from that you know that night we went after the last Township Bruce says rece to Joe Joe says he gave it to me I know I never saw so I have to find out like they wrote a check so I have to find out the exactly how much getting receipt I will'll do it I have to find out from H how to clear the bank the check cool yeah that's one of the cents yeah NE you happen to be talking about it apparently she she really likes them every morning that's my breakfast is that not that one go to meeting okay no he told me I'm so disappointed we have a we have a clip on for you a a it's not August and no no TI July it is a special meeting come on guys right no no it's a regular one it's it's an additional meeting but on the agenda as a regular one so we would have to advertise this question oh all right that where's the ti the machine you're kiding there we go that was weird in the middle yeah thank you so much don't have anyone on just somebody wants to pop on this w y okay that this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of January 30th 2024 with instructions for internet access was included in a meeting notice sent to the Bron County Times The Courier Post on January 4th 2024 and advertised in said newspapers on January 7th 2024 and January 11th 2024 respectively posted on the website and the bulletin board in the municipal building on January 4th 2024 and has remained continuously posted as required under the statute in addition a copy of this notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk you please rise for the flag salute head to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands Nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call Mayor Gilmore here Mr Montgomery here Mr clouse here Mrs Evans here Mrs Tori here minutes can I have approv approval of the reor meeting minutes of January 2nd 2024 so moved second Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes Mrs Evans yes mayor Gilmore yes I can do the two together approval of the regular committee minutes of January 2 2024 and the executive session minutes of January 2 2024 can I have a motion in a second so move D second Mrs Tori yes Mr Montgomery yes Evans yes mayor Gilmore yes reports I see uh Sergeant antonucci here would you like to give your report sure hi everyone hio uh nothing major to report however we did have an issue over the weekend at the uh Tavern and table bar there was a bar fight and then uh I guess it spilled out into the parking lot and somebody um shots are fired in the air nobody was injured our detectives and Troopers are uh conducting uh further investigation and uh to identify the sub suspects and charge them accordingly uh we'll do uh extra patrols of the area and assist uh staff with uh dispersing the clouds crowds at closing time but uh that's all same is is there anyone been charged at this point no not yet still investigation okay thank you okay okay thank you thank you thank you Sergeant do you know what time that occurred it was uh early Sunday morning so closing time okay thank you that's the time okay the other reports we have are the Fire official Emergency Services reports can I get a motion I'll make that motion second Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes okay so we have a discussion and a presentation Mr Taylor is that you by any chance no we're going to discuss it all first we're ready to see the [Laughter] pictures okay okay uh let me see here just somebody just joined okay they uh muted themselves okay first before we get into the presentation I do have a request to amend the agenda okay um to add a resolution U just so I don't forget to this resolution very very important resolution that I failed to add to the the agenda which is related to the screen Acres Grant um if the said resolution is not put on the agenda and you guys support this we would not be able to move forward on the grant without it so my apology so I do make a request to amend uh the agenda to add resolution 2024 45-1 uh authorizing the application and execution of Grant agreement with the New Jersey D Greenacres local government development program and that's just simply to add the resolution to the agenda so I'd like to make a motion that we add a resolution and I'll second that thank you can we do an all in favor to I I I I thank you all right okay great all right so uh we are so excited to present this to everyone um it's been a long time coming since 2017 actually uh the township purchased uh the creek turn Ceramics Supply Company uh the Kleiner family operated a Ceramics mill on this portion of the property the main portion of the property from the late 1930s until uh the 1990s uh the properties that the township purchased block 999 lot 9 which is two a little over two acres and it's across the street Street uh Route 38 westbound uh between beay automotive and the ran cookus Creek uh but the main Parcels um are on the eastbound side of Route 38 and that is um block 100 Lots 9 through 13 it's a little over 24 Acres so that is the subject area that that we are discussing uh the Scott's going to go into more detail actually it is up on uh the man the diesel now so the town bonded um a little under $600,000 uh for this purchase uh using uh both local open space tax dollars as well as general Capital funds um it quickly paid off the bond in 2022 we retained an lsrp in 2018 to perform various Environmental Services associated with the sites including a Wetlands delineation um some D notifications as required document review preliminary assessment and a site investigation um again so we utilized tax dollars so approximately $660,000 of the acquisition cost was um tax a local tax dollar funded um as such it was and Remains the intent of leadership to create a passive local park as such so 60 60% of it um using the open space funds the plan also calls to carve out about a 4 acre portion in the front along Route 38 uh for commercial uh this is consistent with the town's master plan um it promotes the goal of commercial development along the Route 38 Corridor additionally future commercial development will help to offset some of the acquisition cost of what is now Creek turn Park in addition to the Green Acres Park development Grant application that we're here before you today for approval um we also received a $22,000 Grant from D the hdsr money that we've been applying for for the Paul's tank farm site as well as the hio site um to do another preliminary investigation or preliminary assessment and site investigation um so we are committed to continue applying for Grants um as well as utilizing Capital funding and the open space tax um to continue the efforts through various phases uh to improve and build a beautiful park for the hesport community um so I'm going to hand it over to Scott now kind of set the stage for his presentation drum roll please thank you Paul as Paula indicated and there are a couple of things that we sort of have to do as part of this public hearing uh in terms of identifying the property and talking about some of the characteristics of the parcel itself can you guys hear me can you pick me up Tera if you want to point the yeah is that good enough can you hear me um so it's all indicated the property that's actually known as Creek turn Park is a 24.3 acre parcel uh it is known as block 100 Lots 9 through3 it is the property shown and I'm referring to C1 which is an areal location map prepared by our office dat January 30 2024 and you can see on the left hand side of the exhibit we have plane Place through 38 across the top the ranus creek to the East and the property Itself ised by the creek and then these property lines WRA around and office along building here Scott I'm sorry can at the I'm just looking at the r cus Creek like the bottom all the way right there right there they go down is are those like Wetlands there is that all water right there so it's still part of the creek okay so not buildable not it's not toally would be you know flood areas what I thought okay very good thank you sorry for the interruption quite all right so the property in the area of the Old Creek turn facility that's 40 the creek itself is about elevation four or five so we have 36 ft of grade change which is what makes this probably one of the most spectacular views in the entire County when the home site was selected as we all know that ranus is a very very curvy Creek through a majority of its distance we have a very unique Long View and long Vista of straight from this location which is was put where it was previously when you go out there it is dramatic what you're able to see from there so the property does actually slow generally from west to east and obviously down toward the creek as Paula indicated we have a letter of interpretation or an Loi that assigns buffers or transition areas to those Wetlands that are generally and they're shown but it's very light gray uh our state open Waters along the ranus creek that has a zero foot buffer or transition area for majority of it because there's no Wetland vegetation of wood directly down we do have some exceptional resource value in this area that has a 150t transition area so anything that we do moving forward we will have to apply for a variety of De permits including General permits for trails and board blocks that may be partially located within those Wetlands or Wetland transition areas those will likely be a soft surface material while still providing handicap accessibility and I'll talk a little bit about that when I get into the design um and for reference North is straight up on the map here and uh e West so Paul I'm making sure I click off all of our required I know so we have there are certain things we have to talk about all of our elements um one of the things that is a major major element as part of the Green's application relates to tree clearing we have everything we've designed has been done to minimize tree clearing on the site we know that there will need to be tree removals a majority of those are actually growing in and around the existing wall structure as as Paul indicated the property was purchased in 2017 one of the great things about this parcel is we we have some impervious already built in so we're not going to have to do a lot from a storm management standpoint because we'll actually be reducing that amount of runoff the downside is we do have a pretty significant demolition cost associated with a lot of that concrete and the walls and some of the building walls and some of the infrastruct to go through that process nonetheless we are showing actually some bio retention and some storm water management runoff mitigation and some habitat as part of the concept that we'll get to over Saturday um as we all know the r is tied on this location uh we may have Coastal General permits that we have to go for as well um a lot of the permits will be the results of a preapplication meeting with the DDP and what they ultimately going to re some facilities can be shifted a few feet sometimes raised to minimize the number of those permits that are necessary um we do have flood prone areas in the lower portions of the site obviously we're aware the major improvements are and where the uh the Old Creek turn Pottery site was sits 35 ft that that has never been an issue I believe the flood elevation is 12 or 13 so everything we're doing aside from of that are down low because we going to get some Creek Side Access um is going to be well above that um so in terms of going through the all right now I can talk about that I think I touched on all those uh the site is currently access we'll talk about more there's currently an existing driveway apron that accesses the site that is shared with that law office to the West located here there's then a gravel natural surface drive that brings us back into the site as many of you know the site is sort of an interesting Patchwork of concrete panels uh that was used as part of the story we're going to be embracing some of that as well as the troll that's out there you'll see a little bit when we get into the design as you also know directly to the to good idea first directly to the West between the site and Lane there is an approved senior age restricted single family development as the town may know as part of that joint land boort application the board required two things one was an easement to provide ped access from that internal roadway system into this property but more importantly a driveway access so that members of the community don't have to get add on to Route 38 every time to access this property it can be done directly from banro Lane trying to reduce the number of unnecessary traffic movements at B 38 which we know is aver intersection so so it will be a walkway Scott then pedestrian from the development to the new site not a road well there will be two so there will be I understand the one to bankr but the one from the the development the senior development I mean can cars come from the senior development yes so that senior development has a road system right like this right right right Drive ACC site okay directly from that publicin that Community still a municip will be a municipal roadway okay so that will have vehicular access but also will provide pedestrian and bike access here and then secondarily there's another pedestrian access further to the South and then there's another and then there's another road from 38 yeah so there's one in and one out then I guess right okay final configuration in a future phase right now for phase one you'll see we're just planning to use the existing Route 38 access especially because we don't know when construction and that subdivision will be perfected for the lands to be transferred and the roadway to be constructed right that would have to happen first so that would that driveway access would be a future phase of development so this is an enlargment that is generally the blue rectangle that you see on the aial map and this is pH one coming into the you can see that this is an inset of the Route 38 so this little inset actually would be about 2T off the cage coming in with an entrance sign and driveway a here utilizing this existing Drive we're showing an entry gate so the park can be closed so it's open From Dusk until dawn to D that can be closed and then coming in we're we're currently showing a regrading and stone to stabilize that driveway and to reduce longterm maintenance the existing concrete is going to be reused for the parking we will be saw cutting and striping lines in there we will create a new area of concrete that's flat for handicap accessibility in this location that then connects into a variety of walkways almost all of which are are accessible throughout the park as you come into the parking lot there's we're removing all the concrete all of those walls in those areas and converting that a majority of that to Green Space some of that will be long and we're showing some sculptural Mounds uh in the foreground here to create interest and also as you come in you'll catch glimpses of the troll sculpture and then it will be slightly obscured by some of the Mounds and as you move through that space it'll close in and open up and create a very artistic setting for that that and a Overlook with a round um circular path system what we this is generally the location of the prior house uh that really affs the most dramatic views that Long View so we're actually calling this Long View pavion and long VI overlook this de here we'll have a spectacular view what we envisioned doing we looked at trying one of the things that came up we had stakeholder meetings in 2019 and again in uh fall early winter 23 when we started looking at some of those walls that were out there to try to embrace those and make those Cod compant conditions to create an outdoor classroom or Amphitheater the cost would have been exorbitant and then what we would have had was an unnecessarily large Amphitheater in a spot where you can't really see the creek and sort of on the back side of the site so what we thought was a better solution was in this open lawn area to gently slope it and raise it in the rear so that when you're sitting there it has maybe only a foot or two feet of fall but you can have somebody in if you have 15 people everybody can be under the Pavilion and whether that's a wedding ceremony or an out education it can function as a classroom larger events you can actually have people spill out into that area and because of it being gently raised everybody will still have visibility under theil of what's going on there that Pavilion connects into this large ellipse walkway uh that connects that is hand accessible we're showing Mead in and around the buildings and troll sculpture which is shown here the large buildings will be uh demolished the preserving that section in the middle that the troll is leaning up against and then the sort of Southern section will also be demolished and enhancements made for that to be a safe condition for the public access where the troll sits currently because of some of the uneven surfacing we would bring in a stabilized Stone screenings to create a a handicap accessible firm stable res surface consistent with New Jersey sub that same material will be used for a majority of the loop trails that compacted stabilized Stone meets the barrier sub code um DP likes it because it does allow for some peration throughout the so in terms of the main actually I'll stay on this sort of upper terce here going around this ellipse we have Benes sh we are sh a bioretention habitat planted with Native pollinator species Happ everywhere removing concrete with the exception of a small long directly to when we come to the back side one of the things we were looking at the large building that sidewalk slopes off excessively toward the what we call the precipice the stold that would have to be completely reconstructed to be accessible and because of the size of that slab and that structure and because we're building Aion here we think it's a better solution and more cost effective to remove that larger building that actually this entire area here and you can see that that almost equates to half the size of the park it really is an enormous enormous building so we think by preserving that main core of the building where big Rusty is leaning on currently it'll be a lot more cost effective the other thing we can do is we can pull that sidewalk that sidewalk 25 30 ft back from that edge of the roadway from that edge of the drop off there to provide a much safer pedestrian connection as we WRA around there're showing some picnic tables sced against the LA areas accessible routs to them we're showing an upper Woodland Trail of that stabilized Stone material we're also showing a an accessible that wraps around the site comes through the woods and down to the existing there's a small grle or Beach there we want to get accessibility down to that we're showing a bench and a small section of board because it does get a little soft and a little spongy the closer you get to that the intent here is really not a kayak launch for a couple reasons it's more of a kayak tie up where somebody who launches either downam this can be a great stop off point part of the challenge we have is that 36 to 40 foot gr change requires us to have about a 700t walkway to be accessible to get down to here that really doesn't provide a great opportunity for somebody to page a boat to get from the parking lot to get all the way down there it really wouldn't be practical to try to get cars down there either so we're handling this as more of a little p something we did discuss but somebody with an inflatable could probably uh could probably manage it somebody I don't think we would necessarily want to uh restrict it that if somebody wants to wants to throw their kayak on the shoulder or they have an inflatable and they want to do the loop and walk down there I think it's fine um it's just we're not providing access and parking within 30 to 50 or 75 I think 7 or 8800 ft by doing this Loop walk a it creates a really nice kind of Woodland walk through that it also allows us to wind that through the existing topography and vegetation to work with the grade to a minimize the tree removals which is a key component of Green Acres gr secondarily by staying at 5% we don't have to put switchbacks and handrails in those hand rails become tremendously expensive they also uh they can get vandalized when they're frankly in sort of remote area between skaters or anything else so the more that we can keep this natural and it also becomes a little bit um it can be visually intrusive in the landscape to have those switch back handicap RS through there so making that connection down here to the P Beach we are connecting making a connection here again trails that connect through the that's sort of the overview of phase one which is the subject of the Grant application um there are in phase two or I should say future phases um we do a couple now this plan is a little bit small so we show cont the scale different but is we connec stairs up to this long and Long View Overlook area so that happens there we're also showing another loop here and another loop down this area this plan also these are Dash there were there were some comments about potentially creating a a pathway connection or formalized pathway connection to thej Creek Side HOA so we sh that connecting in here that obviously is something that they as an entity would need to embrace and want to connect from their connect here but we're showing that in that location the other dash line here again which is a little bit difficult to read from that distance is connecting into the development we are showing this lot to be dedicated for Access and this is where that other driveway would come in and that would connect to um we're also showing sort of a realignment and a Paving time of that driveway and of that parking area because we realize that that concrete probably works very well as a phase one is a little bit of an uneven surface but potentially long term to create a moreable surface a safer of those features that we were anticipating in the top left you can see the existing photo of the rusty we wanted to try to play off of some of the history of the site so we're showing if you look at the concept for the sign that's a material called C or weathering Steel on the parkway you'll see guide rails out of this it's stable but it has a rusted look so we've been playing off of that rusted feel of big Rusty you use that as a design feature it would work well for the entry sign there are also roofing materials that can be used on The Pavilions and other features just just for the record you're referring to an exhibit called concept concept support Graphics yes okay go ahead sheet C4 thank you and before that I was referring to she C2 and C3 which were the fut um but playing off of that rusted material fi toilet enclosure which is located just off the parking lot in phase one and then we're also showing some boardwalks some amenities overlooks as well as examp might look like some of the plantings and some of the other design features furnishings and amenities to make this spectacular passive resource related park for generations to [Applause] come that stair stairway that you're in the future phase is that the existing ties into where the that existing little stair it's CL in that neighborhood those are so far from being C but but what we will do is we we went there's really no way to get an accessible connection from down here up to this upper area it gets this whole section here becomes very very steep so without a lot of walls andry removals and quite frankly you know I walk that a little while but as soon as you get back up on the top of that bluff you realize this is actually the best spot on the site it's it's a little less desirable being close it's fine to get close to the water once but being halfway it's not that great but I think long ter making that connection so folks can do a isn't that also where the pilings were like it looked like there might have been a dock there or something at one point the stabilizing tires isn't that where those are there there are there are a handful of other things that in future phases and depending on other money that becomes available to clean up potentially some living Shoreline or some habitat in hands there are some tires at the shoreline that look like they were used and stacked very strategically to stabilize the shore oh interesting and and I will say rather effectively so none of our proposed improvements are anywhere near that but one of the things that we did talk about was the potential to look for funds down the road of whether or not we could do something that may be an even better solution for that for the next 50 years or how does that look um a majority of it is covered by leaves and other material that you can see some of it exposed okay um but it's not but it this point now you're thinking it's better to leave it than to disturb it because it's it's effectively protecting the erosion and the foundation Rel yeah okay when those shes start you see a lot of dead Falls you see trees that are falling into the creek really not seeing that right so trying to judiciously go in it can also get very very expensive to try to do those projects so if cling becomes available future pH gotcha um we have questions or we time the question um lawn Mounds um mayor Gilmore and I were laughing at the lawn Mounds we but you explained basically that it was kind of strategically placed to make the make it more of an artistic view of the troll as it came around so that answer to go sleding that answered our questions so when I hear a lawn Mound it's not really a hill how is a mound how help me to understand that would be and we're sort of showing an example of here probably higher my guess is they may be four toet in it's not high enough that you're actually going to sled from kind of thing that as you pull in there instead of one of the things we try to do with with a lot of parks is you create this sequence of spes see that one sculpture for a th000 fet as you're walking toward it you don't really have to walk the whole way I've seen it I don't need to go there but if you get glimpses of it as you're walking and it actually makes you want to go there so by sort of foreshortening that view with some of those Mounds we think it'll provide a sculptural element which part of the things we wanted to embrace was the potential for the ellipse and some of the other walkways Maybe artwork or sculptural features or some other elements that could be introduced in the future I think these Ms would create sort of a nice entree into the park for that purpose and I think that goes along with his um dambo work in other areas where he likes to make it a job to get to and and you just see a glimpse of the troll somewhere good point so I think it all ties in with his arm work one of the other things I didn't mention is we know we have a very large stand of bamboo out there we have a lot of Ivy so in the cost Testament if we have put some money in there um to try to eradicate that the sooner we do that the less it will cost the better it will be for the existing trees we have a lot of existing mature trees out there that are um severely declining because of the ivy they've been completely overtaken so being able to uh preserve those trees that we can uh we think will be a benefit and then uh we will have to remove some of those Treats but I think it would be good to get rid of the bambo and get rid of the the i in the first phase I just want to say Scott I'm really impressed and I I I love how you've included all of the stakeholders views that we uh heard when we were at the meeting so I'm really excited to see this happen we're very excited a lot of things I didn't talk about is there there are little things like accessible picnic tables and standard picnic tables and benches litter and recycle receptacles fishing line recycling receptacles so the fishing line doesn't blow away or get left somewhere dog waste Station so there are a lot of those smaller amenities we also like to try to do um bird houses and bat houses where we do meadow provides a a visual folks hey we didn't just stop mowing this is actually a meow a lot of times we'll do sign so that your constituents don't say why did you stop mowing well it's actually habitat we're doing a good J right but there is some law and it looked like around the Gazebo and around the other right and how long Scott is the loop like what's the length of the total loop around any idea just curious that's so big a looks like a lot to me yeah oh okay I thought it was more okay 11 okay okay interesting just curious that that's that's fine you're not talking miles here we're not talking yet so and how long so we're talking about um hopefully um and this is something the homeowners association at Creek View and Lakeside will have to decide um is that pathway so that it can tie in that development so it's I like the fact that we can tie in other developments and walkways and things of that sort kind of tie in the different communities um yeah and to and just to Echo I just this is just so awesome I'm very excited about it and we you know talked about this for a long time ago so this is just great um so and excuse my mundane question here because I am excited about it I think it's awesome so good good good job good job for you but how long is the pathway that the um the Creekside Lake View how long would that have to be for them to access that do you know roughly not exactly would probably say well again depending where they wanted to connect that you talking here this is court right and okay so what a couple hundred yards in 500 okay 600 okay they're already there's already a trail system established there are informal informal oh they're already Yes they absolutely have been for years accessing the I've been back there I've been back there myself yeah yeah um right okay they do not have to be as much as we are striving almost everything out here is handicap accessible under the state of New Jersey there can be wild and undeveloped trails that are not fully accessible obviously in state parks and where there is significant terrain you cannot make everything accessible so that may be because of the topography something that is just a natural foot path that is a foot or two feet wide and it could it could grow from there yeah because we have other we have other access in there so for handicap access to be able to do that so we're covering that um we had to jump over a creek a little bit of the creek also said potential because for every HOA that says yes we definitely want to be able to access that Park the flip side of that coin is somebody will stand up and say do we want everyone from that to be able access that can be handled through signage you're now you know no trespassing trespassing we know people always follow the rules but for those that do you may right okay not the ones we worry about right right now this is exciting um a given what's the time frame so time frame to have it to do the whole thing a and I I know it's that's a tough question a and I guess uh I guess that's B A when do we when do we start we need to get the money first start tonight by adopting a resol there you go right yes right we then hope that we're successful with the Green Acres application be another step and I don't know if they have an announcement date it usually takes them a few months so but we would have to wait for that before um going out to the D to get different permits and stuff well there's there's two ways that you can move on that if if the town thinks regardless of how much we do or do not get right this is generally the park that we want right design and actual grading design and landscape design and the features and the permitting could start now that's my right and that that will help that process because once we get that design and showing those things we then have to have a prea with d we then based on that may have to tweak a few things and then go in for permits and that could be a 3 to six month process um we do know that we have some you know this aering Focus we have allal foraging habitat so we know that there are things that we will need to be very sensitive about of how we impact but we've been successful at developing trails and boardwalks within those wetlands and transition areas at boundary Creek Park uh for the county also at the Anderson Farm which is now rainbow Meadow Park and also at Pennington Park so these are not insurmountable but we will have to go through that process with d and Alternatives analysis and GP gp7 sorry which is a general permit under the states it allows us to put trails and boardwalks within wetlands and transition are General permit for okay okay thank you so I do have the uh review period by DP uh they're hoping to uh streamline their review process so they're looking two to three months after the submission deadline which is next week February 7th so two to three months um obviously the legislative appropriation process they can't predict the length of time on that but the project Peri project period once approved estab they establish a two-year project period so I'm sure that they have they allow for some extensions but it looks like they're they want everything to be done two years which for a project of this size and scale is not unrealistic that two years should be sufficient once we get the okay right so we're up to over two years this I'm sure once the leg well once they appropriate the funding I'm sure that's when the two-year two-year process would start so obviously this is quite an undertaking um a lot of people involved a lot of financing um what are the odds of our getting this grant how realistic is it that we what's your thought I don't know it depends on you know how many applications they receive um their funding priorities um you know they they rank and and and measure our applications based on various variables sure uh are we checking a lot of any of those we're checking I'm sure we're checking some of the boxes but oh yeah we're check we check all we check pretty much all the boxes here however priority funding tends to be in your distressed communities um your Urban Aid areas although they funding matches and allocations vary greatly so we are eligible for a 25% Grant 75% loan so Green Acres Grant is not all 100% Grant anywhere um we are eligible for that 25% Grant because we are within the over over no uh I don't know if it's overburdened is the right word there's a different classification um hold on it's in here and then the other 75% is a 2% loan payable over 20 years and that's standard 2% right 2% interest rate are you saying rate you're right Scott that's what I was asking ear okay good 2% interest rate payable over y it is overburdened so not all debt is bad because 2% interest rate for 20 years is yeah I went in on that that's great oh absolutely over 20 years I wish my kid student loans were wow isn't that the truth I mean if if we were to receive the full $700,000 which is the maximum amount U minimum is 500,000 maximum is 700,000 I don't know what that equates to it's a $525,000 grant over 20 years uh I'm sure our open space tax that we already collect would cover that that was the next question okay I didn't do I'm I apologize but I didn't do the calculations okay but you think we're close to that then okay I mean we can do the math right now well okay does it I mean it doesn't really I mean if you're if you're good enough if you think I you know I I don't need an exact figure I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to come up with all this and thinking of the taxpayers and which includes all of us here of course I thought you donation yeah what's that I thought you were making a I was going to make a donation yes wouldn't that be lovely I was good sell cookies and and it was sell have lemonade sales and uh all kinds of stuff yeah so we have to match this grant so the committee has already um appropriated 200 already appropriated $250,000 last year yes so I will be requesting in this year's budget an additional $500,000 okay in capital funding for this year's budget so so that we would be able to match it so we do need a level of match in conjunction with the money that has already been put into the site for purchase and the troll sculpture strengthens this application with d that resource appreciation and outdoor education also ranks highly and accessibility so access and up right there is somea and we're actually we have some examples on the board of doing interpretive signage to talk about the site history or the history of the Rus Creek or and turn Pottery so telling those stories are all things that the folks at like to see and we've had pretty good success telling pretty high I don't I can't speak for everybody up here but I mean I we like that too I mean from a lot of the things that we've talked about and looked at I mean that's especially just going through our whole entire uh 100th year anniversary and just telling the story of hesport and how we all got started so the stories are really uh really a part of it so that's great yeah good okay and that's K was asking so those are the boxes that we need to check in order to help get this grant okay so and big Rusty radar so hopefully that gives us a little bit of a nod as well um okay but we do have two people on uh just to let you know mayor Gilmore we have two people online and we do need to do the public hearing so at this point whenever it's part of the process that has to happen um one thing so the kayak um to my good friend Bruce and his lovely wife um was part of it so and and I mentioned this too if you have Inflatables okay you're going to walk a little bit not going to be convenient to park but kayakers are pretty adventurous people so that could kind of work but they could pull up there um and here's another question where is where's dun Le's compared to this here over there I know it's got to be up top to the right correct because OHS again yeah okay okay yeah you need to then leave is to have a kayak pullup Point well that's yeah they that's for sale so and then a slide back slide back down there you go right that would be much more safe okay all right I'm here for that cool okay so at this point in time anybody in thank you room have any comments to make with regards to uh agenda items only which this is one yes M actually actually I need to focus just on this okay even though it says yeah this is just by by itself then you can open it for later after okay so do you have a comment on the close yep he does so we need to make a motion is no no and when you're done if you wouldn't mind coming up and signing this okay log sheet we have to submit it with the grain application sure sure thank you Bruce levenson to Fox Court this is um this is really beautiful I I appreciate everybody's hard work in this and the stakeholders I think they've really had a lot of good input and I see a lot of what they talked about incorporated into the plan um I do have a question about the Mounds with regard to the maintenance of the mounts it seems like it might be a little bit hard to M was there any thought with regard to the stakeholders or any other input with regard to putting in some maybe low uh ground level Juniper so it doesn't have to be maintained um that's just a thought one of the things we would do that the ground cover junipers if you get one weed in there and the weed gets hold the whole comes a we so they can be for the first 10 or 15 years 10 times the amount of work of work to get them established we wouldn't do anything that's any steeper than a 3 to one slope which is you know really an easily mowable slope you can still mow a 2 to one slope but it starts to get a little difficult so we keep everything at 3:1 4: one so it's very easily maintain using standard Force standard equip and then with regard to the kayak issue um what do you envision the the tie up to be and at the level of the creek if it is a dock of some sort that doesn't float up and down what's the tide change to because that would effectively make it easier or harder for somebody to tie up and or get in or out so one of the things I think that because of this being a tie up and there is a PE Beach there yeah at at a very high TI uh the beach will not be visible so D is probably going to dictate the height of that I I think from the town standpoint keeping that boardwalk and tie up right to the edge and away from the high water line as soon as we get into the water itself we then have to deal with ice flows and then either removing it every fall and putting it back in we're dealing with the structural issues of ice coming through there so if this is a Pebble Beach that can be used at Mid tide to low tide and then there is a boardwalk that can have a tie up and it has some cat on it people can pull up on to the beach tie off to a f go through the park and then come back and go out but not necessarily at the highest ti so I've used things like that and that's a fine idea that's going to work just great thank you thank you anybody else thank you Bruce thank you it's Janice Len 14 Heather Lane um this is great and I'm excited about the whole thing um just curious is there any of the like the furnace that was left from the pottery or anything that's going to be included like with signage or anything like that that's going to stay or is it all too uh it it is no that that's actually one of the things that and I probably should have highlighted on that a little bit more how all the junks of the building are going to be removed three middle sections and where that Kil is um we talked from day one both of the stolder meeting so I should have brought that up specifically about retaining that and then making good building sort of cleaned up and and a little bit safer there improving those stairs or closing that access off there's a handful of those issues that will need to be done uh in these next steps with the park but yes we do want to repain as much of that character and that's where I kind of like telling that you know educate people the Next Generation about the history what actually was was going on here yeah that's great I think that was it I had another question but it went out Senor moment there so but yeah very very nice and um and we can't wait till oh do we have a estimate on how much the phase one is is going to cost uh we do we did a a predesign estimate and it is just under it's about 1.4 just over 1.4 million and that's where Paul had mentioned we are anticipating going for aan request 700,000 right and then potentially would be local funds of existing 250 and then potentially another 500,000 that would cover that okay and again follow and I know that's always a concern these projects have to be built under the local public contracts been involved so there's a thing called prevailing wage rates that have to be paid uh that is basically a a union level of pay so it does make things rather expensive to build so everything that you see in these cost estimates in the park it will be much more expensive than if you were able to hire a contractor to put in small section of sidewalk your house can be% higher thank you thanks J thank you anyone else in the room thank you sure you don't want to say something anybody online anyone online there's anybody online that wants to speak on the Green Acres Grant application you can unmute yourself Cindy state your name please Cindy tabina 105 with Lan I just uh had a question on the overburden classification can you explain what that is try I have the Grant application here I have to look it up um I just have here um municipality a list that says municipalities that contain and overburden Community subject to adverse cumulative stressors note project must be located in or be easily accessible from an overburdened Community subject to adverse cumulative stressors to receive preferential funding terms um I don't have let me see if there's a definitions in the front there is here we go uh overburden Community New Jersey's environmental justice law defines an overburdened Community as any census block group as determined in accordance with the most recent United States census in which at least 35% of the households qualify as lowincome households at or below twice the poverty threshold as determined by the Census Bureau and or at least 40% of the residents identify as minority or as members of a state recognized tribal community and or at least 40% of the households have limited English proficiency without an adult that speaks English very well according to the United State Census Bureau um overburden Community sorry so uh also previously referred to as an over adversely stressed OBC this is an overburdened Community with a combined stressor total higher than the 50th percentile for Total Environmental and public health stressors um easily accessible from an ACS OBC less than a quarter mile away with no barriers to pedestrian access barriers include impediments to people walking to the site such as highways or impassible waterways pedestrian access distance is not measured by is measured not as the crow flies but by using GIS to follow the roads um so it seems to be very specific and I know that area at one point was within a census block group um that is how we've received SE uh Community Development block rants in the past and this is not determination that is made locally this is based on provided by the D this actually benefits us right it not it notation that wasu so it could be any of those things you described correct so nobody really knows there like who would have the answer to that question like how are we pain for an overburdened imunity D would have that answer they may be able to help you with that right and it doesn't necessarily mean the entire town it could just be that a that particular well no it would be the entire town they identified all pain support yep yeah just curious like just it's just curiosity I was just curious like when that was determined and you know that thank you you're welcome thank you you anyone else yeah do we do we no one else is unmuting so so you do need to formally close the public hearing on this matter okay so I hereby formally close the public hearing on the Green Acres development Grant application rather really than waiting till you get to that part of the agenda you already added resolution 2024 45-1 is number H under resolutions yes if you wish you may just go ahead and entertain a motion to adopt that I'd like to make a motion that we adopt I'll second that yes yes yes yes okay [Applause] ordinances next we have comments from the public on agenda items do we go back to that now you go back to public comments okay agenda items only anyone in the room have any comments on agenda items not seeing any online nobody okay so I will close comments from the public and go on to ordinances first ordinance is 202 24-1 amending chapter 104 of the code of the township of hesport entitled of land use this is the public hearing and final adoption so does anybody have a comment in the [Music] room online motion to close public com public hearing would be an order okay have a motion to close public comment so moved second we do yes yeah I I okay now you need to act on the ordinance pardon now you need to act on the ordinance now I need to act on the ordinance in otherwise motion to adopt would be in order okay so can I have a motion to adopt the ordinance I will make that motion second yes yes yes yes okay ordinance 202 24-2 amending chapter 44 of the code of Township for entitled affordable housing uh this is the first reading and introduction only if the committee introduces this it will then go to the planning board for master plan consistency at their meeting and return to you at the February 12th 13th 13th 13th meeting for public hearing okay so we just need a motion make a motion that we move this to the planning board well motion uh to introduce on adopt on first reading so moved second yes M yes yes yes okay resolutions there are no consent resolutions resolution 20243 D1 approving the firefighter into the New Jersey state fireman's Association I believe that is Megan longt talk I'll make that motion I will second it and applaud miss long talk for moving forward with this thank thank you Mrs yes Mr mon yes yes may yes so resolution 20 24-39 D1 is au authorizing a rifle license to the ladies fire and EMS auxiliary at the same time I would like to um request that we wave the municipal fees on this raffle do we have to do one at a time or can we do can I make a motion for both John one resolution is it two separate yeah it's one resolution one resolution and you're waving them for both um enties or one it's it's one you can only move it for the the application fee to the township you can't you can't you asked a question about can you do both what did you mean um they wave and approve the resolution I guess I thought I guess the the one was the resolution and the other one was to wave the no no no no you can adopt the resolution with that provided which that provided okay okay i' I'd like to make that motion I'll second it yes yes yes yes resolution 20244 D1 adopting an affirmative marketing plan for the township of hesport I'll make that motion second yes yes yes yes resolution 20 224-4111 fair share plan to satisfy the Township's third round of affordable housing obligation as adopted by the hesport township joint land use board I have a motion in a second so moved second yes yes Mrs Evans yes yes resolution 202 24- 42-1 adopting the 2024 affordable housing spending plan plan I'll make a motion I'll second yes yes yes yes resolution 202443 D1 regarding any shortfalls associated with the provision of affordable housing is set forth in the Township's thirdd round of housing element and fair share plan a motion in a second I'll make a motion you have a second I'll second yes may yes Mrs yes yes resolution 2024 44-1 adopting affordable assistance Market to Affordable program and for rental and for sale units operating manuals for the township of hesport I'll make that motion a second yes yes yes yes okay so we go on to business approval of the mobile home park licenses we have two 202 24-1 and 202 24-2 moved second yes yes yes yes you can have approval of charal clothing bin licenses 21 uh 202 24-1 2 and three motion yes yes yes yes approval of video pinball licenses [Music] 2024-25 second yes yes yes yes okay comments from the public anyone in the room absolutely good evening mer Gilmore members of the committee my name is and Miss Costco and all others present my name is Joe Shy I live at three elsen or drive uh this consider my comments a follow on to what Mr levenson spoke about at on the 12 December meeting concerning c three um concurrent resolutions that were then being considered in the state house and these were resolutions to apply to the Congress of the United States for a con Article Five Constitutional Convention and those three resolutions actually never were referred out of their respective committees in the Senate and the assembly and so there was no vote they were reintroduced under new numbering in January and so those present resolutions are assembly concr urrent resolution number 31 Senate concurrent resolution 35 and Senate concurrent resolution 15 U I have a detailed sheet that goes into in fact several pieces of paper that I can distribute at the end of the meeting or at the end of my comments as as you see fit uh I just wanted to touch on a few of the things some background if you will in terms of these resolutions uh up until December of 21 New Jersey had six outstanding applications to Congress for Article 5 conventions and some of these dated to privil war and on on up to the 1970s these resolutions do not require the signature of the governor and they will last forever once submitted from the legislature to the clerk of Congress and so you say well you know in these days uh what's wrong with that you know should we a lot of folks especially the proponents say why shouldn't we have a constitutional convention to upgrade the Constitution there are a number of attendant risks to that process because there's never been a constitutional convention in the United States uh the Philadelphia Convention some people refer to that as the Philadelphia Miracle of 1787 actually was to modify the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution came out of that from those delegates not obeying their state mandates to go go and just improve upon the Articles confederation so a number of our Founders had you know specific ideas that we needed a better government well we got our constitution it's been amended 27 times first 10 of which we refer to as the Bill of Rights uh the risks attendant to a present Constitutional Convention are are many because of that precedent where States May submit a resolution for certain specific tasks for instance to have a balanced budget but once the con convention is convened then it's all bets are off because the convention delegates who we don't know who they would be have free reign to take those uh requests going in from the states and then just discard them and come out with a completely different Constitution and in the current state of affairs Uh current political climate in the country we would run the risk of ever larger government and incursion on our liberties individual liberties so with that in mind you know you may ask you know well what can we do about this all right it takes 2third of the states to propose a convention 3/4 of the states to approve under the current guys um to approve two3 to oppose two two3 to submit two-thirds of the states let me back up two-thirds of the states would have to submit an application to Congress okay and then if there are changes under the current constitution 3ars of the states would have to ratify any changes okay but thank you the convention can change the ground rules just as were was changed in 1787 when a unanimous consent of 13 colonies was changed to nine and that's s the 2/3 or 34s actually came into play in terms of approval so if you ask yourself you know is this the right time for a constitutional convention I would say the answer is no uh presently there are number of outstanding um applications from various States uh to the Congress all of our prior applications were rescinded in December of 2021 initial and this is not a partisan issue it's not a Democrat or Republican issue but previously Democrats were highly in favor of Constitutional Convention they had you know submitted these things and Republicans as well now it's primarily being sponsored by Republicans uh again it's for me it's not a partisan issue uh but I just wanted to have you be aware of that there are s probably about 17 U co-sponsors on the current on one of the current bills in the assembly so if you ask yourself well what can we do about it naturally our primary uh effort is to and I'm out of time well um little ask you to please wrap it up yeah wrap it up okay thank you we can write letters to our state legislators all right and as a body political uh you may consider as as hesport Township either a group letter to our state legislators and District 8 and to the committees or consider a resolution as well think uh with all do legal protocols that would have to be measured to do that so I thank you for your time I have materials for you and appreciate the extra minute thank you thank you thank you Joe appreciate your work speech in the amount of time that I've had in you can bring those I can take those for you thank you thanks anyone else in the room want to give a comment anyone online [Music] still wish should talk no so I'll close public comment comments from the administrator sure so I don't I really don't have any formal comments just simply because I reserved it all for the president presentation but I did want to um just for the good of the group let everyone know that there some of the other Burlington County uh towns that were identified by the state um as that overburden Community include uh just so that you get an idea this is so widespread Beverly City Bordentown uh Chesterfield fieldsboro Burlington City Burlington Township Delano Delan uh Edgewater Park um fieldsboro I think I did say that sorry these are kind of in alphabetical order um hesport Maple Shade Lumberton so just at Palmyra burrow just to give you an idea Riverside so again you know like Scott said I don't really know how these this this is established or how that's ident Westampton um and Willingboro just a quick review there's a town in there that will go nameless uh that I believe over the last three years has had the highest average assessed value on a single family property in the county and that's bur yeah that's how I don't I think they throw a door wow see language barrier income Avail so many so so there's so many factors really has anything to do with economics it's got to do with so many other things right that's an interesting fact you just dropped there John like holy cow yeah I think the way that we Define things has multiple meanings you know overburden doesn't necessarily mean economically right Mr Gillespie comments I I I do not I just want to actually congratulate the committee on on adopting the legislation and the resolutions this evening um any objections and comments uh that were due last week to the housing element and fair share plan um none were received no objections uh so hopefully the compliance hearing uh next week next week will go smoothly we will deliver these to judge covert tomorrow wonder if she's already been delivered four or five documents in a cover letter I sent her after the planning board meeting um so I believe that we are 100% done with everything we need to do or pretty close to it um so she'll have her final decision yeah I've already drafted a judgment of compliance and Repose that um I've sent to the attorney for fair share housing uh to to see if there are any changes they want to make because I would like to submit that to the court in advance of the hearing so she has a chance to look it over and make sure she's comfortable with it because it's three pages long uh but um you know keep your fingers crossed we'll do all right thank you John thank you any comments from the planner no okay may chair I think that's in the list uh comments from the committee oh yes uh well first of all I would like to thank Scott Taylor for all the hard work um it's an amazing design very excited to get started on it uh I represented hayport at the County Commissioners reorganization on the 4th of January uh we also had our first green team meeting on the 16th and we're very excited to put together our first submission we don't expect to be suddenly Auto automatically awarded the uh bronze certification but we will get a lot of valuable feedback to carry forward I bought a garden flag to represent uh our 100th anniversary and I'd recommend that everyone in the town does that they're only $2 from the township and I I picked up a standoff Amazon for just under $5 so very a good way to represent our enthusiasm for our wonderful anniversary year I'm also looking forward to attending the 100th anniversary uh dinner dance on the 16th of February and I know the tickets are still available for that so you can still get those uh and finally February is a national Black History Month uh so if you haven't been I would recommend to everyone that you try to visit the underground Railway Museum in uh Smithville Park thank you thank you Mr Montgomery oh I go next okay um would also like EO great job Scott Turner Andor his his group what did I just say Scott Turner I used to work with the Scott Turner like about I don't know decades ago you'll be hearing from him soon obviously I know you're scottp well the funny thing is I was just going to say and the Turner organization and that didn't sound right so I kind of bumbled a little bit thank you for correcting me okay I'd like to thank Scott Taylor um great job awesome work and uh everyone that was involved in it I'm very excited about it and excited about how we can um looks like we're very creative ways on paying for this which is uh was a a huge interest and concern so I'm happy about that um happy about retaining the bald eagle habitat if that's where it is so hopefully we can coordinate that um I have participated um as the liaison from the committee to the hesport township environmental commission and what a fabulous meeting um just very led by Janice Len who had left earlier um just some really great volunteers dedicated passionate about our environment especially here in town so um enjoyed that I also got a banner and I have mine out in my lawn um and I can see Anna's and she can see mine so um it's very cool and um yeah 20 box it's great very nice great idea and please support the various fundraisers we're having and also looking forward to the dinner dinner dance coming up and a great job Paula on um these grants and all this other stuff you're doing and and Tara I know you're involved in all this stuff as well so thank you thank you this is JY um yes I'd like to thank everybody for coming it was nice to see you out tonight um and I also would like to commend Scott and his team excellent work looks really really good we're looking forward to it thank you Paula all of you that's wonderful wonderful um I would like to mention again the uh dinner dance on February 16th and U there are like 22 tickets I believe left something like that so um if everybody would like to come it' be a great night out I'd also like to um mention our fashion show that's coming up on March 3rd our team has been working so hard we have put hours and hours and hours we have a great team but um we are going to have over 50 baskets and we will have some luxury items a bike a television Apple watch piece of jewelry so we have some really really nice donations our ads are coming in the town has been so gracious and supporting um giving so much to the event as well as some of our neighboring towns as well so we appreciate everyone and we are still um accepting ads if you'd like to put an add in the program and the patron um lines are $25 and the family would just like to to say congratulations hesport from the Tori family or whatever we'll put your name down in the book it'll go down in history as being part of it so um we're very very happy and excited for that and the tickets are selling fast yep so get your tickets in if um your request in for tickets to the township if you'd like to come um I also would like to say Joe suy thank you for your information again um and I would like to go on the record to say I am against this convention and I have sent my letters in to um Senator tyer so I think it's a something that really needs to be considered because if you want a few people to come in and be able to change the Constitution and you have to live by it we have to stop that that just cannot happen in our country so thank you very much for Joe for taking uh the time for um coming in this evening and I think that's about it for tonight so I'd like to say thank you God bless you all God bless s for indeed well thank you Scott you know I was there in 2017 get my feet wet and um saw the vision we first started um to talk about it's changed somewhat we've learned a lot over the years what we can't do but we thought we could do and but I think there's still quite a bit of um the original Vision there it's enough that um it just overwhelms me you know but then again I get overwhelmed you're well here we go you're loud you're loud Paula thank you so much for all the hard work yeah put forth I mean it's been me nagging you for the last seven years and just that little not at all John thank you so much for all the work you did with affordable housing I mean we' really were in a place that we should not have been allowed to get to seven years ago and um it's taken some time and a lot of negotiation I know and I personally can't thank you enough I uh I too bought a flag actually I bought seven yay I any left two well I bought seven they now Grace the entrance to the Glenn at Mason's Creek nice and in front of my home so um yes that was done meantime I attended the Green Team kickoff meeting and it did go very well along with the environmental commission meeting I thought they're um they have a new leadership this year and um she's taken the Reigns and is going for forward and and there's a lot of good um projects I think in the future coming forth and just thank you everyone for attending and keeping us safe and let's pay some bills could I just interject real quick I did the math absolutely I did the math oh she did the math I think it's important to put on the record what the cost would be over 20 years stopping her for the 500 it would be 535,000 with the 2% it would be 26,00 $750 bill each year that we would have to pay to Greening so I think we'll be all right good job by you thank you okay get thank you so much two exactly that's what I'm looking's right looking right here need a motion so with that I think we can pay some bills make the motion that we pay some bills pay all the bills not some but all yes yes yes yes I have a motion to adjourn so moved second yes yes yes yes yes that's it good night good