you should have process [Music] okay this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of April 9th April 9th I'm reading the what you call it this meeting of May 14th with the instructions for internet access was included in a meeting notice sent to the bring County Times And The Courier Post on January 4th 2024 and advertised in Sid 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 Court clerk when we all rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation godis liberty and justice for all roll call please Mar Gore here Mr Montgomery here Mrs Evans here Mr K clouse here Mrs Tori yes okay so now we get to the minutes of April 9th uh I need approval of the regular minutes of March 12th I make a motion to approve no April April 9th I'm my eyes are all over the place tonight of April 9th 2024 I think Ken made a motion I make a motion to approve the minutes a second Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Evans yes all in favor I hi okay we have reports I don't see uh sergeant antonucci if he comes in later we'll go he's not he's not going to make it tonight no okay so minus Sergeant anucci uh and just a note the uh item e the Emergency Services reports that's actually for March they submitted it as of April so they still owe aprils I need a motion in a second file motion second Mr clouse yes Mr Montgomery yes all in favor I I okay so right now we're up to Anna you have a discussion and presentation thank you mayor um so as you know I'm the leader of the Green Team I see some of my members in the audience over there and one of the uh initiatives we've been pursuing is to create a diversity equity and inclusion profile for Hainesport we needed to uh identify five groups that potentially had needs that weren't currently being met by H Sport's existing structures now some of those groups that we identified are groups that you would obviously expect uh to see so disabled people perhaps are renters um poorer people people in our mobile home communities but I did find we found a couple of groups that I think surprised us somewhat so I want to spend a little bit of time talking about those and just to say the the tools that we used would be the most latest centus census data and various policy mapping tools that are available on the internet so one of the things that we discovered is that uh whereas ha port's African-American Community has stayed relatively stable over the last 10 years our Asian Community has doubled and with the help of uh some local knowledge I was able to identify that a lot of this is because we've got a burgeoning community of uh Punjabi siks and uh that was interesting to me because I didn't I didn't know that we had that uh another piece of evidence that supports that is that we um uh South U Asian languages are the third most common inhome language being spoken in Hainesport obviously after English and Spanish so all of this data is in the handout that you have um committee but I I don't want to like go through it painstakingly piece by piece just to draw your attention to some of the findings so I I do think that this is an interesting finding for us um and especially because the uh culturally speaking that this population tends to live in multigenerational households so uh it it would be grandparents parents and children so these are um multigeneration Community people living in our communities the other group that I think is worth considering is our older residents and if you turn to our the map on page uh the last page of the packet this is actually a policy map and it identifies one of our block groups hesport has um four different block groups these are the smallest unit that the census gets Census Data gets divided into and the the uh block group that high lighted dark uh blue in this map actually 44% of the residents are over 75 okay and I I've mentioned this to a couple of you on occasions this is the this is the block group that contains the neighborhoods known as rankokus Heights and also uh the Glenn now it's not really surprising that the Glenn is one of those um is an issue because of course it's a it's a senior active older adult community so it's a 55 plus community that was built built 20 years ago so it stands to reason that many of the residents are the original residents and they're now over 75 I think what's more concerning for us as a town is the residents who are older who are living in Ran cokus Heights because that is also older housing and I have recently highlighted a couple of instances where I've seen on social media some of those residents are struggling with some basic services such as keeping their yards um clean and tidy mowing their loans moving heavy furniture and stuff like that now I I don't I'm not IAL uh policy expert so I don't exactly know what we need to do with respect to the this group but I do know that we need to be aware because as people get older they are do typically become more vulnerable 75 plus is typically a more vulnerable population um and the other thing to to note about both these groups and also the other groups that I've identified in the handout is that although we do have excellent online Communications our website um the app we record the township meetings some some of these groups may not be able to fully utilize those resources because of age or lower income or language barriers so I do have these following recommendations uh which is what I'll end with firstly that we offer an internet training course maybe in partnership with the bonington county Office on Aging or with the hayport senior citizens Club I know we've done previous educational activities with the senior citizens Club um and if possible provide fee transport from The Glenn and from rocus Heights we should print and distribute information on the lifeline Federal program which is dedicated to making phone and Inter service internet services more affordable and actively promote this program at the township uh we should send out an email announcing that the township website now uses Civic plus aioi to make its website more accessible to those with visual disabilities we should put register ready information on the website uh that helps residents with special needs uh register annually to Aid emergency planning we should consider having a separate page on the website with links and informations devoted to assisting seniors we do have a page but it needs more information and material and links on it uh we should consider translating some key Township announcements into Punjabi and making them available at the municipal building via the Creek View Lakeside HOA and on the website and this is the one that I'm really excited about we should encourage the formation of a hayport Cricket Club team and if we can allocate some space at the municip park for a cricket pitch and I I do have some members of the community here who are hoping to tell you a little bit more about cricket and their hopes for that during public comment so any thoughts well I have a question um I thought it was the Green Team and I feel very uncomfortable assuming certain people of certain groups are something I don't like stereotyping I don't like it um I don't understand what this is about maybe I need to be educated more but I'm a little concerned that we're making assumptions about certain groups of people based on their race age I mean I thought that's what we're told not to do so I have a concern why are we doing this for the Green Team what does this have to do with being green that's that's my comment it's it's about sustainability rather than being green so the green team is just the sort of buzzword name for the team that works on sustainable ility but say sustainability as a as an idea isn't just about being green per se it's about making sure that we use our resources in a way that is fairest for everyone in the community and in such a way that our children and grandchildren can also have access to those resources I just don't know I was mayor when I gave you permission to do this Green Team and it was an Energy Efficiency thing that's what it was it was put for it it it was that's what I was told but I'm just a little concerned that we're going to start classifying people grouping people and identifying oh you're old so you need this or you're you're Asian you need this I have a concern about that I think that's could be taken wrong I would like to consider everybody on their own basis not you know I don't think certain people need certain help just because of their age or their race or their nationality that's just my opinion and I you know obviously we're not going to agree but that's what I was taught you always look at people as an individual and their personal individual needs I mean I've been in this town 50 years I know who needs help and it's not a big deal most people in this town get help when they ask for help and you know I don't think we need certain programs to help certain people because of their age or their race I'm just talking about making more resources available to potentially certain groups of people to potentially vulnerable people and I believe that we are because we have a certain area of our town which has a very high concentration of older people in older housing I think that is potentially a vulnerability and all I'm trying to do is make sure that those people have access to the resources they need now if you disagree with that then we're going to disagree no we'll disagree because I've been in this town 50 years we've always had a high level of older people in this town because people love this town people don't move out of this town people die in this town CU they love it here that's what happens in this town because we're I think there's plenty of resources for people and people know where to reach reach out for them that's just my opinion I would rather you stick with a Energy Efficiency thing as opposed to re-evaluating the town's population based on devic of factors that's it okay does anybody else have a comment committee well thank you very much Anna thanks Anna thank you I see we have a representative from the state police is here do you have a report to give not okay just wanted to make sure before we check you off is it okay to ask him questions is it okay to ask that gentleman questions or no who the trooper Trooper no well he's no out of order should we okay he may not be able to answer okay that's fine that's fine but I think we be around a little later when we take a break to perhaps answer a question I hear you okay thank you cool thank you for coming yes thank you that's fine okay I can't start yet Tara I have to wait for Tara I'm sorry she went to go make some more agenda copies okay we ran out because I need someone to do the timer oh this is for the ordinances well it's the same thing it's limited to 5 minutes we haven't done this yet oh have any Tim oh got can we just pause for until she gets back yep thank you we're going to just take a a couple minutes to attend to something an administrative break yes yes are we online I had to make copies of the agenda because we ran out are we online yes we do have one resident online okay can we have a group for sustainable St Turtles did you go see your picture in there we our sponsor commercial pict yes I want suain I think you do I think you do have that I think that's actually thank you okay it's okay thank you terar thanks T thanks T welcome okay so we are now at the time where we have uh comments from the public regarding agenda items only comments are limited to five minutes does anybody have any comments yes ma'am your name and address Bri slon from 14 Heather and um I'm representing the environmental commission and one of the ordinance that we're voting on tonight is um the tree ordinance the tree ordinance um and uh we had a chance to review this at our last meeting and I submitted a letter of proposed or suggested changes to that did everybody get that letter okay do so I don't need to read the letter out loud or us that's I don't I don't know proced some highlight you if you want to highlight yeah a couple of things that we saw um uh were meeting two agendas in some ways because we're trying to as a Township become certified under sustainable Jersey so that we can apply for grants for various things um and so some of the wording is specifically the purpose um adding more uh flushing it out a little bit to show that the purpose of a tree ordinance is is to help with storm water by um recharging the water into the groundwater um trees absorb and um so the purpose we expanded um we were also hoping that um there would be like a monitoring of the trees so that if in you know in the tree isn't watered or whatever in two years and it dies that it can be replaced again um and then also that we call out the fact that hesport is encouraging residents to plant native trees when possible and a definitely avoid so just was some restructuring some rewarding um that I hope will be taken into consideration before the ordinance is passed um that will both help pport help the ordinance be a little bit more clear and and also maybe help us in our goal to try and have this qualify us as you know having a sustainable tree program in in hesport um so that's all I have to say thank you Janice thanks Jan thank you anyone else have anything to say yes sir this is just what's on the agenda I did mention Cricket it's not on the agenda but does it not count it would be later I just thought it would be more effective if they spoke immediately after me was it part ofenda is this in response to the report Anna gave yeah okay hi uh my name is AR deep Singh and we live at 20 patriate way hburg so um my thing is that uh we're trying to introduce Cricket in hesport area so by myself and a couple other peoples we play cricket here and uh we have sometime problem playing Cricket in a baseball field whenever we get chance we play in um like a because a cricket ball that does not bounce on a grass so that way use a uh the baseball field the soil field so um if you guys can range like um some space for pitch that where we can play cricket it's going to be like good for us and good for the h hinp Township because we going to introduce some league for Cricket as you you guys might have heard of um mlc that they in introduced last year it's a major major league cricket and USA and West Indies hosting World Cup this year um in USA there's a the making portable Stadium because Cricket is so new to um USA that's why they making portable um portable um stadium in um nasuki it's like Long Island area so yeah that that was my thing like if you guys can um arrange some space in a park that where we can make pitch and if you want more information I can have a like all all the information print for you guys like what how much si yes the size yeah the size of it's somewhere around like 130 to 150 yards all around and the pitch is going to be um the playable pitch is of 23 yards but it need more space I would say like 35 yards for a run up have you guys ever watched Cricket though just in the movies never ever got in the movies okay so but how large of an area is it if you how large of a total area would be required it it it will be like um 135 to 150 yards each side it's going to be Circle so 150 yard Circle yeah it's so 150 yard diameter diameter diameter yeah so it's a circular circular it's a cir field so from the center 150 on each side 150 from the center yeah from the center and this couldn't be a shared area like with a soccer field or would be um it can be shared but thing is that when the pitch it it has to be like soil clay pitch so that is the only problem with the because we cannot play on grass so we'd have to see if we have the space for what you want to do yeah um I check your two Fields those are empty just right before um the one field on left of where the car's placed that one and the other one um close to the um School yeah I'm not sure who owns I think the school owns some of that so we'll have to find out you know whether the school uses it or that be my impr talking right here you're talking right there no no he said two places I thought two um because there's um footpath between those it just one behind those um the play area for kids right next to it and then where's the second area cross across it's watering school yeah yeah across the walkway across the walkway yeah okay yeah it's kind of like adjacent to the uh what's that game not the tennis courts but what are they pickle ball pickle ball courts adjacent to that and then across the walkway we I just we have to find out who the both area are good yeah so um and how many people do you have on your on you you have a team yeah we have we so far have like 10 peoples and how many how many live in town eight okay eight of them and uh it requires like at least 11 players we cannot attct more people because we don't have any designated area to play and we love to play whenever we get a chance here so we used to go to Willingboro over there there's a problem because local U locals they play it's you know the limit of players you cannot be you know there's less involvement there but I'm right that that's the only other Cricket pitch in burington County currently speaking right Willingboro there's only one Cricket pitch in burington County so honestly hence could get in here but there's also upkeep I imagine I'm sorry upkeep maintenance maintenance of the cricket pitch um it's not a big deal it just we just have to cut the grass we can do the maintenance by ourself I I can personally do it but the ground yes um we need somebody like stadium seating in the or something just ask it's not going to be like nobody watches people watch it they bring their own chair just like soccer field okay that's that's why I'm asking yeah that's the only thing the maintenance of the pitch once you guys if you guys think to make it if once you make it we'll take care of it so I don't know if they can take care of it we could certainly look into it can he work with Joe or you guys find out if it's feasible provide more information that would be helpful and we can talk with public works I I'll give all the information to Anna maybe she can y it works for me that right thank you thank thank you guys okay hopefully you won't be sued for having gone over five minutes well it was an interaction I didn't hear the thing go we interrupted um is there anybody else has a comment about uh anything on the agenda not seeing any on close we have somebody online I don't know oh well let's ask if anybody online has a comment on agenda items please unmute NOP nope okay I'll close comments from the public all right ordinance 2012 24-6 amending chapter 22 of the hesport Township Code entitled length of service award program this is a public hearing and final adoption we have anyone in the audience that wishes to be heard on this ordinance online [Applause] no okay so I need need a uh motion and a second motion second Mr clous yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Evans yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes ordinance 20247 amending chapter 89 of the hesport Township Code entitled flood damage prevention this is the public hearing and final adoption we're open for public hearing anyone wish to comment M anyone online NOP okay we'll close public uh I need a motion in a second motion second Mr clous yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes ordinance 202 24-8 repealing replacing chapter 44 of the hesport Township Code entitled affordable housing this is public hearing and final adoption does anyone in the room have any comment see none anyone online no okay so I need a motion in a second so moved second Mrs Tori yes Mr clous yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes may Gore yes ordinance 2024-the D this is the public hearing and final adoption I wish to acknowledge um the hawor township environmental commission forther work and um getting some information to us I believe some of the items were adopted into the resolution well I provided um you with the hesport environmental commission's recommendations um very good recommendations um I made a request to our planner to um provide uh follow-up comments on those recommendations as well as our zoning officer um I provided you with their comments as well I think um Mr glp is also was included in all of that correspondence um I think we generally you know agree and applaud sections one and three as recommended I think um the the challenge is to which is quite frankly we spent an in ordinate amount of time on this this ordinance um honestly over a period of two months all of us professionals countless of hours um I hate to be very blunt with you but this is a typical state and dive ordinance um you know this is a a regulation that is being pushed on us and most the municipalities are simply adopting their model ordinance um it wasn't really until about a month ago did we realize as professionals across the state that that we did not have to adopt the model ordinance we just needed to uh they gave that to to us as a guideline a guideline if you want where we could amend it as we needed for our particular municipality and our needs um so that is what we did did and because of that we you know we spent a lot of time on this and um we did so trying to to to strike a balance between obviously what the ordinance in the state are recommending and what we should be doing in terms of storm water regulation recharge carbon footprint but also the needs of our residents and our businesses and trying not to be overreaching right um and um as well as what are the implications to our zoning office and and permitting um we did remove the fee that the state suggested we collect for our residents or our businesses to apply to us to remove their trees and to replace them um that was removed we also added to the list of exemptions um so we I think we did a really good job on this um again it's a policy decision as Mr gpie um stated earlier um in terms of the DBA uh of the trees for the residential which is what the environmental commission suggested is leaning a little bit more towards what the state recommended a little bit further away from our recommendation um the recommendation from the environmental commission is 8 in ours was 12 originally the state was six so it's a policy decision of how you want to go with this um I did a tutorial two minutes today with committeeman um Ken and we realized that DBA is not as simple as DBA you know you think 4 and2 in from the ground to the top of the tree you measure it's the diameter right no it's the Circ circumference divided by pi is it's crazy ft so there's a lot more to it and we actually went through an iteration of what the circumference is or or the DBA is it's it's a lot you know what we're suggest suggesting is not very large trees at all these are not large trees but you know again the environmental commission's recommendations are great there are considerations that you know should be brought to the table and discussed but if you do want to make any changes um Mr gby stated that we should table well because these haven't been Incorporated time looking at we have a time constraint here don't we or what's the yeah I don't I don't know how worried you are about that um and whether the state's going to come down and punish hesport Township for doing something thoroughly and with great thought as opposed to just need jerk reaction to what the state tells you to do they might um if you were going to you have three choices one just adopt the ordinance as is and move on two have a public hearing on the ordinance Asis right close the public hearing and either adopt it and then move immediately to amend to include some new Provisions okay I wouldn't recommend that because once you've adopted it again bureaucrats at the state may say Hey you adopt Ed it you can't change it now right so the third option is if you want to do if you do wish to accommodate some of the concerns or suggestions raised by the environmental commission the third choice would be open it up the public hearing on the ordinances in front of you close the public hearing move to amend however it is you wish to amend it based on recommendations that you have from htec from Mr Taylor and from Miss Nukem um those changes would be subject to publication and then you would have a public hearing just on those changes at the June meeting and then you could adopt the entirety of the ordinance as so amended is that your recommendation Asing it if you're going to make changes to it that's my recommendation I I would like to make at least those two of the environmental commission changes I agree um I I personally would lean towards making all of them but then um that's me I I don't think that um we're not compelling residents to remove it to to not remove we're not compelling residents to keep the trees right so it's just we're changing the size of the tree for which they have to submit paperwork and then get some form of approval or otherwise um a consequence of removing the tree right that that we're not making them keep the tree so you know I think some people think that we're making them keep the tree we're not we're just saying if your tree is this size size or bigger you've got to submit paperwork to the township and then we'll we'll look at the tree and we'll make recommendations and suggestions some of those suggestions include replanting the tree elsewhere in your property you can also replant the tree elsewhere in hesport or you can pay a small sum of money into uh into a kitty so I I I think that isn't an unreasonable suggestion to go a little smaller on the tree but that's just me I have a question and comment just so everybody understands so this is your private property at home if you have trees that are damaged or diseased it's okay to just remove them is that correct those are exempt those are exempt you can remove them but if you have a tree that maybe grew too big and you don't like where it is and you don't like the looks of it anymore and you just don't like it anymore then we have to come to the township and get permission to cut the tree down right and we have to replace it if it's certain size it's a certain size just so everybody is clear on this right now if it's a residential tree and it has a dbh of 12 in and this is how it was posed in the current ordinance 12 in or more then this would trigger this application process and this notification process to the township and the replacement size of the tree would be one tree at 1 and 1/2 in caliber is what we're asking and if you don't want to replace it on your property you can you can contribute to a fund and where we could you know add to our Arbor project or you know find another location but you're right but just to be clear never done this before right we haven't had this before this is new corre right because I was thinking living here 27 years I never heard of this before but anyway also the zoning officer will go around right and you have a year to replace the tree is that what I read in the in all the um so the if the zoning officers SE that a tree has been removed you will be contacted about that is that correct is that how that's going to work and they're going to monitor they're going to monit upon submission of the application because we wouldn't know prior to an application so it would it's on the resident or the business to communicate to us that this is happening and then that will trigger an application and then yes our our we are now tasked with monitoring collectively the trees that are not exempt that would need to be removed now just know that there were very few exemptions that were provided to us in the model ordinance we have I think that maybe there were four and we have nine now okay so we again we really worked hard on not being overreaching into our residents and businesses business tough job but also tough job you worked hard Al satisfying what we are being mandated by the state for our ms4 permit to do okay in addition to the previous flood damage prevention ordinance that was also a mandate which we're 14 days late on and they have not come down to arrest me or usad I just wanted to make sure that everybody understood that you know because this is your private property yeah I have some concerns but if it's your private trees have big trees on your I got you know I have massive trees I have a oak tree that's 13 ft tall on my property every year I spend thousands of dollars with professional tree maintenance to trim branches that potentially can fall and go through my roof right so if I my tree guy says my 130t oak tree is dangerous I can't just take it down yes you can because in number seven it says hazardous trees may be removed so we can take the word of a professional then yes a professional arist okay yes that's no problem cuz I I I only have professional people but some people got big trees like I do and just know that this is the second iteration of the state's mandate on this tree ordinance this this was mandated previously I believe two years ago kind of kind of a lot of towns right a lot of towns immediately adopted the ordinance modeled by the state with no changes and it created a lot of issues within those towns we did not because I knew that this was not going to be we were going to be here today m so fortunately you know for our residents and and for for policy you guys as policy makers this is our you know doing it now would this if somebody wanted to build onto their house and had to remove a tree would that fall under an exemption yes if uh the removal of One Tree that falls into any of the categories 1 two and three uh from a single lot within a 2-year period trees removed in conjunction with additions to existing single family residential units and the construction of permitted accessory structures such as deck patios swimming pools and sheds these tree removals May extend 15 ft from set additions and structures to be exempt okay great sounds like he thought of everything yes no work on that I'm sure we did not well I'm happy with it I mean we'll be back at I think it's the best we can do it's and I think he did a great job yeah and and obviously the environmental commission's input is you know valuable as well com thank you Lea too yeah I had some comments as as being part of the the enironmental commission with mayor Gilmore um yeah I can attest that there was a lot of thought put into it and a lot of work so um thank you Paul and Janice for leading that cause and John and everyone else on it um you know it goes back and forth right because it's your property right it's your property and um if you don't want that tree anymore I part of me is like well it's your property but the other thing is that you know we're we're looking at the whole all of hesport like it's everything else it's we can't just look at one person or two people or whatever we need to look at the group as a whole so that's always what we need to do up here and and sometimes that and that decision isn't always easy um as an old boy scout I I don't know if I call myself a tree hugger but I I love those big old trees and we had a big old tree in my backyard and um it started leaning towards our house and we we had to make that decision um but that is an exception right that's an exception it's just that if it's just a tree that you just don't want anymore for whatever reason that's that's where it comes down so part of me says well it's your property you should be able to do what you want um and that's but the state is mandating us to to to to look at it that way not only for I guess global warming but for flooding and for and I guess just from our own town just having big trees is what hesport has so there's just a lot a lot that goes into this and I just appreciate all the work and Paul and I you know went through this and looked at this um and there's just it's it's it's it's a diff it's a difficult decision I like the fact that we've made nine changes to it and just didn't go car lunch because we care about our town we care about our environment here in hesport so um you know I I I just think that I I don't want to put added burden on our administrators and our Zone owning offers going around Measuring Up 4 and 1/2 ft then taking a thumbtack and measuring it around and having it that way and then going through all that and then dishing out fines and everything else with it so I I I hesitate to do that I don't want to be obtrusive um for our residents but at the same point we we do need to be able to be mindful um some of these trees that are like a black walnut tree which is indigenous to New Jersey uh is 50 years old before the diameter gets to be 12 in so I mean holy cow who knew that 50 years some of these some of these older trees are 80 years old before they get to that point so without knowing all that it's like holy cow I mean most of the some of those trees are older than many of us in this room so not you I'm a good looking 80y old aren't I I'm telling you if I'm 80 yeah I'm s I'm 39 but anyway um so just some things that that all went into considering this and and again if it's a threat then that's that's something different so um just want to expound on some of the just the extra work for that so uh yeah I I already forgot why we're here I hesitate yeah I'm I'm ambivalent about the whole okay so I'm going to open it for public um comments yes ma'am we have any comments from the public with regards to this ordinance and that's on the ordinance as it's as it is written now sure still Janice Lon and 14 Heather Lane um just speaking maybe as myself so I realize that we look at our private property and we think we can do whatever we want on our private property and that is American thing but we have laws about a lot of things right you can't have you know farm animals on a small lot you can't you know you can't do certain things without going before because we live together we're a community in the end so we have our private property we can't keep junk on it and all these other rules so so we have things already where you can't just do whatever you want to do um as far as trees go I think we tend to look too shortsightedly and I think the tree ordinance I don't think we're going to be you know going around driving and say oh that tree came down and they never applied and we're going to find them I think the ordinance is more to help people come to realize the value of trees in our environment a I mean hesport is is as beautiful as it is and not like northern Jersey where there's you know huge sections without trees because we have these trees and they do take longer than most of us are going to own our own homes so I I think that some some of the changes um are to help people just respect you know not move into an area that has trees and then cut down all the trees without thinking about like you know the value of those trees and the future and what our kids are going to need and and they they are a huge huge aspect of what helps our environment you know between the oxygen that they produce and the carbon dioxide that they put into the ground they do help with flooding because they absorb a lot of water and they keep soil from eroding so I think you know although it comes down and we get you know like well nobody can tell me what to do I think in some ways we need to start thinking more as a community and as a state and as a country that we need to start protecting these resources that we inherited um so that's just my thank you Janice thank you Janice yes MH on this ordinance yes okay so should we three else on our Drive pport obviously uh it's funny because I was just looking at a tree today on my property that the developer didn't put in all beautiful trees there are some trees that are pretty gnarly in Han sport Chase and the thoughts two thoughts two trees actually went through my mind that one next to my driveway is it's strong as anything probably but I was thinking about taking that down at when that ordinance pass if this ordinance passes right that then I would request permission to do that and have to replant a tree somewhere and that now that makes common sense you take a tree down 99% of the people are going to want to replant something okay I've had I have disease Tree in my backyard that I was planning to take down next week or the week after mhm uh I also have another tree very healthy but it's leaning at such a precarious angle I'm concerned it's a leaf bearing tree that in a storm in October for instance when the leaves are still on the tree that this thing could actually you know kill over and take down two fences that ad join my property once this ordinance passes what are my recourses this tree is healthy but you know given 100 mph wind something may happen which is reasonable so what are the options that are in the ordinance okay that's of concern I would think to any property owner and then the third thing you know we all want to save the environment we all it's stewardship it's just good stewardship we have to protect our resources but the incursions one after the other on the personal private property and what you do with your private property not only here we heard uh lately about something regarding the Indian Reservation that there are State mandates and so and I want to sound like a broken record but so many of these mandates filter down from the think Global act local and they are incursions on the individual's rights and that's a concern that I think everyone should consider okay because I think sometimes the point of view is you know people are stupid and they're not going to do the right thing they're not going to look out for the environment so we have to make a law we have to make a rule and that's the wrong way to go about it and that's my piece I'm sorry thank you thanks Joe thank you anyone else anyone online okay so I'd like to I just want to make one comment I'm going to close public comment okay no comment so I'm closing public comment okay um just as um somebody who has a lot of large trees I like trees I try not to take them down it's always a safety concern not a maintenance concern it's a safety concern that's all so just want people to know we just don't have half Hazard take down trees it's not a you know but I will tell you when you do cut down a tree in a wooded Lot Like Mine The Canopy grows actually more leaves and branches grow from the neighboring trees to try to fill that canopy so nature kind of takes care of itself so that's it thank you okay Mr gaspe so if the committee wants to amend you should determine how it is you wish to amend the ordinance that's on the table and then the once you've established that and if you want to just use um I guess the memo that was submitted that included both Mr Taylor's and Miss Newton's comments could probably just do that which would be I think taking the EC's May 8 memo the bottom of the first page incorporating that italicized language right and then on page two of the memo picking up the part about moving um the paragraph about a list right yeah adding two additional requirements to section C2 but kath's against that oh yeah so that's I say if you're following Kathy and Mr Taylor's recommendations in conjunction with the EC you would do the italized language at the bottom of the first page the italicized language and the movement of the paragraph recommended under paragraph 3A of that memo that would be it okay so do I have a motion I'll make that motion a second what are we what are we voting on what istion to add oh yeah we should add them yes okay I'll that was in the memo okay I'll second that yeah so procedurally we'll have that for you I'll have it for Paula to put in the paper and on the website I guess so that um and and at the next meeting the public hearing that you will open will only be on those changes we won't go back and revisit 8 in versus 6 in or one and a half whatever it is uh or whatever it is divided by pi um so that would be the so okay so I think the motion was to amend the ordinance on the table as we just described okay we need to vote I'm Mrs Evans yes Mrs Tori yes Mr Montgomery yes Mr clous yes mayor Gore yes okay so so there will be a public hearing on June 18 18th the next meeting yes June 18th okay that's next okay thank you all right ordinance 2024-the 18th 2024 motion have a second second Mr clouse yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes all right we have some consent agenda resolutions 2024 d745 through 202 24- second Mr clouse yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes resolution 202478 D5 authorizing the execution of use and operation agreement with the hesport emergency squad for uh for equipment and apparatus I need a motion in a second motion or she can you can have the motion I'll second okay Mrs Evans yes Mr klouse yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gore yes resolution 20247 n-5 amending the policy that establishes minimum criteria to drive municipality owned and insured fire apparatus EMS ambulances and emergency response vehicle I need a motion second second Mr clouse yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes resolution 202 4- 8-5 calling for the modernization of the open public records act Oprah and the Swift passage of s- 2930 SL A- 445 uh could we discuss this one a little please abs a motion first what okay motion no you need a motion in a second and then you have your discussion okay okay so I'll make a motion second okay discussion okay great uh so this this has been revised from the original resolution which was to urge our assembly people in our legislative district 7 to pass this um this this act the Act was voted on yesterday and they both both voted against passing the act that would be Andrea Katz who is the Democrat and tesy I don't know his first name who is the Republican those are our elected representatives in the assembly and they voted against this act they I I spoke to Andrea personally she does not approve this act I did my own research and I also uh found an uh a statement made by the American civil liberties Union on this act and it is very uh disapproving of the act so we've now changed the resolution so it is resolution to urge Governor Murphy to uh sign the ACT into law myself personally I would prefer to urge him to veto the act and so with the ACLU this is what the ACLU says it's shameful that the majority of the New Jersey legislature voted in favor of s 2930 a445 a bill that will severely restrict access to government records and limit the Public's ability to hold elect officials accountable despite overwhelming opposition from community members stakeholders Advocates and 81% of Voters from across the ideological Spectrum legislative leaders should be strengthening mechanisms for government transparency not undermining them in backro deals shielded from public scrutiny to protect transparency and accountability we urge Governor Murphy to veto thank you can I comment yes um first of all this ain't a back room deal it's been done quite and it doesn't severely uh restrict Public Access uh basically there's a lot of companies that ask for op opra records to get find out who's doing business in their town so they can profit from it our Township clerks and administrators are inundated with Oprah request for financial gain there's a lot of there's a lot of good basis to this so I kind of the that what you read is I mean it's very um I don't know disingenuous I'm not really thr thrill with the way it was worded so I think this is a good thing and we need we need to give some assistance to our clerks and our administrators because you're inundated with op op requests that are used for financial gain from businesses and there's no Avenue to get away from it so it does not restrict any individual from getting any information from the town I agree I agree with that I agree with that because if anybody in our town wants information we're open you come get it you can find out whatever you want you don't have to do these Oprah requests that take our clerks that are so busy doing so many important things away from their jobs to do all this research we all get the notices we all have to check to make sure we don't have anything on our phones or etc etc it's a waste of time taxpayers money really it really is because you don't have to do that that often here in hesport if you want to know something we're open we'll tell you you come talk to them they'll tell you whatever they need to know so I think that at sometimes it's getting abused right and I agree with that but um I don't necessarily think this bill is the right solution and what you're saying also Karen is correct hesport is a small town and we are very open but this bill is a Statewide Bill we are passing a resolution in Hainesport to urge the governor to sign into law a Statewide bill which will apply to every Township in the state not just our municipality right so we we need to think outside the community here why we need to do this anyway I'm not sure but it's not about hesport but it is about limiting access controlling some of these requests and I think we definitely need to contr commercial request but if you anybody here wants to open request things they can it doesn't stop anybody from doing that so right I think one of the sorry okay can we get a little bit more clarity from Miss Costco actually we'll start with John I'll let John take the lead on this one and then I'll come um so I'll just give you some thoughts from having been doing this now for 40 years plus um it is a Statewide Bill and Statewide since Oprah was enacted hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money across the state of New Jersey have been spent on both the time and efforts of custodians responding within the seven days to the uh Records requests sometimes needing more time and sometimes with reasonable requesters getting that additional time and sometimes being told no um taxpayers are funding all that in since the enactment of Oprah if a requester was denied access to a record because the custodian thought a it wasn't a public record or B was otherwise exempt from disclosure and denied the request and the requestor went to court the requestor was automatically entitled to council fees and they were on a load star they could be $4 $500 an hour right $600 an hour which meant that custodians didn't have the luxury of guessing wrong I mean there are at least probably six or seven opinions that come out in the course of a year just from the courts never mind the government records Council interpreting Oprah if it takes that many opinions in a year from the courts to interpret Oprah how is it fair that a custodian gets personally is personally responsible for the payment of legal fees to to a requestor who wins in court right you weren't allowed to guess wrong this legislation one takes that liability away from the individual custodian right makes a municipal obligation which is nice for the custodians but it doesn't change the fact that hundreds of thousands of dollars a year will still be spent on custodial time and on legal fees what it does do with regard to legal fees however is it allows the court to Grant Council fees in appropriate circumstances it's no longer mandatory it's not a shall and in most cases under the statute they'll have to show bad faith or a willful intent to keep documents that were clearly public records out of the requestor hands so there's a little bit a burden there now um to show that they acted in bad faith because you know I I've defended these cases I've got a Supreme Court decision on it custodians aren't sitting there going I'm not going to give it to you right they know there's a risk in not doing it they're they're trying to make the right call and they're balancing certain privacy interests of residents whose records are sometimes requested uh with with the requesters right or maybe not so much a right to get that information so you can say what you want about transpar Arcy transparency is still there and one of the time-saving things for for custodians now will be this legislation allows custodians to direct the requestor to a link on the website or on some other website right so no longer have to print out documents and send them you can simply refer someone to the link in which those documents can be found right right you know as to the aclu's comments I invite anybody to read that those 11 lines in this statement and when you have language that says it's shameful or a bill that will severely restrict access to government records and limit the Public's ability to hold elected officials accountable and 81% of Voters from across the ideological Spectrum whatever that means and for whatever poll that was taken and back deals shielded from public scrutiny all that is is invective and rhetoric I invite anyone to tell me where in that statement the ACLU says what's wrong with this bill other than using rhetoric and invective give me specific examples of where the public interest is harm the legislation was an attempt to balance the right of the public to receive and get their public records through OA requests it's against the the time and expense to taxpayers of having to comply with not only doubtful or vague requests but under previous case law if I remember this correctly someone could request of the custodian documents a through G A through K on January 1 and the custodian would provide them 5 months later that same person can request those same documents and the clerk was not allowed to say I gave them to you in January you have them had to go through it all again to produce those records this legislation says if those records were once bless you if those records were once provided and then now they're requested again in a duplicate fashion and nothing's changed since the last time they were given the custodian is allowed to now say I gave them to you January 1 and nothing's changed I'm not giving them to you again which saves I don't know how many hours on a Statewide basis uh from custodians having to waste their time and waste taxpayer money that's my observation thanks John you anything to add this Costco yes I'll try to keep it brief hard no it's okay so I kind of have the same comments to make USA Today um published an opinion in the Burlington County Times about it you know the same rhetoric um disgraceful um this disgraceful Bill and after we published an editorial demanding that the governor veto the bill if it was passed the assembly pulled it from the bill from consideration I mean to think that they were single-handedly responsible for this to be vetoed I mean it just goes to show you the audacity of um the media sometimes that they control um legislation like that uh but anyway my point is is that this does not um this isn't a cloak of Darkness this is simply um I mean when you as a resident want to communicate with the township or an official apply for a license or send an email don't you have a certain level of privacy don't you think that you have a certain level of privacy or do you know that you don't right now that people can absolutely gain access to your permits to your correspondence with the municipality um this this bill provides a little bit more protection for our residents when they're making applications for permits um or or filing for licenses or or having communication or correspondence private correspondence with an administrator or governing body that's what this does um it it protects it it it prohibits erroneous misuse and again as Mr gusby says that leads to tax funded abuse is what it is I cannot tell you how many times I have forwarded an email or an OP request of of course under the cloak of an anonymous because you're allowed to be anonymous when you make that request um so you don't know who your requestor is and that's okay that's they're right obviously but I've forwarded Oprah requests to our solicitor for legal opinion that costs money because I'm afraid of being sued for making the wrong decision as the clerk you know there are exemptions in the law there are exemptions that we have to follow but it is absolutely unequivocally misused and abused and that's what this does it does not take away people's rights to information but there are a lot of businesses that are profiting off of the information that is transmitted us they sell your name most of our op requests are construction related because you know the permit or abandoned property they want to they want to know every month abandoned property lists um Terry you can weigh into what I mean you you do most of the processing of opras what else uh tax lists delinquent property lists yep building permits um sometimes even the dog licenses right companies will want that information purchase orders purchase companies want to know how much vendors are spending so they want to under it's all for profit making a lot of it is so I think that's really what this this bill is is pushing for is to tighten up some of those controls um they would have we gone through this is 20 years now Oprah's been in somewhere around there is you know it's gone through the process and they're trying to make adjustments you know that obviously are are an issue over the past 20 years so um this is up to the governor at this point so this resolution that we have before you is uh just simply sending in a support resolution um for for this legislatively passed the updated yes you have a revisement I I I wasn't aware I don't get the Bron at times um yeah have to but it's a it's a ganette newspaper right so if you want to research how many times Oprah lawsuits have been filed by the New Jersey press Association or guette pretty easy to do we have to continue getting because we are mandated to publish everything at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars all of our our information that we ordinances and things like that by law can I say one thing more yes I I do think that there are some good things in this bill and I do think that Oprah needs reform but I think that this goes too far and the one particular aspect that I object to most strenuously and this is not again this is not about hayport but we are urging the governor to make a Statewide action is the fee the removal of the fee shifting I trust Paula absolutely to make great decisions and um do the right thing but I think other in other municipalities elsewhere other counties what the removal of the fees shifting is doing is it's empowering um people in a position of of of power and responsibility to make bad decisions and conceal stuff because they know that the person who wants the the information can't sue them anymore right so that that it's not it's not about hesport it's about the state and it's the fee shifting that is the problem thank you if I'm reading this correctly it has been adopted it was it's been approved by both the Senate and the assembly and it's going to the governor for Signature Y and if you want to we we actually have uh you allowed me to post on our website an Oprah page which shows I think we went back three years how many years did we go back with the data I think two years back two two years back and that that will be updated monthly for this year so current and it shows all of the O requests that we've received it has the log that we use um to manage all of our oah requests it also has links to the oah statute to an oah form um so if any I encourage anybody to jump on our website under the clerk's page and uh check it out because that was just put up two weeks ago mhm okay so that being said you have a motion and a second um I I'm making a motion no you already have it oh okay we already did that you're right that's how you got into this yes sorry we got into this we need a vote Mr clous yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Evans no Mrs torney yes mayor Gore yes okay so 2024 budget presentation line up first are we ready if I could just have one second okay get ready I know we're all anxiously awaiting our CFO D mlan is here too she's going to jump in when needed and have any questions for her please feel free to ask her okay mhm all right all right so the 2024 budget is here and this is for uh your consideration for adoption we had introduction last month um our Municipal operating budget this year is$ 4,646 462 then we account for our anticipated revenues which is a little over 1.9 million so the 2024 Municipal Levy actual amount to be raised by taxation is 2,743 $233 so on this pie chart it shows the major the main parts of our Municipal budget our operating expenses being the most um then our Capital Improvements which I'll go over what those are this year I apologize for that little sliver of blue which Don pointed out I could not remove that from the pie chart without ruining all of the formulas so I had to leave that in there um but it doesn't take away from from the data um next is uh deferred charges at 173,000 and then salary and wages and then our reserve for uncollected taxes so as you know uh we have to account for our non- taxpayers you know we still have to pay our bills to all of our other taxing entities so we have to make up for that so we have to put that in the budget but we we do recoup it um with our delinquent taxes and late late taxes Don if I'm making any mistakes here please feel free to jump in or if you want to add to it um so the main budget highlights for this year uh we utilize $710,000 of our fund balance again this is a fiscally responsible amount to utilize as it continues to position us for financial stability um we do not use the available cap Bank in this year's budget it is a modest increase from last year's budget at $77,900 or 2.9 3% again we must continue to plan for a volatile economy we have annual increases in our Solid Waste fees which I do have a running chart of how much our non-contractual amounts keep increasing from the county for our Solid Waste fees pension and health insurance premiums continue to increase and then our Rising costs in Commodities and inflation right we've been hearing it non-stop this does affect us as well so the average home that's assessed at $281,900 66 for this year would see an annual increase in local Municipal Taxes only this is all we're talking about of $191 for the year or $4.75 more each quarter or $58 per month of an increase so your average for those average home assess assessments uh monthly Municipal tax bill will be $86.99 and hesport Township we are in year two of being debt free so there's yeah not many towns can say that um so again as I said earlier our Capital project goals detailed here um Creek turn Park is collectively our priority uh this dedicates $500,000 in capital funds for our phase one improvements um I do want to add to this that uh we have also applied for Green Acres funding at 1.2 million we also applied for the um uh Congressional Aid act as well at 1.2 million um so we are actively uh trying to get grant money to help fund this project it also um adds funds for the Municipal Park uh the hockey rink here we're doing the flex grip tile system as recommended by the users all of the sideboards will also be replaced um our Municipal Park will also see new tennis court resurfacing Chase basketball court will be resurfaced as well as the Tenn tennis court resurfacing so this adds $150,000 of funding for that um your ordinance that you had this evening for first reading on um closing out some old capital money will also go go towards this project and you also dedicated money in last year's budget which have been appropriated this is actually going out to bid um soon I think it's going to be published Terry you just put it in the paper yesterday or today what is what's going on the um we're accepting bids for this work for all for these all of these okay gotcha for actively doing that um and then again it allocates another $100,000 towards a fire rescue engine so a little bit bigger um this is one page of our detailed budget but I think it it provides um a lot of useful information um we when when the budget is uh put together and presented you know the school the local school the county and the Regional School are always estimated so these are just guesses um our local our municipality is always the first to strike its budget um however uh the school handport school district did just strike their budget actually this week and what we anticipated um and what they actually passed was significantly lower interesting um so just to quickly go over it so the total General Appropriations that are needed for all the taxing entities is 22358 14 then you less then you reduce it by our anticipated revenues so the cash required for the schools the county and the town to operate in 2024 is 20 Mill 4 54785 so then we calculate the reserve for uncollected taxes we have to put that in there we have a total budget and this is how we deduce and determine what our local purpose tax is at 2.7 million I want to highlight the bottom number the based on net valuation taxable if you look at the difference between 2023 and 2024 there's a over $1 million difference an increase in our net valuation taxable for hesport Township so that means we've received an additional 11 over $1 million in assessments which helps our tax rate it reduces our tax rate so um again our tax rate is total revenues needed divided by your assessed valuation so when your assessed valuation increases as ours did this year and while your Revenue requirement Remains the Same or less your tax rate will go down because the tax burden is now spread across a larger evaluation base so I just wanted to to kind of give that little lesson on how important it is that we continue to grow our community and that's based on Commercial residential industrial so the larger our tax B base is the lower our tax rate is for our residents so our local tax rate this year is 346 and again I kind of went over all of those monthly and quarterly costs so the estimated tax rates because as I said earlier most of our other taxing entities they don't have their information with the exception of our local District um those are our 2024 estimated rates so the municipal portion of the yearly cost to taxpayers is $975 62 and that covers all of your local Services snow plowing brush cleanup local roads Parks Municipal Services here in the building uh there's your 2024 property tax levy and the rate it's just kind of get looking at it differently in dollar figures so in the bottom the actual local school district District 9,750 186 whereas the estimate was 9,898 65 and there's your percentages so in 2023 the municipal Levy represented 3.2% of the total property tax allocation this year what is it 14 57% 14.57% and then this is last year's actual property allocation my apologies I don't have access to the wonderful $100 bill Don and I did share the the the YouTube tutorial last night which was 14 minutes long and I'm like I do not have enough time to figure this out so I just thought it would be kind of cool anyway to look at it differently so that is it for my presentation kept a little shorter and sweeter good work thank you nice job job good job thank you um thanks Paul thanks Don Don did you want to add anything Don did you want to add anything to any other you're good sure [Applause] okay so we have resolution 2024-the self-examination of the two 2024 budget I'll make that motion have a second I'll second somebody El second everybody okay m yes Mr Montgomery yes Mr clouse yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes resolution 2024-25 authorizes the 2024 budget to be read by title only so moved second Mr klous yes Mr Montgomery yes Mrs Evans yes Mrs Tori yes mayor Gilmore yes public hearing on 2024 budget so I need to open for public comments yes sir you want to come up and state your name please your address telephone number first Lon to Fox first lenson to Fox Court you guys look great good to see you all um I just wanted to again thank the township committee and our Professionals for being responsible with our hesport tax dollars I just want to say that the increase the percentage increase um in our Municipal tax levy of 2.9% or 2.93% is below the national average which is currently about 3.5% so we're doing a great job um just to make note that we do have to anticipate the future expenses such as a new uh fire engine which is going to be about a million dollars uh a retrofit to a an ambulance of $165,000 uh we've had Solid Waste increases of 15.6% in tipping fees that's for solid waste and our health insurance benefit plan of a 7.4% increase and so we're experiencing increases but yet we're stilling still doing a great job in containing our cost so I just wanted to give this Township committee again with our professionals Kudos great job thank you thank you thank you Bruce thanks thank you Bruce anyone else in the building yes sir name address anything else 44 Patriot Way um the the thing the first pie chart that you showed up there um talked about uncollected taxes what does what does that mean like can you and and what is the township do about uncollected taxes go to tax sale so uh don did you want to sure go ahead I would love for you to the municipality is char [Music] we have toover BAS So eventually we would that okay thank you it was it was represented as a pretty small piece of the pie yes and it's not up there to see it right now but it was actually misrepresented because it's actually a much larger piece of it's 363,000 is what we've budgeted for in the pie chart there there was another piece of the p that was like 173,000 that was like twice as big as that piece of the pie so it actually is a pretty large piece of the pie it is and I believe um our tax collector we collected 100% last year I believe we had 100% that's great 9 98.22 right but everything does yeah we do do have tax Sal so we do recover it okay anyone else in the room anyone online do you have a resident online I don't know if she has any comments no comment no okay I'll close public hearing resolution 20248 3-5 adopts the 2024 budget I'll make that motion second okay Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes Mr CL yes Mrs Tori yes may Gilmore yes all right on to the business licenses there's several to uh approve I have a motion in a second motion so moved Mr clous yes Mrs Tori yes Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes mayor Gore yes uh we're now open for comments from the public comments are limited to 5 minutes yes ma'am on your topic of choice good evening Samantha lovan 2514 Creek Road um I just wanted to mention a little bit I am a resident um volunteer for the hesport Green Team and I just wanted to kind of give a little bit more information um for those who might not know it is a volunteer group and we are working to get uh certified under Sustainable New Jersey um their miss their mission statement is Empower New Jersey communities to Build a Better World for future generations with the tools training and financial incentives necessary to pursue critical sustainability initiatives um and what Anna was talking about with the diversity equity and inclusion report that she um worked on the whole group worked on um we actually just used that in our PS we're working with Sustainable New Jersey and the psmg partnership program um to support Energy Efficiency in our uh communities um we're actually able to use that kind of information to build a better program and to make sure that we are reaching all of our residents within H Sports so if they're not techn they're not technical um the idea of doing more pamphlets things like that or even trainings um it just is a really nice program where we're able to take certain actions that we're working on and use them in other actions to help support our community um and then the other thing I just want to discuss real quick was um I do agree that um there are good points to the Oprah revision but um I did uh do some research I am not a lawyer so I won't act like I know everything and that I am an expert but um to quote State Assembly man Brian berens um republican from 26th District um who did vote against this bill um he he States here's what the bill does not do the bill doesn't in any way shape or form limit the commercial request it doesn't get rid of of the data mining so I would really like to know and this is not an educational form so you don't actually have to answer me um how this uh revision actually stop the this commercial part of the requests um and he goes on uh a little bit further I won't get into those details but he does say here what it here is what it does do the bill oppresses the public for those and he goes on but and he ask his other assembly members show proof that it that the only thing that's preventing people is it's a litigation threat um that doesn't necessarily affect companies but it does affect the individual person um who may not be able to afford um a lawyer or things like that um so I just wanted to state that although there are some good points I think it's something that our state should look at and revise um to make sure that the people um get represented and have the right to learn information so thank you do you know what made that statement I'm sorry do you know when the assemblyman made that statement uh I believe yesterday the 14th thisday 15th Okay the 14th yep thank you thank you thank you thanks time yes sir my name is David hori I live at 2225 Foster Town Road my wife is a crow volunteer with the hesport all volunteer emergency Squad and I'm here to comment on the recently published audit that was done of the squad uh I'm a physician I've been involved in many many medical audits over the years and there's kind of a common theme with all of them they give the people who are being audited time to comment before it's published this was recently published and as for Paul Bush who's head of the squad he may have spent five minutes with the people who were doing the auditing when this the leadership of the squad looked at it they found 30 inaccuracies or discrepancies and none of them there were addressed before it was published um they feel that all of them are wrong they're going to submit that information to the township for review in my opinion with most audits there's a give and take between the Auditors and the people being audited such that data is complex and data can be misinterpreted and if the data is entered inaccurately it could make the squad look bad so that this is a volunteer Squad uh the conclusion or final part of the uh audit says to consider going to a private Enterprise it does it gives no allowance whatsoever for improvement which in most medical audits is ridiculous usually There's an opportunity to make Corrections it's not mentioned in the audit whatsoever so that what I would urge is that the township review the discrepancies inaccuracies mistakes that the leadership has discovered that they review them that they go over them with the auditing company and allow a give and take between the uh EMS leadership and that group as well uh quality matters and certainly as a physician in the township I want a good squad from what I've seen it is a good squad uh the for-profit companies have a vested interest in taking over they'll charge the township and they'll charge each patient who who takes a ride with them so that to me that can hurt the township the audit said that that was a positive I don't see it as a positive thank you thank you sir thank Youk you than you yes sir name address hi Andy Dick 17 lenux Drive Creek View um my name is Andy Dick I'm here to introduce myself I will be the Republican candidate for Township committee uh just a little bit about me um born and raised in East Hampton I'm an RV graduate came back right after college I've lived in hesport for 20 years now my wife Melissa and I raise our daughter Katie here she went to hesport Schools she's a junior at RV now so we're kind of lifers um love it here I would like to thank present Community uh committee past committee we do love it here it's a great town Low tax rates we just talked about uh High home values cool sites like big Rusty this is a great place to live so I want to thank everyone past and presid for the 20 years I've been here um I would like to bring a perspective to the community and to our committee through the Youth of our town I've just spent the last 10 years working with Sacred Heart CYO as president and a couple other of youth organizations so I think I bring a a unique perspective that we can engage a part of our population that sometimes we kind of forget about 31% of our town is under 26 so that's a third I can reach out to them ideas such as rehabbing the Town baseball and softball field maybe adding new sports I mentioned Cricket um sports like that that's great for the Youth uh creating volunteer opportunities for our teens uh things like food pantry collection and things that kids can do to get involved when our not just H Sports Community but get them more involved in their own local communities uh countywide engaging the younger adults to become more involved creating programs my daughter and I created a buddy ball program at CIO this past spring it's for all 5 to 19 year olds special needs children they each get their own buddy on the field they get to play baseball they get their picture day they get their trophies that's something that my daughter did and I think that's something we can we can create opportunities for kids to do more things like that so I want to bring more of that to the to the table um in passing also I think my daughter and wife might be watching online I did not get to see my daughter tonight um I had a rush straight to hear from work and she just uh was nominated to be on the Carpenters for softball for toal congratulations you're watching nice nice congratulations thank you thank you yes sir name address please Robert Quay president H emergency Squad and engineer I'm um address I don't live in the town I live in out of town currently where but we oh 6309 Liberty Avenue thank you and um m l sorry my [Music] um some of the comments made last meeting I'm here to give some answers to current to training me and the current Captain are responsible for the training we do not use any taxpayer dollars it's all 100% volunteer and donation to how we run our Squad um yes there is qual we do mandate certain qualifications once they do come in EMT or going to school [Applause] um other than that it's just um response times I can give you current I have a 2024 current response time we are sorry current response time for 2024 estimate so far is 8 minutes 17 8 minutes 17 minutes response on compared to what the report said I have also the last couple years 2024 we did 2023 sorry we did 8.1 minutes and from 2021 6 to 21 to 12:30 of 22 our average response time was 8 minutes and 10 minutes not the amount the what the survey said was inaccurate that's our current response signs from the county and our chief has did his due diligent and the response times that we were shown were atrocious and made us look bad that's what we have that's what I preserve okay thank you thank you thank you thank you anyone else in the room yes sir first Leon t Fox Court so I I guess my question are um with regard to EMS and response time who's actually recording these response time and where are we getting that information with regard to response time does anybody know the county it's a very tough question to answer no it's not so we do receive the dispatch reports directly from dis from Central we have a shared service agreement with Burlington County 911 Central Dispatch so we do receive their dispatch reports okay so that so what what you're saying is that the the the documentation is coming from the Emergency Services is not well we also receive monthly reports from the emergency Squad which provides that information so the information is coming from the emergency Squad and also from 911 is there a discrepancy in those numbers as far as response time is concerned because obviously I mean we have to get our people there there quickly because we we need to be able to service our residents because if we don't it could be life and death issue so that is there a discrepancy in the reports that are coming from 911 relative to what is being reported in other venues there's also an EMS system that's used um per Mr Bush during our meeting and then there's the dispatch reports as well um the dispatch reports are based on the unit number the dispatch time the route time the arrival time and then the clear time so then I guess the question really is who do we believe um so with regard to the EMS Folks at 9 you know the 911 dispatch people what what is the response time that they're telling us that that uh that should be and that what how we're being serviced well so dispatch can be can be from the emergency responder's home there are emergency responders that are allowed to arrive to the scene in their povs which is personal vehicles okay then what is also happening is is that the ambulance is arriving at times is arriving separately by the driver there are times that the ambulance is arriving only with the driver meeting the EMT who arrived by POV who called into central dispatch and said that they were dispatching out so the arrival time of the ambulance could actually be different than the actual people who get there the person leaving from their home um generally and I believe the statute mandates that if a rig is in use they're supposed to have a driver and an EMT so there's got to be a two person person okay and I'm I if I'm mistaken if you're a noncertified which is 100% volunteer agency you're allowed to have two I think if you're certified which has if you're certified which you're you're billing for services whether it's hard billing or soft billing you have to you're a state overseeing entity so you you go through more vigorous certification process and I believe at that those entities have to have three in their rigs two M two EMTs and a driver and that would be Lumberton emergency Squad and America and America is who is assigned by the Lumberton by hesport emergency Squad as the mutual Aid first responder how many are we are we as hesport required to have a minimum of two or a minimum of two okay so really we only need two people to get to that rig in order to then service whoever needs to be serviced right but that there are times that that is not happening and and with regard and I don't want to overstep my time here but with regard to that so so what what is the response time that we are finding on average that we are able to respond as hesport um and then what is the the actual national average of time uh I don't I have that from our reports there's different averages for paid and then there's a a different average for I should say there are different allowances for a paid crew and there are different allowances for 100% volunt crew yeah so so there are there there is more time allowed for an all volunteer entity I don't know those numbers off the top of my head that's okay so um oh well I I have to I just want to say that with regard to an event that took place about two Thursdays ago I was really expecting you to wrap it up please youve got okay I was expecting our team I was I was really shooting for our team but unfortunately they didn't arrive but um you know the I don't I don't want to be critical but I just want to make sure that hesport is well protected by an EMS department and I want that to be ours because I know the people in our department are well dedicated and uh and loyal to our hesport Township residents thank you thank you thanks yes ma'am can I just comment no you need to come up and give your name and address I'm Margie horv 2225 fostertown Road hesport um I think the misunderstanding the discrepancies are with the audit the audit says we respond at a certain time and they were incorrect when it comes to our response time we are actually faster than national average talking to us oh I'm sorry I was trying to explain to him my misunderstanding okay so um yeah we are faster than the national average which is 12 we generally respond um 8 minutes I think um Paula Costco explained that um also we have what's called Duty Crew so that means that certain times when being a volunteer this isn't 100% we're not perfect but we do have people we are at the station so even though I live on Foster toown Road Friday nights I spend the night at the station so my our response is immediate and then however long it takes for us to get there what people don't know is we also have dual coverage so being a volunteer Squad if there is not a duty crew on and people are just responding to a call like you said from home or you know and going from home to the station or from home and showing up on scene um the other townships that are close to ours get the call at the exact same time as us and if we cannot respond within a certain short amount of time less than two minutes the other first aid squads are automatically dispatched so that being said our Township never is without coverage it's just that the coverage from other Township as my husband stated you're charged $1,000 to be taken to the hospital and and um we don't charge you anything so and you didn't see our a little square on the pie that was dedicated to the volunteer EMS and fire department so we're all volunteer and we do you know everybody in the township is very generous and donates you guys support us give us little thank you parties every now and then always thank us at every M disable thing if we show up we Le everybody's thank you for supporting us and we hope that the township that's one thing too that we are within our budget and we are one of very very very few townships that have a volunteer first aid Squad anymore everybody works for a profit so okay thank you thank you thank you thank you anyone else in the room yes sir I'm starting my way got it can you give me like a sign for a second it's nice and green so you'll see it disappear joosu we three on or drive I have um a PowerPoint presentation that I will deliver tomorrow probably to the administrator for your detailed comments on this it'll be much shorter than the six page tone that I sent after my last comments so I'm sure you'll be appreciative of that uh this is something completely different we have New Jersey assembly resolution 29 assembly resolution 29 requests the president to discontinue funding for and to withdraw from the World Health Organization due to its past failures with respect to covid-19 and the P potential to claim and exert excessive authority over citizens of every country naturally ours as well and by extension that last phrase uh really implies potential to infringe upon our constitutional rights uh hesport residents therefore that would agree with that resolution should support the resolution and contact assemblyman teresi at 856 817 2143 and assemblywoman cats at 60985 2397 the rest of the presentation is going to be some commentary on it and some additional details and I have uh I will read from the statement from the resolution at the bottom of the uh ordinance it's the sentiment of the general assembly that the who's failures in its pandemic response including a slow and inadequate initial reaction to the emergence of the disease the issuance of inconsistent and in erroneous guidance that may have exacerbated the spread of covid-19 and its unjustifiable deference to the Chinese government particularly with regard to the who's investigations into the origins of the virus as well as concerns as to the potential breadth of its authority to reach into every aspect of life across the globe Merit withdrawing the United States from the organization so on Memorial Day while we're remembering our fallen service members from all of our Wars the World Health Organization is convening in Geneva Switzerland at its 77th World Health assembly and 194 Nations will be present and they're going to be discussing the draft pandemic agreement along with changes to the international Health regulations and who hopes that this agreement will be finalized and eventually signed as an international treaty so meanwhile here in the US a key concern is that it's a power grab by the World Health Organization and its benefactors and Underwriters including communist China Bill Gates cented us Administration and the concern is that it would erode National sovereignty of the signatories not only ours and limit individual freedoms and a key concern another key concern is that who will be able to declare a global pandemic for a variety of reasons from anything from gun violence to climate change and then direct worldwide actions ranging from border closures travel bans mandatory vaccinations vaccination status monitoring restrictions on movements and so forth so this is a very egregious uh agreement most essentially most especially the concern is the censoring of Americans speech and opinions whether they are medical doctors PhD researchers or ordinary citizens as there there's a Zero Hedge article on the internet dated just yesterday that attorneys generals from 22 states have sign a letter to President Biden or urging him not to sign the agreement uh ultimately it's the goal to the goal is to seed authority to the World Health Organization and its uh director General so there's three questions not enough time to go through does an agreement be or a treaty become the supreme law of the land and the answer is no as you can look at Thomas Jefferson Supreme Court decisions that have covered that uh particularly it's held that courts may not give treaty's domestic effect in a way that interferes with individual rights guaranteed in the Constitution and so therefore I would urge opposition I'm sorry support to ar29 am I done any more second pretty good all right thank you thanks Joe thank you Joe thank you good job good catch yes ma'am whoops uh Shelby marar 98 Washington Street hesport um so I just wanted to touch back on the comment that Bruce levenson made about a call 2 Thurs days ago um please correct me if I'm wrong um hpart was at that call uh it's very unprofessional to argue with another agency that arrived 30 seconds before us um so the response times from both organizations were're both s minutes uh we responded from home they responded from their station so we were on that call uh we were the professional ones unfortunately we were not able to take our patient um but we stepped back instead of arguing back and forth on who was taking the patient and made the proper choice to make sure that our patient was in the care and got to where the patient needed to be at that time um I also wanted to state that my name is written on the survey and I have was given zero opportunities to speak to anybody regarding the survey so if anything I would please like my name removed from the survey and um I don't feel that I should have any work in it as I was I was the chief but I did not speak to anybody thank you thank you sh thank you and the patient appreciated yes very much the care that was given anyone else in the room yes ma'am hi Jamie Kennedy 6 South hunon I would just like to ask the committee to consider fixing the lights in the municipal complex before it considers installing constructing or whatever the case may be a Cricut field for 12 people when we have hundreds of people that utilize the paths and the lights are not functioning okay and that's it thank you thank you thank you anyone else in the room anyone online we do have a resident online to say no she's not unmuting so okay that being said um I'll close comments from the public uh now it's time for comments from the administrator get through the regular business first um just want to announce that the road paving and reconstruction is going to beginning beginning soon at palas Avenue Laurel Ridge and fenmore uh the school district has been contacted um to make sure there isn't any um anything that affects the bus routes also um just wanted to let the community know June 1st is our 100th anniversary celebration um there have been so many people working feverishly on it um it's going to be a wonderful grand time and um I'll leave that the rest of the comments to the governing body on that event um I also want to extend my thanks to um our Deputy clerk Tara uh for all of your hard work and um it has been a great pleasure working with you um and growing with you over the past past seven years um so moving on to um I think the biggest issue in the room so I just want to be clear that the governing body and administration have been actively working to strengthen and improve our relationship with our emergency response Partners to ensure the safety and well-being of our residents and as they are met consistently swiftly and professionally um we are extremely grateful to the volunteer men and women who serve and have served our Township um the purpose of the study was to determine all facets of operations of the two agencies that provide fire and EMS services in an objective unbiased and statistical manner so that we can collectively move forward to ensure our residents have the most effective responsible again capable and professional emergency response services available our residents deserve nothing less and quite frankly more so the handpick team of uh the public safety Institute just to kind of go over who they are and um let the community know that these are are are people with a lot of service behind them uh Chief Don Huber he's a retired career Fire Chief and director for Irvington New Jersey former Chief of Staff of the New Jersey Division of fire safety and fiscal monitor for the New Jersey Division of local government services he is the founder and Chief Operating Officer of PSI Vincent granice Chief Atlantic City Fire Department retired and chief technical adviser to psi Allan South battalion chief Millstone fire department and partner with Central Jersey compliance company also previously volunteer with pton Township volunteer emergency and Fire Company Andrew hagenberg Captain Millstone fire department and partner with Central Jersey compliance company and chief Craig auston pton fire department and former Regional planning supervisor with New Jersey Department of fire Services um so yes it started in 2022 and it it ended you know not that long ago um I want to just address the the public statement that was posted by the hesport emergency Squad and I believe it's from chief chief Bush um The Plea to help save our EMS Squad which was the end of April and I do notice that chief chief bush is not here but I do commend all of the volunteers for being here um he St you know and it was stated tonight how much money is saved by having an all volunteer Squad and you know I do concur with that but you know when there is a billing for service it's buil to the insurance company um and if there's you know back in 20 January of 2022 when 48% of the calls February 22 20% of the calls March 30% April 32% May 50% July 73% 6 76% increasingly getting better but it there were a couple months we're at 20% call rate 2022 2023 as was reported in the four reports that we received 60% call rate 84% call rate 80 992 getting better but back in January of 2022 when or let's just say February when 20% of the calls were met by hesport emergency Squad 80% of the calls were met by either Lumberton emergency squad or America and they build for services during that year this Township never received a complaint from our residents for being build for services however I did receive a complaint last year from a resident who gives Faithfully every year to the squad donation wanting to know if the hesport emergency Squad was going to pay her $100 co-pay because she contributes to the squad and I said you know unfortunately you're we cannot answer that for you you please reach out to the squad um so there were never any concerns from the residents during those time periods the 80% uh 32% 43% times when when they were serviced by other Mutual Aid agencies um so I understand what you were saying um I think all that we want here is to look at this the facts we're not you know we don't want to get into the emotional response of this because we appreciate all of the hard work of our volunteers that is not the question here at all what is being looked at is the response rate the mutual Aid that's that's being tked to our neighboring towns and we don't contribute to those those entities we don't pay for their insurance but they're responding to 70% of our calls at times or or even 40% of the calls and those Mutual Aid companies respond to 100% of their calls because they are staffed by Duty Crews and yes they do soft bill but there are agreements with those other towns that they cover that the town pays for those co-pays or if they don't have insurance the town pays for their ambulance ride to the the hospital hesport Township does contribute in its operating expenses which was the largest piece of that puzzle $330,000 a year and has been for a very long time to the hesport emergency Squad it also donates $90,000 a year to the fire company the rigs are owned by hesport Township taxpayers hesport Township pays for the gas and up until today hesport Township was paying for general liability insurance workers comp insurance insur professional liability insurance so to say that the town does not support the emergency Squad is is not is not true and I don't think that that was the question here tonight I think what needs to be reviewed and that was what we did with the PSI Group a very capable group of professionals was to objectively look at the statistics and the facts and the numbers and I do have a response from the public safety Institute group on the call from Mr Mr uh Bush's Chief Bush's call to the community for support on April 29th give me a minute please I need to find it [Music] my apologies I know it's in here I just highlighted it here we go I had several email chains with shelin marar early in the study this included emails phone calls and two in-person meetings prior to the change in administration which I do have those emails Squad members were visited during one meeting during this meeting contact info was provided and outside surveys answered very limited engagement was had surveys were provided to all Squad members early in this process with again very limited response Shelby marar worked with us to both distribute these to Squad members and obtain them for memberships for our team's review when Chief Bush came into office we allowed him time to transition into his new role thus the extended length of the study Chief Bush did exchange a few emails early on a zoom meeting and a phone call I did attempt to contact Chief Bush several times via phone to both his cell phone number squad's phone number and his business phone number to no avail in reference to document requests from our team to the ambulance Squad the only document we received back was the squad roster with ranks and addresses we followed up to that information asking for clarification which we did not receive that followup included requests for incorporation paperwork clarification on membership positions policies and procedures and finance information this request was followed up with phone calls with no answer by this point we determined we had enough information to proceed with the study based on the information provided to us by Chief marar and the info obtained from Burlington County communications in regards to call response and chief Huber provided a onepage response as well which I will not read but it is available I have a lot of information and documents that are available to the public at any time if anybody would like to come in and review them or op request um again uh the good news is that in the end and given the valued input we did receive along with data we received from the county as well as our own research study and observations I am confident the findings and recommendations detailed and provided to the hesport local governing body in the PSI fire and EMS report are credible and valid I don't want to get into the weeds with the amount of dialogue research conversations that I have received and fielded for for quite some time um so we're here today I you know anytime any of the volunteers want to come in and talk to me one-onone you know my door is always open um but again we're here today to look at the facts and to look at the response and our our residents deserve in today's day and age to be responded to our residents make donations Faithfully the township taxpayers pay $30,000 a year and then there are times where 80% of the calls are being fielded to our mutual Aid partners and there and those residents insurance is getting built and they're paying those co-pays so these are all facts and I just all I ask is that we all get together we present the facts and and we move forward whichever whatever that is but again those are just recommendations that is not a decision and they have every right in that PSI study to make a recommendation and there's many recommendations for both emergency services and the emergency Squad and the fire company that's it thank you thank you thank you than polar thanks Paul Mr Gillespie no ma'am thank you Mrs Evans yes just a couple of things I wanted to say how much the Green Team enjoyed representing ourselves at Earth Day and please do go to the website on the environmental commission web page you will find a link to an interactive map of community assets created by Samantha lovan of the Green Team and do have a play with it it's a lot of fun we've now resubmitted the sustainable Jersey application for the second time and looking forward to getting another round of feedback and hopefully a few more points I attended the first two talks in the 100th anniversary history series both were amazing I do recommend that if you can get out on either one of the Saturdays or the Tuesdays you do try those of course I'm looking forward to the June the 1st event as well I ran the hesport 5K in 3115 Mr wait wait how what was that 31 minutes 15 seconds Mr gaspie good for you good for you and there were a bunch of other Hort residents there uh enjoying that run who were also placed in their age group so it was a great event um I'd like to thank Tara for being an absolutely wonderful assistant Clerk and I cannot believe how quickly she responds to my sustainable Jersey requests she's amazing thank you all for coming and have a great night okay this Tori okay I have a lot to say so I'm just going to briefly touch on him oh dear set the timer the timer okay but I want to first of all welcome everybody it's so nice to see all of you here we understand that you would not be here unless you were concerned about issues and they are very important to us and as many of you know me and alerting me the residents wishes are primary to me and that's how it's always going to be um so welcome everybody but um I want to say like congratulations on our Earth Day the Green Team the con conservation team Harbor Baptist um presented us with Incredible artwork um the Buddy bench was um dedicated to the school that was a success Jerry had a good compost demonstration uh the Burlington County Library was there andy was there selling shirts for us Andy Lorraine and chis were reading to the children it was all wonderful thank you Donna another great job and your team congratulations um I'd also like to say they were great speeches by Hal Hal and Elise very nicely done and con and we are looking to more um speeches from John Anderson and Leticia Kelly we also had a nice event when we named Bob Shin way and we had a nice turnout that way uh that day and it was uh nice to see so many people come out and support that on a personal note I'd like to thank my First Holy Communion second graders especially the hayport second graders who made their First Holy Communion on May 4th um we are so busy with the anniversary I've ordered more shirts the t-shir shirt sale is going very very well I ordered more shirts and different colors so be on the lookout for those um we are running a cornhole tournament it's $25 a team so that would be two people on a team the winners both of the winners will be getting this the cornhole tournament boards so they're very nice and then we'll have second and third price winners depending on how many people we have participating so you can sign up here at the township it's on the Facebook with an email address and even the day of the event we we can take signups for that so we're looking forward to Memorial Day May 27th we'll have a very nice celebration here um and we hope that many of you can come out um June 1st of course is our big day I can't believe it's finally here after all this time um so I'd also like to thank you Tara it's been a pleasure working with you we're going to miss you and and I would just like to say thanks again for all of you coming out God bless you and God bless hesport thank you thank you Mr Close oh I think Karen about covered it all but I did enjoy Earth Day I mean when I get a chance to talk about dirt and composting he that's just my thing you know what I mean I get a picture of you I don't know if I got a picture but I enjoyed it I i' like that's my way of giving back to the community and you know I don't put things out to be discarded I them compost on my own and reuse them in my yard so that's my thing and I wish more people would do it it would be more of a sustainable H sport so um and unveiling the Bob chin way sign that was great we had some great people I felt like I was back in high school with all the people there I knew from high school it was really nice I really enjoyed seeing all the people that all together that grew up I grew up with in this town so it was very nice so other than that I look forward to June 1st so uh everybody has to come out and enjoy it so that's it for me indeed okay Mr Montgomery uh also like to thank everyone for being here and your concern and your love and passion for our town um I was also able to be there for the dedication of the Bob Shin way um last Tuesday was happy to see all all the the people there um just a couple comments here or there um some things that we go through are are are um for consent orders um there are a couple block parties that that neighborhoods have been asking for block parties and they get blocked off and as a Township we help them it's just wonderful it's great so if you live in a neighborhood that's that has one great if not consider it consider getting together with your neighbors and having a block party we we did one in Sage run just impromptu he didn't ask for permission but many many years ago um I wish I had known cuz I would have I would have liked to have done that so I just want to point that out it's a it's a great thing so consider that um Memorial Day is coming up um and um we're going to be honoring our veterans so if you can come out um please do 9:00 on on Monday the the 9:00 a.m. the 27th um one of the things about the um the flood damage prevention that we had passed these fines are Hefty it please uh I like to think that our residents and our businesses do not dispose of um Solid Waste but it happens so if you see something um please please report it these fines are $2500 to $10,000 it's for real we don't want it we want to stop it and I'm happy to support that as also as a former Boy Scout and part of our um environmental commission here um I'm really proud of the group for the work they did with um the research they did for the trees and and all that and I'm happy um that we are not just passing it that we really looked into it and doing the best for our town uh so I'm I'm I'm proud of that um let's see um Tara wow best wishes to you good for you bad for us that we're losing you but say that with um with uh you know congratulations um and we know you'll do well um and let's see um other than that God bless ha support thank you okay so um yes the Bob Shin on bailing was very nice I met a lot of uh people from various parts of town and people that knew him from when he was the mayor they knew him when he was the guy down the road with the marina a landlord they landlord friends and family and it was it was a perfect day to have a an unveiling yes um Conley Brooks will be talking again on the 21st at 7 p.m. and um it's amazing some of the stuff he comes up with so it's it's well worth the visit because I do not believe he's repeating what he's said um last Saturday Memorial Day um I believe we will all be here on the 27th at 9:00 a.m. to uh commemorate the day most of us on the uh I believe a number of us here on the committee will also be uh going to the County's Memorial Day um ceremony on 5:30 at 11:00 a.m. if anyone cares to join us we'll be laying a wreath there at the Veterans Memorial Park um we have several souvenirs and such things with the some are still available some are getting dangerously low on quantities we have them ordered the shirts are coming I spoke with them again today they are on their way okay and they're still posted we still have some shirts where is it in the office there's still stff they're on the in the aisle yeah yeah there's still some in the office check them out um so uh I also want to thank all the volunteers that are participating in this 100th anniversary celebration and that includes everyone here in this building especially your fearless leader Donna's been working her butt off for the last year and a half it's been well God willing and it's sunny everybody pray um it it tend it looks like it should be a fantastic event between the music our local musicians um the beer garden do I can I mention that yeah as long as they're over 18 what beers are Brewing just for our event exactly we do have some beer that's being uh brewed the H the h quarter and the bull the bull breaking up with Lumberton logger it should be 21 right drinking AG 21 not over 18 as long as they're over 21 it keeps changing what do I I don't drink I was trying to figure it out I'm like I don't it was when I was you could be the designated driver then last time I heard it I am the design it's 21 right we know it's 21 we all know it's 2 mention yeah it was 18 when I was 17 pardon me if that makes sense I to mention something no you can't talk again Ken it's enough good look okay I said the and um I personally would like to thank the members of the squad the emergency Squad that have been there for me in the past and for my husband and um I have the greatest amount of respect for those people that volunteer their time I don't know that their officers have the best in interest at heart but uh I do believe that the members of the squad do um that being said I too um know that it I was given instructions that someone did not want a fuss made over them but um we hear since when do we listen to that on the committee felt that we wanted to do a little something for you Tera you're the only one I've known in that position I've beened oh my God and I just you to oh thank you it's a Mercedes very much I do I'll find one thank you very much beautiful thank you thank you all but nobody put it on [Laughter] Facebook okay that being said we have some business let's pay the bills if I may interject please I have a couple that I'm asking to be added to the bill list okay if you would please consider all right um purchase order 24 - 00306 vendor is CG p& for COA planning services and administrative agent Services out of the affordable housing trust fund in the amount of $477 second is uh purchase order 24-38 to Precision LLC in the amount of $2,638 for uh stage banners for the June 1st event that's for the side scrims and the top stage Banner um the graphic designing and uh shipping and printing of those so I request a motion to add those two to the agenda uh motion to add those uh listed to the agenda second Mrs Evans yeah Mrs Tori yes all in favor I I okay so those being added can I have a motion to pay the bills so moved second um I just have a question sure um to be uh Comcast weren't $18 it says buildings and grounds how many buildings did we serve with conest just curious I mean uh I mean it sounds hot to me just for this building uh the Public Works building in this building it's it's higher for businesses than it is for your home oh I'm I'm aware of that but it's only internet on TV for correct okay that's good just double check believe so well I don't know if there's Comcast services at the street Center yeah I don't or if it's just no no cuz I know that there's something bounces off the firehouse yeah to use their so okay okay Mr clous uh yes Mrs EV yes all in favor I I okay executive session resolution 2024-25 to enter into executive session make that motion second Mrs Evans yes Mr Montgomery yes all in favor I I um we expect to be about a half hour and there may be formal action can we take a actually I do have one last thing to mention there are [Applause] 427 minutes until the June 1st celebration it's count there 4 pm. June 1st be there bring your families so did we make a motion to go on to close yeah we did we did I'm going to I shut this off M go uh yeah you can we're going to go in the [Music] back e