's a big issue for you I would recommend that you contact the H County prosecutor office I'm ask to speak to the prosecutor uh they have a Megan's Law unit right and they would be willing to come out here either in a public session or executive session and give you information about how these people are teered and registered and where they're allowed to be and not allowed to be and what kind of information you're able to get because some of it they would love to give you but they can't some of it they can give you depending on how serious I think you said second level Defender that was my right so there's a certain level uh of information certain people get it right schools get it on the first level nobody has it right um but in terms of how you I I think you should put the County prosecutor's office you know uh to task you should say to them what do we do we don't want to violate the law uh on this fair housing law but we also feel that we have an obligation for our citizens let them tell you how you should really work on this this is something they should be doing and maybe they ordered to have a meeting not just with you maybe they ought to have a meeting with all the TS right I don't know it's something I would recommend if I was in the office still today I'd be recommending that that would be out so that's just my thank you sir appreciate um do we write a letter to the prosecutor's office and to I I I like the gentleman suggestion okay let's uh can I have move that second okay uh all those in favor for allowing me to uh this gentleman to pen a letter for me and for me to sign um in order get gain clarification on this particular issue all those in favor I okay thank you thank you sir welcome okay that's disturbing to say the least um okay bear with me folks okay so we're going to uh go ahead and approve open space committee appointments so we have a reassignment of Josh Goldman as alternate at large member and Peter mccorn at to an atlarge member appointment of Kevin EET as an atlarge member as well these are are these um mayoral appointments or are these by um open space I'm going to be honest with you I don't know the top of my head so so I guess just just to be sure okay I'll make a motion to uh do the reassignment as as described okay second anyone second okay any discussion the only reason this was happening is again because certain members are able to attend and not so much so just sh around make sure we have the one thing that I just want to uh use this opportunity to discuss is the fact that we had a planning board meeting the other night that was advertised as a zoom meeting that had to be cancelled because of know how to use the zoom not well but same issue it's the same issue so and so I but there was 10 people that came to the meeting and we had you know I took time out of my busy day and I went home with nothing accomplish so I am 100% I saw firsthand if we can stay away from Zoom technology here is terrible as it is um so I think we're just asking for you know further difficulty so anyway I use that as a PL um but I totally agree uh let's go ahead uh and do uh do we need a roll call for that do you think or just no all okay so I had it first I had a second any disc question further discussion okay all those in favor I any uh nams or extensions okay uh we have a second uh so we have approved environmental commission appointments reassignment of Diana gab Baldi to member Kathy clink to alternate one and Donna D Mato to alternate 2 uh appointment of Jane Engle and Robert Weber as advisors should we do the same thing yes I I'll make a motion second any discussion again this was a little bit of we did lose some MERS we had some people resign after the beginning of the year so we need fill our spots appropriately fair enough okay uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor I N or extensions okay may I have a motion to to open for public comment now this is going to be does not have to be uh in respect to the agenda it's free mic if you will uh could I have that motion so mve yes okay all those in favor I I here we go again Jan weather Township resident what a great Segway um last end of 2023 the township committee made a commitment to move forward with recording the meetings M so they'd be readily available to Township residents in a video format posted on something like YouTube on the township website I've been waiting I've been doing it myself uh we had 139 views of the last meeting so clearly members of the township are finding value okay so I'd love to come to these meetings because I enjoy them so much so do I yeah but I feel an obligation to members of the community to continue recording them until you guys take over doing that so if you would put that back on your radar I'd appreciate it anyone else Mr excuse my name is Jack Skuse I've been a resident in Delaware Township for 61 years I know I don't look that old but I really am on February 5th Karena sent a letter to the township listing violations it was a four Page Letter a tremendous amount of time to write this letter and it enumerates the violations concerns and observations of Mr alaro at last month's meeting we asked had it been sent to the ca DB has it been sent to the ca DB today can I'm sorry sir count County Agricultural Development okay thank you yes do we know whether that complaint has been sent no think so I'm sure I haven't heard anything about it h no I'm sure it has not been say but let me we do have some information no I don't have information I just have the facts that this information seems like it's not going out of this room let me read what the ca what the the U Right to Farm requirements are for reviewing a process it says Municipal officers who believe a farm is violating an ordinance must file a complaint with the cadv now this is already two months he has been there 9 months the violations are incredible just from observations let me give you a prime example on the 26th was only a few days ago an neighbor gave me a call and said there's black buzzards in the field to the left of your property could you go out and take a look well I out there took a look and there was a a lamb trying to have uh babies mhm around the Land There were nine black buzzards the black buzzards are waiting for the lamb to arrive so they can eat the lamb there is no people on that farm mhm I went in to get the black buzzards away I had to fire shots to keep them off and they only went to the fence I waited there for 45 minutes until that lamb had her babies and delivered and they were up and they were fine okay now that is just one example of what's going on there and we in my opinion are getting no satisfaction from this board I ask has anything been done we're working on it may I repeat the words that you said at this last meeting on the meeting of the 12 we promise you we will do everything we can to to solve and make this situation correct this situation mhm I implore you has anything been done on this I will discuss this when the public comments closed what has been done and we have done everything that's within our legal power to try to address this particular issue are you aware that Mr alaro has made a motion to have that property accepted into his previous bankruptcy I'm not a bankruptcy attorney sir so okay he has made that request if no one objects by tomorrow the piece of property that is at 31 lamberville headquarters Road will be incorporated into his existing bankruptcy okay there it is undetermined if that gets accepted it is undetermined his back taxes will also fall into that bankruptcy that bankruptcy has been in here since 2021 mhm and the trustees determine how much money gets paid out and right the the mortgage holder has $650,000 our little $4,000 doesn't even compare to what's there and what is going to happen we don't know what's going to happen next quarter we don't know that either but he is a master of manipulation when it comes to bankruptcies and unfortunately the Predators get left in the dust so it it is a situation the example was put out last week last last meeting the tornado is coming the tornado is on our roof right now if this guy continues he in Pennsylvania he's going to he has already said I move out of Pennsylvania I'm moving my operation to New Jersey he has U he's talking about putting in a 5,000 ft retail retail store that will be open from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night 365 days a year we talk about roads go up and down that lamberville headquarters Road we're talking about potholes we're talking about Pooles at a basketball could fit in and now he is predicting that it is really bad and it unfortunately is on a curve and on a hill now he has predicted that he has 200 Cars a weekend a week come if you go over to his location in Pennsylvania you can't find a parking spot on the entire piece of property it I think is beyond the scope of this Township M committee if they don't move and move on it quickly that's all we ask and in in 9 months those violations were known then and here we are n months 10 months later and we're still in exactly the same position but he's not he he has taken an 18wheeler worth of goods from Home Depot and we have pictures of it they were all unloaded there and he has to our know no permit requested so somewhere along the line what is required of the residents in this room and the residence in the rest of the township is not required by him and I don't understand what the reluctance is thank you for your time thank you I hope we don't have the same conversation next month I have one question yes you said he's going to move that bankruptcy into his other uh Bankruptcy Court that's right if someone didn't complain who should who is eligible to complain well you know it's kind of a funny question we made a request and this is an old request to put in a proof of proof of claim proof of claim if we had submitted a proof of claim we would be preferential on that list of preditors we could have voted and objected to the vote that is going to be finished tomorrow on whether the bankruptcy will allow his property which was illegally and fraudulently purchased and I can tell you why in the bankruptcy paperwork he is he he is required to report per any purchase that impacts him financially but what he did he on the bill of sale he changed his name it was Al Alberto and went under Waldo so if you looked it up you wouldn't have found his name in in the search for bankruptcies and circumstances and I'll say it that way circumstances revealed to the the doj and the US trustee USD program that he had made that purchases and that's what prompted him to request 9 months later that the property that he illegally purchased be absorbed into his bankruptcy so this is not a guy that we ar in our Township he he he has absolutely no regard for the law at all multiple times he brought up on animal cruelty he he has animal cruelty charges in this Township I know and there were were unfounded they went and inspected that and didn't find anything I spoke to the Animal control officer he said he went there and looked at it and there's nothing illegal about what he did would you like me to show you the video of these two Great Pyrenees that ears were just your ears were bleeding I'm not an animal control officer I apologize I I asked our experts to go out when we hear a complain about something we asked them to go out and take a look at the situation when they come back and say there's nothing illegal about what he's doing there's nothing more I can do and and may I ask are these videos from his Farm in Pennsylvania or they no they are right in our backyard they're right in par backyard so we asked the Animal control officer to go there and he came back with nothing to report these dogs were matted with blood on their ears and they were thrashing back and forth because they had ear infections and it if if you would like me to show you the video I video it right over the fence so I if you'd like I suggest you call the Animal control officer and say suggest to him that you have evidence for him to to consider that's that's his job yeah I would be more effective in calling that portrait of George Washington right now than get results from Mr Murphy he is he he he is he is not he he dismisses things and if you could see these four dogs I'm not going to continue but he is and I don't well I'll have a subsequent conversation with him because I never heard any complaints about Mr Murphy before but I will certainly inquire and find out what's going on um the only other point I would make is you initially and this is on the animal cruelty issue of lamb having babies in a field that's the natural course of things when a buzzard shows up and what is this particular gentleman supposed to do I mean it it might not be what you and I would do but from my understanding for Mr Murphy he said there was a dead horse in The Paddock when he went over there okay he is totally allowed to let that horse sit there and decompose if that's his wish until until what no until that odor stretches across to our home and I had Two Fellas helping me paint my garage they said the stench was so bad that they had to leave they came back the next day and said we can't work here we'll come on back l so that's a violation then that you have to file against them saying that uh essentially it's you know a nuisance so you have you have the means by which to go and complain about this particular nuisance and get whatever sort of um you know reprieve that you're looking for unfortunately that that's not us we're doing everything within our power for example they had millings that were placed on the driveway we sent that to our zoning officer our zoning officer then wrote a letter to the EPA saying this gentleman is putting down illegal millings on this driveway our tax assessor in in response to your question regarding the bankruptcy we have to be very careful that we do not treat this particular resident any differently than we would any other resident so not no no no so if if we don't let this particular resident go delinquent as long as any other resident he can come back and say that we're targeting him and in this Township it has always been the procedure that you go two quarters without hearing from us before we reach out and say guess what you're delinquent on your taxes if we go to Mr far and say you're delinquent on your taxes because you're a quarterly he can turn around and file suit against this Township even if it's he's in bankruptcy that does not matter okay it's our procedure and whenever we break from our procedure we're setting ourselves up to be sued for discrimination upon that gentl so we as a Township are doing everything we possibly can to help you folks but you have to let us do it and we have to stay within the procedures that that we have and unfortunately a lot of those procedures require time and so even though we have this tornado coming we have to wait for it and once that time crosses and we're able to go and file with the bankruptcy judge we can do you know do all these things we have the fire inspector showing up uh hopefully within you know a couple weeks here for the surprise visit um unfortunately that's the county level we have no not a surprise now yeah it's not a surprise now but this is part of the problem of discussing yeah that's the problem of having these conversations sure right so helpful it isn't helpful just let us do we understand your concerns we're concerned too because this is our Township you folks are our residents you just got to afford us a little time to do something and doing them in the public forum is probably self-defeating if you will but so and I understand and I feel for your situations we're doing everything we possibly can and I thank you for that thank you sir thank yes no problem d h just mild amount of color um won't go forward I won't talk about the motion Nong which this Township can certainly file a response in that bankruptcy certainly could file a appr claim in that bankruptcy um I don't know how many how many residents in this community for example are currently in a Chapter 13 where Delaware Township would not already be a creditor the only reason this property was obtained in the fashion it was is because he violated the law in order to obtain the property one of the conditions of buying a property when you're in Chapter 13 is you must seek permission from the bankruptcy trustee and the creditors or the court did not do that hence the reason for the uh numr motion that was filed excuse me on the 9th um or excuse me on the uh 26th I believe um the responses are du back on the N with respect and that's all I'm going to say on that I do think we should file a motion I do know our our our tax collector has been in direct contact with the trustee of the bankruptcy what those conversations have led to I'm un unsure of at this particular point in time because they just happen recently but she is in contact with them so we're we're working behind the scenes to get things right and within our legal bounds okay let's move on from that now okay driveway the driveway the millings is part one or part two really part one was the widening of the driveway which okay and that was in in strict viol a of the codee the code was provided to the township the pictures there was videographic evidence provided as well we sent him a letter saying you violated the driveway ordinance you have to fix that if you don't fix it you're subjecting yourself to possible fines okay that letter was sent to Mr this is the first I've ever heard well that a letter was sent it was sent and do you think Master alaro is going to change his driveway do you think he's going to pay the fine I don't know I have no idea I no let's I at this point my legal advice is to shut this down right now it's gone already revealed the surprise and I'm going to end it my recommendation is ended this way as the mayor said we are going to treat every resident of Delaware Township identical we are not going to deviate any standard operating procedures for a particular individual um to act responsive or reactive to a hypothetical fear of a tornado coming we must deal with not a discussion of a possible hurricane coming we must deal with what actually has occurred and when there are violations for any Resident regardless of the address regardless of the blocker lot we will handle them in the exact fashion and just like the mayor said with with respect to any delinquent taxes we will not change our procedure for a single resident we will do it with absolute Fidelity to our standard operating procedures every resident gets treated equally no one is discriminated and no one is targeted rest assured whatever violation actually occurs and has been documented by the appropriate official which the appropriate official so everybody understands is no one in this room no one in this room is charged or tasked to address the violations there are people who are employed by the township that is their sole Province and responsibility those people will discharge their duties if they don't discharge their duties and you you have examples of that you bring that to the mayor or any other toship Committee Member and that they can do in terms of following up to make sure that people