##VIDEO ID:Uf6krzTDgVs## Township council is called to order Madame clerk in accordance with the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this work session regular meeting of the Franklin Township Council was made as required indicating that this work session regular meeting would take place at the municipal building at 7 p.m. on Tuesday November 12 2024 thank you if we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by invocation by councilman and Barrison aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands a nation May those assembled here today enjoy the many offerings of our Township may we abide by the rules we have established those of trust fellowship and ethics and may we place service above self in our daily Endeavors and may we always test ourselves and our efforts to be sure they are the truth good for all concerned of benefit to Mankind and provide peace and understanding amen mam Kirk clerk please call the role councilman EMB Barrison here councilwoman franois councilman karazi here mayor Kramer here councilman n joa Deputy Mayor pnic president councilwoman uden councilman vasella here councilman Wright uh we have no accomodations and proclamations to have a motion to open to the public so move second move then second and all in favor say I I opposed say nay we are open to the public anyone wishing to speak five minute limit may only come up once no yielding of time please state your name and address hello Mar I forget to turn it on right before okay hi uh Debbie Stewart to farington nothing super important except do you send and maybe it didn't come to me a text message about the property taxes or an email well you know what you're not being consistent because last quarter or another quarter I was getting text messages and I was like this is awesome now I don't have to try to figure out a way to remember on my own and and and now I realize today I'm late can I take your time for a second I'll tell you I'm finished that's you need to be signed up you need to be signed Mr okay I know break the just making it easy thank you I thought I was signed up sometimes I get things sometimes I don't get things I didn't get the agenda for today so I don't know it could be me but I don't know what's going on thank you that was it thank you anyone else we go Benjamin guy 35 pack Drive um just want to meet uh two uh two awareness portions of of things that were going on in the um area one is um um there is uh on December 21st I just want to say this early um December 24th is going to be classified as um National homeless persons uh Memorial Day so in um specifically in New Brunswick and Franklin Township there'll be uh there'll be collecting surf for for homeless people um I'll make this announcement again probably in um December but I just want to put this on the agenda because um because Somerset Community Action Program and also um also some other organizations will be collecting uh goods for for homeless people um we kind of classify that we don't have homelessness in this area we do um I just want to make sure we're clear about that um during this period of time frame we do see a epidemic of people doing that and because of inflation we do have uh we do have problems with people couch surfing and other things else it's not just about what we see on the street it's also about people not being having having having the right right source of goods and everything else that do do that so we're gonna um be collecting um collecting information about that going forward at all um the other thing is I just want to know because this is um this is something that's going to come up um over the next four or five years we talked about um infrastructure prog projects that are probably going to come up whether or not it's roadways or any other improvements um and really I think this is for Mr Von Locker than it is for um than anybody else is there a posting of when we have specific sites um and rollways that we're going to be closing During the period of time frame over the next 3 to 5 years and I know that between the planning board and also um other other people is just we want to know what's going what's going on and what's approved and what's not approved during that period of time frame um that's one thing and then the second portion I asked this question last last time because we're going to go into budget season soon is that um that for both the Hamilton Street board and other people because we're trying to make budget submissions as we go along cuz we're having a meeting um in December about this is that um we want to know what the plan was or is there any conversation with the township Council about uh the street Sate plan that's actually going to be out there and what they're submitting for and what they're not submitting for whether or not it's going to be uh through the planning board if it's through uh uh any other planning uh subcommittees at all what they're actually proposing for streetscape in the Hamilton Street area so that we know so we can tell the business owners and we can actually submit a budget uh budget correctly for what we're going to try to tax the business for people on and then I also want to take put this out there to the Hamilton uh to the board alog together because we formed a Hamilton Street board probably about maybe 10 15 years ago reformed the board because it became defunct I think in 2014 and uh the Town Council came about Revitalize this um because we do do a sid tax and I would ask the law I would ask the lawyer about this for the assessments about what the sit tax is actually supposed to be utilized for going forward in the future going forward in the future is it C tax relevant in if as it goes along now that's a question not to be answered now but it's something to evaluate all together because usually in a c tax you're using it around a Main Street area that you're doing I don't think we really classify yet on record that we classify Hamilton as the main street District we say it is but we don't really incentivize it to be done so I'm asking when we're doing this evaluation because it comes up around a 10 year 10e period is that is that something that we want to go forward in the next 10 15 20 years as we go along cuz there is development that happen around there but are we incentivizing enough business to come in that area through what we're doing for the incentive incentive package whether or not special special improvement district tax or anything else are we going to be assessing that and looking at what we're going to be doing going forward in the future so that we can incur more either more development less development or incentivize those people to actually keep businesses an area because if we're going to classify that area we want to have that conversation as we go along so those are some uh some things there should think about but I just want to bring those up during this period of time frame so we can have open conversations and dialogue and because two of the council people are not here I'm not going to ask the other question because because they're not here at this time frame thank you anyone else wishing to speak good evening I'm Reich sudam I live at 1803 Route 27 here in Somerset and I farm on skilman Lane both sides of skilman Lane for about a mile on each side and that's part of the reason reason I'm here is did a great job Paving Skil Lane whoever was in charge of that good job thank you the traffic on SK skilman Lane even though we can't affect the volume of traffic we can affect the speed and the type of traffic now we've been the local the residents of Skil land have been working with the police we've been doing very well pretty good on speeding we got presents we're knocking them down not getting them all but it's we're working with police on that the overweight trucks however are just flowing through non-stop we got tractor trailer oh by the way skim Lane is rated for four tons that's 8,000 PBS that's a pickup truck and anything bigger than a pickup truck is overweight therefore in violation that beautiful road we just finished that we taxpayers paid for those heavy trucks are going to break it down quicker than it's like should be so I'm here to ask for some help police are helping us already on the speeding can we emphasize a little bit on the overweight trucks because they're going to tear up the road honestly Skilling L's not very wide you get a tractor trailer coming one way and a box truck come in the other we got a problem so I'm asking for some help there and also on scum and Lane we we're everybody's favorite dumping area maybe not favorite but we're in the top five and we get Plywood And televisions and tires and I try to get them so it could be seen by Township employees as are going by sometimes it doesn't happen so I called DPW hey guys can you help clean up the mess that some somebody left on Skillman Lane well no you got to call the police how do I call the police because it's unlawful dumping but they're going to call you yeah we know come on can we speed up the process a little bit you know if DPW goes to clean up and they find something that needs to be investigated then we call the police it just seems little backwards if you know what I mean and last thing is I still call a consol out of fathers what do we call the township property on the quarter of of uh calu in 27 where the board of Ved is the board of Ved we call it the board of V all right sorry I Liv with it as Consul out of fathers for 60 years so we know what you mean when you say it okay we got to mow it the noxious weed population on that property is all of it and there are statutes in this state that you can be fed for allowing noxious weeds specifically Canada thistle which we have plenty of in Franklin Township it's all over six mile run it's all over the niot grasslands what I'm asking is that property board property be put on a calendar for maintenance of mowing at least four times a year to knock that stuff down keeps the weed seed on the property so it's not blowing into the neighbors again North runck gets a bunch of it too but it also ends up in my hay fields and then I have to use more techniques chemicals to eliminate those weeds so I'm asking for your help help me on Skil Lane with some of our problems and can we put a schedule to mow the property at the Board of Education I'll take any questions from you so we've developed a process where we answer your questions after all of the uh questions or after public session then we have an answer session okay I'll wait good thank you Elan Oran nine Republic grow Somerset I just want to agree with what Debbie Stewart said about the um notification of the TA property tax and the reason I remember it is because I had discussion with my brother because we try to remind each other and I was saying to him oh Our Town notifies us and this time for some reason the town didn't notify me for notify me and I remember calling my brother and saying oh I was almost late with my property taxes and you didn't call me either so I just want to say okay thank you anyone else Jan Brant 22 Bryant Court um just a couple questions I have wanted to find out I know I asked this last time what the uh statuses of the uh traffic report that's being done for Franklin Township I know that there's supposed to be um a special meeting where the Public's invited and I just I haven't heard anything about that yet so just checking in about that um my second question is the um when an ordinance is passed on the second reading how long does it take for it to go into effect and you know I I know it's a certain amount of days maybe perhaps 10 I guess you guys will tell me and I'm wondering if that's business days or just certain amount of days and then and the other thing I wanted to ask was I noticed um on the property at approximately I think it's 100 Schoolhouse Road um there's just like a truck like a pickup truck with a for sale sign and I don't believe it belongs to the owners of you know it's that's where the B9 um link Logistics property is and so there's just like a pickup truck like you know um kind of like a new car lot you know they're advertising to sell a pickup truck so I'm just wondering if um if I should report that or if that's just um you know something that you all don't take care of thank you thank you anyone else I see no one else coming up see no one come forward mayor motion to close the public portion second move in second and all in favor of closing public portion say I I oppos say nay public portion is closed answering questions to the public uh notice of taxes 4 ton limit Skillman dumping those are all for you Mr porn Locker the Boe field I'll start with you can might want to finish it up that used to be farmed and at the request of a neighbor who was very sensitive to um pesticides we we said no pesticides there and I'd be really look eager to have a farmer farm that so that we wouldn't have to cut the fields and but they would I would be interested in in organic farming and we might even this is me thinking off the top of my head always dangerous but maybe we could do that at a discount uh I I I I think that if Mr Saddam happened to know anyone on the open space advisory committee perhaps he would have a conversation with anyone that he knows on the open space advisory committee because that property that you're talking about falls under the the guidance of the open space advisory committee I think you know a couple people there so do I um I think one's related to you um and so but yeah that the the issue was was there was more than one issue as the mayor said um related to that particular uh piece of property in particular the the property um to the south of the buildings uh between the buildings and Cordo um that that property in particular was one that was the that became an issue at several open space advisory committee meetings and and one of the neighbors so um but we can certainly have a discussion there's an open space advisory committee meeting uh uh a week from today um I just want you to Mo well I understand you want us to mow it and I and I can appreciate that well that that's fine but the mowing of open space properties has always been one that was done at the direction and under the kind of supervision of Representatives of the open space advisory committee and they have a commit a subcommittee of that to determine what gets mowed and what doesn't get mode so what I'm saying to you is that's always been as long as I've been the township man manager since 2012 a discussion that was had amongst the members of the open space advisory committee so well unfortunately starting at the top is not always the way to get things done the right way we have committees that deal with these particular issues so that's one as far as the dumping on uh skillman's Lane I'll certainly I can have a discussion with the public works uh office staff but the truth is that it has always been the the procedure here that those things get reported to the police department as illegal dumping that before things you it's it's a it's a thing that gets done cons you know um consecutively right so there's the call gets made the police department goes and then they call the public works department to go pick it up a lot of times that that doesn't necessarily need to get done but we also like to try to catch people who are dumping on the property most of it being in all honesty not dumped on Township property but being dumped on state property so that then brings in a whole another aspect to it because we're utilizing our resources to take dumping off of state land which is you know we do it but then we incur the cost as opposed to the state and it might all seem to be tax pair money but we don't have endless resources as far as funds to get rid of the things that we pick up we have to pay for that all right as far as the trucks you were down the road already with the police department and speeding it's the police department that enforces the weight restrictions so they they should be doing both of those things simultaneously if they're doing a a job on the Speeders and they have a presence for the Speeders they should be doing enforcement for the weight uh restrictions on the road at the same time and I'll speak with the public safety director about it but I don't know how you could do one without the other if you're there and you run a radar and a Truck goes by you don't say well I'm not going to go pull the truck over because I'm here running radar today that doesn't seem to make much sense so I'll take care of that one um notice of taxes notice of taxes I the only thing I can tell you is that notices go out as a result of you signing up on the township website for notifications there's a whole laundry list of notification choices that you can you can make and whenever there's an update made to the township website that generates those notices to come out I mean I get I don't know about a dozen of them a day um because I'm signed up for everything to make sure that they're going out um and I I can't tell you I've been in all honesty I've been out of work for three weeks having surgery so I haven't been paying much attention to whether notifications went out about taxes um but I certainly I if if you just I would double check when you get home to just go on the township website and see you know if nothing else refresh it and and and see if you start to get email notifications I don't know what ones you've signed up for so I don't know what ones you get no no no no no I can't sorry I can't so the answer to your your question not asked is and I and I tried to stop him too the generating the generating of emails and text messages is as a result of you signing up for notifications we obviously post on our website that tax bills are due tax bills are out and tax payments are due so that notification would go as a result of the update to the township website that's how it that's how it works when something changes or something is added you know the banner on the homepage that says tax payments are due by February 10th right you know grace period of 10 days when it says that that Banner that gets put up there generates for those people who have signed up appropriately an email saying your tax bills are out or your tax payments are due tax bills only come out once a year traffic report the traffic report so I I spoke with Mr domac today um and my understanding is that the meeting the public meeting won't be scheduled and until at least the fourth well probably the first week of December at this point given the holidays and the fact that all of uh uh well at least a majority of the people up here will be away next week for a good portion of the week for the New Jersey League of municipalities convention Mr Mr renon what's the delay after ordinances passed take effect 20 days following adoption and publication so that's calendar days calendar days and pickup trucks for sale it's a different one Mr BN Locker I'm sorry pickup truck for sale with a sign on it well I I I can only say that we can certainly check to see if there's something about it but the property owner is the one who would have to make that complaint anyone can put a vehicle on a piece of property with owner's uh permission it might be someone who works for the company that did the clearing on the site and got permission from B9 I have no idea um so it it's not illegal to put a piece a vehicle on a piece of property with a for salees sign on it that happens pretty much every day somewhere in this town and in every town any council members have any comments okay uh Council comments start with you Mr CR thank you Mr Mayor um good evening everyone um I attended The Advisory Board of Health meeting uh last week actually and we have two new members who joined one of them is the student and who will be basically a liaison with the youth especially high school students and for example she will be sharing the this flyer which says our talk our turn to talk which is about the mental health issues of the youth and this is going to be done on actually schedu for Wednesday November 20th 700 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and we highly encourage anybody who has a youth please attend this uh this one is really going to be a good one to to sit and listen um also uh during 2024 The Advisory Board of Health have been pretty active actually uh we formed partnership with some organization we invited various speakers every month pretty much we have speakers and we were planning to have some slides on the highlights of 2024 which is going to be on the website of The Advisory Board and again thanks to the to the team which is headed by Dr donisi U the meeting for Advisory Board it's the first Wednesday of every month and start at 7:30 across the hall and as I said we have speakers every month so we encourage everybody to come and and join the meetings and learn about the uh uh the U safe uh the the health of our community there is going to be a free clinic this is a free community health screening it's going to be at the food bank which is located in 224 Church Hill a and that's going to be from uh on November 21st from 2: to 7:00 p.m. so please make a note of that and if you need health screening please come and that's going to be offered by the Somerset County Health Department uh tomorrow we have Trail uh committee meeting at 7 pm. that's going to be a zoom meeting and uh the last that I have is uh tomorrow is actually a world kindness day Mr Mayor and so one can share random acts of compassion Say by helping strangers giving back to the community or teaching children the value of being nice so don't forget tomorrow do something nice thank you so much thank you councilman only jaka microphone want to turn the microphone mic okay hello yes okay the issue of dumping I would say it's is quite uh noticeable in a third world the C C You L last week the I saw two dumping spots on that uh that road actually I made a call to the township and they came and help and clear it this morning there's another one there so the issue of dumping is is rampantly going higher in that area so I think we really really need to follow it up and find out why the individuals D this include many things carpets letters chairs along the line so so may I think we really need to to consider it as a in terms of urgency thank you there's an ordinance already against dumping uh people do it because they're lazy or they're they don't want to spend the money to bring it to The Dumping site um I think those are the reasons and reported and DPW is pretty good about picking it up Yes actually I call them on it on Wednesday before Thursday afternoon they went and picked it up it is a shame when you see a mattress sitting in the side of the road um councilman EMB Barrison thank you Mr Mayor so um number of meetings uh committees that we I attended this year uh this last couple of weeks uh I guess on the 6th we had a planning board meeting and after many years of uh uh planning board visits the Church of Macedonia Church of God got approved uh in W 4 30 Booker Street um so people were very happy about that um councilman karazi and I U went on a tour at uh the center for Great Expectations uh what an organization um they help number of uh women um especially with uh children are pregnant and and uh um they provide all kinds of assistance not just one or two days a long-term assistance uh for them to get back up on their feet um obviously it's a uh nonprofit they depend on the generosity of the people uh Like Us in town as well as uh other grants and and funding um so they um they recently have a an application uh for $115,000 funding but they require many votes there are eight organization that are buying for four spots to get 15,000 each so if you can please go to Center for Great Expectations website and uh follow the link to vote for them the more votes we they get the better chance of getting the $115,000 they are about a million and half dollar shot in uh this year's funding so every little bit helps please uh look them up great organization um continuing our uh community service to uh Franklin Food Bank um one of my uh friends uh High School alumini uh chose our food bank uh for a donation this year um they're actually from Sri Lanka uh so they uh they went to meet with the director they went went to the um uh Food Bank complex on Saturday uh they made a donation um uh to the food bank uh thanks to uh it's a it's it's called Ananda College from uh Sri Lanka Columbo Sri Lanka uh bill was there thank you for covering the event um that was a very good event there and of course we all attended some of us attended the Veterans Day memor Veterans Day celebration right here at the Council chamber um great event people from veterans from Canal Walk uh came they they uh um a nice presentation we we we we had a good time and they rang the Liberty Bell after a meeting here um other than that I'd like to uh know more about uh what guy mentioned about the homeless uh people day on the December 24th I'll do what I can to uh mobilize some resources uh for the event to help the people out here so I will uh talk to a guy separately on that that's all I got mayor thank you councilwoman franois good good evening um I wish I could have attended the Veterans Day a memorial service yesterday Veterans Day is always a day for reflection and gratefulness for me because my father was in World War II he got shot in the head he got his toe shot off he died with a purple heart so it's always a day of reflection for me and a day of gratefulness for all the people that have served to make our country the great country that it is so thank you all the veterans that are out there and I if I could have been at the service I had to work but if I could have been there I would have been there thank you Mr Mayor thank you councilman vasella thank you I echoed the same sentiments it's my father and many uncles fought in World War II some were injured and in subsequent Wars also and I saw some of it the celebration here and um as always a wonderful job to all those who help make it happen and and were able to attend I believe it's online if anybody wants to see it uh the main meeting uh in the last couple weeks for myself was the Public Works commit committee meeting we had today and as I mentioned at my the last report a month ago we actually finished all of the paving that we set out to do which is the first time and at least in decades we were able to do that and that also leads us to be able to jump into some projects that I'm just going to mention quickly um in early spring because we the less Paving we have to do from the year prior uh year prior's budget the more we can jump into these other projects we'll be and this goes back to a plan um U when I was on public works with Mr Wright here councilman Wright who initiated it and um kind of led the way and we have a multiphase sidewalk uh plan that helps link the important parts of town especially well parts of town especially what we deemed most important which is access to schools for children to walk and of course everybody else to use them so we're going to be doing a bunch I'll just mention we're going to be in uh Sydney South Lawrence Prospect Street home Ambrose parts of ardan parts of North Lawrence parts of Matilda parts of Highland um most of these I believe all of them are in the Fourth and Fifth Ward um so we'll be going full gear into that we're design in them now and hopefully um some of them if not all of them will roll out next year and uh this been going on ongoing project I think this is may be technically considered phase three there's still more to do but um we are um coming near completing a major phase of this next year um and of course there's a lot of waterw and other stuff going on and I think somebody else mentioned about uh Road repair or something we posted um um on our website as things are get get done or as projects are happening um to really try to put out when it's we can't put out when it's going to happen prior to a not just the contract being awarded but then the schedule of the actual contractor and there's goals they have to meet as far as how long but we my understanding we do a pretty good job online if there's any roads that are going to be closed as soon as we find out they're going to be closed or traffic in in not in full use we put it on the website so anybody unless it's an emergency repair my understanding is we have everything on that website Mr War Locker comment on it when we do manager comments but somebody had asked about it but we can't we can't predict and I think one of the projects on Hamilton Street was mentioned that's not going to be cited for a couple years so discret scape cannot um begin to know what exactly it's going to look like or exactly when it's going to be constructed for I'm going to say at least a couple more years for that specific one on Hamilton thank you mayor uh Council I'm sorry mayor I saw my calendar uh Eastern Avenue project I'm going have the report on it oh you yeah well the manager will probably mention it but there's a few public sessions some are for uh some are public and some aren't depending on the study but relevant to East Avenue Hamilton deont intersection the manager will um I'm sure tell people specifically which one can be attended by the public if they care to but yes they're coming up this week in the next couple weeks uh councilman crosy thank you for mentioning that and I'm sure to M will follow up thank you councilman rright thank you m thank you Mr Mayor I only have um basically one to two items one I was inquiring about homelessness in Somerset County and I couldn't put my finger uh on any straight Avenue to obtain the information that I wanted so I went to Somerset County and lo and behold January 23rd of 2024 Monarch housing Associates did a report of Franklin Township of every Township I should say in Somerset County and it talked about The Chronic homelessness it talked about where they live where they can be found um it broke down as far as uh in that type of housing um women with children which makes up half they talked about veterans that had no housing they broke it down into uh drug addiction um they broke it down in in such a way that it was unbelieved I I didn't understand this so I had to call because they had so many categories um and then they compared Somerset County to other counties in town uh and being that we have 70,000 residents I think we're we're ranked number 24 I'm not sure but the township manager at some point in time can correct me and I will be corrected no doubt um and um this dovetails with the um housing uh it's not called COA anymore but it came out and said um what township should have as far as uh affordable housing lowincome housing and um it broke down from race from white to africanamerican black to Latino to indigenous Personnel um other uh mixed race um it it took care of everything that you would want in a report and I found it very interesting to read uh if you want you can pull it from the Somerset County website uh I encourage you to read it um and one of the things I would say that the reason why s county is because we're one of the richest counties in New Jersey and our rents are high compared to other uh counties in the state so that was one of the reasons why we we have uh a crunch in Somerset County as far as housing is concerned um so anyway that was something to read and um that was good reading it took me four or five days to digest it but again I called Monarch housing Associates and they gave me a little bit more insight as to how things are going so I'd encourage you to read it and Mr Mayor um I'd like to Echo Mr basel's point with sidewalks uh that's always in in in Vogue and uh that's it thank you Mr Right Deputy Mayor no comment thank you uh for my comments I would also like to um express my appreciation for the the Veterans Day ceremony and I'd like to thank Mr Lort for all the work he did to make that happen as well as members of our wreck department um Mr Lort has been there for years doing Veterans Day and Memorial Day and getting the antique cars for um Franklin day uh so he's great contributor to the community and I thank him for it the other thing is uh we did get a tiny bit of rain but um please conserve water and watch your matches and cigarettes um we don't there's a fire there's been fires up north in New Jersey we'd prefer not to have them here in Franklin Mr manager thank you Mr Mayor I'd like to Echo what you just spoke about as far as um the fire bands I I I'll go a little more detail so the entire state of New Jersey is currently under a a ban on open burning um and to include um charcoal grills and and the like any type of outside fire pits or uh um and so you there's roughly 6,000 Acres of forest currently on fire on the New York New Jersey border near Greenwood Lake right now um a young firefighter lost his life two days ago um to put that in perspective the entire area of Six Mile Run uh the State Park area that takes up just about all of the center part of our Township is about 2500 Acres um 6,000 acres is currently on fire um that's just one forest fire in the state of New Jersey and there's others in southern part of the state so I I'd ask that everybody kind of use common sense to some degree but also be kind of cognizant of what you're doing um there was a report this morning that I read about a vehicle that parked on a pile of leaves and the car uh burst into flames as a result of the dry leaves under the car catalytic converters get very very very hot um and so you need to be very careful about where you park your car and uh and you know I I I I know it sounds kind of silly but you know I I I try to stay away from so social media but unfortunately I'm sucked in especially since I was laid up for the last three weeks um and someone had posted on a on a social media page about not wanting to snitch on their neighbor who was using a charcoal grill um I'm going to tell all of you who are watching this and all of you are here snitch on your neighbor um you know it it it these are the kind of things that cause tragedy I like I said a young man lost his life that fire did not start spontaneously and it's not you know when we're in thunderstorm season and lightning strikes sometimes it starts fires we we haven't had a thunderstorm in quite some time um I'm sure that whatever caused that fire up in North Jersey was as a result of a human being um I would hope that it was accidental and not intentional but just please be very very careful then on a lighter note there's a holiday Craft Market this Saturday at the senior center um from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. sponsored by our recreation department so if you want to start off your holiday shopping there's a perfect place to do it um 10:00 a.m. to 3 pm. on Saturday and I'd just like to thank Mr dominc and director Mayweather for kind of pinch hitting for me for the last couple weeks I'm back here um and uh I know that they took care of all the business that needed to get taken care of but I just wanted to thank them for stepping in for me while I was out for my surgery and that's it Mr Mayor thank you Mr Mayor uh councilwoman I'd like to make a motion to agend to amend the agenda and move up the old item number 17 old business to 2024 board committees and commission vacancies I have someone here that I'd like to nominate and it happens to be his birthday so he needs to leave do we have a second on amending the agenda second all in favor say I I oppos say nay we are skipping ahead on the agenda to item number 17 old business agendas are there next to the clerk uh boards committees committ boards committees and commissions and vacancies any nominations yes Mr Mayor I would like to nominate CER alaran as a youth member to the municipal po Alliance he's he's in the back he's he does a lot of work he's on a lot of different committees in the township and he's also agreed to be our secretary he's written books and so I I I'm happy that he's here and I'm happy that we're able to nominate him in person what was his name again we call him ker how do you say your first name El longer el el longer El longer a lener see he didn't say it right either El link here yeah yeah speaking the mic um so it's alen CER but people usually call me CER ker yeah yeah yeah and say your last name uh ilam Marin ilam Marin okay I said that right uh any other nominations for that position any other nominations for any position so we can do this by acclamation all in favor of CER uh being on the youth Alliance say I I opposed say nay congratulations C here thank you so much for everything you've been doing happy birthday now you can leave I didn't want him staying here all night so I just want to give a shout out to him okay he has been here before a few times he's a Young author he writes translates books from um in from his uh mother uh his father's mother tongue which also happens to be mine so to English so he's a he's a upcoming author as well buy already wrote some books yes yeah yeah yeah you you've written what two books already short stories yeah that's my thought well thank you you have anything you want to say um so I just want to say thank you to you uh councilwoman Fran SWAT and also thank you to Mr painon for connecting me with the municipal Alliance and giving me this opportunity and I'm excited to like be working with the municipal Alliance just learning about what's happening in the community and being engaged so yeah good good we need you thank you look forward to it thank you thanks for coming good night happy birthday so we're now back to item number 10 Council discussion items 2024 best practices inventory Mr VOR Locker I I I think that I would open up the floor to any council members who might have had a question about our best practices inventory this is an annual exercise that every municipality in the state is required to go through um it is tied to our state aid um this year there were I think 46 um graded questions um of which um we U met the mark on 42 of the 46 35 were required to meet the minimum for your maximum state aid so we were well above the minimum uh for this particular year best practices inventory there's about 70 some questions so I don't think that we need to go through all of them unless someone has a question do we have to vote on this no you don't we just need to have it as a discussion item and we just discussed it as long as you and I had some words together um I think I would count that as a discussion to meet the requirements of the Department of Community Affairs here we go all right on to approval of the minutes we have none to approve uh time to pay the bills approval of the warrants in the amount of 8,164 19825 on November 12th 2024 presented to the township Council for payment we have a motion on the warrants so moved second moved in second and any discussion anyone would like to question or pull an item Madam clerk councilman andaris yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni jaka yes Deputy Mayor basnik yes councilman vasella yes councilman Wright item number 13 hearings and adoptions of ordinance on second reading when when we're an ordinance comes up there is a first reading to announce to the world that we are considering an ordinance change and then uh usually two weeks later there is a second reading which includes a public hearing uh and we have two ordinances up for no one ordinance up for second reading uh and that is ordinance 4452 d24 an ordinance amending the code of Township of Franklin County of Somerset state of New Jersey more particularly chapter 169 nuisance and um nuisance ordinance and repealing chapter 167 noise ordinance in its entirety it's presented for public hearing and final adoption the public hearing has been noticed as required to have a motions open to the public so moved second move then seconded all in favor say I I I opposed say nay motion is carried anyone wishing to speak on this make do so same rules apply Alex Strauss 285 Haslet way um I wanted to yes ask well I wanted to focus on the fact that I don't see anything about mufflers here there was something about Mufflers on the earlier ordinance there's something about cars there's something about is there going to be so that doesn't apply no it's there but but as far as cars and exhaust title 39 of the motor vehicle code is mufflers for cars so that covers it that's state law okay okay so that Municipal law can't supersede state law so it's never been in a municipal ordinance for Mufflers on cars okay I saw on equipment it's in the and it's in the it's in the current uh proposed ordinance that's to be uh up for adoption tonight Mufflers on equipment is required lawnmowers snow blowers and the like generators it's all in the ordinance it's all in the ordance okay just copied and pasted from the old one okay well I I want to also um a couple other things um the decibels um they don't want to take any more decibel readings it appears and so is is that not useful at times I understand the police department might have issues with trying to take the readings but um that would be one way to say that there's a problem okay um and perhaps it makes it easier for them in their business but I had an issue uh in my development with a very noisy car and noise meters were uh used at the time uh the police department was involved um so I'm concerned about that and at this time I also want to bring up something that is missing from Franklin but has been instituted in some other municipalities and that's leaf blowers um I'd like to see that um taken up um it talks about nuisances it talks about noise of course it's not just noise you're talking about fumes as well and two-stroke engines so that's something that uh that would be nice to see Franklin do okay all right thank you thank you so anyone else wish to speak see no one coming forward May our motion to public portion on his hearing be closed second so the uh issue of leaf blower is being taken up by Senator Smith Statewide so I'm don't want to interfere with that and um the problem with decb and a and a noise a sound meter is it just was not practical they got them out to your property that time but it's just the chief the I'm sorry the uh public safety director was here and explained the amount of work that goes into it and it just wasn't getting done so we're going to this method as it's just more practical and it's more likely that we'll be able to enforce this ordinance and these nuisances I understand you know and it's been said having a actual calibrated measurement is probably more useful in court but at least we can get them to court with this ordinance so that's why we're going to that way um do we have a motion on the uh to adopt so moved second moved and second and any discussion I I had a couple questions to clarify my understanding is in line with I guess the intention of it so you want me to ask those questions now mayor well this would be the time okay um I have a copy of it in front of me and I this these questions may have come up in the past forgive me but this thing's been through a few Pro uh it's been a few ideas and changes so I want to make sure on 169-177 which uh covers a lot of the things I'm concerned about and others have spoken to it says loud unnecessary or unusual noise prohibited and uh the sentence is great and it covers I guess just about anything that can can be considered annoying and we actually use the word annoy um it doesn't have anything about hours or distances and I mention that because um I mean if if it will work in court that's great but the proceed the 16918 16919 16920 that get into a lot more details with equipment um and noise you know music different ways noise is made this thing here does not need to have any reference to hours or distances from another property or another home this on itself this line is says it shall be unlawful for a person to make continue cause and so on uh that in and of itself will give it an officer the discretion to go to a home if there's not any music or construction equipment just if there is loud obnoxious noise it could be considered annoying this would give that officer uh the direction and the authority to write a ticket that hopefully would stand up in court is that the intention of 16917 yes okay and we do not need to mention any it could be the middle of the day if you're being annoying and it doesn't matter how far you are from someone else it could be in the middle of a council meeting also yes no yes yes no AB so if your I just want to make sure your neighbor is blaring music or has a live band in their forget equipment I'm talking about because the other ones deal with so if I'm blasting an air horn at your property at 2:00 in the afternoon it's a violation of the oration the and it doesn't matter how far do matter what time it what hours okay and then the only other thing and I think I mentioned as you briefly but I know we were about to sit down the only other question I had was 16918 and that's where we mention the operation of machine or device is clearly audible from a neighboring dwelling or at a distance of 200 ft from the building in which it is located I assume there're mean the noise I just want to make sure and I think you mentioned that it would be interpreted uh that it wouldn't have to be inside someone's dwelling but from their front porch or their backpack IO um we don't need to reference outside or the ex or or outside of the dwelling at the dwelling I just want to make sure that that it isn't based on you have to be sitting inside your living room to coun I I went after you asked me the question I went back and read it the distance is measured from the source of the noise not not the other way so if you think about it it's from the it's from whatever the source of the noise is to 200 ft forget the 200 the 200 I there been different opinions on it but putting that aside it's the one that says that is clearly audable from a neighboring dwelling or at a distance of 200 ft but I'm just talking about the neighboring dwelling if you're standing at the dwelling and you're outside it's from the dwelling so the dwelling is a is the structure right so it's not inside the dwelling just okay correct so for the houses that are less than 200 say 50 ft away someone's sitting on their back porch and and after 10:00 they're annoyed by these noises an officer can can base it on standing outside doesn't have to be disenfranchised being inside the home okay well those you know in general I think there's still some ways to improve it over time but I think it's a wonderful uh leap into where we need to go and be at for several reasons concerning these issues so those were the two concerns I had but I hope that um I know some people were looking at taking a little deeper dive and if there are amendments that people feel would be helpful I I encourage them come forward um down the road thank you thank you anyone else Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor crer yes councilman Oni joa yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilman vasella yes councilman right ordinance uh I mean item number 14 ordinance on on introduction and first reading ordinance 4457 d24 an ordinance to amend the municipal code of the township of Franklin County of Somerset state of New Jersey more particularly chapter 226 vehicles and traffic section 22630 handicap parking subsection a handicap parking on street remove 28 Roberts Road the foregoing ordinance is presented to the township Council for adoption on first reading po posting and publication in accordance with law on public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday November 26th 7 p.m. at the council chambers do I have a motion to introduce so moved second moved and seconded any discussion Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman rzi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni jaka yes Deputy Mayor P yes councilman vasella yes councilman R yes ordinance 44 58-24 an ordinance to amend the municipal code of the township of Franklin County at Somerset state of New Jersey more particularly chapter 81 affordable housing by adding new Article 2 Municipal housing liaison the forgoing ordinance is presented to the township Council for adoption on first reading posting and publication and accordance with law on public heing and final adoption at a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday November 26th 2024 at 7.m in the council chambers to have a motion to introduce some second moved in second it so this is pretty much what it says appointing a um Municipal housing liaison it's required by law in the affordable housing um bill that's be that's gone before us or statute that's before us um and so we are just complying with state law any other discussion Madam clerk no no nope hold up hold up uh Mr Mayor yes sir um this the first time I saw it was when I saw it in the when you came up with the ordinances the package on Friday and I was just struck as to where did it come from um and didn't get an answer now did this come from the administrative or or comes from the comes from state law okay it came from state law but when were we were we were notified about a month ago that we needed to put this on as a model ordinance from the state state of New Jersey right okay hold on hold on hold on where and you said to to come up with a model no the state of New Jersey provided a model ordinance for us to enact but when when were we going to know about this because basically what you just made was a housing director it's Mark Healey it's what he does it's already his job it's not a housing director no it's not a housing director excuse it is a person who administers the municipal functions of affordable housing let let Mr Right that finish's question now I went through this on the on the Housing Authority quote unquote of Franklin Township administered by RPM um and I talked to Mr Clark who was the housing director in New Brunswick who we brought over to be the part-time housing director here in Franklin Township and of course RPM said it's a great idea um and and and by the way he's no longer there he was uh he left and we have someone new on board and I I I I looked at this and and I I I don't mind it being introduced I don't mind anything but sometimes we don't receive the information sometimes we don't get a chance to actually eat the information as they say and it's dropped on my plate and I'm supposed to vote for it now sometimes you understand things sometimes you don't this is the case where I didn't understand no one explained it uh if the mayor knew or someone from the administrative staff knew uh the the the administrative committee the whoever I I just didn't like the fact that it was done excuse me placed on the agenda um for us to arbitrarily approved I I don't like that can I answer the question first um and I really can't speak to it probably goes into the second round you you've always had a municipal the on so this is this is just reaffirming who are who it is um it's and so so absolutely nothing has changed Mr hey has been performing this function um for as long literally for as long as he's been here exactly so we've always have a municipal housing liais on and all they are is that they're I I don't want you to think that this is this is some kind of managerial position that somehow has you know there the housings are in the town that's not what they are they're the person who's responsible for for filling out the forms that have to be filed with the state with regards to our affordable housing obligation and I'm not talking about our Housing Authority obligation leaving that aside it's just about our compliance with our third and fourth round affordable housing obligations that's that's kind of all it is and you've always had one the new law just required you to reaffirm it and that's all we're doing understand that because Mr Wright does Mr vorn Locker did you have anything else well no I was going to say I mean and I i' I'd Echo for the most part what what Mr Ron just said but again this was a directive from the state of New Jersey for the municipalities that do not have this particular uh aspect in their ordinances as it relates to affordable housing to Institute it it's not it was not something that would have any discussion because it's something that's mandated it it the law says that we must do this and therefore we're doing it and that's why the addition to the code the purpose of this uh Municipal housing Lea is on as it's spelled out under 8112 makes it very clear the purpose of this article is to create the administrative mechanisms needed for the execution of Franklin Township's responsibility to assist in the provision of affordable housing pursuant to the fair housing act of 1985 that's otherwise known as the Mount Laurel act um so I I I think that while I understand your concerns councilman I I I think that I can you know at best try to put them at ease and that this is just as Mr rayon said codifying something that's existed in Franklin Township since 1985 your turn I'm sorry where you finish oh your turn I I understand that because having worked on the re still working on the Redevelopment agency I know uh Mr hilly our Township planner um talked about what we needed because he went to and I guess represented us at the uh the rounds of Co or whatever it's called now and he came back and he talked about it how many units we needed and whether or not we were ever going to get there uh he he spoke about if the township owned the property or or the housing units uh where they would get credit for it uh for using that I mean he went through the whole Gambit so I understand um what Mr hilly was doing I just didn't see it coming and as Mr Ron said you're you're codifying codifying you're just putting it all together to say that this is what the person does this is how he's going to operate him or her um and that's fine I just didn't like the way that it was I mean I wish I would have known I could have looked at it I could have saw it but I we just got it councilman that's the point I'm trying to make is we were just told by the state of New Jersey to do this you're getting it as a result of us being told staff being told present this ordinance to your counsel that's why you're getting it now because and that's why I'm telling you that it's not something that we created this is something that the state of well I you're saying you know but I don't understand then what the question is I think I think maybe the confusion is this is Mark hey yeah I understand yeah okay yeah it's also first reading it'll be up again in two weeks right and and and just for the record Mark was appointed I just want back into our records the earliest resolution I could see is from 2008 Mark was appointed yes when he became a fulltime Township employee it's what Mark has been doing all along that's what I'm saying this is not C councilman was just kind of something that was ministerial it's I don't I don't want you to feel like it's something that was kind of dropped on you but the provisions in here are essentially the provis that were in our Mount Laurel uh three settlement for the duties of the affordable housing the aison we're just codifying it we had by the way we had an ordinance it was um I think it was 81 or 88- 18 um that that we had that we repealed some years ago but we just need to have an ordinance on the book that that lays out what the duties of the housing liaison Municipal housing liaison uh does affordable housing aison officer does so that that's all we that's kind of all we all we're doing so this has been in effect we haven't changed anything we're not changing who's doing it we're not changing his duties we're just as I said codifying you know what it is that we put get down in black and white yeah okay okay update okay Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman fris yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on joa yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilman vasella yes councilman Wright yes on to the consent agenda item number 15 items a through m is listed on the consent agenda portion of this meeting are presented to the township Council for adoption do we have a motion to adopt I move a through M you have a second second moved in second and any discussion anyone like to pull an item or question an item madam councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman FR yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on joa yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilman vasella yes councilman R yes there are no motions to I mean resolutions to be voted on separately um we've already done all business uh there is no executive session so do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second mov then seconded all in favor say I I opposed say nay we are adjourned be well Franklin