adequate notice of the March 14th 2024 Township committee meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act by posting written notice of the agenda of the meeting on a bulletin board in the municipal building 1 Route 10 Township of Hanover and by hand delivering mailing or faxing such notice and agenda to the following newspapers Mars County daily record The Star Ledger Handover eagle and by fing the same with the Township Clerk roll call committee kill here committee farasa committee francioli committee Mahal mayor Gallagher here five members in attendance ready black okay if everybody would like to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance and please remain standing for Deputy Mayor Mahalo for to lead us in our prayer I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all almighty God please watch over and guide this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding to help make the best decisions for our residents please bless our First Responders and Township volunteers who help keep us all safe also bless our Township employees and residents lastly please let us pray for the men and women of the US Armed Forces who stand vigil over for us always amen amen right thank okay tonight we have a special presentation to recognize Local Heroes and I'm going to ask our Lea on to Public Safety to take the floor but I would like to begin by saying I am a trustee in a Mars County two Hunter Club I am on the Valor committee and I am beginning to learn more and more about what Heroes do and how people will put the greater good and other people's safety over their own so I would like to say that getting older and recognizing acts like this and how much we appreciate them and how blessed we are to have people like you is a beautiful thing so I'd personally like to say thank you and I'd like to pass it to committee Brian kahill thank you Mr mayoros mind coming up hand you yeah gentlemen if you don't like to come up um just something very very brief um before you hand out your Josh on behalf of the township committee I'm honored to present you with this symbol of our respect and appreciation for your action on Tuesday December 13th without regard to your own safety and wellbeing you rescued a neighbor and then attack the dog who had already been bitten several times after getting the victim to safety and securing the dog you immediately came to the aid of the dog's owner who had suffered from Cardiac Arrest by administering CPR and summoning help your selflessness your selfless actions on that day demonstrate how blessed we are to have such cons conscientious young men amongst us and it is a reflection of the truly wonderful family you two come from congratulations and thanks both thank you appreciate thank you very much thank you thank you very much app the middle of the room can I say something please it was my husband they tried to save I want to thank you very much from the bottom my heart I always knew that you were good guys living across the street from you but now you're even more dear to my heart and I thank you would you like to be in a photo than okay I'm crying sorry good evening ladies and gentlemen first on the agenda are three letters of communication first letter is from Patricia Detro retiring from her position as a crossing guard matron as of March 1st 2024 second is a letter from Katherine Whitehead our public health nurse supervisor resigning from her position as of March 7th 2024 and lastly is a letter from Susan Brady administrative secretary for the engineering department retiring from her position as of September 1st 2024 may have a motion to accept these letters of communication second all in favor I both all three letters are accepted next on the agenda is the approval of the township committee meeting minutes of February 8th may I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes still second all in favor so approved next on the agenda we have a special public hearing to provide the legal voters of whiy fire district number two and all persons and citizens of Interest an opportunity to be heard concerning the adoption of the 2024 Fire District number two budget committee man K would you like to give a public an overview of the process please yes thank you on February 17th 2024 the Hanover fire the Hanover fire district 2 held their annual election at which their proposed budget Was Defeated according to State Statute when a Fire District budget is voted down P committee has 30 days to adopt the budget as is or with changes the committee deems appropriate in this capacity it became our respon responsibility to look carefully at the proposed budget and determine if there were opportunities for savings that would not negatively impact Public Safety as was done in 20123 when District 2's budget was voted down the township formed a subcommittee our subcommittee consisted of myself Deputy Mayor Mulo business administrator Joe Georgio and CFO Sylvio Esposito on February 14th our committee our subcommittee met with fire commissioner chairman John gethin commissioner and Treasurer Alan Erich and fire chief Paul Perell by the conclusion of that meeting adjustments were made to several line items which resulted in roughly $116,000 in reductions in the 2024 spending as a result of that there will be no tax increase to District 2 residents this year I want to thank the members of the subcommittee as well as fire district 2 leaders for what the township committee believes is a fair and Equitable budget now may I have a motion to open the public hearing motion move second all in favor I if you'd like to be heard regarding the budget of the whiy fire district number two please state your name and address for the record hearing none seeing none may I have a motion to close second all in favor in order to pass the fire district 2 budget a resolution of the township committee must be passed i' like to read into the record resolution number 49-22 for and the title is is a resolution of the township Committee of the township of Handover adopting the revised 2024 calendar year budget for the Handover Township Fire District number two may I have a motion to approve this resolution motion second on roll call committe kill hi committee man francoli hi committee men barasa hi committe Melo yes and mayor Galler I the resolution is adopted the revised Handover Fire District number two 2024 budget so approved next order of business is the public hearing and Adoption of ordinance number 3224 and 42024 proof of publication that both ordinances and their notice of introduction appeared in full in the February 14th issue of the Daily Record in accordance with law I would also like to State for the record that ordinance 4 2024 is a land use ordinance and the ordinance was sent to the planning board for referral and review in a letter dated March 4 2024 from the planning board's chairman Peter Denis it stated that the ordinance is is substantially consistent with the master plan and the board recommended adoption of the ordinance also like to State for the record that ordinance 42024 was also filed with the Mars County planning and development office as required by the municipal land use law at this time I have a motion to convene the public hearing on ordinance 32024 and 4-22 more second is anyone in Chambers wishing to be heard concerning either ordinance if so please state your name and address for the record and which ordinance you would like to be heard regarding hearing none seeing none may have a motion to close the public hearing so move second now an adoption may have a motion to adopt ordinance 32024 and 42024 so moved second on roll call committee kahill hi committee m faras hi committee francioli committe Mahal mayor Gallagher so adopted next I'd like to read two ordinances for introduction their titles the evening I'm sorry let me read their the ordinance titles into the record sorry about that ordinance number 5-22 an ordinance of the township Committee of the township of Hanover authorizing a 1% increase in the appropriation limit of the Township's calendar year 2024 current fund budget and further establish a cap Bank all in accordance with njsa 4A 4- 4514 and ordinance number 62024 an ordinance of the township Committee of the township of Handover in the county of Mars state of New Jersey amending and supplementing swimming pool Enterprise fund ordinance number 14-223 with the transfer of $23,000 from SPF ordinance number 18-2 2023 in order to provide sufficient funds for the replacement of the starting blocks at the B metal swimming pool I'd like to State for the record that both ordinances and the respective notices of introduction will be published and full in the Daily Record in accordance with law the public hearing is scheduled for April 11 2024 at 8:00 p.m. if any member of the public would like to be heard regarding these ordinances they will be given the opportunity to do so that evening may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 52024 and six thank you may I have a second second on roll call commit kahill yes committee man farasa hi committee man francioli hi committee Mahal yes mayor Gallagher hi so introduced next on the is the introduction of the 2024 current fund budget in the amount of 32,600 2 5,165 44 the budget will be further considered for final passage at the April 11th 2024 meeting at 8:00 p.m. at which time any member of the public will be heard concerning the budget a synopsis of the budget will be published in the daily record on March 20th 2024 and copies of the budget will also be available in the finance office for review and will also be posted on the Township's website at this time I would like like to read into the record the title of resolution 50-22 which will establish the date and the consideration of adoptions did you put it sorry resolution 50-22 resolution introducing the 2024 Municipal budget and setting forth the dates and time for the public hearing and consideration of adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget may I have a motion to introduce and to establish the public hearing date and the consideration of adoption of the 24 current fund on April 13th so mov second on roll call committe kahill hi committee France I'm sorry farasa Hi committee man francioli hi committe Mahalo yes mayor Gallagher so introduced and established the date of the public hearing our next order of business is the approval of resolutions as a consent agenda resolutions 51- 2024 through 58 2024 does any member of the governing body have any questions regarding any of these resolutions so move second all in favor next we have to pay our bills in the amount of 6, 380,000 8 8,976 81 may I have a motion to pay our bills motion to pay the bills John always pays the bills I have a second second all in favor and lastly we have raffle applications for approval on the agenda we missed um a few that were came in after the agenda was printed so it's RL 3430 employment Horizons RL 3431 Abundant Life Worship Center RL 3432 Knights of Columbus RL 3433 The Academy of St Elizabeth's RL 3434 The Academy of St Elizabeth's and RL 3435 also the Academy of St Elizabeth may I have a motion to pass the raffle applications so move second all in favor I and mayor and the members of the committee that clears my agenda thank you very much thank you very much Ken so just out of curiosity uh how are you out there with the banks on interest rates what are we getting um we just renegotiated so yeah yeah so the people know their money is working okay I'd like to make a motion to open up to the public so move second all in favor I I if anyone from the public would like to address the governing body please uh go to the podium state your name your address and you have four minutes good evening Terry beard uh I live in the whiy section of Hanover um I just wanted to thank the committee and really all the administration and Fred and everybody in reference to uh this was Sunshine week and Oprah is uh in the news and it seems that the uh well it seems that our state has some people that want to pass some rules and and take away transparency and um it's being fought it's a hard fight right now but I have to thank you because the town has always been very good about answering any of my Oprah requests and trust me I have written quite a few of them although ironically I very rarely write one anymore because a lot of the stuff is now automatically put on the website and when Chicken Little kept saying oh the sky is going to fall cuz we're going to put all the stuff on the website the sky didn't fall and the public does have access to the information if they choose which is great and of course there's still people that choose not to but in all in all transparent government leads to the fact that people have a better trust in the government and and the people who are running the government so I appreciate everything you done thank you very much thank you Terry you anyone else uh Dina ainson Cedar NOS um I just want to add to Terry's comment about the Oprah and the town um you guys have been very good about it and um very quick I was surprised how quick of a response I got so I just wanted to say that they're doing a very good job with that and um to add to Harry's comment from January about the zoom um I know she was talking about the zoom with um teaching people about the budget but did you ever consider it for these meetings cuz um I went to a town meeting in Newton and they have the TVs like this but they have um it connected to zoom so we can't see the people but I guess the people can see the meeting and then after the public that's here speaks they ask them if they have any questions so if you do the zoom thing just consider that well we we actually budgeted quite a bit of money to redo all the um all the equipment we have in here all the audio equipment we have in here uh we are going to modernize we are going to try to get a little bit more with the times when it comes to communication so everything is on the table right now with our discussions but our meetings are video they are on TV and are always available on the website and on YouTube I know I know I've watched that's where I saw her comment cuz I wasn't able to make it but that's like they can interact with you during the meeting that's we we are discussing and consider considering a lot of options okay so that has been discussed thank you thank you anybody else motion to close second all in favor I okay does anybody on the governing body have anything they want to share with the public uh Mr Mayor just a few brief things mik brief things me me too typical and not typically but before our community right now a couple of issues uh one bring you up to date with what's going on with the bared Place water tank which is being uh refinished by the SMC mua that's our water company uh there's been concerns uh with uh by the neighbors uh over the recent days and heavy winds uh with the canvas uh tarps that are being used around the tank uh due to the winds unfortunately and apologetically have kept a lot of our neighbors up during these winds uh these tarps are used to capture uh the sand blasted materials from the tank um work will continue on as fast as we possibly can smca mua wishes to say that uh they want the tank back online by April 1st uh it's important to them uh and uh the tank will be resprayed refinished Etc uh by that time so we'll we'll keep monitoring it along the way hope that is now recently too uh we weather is getting nice windows are open airplanes are flying so marown airport had a few complaints uh about uh touch and goes touch and goes procedures by light aircraft are part of a training process and they're using Runway 31 that Runway unfortunately comes out over Park Avenue area has Disturbed a lot of the neighbors I want you to know the Township's been in touch with management uh at the airport there have been some policies of the airport not to use Runway 31 but to use the larger runways which is 523 uh but let me say this regarding the policies policies are just that the runways in the airport are controlled by the FAA and division of air airports of the state of New Jersey and the FEDS uh so any policies that they make can be overruled while they're doing their very best not to use that Runway the only thing I can say is uh as a uh individual somewhat familiar with flight is that the runway is used when wind conditions say that it's the safest thing for the pilots overall but again we are in touch with the airport we are in touch with the ground crew cuz we're hoping we can give advice to Pilots before they uh before they take flight while they're tacking on the ground as to which which which runways uh we prefer they use so thank you Mr Mayor for loate thank you Ron John you have something yes um tonight's report is all about the E so let's begin with engineering our first e uh engineering has a total of 11 roads being planned for implementation this summer uh the majority of the road work will be done um during July and August so that we do not impact um School transportation especially one of the larger roads to be done is B metal Parkway that's being done on behalf of State Grant and well done in terms of earning that Grant um I'm not going to talk about the other 10 roads but they throughout our municipality but it's listed on our Township website and I encourage you to go to the township website and you'll see a listing of all of the the next e is edac economic development advisory Council the council scheduled one of its um key events uh two weeks ago and the event was a small business program and that small business program was targeted um to help provide access to loans money for grants for improvements for leases and website development this is all being provided by the New Jersey Economic Development Advisory Group and we brought that information to our businesses it was very well attended there were over 60 participants at that to include a few participants who determined thereafter that they wanted to open a business in Hanover Township so it's good news for us our next e is environmental spring is in the air right around the corner you had a little taste of it today um and there's two big events that the environmental commission will be conducting first one is Earth Day that'll be on April 25th it'll be a major cleanup effort uh there'll be in addition to the cleanup effort there'll be tree planting in Central Park this event will be supported by our corporates two of our largest corporate entities have stepped up and are providing us with a number of their staff members to work on these cleanups to include cleanups of our trails so thanks to Barkley's for third year in a row and doing this as well as Bayer coming back to help um with this cleanup so that's on Earth Day the 25th and on May the 4th there'll be an Earth Day Fair the earth a fair is really targeted towards education of our children about how do you protect your environment what are the things that we can do in terms of preserving clean water what can we do in terms of encouraging planting um so I think it's going to be Hands-On it's going to be interactive so mark that one down for May 4th our last e is economics and this is available to everybody everybody um our EDC has done a good job in terms of popularizing information about something called unclaimed funds there's many funds that are out there that are your funds that you haveen been claimed that the state of New Jersey JY has those funds to check whether you have personally any unclaimed funds available to you go to the website unclaim funds. newjersey.gov and hopefully you'll find some money that belongs to you mayor that concludes my report thank you John Brian I don't have too much to report I just want to you know again um congratulate Tim and Josh as well as just thank commit M you were tremendous help your experience as being a fire commissioner with the district 2 uh was invaluable when we went through I mean it almost we're getting good at it now we went through it so fast but uh but it really was invaluable and everybody kind of moved right along thanks to your background and your knowledge so so thank you very much for that um I also just wanted to mention uh the mayor and I met with the uh Landmark commission probably two Tuesdays ago maybe three Tuesdays ago at their monthly meeting uh the purpose for the mayor to join me during that meeting was to discuss um the future of the Tuttle house as you recall the Tuttle house was uh donated to us by the spot family uh a couple of years ago and since then we've been applying for and and uh getting grants for that property to restore it um there are always some challenges particularly around budget time because there are a number of other different priorities uh so basically what we did was we spent some time discussing that with the landmark commission uh encouraging them to explore uh other opportunities greater opportunities to help along with the tunnel house they are beginning to start a 501c uh organization which will allow them to accept uh donations hopefully from our large corporations and and uh and those sorts of folks that'll help move this thing along um but I just wanted to make everybody aware that you know there's still discussion going on around Tuttle house it's still something that we want to do um but we're going to need a little help [Music] I think that's it thank you Brian great work too great work on a budget both of you guys with the fire Mike uh yeah just real quick I'm going to list a couple things uh first of all Cultural Arts had their Lunar New Year back on the 18th of February it was a terrific turn out uh hopefully you guys made it it was uh again it's a wonderful celebration uh for the Chinese New Year um we had a beautiful day today so this is kind of app propo pool memberships are now open it's time to sign up early membership ends on April 19th so there is a discount if you sign up early uh and then the pool Believe It or Not pool opens on May 24th um so we're we're we're it's creeping up quickly but now's the time to sign back up for pool memberships last year we had it uh one of our biggest years ever followed by the year before which was one of the biggest years then so uh we're always adding extra amenities always adding extra activities to do uh I know we're going to be having a couple concerts at the pool this year open to the town and to pool uh pool members also that's I'll keep you posted on that as we get a little closer um signups are in full swing there's uh there's lacrosse there's little league there's softball just keep that in mind speaking of little league we have um opening day gentlemen mark your calendars April 20th will'll be opening day um that'll be a Saturday and we always have a fun time on that hopefully the weather will cooperate has been lately uh also Mark calendars over excuse me April 27th we have our fishing contest and Touch a Truck uh I believe it's going to be over at malap partis this year so Mark those in your calendars I'll keep you guys posted but it's springtime a lot of stuff is coming up so that's it for now keeping it sweet sweet she just have like a 30 second pause mik thank you for I'm learning more and more about what you guys do and it's unbelievable thank you always a lot going on in Recreation okay first of all I want to say that when Brian kahill became a committee man he talked largely about communication and we developed a really good website from our website we went into tap into we went into social media so if anybody would like any information real information in in in real time please check out our website from there you can navigate through all the different areas we now have with communication so I'm going to make my comments very short because my new policy is going to be to try to drive people to our available information that's accurate and current but there's two big ones for today and I'm going to start with law enforcement night we started law enforcement night at men and Arena 6 years ago and what sparked the impetus was Chief Mark Rody had of Township police chief who was a dear friend of all of ours an incredible Chief one day said to me the shame of being a police officer and a first responder is you only meet people on their worst day he said what could we do to work to meet people on a very good day that sparked law enforcement night at man and Arena we do it every year confirmed for tomorrow we have 14 law enforcement agencies coming with equipment with trucks with anything you can think of giveaways unfortunately unfortunately East Town ordered their giveaways five six weeks ago so we might have to get there early and hide some of their stuff cuz they really give away a lot of beautiful stuff but it's a great opportunity to meet these people to give everything they have every day and put their lives on the line for our safety that's tomorrow night men Arena doors open at 6 6:30 you'll have a really good time you meet a lot of wonderful selfless people we talked quite a bit about flooding in Han Township in hanur Township we created the whiy paade flood remediation task force we were very excited about the fact that we did get a grant for $1.5 million and we got $300,000 towards the Army Corps of Engineers the good thing about the Army Corps of Engineers years is this that money could go into a study and we'll never see any kind of remediation come from the study but they'll study and they do a lot of studying but when they see something that they think might need more funding and more study they request more money along with us and we're the chief agency Han Township of the six municipality shared service this week we were notified we were receiving $700,000 more towards our army Corp of Engineers so that's $1 million in the last 2 years and we we are receiving $500,000 more Dollar in our whon saafe FL remediation which is going to go into our till that we could spend 16 days ago as Chief agency we signed all the paperwork at 45 days we're going to go out to bid so we are going to get in the rivers we are going to Des snag we are going to reestablish Banks and we're going to do a little bit of dredging but not much with that 1.5 but now we're putting five on top of that we're applying now for grants for next year so I want you to know when it comes to the flooding in real in real work we're doing real work and the again the impetus for that was engineering and study but study with remediation and I always refer to Panama Canal got deeper and wider because it is super tankers Hudson County between Bayon and Staten Island they raised the Bayon bridge and they dredged to bring the super tankers in that is an engineering Marvel what we're doing I believe is low hanging fruit but we're doing it and it's going to change this area and it's going to be very very good not going to allow any super tankers in we're not having super tankers but we will have mayor pulo in his Robbo we may P Rob son of a gun so scared me there that's basically what I like the reference to super tankers was when we initially started this we were told why we can't do it why it would never work and why these problems are overwhelming my attitude was a complicated problem is the Panama Canal and dredging one of our New York harbers to get super tankers in not to whipy River flooding so we are grabbing at that low hanging fruit and getting millions and millions of dollars and we're going to continue we're keeping our ey on prise and I'm very proud to say hanb Township is the chief agency so that's my report everybody um I'd like to get a motion to close but we do have to uh go into open comp Mr Mayor you're for getting one of the most important events of Hanover Township which is about to happen this weekend law enforcement night GRE Duck Donuts opens up on Saturday Duck Donuts finally opens up on Saturday at the whitmany Village which is just in time for green donuts for St Patrick's Day I just beside myself I mean it's phal but there you go good to close second second all in favor all right that's it thank you everybody donut have you ever had him no you can enjoy you can enjoy that one custom donuts made just for you they're good did you get my mail did you get my mail you look great that picture