##VIDEO ID:3PkjoLrXD2k## meting is called to order flag [Music] States this meeting is called pursuance to the provisions of the open public meeting law meeting of September 23 2024 was included in the list of meetings notice sent to the 120 Democrat career news in January 3 2024 posted on the bulletin board of bur Hall on the date and has remained continuously posted as required in addition to copy of his notice is and has been available the public and it's on file in the office of the B call please ccart herec here here council president long here counciler here Council vice president Ros she absent and I'm here um before we do uh the presentation by Lisa hi uh it's on the agenda we are joined um by the uh director of the board of uh County Commissioners Jeff P um I told you all two weeks ago that the Freehold Commissioners had awarded us sorry I'll never be able to say that just without um we'll you know awarded us $40,000 to be used towards the HC system at the new police building and um the commissioner director personally brought the check to us tonight so um want to say a couple words sure so uh thank you everyone for having me tonight the uh so our County reord I brought up that we we're going to have $2 million infrastructure grants for 100 County municipalities um and this is the well one's the infrastructure Grant one is for Parks and Recreation which is is coming up um so naturally all 26 municip ities uh participated and the you know the ask was for probably three times as much as the million dollars but um so we had a independent organization go through all the applications and help everyone through the application process um so we weren't picking the winners and losers so it was all everybody can be happy hopefully nobody's going to complain but uh anyway so Farmington we are awarding you with a check of $40,000 towards your police state upgrades and we hope that everything goes well for you and look forward to the completion of the police station and the completion of the project here in flomington to make flomington back to what it used to be and so here I it's a check to the mayor thank you very much we really appreciate it the um the second round the second million the Parks and Recreation grant for which could be used for so it could be used for you know uh Park equipment park upgrades you know let's say Trails need to be redone different things like that or even you know if you had towards the purchase of SE Park area or whatever so um the the application process that'll also that have the you individual things that you need to comply to just like any other gr process and uh um you know we're assuming that we're going to get all 26 municipalities again and we're going to do this but we're we're so happy that we County at this point we have the clout and and the ability to do this U one of my things beginning of this year on became director we're all one big Community this sun County we want to acknowledge that we want to help all these town because I I was a mayor R in conri twice and you know I know how it is you're stretching every pen so U you know we're glad we can help and I'm sure we'll be helping you again with the park situation I know that the the park applications are it's now an active application I think it's sometime in October maybe the end of October so I'm not sure the actual dates but I know it is comes pretty fast should have all everybody should have received the application and if there's any questions you we'll feel free to you know feel free to reach out to the county staff and get clarification well this is appreciated I just want to make sure it's made after to the B not yeah sadly I mean yes it is it is thank you so much really appreciate have a great night you did all right uh so um number five on the agenda is a presentation by Lisa hi who's the vice president of operation and government relationship government relations commercial utility consultant he um a couple weeks ago I asked all of you you know we were all kind of blindsided by uh this whole energy op in opt out thing and uh nobody up here remembered anything about it from before I got elected so um uh Brian MCN and I in Carlo's absence we did a lot of a lot of research and what we found was that in 2019 um actually councilman right uh brought this to the council's agenda and attention and uh did a presentation on this countywide um program which is not from the freeholders I mean the mail looked like the county was doing this but they really aren't doing this so there was an ordinance drafted and passed unanimously by the council um only one of whom survives from that Council uh to my left and it was you know how many years ago is that 2019 over five years ago20 your ordinance the end of 2020 no that was it it was 2019 was when it was I have December 14 2020 on the um ordinance itself you do okay I thought Chris S it was 29 you have ordinance number yes I did 2020-2 d202 yeah um see that's how much i' I've studied this because I know the ordinance number anyway the gave the mayor which I never seen before in my 30 years in government authorized the mayor to always have the power to sign this a contract with this company but then a week later they introduced a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a contract but the ordinance already gave that power and then we got in Apparently after that round so we didn't participate then Co hit and this whole thing kind of went out of everybody's brain and then they started it up again after covid but they couldn't get a rate better than jcpnl so nothing happened the buau wasn't informed of anything and then all of a sudden this year they got a rate better than JCP they reactivated it we have an ordinance say the mayor can signed a contract at any time Cara slipped it into a whole signing package because she and I are both clerks we both know you got to have a resolution behind it but an ordinance outweighs a resolution um and the rest is history including some angry citizens that they you know we missed presentations we missed all kinds of stuff because it wasn't on anybody's radar screen um Ryan hunted down Lisa and explained to her that the other than Bill Hans who's a part-time employee Jeremy long every single person on this downstairs floor has fled so we've had clerk between clerk she knew and Carla uh everybody's else has gone the council has flipped and in fact some places in some positions it's SP twice so um we I want to apologize for all the misunderstanding about what happened and whatever I know we've had a lot of people opt out because they were really taken back on all this so we I invited Lisa in to just do a brief um summary of the highlights of this program and what it can do for residents and we sent out a townwide u email saying watch it tonight live or you can always watch it on YouTube later or come here you have real questions so Lisa it's all yours thank you and no apology necessary um governmental entities change all the time um it was just a fall through the cracks kind of a moment um happy to say that there are no fees penalties or anything like that associated with the program prohibited in the regulations so any Resident wishing to opt out or opt in can do so at any time during the program so once they have more information if they've already opted out they do have the opportunity to come back in and vice versa as they get more information if they decide hey this isn't for me they can always opt out even though we're past that 30-day opt out period residents can still opt out at any time that they want to so I just want to cover um what government uh energy aggregation or Community energy aggregation sit down this s microphone so that it gets reported prop gota all right so um energy energy deregulation is how we got here um so before 1999 um generators electricity generators passed electricity directly through to our um electric electric distribution companies in our case jcpnl and then they passed the electricity on to the customer so think back to Bel telephone before we deregulated telephone right before you had no choice as to who your long distance provider was same thing here 1999 we deregulated delivery from supplies so all we did was introduce another component U between the generator and the utility company called the supplier suppliers purchase electricity from the generators they then provide it to our electric electric distribution companies who provide it to the customer still one bill from jcpnl just sort of it's bifurcated we've got delivery charges we've got Supply charges all we do in the energy aggregation program is replace the the state selected State awarded generation or um sorry suppliers with another supplier at a lower rate we can only do this program if the the rate that we achieve at auction is lower than what the basic generation service rate is at the time of auction That's Why the pause between November 2021 and may 2024 there was a there was a long period of time there where we just couldn't get a rate that was competitive so the state holds a basic generation Service auction every February uh it is for all four electric distribution companies in the state electric suppliers are awarded prices are set those prices take effect in June of that same year so by going out with a smaller aggregate different aggregate going out at a different time of year we at the local level hope to beat that price to compare all of the documents for the community energy aggregation program are reviewed by the Board of Public Utilities R paay Advocate and because you are part of a Cooperative we have the added level of Department of Community Affairs Department of Community Affairs also oversees our online auction platform and we are um licensed in the state of New Jersey to do that as well so again all we're doing is replacing the suppliers who is picking up that generation from the generator delivering delivering it to the LDC all we're doing in the program um you are part of a Cooperative that is 13 Town strong um you've got towns from I'm sorry 14 towns you've got towns in hundon County you have towns in Somerset you have a town in Essex County um and you have a um a few towns in Morris County it is called the hunon area energy Cooperative it is not geographically tied the hundon county so um you're in there with um those those 13 other towns the burrow of Califon is your lead agency so if we um are successful at auction on the day of auction Califon is the one that says we're going to go for it we do not recommend taking um any a making any award less than 5% savings to Residents we were able to achieve a 5% savings this time through the last round I think we were more more at the 7% but the fact that we were able to provide any savings after such a long break and with utility rates just going up exponentially year after year there's a little bit of savings there if the resident decides that they want to stay in again they're certainly welcome to opt out of this program they're not obligated in any way the rate is not affected um by attrition so if you have 2,000 residents in a town and 1,999 opt out that one individual left in the program will receive that program rate for the program ter um it's an all-in situation it's the way that the regulation is written um it is an opt out program not an optin um so the government energy agregation Act of 2003 is where this started uh the state initially started with municipalities being able to aggregate together their Municipal accounts and from that grew the residential accounts in 2012 so the the Board of Public Utilities essentially says listen we know that you have a better shot sometimes depending on the market of getting a lower rate than what we could get in February of that year so they allow municipalities to to take on that responsibility and do that at a local level again we cannot make an award unless the price is lower than the basic generation service rate um so we did that on May 22nd 2024 the 100 and Co-op went out to bid and IDT energy was our lowest bidder and that was a 15-month contract that started with meter reads in September 2024 will run through November 2025 uh in August of 2025 is we will look to see uh where we are as far as um maybe extending the current contract term we're not successful with that we'll go back out to auction if we're successful the whole process starts over again um we deal with the information packets um we'll do the 30-day op out period again residents wishing to opt out can certainly do that any Resident that permanently opted out and I do have your your um enrollment numbers with me tonight so far we have a permanent opt out feature which means if a resident says hey thanks no thanks I'm going to take a pass there's a one-time opt out um which would remove them from this round of the program because you know I'm referring to Old Pro old rounds of the program they would have to opt out again if we make another award there's a permanent opt out feature that says thank you no thank you seriously don't include me again we pull those residents out of the eligible list provided to us by jcpnl for that next round they will not be be disturbed they could join the um the program but they would have to actively do that we it would not be an out out situation for them it would be an OP um so with that I just want to go through your numbers because I did bring them with before you do that one of the concerns that I heard from some residents is that if we have a power outage jcpl is are going to come running into Services unsure they have no idea who each individual customer supplier is um and you are on that's the delivery side of things nothing in that relationship between the customer and jcpnl on the delivery side changes in this program we are just changing who the LDC is buying the energy from not how they're Distributing it so lines wires meter reads um billing questions all still handled through jcpnl and no they have no idea um that you know mayor you are on this third party supply um this councilman is on the basic generation service this one over here is on 100% energy through a completely different third party supplier they have the the the guys repairing the lines no idea it's all just depends on where you are in the repair line um and that's also brings up another good point still one bill from jcpnl not like you're going to get a bill from the supplier and a bill from jcpnl still that same bill the only thing that changes is um where your supply charges are noted it will say IDT energy and it will give you your charges for that billing period in the message portion of the bill right near the supply charges will be a message from jcpnl that says hey if you were with the basic generation service you would have paid X this month so it's right on the bill whether there was savings whether there was not we also through our web portal have the ability for residents to go in set up a password for their account and we track the savings for them month by month it's actual savings it's um basic generation service rate can change quarterly and does other uh quter reconciliation rate from jcpnl that comes through we don't have a crystal ball I don't know what that's going to be I know historically what it's been um the 5% sort of where we are um where we took the pricing we allow for that um some months you'll be paying you'll be saving more than 5% some you'll be saving more like 4% but we we made the we cleared that hurdle um with that reconciliation number um so a resident can go on look at you know September October November and see each month what the performance was for the program uh additionally Flemington burrow I can give you your login and password number you can pull your aggregate report for your residents you would not be able to see individual savings but you would be able to see the savings for your residents out of participating in the program I can also provide that to you um monthly quarterly however often you want to have that just so that you can see we want transparency for the residents so that they can see it without having to keep track of their bills start their own spreadsheet things like that um so right now I have 200 question why would people opt out what are the reasons for people up out uh not not understanding what the program education education and if they have been burnt yep if they've been burnt by their own individual third party supply contract um these the the the GAA program does not allow for auto renewal without notifying resid res it does not allow for changes in the price without notifying residents um it does allow for early termination if let's say if the basic generation service drops considerably lower than what we're we've got through the program rate the agreement allows us to go back to the supplier and say hey the bgs rate is going to drop X we need to drop our price so that we're still maintaining that 5% savings threshold can you do that if they say no there's also uh a clause in there that says if we can't reach a a mutual agreement um they can terminate the program early they can say yeah I can't beat that you're right people are going to opt out I'm just going to end it early we've had it work both ways in previous cooperatives the other thing that we can do if they're unwilling and we're underwater we'll send a notice out to Residents that reminding them you can opt out any time we are encouraging you to revisit here's the new price here's the program rate decide what you want to do the letter that was sent out was very like menacing the jcpnl letter was MCN found out that it was sent by jcpnl not by your company correct because they don't want anybody leaving correct even though it doesn't hurt them and that's a better version of what it used to be it used to be far worse was yes we worked with BPU and rap pair Advocate to fix that for years that's improved yes yes it's very confusing and residents have no idea if they missed listen the information packet was six pages long plus two opt out Parts a little confusing I'll admit it but we have to do it the way that the Board of Public Utility says we have to do it you have to do it in writing um we do not door knock we do not make phone calls we do not email the only information provided to us by jcpnl is the customer account the account holder name service address mailing address and their 20-digit JCP remember I have no phone numbers I have no emails uh we won't door knock sometimes other third party suppliers get wind that you're in a program and they'll door knock and say hi I'm with the I'm with Flemington Bros energy program I just need to see a copy of your bill and just like that um somebody could be be slammed um so I just want to make residents aware that we don't do that U the only way that we would call a resident is they called in and left a message for us um but yeah there's there's Consumer Protections in here again it wasn't wasn't designed to confuse I know it is confusing especially since your residents haven't been through it before um so I am more than happy to if if Council would like to set up another Outreach meeting here for anybody that wants to come or another Zoom just to give the presentation again make residents aware what it aware of what the program does what it was intended to do what it doesn't do do and clear up some of that confusion you don't have to I'm just saying I'd be more than willing to if that's something that you think would help residents get a better understanding um we you had two seconds just want to get to your op out numberers second second and last3 buried basically all right so um since July 15 uh the eligible account list um just so that we understand what eligible means what what what we use as eligible that is any customer residential customer not already under contract with a third- party supplier at the time that we do the program doesn't have net meters for solar and um there's also a time of day meter it's it's grandfather uh and it's it's a Time the rates that are set for off peak usage are so low I can't we would hurt if you're using that meter correctly by trying to save you money we could end up costing you money so we pull those those types of meters out of the list so after we got finished scrubbing the list we had 2,542 accounts that were mailed the information packets um since then since July 15th we've had 135 opt outs um due to undeliverable mail by the US Postal Service according to the regs and rightfully so those residents didn't have a chance to be educated about the program they must be opted out so there was 135 right off the bat we had 68 one-time opt outs and we have 52 permanent opt outs and we have 31 residents who opted up into the 100% green program option which is 100% renewably Source energy so um that's sort of where you stand right now after the J cpnl letter and after we do the enrollments there'll be some more rejections by the utility um people can move um people get behind on their bills if someone gets behind on their bills they will be dropped from the program because we do not allow for um two separate bills so jcpnl if you get behind on your bills will only collect for their portions of the bill we don't allow the supplier to continue to provide service and build their own bill so that person would drop once they get caught up they can certainly reenroll in the program but auto pay JCP and auto pay still oh everything is still the same absolutely um if you have autopay set up because again your bills come in from jcpnl go uh directly exactly as it is now if you have any kind of warranty service or um sort of those checkup Services through jcpnl all those remain in place anyone on utility assistance um so Li Heap Universal um service those kinds of that's all all remains in place anyone I don't know if your residents have access to community solar yet or not um but if they were to this um does not impact their their credits through Community sold either it will impact somebody that has solar panels on their house which is why we pull those meters out the credit will only be applied to the utility portion of the bill so that delivery portion of the bill as soon as we switch the supplier sometimes the utility does not pass those credits onto the supply side of the charge and it does a disservice to the resident so we pull them out question yeah were you here on August 6 I was cool I have no idea about that um I was on our website and everything nobody show that yeah no one can swear I read that also just confirm and I might have missed this earlier in the presentation this is not similar to those other uh third party supplier programs with let's say a variable rate that might you know see your electricity bill Skyrocket 6000% or whatever ridiculous cor thank you I feel like that's kind of giving this kind of program a bad absolutely and this program um to your point was actually um to sort of stem that that Gap um polar vortex of 2014 I know I'm going way back but anyone on an individual third party supply contract contract back in 2014 the the the cold snap that happened across the country was Exquisite and anyone in a third- party supply contract of their own did see that immediate jump of and I if it was 6,000 but it was it was Hefty so that was right around the time that the board was promulgating the regs for the residential program so all of that sort of factored into the way that the RS are written and the way that the regs are enforced is to make sure that there is no predatory Contracting there is no Auto Renew at a rate that's higher than the bgs yes we have to pass through any state approved changes say there's a sales and use tax we had it eons ago a few years ago where it came down and it went down again um those changes we have to pass through it's a law we have to make those changes but we notified residents hey your rat's going to come down exdents because sales tax went down in the state of New Jersey so we're passing that on those are the kinds of changes that can be made to the price that again we have to allow residents 30 days to make another decision about staying in or opting out postcards are sent and they're reminded there's an 800 number to call they can do it online um and they can also do it through their utility JCP will always take the out there sorry quick question um you answered part of it um who would not benefit from this would be people with solar correct who would best benefit as a as a customer everyone benefits it's the same it's the same 5% savings across the board um if you use less energy in the summertime that's the only time I think that like if you're super aggressive um you know energy consumer in the summertime JCP has a a bifurcated rate for summer there's a lower rate for anything up to 600 kilowatt hours and then anything over that is a higher rate we're using our air conditioners and we're you know pool filters all that fun stuff so um the rate through the program is that 01119 regardless of season regardless of time of year regardless of what jcpnl is doing on the basic generation service side had um two other questions sorry just you're you work for I work for uh commercial utility Consultants we are one of the appointed consultants for the 100 area energy Cooperative so you don't work for like IDT energy or anything like that right so I feel like a lot of people probably saw that bill come in the mail did the first thing was Google IDT energy and immediately saw that the first like 10 results are not good at all um and that's I guess who we've gone with I mean we they've improved right like I don't yes and by the way the Board of Public Utilities and right payer Advocate on top of them in this program how they behave in their individual third party contracts I cannot speak to that but in this program just because when you when you Google them they they really got to improve their SEO marketing and what it's not good look yeah to your point councilman um you will find that of all third party suppliers yeah I mean my friends people knock on their door and anytime I look it up I'm like don't do not touch them exactly does anyone know if you have an ordinance regarding um solicitation do but they all they all say the same thing it's in my car yeah you know where's where's your where's your your solicitation license and they say it's in my car I've called the police before to say listen I know we have an ordinance like there is a person wandering the neighborhood signing people up I mean this is an enforcable ordinance oh I just tell them that coun and I send them to okay good I tell them that they have an option to go down to their Chuck and get their license and show to me or get out of town on the mayor right so and you know who's applied and who have it but yes to your point um we can only clean them up and clean their behavior up within State correct [Music] and then one more quick one so right now we have a contract to do thisin you have an ordinance an ordinance and a resolution that you authorize to join the 100 area energy go up if you do not want to do this again all you have to do is pass an ordinance to say we're out I file that with local government services Department of Community Affairs and we remove you from The Coop and what about this the mayor signs off well this is the thing it's in the ordinance that the mayor to sign this contract and I don't like that I I would like to have our attorney amend the ordinance that um it just puts us into the program but that by resolution uh whenever there's an opportunity to do this program it's not every year yep um only is when the rate's better that there has to be a resolution passed by the council authorize the mayor sign it because then it's all done in public it's vetted you can come back here and remind everybody so I think i' to see if the council agre has something introduced at the next meeting just fixing that clean that up there are a lot of um other municipalities that participate and we have more than just 100 and Co-op we have four others um that regardless of what their ordinance says we still have to go present have the resolution passed to memorialize we're going to sign this contract here's what it is and we present at that meeting before that happen that would have happened had anybody remembered any or known anything about this program but after five years as well probably everybody they didn't even go out to bid no we went we went out a bid we were not successful oh yeah oh yes oh boy y okay yeah um there's a page in here that literally lists how many times we went out it's very depressing for me um but yeah um we start we started to try to renew this thing um March 30th 2021 May 20th 2021 September 22nd October 22nd 21 there's yeah it just was a brutal I said I just it's I've just never seen an ordinance that authorizes the mayor powers like to just keep entering into a contract so I'm much more confident fixing that ordinance and requiring a resolution because like I said even the first year same attorney wrote the res ordance and then following week had them do a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign it so the resolution 2020 D20 was the I have that here but when ended up in your code book gives you no special it's in the ordinance okay didn't end up in the code book but I will look at it change it's AB what end up in the code book is just your intent to join the collect yeah never there's nothing here I did a triple check search and I did not find I read it and I got look I'll email it to you I Googled Flemington ORD is 2020-2 and I got it oh I just take it off your Google so I'll go back to the okay yeah just email I'll send the resolution and the end up in the public but I'll look at it I'll give you my um I had a a quick question if we have any followup questions umla has your contact has my contact info absolutely um all of the program information including a sample of all of the information kits there's a program video there's a frequently asked questions document that's about six pages long um that residents can access um the rate table and the program options um are clearly spelled out right there on the web page there's also an optin opt out opt up button so residents can write there uh on the web page um and in charge of their own destiny if they want to do it online without having to make a phone call um or if they've uh if the information kit with their opt out cards are long since gone um there's an 800 number that they can call as well um if they want to speak to us it's 855 well see eight sorry 866 688 5197 before uh we let you go car I don't I can't read that far away I don't know if there's any members of the public that have any questions if they do and they want to raise their hand we can let you in um so you can ask Lisa anything you want um no seeing none all right right and I do want to end this on a high note um I know that this is flemington's first time through but the program's been kicking around for a while um since 2019 they've had contracts so during that time actual savings for residents has been $1.6 million it doesn't sound like a lot when you break it down per individual it's a lot of towns in here but it does what it is designed to do and when it's not allowed to run because we're you know above the bgs rate residents go back to jcpnl and we wait for the market to come back um so there is a there is a success story here already um I look forward to coming back perhaps in February or at least sending you a savings report that Carla can share with all of you and if you want me to hear on for the ordinance reading I'm happy to do that as let you know the public hearing thank you so much for your time was nice see you it's okay no worries all right uh back on the agenda six May's report um I don't have anything directly to I don't think um so I'll just hold off um Council reports um start at the with council president long sure um just a couple of things for OEM the on a second OEM would like to know everybody know that as we enter fire safety month this October the office of emergency management urges all residents take important steps in fire prevention and preparedness this is a critical time to review your home's fire safety measures check smoke detectors ensure that your family is aware of your family evacuation plan fire safety is everyone's responsibility and simple precaution can save lives in addition to fire safety uh the office wants everyone to be reminded that um it's hurricane season it's still active in the Atlantic and the tropical systems continue to pose a threat although the peak of the season has passed we must remain Vigilant and prepared for any potential storms that could impact our area be sure to review your emergency supplies stay informed about weather and have a place a plan in place in case of severe storm impacts also would like to highlight the outstanding work of the Flemington Community Emergency Response Team C which recently supported the Central Jersey jazz festival C members contributed 20 Collective hours during last week's Festival ensuring the safety and wellbeing of attendees in addition members logged in in additional 12 hours in collaboration with Ritt Township C uh at the community Day event this past weekend we extend our deepest gratitude to our Sur volunteers for on their ongoing dedication and service to our community and from me just something uh in general so once again uh I'm going to be making myself available on Saturdays the afternoon to talk to B residents location be determined I'm primarily interested in discussing things that might not be as shiny and dopamine enriching as a social media post talk about town stuff real talk some good old fashion idea hatching and these next few months I'm working on a little project of sorts and I want to get some public feed back I'll be sharing more before the new year but it's got a lot to do with building some infrastructure but not the kind you might be thinking of a strong sense of civic duty and Civic engagement does not happen overnight it starts small and it starts with the kinds of conversations I'm hoping to be having with you so as I said more news to come stay tuned and that is my report thank you uh C and anglehart we have three items um the samel cling house had a successful um event over the weekend the spice excuse me event from last weekend um with a a good good turn good showing um their next event is one of their biggest of the year I'm sorry I've got a a little course um is the biggest of the year it's October 12th um the pumpkin painting which is always fun um from 1: to 300 p.m on October 12th uh five an El um the other two items I wanted to mention um very importantly um f American School District our um burrow one of our two burrow um board positions um one of the um members resigned last month so there is an open board seat so in addition to the election coming up this this um nober for the reg one regular board there's a open board seat that um the term ends in December 2025 so essentially there's um an opportunity for someone to um step up and maybe see if this is something they're interested in doing in serving the community um by serving as a um Board of Education member um don't have to run for office you can uh put in your interest in um doing so by Monday on uh September 30th at 3:30 um cover letter and resume um is due to the Board of Education from inter school district for those that don't remember that's our um preas 12 district and um interviews uh for any interested um um applicants is October 10th at the regular Board of at meeting 7 p.m. at jpk so basically they're looking for someone to fill the position for one year um so um that's a good opportunity um to you of represent your community um and uh finally the uh 100 Regional 100 Central Regional High School boed meeting is tonight so go ahead and watch it online after this meeting that's it excuse me um did you see my email Council woman about the you mentioned that at one of the meeting this meeting i s it again I did not get anything I hate to send anything to your personal email because it's operable we'll talk it after the meeting I meant to mention it at our traffic meeting the other day and I had to run out and uh pick up my son so we never talked about that but yeah I did look for it after we left yeah know I sent you another one a couple days ago okay I you know like I said we've been having some trouble with email so uh I agree yeah I i' I've had a lot couple things um Mara I'll send something and nobody gets it or Mara sends it to me nobody gets it so you're having the same problem yeah um so yeah let's talk afterwards you can fill me in on whatever the email is about yeah I said Tony I sent you an email last week and you know responded which is high unusual asking you newsletter topics you want you didn't get any huh no I thought you just dissed me no no IAS can you talk to Gary I I I put something out to Gary that says that that I'm having problems with my emails because the other thing I can't get I don't know Susan you have this problem as well that I can't get anybody that's external like like um the chief of police I can't Jerry doesn't show up doesn't show up do you have that problem as well what do you mean it doesn't show up so if I try to put in their name it doesn't show up I have to I have to go contct L doesn't show at all so so to jar sorry I did get that okay so you got that one okay no what I'm saying is I wanted to send an email to Jerry and you put a Jer nothing I put in for Robin nothing pops up I don't think it's no mine didn't do that absolutely 101% did I sent you an email I don't know earlier last week and said I know you wanted an article about the paring committee but said promised you and I never heard from you you never got it wow no you I'm te wow okay yes you you're gonna you'll no we already sent something no we did we sent something to G I sent something to Gary last week and I just talk to Carl about it today because he he he he has an open ticket for it but we haven't heard any okay so um follow because I just figure you guys are all ignoring me and I'm so hard to an I don't think I don't think it's just your email like I was supposed to get an email from my Campion with after that traffic meeting with the survey and I didn't get anything so I don't know if that was just that he didn't end up sending it or he normally copies me on anything and I did not okay I was just get I did not so all right we got an open ticket y follow up because this is upsetting um okay that's what I'm saying I know saying because all right your finished coun right things to positive Ling the boom positive um positive but I guess kind of sad for the community um oyon the children's librarian Debbie Moore is retiring after 48 years am I hearing that so she started work or 30 38 38 38 okay might be a Tio so tomorrow not be she been there a long time she started when she was a teenager her time I think it might be 48 years so tomorrow 3 to 5m there will be a free reception in her honor at the library all please come if you can in the community you wish her well uh and her last day will be this Friday so stop in before then if you can't attend tomorrow um the Boom just being part of the parking committee and having received some Communications from some of the members of the community if you are parking residential areas just make sure that you're being respectful of those homeowners and those residents in those buildings do not block driveways do not park in front of mailboxes do not damage Lawns or black top um and this is in response somewhat to one residents uh petition but then also speaking with other members of the community from that same area uh and then finally I attended the Lindberg trial walking tour on Saturday that the huning County Historical Society no not the Historical Society the 10300 the 10300 okay so the 10300 thank you you're welcome uh really if you get a chance to do this ever it was great to be able to walk through and see that architecture where people were staying we got to go into the jail uh take a lot of pictures in the jail so um that that was the highlight of the tour for me just being able to get in there so I always tell people 100 County County cultural inheritage fun history County Historical Society archives and preserves history and 300 presents history okay so the 1300 presented a great uh a great tour and I will leave it there but you can mention you're planning on going yes so I planning on going this Friday evening there's a lecture at the historic Courthouse there's one on Saturday at 1 p.m. 2 open at 1 open at 1 and then the one on Sunday it's also at 2 it's also at 2 and then you can go in and look at the gallery beforehand after and um I don't know if they're going want you see the jail but like that was the highlight of my life never been in jail yet yeah the last the last three Lees all on one GE in flamington and U it'll be great so hopefully first comfor Ser one seating No Reservations required and free uh with Refreshments you can't beat that so um okay thank you um Al and love it yes thank you the HBC approved one project last week uh next meeting is Wednesday October 16th and actually I had a question for either member of the planning board um just to confirm the historic Map update is still working its way through the planning board correct yes okay cool thank you um no I will be I sent that I uh love it send it back and vote to send it back the last meeting I I just looked at the agenda for tomorrow night's meeting and it looks like it is still being continued to tomorrow night I think maybe you're in yeah think you might be right they did continue it she's right continued it item number nine master plan all get carried from August 27th and September yes because there was a couple updates that the HPC was doing B on public comen real quick two more things uh I will be attending the 99th annual shade tree conference in Atlantic City on October 17th to receive the NJ Urban and Community forestry Community representative training uh this will satisfy some requirements for a few grants from them and uh that might be good for the burrow and as always please keep your animals under control that is everything thank you thank you all right so um just just a couple of things but I'm going to ask um the chief to come up um because I really want to make this Focus about the police um two things one is is that the ring r that I sent to everyone for you need to make sure that that's on the next agenda to get that approv I didn't I got no comments no make comments when you we first got did you see I didn't see any one [Music] about about yeah I did I'm just saying have I have not seen them are you sure you sent an email I didn't send an email about it I brought it up at our meeting sure other it were minor yeah one was about um about promotions should be coming should do you want the think I have no I I have to go through I have can you justo it and then we'll send it to Jerry and Jerry you can just update whatever we can update it and let's just send it to there was one where the chief the chief had authority to do something and they said really should we the council yes that's true I do remember that thank you okay I do remember that I thought someone was taking that out was who was supposed to take well you got somebody Whoever has the we'll talk that I'll find my C home and I'll give you a bu it wasn't no it was only a couple of comments but yes nevertheless let's make sure that we over C right there we can bring it back then we need to get all send back yeah we need go go on the next one because sounds the other thing is is that um before you get started I am going to work on the next newsletter I was hoping to get it out by the end this but my schedule just kind of got jacked around so um sh if you guys something in you something there if you put something in that'd be great I already have stuff for from the from Jerry Marsha is actually putting some stuff in the mayor is actually putting some stuff in so you guys can get to give me that within the next week if that's not if that's unreasonable please tell me um because my time is kind of getting limited um see so I did send you um an article late today for the parking Committee of Thieves um not at all I promise I haven't got anything even at 5:30 tonight yes I was on my I was on my email just before I came in here because I ran home hurry up got on an email just in case I missed something and then I came here I don't to do about this okay I'm just telling you I just and some stuff is getting through like I got the the police um the thing that I get some I think just started happening within the last several weeks did you get the email I sent out to everybody with the um uh the side ordinance you didn't get the sign ordinance from Chris that I sent to everybody last week and then jul Comas you get that even no okay this is niut all right well as I was gonna say I sent you I sent you never I sent you the newsletter article which it's done so I'll get it to one way or another okay but let me talk let me talk to Gary tomorrow yeah and then just text text me whatever else you won't me to write okay I will thank you I will I appreciate so anyway let me I want to turn this back to to um to the police chief so as you remember you recall last meeting I had talked about community policing and what a great job um they're doing and um some of the programs but I didn't want to still um the Thunder and I wanted the police um Chief to come in and talk about it I will say this they had an event yesterday in the Hills that was absolutely amazing it was so cool it was so great um I turned to the Chief and I said I am so proud of you I'm so proud of these guys for doing this they did a remarkable job um we do I was invited to the pba's baseball or softball or football or soccer game a couple weeks ago wasl kickb game yeah that yeah that was F yeah but I don't do Facebook anyway I want to keep this positive because I I just know that you know one of the things that um I talked about is some of the some of the things that that I was wanting the the police chief to work on I am very very pleased to say that all of those things are being checked off this list um again I said um to the police chief and I'll make it known to everybody else that I'm extremely proud of how he has moved forward with all of this stuff and one is this so I'm going to turn it over to him let him talk about what what's going on in the department and some of the things that they have button down yeah um well I'll start with community policing since we're on the topic of that um we have uh successfully last night or yesterday did the Hunter Hills uh Community kind of a community day we kept it small for the fact that um the population of Hunter Hills is high we didn't have a lot of uh resources and everything to go out for a townwide thing and I and I'm really trying to uh address and and Outreach to every area of the Town not just this blanket everybody come like really specific um to that area because I mean the problems are the same but there was also we want to hear from individuals and in closet block communities type of areas that's why we um we were contacted by New York Avenue um and on the 19th sent three officers over in SP and they spoke with approximately 20 residents 17 residents about their issues and concerns what they were seeing in their neighborhood that was pretty successful U they were reached out to me and thank us for for doing that and addressing their needs we talked about um cameras how important they are register them with us what what the process is with that the use of 911 I'm trying to encourage everybody not to um speaking with the the mayor and Council Parker a lot of folks rely on you guys to talk about issues of speeding parking or whatever have you those are time sensitive issues that if they called us we can deal with it and not just talk about it I keep telling them to so I think we need to Echo that in the newsletter as well I think that's we talk that's why one of the things like uh for an example there was an incident where a a resident had somebody walking around their house the neighbors saw it they didn't call us they called everybody kind of in the neighborhood then told them about it later hey by the way there's somebody walking around your house earlier um you know everybody I don't want people to be afraid to call 911 or assume that uh all their information has to be given you you can REM remain remain anonymous you don't like you see something say it and you know it is what it is even if you know you see something and you want to leave your name and you want to follow call back the officers will do that but the main thing is making that call making that report so we can address it in a time in there so my my challenge to you guys um would be uh if interested to reach out and host your area of town um reach out to your neighbors and see if they would want to come over meet somewhere and um we'll send some officers over you know kind of get feed of what uh what they want covered what kind of issues they have we can we can run uh searches on what type of activity is happening in that specific area and address it accordingly you know I think this is a brilliant idea I mean I think you know for us um because one of the things that um the chief is you know we've been working together on and that is is getting the police embedded into a community so they know who they are and with their purposes and not being afraid pick up the phone and call or not being be afraid to they know who they are they know that this is they know these other you know these are the officers as opposed to just one or two officers they know the entire department what he's trying to do I saw it on Facebook and my eyes L up I'm like I want to do that so yeah definitely reach out and Y and you know uh you know we'll catch up and see what you uh what kind of concerns what you like covered and can address those things like I said it's it's it's specialized it's not cooking cutter it's not like we come out give the same magic show we make it special um with that said but one of the starting events that we did with that started out in May UMO the our officer who's uh bilingual uh created a situation or a program with um United Way where we kind of had an Outreach thing with with them where they uh it was like a class that we offered uh once for uh once a month for about three months and it was it was just a real um educational thing same thing we do with uh the the New York Avenue it's to talk about expectations of what you expect from the officer and what the officer kind of expects from you um you know what the cultural differences and everything else so everybody's on the same page U topics that we covered was domestic violence cyber crime uh they got to meet the K9 Officer and dog uh 911 when the call what to do on a traffic stop what to do when a motor vehicle crash um topics like that just you know um I think is good for everybody to have like a refresher because obviously or even just to know about yeah yeah because uh you know to the average person uh you know to get stopped a lot of people's in Adrenaline gets excited they they want to know what's wrong people get defensive and and really could just be the smallest little thing Jerry I've heard from a number of people especially at prosar HS there used to be a neighborh watch program here and that officer left and never revitalized it is there any chance of revitalizing that at least in Prospect Hills which still wants a neighborhood watch program part of part of neighborhood watch programs um m parner i talked about it is I'm that program was good and and we checked the numbers of those areas for the neighborhood watch is full of prime issues that program actually started turning into a a representative for the tenant and the landlord you know it started um people with other complaints went from policing to you know my my uh my my carpet's dir I even paint you know whatever whatever be as far as a a representative at a tenant landlord issue some civil stuff um that's why I'd like to stick with um trying this going in and speaking with them and circle back um not a traditional neighborhood watch where um you know there's captains Engineers uh like it's a structure like a police department where you contact this person I think a lot of those organizations and we can help them especially through social media they can connect themselves uh my my word would be call the police and then Talk Amongst yourselves as opposed to Talk Amongst yourselves and then call the police so I want everybody to have that freedom of calling us and then talking amongst their their neighbors that hey just so you know I I called the police yesterday and this is the topic and why and and like I spoke with had the officers talk to the New York Avenue group um we're happy to Circle back you know um we H we're happy to uh come in every so often and and speak with them um if they you know if something pops off and we feel that a neighborhood watch would be a good thing then then it's something we can do but I think the neighborhood watches should be some sort of program that is there now you know like just just watching out for one another is kind of a neighborhood watch you don't need the the formality of a calling yourself something and so you know what maybe I was just saying that I with um if you're saying that I think maybe if we can put something in writing to and just stick under people's door that yeah know yeah kind of like when you see something say something don't be afraid to do that yeah we can talk about that but I think maybe that to embellish upon what you did yesterday the turn out that yesterday was actually pretty impressive um and then I saw people starting I I had to leave way before it was over but I started seeing people walking it as I was yeah it's it picked up for that dinner crowd right right so I mean maybe just embellish on that but yeah yeah and we plan on doing that with other areas it's just uh you know time officer time getting people in and out and uh just balancing out you know U I know Flemington arms is uh interested in doing the same thing we did at Hunter Hills yeah and uh we definitely are reaching out to them so some of my uh my thunder there with the park stu um the paring issues there but it's okay I'll share it with you your local GL CR we had just talked about that yesterday it's interesting you bring that up well I I I will say this though I I really like the idea of calling you first because I've got a bit of a reputation well ask her or have her call yeah right because they know I'm always nosy and I'm always looking on check in with you and see if yeah did she see fine um couple upcoming things we have um on the 26 we're going to go over and meet with uh Cub pack 61 just talking about police cars and you know all that good stuff October 8th we go over to the Salvation Army every uh every year for the past three years we've been meeting with the kids over there we uh have a question and answer my favorite color to my favorite movie type of stuff um and uh play some games and and I think they feed them a meal we kind of help out giving them food we're working on a coffee with a cop around October 9th we got to file complete the details on that we're going to I'm going to put a couple more officers out on SI and stroll and maybe have ice cream with a cop couple officers want to have ice cream so make them buy their [Music] [Laughter] owny no free no um November 2nd we're going to be over at the Fleming castle for coffee maybe some pastries see right and then uh finally feed you well finally November 29th through December 23rd we're going to put up a uh kind of a a decorative tree and uh put out a program so kids can decorate stop by meet an officer put their little ornament on the tree and and go from there and uh you know that'll close out the year with uh with community policing we'll start all over again nice you doing anything for the Halloween we are um I haven't heard much about the parid waiting for Robin location that's yeah that's why I called it a party yeah and then um you know I know there's a witch walk event coming up we'll be out there yeah no 25th 25th there's one on October 16th as well oh really yes no I think it's tickets and then um for Halloween we're GNA have you know patrols out there we'll we'll do the benel street Broad Street Clos down um that seems to be the I mean it's you know on a good night with good weather it's everywhere but it seems like those are the big streets you know sorry to the neighbors that are being overwhelmed with kids but I love it I'm onap I love it at my sidewalk and they anything else uh that's about it did you get my email about the uh the library okay so much Library director out for you so he he's gonna walk it down to you the only other thing that I will um put in is that we are interviewing for the next officer um October 7th in this room he's got got a couple candidates that look pretty strong thanks have a good night all right counc Parker anything else thank you uh public comment session number one any for the public online um [Music] Delina Delina you're on okay all right hello everybody uh my name is Delina pikio I live at 909 Yorkshire Drive which is Redan Township um I spoke at a council meeting a couple months ago I think it was around June about bicycle ordinance 3.72 so I just wanted to follow up with Council um I have two questions tonight so I'll start with the first one my first question is what like where where are we standing on this bicycle ordinance what progress has been made in community engagement efforts you know I've noticed the new signs on Main Street um reinforcing the ordinance but I just wanted to know what else is being done to ensure the safety of bicyclists in Flemington burough that's my first the police just left and this is a comment period by the public um this is on some ongoing with the parking committee and which is also addressing Traffic Safety but it is a comment period okay so yeah I mean um I did follow up with Council via email and I didn't hear back from any of the council members so you know I am looking to hear back about you copy me on that email yes I sent an email in July I believe of 2024 so it was a pretty lengthy email I'm happy to resend it if anybody did not receive it but so you can resend it sure um yeah I'll resend it and I'll just reemphasize what I mentioned there which was a suggestion you know obviously working with goh hunteran um I'm sure you guys are already doing that but for the public you know we don't really know what's going on so having you know some updates would be great um but also I suggested following maybe you know looking at some other Town ordinances is um for example the town of Princeton has a bicycle ordinance that prohibits riding bicycles on sidewalks only in the business district so you know in the really main um downtown area of Princeton and so they have a very extensive ordinance that kind of outlines the nuances um so that was something I had mentioned in my email to consider in Flemington burough um instead of having an outright ban on riding bicycles and sidewalks so I'm happy to follow up via email again um but yeah I'm just you know just here to continue this conversation and see what what's being done um for for the public and the bicyclist of town so thank you thank you thank you somebody else has their hand up I can't see Robin are Robin I gota get better classes I can't see yeah everyone needs glasses hi hi okay great um I just had a couple of quick things to say and I'm not sure whose picture that is but it's great is that is that my picture who okay with of the courthouse yeah that's you rob really oh I changed my profile picture and that's really lovely all right great um I just wanted to say the Central Jersey Jazz Fest in Festival in partnership with Somerville was phenomenal uh we had about 900 people this year which is more than ever before um while it's been on stangle road it was um a great it was easy it was calm it was lovely everyone seemed to have a wonderful time we have incredible pictures of of of a really warm and um happy crowd that was very diverse and um you know seemed to people seem to stay for the whole evening so I do want to thank the CT team the Explorers they we saw them walking around all night the DPW does a phenomenal job always the police were fantastic um the stangle businesses who participated in the stangle businesses who allowed us to close the street to have the event uh we're appreciative of everybody and my staff who come to help her events were really incredible um so we we're about to start having some really busy weekends and I just wanted you to know this weekend um there is a women business owners popup at Alchemy on Friday night that's really fun on Saturday there's a sidewalk sale on Main Street and it's Barkley's celebrating pet store day with giveaways and all kind and a some PAW Patrol characters it's going to be a fantastic um weekend on Main Street and then we start to get into a crush of amazing October event so there is and some of them are things that are coming back to town in an exciting way so the this the official stangle antique group is bringing back their auction um and show at stangle factory and that that's a really phenomenal um experience there is a bizaar bizaar there is on the 13th um there is an exciting Sip and stroll on the 17th where we're the county is helping a sponsor Roxy ballet doing a Hispanic heritage ballet performance that's about five different uh performances one is about the artist Freda Koo and I will encourage everybody to really come I think it's going to be um a highlight of the Fall um we are going to celebrate uh the witch walk and the moon Market on Friday the 25th we are closing the Street like we did for the Central Jersey jazz festival and um we got a throng of people last year so I think we just keep getting more popular and then we are going to decorate Court Street Park this year if if everything gets permitted as I think it will we probably will try to decorate the park Thursday be there um have people be able to go through the park on Friday sat Saturday and then on Sunday 10:27 we'll have the the kids costume um dance party we don't call it a parade anymore because when 300 kids show up out of nowhere it's really hard to line them up for a parade contact with um the chief of police he just mentioned that he's doesn't have a lot of details about that can you get in contact with him tomorrow please it's our first uh time working in Court Street park so there there's you know it's not usually uh we work very closely with the police and it's what we normally do on Main Street so we've just had a few extra right that he hasn't heard anything so can you just can you just reach out to him tomorrow please I will and I do want to tell you that a group of Main Street businesses have organized to do something called First Fridays on Main Street so Marie from Kuchar who totally renovated her business um started the concept of First Friday she's reached out to all the other businesses and the first Friday in October will be different shops and restaurants painting and decorating pumpkins so it's a free drop in activity at at any of of the businesses that are participating and if the police want to come and help decorate pumpkins on First Friday evenings that would be awesome too and the last thing is our our fall flowers yes the first Friday events are all evenings they're all evenings early evenings like 5 till 8 and um the uh we we are thinking about maybe doing a chil cook off and some music uh for the first Friday in November and then the first Friday in December and I can't believe it's almost here but it is is the tree lighting so whatever activity they do will uh coordinate with the tree lighting and our fall flowers will be arriving um in the next two weeks so so it'll uh help brighten town and make us look a little more ready for Autumn and um that's that's everything for me but again thank you to everyone who helped us with the jazz festival with all these events anybody else put their hand up Rob um morine Hi how are you please hi uh morningin kayn oh did I just cut you off sorry she cut back go ahead sorry uh is it okay now yep go ahead hi um I just wanted to say I was um really pleasantly surprised yesterday I was not expecting um I think it started at 2:00 the police Community party um I was told by one of the residents a little boy that was eight years old like maybe a half hour before it um through the window he yelled up to me that the police are coming for a party so I just laughed and Googled really quick because I said I don't think so but he was correct and they loved it the kids had a blast and it was was really a good day for them um I can't tell you how many of the young boys were blown away by the dog um they brought the police dog and just the games all day and the music they whoever put the music list together it was perfect for children and just play and young young kids and even teenagers and young adults so just all day long um from 2: to 4: I mean 2: to 6 um it was really beautiful and I I was so surprised that I have about 50 to 100 pictures of faces of the kids just all lit up um having the junior Police there was one of the best parts to watch um the little girls and the young boys interacting with them it was just um I could send you some pictures via email if you want some that will you know not show faces but show far away faces it's just beautiful and I thought was a really good thing and I'm sure the police department would I can do that I'll definitely send them to the uh to um yep and they asked a couple of the kids asked me why are they doing this why how come they're doing this why are they here they kept asking that question which I found um interesting I said exactly what you said they're they're working with the community they want to get to know the community they were over the top excited about that yeah so I just really was surprised uh I was not expecting I don't know how that went under my nose by the way I must have missed the memo um the kids say that a flyer went around to each front door but I get a lot of Flyers so it must have got blown away I didn't know about it not that I know of that uh but it was a really great day and I would encourage them to do it in other areas whenever they can it it seemed like a lot of work it didn't seem small to me it was a lot um it was trucks pulled in and there was um like an ice uh ice vendor truck um there was a taco vendor truck um sack races bubbles machines for the kids and they ran around all day the parents sat on the outskirts and watched another in interesting Dynamic just really smile faces um everywhere there were smiling faces everywhere so it was a really uh nice day and it was a beautiful day yesterday for it so it worked out perfect it's really nice to her yeah thank you guys very much for arranging that um really good Police Department that was all the police department just so that you know yeah excellent all right well thank you have a good night thank you all right good night anybody else I see still a hand up is that morning morning oh okay okay yeah I can't read anything I just see yellow okay uh we're up to approval of minutes um regular session September 9 2024 can I have a motion a second all in favor executive session September 9 2024 can have a motion move second second all in favor okay we're on to page two number 10 consent agenda item 2024 132 resolution appointing fund commissioner alterntive fund commissioner for the 2024 fund year um this has fallen under my radar and uh we should have fund Commissioners to go to uh Insurance uh fund meetings and um uh the last fund Commissioners appointed were Mike huffy and the alternate was Rebecca Newman so I like to go to these things been going to Insurance Fund meetings for years so um this would appoint me and Cara as my alternate and I have a motion long move second angelart second roll call please councilwoman angelart yes councilwoman faar yes councilman L yes council president La yesc Parker yes uh introduction of ordinates 2024 D21 and ordinance amending chapter 4 licensing to Institute regulations for advertising signage in certain instances um this was circulated ex coun perker didn't get it um we did get comments back from our property maintenance officer requesting um looking at our attorney he requested a once find for failure to he right for our conversation I made no changes he wants to know what so there so there's nothing punitive we have a we have a you got to take your signs down you know three days after an event or whatever but there's nothing punitive there's no or you're going to get fine if you don't the violation section now was just you put up signs without getting he wants that to also be if you do not read your signs which is it's up to you guys I didn't make the change because it's entirely up to government you want all right it that before we get discussed this can I have a motion move can I have a second okay um what's the sentiments about I mean he said that there's no teeth and it's you know he just rid around all the time falling down signs you know there's no teeth to make sign now um so well that is true it is true they discuss you have only for failure to get it from not failure remove remove do that that's right I agree with I agree with Adrian I thought we actually talked about it we did but I don't know that we came to an I don't NE recall it could have been conversation Rob which I love I think removing signs should have somee so it's notr in their m it is not put something in there sounds fine to me I don't Dave Dave suggested what did he say was day per sign which is too much too much my only recommend this my only recommendation would be a per day fine if signage is not removed within the allow of time unfortunately I've had to clean up signs up several signs after this that is Dave's email to us he he didn't put a price no no and I waited for your feedback I always do so um Trent C what do you think how much like is this per day or like just a he's Sugg he's suggesting a per day per sign I mean and this is for which category of signs here all all all of the temporary signs per day I would be motivated by $25 a day sign out per sign per violation sure Parker absolutely Council council president yeah 25 per day sign an event you an event you got a permit for like 50 signs now you have like a $6,000 F like I'd say per permit I guess you know to the permit holder correct per day per day for the whole batch of signs yeah if you leave you know one of them out of 10 out there you still get the fine whether it's n out of 10 get the same fine so 25 a day br signs in your permit yeah coun Parker I no I don't think that's enough I think the bottom line is you want to motivate people to take take them down that's what our isn't that's what this is all about to put them in at a certain time and take them down at a certain EV I'm not saying 25 is number but I'm just saying that you do need to do a per sign type of thing and it motivates people to take them down that means that you're take this sound you're taking it seriously and not just saying okay I'll do it ask real quick question how many so what's the cost for what's the cost for the permit what's the cost for sign $50 you got I think it was 15 signs so if you have to pay for all those signs it is it fair though to be like instead of all that batch has to come down or every single one has to come down for this specific price you got 10 signs rather than it being 25 bucks for all $1 $10 $10 a sign per day I don't know $150 point of it is that if you just put down and you take $25 and what is to motivate you saying well okay well I'll take them down and I take them down and when I gets to $100 I'll take them all down or or or is it that you need something need so when you're doing something like this you need a call to action right and so if you're saying $25 for 10 signs a call to action it's not I'm just telling it's not it's a call to action it's like okay well I'll get to it when I get to it s's the number I'm just I'm I vote on a per person I'm Excuse me per sign per sign per person um first sign the thing and I think maybe what is it $15 first sign per day possibly 15 councilman where are you at this point I feel like an Auctioneer coun you at this point 15 you know if I if I accidentally leave them up for an extra day that's a that's a $225 p s you found you found 12 out of 15 yeah you're so going to get hit with three at 15 each right okay so you're you're okay council president I don't know I'm kind of I'll come back $10 per sign per day uh Council go yeah I just I I her sign for days is there a way that we could um uh the property maintenance um officer can call them because they have a phone number yeah I mean like I'd like to see some sort of um similar to what he deals we deal with with other property maintenance things where it's you know get they get a courtesy call or you I'd like it to be up to him to decide whether the um uh it's it's such a a no I bad situation that he he chooses to enforce the I think he would do that you know if somebody complains about what he does now he's in town he's not in town every day so we have to see him I just I think it's a lot of overreach I mean I don't want to I know that political signs aren't you know aren't in this and it's not related but I'm the one that's gone around and picked them all up in the morning and you know you you all of a sudden there's one that you're like oh I forgot about that one and you go like a week later it's like how did I miss that I just it's I don't know what's your number I you do it as a lot per permit like if you you get issued a permit so whatever that fee is it's per the permit not the individual that's where I'm that's where I'm getting a little I don't like it per sign what's your number councilman love it started out at 25 five per day for the entire lot whatever's left over yeah that's the whole the whole lot bring back to you council president it's just more of a more of a symbolic so is not I mean again what do You Da One teeth what exactly so the bottom line is what are you trying to accomplish are you trying to accomplish discipline and that means that there is an ordinance in place and the respect of the ordinance or is it that you're trying to be a nice person and saying well we don't want to overburden I'm sorry but if I'm doing the business and I do this and I do this then it is my obligation to make sure that I follow the rules all the way down the line and I'm not cherry-picking what the rules are going to be so the bottom line is that if you are going to take this seriously this is what needs to happen so it it's you listen we're all adults and they're adults and so it's like telling a kid well if you do this maybe you won't be punished and maybe you will be punished as opposed to hey these are the rules and this is what has to happen it's the same type of thing I just don't get why everybody wants to play the nice guy when it's not appropriate and it's not necessary you were had you moved your position to a per sign per day F I mean I'm trying Fe I I have you know I don't even care about the regulations all that much in the first place it's it's like you know so no I I I'm not in particular favor of a very large 15 or 10 per day 10 per day per sign seems sure that's fine you know that does Boost it up to if you leave all your signs out there 15 apartment that's $150 fine I feel like that is definitely some teeth to it you if I miss one it's like oh whoops okay an extra counc par 10 you okay with 10 per day I'll go with 10 Council forar you already suggested 10 per day back to the yeah yeah so I mean I guess my think on this is yes that we want our property maintenance guy to be able to do his job and not be burdened by this successive amount of signs I guess my question is is this is it so widespread that we have signs everywhere and people are like oh my goodness I believe so I I think he complain about that he recently gave a business a has been warning for two years two years always so he recently gave a business summons which hurts my heart but he's been worn in that business for two years who was putting signs everywhere so yeah it's excessive it is excessive you know I mean we have in in our placing ordinance where signs can be placed there's teeth in the ordinance regard ing like Thou shalt not put signs on utility polls which is a state law but it's also in our ordinance and you know we had some bad actors we put them on for the we put them on the futility polls for the for the bike things like we're not yeah we follow our own rules that's my point is I think people not B by the Yeah but that's the point is is the residence looks looks at us and says we're Hypocrites because we're we're you know we're nickel and dining them but then we're not following our own rules like can stay well who put the B sign up wait I don't want I don't want to get into that I just want to say that that has teeth because there's there's fins associated with that but um you know Dave Dave does spend an inordinate amount of time chasing mostly businesses not so much garage sale people mostly businesses that leave signs up for very long periods of time uh just advertising their business or advertising an event so he just wants teeth because he spends a lot of time and like I said he just gave gave a business a summons because of this so um I guess there should be a way to build in to discourage it from happening if if you come in I'm a organization that comes in this town and I'm responsible I come in put my signs I take them up I don't have to worry about it they're gone in the prescribed day I'm a new group coming in I don't know I accidentally leave a couple behind I'm going to say this if you have the when your permit will be in there after 3 days or fine of $15 per day $10 I'm sorry $10 per day yeah I mean I'm fine I'm fine with that as long as it it I I don't want flemingon to become like oh oh don't you dare when I sign up exactly wait minut I don't think Flemington will ever be that you know what you guys over dramatized it's the price of doing business per you guys have got to stop this it's the price of doing business it's the cost of doing business here's what the rules are here's what it says in the ordinance here's what it says if you don't do it is the cost of doing business whether you're new old or Indi it's like if I get a driver's license tomorrow morning and I'm speeding and I said well wait a minute I didn't know that that was speed there's no excuse for it I'm still going to get a ticket it's the same thing you guys have got to stop this you guys just keep well I want to be the nice I it's not about being nice or bad or whatever the case may be it's about following the rules period okay so where I forget now we were $10 pushing I can't remember said 10% per day without councilwoman resetti here I don't have to wait I can just moderate this with a smile on my face so you okay with this council president if you guys are cool with it I'm cool with it councilwoman anglehart one last word I feel the same way as Council and okay um uh attorney C can you please add into this ordinance for it's whatever there will be a $10 per day fine for some signs that are not removed um under their permit I'm happy yes is that a substantial change that we need to reintroduce stupidly a substantial change okay because I always aim to please I can make that change now but you will have to reintroduce it can we ince it tonight wait why do we have to reintroduce it it's a substantial change was one that's a whole new Clause I was fous when I asked that yeah she knew she knew umbly I like so I have to uh can we range sh tonight like I said I was a please so I can do it tonight um but you can do the L use one now will not be changed okay um I will need to log on my through my um Hotpot so about 15 minutes to do this but I will do it okay we'll come back all right so we have uh we'll table that for now can have a motion to table you're have to never mind okay you can table it you can table leave on the table table and rece new table on the table can I or you can resend your motion or send second send a motion okay can I would just table it table proced I don't think a procedure but that's fine you would table it definitely motion second Council okay then we'll reintroduce as keep the same number um you can use the same number yeah there's nothing on the table just in ether so I have no issue to use all but if you're more comfortable using a different number I care I rather if you're if you rather that I there's no legal reason you can okay ordinance 202 24-22 and ordinance amending chapter 26 zoning section 2631 signs oh wait this is land use you can go forward with this but I've got to go the plan board to amend the regulations for temporary signage this is your land use part the landuse part of sign no changes to it does not includ any F to changes right the findes are tied back by language I added on second buil Congress Mar um yeah this is so on the second so much nicer than there I tied it into the non-l use part so this P must go to the planning board for the minor MERS I assume okay the penalty provision here is contained in the other part of got it okay can I have a motion to introduce move is there a second Park second any discussion roll call councilwoman angelart yes councilwoman faar yes councilman L yes council president long yes councilman Parker yes okay the motion is carried pending whether or not the planning board gets to this tomorrow night the public hearing will be it's going to be tough you have an ex week oh yeah October 15 I don't know you extra meeting that's right holiday Tuesday pending we're gon we'll set this for October 15th and hope P get through this and you'll try to transmit it tomorrow maybe just reach out to I letter now okay uh items 12 public hearing we have ordinance 20249 and ordinance amending section 2611 of the code entitled zoning map um can I have a motion to open for the public heing sir there a second all in favor public hearing is now open any member of the public uh if you're online raise your hand I don't know why robin has her hand both of them um Robin you had your hand up Robin do you want to talk on this or [Music] seeing none um can I have a motion to close the public hearing is there a second second all in favor I can I have a motion to adopt ordance 20249 [Music] what say any any discussion among the council members did we ever get a copy of not that it matter it's that it came out black so is this math with the updates or without the update no this is May 2023 but the next page it will it says update thank you p don't don't staple there second second one no no go down one yeah yeah there you go there it is so transition commercial can we just explain what that is I don't know we ever got so last year last year the council voted to do the transition commercial which kind of cleaned up a lot of the uses that were happening down around um Monument area and um a few other places and then it got expanded by the ordinance subcommittee last year um that would allow for uh you Beth unfortunately Beth that's flew off to Spain today read through the permitted uses please that would be great it is the following it is Offices Medical Office Child Care indoor and outdoor recreation theaters Higher Education and Training Community buildings Club facilities Animal Hospital funeral Highland research facilities health and fitness facilities residential uses that have already existed um and any combination of one or more permited conditional accessory uses and that's pretty much it right the goal of this I sound commit and the goal of of this was to clean up and combine a lot of the uses that were in the the there was one zone that was just dedicated to offices and there was another Zone that was you know somewhere else that was just dedicated to to this or that and so basically what we did was we cleaned up the TC and combined all those things together we're not that acreage wise we're not big enough to have all those individual things and and maybe the office um Zone made sense at the time years ago with the county buildings being in that bu in that area but um this was a way to kind of capture and simplify this particular area because it just was too um was it was it more than one things was it more than one thing in there it was basically we we we took the office and we rolled it into the TC that's the that's the biggest thing that we did um so that there's a little bit more opportunity um in that that that area that was just identified as office sorry just identified as office um um Can can have the opportunity to have other things in it like theaters and there's everything that expanded the permitted uses um it it made a little less restrictive and a bit more open to interpretation by the zoning officer because a lot of our zoning right now still uses old codes that list out exactly what type of business you can and can't have code which is not a great and he's denying a number of very specific uses because those SI codes don't exist in our ordinance we want him to be able to interpret it like that's what a that's what a zoning and officer is supposed to do as well as a construction code officer this was to interpret allows them to interpret meaning they can say what did they intend when they wrote this as opposed to the sick codes the CI sic codes say you may have this like it's like you're allowed to have an Engineers office but you're not allowed to have an architect's office but you know if an officer can go well they kind of meant the same thing it's almost like that so this basically got rid of some stuff that you know we don't have as many offices as we used to years ago because of the nature of remote working and that that um that um business soft so that that industry softened and that you don't have as many offices and there's new businesses that have been created that never existed so like you can have a medical facility you can even have an acupuncturist but you can't have raiki raik didn't exist in this country you're laughing but this is actually literally happening right now in this to no we we didn't want break we know about it just come on so that's what you know this was unanimously unanimously endorsed to send here by the by the plane board last year and it never got done and it never the ordinance never got done our work fell off the radar screen and S know that we did update the zoning itself but we didn't update the M right yes we didn't update the exact boundaries where it was and be discovered this like a couple weeks ago over all this this you know over our new zoning officer doing exact what he's supposed to be doing but there's a lot of a lot of people aren't happy in this town because of this whole SIC code thing and they don't understand it and you know his predecessor signed off on all kinds of stuff didn't have SI codes so um so that's where we are so that's what this does and it completes the deal and I you know I did ask Beth to come and she's like now I'll be in state so um yeah is way so thanks everybody yeah yes um Council thank you for reading that and councilwoman angelart thank you for that very good explanation um okay anything else on discussion can I have a can I have a roll call please yeah Council angart yes Council basara yes councilman L yes counc president long yes and councilman Parker yes thank you ordinance 24-20 Bond ordinance amending in part Bond ordinance number 20 23-3 4 adopted on December 11th 2023 providing for the Main Street sewer replacement project and appropriating 1.4 million therefore and authorizing issue of 1.4 million bonds and notes to finance a portion of the cost thereof in order to expand the scope of improvements to include the locating removal and replacement of galvanized pipes authorized in by the bur of Flemington in the county of hun New Jersey I have a motion to open up to the public long Loop is there a second second all in favor just to make this clear um um prior Administration secured money for the street part of this project last year after going through uh with the DPW their list of priorities um this body uh added in the sewer lines really make this project work and then we recently we realized that we should also add in the galvanized pipes um so uh our wonderful Bond Council Megan Bennett uh contacted the ibank for another discussion and um they allowed us to reopen this uh very quickly our special projects engineer uh put in application and engineered this very quickly and um it has been approved and this will this money should be uh additional money should be 100% forgiven uh we do have to bond for it and um which comes off of our our uh Capital bonding capacity but we should get 100% forgiveness on that um up to $2 million on these G which are estimated to be between 165 165,000 and 185,000 depending on how many uh connections we have on the 35 homes in this section of this project um anybody from the public have hands raised yeah Robin Robin I think she's just accidentally left Robin is your hand stuck up she declined to be okay thank you Robin all right seeing none from the public can I have a motion to close the public hearing for a second all in favor I can I have a motion to adopt move sir a second any discussion I just have a question sure sorry on the spot this is an annoying question you can put me on spot everybody else does we all know that this is that wonderful section AG all know circle to the to the traffic light circle to the traffic light we're all aware of it all the council members know it the mayor knows it our Department of Public Works knows so I guess my question is as far as a time frame yes and I I should write an article on this councilman Parker I should do this a time frame so this project must be completed by of 2025 the original Bond was taken out in 2020 and you have a five-year limit by the ibank to use it or lose it so we are under a timetable so uh per our bond Council per our special projects engineer and per our DPW superintendent we have plenty of time to get this out there and get it done before June of 2025 they are very confident it'll happen they're not worried at basically at all on getting it done um so that's the first section I did sit down with the DPW and reordered their priority list I will be cading that up and sending it out to all of you and maybe at our next meeting get um our superintendent of Public Works to come forth and go over the list there's some changes not not a lot of movement but they have now now that this one is going to be done um uh the next big priority for roads is the next section of Main Street which goes from the traffic light all the way to corser I thought it was only going to mine it goes to corer it's the last of the old sewers on me and according to kend deal it's where the worst of the sewers are are between um Maple Avenue and Forester place and um they estimating that project to be uh somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five million that would also include all the galvanized whatever and Sewer now the good news is uh I was on another call with the ibank last week with our bond Council uh our superintendent of Public Works our CFO I think that was it and oh and uh and our Municipal engineer from Remington Vernick um to get everybody on the same page that there are these indeed these three pots of money um two under drinking water with a d and one under trying to think what what it's called it's it's a SE it's a sewer fund for sewer lines um each of those pot each of those three funds uh at our pres present level of economic need in the burough Flemington we can borrow up to $2 million upon completion of the project and certification get 100% forgiveness and anything over 2 million according to our bond Council we would get 80% forgiveness so we are in very good like as long as we we get these projects complete and certified we can keep you know flipping that money to get you know because it's when we were having this conversation on updating everything uh the bomb got dropped to me that all the sewer lines on mind Street are also H deer old and haven't been done now we're doing a section of M Street um soon and the sewer lines aren't going to get done unless we put to stop on that project um so you know I have to talk to rington berick about that and my Campion about that what they want to do but um you know but that's the good news we don't have a lot of bond capacity room you know because we got to save some for emergencies but you know we did last year we we moved projects and we were to pay down Capital debt by $600,000 and continue to move projects this year we're in about the same position where we're moving projects we're still hopefully gon to be able to pay down Bill H still on this call Y bill can you come in as a panelist did hecl me no oh hi Bill you're on mute you gotta take yourself off a mute thank you can you hear me can now hi hello I got a check for you Bill so I don't want to speak at a turn since you're on the call how much how much Capital debt including you know even with moving some projects forward this year are we going to be able to pay down um I think it was like one and a half million or something like that I think in total I look it up okay so so even though we're continuing with projects we're still able to open up some additional capacity so that tap into all this 100% forgiveness money and 80% forgiveness money yeah and and like you said as soon as um you know the Project's completed that debt would go away because they forgive the debt right yeah I just wanted I wanted them to hear from you and not not just me so um any any questions for Bill on this on the financing part of this um and Megan Bennett our bond council did say that when all of this um this Main Street project is settled and everything's approved in sage and and all these loans are signed um she would like to come in to the governing body and just explain how all of these bonds and u i Bank Works um because you know this governing body not this governing body but this town has long used um USDA for its financing and they're lovely you know and they give you know they give very nice terms low interest the problem is there's zero forgiveness um you know the prior engineer here really liked using them because the paperwork is very simple I Banks is not but ibank is a way free money and USDA does not so you know I'm an ibank person I love the USDA but the ibank you know is the way to go because they forgive so you know a percentage of these these loans they give um and because we're in Italian economic need they give they forgive a huge piece if not all so it's the way to do it even though you know we've got our bond counsil is um she's very learned in doing the paperwork so and Bill knows how to do it but you know Megan is there to like walk everybody through anything that they need um so uh any questions for Bill we good bill thanks for popping on thank you thank you all right can I have a um I gotta do a roll call oh that's all I'm at right can I have a roll call please y Council lle heart yes councilman s yes councilman L yes council president long yes and councilman Parker yes okay under regular agenda number 13 resolution 20241 128 resolution appointing Carrie Rogerson to a full-time library assistant Children's Service at the Flemington Public Library this has a backing resolution from the library commission supporting this position can I have a motion is there a second roll call please Council woman Englehart yes Council woman F yes Council yes president long yes and councilman Parker yes uh resolution 2024 133 resolution appointing Christen Skyy as parttime library assistant at the fling Public Library again there is a supporting resolution from the library commission I have a motion to approve sorry there second okay second oll call please councilor yes Council yes councilman Lo yes council president long yes and councilman Park the next one um and I should just add that the library commission shair you know has mentioned that this all these parttime positions they've had a lot of turnover on part-timers so these are all yeah they're all back that's the word they're all back resolution 2024 134 resolution appointing Lyn Shear as part-time library assistant at the FL Public Library can I have a motion to approve Sor is there a second second roll call please uh councilwoman angelart yes Council woman farara yes councilman L yes council president long yes and councilman Parker yes resolution 2024 135 resolution appointing Molly prow is parttime library assistant at the public library I have a motion please please there a second second roll call please councilwoman anglehart yes councilwoman fararo yes councilman L yes council president long yes and councilman Parker yes thank you we have no work session um councilman Parker is there any word from DPW superintendent about um ideas on what kind of banner system he wants no because the um we reached out to cpnl and they don't um he don't do it so he's he's working on okay thank you um got he just got the information back from him okay um we're at public comment session number two any member of the public wishing to speak for three minutes um put your hand up Robin is this for real or is this for I don't know her and I are having trouble with this Robins I made a panelist okay so unmute hi I don't know what the problem is I I have unintentionally had my hand up in some weird capacity so apologies okay thank you um we have no bills to pay tonight that'll be next fine we do have an executive session um also circulated the um the oh this I sent it to you I send it to everyone I'm always on I'm always on I know you are but I can you read can you read your change out loud for the public and for the body I mean you have the email so you don't necess have to write it no I'm not writing it so I to separate the find the two violations out separately I added language what is now was the stand section what is now paragraph a um which just specify that that penalty is for failure to obtain a license then paragraph B States not withstanding paragraph a of this subsection any individual or organization that fails to comply with any provision hereof shall be assessed a penalty of penalty equal to $10 per day per sign until the violation is pered thoughts comments one last so if you put one up without the per right does this also apply because it looks like it does right it say you could have got a law school um great great great law great question of of interpretation yes it does and I don't would apply so you be if you would get whack with you have to get the permit because hgraph a makes you get the permit right makes you pay to get the permit Essen make you um then you get back with the penalty too the penalty in paragraph so yeah the answer is yeah sounds fine okay all right and does that have a new number or is it the same number 21 okay I have a motion to introduce ordinance 2421 as amended move there a second sorry second any other discussion roll call please councilwoman angelart yes councilwoman carara yes Council 11 yes council president yes and councilman Parker yes public caring set on October 15th seems like so far away be here 20 Lees falling okay we do have an executive session I um um regarding Public Safety there is a keep number one on here I have to ask car permanently put that up there so I never forget it's a last minute activity uh but we do have one to the public safety uh can I have a motion to go intoing session move there second all favor uh let's take a break until 10 after n 10 after n on this clock not the real 10 after n but on this clock all right we're back he told me he told me weeks we ago we're back we're back back long move is there second thank you everybody