##VIDEO ID:9RMCAgHyVlk## for good evening I hereby announced that pursuant to section 5 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 mayor and prudo here Mr Foster here miss L Mountain here Mr lucarelli here Mr Romano here mayor you have a quorum thank you Wendy if everyone can please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stand na indivisible andice all right so folks our uh as you've seen on the agenda it's our long awaited uh stormm water presentation to everybody um the way we're going to do this is the team from cers is going to uh they have a dashboard up there they're going to present the information what they evaluated um what their recommendations are um and we'll talk at some point about the steps we're going to take to remediate many of the issues that we have um we are going to as a governing body ask questions directly to Colliers and we also we going to invite the public to ask questions directly to the engineers as well that did the study the one uh I'd say cautionary note is regarding the storm water study is or the one request I have is to please keep the questions specific to the study and the areas that were uh evaluated there were six specific areas in town uh that are more um inclined to flood than others in addition to the entire infrastructure of the town so um you know we just don't want to hit these guys with a bunch of random questions on things that they didn't specifically evaluate so we're going to try to keep that is contained and as specific as possible uh but that said I want to thank you guys for coming I appreciate the work you've done this is again probably about two years in I see Mr bucko good to see you sir um and uh with that said we'll let you guys take it from here thanks mayor uh Bob Mullen senior project manager colleagues engineering and the governing service governmental Services Group thank you so as the mayor said we were brought on board here in the township to do the storm water management study back in early 2022 the scope included two primary tasks first was GIS mapping the second was a hydraulic Hydra hydrologic analysis of the storm management system the gis GIS mapping phase was broken into two tasks it was to map and scope out the storm water management system as well as the sanitary sewer system including all ancillary facilities the uh obviously we're here tonight to focus on the storm water management side of the business as you can imagine the storm water management system is a very large and complex system made up a lot of a lot of different pieces when I turn it over to Carly here she'll get into much more detail on the gis side but you can see what's on the dashboard right now on the screen the number of structures the amount of Hypes inlets there's a lot of moving parts to this system once the mapping was completed we compile fil the system data combined with a substantial amount of field time and working closely with the Township's Department of Public Works we have performed an analysis of the system to identify and scope recommendations for addressing those problems areas problem areas that the mayor mentioned and that's where nine valence SW will come in hopefully she's here somewhere behind me and uh she'll provide additional background on the details of our hydrologic and hydraulic study so for now I'm going to turn it over to car dykman and she'll give us a quick overview of the GIS mapping efforts hello everyone uh my name is Carly Dyan I am a GIS field coordinator um at coler's engineering and design for those of you that don't know what GIS is or what it stands for it is stands for geographic information systems and with that information you still may not understand what exactly that means um it's basically modern day cartography right so I make maps um and one of the most important things that we do when we're making Maps is making sure that it makes sense and that it uh and that it looks presentable and that you can understand what exactly is going on here and so one of the main things that I do um at colar is I focus a lot on our field efforts so that means in order to collect all of these assets somebody had to walk around every single Street of hell and uh one of those people was me um and it was it was I'm so happy I was able to do that um we found so many things we used um a GPS that had um that captures accuracy within a tenth of an inch um so anytime you know you could take something from this map and be able to find it you know immediately this makes things a lot easier for the DPW to be able to maintain um it allows um them to identify you know where there could be potential issues down the line um and it just allows people to have um you know more of an understanding of what exactly is going on and outside of all of those reasons you know we we did this we did this because all the way from the D level um you know they're becoming more stringent on their storm water regulations and part of that is the ms4 permit and that's Municipal storm water um and one of the requirements on there is for every municipality in New Jersey to have their storm water map digitally um and uh hell is one of the places that really made sure that everything was on the map and um and I'm just very excited to show you so from what we have here I'm sure um this doesn't look like anything um and so I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to zoom in here and I hope that this um this makes it a little more clear as to you know what what's going on and so I zoomed in in this area just because I'm very familiar with with it um so what we have here you know all of the squares are storm water inlets um connected by um the gravity Mains which are represented by the lines with the arrows they have pipes um some of the things that the D or the DPW rather will be able to utilize this as you know GIS as a tool is you know we took these photos and with these photos they also have IDs so not only are you know is the D the D or the DPW rather um have this information at hand but they can also have now a robust um naming convention and system tied to it and so um basically what you see here um every little ounce of conveyance so I would consider this you know one one bit of conveyance um ends in an outfall and all of these things together can show you kind of the bigger picture of what's happening with storm water discharge where the water's flowing yes yep yep exactly sorry um and yes so here we have an entire thing so basically we can start at the top over at this Inlet here and basically water will enter this Inlet and it will follow these arrows from Inlet down to the next so on and so forth and you know if you zoom in real real a whole lot you can see you know these are a little tighter together and then ultimately it will hit a um a manhole one more Inlet and then it will hit the final outfall um where the storm water is discharged and and that's one of the outfalls um and from this you know um we have all of these assets all over town um which is incredibly important we have some detention bases in here um which really help with the infiltration and um you know we just the the work that this is going to be able to um the visual that this is going to be able to provide for the DPW uh to maintain is invaluable uh we found nearly 10,000 assets I think we were sitting right at 9200 assets allog together so that includes everything on this dashboard you have your inlets catch Bas catch basins your storm water manholes outfalls gravity Mains Network structures Culver SES all of it um and um and with this information we were able to uh to naine was able to do the things that she was able to do so I'm just gonna pass it over to navine thank you and N before you start just to sort of break this up a little bit for public consumption the the first step in this process was the overall mapping of all of the infrastructure that the storm water sort of flows through into and out of is that that's correct yes correct so that's that's the whole the whole the whole point of of mapping this is one to meet the DP requirements of course um but what the D is looking for is to ensure that the flow and everything that it's being managed accordingly so you're seeing the total from the start to the very end and everything in between where the storm water travels the size of the pipes the material of the pipes um and the length from Inlet to manhole manhole to outfall all of that information is one of the requirements from the DP um but also um just necessary to build out the entire system and so thinking about this in steps uh this mapping is obviously necessary for D regulations um this allows us to find areas within our infrastructure that are currently in distress and maybe find some easy fixes which I think we've already begun um and then look for areas that are just no longer suitable given the pipe size or things of that nature for the amount of storm water flowing through and to actually ultimately improve the infrastructure that correct that is yes that's absolutely correct and that's definitely um kind of with with the data that we were able to collect that is what uh naine was able to use and analyze further um using a bunch of other data sets to be able to to get to her end point perfect and I appreciate that and deine um I don't I'm not not sure exactly where what you're going to sort of touch on and dive into but um I'm assuming we're going to touch upon the six major areas that we looked at in town that were underw I think a little bit of a deeper or more specific evaluation at some point during this discussion as well okay that would be great thank you suspense is killing me sorry so why my computer oh here we go okay so thank you mayor and countship committee for having me here today I'll say that again thank you Township committee and mayor for having us here today um for those of you who don't know me I am naine Valenzuela I'm with colar engineering and design I am a uh professional engineer and I have extensive experience uh in storm water management um I'm also a home Bell resident 24 Telegraph Hill Road so needless to say this project and this study was um really important to me and it is an honor for me to participate in it and uh be here today as um the goals and objectives of the study align with my interests in enhancing hell and sustaining its storm water management infrastructure and NV if you don't mind if you could speak up a bit I'm seeing some folks struggling to hear I know I know you're not as loud as me but uh okay is this better yes um okay so I'm going to start with with a quick overview um of what the storm water management report entailed and then I can go into details um so first uh the data that was collected by Carly's group that was taken and that was downloaded into the software that we were able to create a baseline existing analysis um to F to further study and um come up with recommendations at areas that were identified by the township um so we had several meetings with the township initially when the gis um field investigations began and six areas of um interest were identified as areas that flooded um frequently or there was Major erosion and uh once the gis um data was collected and completed we were able to begin our storm water management study and at that point um reviewing all that data we realized that there's there are actually more locations not just the six locations and in speaking with the township and specifically Victor prior to his retirement he was really instrumental in providing a lot of valued information from the residents that we were able to take and um include in our study um so basically the objectives of this study obviously is to enhance storm water infrastructure in Hell improve water quality m gate flooding and erosion um before I get into everything I just wanted to um do an overview of the watersheds and streams in hell just so everyone's familiar uh basically hell is divided into um you know what maybe I'll share a map for this be easier so the storm water volume one of the storm water report that's posted um at the very end there is um a map that includes all of the data that was collected um all the outfalls are labeled um there's a lot of good information on here that kind of goes with the report um so basically hell is divided into two watersheds the northern part of hell um drains into the riton bay and it consists of um um Mo mohon Creek uh lepon Creek um Flat Creek East Creek uh Maharis Brook and wack Creek and then the lower part of Hell drains to um Swimming River and that's um see if I can remember this it's freezing but um it's Willowbrook hopbrook and um nut swamp Brook and that all drains into Swimming River so there's like two major Weds and the high the highest point in hell is basically right here I don't know if you see my screen um um so there are a lot of streams in Hell a lot of wooded areas um all the most of the outfalls are located within wooded areas and prone to debris and fallen tree limbs and that's where a lot of the um issues that we found were as a result of just accumulated debris cogging up the system but I could show some examples of that later um so I don't know if I should stay here or go back to my PowerPoint um yeah let's do that um so our analysis and and approach um there were like two method three methods that we used to analyze um the storm the existing conditions um the first method was if we found that an area was flooded um we did an upstream analysis um identifying the drainage area the imperious impervious surface that contributes to the storm water we determin the peak runoff rates and um compared it to the existing pipe system to determine if that pipe system needs to be upgraded to a larger size um and then another um set of issues that we found um while we were doing our site inspections are um a lot of scouring and wash out happening at the outfalls and there are like a few re a few reasons for this um the main reason is there are a lot of tree tree limbs and debris that fall into the streams and take up the storage or the passageway of you know the flow of the stream and therefore when it rains a lot the runoff just goes up you know um along the stream Banks and creates a lot of erosion and and wash outs and compromising the out Falls and the drainage system so in those cases it wasn't the drainage system that was undersized it's really the downstream erosion that's occurring it's it's creating um some issues and then the least problematic areas that we found were actually just debris accumulation that just requires removal and maintenance um so basically the summary of improvements um the study that's that we uh completed um we recommended various improvements that included um adding new drainage inlets roadway reconstruction to lift up the road if that there was a severe low point where water just accumulated that was we found that that was the issue so uh elevating the road and replacing the Culvert um increasing pipe sizes um or grading and stream cleaning Bank stabilization um is a major recommendation because there in Hell there are a lot of outfalls like I said direct discharging onto streams with erosive conditions and then debris removal um the report also includes detailed cost estimates of all of the 120 locations um and each location was evaluated and given a rating from 1 to five and that was based on the severity and impact where level one has the least impact to the surroundings and level five resulted in damage to the community or may potentially result in impacts to residential homes or endangerment to environments or to the public safety so we this was at the Township's request we we um identified each area and and gave it a a rating that way it would Aid the Township in budget for budgeting purposes and planning uh future improvements um let's see so this is just an over a quick overview um I can go on into the report and go into more detail but I just want to stop here and see if there are any questions yeah I I think um I think a little bit more detail we can certainly get into I do want to just turn it over to the administrator for a moment Mr administrator there's been there obviously there's a number of recommendations and they're sort of teared coming from Colliers if I'm not mistaken we've already begun or about to begin remediating some of the areas regarding debris debris removal and things of that nature is that correct that's correct and again just by point of clarification uh level five items uh which are six in number uh have been identified with an approximate cost of about $1.7 million and those will require individual in most cases individual permits D permits as well as what I would call major construction to either uh replace repair or upgrade existing facilities at the lower end the level ones and twos are primarily locations that have been identified that require enhanced maintenance uh debris REM removal that has accumulated over a period of time uh the uh uh cleaning out and inspection of uh uh piping uh that has been enumerated in terms of you know the number of outfall let's start at the beginning the collection points which are the inlets uh the uh uh the pipe and the manholes and then ultimately the outfalls which have numbered about 350 throughout the township so uh we have begun well let me start by saying that this uh in many respects this report will serve and has already begun to serve as the starting point for the Township's uh maintenance and management our of our existing storm water facilities and to that end uh work has already begun on the level one and level two uh identif ified areas that require really just a a thorough cleaning and um in some cases uh debris removal at the outfalls so uh yes we have begun that process for what I would call uh to some in some respects the low-lying fruit uh the items that are easy in terms of Simply sending crews out either uh inhouse Crews or in some cases uh outside contractors uh that can perform the needed uh U maintenance responsib abilities thank you nine if you wouldn't mind um again as Jay alluded to there were six sort of major areas that were evaluated if you can speak to those areas I me we don't want to get too crazy in depth but speak to the areas about I'd say the challenges why you rated them the way you did if if they were part of the rating system um and uh what the recommendations are I think there's a number of folks probably in the room that are in the areas impact those more severe areas that are uh of impact so sure okay so I'll start with um area number one which is Crawford's Corner Road um see if I have better pictures yeah I don't have those are the pictures that were taken um but everyone knows where that is that's right here we go that's right by um down the road near us here um next to the municipal um building uh this area uh it it's pretty low the road is pretty low there but the problem is it can't be raised much any any higher because it's connected it's connected to a lot of existing conditions the um the schools are right there the fire department the municipal complex so we can't really raise this much higher so um the recommendation here would be to replace the pipe and I'm going to go to the plan so the level five locations we actually developed veloped um a recommendations plan and I can share that too sorry here we go so here we are I believe the existing uh pipe is a 33 in um we we evaluated the Upstream area a lot of the Upstream areas were improved tremendously over the last few years the PNC Center so that actually added a you know increased runoff significantly so maybe you know quite some time ago like I don't know 10 years ago this could have been adequately sized but with all the you know various development that occurred um it needs to be um upsized to we are recommending a 48 in x 76 in elliptical concrete pipe um the elliptical pipe works out nicely here because it's flatter and it can fit in under the road without having to raise up raise up the road too much and the reason why this is a level five is because the high school is down the road and um SATs is also um down the road so I I actually witnessed being stuck for an hour and being dropping off my kids late at the high school during h a really bad storm in the morning so when there's when this area floods uh the schools are affected uh the fire department is right there that could be affected so that's that is the reason why uh we think this is this needs to be addressed um sooner than later um any questions on level one on this area okay open it up to the committee and then the public okay um catb bird alley let me just do pictures real quick so I don't know if if these pictures really serve any justice because it actually looks a lot worse um so the stream along uh catb bird alley um is scouring and washing out severely um the outfall downstream of you know across from Crawford's Corner Road is clogged up and it's actually filled with debris and needs to be cleaned the the stream that traverses Bell Works need to be cleaned so um the reason why there's a lot of scouring and wash out because there's nowhere for the water to go so it backs up and it takes up the storage within the stream so again the runoff climbs up the banks and scours it with high velocities and um resulting in this severe wash out and it it's it's actually you know really needs um the I I believe um Bell works or Toll Brothers are responsible for cleaning the stream but I won't get into that but that really needs to be addressed rest as soon as possible and I do have um improvements planned for that but I won't go through that if that's going to take up too much time I can just go through the next one um the third um this after um evaluating this area we just didn't feel like this was a level five I I believe this was rated as a three because although it does look you know it's it's in poor condition it's not impacting anybody it's it's uh behind somebody's backyard and um we felt like it's not endangering um any of the you know surrounding areas but still needs to be addressed and what area is this sorry we did um this is Valley Point Drive okay uh it's an outfall in the you know in the rear of uh a backyard um four is um Hayward Hills Drive um so I am going to share um the map for this because it'll be easier uh so basically uh there is an in intake head wall on um SE Seven haward Hills Drive that's taking the runoff from the the stream it's about 130 Acres of flow that's making a turn on the property and during severe um storms the flow does reach you know over top the the Culvert here and and creates issues for that residence um we have a few recommendations here um again due to like two improvements over time this C may have been adequately sized at the time that it was constructed but over the years I mean the D are constantly um changing the storm water standards every other year they are more stringent um the last change was last year in July July 17th were now developments have to be um designed for future rainfall so um we are recommending here that the downstream um system be upgraded to 60in pipes to um accommodate the increased rainfall and to alleviate flooding on this property number five is um mbell [Music] Road and so here is our recommended improvements plan for mabell road as you can tell um we included a profile here because it actually does paint a picture a good picture of what's Happening um the existing profile of the road is just the road just dips down and when it when there's a heavy storm the water just pwns and just accumulates at this location um looking at the existing topography it is Mammoth County GIS but it's you know pretty close to what's out there but a survey would have to be um conducted to confirm elevations but our recommendation here is to elevate the road which can be done without impacting the residents that are are you know surrounding the area and um upsizing the pipe to alleviate the ponding that occurs and to have the Stream flow as it should uh without impacting the road and the reason also the reason why this is a level five is because um um the school is right down the road and when this floods all the residents are impacted and the schools are impacted and and then number six was Middle Road just go back okay so just going to go back to the map that I had um actually just a quick summary of Middle Road um it's a County Road and uh it is within the flood Hazard area with a known flood elevation I believe of 14 or 15 and the resident that uh is adjacent to the stream I I think their home is slightly higher than that um but there's not there's a not much we can do here as far as recommendations we are recommending um a burm adjacent to the stream if not sure um like what the complaints are or if um you know the the actual Road or traffic gets impacted I haven't I haven't personally witnessed um a storm here and just based on the size of the Culvert we feel that it is adequately sized and any improvements within this area would require Major D permitting it's it's a no it's an FHA area and I don't think um it would require like further study to make recommendations here besides a landscape burm to prevent any flooding to go on the resident's property and this this was priority number six thank you nine do we have any questions from the committee for naine and the team of cers all right so we're going to open it up to the public folks for some questions to the the Coler team um like I said just try to to the extent we can keep it to the information that was presented the information the report um and we'll sort of navigate as we go Mr Blumenthal and then Mr yanell uh Ralph Blumenthal 41 Stony Brook R thank you for your presentation as a member of the environmental commission we've been working and following this all along and getting facts organized facts and car F analysis is really extremely welcome so we very much welcome this and you didn't mention how many pages they're in the report but there's an awful lot of work has been done and I certainly appreciate it so thank you to all the people who were involved with this uh one simple question in looking at the report there's an appendix a and an appendix B which it goes through all of the locations and it gives cost numbers and the two sets of numbers aren't the same and I didn't understand what which set of numbers one should be I think it's appendix B is the bigger set of num so it's probably what we ought to be looking at well we'll let our friends from cers answer that yes okay so um appendix a is basically a location summary that just summarizes like you know lists all the locations with the total cost but the cost numbers aren't the same as what's in the B okay that's what puzzled me uh okay so it's a little over 3 million here five we can take that offline fine okay but B is there's no total in b b is just are just detailed um cost estimates yeah but the individual items are more they add up to more okay uh yeah maybe um I'll look into that and get back to you everything is cross referenced in an Excel spreadsheet so I don't know how that could happen but B Bob has my phone number and email address yeah uh one question I'd like to throw to you folks the total is a lot of money and a lot of work how do you have you had any thoughts about how to potentially fund especially the bigger items I'd say we've had thoughts but not conclusions because I don't see it on the there is a capital Bud budget bond issue on the agenda and I don't see this on that and some of the the most critical items are bigger and not and not little bits of dollars yeah look we we know this is going to be a multi-year effort we haven't taken the steps yet to sort of plot out how many years and what cost we can absorb over that time I don't know Jay or Bill if you guys have any thoughts on that but that's just sort of where I know we nett it out to in our last conversation and part of it's also going to be ongoing because the item the minor items are really an ongoing maintenance because you do it once and you're not done that's right that's right yeah so look we this is the first big step was getting the report and tackling and I'd say the Second Step was tackling the items that we could tackle immediately to try to alleviate some of the pressure now the real work comes in right which is the cost and the effort around the rest of these yeah and then I might just comment with regard to the Middle Road Bridge uh and what's there is that's been a complaint area for a long time and the person who lives just on the north side of the bridge has been to the environmental commission countless times about what's going on uh he and we have somewhat confirmed some of this and ruers also took a look at it as part of their study they were looking at this that the Middle Road Bridge may be too low just north of there and just north of Tetro property you come into hasset which is outside the scope of what you've been looking at and there's been extensive indications that their stream north of there is clogged in Haslet so it's going to take a two town at least effort to try to clean that up and if the water can't go anywhere it backs up well and you're hitting on on the right point right which is that this is a regional issue right everything doesn't just stay isolated to hell and the water's flowing into and out of Middletown Hazlet home Etc and the environmental commission has started to try to work that we had one meeting earlier in the summer with some of the other representatives from the other environmental commissions and we have a followup coming in October but absolutely right it's a it's a regional thing to we all need to work together because what water doesn't watch look at Town boundaries correct so thank you and thank you all for what's been your report thank you Mr Yello you want to do duet uh jell 18 ladw Drive um I'd like a real un biased answer on this um and very impressive how does Hell rate on towns you've looked at over the past let's say seven eight years of your career um on a zero to 10 10 being in wonderful shape all of this and zero being in the worst shape come on just so I'm not just saying this but home ratees very high really yes okay because as resident you know there's a lot of boning back there we're sitting back there and I'm not trying to be political here for present or past people with some of the priorities that we've placed on in this town and have fought over over the past eight years to see some of this a lot of people are saying what and again we're not in the trenches with you guys we're not trying to throw dirt on anyone and none of your jobs are easy but what are we doing as a town if we're not maintaining some of these major major bottlenecks and things it's pretty disappointing again it's easy for for me to say that it's easy for everyone to complain but why are we at this state I'm going to give you one quick answer and then Jay I think you could probably jump in in a more important position I think part of what was done here um was there were assets and structures discovered that I frankly think I'm not sure we knew we had Jay and I think a lot of things get lost to history yeah um so I think you know a large part of this isn't uh ignoring everything it's addressing and taking care of what we can what we know exists and doing the best we can with that I think this did uncover and nine and team correct me if I'm wrong but I do recall one of our meetings saying you know there's a couple of things we didn't even know that that was there corre um kind you know so I think you know this was just I think Ralph said it really well which is we have facts now we have a baseline to work off of and we didn't really have that before um so I don't know Jay if you have a Delaney if you have additional comment on that uh thank you mayor uh no I think that point is accurate that certainly there were assets and when we say say assets structures that we did not know existed as was mentioned at the very onset of tonight's presentation uh most of these drainage structures are located in wooded areas obviously those there are some areas where the road floods we all know it we've all seen it um and they are recurring issues uh and frankly they have in many respects uh those are uh the items that have received notice and there have been attempts made to to address them uh but there's also the reality that uh uh some of these structures have not been inspected or maintained in an adequate manner for the past 20 years or more um as well as the fact that I think we've also uh I think we can agree that the frequency of these high-intensity short duration storms uh are much more prevalent today than I think any of us saw even as recently as 5 years ago and in many respects what we're experiencing now are really for lack of a better term the the canaries in the coal mine uh we're looking at now just the tip of the iceberg of what will probably be uh even more flood areas that we identify but there is no doubt that the uh the storm water system the other reality here is that in most cases these structures were constructed 40 50 years ago as the township grew and we're now to the point where these structures have reached the end of the useful life um and they need to be replaced upgraded and and maintained on a more regular basis um I should also I'll take this opportunity to mention that um as uh navine has identified some of the various culverts and Roads we have every combination of situation where uh some of these uh much of our community are County Roads and the county has primary responsibility for the drainage systems associated with those roads likewise we have many Township roads where the county uh County culverts that are uh you know transporting the water from one side of the road to the other so there is a huge amount of work here both in terms of what uh the township will need to uh address specifically as well as the coordination and consultation with other agencies um also as was mentioned the uh the drainage that's coming from the Garden State art center I'm sorry the PNC Art Center uh that uh that is definitely a significant impact to uh the one item area that was identified Crawford's Corner Road and that drainage is more severe now because they cleaned up their act is is that what you said the PNC drainage it's they they they improve their drainage so it's it's more volume Downstream I'm just curious yeah well all the additional impervious area uh with improvements parking lots um impervious you know that adds that increases runoff to the stream increases velocity um and flow so yes that it's due to overdevelopment um so because they developed it more I thought they just did some other modification parking lots mostly parking lots were added yeah I was at a concert there a week ago you couldn't even stand on the lawn it was that crowded um I'm not an environmentalist but you hit it right on the D we're we're getting drenching rains like we've never gotten before in a recurring basis real quickly they've been popping uh sers off recently they did our block a week ago um are they doing it on a priority basis or cuz are getting paved like how are you prioritizing which sores get popped up and now because we were happy to see that you know uh it was referenced earlier the uh the ms4 um storm water permit requirements that the township uh is now um well we've always been subject to them but those requirements at the state level through D regulations have changed and require more ongoing maintenance in terms of uh even the the easy things relatively easy things um streets sweeping um as well as the cleaning of inlets and uh and covers and the piping right up to the outfall um the this in some cases it's a matter of uh the the priorities vary depending on other work that's being done obviously if we're doing other work in the area uh it doesn't make sense to not address these issues at the same time but at this point we're still in what I would really call the triage stage um addressing the combination of the easy things as well as the the items that are going to require uh the investment of dollars a determination of how we Finance it and and the and the uh the timeline to complete this I mean we are really looking at at at a minimum of uh even if we were to pull the trigger today and completely fund $3.7 million um more than likely we're looking at you know several years to to address every item here got it this is an very impressive report I hope we are going to seriously utilize it today and in the future and get our money's worth thank you no we already are and I think one macro note for everybody is and it was eye opening to me on some of the draft reports earlier this allows us to stop chasing the symptoms and go after the disease right so you know many times JD your point you know our Public Works folks are doing the best they can to remediate issues but they don't know the the source of the issue necessarily right so this gets us to root cause and can stall for the root cause as opposed to sort of chasing you know the the out you know the outcome of the issue so thank you yes ma'am Francine campus to Country Squire Lane I first want to say a very impressive report and thank you to the township committee for doing this I think it's really very worthwhile my my concern is I'm listening I heard references to major problems and I hear borks Toll Brothers PNC Center I'm saying why should the individual taxpayer be burdened with this large amount of money that we have to do to fix it shouldn't we be going to some of these like the PNC Center and say hey when you first came guys it wasn't all that impervious coverage and we know all those parking lots is what's contributing to those pipes not being adequate enough for the drain off why should we bear the burden to enlarge those pipes they should they're doing business they're having big concerts they making lots of money I don't know why the individual taxpayer here in town should have to bear that burd okay and there was no way for us to know that even Bell works and told Brothers I'm sure that development now is taxing some of the pipes in this town and once again we shouldn't be bearing the the um the burden of that so I employ of Grants going to these people and saying you've got to contribute something to this big Bill that's coming our way and the other thing is let's keep this in mind when we're looking at Big developments you see how we didn't know down the road 10 15 years what the town's going to be in trouble for so let's keep that in mind in the future thank you thank you anybody else yes sir Bill L uh a coventry Square I have a specific question about the uh CRA uh mccampbell Road um since I live near there I think the water goes under the road in two different places about 50 yards apart and for a while there you have water going down down both sides of the road so does the plan call for just replacing the one well the one covert right yes but there's another one further west I think um anyway well that certainly needs attention and that whole low area there seems to be a favorite place uh for people to throw things out of their cars because the side of the road is uh totally covered sometimes with you know beer can and plastic bottles and that doesn't doesn't help the water flow so yeah so is that just one you're just yeah replacing the one covered yeah so as you can see here from the profile I don't know if you're able to see that on the screen but uh the existing this is where the road dips and uh this is the location uh I personally was not out there in the middle of the storm I haven't did not witness it personally but uh based on DPW and reports from the nebor you you know the neighbors uh this is the location but again this is this report is not final it's not a static report it's always going to change you know with future so um we were not aware of any other flooding along mccampbell but we'll take a look at that we can take a look at that where is the location is it is it here I'm just saying there's there's water flowing on both sides of the road for about 50 yards there yeah that's exactly what we're saying that's exactly what we found is that the water um ponds on both sides of the road and inundates this whole area yeah yes that's exactly what we found so there isn't another location then just there okay um yeah and our recommendation really this is an easy fix to be honest uh Elevate the road and uh increase that diameter of the Culvert to allow um so it's not bottlenecking and shouldn't really you know result in any um impacts to the surrounding residents because it's the same drainage area we're not increasing runoff we're just alleviating that that ponding yeah okay thank you thank you yes ma'am Janet N7 Country Squire Lane um this is just a a question I have and I may not be up to date but um for several years I would hear that Palmer Square had flooding all the time it was always in the newspaper and all the residents were complaining um I when I was listening to the to those levels and uh the areas I didn't hear anything about Palmer Square was that mitigated completely or is that a big problem Palmer square is that is that in that DFA range you were talking about that flood zone area along with Middle Road where is Palmer square is that up here is it off it's it's off 35 um oh I know yeah yeah um let's get that map to [Laughter] use does anyone know a cross street if this is too much to dig into now we can take it offline it's okay all right we'll take that one offline thank you for the question we'll we'll get an answer anybody else yes ma'am Janet Jackal 31 Stony Brook um I appreciate uh Mr Mayor what you said about U not simply trying to find uh remediation or cures but in fact preventing the disease and one person has already mentioned the problem of increasing impervious coverage which certainly leads to these kinds of problems another is use of the land especially removal of large numbers of trees because that is also preventing uh the absorption of the water and I'm hoping that uh we could find ways of dealing with both of these as we go forward so that we are not going to be facing the same problem in 10 years where we say uh well we still got more water coming let's make it bigger I think we can help ourselves a great deal there thank you yes sir I'm talking to you uh West Vegas 50 Chestnut Ridge Road uh three different sort of items first regarding uh detention basins you mentioned detention basins I know this was part of the study and you also mentioned that it helps uh with infiltration the the um progression of detention basins I think they're relatively new thing right in new developments they're responsible to maintain or control the water that's come off of that development so so I want to talk specifically about uh Sage Street which has like a vintage 2000 year 2000 um detention Basin you might be familiar with that right at the curve there and the way it's structured is that all of the um storm drains lead into this detention Basin the inlet of the detention Basin is obviously concrete and then throughout you have concrete leaders concrete almost half pipes that channel the water from the inlet to the outlet and even after one two or three inches of rain either that day or the next day there's no water in the tension Basin the tension Basin has sides are like four feet high yet there's no detention going on so I'm not sure if that's a by the way I think the new detention basins they call bio retention basins now so I didn't know if that's still the thing that they're doing it would seem to me that you wouldn't have those you would have one of two things either you don't have those concrete things in the entire structure going from start to finish or you would somehow block the exit so that the water can't escape it because there's no infiltration going on um and it's causing the velocity of water during heavy rains to just come in and go right back out again right so um so the detention Basin on Sage that's strictly a detention Basin uh that's a lowf flow Channel um it is supposed to empty out within 36 hours um it's not an infiltration Basin um the the regulations today um that that wouldn't even you know the regulations today dictate that green infrastructure is implemented with f with major developments um so that Basin was constructed prior I think prior to 2006 uh and the regulations were a lot different back then so are you saying if that was done today it would not look like that is that what you're saying correct it would look more like a buer tension green infrastructure so the the rules now uh require that major developments Implement smallscale um bmps best management practices uh to mitigate water quality um and provide groundwater recharge um now it's it's heavily required at the time dry that's that is a dry detention Basin it is supposed to behave in that manner so I guess a general question would say can we look at some of the detention basins and see about quote unquote storing water there to release on a Time basis rather than as fast as it comes in it goes out because it's really not meeting the concept of what you would think of detention Basin would be um the second one is the consequence of salt and sedimentation with two different situations close by one is at 12 Eastbrook which is a single lot purchased by a developer it was it's a steep slope it was completely stripped of all its vegetation uh there's no black fencing around it um my understanding is the town doesn't have jurisdiction because no building permit was requested for it so it's just an empty lot which used to be completely wooded now it's completely mud that silt has come down into the street completely covering the curb and washing down into the drains nothing's going on with the lot and the second one is Bethany Road um if you can believe it's called Woodland Estates so all the trees were taken out the top soil was removed piled up the place was regraded and now nothing's going on at all there hasn't been activity there for probably two or 3 months and the third one regarding uh garbage and litter and Plastics um if part of this is the inlet drains I think we have about four different styles of grates that cover the where the water goes in so it's it's the old style with a giant place there for stuff to go in plastic wood uh I've seen landscapers put their stuff down there as well to all the way to the new style it says drained to waterways and it's got real small inlets so hopefully that's part of our um uh attention to to upgrade some of those uh inlets especially at low points uh in the system and lastly somebody asked about uh Palmer Square I looked at that and that feeds into Middle Road after one two and three inches of row so I don't know if Palmer square is getting uh water but that area behind Palmer Square all the way up to Middle Road is like a Delta it's like something in Miss Mississippi and at 3 in of rain the water cannot go under the bridge fast enough so that's when the water goes on to the street because it kind of overcomes the banks and um and that's a real problem that's all thank you thank you w anybody else yes sir Peter maner 59 Bethany row I have no expertise in any of this at all I'm just commenting one is I think there was some maybe extensive work across kaer alley but I'm not sure back a few months a a couple of months ago Jay so I don't know if that was in your report you know before or not but there was some work done with some some heavy Rock and and wire mesh the same that's one number two is you know I know we have a lot of waterways in hell and going forward there's obvious problems would it make sense or be feasible to go forward and clean the streams the right way maybe do a mile two miles just bid that out so we're not bidding Out 3 million 2 million 5 million bid out X see what it does time because there's no material really it's not brick and mortar so you take you had six phases do one phase do two phase clean those streams look at it in six months you have it all mapped out instead of BU you know awarding a bid for three or four million and then we know what you're looking at and then focus on some real problem areas mccampbell road's been a problem Bethany road's been a problem the the north side of Bethany and Haslet has been a problem when that damned up and then you can start looking at those structures come back in 6 months seven months you have all the time your Maps and look at it see how all the conveyance is going and go forward thank you you're welcome anybody else going once going twice all right uh thank you everybody from coler's Team really appreciate all the work you've done it's a very thorough report thank you everybody for your interest and the questions that you gave um you know we'll keep you posted as things progress and as we look to remediate the issues as as you mentioned earlier in stages over a period of time um so guys thank you so much and you are free to go thank you so we can uh all right folks we're going to uh we're going to get this thing moving hopefully uh move on to public comment for agenda items only public comment for agenda items only yes sir RG malonis uh to Winding Brook Way hell New Jersey uh my comments are re with respect to the vage uh items uh on the agenda um I do many things around town but one of them is I'm on the board of uh citizens for informed land use so uh what I brought with me is the petition that we have put out uh which captures our position on many many things related to this and I will read it uh it has 566 signatures already so uh people are responding to it we the undersigned residents of homeown New Jersey and neighboring towns oppose high density residential development at 23 Main Street formerly the site of vage located on Hell Road and Route 520 plans presented by cha propco l l c depict 300 units of tightly packed senior housing including the renovation of the existing structure 50 town homes and two new three-story buildings residents have rightly voiced concern regarding the demand for and feasibility of additional senior housing and the erosion of Hell's small town appeal the potential contamination of our drinking water the impacts of a potential pilot program on our schools increased traffic congestion and added strain on emergency services and Health Care Facilities hell must send a message to developers that heavily investing in properties not currently zoned for their design purpose is unwise our elected officials and governing boards have a duty to honor the commitment made decades ago to protect home category one streams and thus our drink Dr in Water by only permitting appropriate low low density development in southern hell the category one designation provides critical protection against water quality degradation by preserving fragile ecological resources and discouraging development that could endanger or destroy our drinking water supply the proposed project is not consistent with hell's master plan New Jersey state planning area guidelines or the recommendations of the ad hoc Redevelopment and economic development committee and would have dangerously would have dangerous long-term ramifications on terms in terms of precedent we urge the hell Township committee and Hell Zoning Board in planning words to refuse to rezone 23 Main Street for high development housing thank you for your support and supporting home long-standing commitment to thoughtful sustainable land use sure you can stay up I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind excuse me I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind if we can sort of talk it out for a minute um and I'm not going to get into supporting this development or not we're going to let the process play out and see where it goes um when you talk about things like increasing in traffic increasing from what I guess would be my question when you talk about things like um issues with the drinking water for example when we're going to reduce impervious coverage by 20% how does that reduction actually degrade the drinking water I guess would be another question I have if not this development then what what would you propose and what would happen if we didn't have this property uh designated by the end of the year are you familiar with what might take place those are the types of questions that I have to counter with because there's a lot of sort of incendiary verbiage in there that doesn't necessarily state with a factual basis why these things may happen and I think it gets people a little bit riled up when maybe you know we need to let a process play out I'll also point out by the way um the citizens for reformed land use have let other properties play out all the way through zoning board before they offered an opinion on it um and this one not so much and and and the property I'm thinking of in particular was pure Farmland that was going to have development on it as opposed to a property that has an existing structure already and is going to be used in some way shape or form so just if you can inform me more of your perspective on that and and of the why and how behind it would be help you threw a lot of questions in there could I try to answer the I I forgotten the first one already so so so let's start with this right you talk about an increase about traffic uh traffic uh we remember traffic when it was credential there substantial traffic uh the traffic will increase hold hold on hold on let's stop there for wait wait wait wait wait let me just let me just pause you for a minute credential had 2,000 people in that facility okay we're going to have ballpark between residents and workers about 550 how is that how could that be an inent are all those are all those residential units going to be singles I think they averaged 1.57 per was the average that they a little higher right no that's that's the average and and the the other thing is is you you had those 1700 in in the in the in the credential building uh between between nine and five you're going to have smaller number 2,000 people at 9:00 amm and 5 and 5:00 P p.m massive choke hold on the town right major choke point 500ish people you know so a quarter right of that population but dispersed over the course of the day isn't an increase in traffic they're still going to have the same influence on you you were talking about the septic system wa wait wa wait wait you got to take a step back did we cover the traffic part there's less people less cars not congested during certain times a day it's difficult for me to believe nobody well but you can't compare it to right now that thing's got to be something right okay and even when Vonage was there there was very few people because it was all it was it was all computers computers don't drive there there were 1,700 people there with vage 15 to 1700 so uh so I mean I just want to make sure we get the facts out listen I'm the traffic uh estimates but the thing is is is the the place is zoned the the area is zoned for housing the area is zoned for either industrial or housing okay housing you know one acre lots two acre lots sir it is let me just take a step back for that would be more in keeping with what's in the in the area than than uh than what's I respect your opinion what I want to make sure that we can align on are the actual facts and potential implications right so the one area brought up was traffic based on the numbers alone I don't believe that to be a factual statement that's one okay number two um if you talk about water and runoff and I talk about the reduction of impervious coverage I think that's a difficult statement to make right all of South home dos an environmently sensitive area by the way right we know that and we're keenly aware of it um so so there are things like that and you talk about sewers and and sewage and the whole thing that's a critical part of this whole thing is the packing plan and if that can't sustain what's going to happen there then we got a problem and we're keenly aware of that as well so I so understood there impact to infrastructure and fire and EMS and the whole thing there's five acres that are going to be donated to the to the to the township for fire and EMS on Main Street in South Homedale so I I just want to make sure we can align on facts so we've talked traffic you've mentioned water right you've mentioned and then you're sort of speaking about just hold them to the zoning right if we hold them to and you mentioned impact on schools of a pilot program right right well if we hold them to the zoning there's nothing right and so the tax base will even will decline even further dramatically impacting the schools dramatically impacting revenues for the schools right so so my only point is Everyone's entitled their opinion you guys are taxpayers and I would never tell you to think differently but my my I think we need to be very careful about how we present opinions as Oppo and not present them as facts and I think that can be unintentionally disingenuous I'm sure like I'm sure you're an honest guy I'm not saying this was the intent right but it can be disingenuous when you present things that way so I'll talk all day long about you know what this thing is what it could be maybe what it should have been right there's a lot to consider and timelines can be pretty tight on certain things as well um but I just want to make sure we're coming from the same place here right when you say potentially this we can get together and sit down and talk about but I think you guys have made this a very public thing so let's do it in public I just spoke what what I thought but you didn't provide facts you provided provide facts either no I'm asking you you talked about you know you talked about water being an issue you argue with me I'm not arguing with you I'm asking you a question how does a 20% reduction in impervious coverage provide more risk to the drinking water it it it doesn't I have no problem with the uh with the with the sewage treatment plant there the the issue is is what happens when it fails what what what happened when it failed with credential or Vantage it's the same plant when we there's been a structure there for 60 years 50 years credential was there it's the same plant it's the same packing plant now I'm sure it needs to be upgraded approved I'm sure it needs and again I said earlier I'm sure needs to be upgrad improved you're saying what happens if it failed if it fails what would have happened if it failed with Vonage or credential and I don't know the answer by the way to be it's getting older just right sure and listen this is these guys can be held to very strict regulations on this um you don't what is the what is the uh lifetime of that of that system that's for our Engineers Bob Bob do you have any idea on that system I don't want to call you I do not I do not know the the lifespan of a system like that obviously it has not been in um top use over the last several years or decade um but that'll all be part of whatever permits should be required to get that thing started back up for whatever development may take over that property in the future okay okay so there's going to be strict regulations we have we're we're in uncharted waters with the lifespan of that thing right I mean let's face it sure yeah there aren't there aren't that many there aren't any packaged plants around that are that old Vonage probably not Vonage um Bel Works probably is 19 71 197 1977 yeah so that's part of the process that have to go through and get approv okay no I'm just responding to no no I like I said let's have it everybody's here questions here yeah look and I don't want you to think I'm not angry I'm not trying to be aggressive it's not my intention right but there's a lot flying around and everybody's here so let's have the conversation right that's really where I'm at and I just I'm I'm just I get concerned when people take opinion as fact I guess is what I'm getting at Rocco we're all trying to do the best for home agree 100% we're all trying to do the best for home and we have maybe varying Visions right absolutely so so I I I'm not imping yeah yeah and I don't mean to be defensive by the way but I want to make sure that we get this all out right uh but but but we'll work together with with the facts yeah yeah that that's listen that's all I ask is to look at the facts on theable table address whatever concerns you have against the facts on the table and then we can get to something right as opposed to we we we have been we've been mentioning them we've well you've mentioned but again you haven't been based you haven't in my estimation based those opinions on fact you've based it their opinions and they're being presented as fact and that that's where things get dicey right it really is and and I would I would also argue and again we'll see how this plays out who knows what's going to happen right to be very clear but there are other times in what I would consider to be sensitive areas where the citizens for informed land use waited until the process was completed before they even thought to utter a a response or or or perspective we appreciate that we appreciate the openness and we appreciate especially the opportunity to Pro provide input yeah so I just listen we value everybody's input and but I just want consistency too yeah huh but consistency would be helpful too and how how it's how things are we had been consistent thank you situationally thank you uh yes ma'am and then Mr trus hi Janet nc7 Country Squire Lane uh so I live in the development um right off of Route 520 and Candlelight which is right next to the Exxon station by hell road so it's very very close to where the bonish property is very close to where I live I think you're not comparing I I think we need to compare the traffic the traffic that was at credential and the traffic that was at Vonage was before the pandemic way before the pandemic and you may have noticed that a lot more people have moved into Mammoth County not only hell but all over the county yes as evidenced by Route 35 if you ever try and go north south on 35 it's become ridiculous Well Route 520 I suggest you go there anywhere from like 3 to 5 I'm there all the time I live in South I cannot make a left turn out of my development and that's with the existing traffic I always was able to make a turn a left turn when Vonage was there and when credential was there so the traffic is really comparing it to what's there now not was not what it was like with vage because we expect something's going to be there um that's that's just one you mentioned traffic and to me I think you really have to do the study correct taking today into account absolutely um the second thing was um I was looking at the picture of the of that was um it was the proposed concept plan okay and um they have these three story buildings um there's two one behind the main building and one in the northern part of the property correct I I guess I had heard somewhere in the papers or something that they were going to be well hidden um and it at least when I look at this concept plan there's one of them that looks like you can see it straight from home Del Road like it's a direct line of sight and I thought I heard it was going to be behind lots of landscaping there should be more buffers and stuff along Home Road than what exists now okay so the picture of the concept plan doesn't really show the Landscaping right I they do show trees but that's not what really is going to go this concept and part of the Redevelopment process allows us to dictate maybe more stringent terms in that regard if we were going to go in that direction the other question I would have for you and again I'm not saying this to challenge I'm not being defensive so please understand where I'm coming from on this and I understand your point about traffic I've noticed it as well if we were to adhere to the current use and magically because it would be magic to be very Frank someone wanted to move into that building that building that has a capacity for 2,000 people that's not going to help traffic either right that's going to be even more problematic is it fair to say the the only answer is it it's nothing and which is a problem well a lot of people do work from home these days which wasn't the case back well exactly which is why it's not which is which is why it's a problem right yeah so that I just you know that's the kind of thing we have to think about right you know we all agree it you know you the traffic I just the traffic is bad so don't underestimate it understood uh Mr CH then then Mr yanell Patrick trus 56 Line Road i' like to speak on two items the Vonage action item as well as the eminent do domain um acquisition of lot 49 I guess that's Potter's field uh first my vage it's really a comment uh I've been in hell for 41 years when I came to hell presedential was the second largest employer uh in in the township uh the first being Bell labs uh 2,000 people work there every day okay it was a source of high traffic uh have to stand in line at Doms Deli to get a sandwich Deli from that long ago okay uh it's a 350,000 sqare foot office building that's completely obsolete no Corporation is going to come in and put 2,000 people doing um office work like presedential did at that time P every policy credential wrote homeown would get a revenue stream from that and they poured in millions of dollars into the hell economy back then it is now sitting there vacant white elephant it's a building 350,000 square feet nobody's going to come around and rent it and built um use it as the zoning is now as an office uh place it had a a parking lot 2,000 3,000 cars okay again 1500 okay it had a large parking lot okay uh so for hell we need to come up with a better use than it is now okay the it's it's a vacant lot it's an isore we could come up with a better use is the plan that's put out now needs to be looked at seriously but it has to be a better use and more r Revenue to Hell Revenue both to if it's a pilot program both to the uh municipality as well as the school district so it needs to be looked at this is the first step uh making a resolution to redevelop it and I strongly support that thank you the next thing is the ordinance to uh look like eminent domain acquisition of 4902 U that's a pleasant surprise um my question is that was approved to be a dimension Center by United Methodist Church uh could you just tell what happened how did the switch come from a uh a dementia set dementia place to a uh eminent domain acquisition for I think it's a great idea I I actually can't say anything about it to be honest with you I can't it I'll talk to my counsel just like we dealt with on Crawford Hill a condemnation is you know potential litigation so I would definitely advise the committee not to comment but uh I can't say thank you but that's okay is it well in the case of uh Crawford Hill it was a friendly acquisition could are we could you say whether it's a friendly acquisition or I can say that a a prerequisite to pursuing a condemnation is good faith negotiations and that's exactly what the this authorizes is the Township's initiation of those good faith negotiations with the property owner for the acquisition okay thank you let me uh uh let me get uh uh Francine then the young lady in front of her then Mr blumthal then Jay thank you very much number one what I'll say is about credential oh Francy campus to Country Squire Lane I know it's something has to go there so so yep your actions to uh change the zoning on it or get rid of the zoning on it I understand that my concern is it seems like all the development in Mammoth County nobody builds anything small it's like they're building cities in the middle of our suburbs why does it always have to be a monstrous project why does it have to be 300 homes a skilled nursing facility then assisted living there that is of concern to me not only because I live near there but for the town okay as far as drinking water the only thing I'm going to say is I remember in July I was asked not to water my lawn because there's there's a shortage of water for all of Mammoth County now we go in there we've got more people using up the water supply for all of Mammoth County not only home deal the sewage treatment thing there is old yep hasn't been used we have no idea if that's going to work with that that place and then are we going to be and I hate to keep bringing up col neck Mana which has changed their name but we approve something and then we've got the developer saying we've got this great experimental system to to do sewage treatment and we're not happy with it so and this that's not fact this is just my own thing that I'm afraid of okay as far as impervious coverage when vage or um credential was there there weren't all those other housing velopments hell Road was all forest with trees absorbing water across the street by C Sola farms and stuff there's that a new development that was not there so I am concerned even though we're getting rid of 20% impervious coverage we are still putting buildings there and I'm concerned about the storm water management after hearing this report here I don't know is the pipes they going to be big enough for what's going to happen they mentioned in the uh plan they were going to have a detention Basin what is that going to look like is it going to be a lake in the middle of the property where is the water going to go I certainly don't want to pump any more water than I do and my some pump runs all the time mine too okay and traffic concerning that I lived there when credential was there and I think I mentioned in the previous Township meeting back then people came in at 8:30 in the morning so you got the bad traffic at 8:30 they stayed in the building they had cafeteria gyms and everything the people didn't leave 5:30 we had the traffic again but the rest of the day we were in peace except if you want to get a sandwich at Tom's Tom's Deli but now that place with 300 homes assisted living and and um skilled nursing you not only have the people there going in and out all day you have people coming to visit you have workers that are going to be coming there so I am concerned about the traffic that's going to happen there so that's and I'm not I think it's concept It's a Wonderful project it's just too big look it's a fair point and I value your perspective Francy you know that I think you know this these are the things that get worked out as we go through rigorous traffic studies and Environmental Studies and making sure these folks meet the qualifications they need to M to meet in order for it to go forward anyway like this is going to be a hell of an undertaking yes um it is and as I said I know it's it's not something easy and you know the south of Homedale we going to put up Towers now I mean really I don't think that's with the master plan no okay thank you thank you yes ma'am hi Regina gyberg 15 Main Street um my husband and I own the building right next to Vonage oh okay and I did a lot of research on it because it's going to affect us probably the most um most immediately at least um and I I landed on the fact that it's probably the best option because all the other options that were floating around like a college campus or private residences or lowi income housing or even if a miracle happened and a business came and rented that PO space um would be way worse and the residents of hell would actually be correct in all their assumptions the traffic would be more it would utilize our schools and we would get less taxes so I understand the knee-jerk reaction to development here we all moved here for a reason and there's a knee-jerk reaction to hearing that there will be a development the land exists the building is there it will be developed business is business money is money and there needs to be huge developments to pay for that to pay for that maintenance and I far prefer it to be elderly people who do stay in their homes or nurses that are coming in for a 12-hour shift and the cafeterias will remain there we toured bonage we looked at it to for our business it is immense uh aside from a hospital or a campus I can't imagine who post 20 you know 20 postco business has changed nobody's renting such large offices anymore or certainly not buying them it is a horrible business decision for any business and I'm happy with the idea of it being this option sure would it be great if it was just a big park for us yeah but that's not the the reality of the situation so as the owners of the immediate property there that sewage plant is immediately behind our parking lot um we will be affected certainly in a negative way because this is construction that will take years it is noise pollution it is dust and Etc and that's just the reality of having a business next to another business you know it's like when we lived in New York many moons ago people would complain that you have construction next door or in an apartment next door well you bought the apartment you got to live with it so for for us probably the biggest thing is for there to be Township involvement in the containment of the pollution during the construction you know for that to be um not an isore not a pollutant not a constant noise you know for if if the township gets involved in that we would appreciate it I'm sure all the neighbors would appreciate it for the roads in front you know the 520 not to be you know full of debris and dirt but in terms of traffic everybody keeps talking about traffic and my knee-jerk reaction was like yeah it's going to be so much more traffic it's going to be so much harder for our employees da but really no not you know it's it's not the worst traffic option all the other options and certainly I agree with you Mr Mayor that if we do not make that decision the zoning decision ASAP the alternative of lowincome housing is the worst case scenario the amount of families with children that would move in there would turn our very elite schools to the very low grade schools let's call it that way we cannot build more schools uh the classrooms are full I have little children so this is what concerns me and our schools are very populated as is if that space is with private residents it will severely impact our town in a negative way taxes negative pollution negative groundwater negative um uh you know ambulances and everything else people say oh it's going to use our ambulance and well they're donating it they've dotted their eyes and crossed their tees I have no affiliation with them I have not met with them I do not know them but just a logical businesswoman and it just works for our town thank you thank you appreciate that I think uh Ralph and then Jay Ralph blumen fall 41 Stony Brook Road different question with regard to vage you have on the agenda resolution 209 awarding a Professional Services contract for a special Redevelopment planner the backup material provided no explanation it provided no name it didn't say who you're hiring to do what or what how much you're going to pay I think don't you have to approve all of those other items for this resolution hold water we reviewed can I say reviewed we reviewed an executive of session um the options available to us we're we're making a change because we know that this needs a dedicated Resource number one um we need someone we need someone that can uh operate with the gravity and magnitude of the project and so and be solely focused on that so that's the reason for the change number one number two we met as a in the executive session we discussed the respondents to the RFP um I'd personally spoken to some of them myself we had certain criteria we wanted them to meet just in internally um and the person we selected and the firm we selected met the criteria and also came in coincidentally by the way at the lowest bid um for the RFB um and it is was it Kyle mcmanis Kyle and mcmanis is the firm that we're going to be going with um uh 147 an hour yeah um uh and and their representative the person that we're going to move forward with has also been working with us can I mention the other the other project um um it's in litigation a little bit have been working with us on another project uh that uh that is pending litigation so um we have familiarity with her work um and again she met the criteria we were looking for okay thank you for that the other one was with regard to the Potter Farm resolutions uh having was chair of the zoning board for most of the hearings that go through that and I knew the board did approve the the Enclave name change dementia Center but that then went into litigation and my understanding this a group of nearby not quite adjacent residents were one of the group and then Middletown also joined in and my understanding is that Middletown got kicked out of that there was a hearing on the main complaint from the residents on July 26th and the judge ruled against that so that the ju uh judicial actions against the zoning board approval have now been tossed out although as with all judicial there is still an appeal window which is not run out yet so although informally I have heard that you know the the methodists may have been changing their mind about what they were doing but that gets at something that I think Mike doesn't want wants to talk about but I'll ask a related question though if acquired what would one do with that property in order if you want to acquire it you have to have some reason or use in mind it is not flat you could hard barely put a soccer field there uh it's not obvious that it makes sense as a park or what would you what would you in your going ahead with this what is your vision of what would happen to that property I think all we can say is what's in the resolution which is uh we're taking the steps to preserve it for open space and Recreation that's it's the most I can offer up you know given the situation sorry well just to be clear the only action tonight is authorizing negotiations if there is a formal action to go ahead and condemn there will be a more formal ordinance that would that that actually is being listed by title tonight and if required would then be published and you would have a public hearing on it yeah it we'll address it as as time goes on we have I mean this is It's a pretty straightforward thing and we're just making sure that people are aware of the actions we're taking and we can't speak Beyond Beyond what's in the the resolution Jay Jay 18 lwood drive I'm I'm pretty in awe at um your logic and thinking because it was like she was reading my iCloud notes here um I am a celu member I'm very very fond of these people they're some of the greatest people in town they have the best intentions um I am one of if not well-known the staunchest defender of South Homedale I've spent not hundreds you can ask my family thousands those are real numbers thousands of hours defending South hedo over the past 10 years I'm also in an odd position on the ad hoc committee that is assessing bondage so with all that said everyone reiterating your points as if you were reading my notes we really have to keep in mind the other options there and just real quickly I don't know if I can say this but I'm going to you know a distribution center could have gone there could go there a a storage facility and I didn't realize this Amazon sellers sell store tons of stuff at storage facilities so it's not just Mom and Pops moving their house stuff in you would have build buses and everyone coming in all day long with that a data center I kind of liked the data center but what would that do to our already horrible power quality in this town we have and let me not get on that so everyone's tired of hearing what you're saying about that um we also loved the idea of a college without dorms but many of us were schooled afterwards saying it's not so easy in this day and age to say you can't have dorms you may be forced over time to have dorms and none of us want South Homedale to be a college town um super high density single housing I think some developers looked at that that would have obviously a huge impact on our schools um I love the idea of mansions $ four million $5 million Mansions I don't think the math works when you take out that building and do that um and finally uh South hell does not want another attempt at a sports Metropolis with tons of fields and light towers and Bubbles and things like that when the leagues in out of town people would be there and there would never be enough parking for things like that so the ceu people are great people and I know there are other people complaining I sure as heck get phone calls all the time saying why are you not against this why but if you have better ideas for this realistic ideas then please bring them forward a and the committee or you or whoever will look at them if not I think this is a reasonable plan and I have some neighbors who are again staunch Defenders of South Homedale huge donators to all these groups over the years and they're like it's okay my big concern though broken record following up with Francine's comment um the water issue I've talked about this before um there people are going to take showers there there weren't really many showers at Prudential uh people some people are going to have soaking tubs I would guess there weren't many soaking tubs at credential an offset is toilets I'm sure when credential was built they were three and a half gallon toilets now they're a gallon or less so there's an offset that math we cannot rely on the EPA we have seen how governments have failed before we need a true independent professional on our side to really take a look at the math and what that package treatment plant can handle because and I've said this to you mayor directly and I've heard from a lot of people believe it or not in the past two weeks all bets are off if that facility cannot handle the count there you will lose my you will lose so much support for this and for what it's worth there will be Anarchy in South Homedale because we are not going to have a situation where that facility is either not practical and we don't want this Colts Neck experimental underground thing thing ofama Jiggy we don't want that and I'm gonna say it again the Builder really needs to know that yep so understood okay appreciate that thank you yes ma'am bonda Bruner colini 23 Country Squire Lane uh that's also part of the uh development uh that will'll never be able to make a left turn if we get a lot of Housing and I am a realist I understand we have to do something so I think senior um senior housing uh and making it into condos is the best way to go using the existing building my concern um apart from of course the water and uh and everything else is the traffic and uh I was here uh when Brookdale was a horrible traffic uh problem and that Circle that was done was perfect it really solved the um issue and I think if I remember correctly uh there was a study done right before uh or somehow uh I remembered um and when it was first introduced uh people didn't really realize how well it was going to work so I think if they can be a study and and some kind of um I guess solution to the parking problem uh and the you know traffic problem it'll really help a long way to you know make it palatable for all the residents who live in South home though I appreciate that and a traffic study a rigorous traffic study will be part of this process and we'll see what the recommendations come out and then we'll see what else we can do potentially to alleviate thank you thank you any else yes sir Mr Emma uh Ron I'm at 32 ladwood Drive I've asked this question numerous times before I'm going to ask it again on the consent agenda there's a bill payable for two more 2024 Chevy Tahoe vehicles for $113,000 number one that amount alone I don't believe should be on a consent agenda number two there's an ordinance for two more vehicles for $84,000 and $375,000 for an ambulance that's $572,000 in new vehicles that you're asking for approval for tonight my question is this again what is the Benchmark the kpi when a new vehicle is up is it mileage is it wearing tear is it years I've asked it numerous times and I don't really think I've gotten any answer let alone a satisfactory answer so my question is why are we always buying these brand new vehicles not to mention the DPW equipment which is state-of-the-art you go to the large item drop off uh and you see these new vehicles they're pristine you go to other towns they have a little bit more wear and tear on them they're a little bit more longer in the tooth so my question is why are we always seems to me purchasing these new vehicles without any discussion on this is why we're buying the new vehicles so that's kind of where I'm at thank you okay Jay and Bill if you guys want to want to jump in on that I think the one thing I will one other thing is the the Third vehicle for the fire department they already have a Tahoe and a Ford Explorer I'm I'm I think I got it right I might get it wrong but that would make three Chiefs Vehicles how many vehicles do we need for the Chiefs in the fire department so that's further question thank you so I I do want to address Jay if we can address the first question on this first and foremost which is to Mr amma's Point does this belong on the consent agenda given the amount that was uh that's being approved or seeking to be approved and then we can get into whatever our criteria is for upgrading and improving or replacing Vehicles we don't mind yeah the your question regarding the consent to gen agenda first of all the purchase of any vehicle goes through a number of steps and we're actually seeing um I guess I would best describe it as uh the two ends of the process tonight uh tonight we have for introduction a capital Bond ordinance that starts the process and that puts the funding in place for in this case the purchase of uh uh new Endor replacement vehicles uh the bill list represents the end of the process where the vehicles have gone through uh the the budget review uh the capital expenditure in the form of an an ordinance where there is a specific and special public hearing for the adoption of an ordinance and at the end of the process the vehicle is uh ordered purchased delivered and it shows up on the bill list for payment so uh again the process is really three or four steps uh during what can be anywhere from a a one-year cycle to a two-year cycle the fact that its presence on a bill list um as a consent agenda that's really a preference of the governing body if there are items that uh the governing body wishes to approve uh separately I will tell you that the bill list again is really the formality of the purchase has been made we are now making payment for it the real question should be asked at the time of the authorization for the purchase which in this case is at the public hearing on the funding mechanism which is a bond ordinance so that 113,000 has already been approved I probably questioned it last year or whenever it was that's what you're saying I can interject in addition to what Mr Delaney said there's also an approving resolution to the extent of procurement exceeds the bid threshold so if it's under 44,000 the purchasing agent under the ordinance can potentially award without governing body action but I recall governing body action earlier this year on vehicles so the township committee's already voted to purchase these vehicles so what you're saying is I already complained about those I believe that's right and so this is just cutting the check for it so I happen to believe that's routine business that typically is on a consent agenda so and Jade so thank you both for that and Ron I took that question seriously so want to make sure you got an answer to it um Jak do do you do we have a you know and it's a very it's a valid question I don't know what our criteria is for replacing vehicles I know we delayed replacing vehicles for a number of years just due to budgetary constraints Etc and so my opinion or my expectation is are have surpassed their useful life so to speak but if there but I don't want to put words in your mouth either so yeah and um you're correct mayor the the criteria that's used and those discussions take place during the budget preparation uh depart individual departments uh submit request I will tell you that the priority that we take into consideration as part of the staff review is that replacement vehicles are viewed let me go the other way uh new vehicles that uh represent expansion of our Fleet go through a higher and more rigorous review and justification as to the purpose and the cost uh assuming that there there is an a baseline assumption that the uh Mr blumo can you just please we can hear you we're trying to listen to Jay thank you there is a presumption that our existing inventory of uh vehicles uh when it comes to replacing an aged vehicle uh is viewed a little bit with less scrutiny than expanding the fleet in this case tonight for instance the bond ordinance that will be introduced the public uh the ordinance will be published and the public hearing scheduled for our next uh meeting of the the governing body at which time public comment will be received that includes an expansion of our vehicle Fleet for the second uh Chief's vehicle that was initially not part of the original uh budget presentation uh but this is the opportunity where that uh the capital list has been fine-tuned and does include that second vehicle what about the 375,000 for the ambulance is that an expansion of the fleet because we have three ambulances and I believe a rescue truck and they all are late model vehicles from from my site at least yeah that that is not a uh an an expansion of the fleet that is a replacement vehicle um just checking my notes I don't have the uh the age and mileage of the vehicle that it's being equipped that is being that it is replacing however we will have that information available for the public hearing do I have time for one more quick followup on that no just real quick so again we're spending $575,000 on emergency service Vehicles which is I'm not going to say it's great but okay my original question is what do we spend have we done how where are we with the study as far as the uh partially paid or fully paid fire department at least to do a study if we have $572,000 for emergency service Vehicles we should have a little money left in the budget to do the study that a lot of people in home are asking for me especially for the study to see if that's viable or not so Ron we we'll address that towards the end of the meeting that's that part out of the consent agenda sort of perview thank you anybody else all right um let's move on to the consent agenda do we have a motion to approve move second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay resolutions 2024 1885 to 202 24206 have been successfully passed thank you that's what I do on this looking for authorization all right so uh moving on to 2024 207 um do we have a motion to approve resolution authorizing Bonafide negotiations for acquisition of block 4902 Lots 40 40q and 41 for open space and Recreation purposes motion second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes Okay resolution 20 24207 has been successfully passed thanks when can I do these two together for Vonage yes okay yep so uh do we have a motion to approve the Vonage action items 2024 208 and 202 2429 moved second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay resolutions 202 24208 and 202 24209 have been successfully passed thank you thank you Wendy okay next is introduction of ordinance 20245 which is an ordinance appropriating 42,000 from Capital fund fund balance for cost and expenses to purchase the listed equipment motion is to adopt on first reading publish in the Asbury Park Press and set the public hearing for September 10th 2024 do we have a motion to approve move second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay ordinance 20245 will be set for public hearing next for introduction is Bond ordinance 20246 which is an ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and Machinery new information technology equipment new communication and Signal systems equipment new additional Furnishing furnishings and new Automotive Vehicles including original apparatus and equipment in by and for the township of Homedale in the county of Mammoth state of New Jersey to appropriate the Su sum of 2,932 500,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds the motion is to adopt on first reading published in the Asbury Park Press and set the public hearing for September 10th 2024 that's a it's a mouthful it do we have a motion to approve thank you second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and prudo yes okay ordinance 20246 will be set for public hearing and for September 10th 2024 next is ordinance 20247 which is an ordinance authorizing acquisition by eminent domain block 49.2 Lots 40 40q and 41 for open space and Recreation purposes this motion is to adopt on first reading published in the Asbury Park Press and set the public hearing for September 10th 2024 motion to approve motion second n actually I'm just thinking if I'll clarify this is being introduced on title um if and when the appropriate time is there for the ordinance to be Advanced we will then U submit it for publication and it'll be duly noticed for a public hearing um given that it's by title and it's an open-ended process I'm just going to note that for the record so it may not be a public hearing on September 10th but it will be um upon the direction of the township committee at the appropriate time thank you move second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes okay ordinance 20247 has been successfully passed introduced introduced yep are you who you're doing okay okay yeah thank you Wendy you're welcome Mr administrator uh thank you mayor uh three items uh one I just wanted to report that uh earlier today I participated in a meeting together with Chief fako as well as the staff of the uh Homedale Police Department Traffic Safety Bureau with representatives of New Jersey Transit uh Mammoth County as well as Middletown uh regarding the uh planned replacement or repairs uh I guess it's the second phase repairs to the Laurel Avenue New Jersey Transit railroad bridge uh that also included discussion with the representatives from Mammoth County as I think you may all be aware Laurel Road is or Laurel Avenue is actually a County Road uh and while the uh New Jersey Transit is looking at uh uh moving forward with the repairs to elevate I guess half of the uh the railroad crossing that uh was not previously repaired as a result of emergency repairs when the uh Trestle was uh was hit by a vehicle um the county is also looking at a long longer range plan uh to expand the width of Laurel Avenue so that it would include uh two travel Lanes in each Direction so the uh uh between the county and New Jersey Transit they're working out the details it appears that at this stage that the uh uh Road widening is a longer term plan the county is soliciting uh federal funds for the design concept as well as well as ultimately construction but that is several years out while the immediate repairs uh more than likely will take place sometime during the year 2025 um and again it's nothing that's happening immediately but it is one of those long-term infrastructure projects that has long-term impacts and benefits to the community uh secondly uh on a much more local scale uh Crawford's Corner Road uh uh in response to a number of questions and complaints regarding the to the uh condition of that roadway likewise the township is proceeding on what really is H three separate phases um earlier this year we submitted an application for DOT New Jersey Department of Transportation funding to provide for a a long-term renovation widening and traffic uh uh changes to Crawford's Corner Road that application is pending uh in the meantime the township last year was the recipient of njt grants for just a uh a milling and Paving of that roadway that work uh is in the pipeline and we expect that that'll happen next year uh the more immediate concern is the road condition uh particularly in the area of the schools uh the good news is that we have awarded a a small contract for uh milling and Paving uh of the worst areas and that will uh commence we expect later this week or into next week so that work will be completed uh as well as a restriping of the roadway uh before the school year thank you and then the third final item um I distribute it after discussion uh the resolution appointing of Public Works Department director of infrastructure and operations and I would ask that the governor body consider that for adoption this evening okay do I have to call out a number or all right motion is fine all right can we make a motion to approve the new director of Public Works motion second Mr Foster yes Miss L Mountain yes Mr lucarelli yes Mr Romano yes mayor and preva dudo yes that's going to be 2024 to10 and it was successfully passed thank you and for the record that is Brian Nagel a member for uh quite a long time of our uh public works department he's now going to be taking over Victor's spot and we're very proud of him and happy to provide him that opportunity uh Mr antones uh two items the taxes are due on Friday August 23rd by 4:30 uh they're delayed this year not through any fault of our own but um because of the state and County they were delayed uh secondly we renewed the internal Bond anticipation notes um interest rate this year is 3.82 last year was 2.79 again we issue notes internally based on the interest rate we're currently receiving from the bank and we're saving all the issuance cost to that we have to pay professionals so and we made a major pay down especially in the general capital of $800,000 which was 11.76% of our outstanding notes right thank you Mr attorney Mr Mr Collins I saw your finger going yeah I went that way I looked at the list I was going the wrong way no update mayor thank you all right thank you Mr yo uh no update mayor thank you moving on to the committee Mr Romano we'll start with you thank you mayor right starting with the library uh nice mix of Adult and Children's programs uh July's book club was hello stranger we had 11 patrons attend to discuss the novel the library is sponsoring a chess club that hosts an average of 30 players per week the library held 16 Story Time and steam which stands for science technology engineering art and math events with over 374 children in attendance the themes of these programs were summer related and also coordinated with the summer reading club interest in the read to a dog program is growing and will now be offered once a month on the board of ed side the district has had many students engaging in valuable summer learning opportunities including 106 students participating in our grant funded summer stepup program and 48 students participating in our extended years program the High School counseling department hosted its senior college boot camp session on August 1st earlier this month the district hosted the inspirit AI summer camp at the high school our middle and high school students explored artificial intelligence learning about its Origins machine learning and natural language processing the district was fortunate to have instructors from Cornell University and Harvard guiding them from Athletics the district's athletic teams have been participating in voluntary sum summer practice sessions in preparation for the upcoming school year f Sports including football girls tennis soccer field hockey volleyball cross country gymnastics cheer and dance will start on August 12th and 19th the year's first home game will be on Friday August 30th at 6 PM featuring a football game against Long Branch pudos to our youngsters and staff for their time and efforts towards continuous Improvement uh we have some new curriculum between July 8th and July 18th a team of 14 literacy teachers collaborated in a symposium for to write a new curriculum aligned with the new English njsla learning standards this is intensive collaboration resulted in a comprehensive and forward-thinking curriculum designed to meet the evolving needs of our students in addition 14 math math teachers from grades K through pre-calculus gathered on July 8th through the 11th to begin rewi rewriting the mathematics curricula in alignment with the 2023 math standards uh the Board of Education will hold its public Committee of the whole meeting on August 21st in public Action meeting on August 28th the district is On Target to welcome back staff on September 3rd and all students on September 4th from the hell Heritage committee the hell Heritage day will take place on Sunday December 8th from 2: p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Hell High School to understand better with the space as an area and running the hell Heritage day at Hell High School Superintendent of Schools Dr cascone and acting principal Mr mccul kindly provided a site tour to our group last Thursday August 8th Heritage committee continues recruiting volunteers for the hell Heritage day any hell residents who are interested in helping or offering a sponsorship for this Multicultural celebration event please contact hell Heritage committee at homedel Heritage gmail.com thank you Joe M Mountain thank you mayor uh the Community Development Department is excited to welcome aboard Courtney Lopez who has been appointed as the new HED Del Township zoning officer and they also wish well well to Arthur Revel one of the fire prevention Specialists who retired last week the hell Green Team they attended a kickoff meeting to discuss the update of the Township's environmental resources inventory the committee continues to or the green team continues to gather information about electronic vehicles and charging stations and they've also been communicating communicating with several residents who have approached the township with different suggestions their next meeting is September 9th members of the public are invited to attend and if you can attend you are also welcome to email your feedback or questions to Green Team homedel township.com thank you folks thank you Kim Mr lucarelli thank you mayor uh from the Homedale police department they have a new they they have launched a new new home inspection program this is a crime prevention initiative designed to enhance the Safety and Security of our hell residents this is a free service provided by the police department the department State Certified officers will conduct a thorough inspection of your home evaluate potential vulnerabilities and make re recommendations to provide an uh to provide advice on how to improve your home security to participate send an email email to Home Inspections Homedale police.org just give them your name address and a call back number and they will reach out to you uh I definitely encourage people to take advantage of that uh a total of 60 recruits graduated from the Homedale police Youth Academy uh two weeks ago the program introduces hell's youth to police work through Hands-On experiences with officers uh thank you for all the participants and officers uh and also thank you to the first hell first aid Squad and fire departments for their presentations to their recruits um home Del first aid Squad um again they uh participated in the police Youth Academy during both weeks um they look forward to additional community events scheduled uh for the remainder of the summer which includes the hero day at the swim club the cadet program they're now accepting applications for the 2425 year of the cadet class uh an interesting meeting will be held the first week of September anyone interested I'm sorry any interested Rising junior or seniors in home the high school they are invited to attend more information will be shared on their social media page uh the hell first aid Squad will be offering CPR classes as well as Bas basic life support classes to residents of hell inside the new training room we have several members attend the instructor course to gain uh the ability to facilitate this program and we are excited to get it up and running and the p uh Public Works the next two Saturdays so uh the next two Saturdays for the uh large item drop off is going to be September 14th and September 28th 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Bell works and the brush collection will begin for section A the week of September 2nd um please refer to your BR Leaf schedule card that was mailed out uh when your section will be picked up and uh that's all I have for you mayor thank you thank you DJ Deputy Mayor oh I what was that Home Inspection uh it's uh inspections I'm sorry Home Inspections with an S at Homedale police.org you're welcome DJ do you want to yeah answer his question yes I wanted to congratulate Brian Nagel we're we're all very proud of him to uh get that position um and then to I'll make a comment while I'm up uh Ron we about two or three weeks ago I I ran I was here maybe three weeks ago we formally um requested that uh Dave Dr RC the training officer and chief Fernando come up with recommendations um it's not an official report but they are looking into it they have been communicating with other towns with other Chiefs and they are going to compile what they think would be best for hell some options for us to look at and then present to the public okay so that's that's where we're at with they are working on it cont yes yes thanks DJ Deputy Mayor thank you mayor just a couple of brief updates from the Department of recreation the summer Recreation program finished up its six week program on Friday August 2nd each week the campers enjoyed special events activities and fun things going on we would like to thank all of those who participated and to our staff who did a fantastic job this summer The Homedale hurricane swim team completed its fifth consecutive undefeated season and captured the mammed county swim Conference Championship congratulations to coach Shawn McGrath all the assisant coaches and all the swimmers for a great season the Homedale hurricanes dive team finished third in the New Jersey swimming and Diving conference for the second consecutive year here congratulations to coach Greg Roth and all the divers closing day for the swim club is Monday September 2nd members and guests have been enjoying the great weather this summer except of course last week that was a little tough and look forward to a great last two and a half weeks of the season and just a couple of events save the date for the father daughter campout scheduled for Friday September 20th at bayonet Farms if you haven't been it's a great night the girls run around have a great time there's usually some singing going on music food drinks uh fantastic evening more information will be available soon on this popular event registration is also open for the annual bayonet Trail Farm race there are two races a one mile kids race and a Four Mile main race which goes through the the paths and and stuff throughout the uh all the property back there uh more information and registration can be found at the hell wck desk registration page and then just a couple of things I want to mention uh myself and DJ and actually uh Kim's husman Scott played yesterday in the uh HED lpba outing congratulations to Roco quagle and Pat weaker who ran another excellent outing over at Beacon Hill Country Club uh DJ I think that Home Inspection program is great saw the email on that I I hopefully a lot of people in town take advantage of that it's uh it's an awesome resource that uh the chief and his and his staff came up with which is great uh the CPR training as well I spoke to uh uh Chief trett about that earlier today sorry Pat I I just that's how he always pronounced his name the seven years road with him so um uh I'm looking to get my my three at least older kids involved in that he he mentioned that you know a lot of kids can get involved they may not exactly pass the certifications but they welcome them to come down especially in the new facility and get training and just kind of have an understanding of what's going on and I also like to say congratulations to Brian Nagel we have an outstanding outstanding DPW team um we're certainly going to miss Victor as as I mentioned but Brian is is really all about this town and and and you know some some hard work and the guys around I'm uh looking forward to that so congratulations again thank you mayor thank you Brian all right the uh new turfield lighting project at sat school has been completed the lights now fully operational we are pleased to have partnered with the school district and the user groups to get those up and running uh the township has been meeting with our architect Anthony ivino to begin planning for the preservation of the historic home to Horn antenna Mr aino toward the Crawford Hill site and his team will be guiding the township through the process of working with the New Jersey historic preservation office as we develop plans for the future Robert Wilson Park Township Representatives uh Mr iino the architect and Dr Wilson will me be meeting with the state in September to get the process rolling Town Hall offices and the recycling center will be closed on Monday September 2nd in observance of Labor Day please plan accordingly on September 11th the Township Recreation Department will set up flowers candles and American flags at the Open Hands monument in front of town hall so that residents can come pay their respects to those who perished on September 11th 2001 we are also nearing the Finish Line with the new pickleball and basketball courts at the hell swim club uh in the meantime I ask residents to please refrain from using the courts as we complete the final touches there will be an announcement uh on the website and a ribbon cutting etc etc when these things are ready to roll we're also going to have a reservation system for residents to register uh their slots for the uh for the courts and keep it uh keep it to home residents um and and on one final note before we get to public comment I want to thank uh detective Eric Hernando for 30 years of service to hell he is recently now retired uh we wish him the best in his retirement he will remain his fire chief um but Eric is a HomeTown guy and I refer to him often as a HomeTown hero and we thank him for his service and wish him the best in his retirement from the police department so with all that said we'll move on to public comment if Wendy you want to do the voodoo you do so well 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 and making public comments comments are as com commenters are asked to State their full name and address before commenting public commenters are limited to one comment not to exceed 3 minutes comment should be directed to the mayor and the town committee if appropriate the mayor may direct and recognize a staff or employee or professional to respond to comments either at this meeting or in writing after this meeting thank you Wendy you have any any folks let's get uh some new blood in the back and then you young lady hello Angela Castello 10 real away um so my comment relates to actually the um topic that the our administrator had brought up on um Laurel a on yes Laurel Avenue so um the area on Laurel that I'm I would love to bring to your attention is the corner of Laurel Avenue and Holland Road right before it turns into van sh we have a merge over there that usually causes some bottleneck and with the bottleneck there's tends to be a lot of accidents I'm sure you'll see the mailbox that on the resident who lives on that corner it's knocked over now and it unfortunately hasn't been the first time that her mailbox has been knocked over um so I guess while I understand this is going to be a you know a long-term project where they you know focus on the more um southern end of Laurel Avenue if maybe just a suggestion a possibility if we can maybe discuss turning so right on Laurel a right before you cross over on Holland Road there's it's already two lanes in that area so maybe if we can turn the one furthest to the left if you're looking um across Holland Road if we turn that one into maybe a turn only lane so this way we only have one lane going straight to avoid that bottleneck and hope hopefully um resolve some accidents it has been I used to actually live off F Choy onone Williams way and it um it used so many fatal accidents there's been shrines there it's been terrible over the years so hopefully maybe we could try to avoid that I know it's a county road so it's it's it's a it's not something that we can resolve just in this room but since those discussions I know you mentioned on that road specifically are already taking place maybe we can just add it see see if we can come up with the county of a possible resolution thank you thank you Regina gyberg three Grand View Drive I have the same topic sort of on a different street um shank Road and Hull Road oop sorry uh it is the scariest turn I am there's a lot of blind sides there and it needs something it goes up over a hill everybody speeds down Hondo Road they don't see us turning off shank road we don't see them and I don't know what the solution is because that is not my forte but somebody does so if we could address that somebody could take a look at that it's extremely dangerous I'm always like I say a little prayer just before I turn you know because even if if I don't see it they come out of nowhere uh no matter the only time it's safe is at night because then I could see them coming that's it thank you thank you yes ma'am hi my name is Kathy English I live in Eaton Town so I have to say I'm very impressed with hell but I also have huge Roots here I am from from the cross family uh my aunt married um theof which is ladwood um my great uncle's house is on Longbridge Road I come and visit every couple of months I was here a couple months ago um sent some pictures to cousins in Delaware my uh daughter was like oh my God they're going to arrest us I'm like don't worry I I know a lot of people um anyway it's it's just I don't know it's getting worse I was told last year that a woman's group was GNA take over it and teach and no that was you okay the the cross family was about family they were about kids um they would be thrilled with all this their blood is in the soil um my mother grew up across the on the property of the Exxon in that house which my grandfather knocked down with a bulldozer um anyway that is one of the last houses of the Cross family so I have my mother's wedding was there in 1959 August um I have a picture of my great uncle in the house so I would like to see it be something teach kids you know something with the recreation you guys own it it needs a lot of work I I do know from doing on Ancestry the schmock cemetery that was that was their house a little part of it and then the next family and then the crosses and then the cross Brothers had one road so I'm I'm part of G gide and daily too so um I have pictures if you want I gave some pictures last year I don't know where they went but I can give you some pictures so family family and kids thank you thank you everybody for loving hell as much as my ancestors did thank you very much J 18 ladwood drive I have a suggest question and request and and DJ this may come your way um over the past years and actually in the past month I've seen hazards in town that remain hazards for weeks and I'm like why why is it my job as pain in the butt Jay to report these things to the town and to the DPW or the police department um we have an incredible DPW as you said we have an incredible police department but I'm requesting DJ or Roco mayor or the TC I implore you to go to the heads of these departments and say guys I know you have bigger things to worry about trees that fall or cars being hijacked or crime but if you see a hazard please report it maybe we incentivize them to report it just a couple of quick examples a hanging branch on Middletown Road was there for 3 weeks a pretty big Branch where if you have a top back and a kid's in there and get I mean death why do I have to report that three weeks later three weeks it hung there you could see this thing pulling in it's a good because you know what I I literally wanted to see because this has happened for years let me give you another quick example when it's a great point though when you pull in the Marshall's parking lot there were some really bad potholes there where people were starting to try to negotiate and it could could cause an accident or someone's walking there they were there for months yeah as you pull in the Marshall's lot you go down Laurel you you get on 35 you make a right in there were some meaningful potholes there I watched those potholes for months how many times did Township the township the the the facility there home Del Commons whatever it is how many times did Township employees pull in why do I have to call that and I did call and it might have been Brian Nagel it was a few weeks ago and they they paved that sucker right out but again these are great employees they have bigger things to worry about but they should see these things and Report these things and maybe we create some sort of incentive system $25 gift cards if you know I don't know whatever the answer is these things should be covered by Township employees obviously residents are going to catch random things but if things are around three weeks months residents shouldn't have to report it the other thing is about the vehicles people joke I keep Vehicles 10 to 15 years my dad taught me that you really get the cash cow flows in the latter years if you don't need Transmissions I've heard from several business owners over the past seven years about they're in awe at the uh the pace at which we upgrade Vehicles the nature of the vehicles why aren't we repairing Vehicles again our people deserve quality vehicles but we have some really good vehicles do we need F350s they're expensive can some of them be F150s but more importantly because Mr Emma's question we argue a lot we're friends but we argue a lot I think he's right on point I think if we're replacing a vehicle there should be a spreadsheet maybe there is but I haven't seen it this vehicle is this year this old these are the miles on it and we're replacing it with this vehicle do we have that if we do I apologize we do and you see that so what is the average replacement year on a F350 yeah I don't know the average I've seen the spreadsheet CU we looked at it we're looking at we going over the budget and everything before I mean Jay I don't know I don't know if you guys know the average off hand but I remember seeing them you know north of 20 years on on a bunch of these F350 on certain Vehicles I'm not saying the F350 you know no I mean I I just I think if listen inflation taxes you're doing your best to keep things flat I think please detail to us these vehicle Replacements I think it you know we'd love to know so my only comment with BJ is that and I think I said this last time Ron brought it up I don't know if it was last year or this year I can't remember there will be well there has been already more scrutiny on DPW on their vehicle you know how often they need them and and there there wasn't unfortunately going back I think there was they were just filling you know there was x amount of budget they had money and they would spend it yeah so there has been more scrutiny on it when it comes to um the police department that's just a whole another standard there and um there are spreadsheets they every vehicle is documented when we go down do the budgetary stuff but especially I'm just again for the uh for the um Police Department you know the chief and the captain they recommend to the administrator what they're looking for this year I was the liaison so I sat in on that so I'm just speaking about this year and you know it is kind of scrutinized you do go through and you do they they explain to you um you know what their needs are and what their requests are and we push back and you know it's like kind of kind of a negotiation because you everything is expensive and they understand that but when it comes to the police department there's a definitely a different standard there when it comes to mileages and the years of their of the uh just record I wasn't questioning the but again when it comes top I get it and I don't think there has been a purchase of an F350 or new pickups in the last you know uh year or two so you know there there there should be a little more scrutiny there we want them to have quality Equipment and to be able to do their job and be comfortable and look professional in in town but there also has to be I think moving forward for for some time now there has to be a little bit more you know scrutiny on is this really necessary do we really need this and and if so just explain why and it has to be logical and make sense um so I think we're all you know we're definitely in agreement with that and nothing's changed since I think we we had that conversation you know again I don't know if it was last year or earlier this year but it all Blends together yeah I know I know but um that that is that is kind of like a new practice here I don't want to say new practice but it's been uh continuing practice an evolving practice an evolving practice okay and just to reiterate if if you could suggest or possibly incentivize these two major groups that are on our roads all day long guys report this stuff I think it would help decrease our risk profile as a population thank thank you anybody else P trpa 56 Line Road um just want to reiterate uh there's some questions about uh first aid Vehicles okay $471,000 the hell first aid is an all volunteer organization and they have constantly upgraded uh what can be done on a first aid call and the the residents of Homedale get the benefits of that so most of the $471,000 for a new ambulance goes to modernized equipment like uh uh automatic defibrillators automatic uh CPR uh chair lifts so that the doesn't have to be lifted so these are the things uh Wireless uh Communications to a hospital so all of these things add to the cost but I think it's the immediate benefit the first aid Squad takes uh a lot of calls per day and needs four units uh that are completely upgraded and up staffed so uh at first it may sound like it's a sticker shock when you see something like that but realize what the town is getting for that money okay and all volunteer thank you thank you thank you else yes ma'am Jackal 31 Stonybrook Road um home has a noise ordinance um it doesn't seem to be enforced uh