##VIDEO ID:VMTjOUqGGds## this work session regular meeting of the township council is called to order Madam 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 December 10th 2024 uh if we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for the invocation by councilman on jaka I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all as we gathered here today as members of the township Council we pray that we are mindful of opportunities to render our service to fellow citizens and to our community keeping in mind always the enduring values of Life exerting our efforts in those areas and on the things upon which further Generations can build with confidence let us continue to strive to Make a Better World amen amen Madam clerk please call the role councilman EMB Barrison here councilwoman franois councilman Kazi here mayor Kramer here councilman Oni jaka here Deputy Mayor pnik president councilwoman uden here councilman vasella here councilman Wright um the next item is executive session uh councilman councilwoman franois informed me that she was going to be a little late uh itd be best that we're all Council or at executive session uh are are able to attend the executive session so we'll delay that until she arise there are no commendations or proclamations we do have a motion to open to the public so moved seconded moved then seconded all in favor say I I oppos say nay we are open to the public five minutes only can speak once no yielding of time please state your name and address mayor seeing no one coming forward on motion to close the public portion seconded moved in seconded all in favor say I I I oppos say nay motion is carried public session is closed uh I have no answers for the public do you have any Mr vorn Locker nor do I mayor okay I have a comment on the comment I'm Council comments we start with you Mr Wright okay all right Council comments the first thing I'll bring up is uh ask the township manager about catala Park and where we stand on that issue sure um so um we we have struggled with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection over the last couple years to it seems like every time we get to the goal line they move the goalpost and uh we've been giving assurances now over the last month or so that um there's no longer any um permits that um are under you know in question and that we should be issued everything from the D to then be able to go out to bid I would anticipate that you so now it's December so I I would hope that um by January everything is in order and we can um put the park out to bid okay number two all of our parks are on um autopilot as they say as things come up they're automatically fixed or we have yes I mean you know there's a there's a excuse me there's a parks department within the public works department Parks Division and they're in the parks on a daily basis and when things are found to be broken or reported to the public works department they either fix it immediately or you know coordin it off so that they will can order the parts depending on what the piece of equipment is or what needs to be fixed all right now one last thing on the parks M I got cornered yesterday and uh of course they had little crumb snatchers with them and they go um why don't you upgrade the play area at middle Bush Park and then I said well space is limited and what do you mean we have everything there so what's the upgrade and uh after getting beat up about it I said well it's easy go to the township manager let him get beat up and say okay so the answer though is that that actually is a new playground um we started a a a program I'm going to I'm going to gas at a date right now about 5 years ago to replace all of our playgrounds in all of our Municipal parks with current standard um playgrounds that met all all of the current standards as far as full materials on the ground that's why we have that rubber type material instead of wood chips or things like they did in the past because that's no longer compliant and I believe that middle Bush Park was one of the first ones to be replaced so while it might be 5 years old now it's still up to current standards as far as playgrounds are concerned I think that we've now hit all of our parks and you know you in our capital budget this isn't a secret the the playground at at a standard park playground that like exists in Middle Bush or um D the those they're about a quarter of a million dollars so this Council has approved Parks new playgrounds in all of those parks in their Capital budgets over the last five or six years okay now that part being done I've been beat up again because some people will start some people will say no and we go back and forth so this is what I want to do to everyone everyone says they want a speed hump and I say listen if you want a speed hump it's going to cost you not money but your M your neighbor may not like you for it so uh I went to one spot on Appleman and out of the four people that are right next to the speed hump three said just one said no and it's that one no that's going to hold us up because getting over that speed HP making that turn to get into the their house that's not going to work now in Irvington and in North they never asked anybody um come on down here let's talk about speed humps they just dropped them and they went Street by Street and put a speed hump now we we're we we won't do that we're actually going to come back and ask you but they put the speed humps there uh to again slow traffic Princeton has them again they have a a great Community they do a lot of walking around there so they put the speed humps the the director said because of that you don't want you know people flying down the street or whatever and you have bicycle Riders we don't have a lot of bicycle Lanes but they do uh n doesn't have at all but again they have them so what I'd like you to do is this if you want to speed hump you have my email address it's on the website send me an email and I'll come personally to your door and talk to you about speed humps and how we can work the situation so send me an email with your address name and telephone number and I will personally come to your house and we can talk about speed humps and how we can put that on your block so with that being said Mr Mayor I'm done thank you Mr Wright councilwoman sheepa oudin thank you good evening everyone um I just have a few updates the first one around the master plan traffic study I know it's been something I keep getting uh emails and calls on just want to let everyone know that's still in progress um I believe there is a in another internal committee meeting happening um this Thursday um on further findings and discussions so I think once we have the details the information from our thirdparty vendor um consultant we're going to you know gather all the information and then there will be an upcoming public session trust me I also eager to be on that public session and hear all the findings and what's been discussed so I just want to make sure that you know we we don't want to rush this um out I know everyone's eager to join this master plan traffic study but um it's in progress and there's more to come and we'll keep you posted as we get information um there's been a couple folks also asking me about um fireworks and around the animal shelter and if Mr vorn Locker if you can give us an update around the question was um the fireworks going on on 4th of July and us having animals and the animal shelters there an impact and I think you have addressed it with me but I want to make sure if you can also address it again so the animals not left in the shelter when we have fireworks animals are removed by volunteers and housed outside the shelter during the time of fireworks perfect thank you so much I just want to make sure everyone heard that and that's uh information that they got um and then last but not least I you know attended the the Franklin Township holiday tree leting ceremony want to make sure we shout out to our staff who organized it our Parks and Recreation team um have always done a great job and I think the crowd is increasing every year we had folks out um into the senior center all the way towards the end I think they were still waiting on the Santa Claus and Miss Claus and also the balloon artist that was there did a great job on um getting the younger kids as well as the older kids inv bed and with that season's greetings I think this is our last council meeting for this year so uh I wish everyone a very happy and blessed uh holiday thank you thank you councilman vasella yes in uh the magical the uh chorus from Franklin High School sang there talking about the tree lighting councilwoman nuden reminded me I know the mayor was there and other Council people um Council and jaka I think Ram I forget I'm sorry Alex whoever might else been there but a thank thanks to them it was beautiful quick few songs because it was cold thanks to the Boy Scouts for being involved and everyone who participated so um this is the last meeting of 2024 um couple quick things uh I know Bob our manager was out of to not out of town I'm sorry was taking care of his um shoulder in jury at the time um but it came up at a meeting I think Mr Dominic may have been filling in where we I I had brought up if we can have a clear concise posting on our front page or at least a substantial noticeable part of our website so that all these studies that we're involved with because there's a handful from the feds the state the county some are just municipally sponsored there's links to some for surveys there's links for some for mailing uh list there's public sessions there's sessions that sometimes are only open to stakeholders officials Etc so without going on and on I I think we all were in favor of but perhaps it got lost in the shuffle here I'm just wondering if the clerk or whoever else is involved may have an update as to when we can get that on the website so all these important studies and projects that the public is interested in and has an opportunity to be involved with to a certain degree are out there clearly explained and clearly available is there any um I I believe Bob was out on medical leave at the time but was is there any update I know I thought the clerk or Mr Dominic was going to follow up with that is that something we can get done fairly quickly here sure sure okay I Y all right because I think there's going to be a lot of questions because these are all big things that are going to go on and understandably even Council people sort to keep track of so people from the public we want to make sure they can easily easily uh see and and uh what's going on and how they can participate if they choose to so I just appreciate we can get that up for um be you know maybe for the beginning of the year if not sooner anyway otherwise there was just a couple of meetings that took uh part in Central Jersey Housing Resource Center which I'm On The Board of Trustees had their annual uh we meet every month most months but we had our annual meeting where we in person the entire board where we review the prior year and the upcoming year and obviously a big year because everybody's affordable housing they're they handle a lot they don't handle all of our housing needs affordable housing needs in town but um it's a nonprofit that deals with surrounding counties and a whole bunch of municipalities so for what it's worth every most every town is dealing with the affordable housing issue that we are meaning we have to review what we have to come up with and figure creative ways to uh um meet or even hopefully exceed those goals just a couple interesting quick facts uh there's a heck of a lot of people all over New Jersey and especially all over Central Jersey here that are looking for affordable housing and has have housing issues uh almost 25% of them fortunately have family and relatives that they're living with um so um although of course we want everybody to be able to secure their own housing especially affordable housing whatever category they fall into uh it is good to know that a good amount of them have family and relatives to um cohabitate with while they're securing housing but um it will be very interesting year and I will bring back information as far as how things are going in the state and the area here with affordable housing including our own efforts the only only other meeting was a shade tree sorry shade tree um commission meeting which I'm the liaison and uh we are actively uh doing our forestry M creating our forestry management plan which I believe is uh once every decade uh whether it's a just a standard or an actual requirement we're redoing that and uh with our Town's commitment to increase our tree and plan as many trees as possible replacing them and exceeding what was there when there's new development they the plan is very important along with the other plan that we're working on which is a uh tree maintenance and planting and maintenance guide so we have a general policy uh standards for which whether it's our own Public Works uh which handles most of our Town's needs or private um contractors that we sometimes utilize that there's an accepted uh standard by which trees are to be taken care of because if they aren't planted right and taken care of right in the first year or two they're very likely to perish or be severely uh um you less than what they could be um so we're doing that working along with professionals from CME that have some Tree Experts on staff and um they're so far it's excellent It's the learning process but we will uh I will keep the uh town and the council informed and probably be presented here eventually when it's completed other than that uh whatever you celebrate enjoy the next several weeks and uh uh stay safe and uh have fun thank you mayor thank you councilman EMB Barrison uh thank you mayor so um first of all I want to wish everybody happy holiday season um uh have a wonderful time um I'm going to be away end of December through first week of January so I may not get a chance to wish everyone um my colleagues and the staff and and the people happy holidays um anyway so last couple of weeks I had uh number of uh activities uh YMCA and most of you know that I'm on the YMCA uh campaign steering committee so we are getting out and meeting uh some folks in town um who are able to uh donate uh um large sums of money so we we are uh sort of shaking the trees with uh them one by one um so that's going on and it's going to be a long hall and then um on First Tuesday of December you every every first Tuesday of the month I usually have two meetings one at the U surage Authority and one right after that it's the historic preservation commission uh meetings so this particular month historic preservation uh saw eight applications in two hours and that's phenomenal I mean this this team led by um chairman Andrew Burian as I mean they do a great job I mean not only they uh take the job seriously they are very helpful to the people come in front of them and being an architect himself the chairman knows you know what has to be done and so he helps everybody there's another architect on the commission and few other professionals so I just want to give them a shout out for the uh fantastic job that they are doing uh and then I think people who come there really leave uh with a solution and or an approval so uh that is U really commendable job that they do um other than that uh we had uh uh a grand opening of Venus dwellers in town uh 40 years in business in the town so they moved to a bigger area on the next to the Kmart and in the same place on the 19th the new McDonald's is having a grand reopening our opening um so we'll be attending that um this Friday uh we have a Winter concert um by the uh Franklin band at the school mid school here so I highly recommend you all attend that um I just was at a chamber holiday party uh I popped in popped up really quickly so it's a holiday season too many parties to go to um let's say um today we had a um visit to the uh uh to the water retention Basin in Renoir way uh some of the com uh residents there uh have uh a complain complain renewed complaint um that uh the water basin needs more maintening maintaining the plantations there but um as uh we have explained to them before uh 3 years ago we had the same issue and we had the D folks our engineering uh folks involved and so we kind of um did some work uh temporarily uh there were no complaints but um so we we we did get a complaint today so I shared it with the township manager and um we will get back to the group um telling them what our maintenance plan is and why uh those Plantation vegetation grows uh so much in there um other than that again I wish you all a very happy holiday season thank you counil councilman on Jaa okay mayor yeah special thank to the organizers of Christmas Tre lightning it was great and a lot of people the attendance was good too um two okay okay as we are in the in the holidays period we should be our Brother's Keeper we should keep watch on our areas this time around crime increases a little bit so we should keep our eyes on our areas and um the next I wish everyone happy holidays thank you thank you councilman councilman Ki thank you Mr Mayor and good evening everyone um I'd like to start with extend and big congratulation to a member of our community Dr Donna lei for for being recognized as the governor's Council for substance abuse substance use disorder Municipal Alliance volunteer of the Year Dr Lisi who is sitting right there has been a member of the Franklin Township municipal Alliance for the last four years she is a chair of Somerset County local advisory Council on alcohol and drug abuse and chair of Advisory Board of Health in our Township she's very committed to health and well-being of our community members and Beyond and I'm really honored to work with her on The Advisory Board of Health as a council liaison congratulations and let us give her a round of applause great job um so this year actually during most of our uh Advisory Board of Health meetings uh Dr ly had in invited uh speakers to from outside and last meeting we had a visitor who spoke about human trafficking unfortunately human trafficking is a major continuing health issue and not only for the sex uh trafficking but also labor trafficking and fortunately there is a New Jersey Coalition against human trafficking and their mission is to unit the states communities to end human trafficking and there is a great emphasis on education in fact now they have K to2 human trafficking education curriculum and that aims to provide students with knowledge about how to identify and respond to situations where they may be vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking now January is human trafficking awareness month and uh you will hear more about the human trafficing doing in January as well uh tomorrow we have Trail committee uh meeting which is by Zoom they' have done a great job this year so I will uh share some of the highlights during January on the 18th as you may know if youve heard we have a town hall meeting about the use of opio settlement fund and it's going to be here at 7:00 and human relation commission's meetings on the same day their members also will join so we really asking the community members to come and share their ideas and hear from our director of safety Public Safety as well as Mr Mayor will be here myself and uh councilwoman um Fran also will join I also attended Franken tonship interface council meeting and there there was a a speaker who came from home of Somerset County now this is an organization that has been around for 30 years and they have been helping homeless people including those who live in Franklin Township in fact 50% of their clients are from from Franklin and one thing that I hear was that these days a great number of people that they are homeless they sleep in their cars they are working families working people but they just can't afford to rent so um you know I just want to let you know that and also on December 21st between 3: to 5:00 p.m. at 55 Fuller street parking lot there is going to be National homeless Memorial event so and they're collecting some hygiene materials and supplies for the homeless so if you can please uh go there again that's on December 21st between 3 and 5:00 p.m. at 55 Fuller street parking lot on a personal note uh most of us have new year uh resolution usually around January 1st and my wife and I had ours on December 1st and when we we signed up for the YMC at scataway and Mr Mayor truly I miss signing up in our own Township and I know you as well as we heard from uh councilman Rah that they are working behind the scene to facilitate bringing the YMCA to our Township and really having a YMCA will have a profound positive impact on the well-being of our community members and it provides a great opportunity for our diverse Community to come together and also provide employ opportunities I can wait to have our YMCA at Franken Township and lastly this is our last meeting of the Year and I wish everyone a very happy and safe new year and my fellow community members this was my first year of being your councilman I am very blessed to have the opportunity to serve you and work with great colleagues sitting here with me and thank you for giving me the opportunity and God bless you and your family that's Mr Mayor thank you councilman uh councilwoman Fran sis do you want to give your comments now or you need to get collected I have no comments Mr Mayor happy holidays to everyone happy New Year thank you deputy mayor uh thank you mayor um just a quick update on the traffic well it's not a traffic light study it's a warrant study at the corner of 27 and the Princeton Highlands Boulevard and also a buts to Alon Boulevard um the initial counts have been taken and the folks are still working on that so I know the folks in Princeton Highlands Community are interested and some have reached out so we're hopeful you know we'll we'll get that report when um all the pieces are put together um it has been an honor to be Deputy Mayor so thank you to the council for this privilege uh most most enjoyable of it was doing weddings um I very much enjoy you know the um Smiles on the family but of course the couples getting married and to have the opportunity to choose Franklin for their nuptuals and to perform that ceremony is really quite a privilege I look forward to it every day and it reins Stills in me uh the values that we bring to all of our relationships not just in in marriage but also in friendships um and and what those look like um and then lastly just happy holidays to everyone and have a wonderful fabulous 2025 thank you and for my comments happy holidays Mr manager I and I think I will be nearly as brief um there is this Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. a free dog rabies clinic not quite you know holiday spirit but nonetheless dogs need rabies shots uh it is free um dogs must be on a leash not getting rabies is something to celebrate it is something to celebrate if you don't get rabies exactly so and so obviously we don't want dogs to get it either so if you need your dog vaccinated it is free it is 8:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. at our animal shelter here in the municipal complex and just to Echo everyone else I hope that everyone has a merry Christmas a happy New Year a happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza or whatever else other holiday you might celebrate um and uh enjoy and be safe thank you so I had announced that we would go into executive session once councilwoman Fran Sis got here but we can finish up this agenda in five minutes probably I I think you're right let's let's do that and then we'll uh end with the executive session um there are no council discussion items there are no minutes to approve approval of the warrants of uh 3, 9487 201620 on December 10th 2024 represented Township Council for payment to have a motion second you been second in anyone want to pull an item discuss an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on jaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman Udin councilman vasel yes councilman Wright yes there's no uh second readings uh so we're on to now item number 15 ordinance and introduction first reading ordinance 4458 a-24 in ordinance to the amend the municipal code of the township of Franklin County of Somerset state of New Jersey more particularly chapter 81 affordable housing by adding new article to Municipal housing leaz on the foregoing ordinance presents Township Council for adoption first reading posting and publication with law and public hearing and final adoption and a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday January 7th 2025 at 700 p.m. in the council chambers this is a redo of the ordinance we passed at the last meeting there was our attorney found some errors in it references to COA that are inappropriate COA no longer exists so this is just a redo of something we did um any uh do we have a mo so moved second moved in second and any discussion for introduction Madame clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman non jaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes Council woman oudin councilman vasella yes councilman Wright yes consent agenda items a through y has listed on the consent agenda portion of this meeting presented to the countship council for adoption to have a motion on the consent agenda seconded moved and seconded any discussion anyone want to pull an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman franois yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni jaka yes Deputy Mayor basnik yes councilwoman udine yes councilman vasella yes councilman rright yes very no resolutions to be voted on separately and there is no old business um do I have res resolution 2430 sorry 24395 authorize executive s session potential litigation Redevelopment is presented to Township Council for adoption to have a motion to go into executive session I'll move second move then seconded uh all in favor say I I'm sorry we have roll call we have need to roll call councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman Francois yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni joa yes Deputy Mayor pnik hi councilwoman Udin yes councilman vasella yes counc right yes so normally when we go into executive session we say that um we're going to end the meeting now uh because we're not there' be no action after executive session there is a chance that there will be action after the this executive session so it'll look like a blink of the eye to uh people watching because it'll be uh or watching it on tape uh because we'll stop the camera for now but when we come out of executive session we will tape that so that's it for now we will be back after executive session do we have a motion to come out of executive session so move seconded move then seconded all in favor say I I oppos say nay motion is carried for the record it's now 910 9:15 we went in at this session what at 8 maybe earlier maybe earlier 7:30 okay 97 um I have a resolution um resolution 24421 resolution authorizing the planning board to undertake a preliminary investigation to determine whether certain Parcels qualify as an area in need of Redevelopment pursuant to the New Jersey local Redevelopment and Housing law do we have a motion to uh accept so move seconded second move then seconded any discussion Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilwoman fris yes councilman Kazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on jaka yes Deputy Mayor pnik yes councilwoman UD yes councilman vas yes councilman Wright councilman right there stepped away okay um all right so uh the only thing we have is do we have a motion to adourn what did you come out of executive session yes I hear that I was must have been doing second did you come out are you still in executive session I might be my brain might still be there do I have a motion to adjourn so second so moved moved in second it all in favor say I opposed say nay motion is carried we are adjourned be well Franklin