hey let's go Let's It Go Mike good evening I hereby announced that pursuant to section five of of the open public meetings act that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the notice which was sent to the Asbury Park Press the Two River times and posted on the Bolton board in township hall and filed in the township clerk's office on January 3rd 2024 mayam prudo here Mr Foster here miss L Mountain here Mr lucarelli here Mr Rano is not present this evening mayor you have a quorum thank you Wendy if everyone would please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation all right so I think first up is our uh Green Team presentation nice hi I'm Betsy Shelton and this is Mary Rose little we're both co-chairs of the current Green Team home dos Green Team uh thank you for having us to speak here tonight on the the work that the green team's been doing um if you can't see the screen um uh and you'd like to follow along the slides can be viewed on the Green Team page of the township website Home Green I'm going to turn this way a little bit there I can see it then home's green team is an advisor I can never say this word advisory committee to the township whose members are appointed to one-year terms most of us are here tonight and the first two rows um there's our list of names and that's a picture of us from uh Earth Day uh if hell residents are welcome to contact us at Green Team homedel township.com hedel Co cool cities became a green team in 2010 when the township registered with sustainable Jersey a nonprofit organization which assists local governments and public schools to uh work toward a better future for new Jersey by pursuing sustainability initiatives they provide technical assistance training a framework for Green Team certification and grants the green team's overall goal is to help hell and all its residents move toward greater sustainability meaning don't use up the good stuff that we have here in hell and don't mess up the beautiful place that we have that we're living here now we can do this through more efficient energy use less waste and actions that give us clean air and water the result we hope is a better life and a better future for all of us the green team has worked for the past 16 years to benefit hell in important ways to improve the environment this sh slide shows a few of the things that you'll see around town uh water fill water bottle filling stations plastic bag recycling an anti- uh idling campaign and the hell community garden some more recent um Green Team activities include that we've added links to the Green Team web page that's part of the hell uh website we applied for a grant to help fund the Township's environmental resources environmental resource inventory and proposed applying for the community energy plan Grant both from sustainable Jersey thank you all for authorizing both of those uh we're looking forward to assisting however we can we reached out to Hell schools connecting with science department and the district energy specialist we also investigated EVs and Chargers grants and rebates and registered with the Empower program for additional free guidance on charger installation and funding so when the township is ready to purchase EVS or install EV Chargers we have a lot of information that we hope we can help you guys out with so finally we want to thank you all for um sponsoring the green team members there were seven of us there at the sustainable uh Summit that was held at um bellworks again this year it was really fun and uh we learned a lot so we've become aware of some additional opportunities to help Homedale while saving money for both the township and the individual fan families and we'd like the committee to consider these new opportunities one is community solar another is a free energy audit assistance uh we have recommendations from a Rucker's green infrastru structure report that um may help resolve some of our flooding problems and finally recertification and the first is community solar the green team has engaged with Community solar program in various ways to help create more capacity oh wait that's the wrong slide what are we on what number is that seven okay we'll go back the first opportunity is community solar the green team's been spreading the word about the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities community solar program from a subscriber perspective Community Compu Community solar enables residents to use energy renewable energy and save money the key factors residents should know about anyone who pays their own electric bill can subscribe to a project and receive a discount on their electric bill nothing is installed at the subscribers house or apartment community solar is a BPU regulated program with controls for consumer protections and there's a project finder on sustainable jerseys website which locates available projects based on your ZIP code Community solar can help residents but at the moment there's not enough capacity to meet the demand residents can still sign up and they will be put on a wait list uh until more projects are approved and built so how can municipalities help it's why we're here today A municipality can engage with Community solar in various ways to help create more capacity to benefit our residents if a community solar developer proposes a building a project in town the request for the required letter of support by the BPU can be considered on a case-by Case basis some towns choose to pass a resolution outlining their criteria for projects with a sample letter of support So In addition to setting expectations for developers this signals Township support of clean energy there are even more opportunities for towns to engage and if the township has interest we can arrange for a consultant from sustainable Jersey to come and go over those community so is a program which increases the amount of locally produced renewable energy creates local jobs and saves subscribers money we encourage current encourage the township to engage with Community solar in some way to help build capacity for this program the second opportunity we'd like to talk about is a it's available to us from sustainable Jersey is free energy technical assistance a dedicated staff member who can expedite a municipal energy audit and identify funding for energy efficiencies it's a simple application the township administrator must attend the initial meeting and the Green Team suggests that the town should take advantage of this uh free uh program you do have to register to receive the help the third opportunity is the Ruckers Water Resources program produced a pre preliminary report in 2021 which includes Municipal sites churches and schools that could benefit from Green infrastructure projects such as rain Gardens to manage storm water runoff and reduced flooding uh this report is intended as a resource to help towns meet the new ms4 Municipal storm management planning requirement but there's maybe what 12 sites on it 12 to 15 sites on it this is just one from the pool Club um and more can be added for free if we ask we recommend that the uh committee review this report the green team will work with the environmental commission and will'll submit our comments for Township approval uh for new sites or changes to the sites prior to contacting records to finalize that report lastly omo currently has sustainable Jersey bronze level certification by completing actions which earn points toward the certification the green team is planning now for our 2025 application the certification process provides municipalities with guidance for actions which save money conserve resources and find funding for initiatives that build sustainable healthier and more resilient communities anyone interested in pring providing input into which actions hell should choose please see sustainable jersey.com actions for more details and please reach out to us in summary these first two items will need a decision from the township committee and if we can help by providing more information please let us know and the second two anyone interested in providing information is welcome to email the Green Team so in closing thank you for the opportunity to speak uh this evening with you we hope you see that the green team brings enthusiasm resources research and contexts to help with sustainability projects and activities in hell to help optimize the quality of life for all of our residents and we are here to help you we have special thanks to Kim Jay Barbara Wendy and Brian they been uh excellent support for the Green Team we'll take any questions now or we can talk after uh the meeting oh looks like we've got some handouts coming out that was excellent thank you very much [Applause] I have a um question for you folks this um the sustainable Jersey certification or recertification how long did it take for hell to earn certification and how frequently do you have to be recertified right so once you get it it's a three-year um period it's good for um maybe Janet would know how long it took or you guys know how long it took to get the last say the last one because what it it takes you can't just say oh yes we still do that we have to start all over again and recertify um uh red doent all the different actions and with your uh resolutions and all that kind of stuff which could be the same but we have to put it in there again and update everything so we're going to start um this fall to uh decide what we're going to do and start getting things it's like a kind of a rolling process within sustainable Journey's website do you have any input is that what you're trying to get at do you know how long it would take a year yeah about a year and it's due in the spring so we figured we're going to start this summer and with that certification I know you spoke a little bit about it Betsy y but just for for understanding because this is still all somewhat new to me yeah what exactly does that certification do why are you folks so excited about the certification what does that set us up for Grants money we like money and contact and and really and it makes us think about where does the town want to go and what are we doing that's uh good for the environment and good for uh social aspects of of Life yeah that's right y and what what exactly was that so it was run by sustainable Jersey so there were who supports both towns and schools so there were a lot of speakers so there were Pro four sessions with three speakers at each session some specifically about schools uh some about learning about sustainable Jersey and and the certification process and some you know some of the experience that people have had on green teams so one of the benefits Stu about sustainable Jersey it does support green teams uh and gives us a good framework um and then just uh a lot of networking and then there was it was all the bellworks in the the bottom level and there was um uh exhibitors from composting to yeah session May so at this uh Summit um one of the sessions I uh attended was the mayor's perspective uh with sustainable projects and they were Mayors from three towns Patterson um Red Bank and I forget the last one um laoren thank you and uh they U they all each one of them had some uh success story that they shared with us so for example one was the mayor's um Wellness campaign so that was a big thing where they uh and that is a social aspect that Betsy was talking about besides the environmental aspect there's the whole social aspect Community engagement so they talked about their experience with um the Youth of the county and then what their and then Wellness like they had run with the mayor example so you know different things so that is one of the sessions as an example another session was on EVS so you know how it benefits the town and how do they apply for it how what kind of EVS they have the school buses or um uh you know the township um vehicles that they've converted like they've bought now Eevee with grand so it's an example if anybody else wants to share thank you I uh I I had a something to mention is that okay mayor DJ go first sorry jay uh so I have one question is there a particular person on your green team who is responsible for the uh the community garden or is it just the the whole you know is there one person that if I wanted to speak to is it Mrs Wilson Liz well Liz livstone is the Le of theard now First Years okay and then if I wanted I just would like to connect with her I'd like to donate some um herbs and some um some perennials maybe some I saw that you have a n native plants you're doing something there I'd like to donate some native plants and um maybe some vegetable plants and stuff for the for the community garden on that so I'd like to just if before if if you're not I don't know if anyone's staying to the end of the meeting but if I could just get a number for her or if you can get it to me at some point and I can connect with her I can drop them off thank you um quick question I apologize I don't know much about Community solar but you said Resident can get involved and get a discount on their electric bill do they get involved by like providing their backyard for a solar project or their roof or do they provide funding for other I think is it they provide funding for thirdparty projects and then you get I can give you a okay I guess I'll read the brochure there's we had we had planned on we had planned on going through all the statist all the details of community solo because it can be very confusing and it probably took all of us 10 times thinking about it and learning about it to we're like oh well now I finally get it um so we decided not to to save some time um but as a as a resident there's a um a developer will build a project in on an existing building on an existing Brown field on the top of a a warehouse or top of a parking area and you as a cons so it's just a developer coming in and building it on something that it's not going to be obtrusive and then you as a a electric user go into the website and say I'd like to be part of this project so you kind of get into a piece of it you you don't buy it no I don't think some of them might but the ones that we've seen you don't have to you subscribe and you say hey I want to be I want to be part of that and then you will once it gets going you will get a piece of that lower cost solar energy versus your yeah it's free see I know that's why we that's why we try to not and and and too good to be true related but not necessarily connected you know it we've had high level discussions and preliminary um about putting solar panels on Township buildings and structures because then we can redirect the savings to you know older residents low-income residents Etc so you know there there's stuff we as a Township can do other than just sort of bless the concept we actually can be a more active participant um we just haven't there's a lot going on so we haven't gotten there yet but it's early days glad toar that any other questions from the audience if not I think we will Betsy Wilson's uh Valley Point Drive people cannot understand how Community solar works because it doesn't cost you any money and you get a discount on your electric bill and the reason it works is because the sunshine is free thank you we're going to move on to the so thank you very much again guys really was excellent [Applause] presentation so moving on Wendy to the approval of minutes this would be the approval for the April 23rd 2024 executive and public session minutes that were forwarded prior to the meeting for review move second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli so I uh yes to the executive session I'd called in uh I was absent for the public session mayor and prev dudo yes okay the minutes have been successfully passed thank you thank you Wendy moving on to public oh sorry Mike uh before we do mayor I think uh there's a recommendation to before we have discussion on the consent agenda from the public a motion to table resol olution 2024 1225 thank you Mike um yeah we have a motion to table 2024 1225 motion second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes mayor and prev dudo yes okay 2024 125 has been tabled thank you thanks Mike I jumped the gun there all right so now moving on to public comment for agenda items only can you comment on something that was just pulled a general comment you're laughing Mr Collins if I may um I'm all for saving Township's money I'm sure there were tremendous abuses but I've also been on the other side of requesting opras when you don't say the right phrase or word and then you have to go back again so I think I totally understand both sides but this bill that I think passed today scares me a little because sometimes as a citizen you gen you just genuinely want to know what's going on on a certain subject and if you're not phrasing it right and you have to go in a couple of times you can be accused of abuse or whatever or harassment and then you have to defend yourself and then even if you're proved by a court that you weren't harassing them and that and that a given town was trying to hide something and you win you have to pay the own bills so again I realize there's problems with the opras but this bill has a lot of flaws and I just hope as a town we as Citizens and the township can just work together with opras and never get to the point to where we have a situation like that no I appreciate it I think um and look and I can't speak to every finer point about the bill I do know there's a lot of misinformation flying around about it I'm sure you've probably read some of the details um you know what I will say is from our perspective I think it's done with the right intent uh certainly supported as Vicky Flynn home dos Vicky Flynn's Bill and certainly support her and her intent on that and and the bill itself I think um we see abuses on it quite a bit from Municipal standpoint there's a lot of time a lot of energy and and and Township resources that go into this um and I I think you know we're just trying to be cognizant of anything that can maintain transparency without over taxing you know Municipal resources right at the end of the day um so I think uh you know are the abuses from outside characters both if yeah listen I mean people can submit an Oprah anonymously right and they can ask for extraordinarily onerous things um that go back 12 months or or whatever it is and we don't know who they're going to or what the purpose is for and and you know it takes time it takes time not only for the clerk and the deputy clerk but the attorney um and that's you know time is you know it's money right um so so and we get those we do get those quite a bit I don't have a count for you um but there's there are a lot of it's honorous you know and and I think you know look and I get it you know transparency is an important thing and we certainly try to maintain that here but it's it's I think we'd all be in agreement something's got to be done to to moderate this a little bit or find some way to make it more difficult to abuse I guess I just hope and I'm not speaking about I just hope it doesn't incentivize towns to really Tighten Up When It's reasonable requests that's that's obviously a concern and I hope we don't get there at any point here thank you any other comments on agenda items all right moving on to consent agenda do we have a motion to approve move a second second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes but I would like to abstain from 20244 okay got it mayor and preva dudo yes okay so 2024 117 to 124 and 2024 126 to 129 have been successfully approved thank you thank you Wendy next is hearing on ordinance 2024 410 which is addressing privately owned salt storage the motion is to adopt on Final reading and publish in the Asbury Park Press according to law getting a motion to public hearing oh public hearing I always forget that pesy I kind of skipped the beat yeah I always do that sorry public comment public hearing on the ordinance going once going twice now we're going to have a motion motion to adopt move got a second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay 202 410 has been successfully passed and will be published in the Asbury Park Press according to law thank you thank you Wendy moving on to the municipal budget hearing Mr administrator you want to take the Reign on this defer to the uh CFO he probably I know he has a few statistics to provide us and thank you went over the budget um about a month ago um but there were some interesting things I went back and looked over a four-year period as to what's been causing the increases in this budget uh recycling has gone up 35% from 2021 to 2024 other insurance premiums have gone up 35.172923 so the increase in the budget over a period of those four 4 years went up by 4,000 477,000 yeah 477,000 so 89% of that increase could be based upon these eight items that you know it it's it's pretty much the same in every town the this group of items and that that's been causing increases over the last couple years and luckily been able to uh maintain a flat tax rate even with these major increases thanks Bill and you know some of these are just beyond our control or many of them are right yes and we if you remember back in 20120 I believe we changed insurance policies we went from um Horizon to the state health benefits dropped substantially but because of the increases were right back to where we were in 2019 best plans and mayor my only comment is first the the budget was introduced some I guess five weeks ago um and we have completed the required internal review I misspoke at our at the time of introduction uh typically the budget is submitted to the state division of local government services for technical review um there is a provision that uh I believe it's a three-year cycle bill every three years uh we are under self-review so this budget did not technically go through uh the uh the review that it went through last year and the review that it would go through next year in any event the uh the budget process begins with each department head and a functioning operation within the township submitting a budget request for operations um since January 1st we've been operating on a temporary budget pending the uh submission of budget requests the review by uh myself the CFO and in most cases review by individual members of the governing body uh for those areas of U responsibility that have been assigned through a chairmanship or liaison to various departments um as in previous years not every request has been fully funded um some items have been reviewed and deferred for future consideration uh it should be noted that while the overall spending uh reflected in this annual budget is up by approximately 1.2% the amount of uh uh taxes that'll be raised to support this budget is actually just slightly less than it was last year so this uh budget does not include ax tax increase uh the budget is fully uh balanced our uh anticipated level of revenues uh do match our uh Appropriations that are being authorized um I believe uh uh the budget has also been reviewed uh this year uh by the finance advisory committee and I believe uh the chairman of the finance advisory committee will be making a presentation or a statement as part of this public hearing tonight thanks Jay and is there just for public uh knowledge is there anything that's materal changed from introduction now to adoption uh there have been no changes proposed um uh of course we'll see how the public hearing goes fair enough so yeah so it's time for the public hearing I always get that part always get that part wrong uh any questions from the public Eric do you come up now for this is this the uh all right come on up thank you uh Eric cold nine patter Horn Court I'm here today in my role as chairman of the finance advisory committee uh to read a statement that we prepared about the budget so the finance advisory committee has reviewed the Township's proposed Municipal budget and we believe the budget is conservative reflects the priorities of residents and positions hell to maintain its strong financial position going forward the township plans to spend 30.7 million this year to fund operations and as Jay mentioned it's an increase of just 1.2% and this year higher salaries and wages as well as increased debt service costs are the key drivers of the small increase in the spending uh on the revenue side pilot payments received by the township continue to supplement our revenues and strengthen our Surplus pilot revenues along with that strong Surplus position and increased interest income will as Jay pointed out once again allow hell to keep our Municipal Taxes flat uh in fact the average homeowner will see a slight decrease in the municipal component of their property tax bill but just remember that only represents about 16% of the overall property tax uh bill um as we enter this time of slowing economic growth and persistent inflation and elevated interest rates uh the finance committee would like to just highlight a couple of issues for the governing body first over the last 10 years our Municipal spending increased by 47% while inflation increased by 32% so in effect we spent uh 15% more than inflation over the last decade the finance committee as you've heard me repeatedly say and as the committee has repeatedly advised uh that spending Trend was just simply not sustainable so we're pleased that the township reduced the rate of spending this year to just 1.2% second Debt Service payments and that was mentioned by Bill as well have increased sign signicantly over the last couple of years and it now consumes about 18% of the overall budget uh because of Prior borrowing now the township must carefully prioritize future Capital requests to keep those Debt Service expenses from consuming an even larger share of the budget going forward uh since 2018 hell has received $26 million in Pilot revenues today the pilot effectively funds 22% of our overall spending uh however as those pilot revenues plateau and level off it's critical that the town should take a conservative and long-term view when crafting the future spending plans uh on another topic the finance committee is very pleased to see our open space funds being used to acquire land for the first time in roughly 18 years and Crawford hill now the Robert Wilson Park uh acquisition Acquisitions made through the open space fund are separate and distinct from the Township's General budget and they represent long-term Investments That preserve our quality of life and protect Open Spaces from development uh the finance committee would like to thank the mayor our administrator and our CFO uh for their support and for all their hard work in keeping spending limited this year to 1.2% and also maintaining a a flat tax rate I think hell residents should be uh extremely proud of that and in fact on an inflation adjusted basis bis the tax levy for homeown residents is lower today than it was um going back to about 200 at least 2011 probably further so that that's remarkable so you just have to keep that up thank you thank you Mr silver gold any other uh questions from the public yes hello uh Jenny blo menthal 41 Stony Brook Road on April 25th there was an article on the front page of the tour of her timeses uh the headline was eyeing State mandates Middletown will increase the budget and it listed a whole lot of things that are expensive since they are unfunded regulations to the D to us my question is are these items included in our budget or are we going to have to take from Peter to pay Paul to keep the de happy specifically the things that Middletown is all of a sudden worrying about is the requirement that the town sweep the streets three times a year we don't do that as frequently They al the D rules that towns must hire a certified tree expert to make sure that a knowledgeable person will supervise the new tree ordinance that is now required and also that the town must frequently I don't know what the definition of frequently is must um check on the runoff storm water runoff and particularly the bulk pickup leaves for comp composting sites looking for pollutions these things do not happen free they do not happen cheaply and they are somewhat honorous so my question to Jay is is are these three items cited in the are they included in our budget now or are we going to have to all go out and sweep our own streets while our budget does not specifically identify uh the cost related to provide or to comply with all D regulations uh first let me say that the township will comply with all regulations uh that are placed before us um and uh we will accommodate those costs within the confines our of our existing budget Appropriations okay even if they sweep the streets at 3: in the morning because there's not any more hours in the day to do this sort of thing I would was just curious to see whether you were going to come back and hit the I don't know what the the money tree there's no money tree to shake yeah yeah anybody else yeah this is public comment specific to the adoption of the budget resolution we move on to uh adoption all right can I get a motion to adopt the township budget for 2024 moved second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes mayor preva dudo yes okay the budget adoption resolution 20241 130 has been successfully passed great thank you Wendy you're welcome Mr C o do you have anything more to add Beyond uh the budget commentary uh nothing more this evening thank you mayor all right counselor good evening mayor uh only update item I have is I know we've previously shared with the public um the adoni litigation uh just across hell's Border in Middletown uh involving a builder's remedy lawsuit hell previously sought to intervene in the lawsuit but was denied by the trial court um so we did file an appeal with the appell division and that is moving forward and the appeal is going to be heard by a panel of judges on June 18th so I just wanted to let the public know that hell's continuing uh that appet effort and uh beyond that uh happy to answer any questions thank you Mike uh Mr engineer can you give us a little bit of update on the grant that we just uh sure um we just filed for a classified as a local Transportation project fund and this is for Crawford's Corner Road um the length from Hell road to South Holland uh it's a $3.5 million grant that we are requesting and that includes U primarily um milling and Paving a portion of the road from Hell road to the school property working into um Crawford's Corner a road widening across the front of the the school property to high school in the SAT School uh upgrades to the intersection of Long Street and the High School driveway with a upgraded signal um dedicated left turning Lanes actuation Etc and then continuing the improvements down to South Holland Road so we prepared that U that's through the dot through their Sage portal we submitted that about a week and a half ago um it will be under their review and it goes through part of the uh stage Appropriations and we'll just wait to see what kind of Grant we will be receiving from that and then we can bundle that up with the local aid grant for Crawford's Corner that we did receive last year which was in the amount of um $288,000 for additional word work road work in that area great thank you and this is something that uh we mentioned in our sort of state of Hell thing um but also just in general I mean anyone's who's gone on has seen the conditions of Crawford's Corner Road um and so the and and the dramatic Improvement needed there um hopefully alleviating the choke points we see around the school certainly around uh entrance and exit of the school times um and you know God willing and with the hard work of our engineer and our uh attorney and our administrator and everybody else you know will get that funded um so that it doesn't have to come out of the resident's Pockets so thank you for all your work on that guys apprciate Mr Mayor All Right Moving On to boards and committees M the mountain you want to kick it off okay uh the hell Green Team they had a fantastic turnout at uh the Earth Day over at bayonet Farm it was exceptionally well attended and they had the opportunity to meet with many people who were unaware of the community solar program from the Board of Public Utilities they were able to field many questions and there just seemed to be a lot of interest in the topics and programs so it was very um exciting it was nice to see such a great turnout and uh for us to have such a beautiful day there um they also as we heard during the presentation had the opportunity to attend the sustainable Jersey Summit over at Bell works on May 3rd um and they wanted to express a thank you to the township for enabling them uh to attend that and supporting their attendance they'll have slides from all the presentations there that can be um seen on sustainable jersey.com backevents and the green team will be sharing what they learned at their June 3D green team meeting all members of the public are welcome to attend and thank you folks I know you worked very hard on that presentation to share with the township committee everything you've been doing and um it was very very informative and it is absolutely wonderful to see the involvement and the dedication that you folks have there's only so much as a governing body so many hours in a day for us to do things and it is such a welcome opportunity to have folks like you involved and dedicated um to what you're doing and and wanting to help the community so thank you very thank you very much for uh all you do as well as our other volunteers within town and and thank you finance committee for all that hard work um it again it things don't happen without us working all together and it's it's wonderful to uh have this kind of support so thank you thank you Miss L Mountain Mr lucar Ry thank you mayor the uh Homedale Police Department Youth Academy is taking applications um and they are due tomorrow Wednesday May 15th week one is for the nine and 10 year olds and week two is for the 11 to 12 year olds applications are still available on the Homedale Township Police Department web page or at the police dispatch area Bethany Road will be closed tomorrow May 15th near Haslet Avenue due to a utility service connection there will be a detour in place for residents um and they will have access to their homes but no through traffic uh please plan alternate route tomorrow Bethany Road officer minoski will be participating in the Mad mother Against Drunk Driving walk man officer minoski will be walking in support of The Goal Zero campaign in order to raise awareness about the consequences of driving impaired the race will be held this Saturday May 18th a social media post will be out this week with more information uh fire department has uh uh conducted a ladder drill where members participated or practiced deploying different sized ground ladders uh to stay proficient at the end of April the fire department toured the New Bright View Assisted Living facility on Route 35 members made themselves familiar with the facility's layout and began planning for emergencies there when uh it eventually opens in the past three weeks the fire department has accepted three new firefighter membership application applications and three new Cadet applications that's wonderful news uh the home Del first a department needs new members the squad makes it fun and easy to volunteer we have flexible options for volunteer hours as well as state-of-the-art equipment that allows any member of the public to volunteer the squad will provide training as well as access to necessary courses to enable people to volunteer with us if you are interested please submit an application it's available on our website or contact hell secretary gmail.com for more information uh Department of Public Works is going to have a tire recycling event this Saturday uh June I'm sorry Saturday June 15th between the hours of 9:00 am. and 1 p.m uh residents may bring up to four unwanted tires per household this service is open to homeo residents only tires from businesses will not be accepted large item drop off uh will be Saturday May 25th um that event is from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m at borks so uh get all your needs there and and lastly I just wanted to mention uh I had the privilege to be uh to go to the uh bellworks ribbon cutting um this past week for their new theater I joined Deputy Mayor um Foster uh it was a well attended event and I'd like uh everyone from the community to go check that out and support Ralph Zucker put they put a lot of money into this U theater and they have been a really exciting um uh schedule upcoming for this year and I'd also like to thank uh the mayor uh Bill and Jay on all your hard work I know how much work it takes to uh prepare this budget uh you guys did a great job and I just wanted to say thank you very much and that's all I have for you thank you DJ Deputy Mayor Foster thank you mayor uh just a couple updates Department of recreation the swim club is opening this Saturday excuse me Saturday May 25th at 10: a.m. our staff is hard at work getting things all set up today the rec department hosted a cruise into summer luncheon to celebrate older Americans month approximately 100 seniors attended and enjoyed lunch along with the music of DJ Bob Kern special thank you to Kim for stopping by to say hello the veterans committee we will be hosting a round T event this Thursday May 16th at 10:00 a.m. in the Bell Works Township meeting room the special guest speaker will be the mammoth County Clerk Christine handland a light lunch will be served currently we have over 30 veterans confirmed to attend if any veteran is interested in attending please contact the recreation office on Wednesday to be added to the list May is military appreciation month on behalf of the hell veterans program and my colleagues on the township committee I want to express my gratitude and thanks to all of our Hometown veterans and their families for the sacrifices they have made to keep us safe and free and then just a couple other uh items to mention congratulations to seren Gan who won the shore Conference tournament recently and she had won a an amateur tournament prior to that so playing some extremely outstanding golf Mammoth County just announced they are setting up a new free wellness program for residents ages 18 and over in collaboration with easy Rod you can receive two weekly round trips to any medical and or nutrition appointments to learn more please call 732 683 2102 and then I just also wanted to Echo uh Kim's comments about the uh the groups the Green Team here the finance committee and basically all the the volunteers and committees that we have in town uh it's a fantastic Community we have really uh you guys don't get enough appreciation not just from us but the residents in general for all all the work you guys do behind the scenes so certainly appreciate that very very much um the Bell Works uh Grand Opening de I agree with you entirely he he put a ton of money in there it's a beautiful theater down there very cool setup uh looking forward to attending some events and encourage you all to go out and check that out as well so that's it mayor thank you thanks Brian all right couple uh couple of updates here the storm water report that has been several years in the making uh is now slated to be delivered by cers engineering on June 1st um so that will finally finally mercifully be done and delivered um so we'll uh we're excited to see what that final output looks like um the economic development ad hoc committee the committee focused on the Vonage property uh is slated to make their first formal recommendation on May 28th the next meeting if possible it's a little bit of a tight window for them um what what we've requested of them you know more specific is to look at the types of uses that that property would support and basically stack rank in terms of most preferable to least preferable um there's just been an incredible economic shift in commercial real estate obviously over the past several years and a lot more things are a lot more things are popular the these days than they used to be but may not be popular for hell so that's what the committee's focused on and so they're going to look at a variety of options and they're going to grade them along the lines of sort of a a criteria set plus or minus on the environment plus or minus on utilities are they a plus or minus on impact to the schools revenues Economic Development you know sort of all down the line so uh look forward to that report and I really want to thank those folks for for the time and the effort they're putting in um you know it's it's uh this is a significant undertaking um so I want to make sure we include them along with the green team the finance commun all the other volunteers that are putting in their time to really sort of I'll say protect our town right from from uh from interests or or characteristics that aren't uh in line with you know what we are what we believe so hedo Township will be host will be holding its annual Memorial Day ceremony on Monday May 27th at 10:00 a.m. at 10:30 a.m. at Town Hall the public is invited to attend the ceremony to honor all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in the event of inclement weather the ceremony will be held inside the scene i/ Community Center Town Hall offices and the recycling center will be closed on Monday May 27th in observance of Memorial Day despite the recycling center being closed on that day Zone one curbside recycling will still be picked up on that date if for some reason your home's recycling does not get picked up on May 27th please wait until after 3 p.m. to call the recycling office to report it and then leave your items at the curb for Tuesday pickup makeup the main waterline project at the hell Swim Club is now complete construction at the site has begun for the new pickle ball tennis court and basketball court project please direct any questions regarding the project to Victor Stevens at Town Hall we are certainly excited to get that done and that is all I have in my report and I guess we can move on to public comment I can you do your thing Wendy all right motion to adjourn in accordance with the open public meetings act this is a public comment period for public comment on any governmental issue of public concern in accordance with resolution 20227 public commenters are asked to raise their hand and wait to be recognized by the mayor before coming forward to make public comments commenters are asked to State their full name and address before commenting public comment ERS are limited to one comment not to exceed 3 minutes comment should be directed to the mayor and the township committee if appropriate the mayor may direct and recognize a staff employee or professional to respond to comments either at this meeting or in writing after this meeting thank you Wendy we have any comments from the public Mr little hi Bill l a coventry Square I wanted to ask about the bike path our old friend the bike path if I recall correctly uh back in September the county said that they were going to I forget it was a environmental review or engineering review or something like that and predicted six to eight months well six months was March eight months is May it's the middle of may do we know anything and if not have we asked them what's going on J I'll kick that over to you the the the last thing I I recall on the bike path was we we got denied a grant for it but other than that I I'm not familiar with any status update we have yes we have continued I believe a a submission of two grants for additional funds for that uh project uh the status is that uh uh CME the Consulting engineer on that project uh is guiding the application through njde there are a number of uh uh permits that are required as recently as last week uh we've been advised that there is an additional review uh that has been requested information related to uh the adjacent Historic Site uh there's a historic structure and we're uh uh looking at those additional costs for that and I'll have an update for the next meeting but the uh the project is still moving through the njde permit application process and we' had expected it believe the applications were submitted um last late last year and we did expect the the timeline to be six to eight months and uh uh we we have surpassed that now with this new wrinkle thank you so they keep coming up with things to ask and we have to keep providing more information and in the calendar moves on yeah this is I I'm going to say the second round of uh uh d review so uh yeah the answer is yes that as as the obstacles are thrown in front of us we either work around them or over them or through them yeah all right thank you and Jay just for the record I think we were we were aware that there were going to be a lot of obstacles with that we we knew that the there were significant environmental concerns and and JDP is not known for uh uh being cooperative on projects like this no I just wanted to make that clear is that we were advised by Ben that there were going to be issues that were going to come up with that review that they were expecting um so I'm not surprised by this so yes uh Jenny blumthal again 41 Stony Brook Road just curious about how the D the DPW handles folks who who insist upon putting branches and tree clippings and so forth in the street regardless of the fact that the branch pickup is not until maybe November again there's somebody that lives halfway along taloa Drive between Centerville and Laurel Avenue who has a virtual hay stack of dead branches in the street that are going to probably sit there till November um and um you know it's not the D's responsibility at this point to take them away but you know the gardeners that everybody is paying to take care of their property is just dropping all their stuff in the street regardless and I don't know you know when somebody's going to come knocking on the door and says you know either use this stuff in your fireplace or or get your landscaper to take them away but you know it even if the D is now making a sweep the streets I mean this pile of taloa holy smokes is is not something the street sweeper is going to deal with um it it just doesn't seem to stop thank you if I may I I don't know the schedule Jay for the pickups and maybe we can ask Victor but I know my home was picked up like a week ago my my branches so maybe they're still being picked up so maybe we can just check that I don't know oh but it's a huge pile I have it on myal there's one in July know anybody else yes sir TR 56 Line Road the hell library at borks is absolutely fantastic it's uh as a longtime resident here I remember it was in the basement at the municipal Hall and um it was okay then but today that library is doing well uh Joe reports on it how many things we have on it one of the things that and it's housed in uh the beautiful bellworks that it's in the uh Township's uh interest to have more and more people visit and go there and noticing that the library is not open on Sundays it's never been open on Sundays and I inquired to the director of the libraries uh in Freehold and they said that Min the county libraries can be open on Sundays and sometimes they are um it depends on the branch and it depends on the uh uh particular library in Hell's case hell has control of the building as well as the library site and they could uh look into having hours open uh of the library on Sundays I think it would be a great addition to for home to have Sunday hours I don't think it's won't cost much uh the county actually uh staffs it and so it's not appears in our budget but it it would be the the library is so excellent and have it not open and I can't even think of a a possible reason to have there uh that it wouldn't be open on Sunday and an add a benefit if it was open on Sunday it would add flow to bellworks which we're looking that maybe uh vendors and ice cream places and restaurants could have a little bit more flow of uh of traffic so uh I'm asking the committee as uh Joe's not here tonight is if it could be looked at into adding Sunday hours to the the home de no I think it's certainly worth looking at y anybody else Mr yal uh J and L 18 L with Drive first of all DJ this this gets filed under compliments I'd like to compliment Victor Stevens Jay Delaney and anyone else that um repatched the roads this week uh swept my street today the timing of that I thought was suspicious supicious and actually the caving in Road near the New Jersey natural gas regulator was actually repaved today that was a really dangerous situation I don't know how it got there but I know I reported it to many people and they repaved it the road was literally sinking there some people were going airborne um on a different subject uh there was a uh project that was recently or that's still being built on 35 uh the senior facility um brought up about the fire training there and um it's literally The Talk of the Town now how that development that facility you know not that it was negligently approved but why why did we approve it so close to the road 35 is a Winding Road you're literally looking at the facility as you're coming down 35 that was a mistake to allow that facility to be so close to the road it's actually a joke on Hell's reputation it's it's it's an albatross it's a stain on our visuals I know it's 35 the reason I bring that up is there is a project before uh another board here some people in this room are on it some of you are on it um in the heart of the village hell village where the applicant wants to change a 500 foot setback to approximately they keep saying approximately 300 ft and 300 ft when you're listening on YouTube cuz I missed the meeting sounds like a lot and I'm like oh it's not so bad but when you go there and see the idea of a house being only 300t back it's really bad so I would I think as a town I'm not speaking specifically for this minute on this project I think we need to step back as a town and say what are we doing we only have a few pieces of land left these Builders come in they have their their very intelligent articulate lawyers point to our master plan point to precedents and this and that and really try to convince us well it's not going to be not going to be so bad I could say in this case they want 11 of the 15 homes to be in the C1 Zone which is goes right into our drinking water 11 of the 15 backyards would literally be the people's backyard would be encroached on the highest protected lands we have in town they also want to change this setback if this setback is changed just hear me out the gateway to Hell coming from either 34 left from Polo Club or coming from marbor you will instead of seeing that beautiful patch of land the West Property you will see houses sticking out a new Housing Development like the many you see in other towns we have got to as a town stop allowing these huge uh forgiveness bends flexibility to builders we don't owe them anything we should not have zoned that thing on 35 so close to the RO where it's an embarrassment to the town and we really cannot mess up that beautiful piece of property in South Homedale so again some of you may be on the board you can't comment I would encourage others that are not on the board to look at that property to look at how they want to pack so many houses onto that property and ruin a beautiful Vista the Gateway coming from several towns into South Homedale thank you thank you Jay uh point taken we we just as a governing body com comment on uh things that are before the planning board but understood anybody else going once going twice motion to adjourn move second all in favor I I thank you