Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all open public meetings act St Pur to the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting was forwarded to the official Township newspapers post on the bulleon board and Township website this meeting is being videotaped and will be on channel roll call please Mr Doyle here Mr Pella here Mr Keem here Mr Marsh here mayor BR here all right we're going to move right into a few resolutions resolution 6024 appointing David P Degan junor to the position of Franklin Township Police Chapman your motion motion r60 that's 24 second Mr Doyle yes Mr fella yes Mr King yes Mr Marsh yes mayor Bruno yes yes absolutely all right I want to welcome everyone tonight this is very uh special occasion for us and our department um to um obviously appoint some new officers and also bring Mr Dean on as our police chaplain um throughout the years that I've been here we've we've um unfortunately had to um use chaplain um on different occasions that were were some things that we really didn't want to have to go through but we did and when we had chapl in those situations it really helped us out um so we wanted to create our own chapl program I'm real real pleased that through the hard work um and support of Mayor Bruno and the township committee that we're able to bring this to the township and uh to the police department and we can use Mr Degan uh who is a also chap with the glester county cross's office um in the capacity of chapl for our our department so this is a very special occasion for us thank you Matt Dave we're going to have to take the O oath of chapy hand on the Bible repeat after me I I Jake Bruno Dave Degan do solemly swear do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully justly justly and partially and partially execute the duties of execute the duties of police chaplain police chaplain in the township of Franklin in the township of Franklin Police Department police department in and for in and for the county of Gloucester the county of Gloucester to the best of my abilities to the best of my abilities and understanding and understanding I do follow I do further solemnly swear that I will provide I do solemnly swear I do Solly swear that I will provide appropriate assistance appropriate assistance advice advice Comfort Comfort counsel councel and referrals and referrals to the Franklin Township citizens to the Franklin Township citizens and law enforcement officers and law enforcement officers who are in need who are in need and request of such support and who request of such support so help me God so help me God [Applause] congratulations yeah abely well this is a great honor for me I have uh U again U probably mid year last year I was able to go through the chaplain's training and then uh was signed up with the uh glosser County uh Chapin uh for the prosecutor's office um but when Matt talked to me uh over a year ago uh that he wanted to start a program I thought to myself wa that's really something I would like to get involved with and um I what's name uh you know it's hard to say I look forward to it because most of those situations are tragic situations okay um because again the chap with the chaplain program you help with death notification as well as comforting on the scene um but also um just being there it could be an year and uh the train raise your right hand official office I David patina I David patina do solemnly swear do you Solly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and and partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of a police officer all the duties of a police officer in the Franklin Township Police Department in the Franklin Township Police Department to the best of my ability to the best of my ability I do solemnly swear I do Sol swear that I support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and then I will bear true faith and Allegiance and I will bear true fa faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and this state under the authority of the people in under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God gradate thank you [Applause] congrats Steve can I get a motion for resolution 6324 SLO class two Omar Alam to the position of full-time slo2 police officer in the town in Franklin Township Police Deport Mr yes Mr Pella yes Mr Kean yes Mr Marsh yes mayor bro yes all right I want to introduce everyone uh to our our newest class two officer Omar Lam Omar is from ma landing and now resides in Egg Harbor Township he is a Puerto Rican and Pakistani descent in 2022 he graduated from Cedar Creek High School and now and is now studying cyber security at Atlanta Kate Community College he attended the Kate May County Police Academy and has served the Ocean City Police Department as a sleo one and SLO 2 the previous year before coming to Franklin countship some of his hobbies include playing basketball spending time with friends and family and boxing Omar has heard many amazing things about Franklin Township and would love to continue his law enforcement Journey with this department and Serve and Protect this town and have a positive impact on the community Omar wants to thank his parents his friends his grandmother and Mariel for supporting him in his journey official all us I om Alam I om Alam who solemly affirm who solemnly affirm that will Faithfully that will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of of the office of special law enforcement officer to special law enforcement officer too to the best of my ability to the best of my ability I do solemnly affirm I do Sol confirm that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution the state of New Jersey the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I solemnly sincerely and truly I solemly sincerely sincerely and truly declare and affirm declare and affirm [Applause] congratulations mat what you want 10 minutes or so we're take five or 10 minute break a motion to open the first public portion for Resolutions and ordinances below make a motion to open public portion all in favor hi Ralph travone Marshal Road R6 say again Ralph tralon Jake Bruno Clark Road i' be saying that wrong the whole time doesn't matter you mispronounce everybody's name all right R 6224 U the maintenance program for the annual contract 24,000 plus or minus dollars uh at our last meeting it was discussed and you pulled it because you were going to take the funds from the open space fund have you had the opportunity to uh research it and decide a different funding source or what is your funding source we good right yes sir we're not going to take the money from there thank you very much thank you good evening gentlemen Chris sers 184 Malaga Lake Boulevard I just wanted to talk today about the um introduction of the following ordinance about expanding the uh Municipal Bud budget to exceed the cap uh my wife did something which surprised me today she actually emailed you guys which she hasn't done before she likes to usually stay out of political matters um but I wanted to read to you and to everybody else what she wrote and kind of talk about the impact that the decisions and the choices that you guys all make have on the on regular average everyday residents so so she so she wrote please consider voting down the budget increase I have a family of four our car insurance has increased our grocery bills have more than doubled we just received an email that our health insurance will also be increasing and our utility bills have also increased every Bill we have has essentially increased I know the budget increase might seem minuscule but for most families in this economy we can't afford another bill increase our family budget has to be balanced whether that means cutting the grocery bill or passing on takeout we have to make a judgment adjustments I'm asking that you do the same balance the budget cut where you can find unnecessary spending please don't add to our ever growing bills thank you for your time Jamie Mullins and I will say uh Mr Keem Keen I commend you I didn't agree with your response but I appreciate that you actually took the time to respond to her in a very lengthy email and she appreciated it as well so I I thank you for that um as I was saying before the decisions that you guys make directly affect the lives of everyone who calls Franklin Township home people are rightly concerned about spending and higher property taxes they worry about it and lose sleep over it since 20121 alone property taxes in Franklin Township have increased nearly $500 for the average homeowner that's real money gentlemen to say we are not raising taxes right now just keeping our options open in case we need to later in the year may help you guys sleep at night but that provides cold comfort to Residents who struggle already to make ends meet I am a republican as all of you guys are and I'm tired of seeing National Republicans hypocritical National Republicans in Washington vote time and again to increase the debt limit and increase spending and frankly I'm tired of seeing our local Republicans do the same so I ask you tonight to take a stand for fiscal conservatism and vote against increasing this Cola cap thank you D Marshall 67 New Road Malaga uh just a couple questions because I know the state changed on some of the guidelines of what cola and caps could be used for what is ours proposed use for this it's just an estim estimation from the CFO based on what we're looking at budget numbers just due to the cost of living increases in case we need to have it if we don't do it we can't increase so there's not not a particular what's that you can't go over the C correct so there's not a particular use in this it's just something that didn't make in the budget analysis at the end of the year you're proposing that it may need may be needed requires that this be done prior to budget introduction and adoption in order to have that option right I'm aware of that I Jaclyn Suarez hasn't gotone back to me yet about that uh but one of the things that that does State at least for the extension of this because originally it's supposed to be of course could be said as early as January 1st and supposed to be done by January 10th and I understand they extended it but from what I understand that the introduction and approval of the budget has to be done by the end of April 30th but you actually have to have the 29th of this month it has to be end how is that going to happen if we're not going to have a meeting that's the way the St the state law at the moment is what it states you apply for extension so every year so that's been applied already yes all right how can I get a copy of that do I have to overate or is it something I can get this evening for the extension the only thing that's been sent through is the AFS has been sent through the state and we told them when we're estimating the budget will come through so the budget has not been spitt oh I know it hasn't okay because it states that you know even with the extensions it's got to be filed by the 29th of this month is what it states on the site right but if you file for an extension they'll give you more time okay I understood it that like I said she hasn't got back to me yet but I'm sure she will she's supposed pretty good at that kind of stuff so I'm just curious to where that was at so I appreciate it thank you good evening Nancy Kennedy 7-Eleven St George Street so I was kind of preliminarily really excited when I first saw the agenda because I saw that you were appointing some somebody to the EG board and I really hoped really really hoped that everybody had decided to appoint the woman who was the chair last year and went to the a board believing she was still on it and then she got there and she was told that no she was not in fact reappointed um and I had asked the committee to consider the fact that there were still two alternate spots open and to appoint her to one of those alternate spots and it appears that instead of putting that woman back on the all male Township committee has elected to appoint a man to that spot and to leave the second alternate completely open so no person is better than Michelle Doyle is that the consensus of this Township committee she wants to serve she went to the meeting she told the chair she wanted to serve it's my understanding the chair communicated that but we'd rather leave a spot open then let Michelle Doyle serve on the EG board even though she's the owner of a successful Nursery even though a businessman I talked to today called her absolutely brilliant even though you some of you felt that she was qualified to serve and appointed her before now nobody is better than Michelle is that right Mr fella I didn't appoint her originally so you weren't talking about me well not before but I'm talking about you now when you guys did the appointments in January all of you why is she not on this board cuz it's not supposed to be all of you against Tim Doyle's enemies it's supposed to be all of you for Franklin Township John you're a really smart really qualified guy you're on the library commission your wife on the library commission if you get into a fight tomorrow and she really ticks you off are you going to go to Jake and Tim and say guys there's no fing way she should be on this committee let's vote her off would you do that I would not do that but I'm not implying that Mr go did do that wonderful you wouldn't do that so here's the bottom line Nancy I want to thank you for defending my family for once it took about five or six years oh I'm not defending I'm not defending you at all amazing how your opinion has turned no my opinion of your my opinion of your family has nothing to do with anything when she was appointed in the beginning that was wrong I actually I actually complained when Michael Vaso was taken off because she had a hissy fit and I actually commended you when she was appointed to the school board even though I've never had the pleasure of meeting her I've heard she's brilliant absolutely brilliant The Wind Beneath Your Wings so here's the bottom line here's the bottom line nobody's better than Michelle and none of you care how that makes you look none of you care that you're going to sit there and not put someone who's qualified onto a board because she was married to him none of you cuz God that disappoints me I thought Jonathan you would do better Mike I sure as hell thought you would do better Mark I don't know you from a hill of beans but a a colleague of yours in bua says you're a real standup Guy come on come on do better it's all we want just do better and yeah I could be on my last breath I could have I don't even know I don't even know how to express it adequately and I usually have no loss for words I would never defend you but to defend someone who was mistreated because of your position yeah I'll defend that until my dying day because it's wrong you're supposed to use that position to help the whole Township I didn't vote fine you didn't vote on the appointments at the beginning of the year I didn't vote on that you didn't vote on the a board you didn't vote on the planning board you didn't vote on the wasn't voting on that no that one that one you skipped well then you're right then not shame on you unless you somehow had an influence shame on the other four what a disgrace Hometown I get a motion to close the first public portion motion to close second all those in favor I uh motion to approve correspondence and reports motion to approve correspondence and reports all those in favor I uh motion to approve the minutes from March 12th 2024 motion to approve the minutes second all those in favor I I uh motion to approve the bill list motion to approve the bill list second Mr Doyle yes Mr Pella yes Mr Kean yes Mr Marsh yes may yes okay a motion to approve the food handling license motion to approve food handling license all those in favor I uh motion to approve form stand permit Rell and Myers motion to approve the stand permits second all in favor I I uh resolution 5824 pointing Thomas Harold to position on the Franklin Township agricultural advisory motion R 5824 second Mr Doyle yes Mr fella yes Mr Keem yes Mr Marsh yes mayor Bruno yes resolution uh 6224 awarding contract the lawn connection Inc for lawn weed and brush maintenance to all Township facilities for 2024 and a total amount of $4,690 13 motion R 6224 second Mr Doyle yes Mr Fel yes Mr Keem yes Mr Marsh yes mayor Brut yes resolution 6424 authorized the mayor to sign the Gloucester Salem Cumberland County's Municipal joint Insurance Fund safety contract motion R 6424 second Mr Doyle yes Mr fella yes Mr ke yes Mr Marsh yes mayor BR yes any a motion to introduce the following ordinance the public hearing will be on April 9th 2024 the ordinance is ordinance 324 model ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and establish a cap act motion 0 3-24 second Mr oh I'm sorry got Mr Doyle yes Mr pel yes Mr keing yes Mr Mar yes may yes can I get a motion open to Second public portion for any comments motion second public portion second all in favor oh no thanks sh okay so second public portion still Nancy Kennedy is still 7-Eleven St George change the subject so a while back we were all in the audience and there was an African-American gentleman and he came up and he was complaining that he had brought a document to the township to be notorized and he had had he' had some trouble and he was upset about it and as is his right he came to let all of you know about that and the reaction of the committee I I I mean nobody nobody did anything offensive I that I can recall from the committee all um I think a lot of us in the audience a varying political position felt bad for him but what are you going to do so we left and uh I had a couple people that I know who were still in the audience and apparently your administrator loudly declared well that's it there will be no more notorized in town hall and the person in the audience challenged him on it and said why what are you talking about you know why would why would you do that and he said well that's it I'm the boss and lo and behold there is no more notorized in town Town Hall which is really really crazy considering that our tax dollars pay for the notaries to hold those licenses it's crazy because uh Mr sers and Mr Marshall were talking about the raise in taxes and yet there's a really simple service that was being provided to Franklin Township residents who have paid higher and higher taxes and it was cut because apparently your administrator decided for all of you that it was not going to happen and not one of you has stood up for the residents to stop it cuz I guess in addition to team Doyle we're also team Finley woohoo but here's the here's the here's the really fun part I thought maybe I'm being completely irrational maybe I'm just letting my personal feelings get in the way you know what the heck I'm going to call other towns maybe other Republican towns woo we're all Republican right maybe other Republican towns have cut the notor rizing too because there's a big plot out there where people are trying to get things notorized and illicitly so I called every single Republican town and do you know what the reaction was oh my gosh sweetheart bring it in bring your ID we'll notarize it for you golly that's no problem bring that in I said to one lady I'm sorry to be a bother you know she said don't you be silly we're here all day we're here to serve the public thought wow that's not like Franklin at all but then and that's not fair some of the people who work here still are very much like that so then I thought what about this whole planning board debacle you know you can't you can't have an open public session at the planning board so I called the same Republicans Town Republican towns back and I said you know what let me ask you this how do you feel about planning board uh public sessions and one did say ah no you know we only really let you talk about the applications but if you have a problem bring it to our Township committee they're very transparent and they really want to help terrific every other Republican town oh no we have an open public portion on our planning board in fact one lady from East Green which actually said does somebody not do that here in Ace scam which we're all about transparency and I thought wow again that's not quite like Franklin either I've also been reading a little bit on Facebook people insist on texting me some of the dribble that gets posted and I usually get a good laugh out of it but at one point I read somebody it's Easter week I'm going to be good um who posted something like you guys are really making the town better and wow lots of improvements you've made that's exciting so I thought to myself you know there have been other people I've had iCal problems with over the years that I supported or stopped supporting or what have you but I can tell you something wonderful each single Administration Democrat and Republican did for this Township no matter what their politics were whether I agreed with agreed with them or not I I really can't think of anything any of you have done before being on Township committee because you actually are one of the people I think of with the previous Democrat Administration and the dog kennel it it that that was great and it ended up keeping the dog program alive longer so again just a recap we'd rather have an open spot on the uh EG board than give it to Michelle doy we would really really not want to in inconvenience or upset or or bother Mr Finley by having our tax payers be able to have things notorized and unlike the other towns where they say we sure want to be transparent our planning board doesn't have an open public session thank you thank you for your comments oh it's my pleasure I uh Harry Kennedy 1578 for eill Road uh part of being a longtime resident of the town is that uh I've been privy to every police chief that's ever served in Franklin Township I've known every one of them personally I've known the good the great the bad the ugly the stupid the smart and thankfully we've had mostly smart and mostly competent Chiefs of police uh tonight the police got some help I saw that they got two new officers and they got a chaplain and being a police officer is a very difficult job you're faced with moral dilemmas at all times you're faced with tough choices who to give a ticket to who not to who to deal with a domestic disturbance and Report what happened and wreck somebody's life or who to make an assumption that it wasn't so terrible and not report it you have ethical dilemmas all the time you have problems that you're faced with the word ethics comes to mind you have tough choices to make it's really great to have a chaplain there now one that can help these officers with their ethical dilemmas one that who's dealt with their own ethical dilemmas at one who has been appointed as the present chairman of the Republican party in Franklin Township the former Township committeeman and the former person that uh dealt with the police department to help the police department out I know that there's no pay involved in it and uh that's probably appropriate for the job at this present time I would hope that if there's any change to that in the future and I'm sure it'll be advertised and talked about and dealt with and again gentlemen you make choices you make choices all the time and you're pretty smart people you make choices that benefit the town or that don't benefit the town you look at vinand uh where Mr Finley served and you read about how fast things change the former May in vinin today showed up at the police department without his shoes on probably yeah somewhat inebriated I know it was a one-term unlike Jake who's a six-term May at the or will be but uh there we go it's amazing how things change and how quickly they do and to watch The Metamorphosis take place I I don't know whether it's really understood by the majority of the people on Township committee but Dave Degan doesn't make the rules he might set the county line for this year until that's changed next year he might have input there Jake doesn't have any more power than the rest of you the power in Township committee rests in the majority what three of you decide to do what three of you think is the best thing to do what three of you think is the right thing to do for the town what three of you think you can do to benefit Franklin Township and as I pointed out before we live in New Jersey we don't live in Pennsylvania we live in Franklin Township we don't live in Doyle's town again all of you the three of you that sit up there that aren't in the pocket of anybody try to make smart decisions try to make good decisions try to make wise decisions try to make decisions that'll make you proud to say you serve on Township committee because you're all smart enough to know what the right thing to do is thanks for your time guys Dave Marshall 67 new rout uh in light of some of the comments that you can still hear a lot of times on the mic there Mr Mayor when you talk when somebody's walking up uh I asked him who's coming up good good along those lines uh a lot of times the things that I bring up here I send you guys in emails ahead of time so I don't have to bring it up publicly and of course 90% of the time they get ignored so that's why a lot of things happen on this public situation that doesn't have to uh recently you just got a certified letter that all of you should have got a copy on that had a correspondence listed on it to come back that nobody's got back to anybody on yet uh of course there was no timeline on it courtesy would be to do it in a timely manner but of course that's a a choice everybody makes we got certified yeah came here to the township with all your names on it had to be signed for it was and each one was supposed to be handed out to you okay that's been what 3 weeks go now so might be a lot of mail in there you may want to check on then just a thought you know because you never know what residents may send you uh I've sent you things before about you know responding to emails and things like that but I noticed that there whatever is going on in your phones up there when people are talking must be pretty important because there's only three of you that normally ever look up and Mr Keane Mr FAL and Mr moris thank you and other than that unless you get address is about the only time that I ever see your eyes I didn't know halftime that you had them both you and Mr Doyle when you get up it's pretty much the same thing every time it's hard to hear a white noise no I appreciate that I do uh especially with some of the comments you make it proves what kind of character you are not that you have it that you are one you you don't have the character to judge me about I don't judge anybody I just make statements just make stuff up like I said before everything I brought up to you everything has documentation to prove it you ignore it that's up to you that's that's it your own Peril but everything that I have given you everything at every meeting has documentation Mr he you were absolutely dishonest I I was not more than the violent administrator he made 63% less I have those numbers I do too I have the violent minutes from that meeting that states what he makes let's compare please we'll do that in person one day uh pH something I want to end it with and I I don't have the the the words to say it exactly so I'm going to read something from George Washington for if men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind reason is of no use to us the freedom of speech may be taken away and dumb and Silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter so just listen to the residents you never know what you're going to get out of it you're going to clean out of it that may be worth hearing thank you I a motion to close second motion motion to close second public portion second all in favor I Chief sure thank you mayor and councel um I want to thank you again for always supporting us um the three appointments tonight um were a great thing for our department and our town and uh like I said I appreciate your support uh I kind of wanted to give the residents an update on how we're making out um now that we're almost 3 months through the year our total calls for service right now are one uh 14,660 which is a 16% increase from 2023 we've made 247 arrests which is a 10% increase from 2023 we've made 20 DWI arrests which is a 43% decrease from 2023 so that's a good thing all right people aren't out there uh driving drunk um and when they do we are catching them um we are up 38% in motor vehicle crashes this year already um we have 215 motor vehicle crashes which is a significant number so what we did was we went out and we applied for a couple grants um we did receive the click or ticket Grant um that will begin April 1st through April 30th um so every day we'll have a guy out there enforcing seat Bel seat belt laws and we also applied for an aggressive driving Grant um this grant can be used anytime throughout the year and we're going to use that um to Target specific areas that we believe are problems uh regarding crashes and and stuff like that um police youth week we just announced um we're doing police youth week again that is June 18th through the 21st we sent messages out to the schools um we started getting some applications in and uh the big thing this year uh every year we do a field trip and the field trip this year is going to be to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies so that's a great trip we're going to take the kids on um construction has begun on our building um April 1st our lobby will be closed um I've posted signs around the building and online providing residents with instruction on what to do if they come to Police Headquarters to speak to an officer um so basically we're asking residents to be patient um while we go through this facelift um use your cell phone call dispatch wait in your car and an officer will come uh meet you at your vehicle um we recently had a k9 fundraiser and we raised $6,500 towards our Kine unit our K9 unit is completely funded through donations and that one cent is spent of tax taxpayer dollars so that's a great thing that we just did um last thing I have is we are receiving a lot of complaints about Main Road and Route 40 uh it's shut down um the state has shut it down it's been shut it's going to be shut down for approximately 3 to 6 months um there's detours um we didn't have anything to do with these detours I know there's a lot of residents complaining that you know we set the detours but this was completely the state um they didn't even notify us when it was starting um we just found out last week so just be patient with us we are putting extra patrols out in that area we've had some accidents in in that area due to the detours and I know there's some residents complaining about uh overweight trucks on Bluebell and stuff like that we will be out en forcing um those laws um but I just want to ensure people that we had nothing to do with how the detour was um so just remain patient and we'll try to get through it all right does anybody have any questions for me opening day little league opening day of little league is April 6th um 9:00 a.m. um like I said in a previous meeting we have almost uh just about 500 kids signed up this year um 38 teams and we remain one of the largest little leagues in the area still chief for the crashes that you said are up significantly this year has there been any location that has been pointed as a a pain area or is it like due to weather patterns so our our two biggest areas for crashes are Maine and Waymouth um earlier in the year Sergeant Roos um sent an email to the County engineer uh EX in our concern about that intersection um we were able to get the County engineer to put rumble strips leading up to Main Road on wouth um since then we've still had about eight crashes at that intersection so we sent them that new data um I spoke to the County engineer and it sounds like they are going to make that a traffic light that does take a process um so it might take up to a year to do but that sounds like that intersection is going to be a traffic light our biggest um other problem intersection is Williamstown Road and coill Road um it seems like almost every day we have a crash there so we're going to increase Patrols in that area a lot of people just run that stop sign so we're going to increase Patrols in that area to try to uh you know curb some of those uh accidents thank you all right thank you committee reports congratulate the uh officers that were sworn in tonight God bless him trying to get in his career today hated by everyone what except us up here and me especially congratulations and good luck with your career thank you John uh yes Mr Mayor I did a look back um for 2019 to 2023 just to look at some uh cumulative facts that the Halford budget and finance committee so um as you can see here we got some nice grafts but in 2019 we had a surplus of $29,000 current um the anticipated Surplus for 2023 year is U 1.8 million our tax rate as a share of the total bill so what I did here was look at what is the total tax rate um or tax bill of a resident and what percent of that is going to the actual Franklin Township committee as opposed to going to the schools and and the county um in 2019 we're approximately 20% I think the number is um closer to 19 and 2023 it is uh 20% so it does we haven't moved there the local rate has moved from 0.62% to 0.72% so that's a 10 basis points in point um increase and over the the period we've had a 23 basis points um increase in that but as a comparison we have the US economy from 2019 to 20123 so take this what you will but a dollar in 2019 um now is do2 um here today so we had a cumulative inflation over these years um of 19.2% and then on the back I have um just our Farmland preservation of um what we've done there and take a look at there this is a program that's been in um established back in 1996 and we had a total of 3,693 Acres preserved but in the last 3 years we have increased that number the 2020 number was 2789 so 32% of the preserved Farmland has actually been preserved in the last 3 years uh by the township so then there's some honorable mentions uh here like the audit report is one of the big ones a bond rating was assessed as an A+ back in 2017 um or it was an A or an A+ back in 2017 excuse me and then u in 2023 is rated as dou a minus so we have had an increase in our financial health so that's just a report from looking at some numbers that we have there um in addition to that Mr Mayor we did uh we are looking and Mr finy this will be coming to you shortly but as on the Communications Commission we are looking at some of the additional Services Civic plus offers so we are finalizing some mapping that we have right now with um some um requests uh tracking software and we're going to we would like to reach out to you when we're finished on our half we'll reach out to you in the administration to for feasibility study we think that we would be able to work with this at no extra cost for residents we already have included we're going to see if this uh is something that we can do to potentially help out with some of of the residents reaching out to us that we could um document how we're responding um and then it could potentially help with over requests as well organizing those so um we'll see if it if it helps sou the administration excellent um if it doesn't then no big deal there but keep an eye out for that okay thank you thanks um Library uh their new website uh much more user friendly still in development hope that'll be done within the next few months they are adding on a couple addition additional uh Digital Services as well uh but they're not up and running yet as soon as they will all let you know and then the environmental plans on doing a volunteer cleanup so if anyone in Town's interested volunteering go and reach out for that uh there's no date that on that yet but probably within the next two months are are you are you on the MJ uh email list yet okay I got a um an email that I'll forward that over to you basically I think next week andj is hosting some like solar um event I think it's through like an online I think it's an online event so maybe some of our environmental individuals would be happy to I know that they're all on okay all right thank you want to thank BW for cleaning up the community center and cleaning up after the storm the police the police the electric guys they out in this horrible weather people complaining their poweres out for 10 minutes and they don't realize there's there was an accident traffic issue we're having um but there's guys that are out there dealing with these commissions while we're all nice home also want to uh I think every time he gets up here bups about 100% 200% 57% just get done for uh our budget increase has been less than the cost of living less than the inflation and we have more cops more services less overtime and it's just a well department so want to put that out when people look at those numbers they really need to Brian you jar uh basically want to thank Jared and the crew for all the work that they've done in the park so far to uh they've been pretty busy in in all the parts they needed a lot of help uh the community center does look good still work in progress U the one thing I do want to bring up uh we're getting a lot of complaints about rain and watering the roads and the roads falling apart I'll stop we we know we have we know we have issues and we're working on them but it's it's going to take a long time they didn't deteriorate overnight so they're not going to get fixed overnight but we're working on it and trying to do it the fiscally responsible way so thank you uh I just want to end with uh I'm sure you all see in the news the Franklin phille Franklinville fire department say dog was around Jo way got all the pr you weren't around either you couldn't even get no but it was good it was a good news story it was a really good news story um I want to thank rack for another successful uh Easter egg hunt with all the rain and everything that was happening you know they they decided to move to the uh Franklinville skating rank I believe those maybe 50 50 kids participated or so but they really did a great job and it turned out really nice and again I uh Chief said told you little league opening days on Saturday uh April 6th uh come out and support the the youth in the township as they kick off another Little League season with that being said I get a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all those in favor by than