okay manam okay thank you I welcome I just want to um in celebration of like his three month I wanted to start the meeting with a quote um from WB D believe in life all human beings will progress to Greater broader and Fuller life the worker must work for the glory of his handiwork not simply for head The Thinker must think for truth not for fame either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States we hope not I'm very optimistic and with that um I will do the statement of proper notice adequate notice of this meeting of La Township Council being held on Tuesday February 20 2024 has been provided through the posting of of the annual meeting schedule of the said Council in accordance with Section 13 of the open public meetings act said notice was forwarded to The Trentonian the times and the Princeton packet on December 11th 2023 he will now have an inspiration from our Madam may we carry out our work at this meeting in a just honorable and sincere man always bearing in mind our duties and continuing to keep a wonderful community in which to live I pledge Al to the flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for [Music] all Mr Bob here Mr Kaki here M Perry here Mr Ryan here mayor here at this time do we have any special proclamations recognitions and or presentations we just have the budget the 2024 department head budgets starting with our chief a poli Chief Longo pleas than [Laughter] sir good evening mayor council Township manager winsky Mr cek Miss uh clerk you uh I'm happy to stand up here tonight and present the 2024 budget and this out move around a little B I can't stay still uh for the police department but I just gave you was the uh 2023 year end report uh that's a comprehensive report on the operations of the police department through 2023 there's a lot of good information in there uh if to look through it you'll have it will answer a lot of questions that about the operations of the police department through 2023 uh I wanted to introduce my Command Staff uh and their responsibilities just so you understand how we operate Captain Joe Le he's our Patrol Captain he is in charge of uh the uniformed officers Lieutenant Sean seon and Lieutenant RJ lar are lieutenants of the Patrol Division um and they uh they again supervise the uniformed police officers Lieutenant Mike Whitmore is our administrative Lieutenant he handled our Internal Affairs our accreditation Oprah requests and a lot of uh the administrative functions of the police department and Lieutenant Kevin reading is our uh investigative division Commander he oversees our detectives our juvenile division uh our uh ABC or Megan's Law he oversees a lot of the investiga functions of the police department through 2023 we were staffed with 60 full-time police officers uh that's on paper uh we'll see I I I'll go into more detail about that as we go on one fulltime special law enforcement one that's an unarmed law enforcement officer uh he also acts as our code enforcement officer as well uh five full-time slo3 officers that work in the schools there are School officers uh two full-time records clerks two one uh full-time confidential assistant to the chief of police that's my direct assistant uh and two part-time records and detective Bureau clerks that kind of share responsibilities through records and the detective Bureau we also have one part-time property and evidence clerk he handles a lot of our electronic evidence uh uploading body camera to the to the courts and and handles functions like that uh 2023 was a really good year for us uh we were able to replace a lot of the officers that we lost through retirements through vacancies um and you know it replacing those officers in a timely manner takes we always here about a year to train those officers but after they're trained they have to go through field training and then after that they have to uh you know have some experience and and we'll see where our experience level through the turnover in the department um we're we're a very young Department through our creative management leadership styles uh we had a little bit of a paradigm shift in our in our management style uh We've increased the inter uh internal morale of the officers and the employees over 2023 which has led to uh increase productivity we've continued to improve the community relations with the community and our Police Department reputation has really improved through 2023 we've gotten more involved with County and state initiatives such as uh tactical response team homicide task force uh cyber crimes unit Mercer County rocket Response Team the Drone task force and our Incident Management team we have officers that participate in all those initiatives um and again I'm sure everybody has seen our new police car designs that are a little bit more visible and stand out in the community uh so hopefully everybody likes those we're we're pretty happy of those uh the police department has again continued to improve communication with the community anyone who's emailed me or uh gone back and for three mail I have this saying at the bottom the hearing from our community is an essential part of providing quality Police Service and uh you'll see through the presentation that's what we're based our services on through the community is uh what our residents are looking for one of those initiatives was the traffic email a vast majority of the complaints committed the police department are traffic related so we opened up the email for some dialogue back and forth it's been very very successful we've increased our social media Presence by 46% over 2023 uh with the officer Spotlight which has been a pretty big hit uh safety messages sharing our Police Department involment in the community and stuff like that it's been we've been very successful with that we help our first Police Department open house for the community last spring we're going to hopefully do that again which again very successful we significantly increased the training for leadership and management through the uh police department we've also increased the training uh for all of our police officers excuse me the community events that we uh partake in we co-sponsored the annual egg hunt with our Recreation Department along with Trunk or Treat nationville night out py with a cop we uh held our first car show and food drive at the Lauren Shopping Center in November which we hope to do again we partnered with the police Union the fop for that uh our toy drive uh Community meetings spoke at the senior center some School faculty meetings I'm speaking in uh March to the Ryder University retired faculty there um about some safety concerns that they had with all the good that went on in 23 we did have some challenges we lost five officers to retirements uh two lieutenants one detective one Information Technology officer and a traffic officer we also had two transfers and one resignation collectively 135 years of police experience it's it's a lot of institutional knowledge and job knowledge leaving we trained 11 new officers through 2023 that was about 20% of our department which is a big number for us uh not all 11 were hired in 23 some were hired in 22 and trained in 23 some were hired and trained in 23 but 20% of our Department we uh trained in 23 as I said in my last budget presentation at no time during 2023 did I expect to have 60 police officers fit fully for Duty um and that's exactly what happened we have five officers that were out during the year we lost two officers since 2020 one since 21 and two since 22 uh and I'll say the same thing that I said before I don't expect to have 60 officers we will have them on paper but I won't have 60 officers uh available to work anytime through 2024 as a result of the retirements uh which you know we kind of forecasted for and knew that this was coming half of our Patrol Division has less than three years experience uh 74% has less than five years of experience so when I said that it takes a year to train a police officer it takes about five years of experience for that police officer to get to a point where they're really comfortable in their own skin to go out there and do do the job properly uh and without a whole lot of Direction so 74% of our department has less than 5 years that puts uh a big job on our sergeants and our supervisors out here uh and they've really done a fantastic job our young guys have really done a good job studying when they're not working and doing their best to get up the speed for it so we appreciate that and 94 of our Patrol officers has less than 10 years this was just a stat that I thought was uh pretty important the census reporting Lawrence Township has grown in population 28.27433 administrative reporting to the state and the Attorney General's office we've gotten a lot more work on both ends not even only on the road but also administratively um and we're working with the same amount of officers that's another true Testament to the officers that you see out here they uh they really give a full day's work uh and earn their pay 2023 operations there's consistent oversight from the attorney general's off is coming out mandatory training police licensing reporting uh there's new initiatives and directives that come down uh almost on a monthly if not a bi-weekly basis from either the AG's office or the prosecutor's office that were required to follow and it has uh affected and changed the police operations not just for Lawrence Township but for policing throughout the state um and again it's specific to supervision and the administrative functions of the police department we talk about overall calls for service I know Keith LaVine when he was up here he talked about Mental Health our mental health calls were up 20% from 20 2022 to 2023 uh 213 in 2023 from 177 and 22 and we'll talk a little bit about what is involved with mental health calls they're very volatile very sensitive calls and it takes a little bit of an extra skill set to deal with those calls shoplifting is up 53% our motor vehicle stops up 57% again I I attribute this to our traffic email the traffic email I've made available to all of our supervisors Command Staff so when the complaints come in or the concerns come in everyone sees them they see them live and they're addressed immediately excuse me uh warrant arrests up 15% and our domestic violence is up 2% uh we had 239 domestic violence incidents in uh Lawrence Township last year this is pretty remarkable between 2009 and 2023 our mental health calls for service went up 300 63% and if you look at the graph here once Co hit it's been a steady incline since 2019 um and again just from 2022 to 23 it's gone up over 20% so how are we addressing the mental health uh calls for service the Attorney General in 2023 uh put together an initiative called arrive together the arve together initiative is where a uniform police officer rides in a vehicle with a mental health worker and essentially they arrive on these calls together arrive together it requires the officers to be CIT trained for critical uh intervention trained which is a 40-hour training class uh we have four CIT trained officers we have a master CIT instructor detective Sean K who's one of the lead instructors for the county and uh we have one officer scheduled to attend that training in March uh we were also selected to be a pilot program for uh for that AR together program so we we were right in on the uh the ground level for that Mercer County arrived together they have adopted a referral system which means when the officers go there uh they make a referral to the Capital Health crisis unit and they will have someone follow up with that uh person in crisis within 24 hours if it's emergency then we do still have mobile response come out but their response times could be anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and that doesn't include their on seene evaluation uh another uptick is the opioid addiction uh we every police car in lence Township does have no oxone the generic of uh what is Naran which we're familiar with last year we responded to 36 incidents of drug overdoses okay I you can see on the next slide that that's up it's a little just about doubled we had 27 uh 33 patients suffering from drug overdose 27 successful reversals that our officers revers the effects of opio uh overdose and unfortunately we did have six fatalities if you look at these numbers again remarkable numbers from 2022 to 2023 we more than doubled our overdose calls from 17 to 36 our officers deployed an Ouran 33 times in 2023 from only 13 in 2022 and we tripled our fatalities so the officers are going to uh overdoses on a regular basis they're proficient and uh administering in Ouran and uh you know the these are the numbers we don't see it getting any better we're already on par to you know to go past these numbers this year our drug and alcohol rehabs we have approximately six uh in the town and I took the statistics from just one facility I think it's important for counsil to understand the amount of time and effort that we how we work together with these facilities and the amount of time that we spend there in 2022 we went to 69 calls for service at this one facility spent 163 almost man hours at that one facility in 2023 111 calls at the same facility for about 185 man hours uh total in two hours 3 almost 50 hours of uh of time and if you take that 185 man hours from 2023 that's the equivalent to taking one police officer off the road for 15 and a half shifts so we spend a considerable amount of time there traffic uh our total traffic uh crashes are up only 2% and when the national highway s uh traffic safety board looks they don't look at the total number of crashes they look at the number of crashes with injuries and crashes with injuries were down 30% we're also down with a bicycle involved crashes the one uh that were see a spike in is pedestrian involved crashes we've already had one pedestrian about the fatal crash already this year on Route One um traffic complaints like I said are the vast majority of the complaints we get from the community uh the traffic email has been a great help to us and to the community for us to open up a dialogue and uh you know we come up with ways to uh go out and address the community's concerns so commercial traffic stops up 338 per in 2023 that's a direct correlation to the traffic email the complaints mostly of heavy trucks going through Main Street speeding and uh heavy truck violations we also have another initiative in the police department it's called three streets a week we take the data that we get from the traffic email and our crash data and we put out three streets per week for the officers to focus on they still conduct traffic enforcement throughout the town but three areas that they focus on and this is an example of what that flyer that outo Patrol officers look like um the traffic incident management system this is something that I'm particularly proud of I wanted to bring up statistically 10 to 15 officers uh are killed each year while working in or near moving traffic I'm happy to say we are the only Police Department in Mercer County where every one of our police officers is certified by the state police and do as Tim certified officers and that means that they're training the proper response placement of vehicles emergency vehicles and how to conduct himself on the roadway and live traffic uh RJ Laren RJ lar is a State Certified instructor uh we're lucky to have him he brought in representatives from the state police and Dot and they came in and certified all of our officers lastly uh 2024 budget expense requests uh there's three in particular that I want to talk about the security fence a cad system and the traffic trailer if you come over I'm sure everybody's seen it you come over 206 southbound towards the municipal complex and you look over to the right the back of the police department is completely exposed uh you can see the ambulance there this is from the parking lot at the back of the police department you can see how close the roadway is so what is a security fence going to do it's going to create some privacy we have our officers back there we have victims prisoners juveniles that walk in and out of the police department and if you come down 206 you can pretty much have a full view of the back of our headquarters at some points during the day with the lighting you can actually see down our administrative hallway uh from 206 there's also the office Homeland Security and preparedness does have regulatory standards um with that the back of our headquarters being open we don't meet them so a security fence would also help bring us into compliance with uh with Homeland Securities uh compliance standards and again just a couple more pictures you can see how close that white car is there on the exit ramp to the back of the police department there is a chain link fence that the state has erected there um but even in the summertime when the plant's growing stuff there it's just not uh it's just not covered enough there's not enough privacy you can see how open it is from different directions next is the traffic trailer we're looking for a variable message sign uh this is a speed sign so we could put it out where there's not officers uh we get so many complaints about speeding on different residential areas we can put these uh this traffic trailer out there and it could act as an officer Virginia uh department of highway traffic safety did a study that when drivers do see a electronic speed sign it tends to slow the drivers down for instance in town uh Public Works that erected two speed signs for us uh between Lake Drive and the wayhe head circle on Route One we were inundated with complaints about speed since those signs have been up uh not every piece of what we have here um we have really received no complaints about speeding they they are super effective um the effectiveness is it slows traffic down it slows drivers down uh the remote operable so we can control them we can change the sign the speed limit we can uh collect traffic study data right from that uh trailer remotely it's versatile we can deploy it pretty much anywhere and we can use it in emergency situations for detours uh and it does improve the safety on Crash sites lastly our CAD system our current CAD system it's a computer A dispatch this is the system that we use to track calls for service generate our case numbers uh it's our record management system this is where the police officers complete their police reports this is where our records department takes those police reports and Gathers them to release them to the courts and to insurance companies and anyone who wants a copy it's also the system that generates crime stats that we have to report to the state and it also reports our crash data uh to the state repository so our current CAD system is from we we put it in uh effect in April of 2008 and just to be blunt it's outdated the software updates have not kept up with the needs of law enforcement and I'll explain a little bit about it the cad system that we're looking for it's been tried and and proven uh it's recommended by the state police uh it's has it's called enforces it has no physical server right now our cat system has a physical server it's cloud-based it updates remotely for software uh it removes a necessity for Hardware maintenance it does not need uh to replace the cad server which is typically a cost of average about $20,000 every 3 or four years that we spend the support offers 24 hours support uh which we do not have right now and it also allows us to complete crash reports in the cad system in that enforcer system which a lot of the cad systems don't the state has created a different repository which we would have to use a separate records management system for the uh to pull data for crash report so if we went to something else we would have two separate uh Records Management Systems one for crashes one for criminal reports we all heard about UCR reports or Uniform Crime reports they were very bril uh reporting numbers and the state said or the uh the government didn't like the way that they were being reported so it was just very basic Larsen burglary the new reporting system that came out in 2018 is called ners it's a national incident based Reporting System it's much more comprehensive in reporting uh crimes so this uh right now Lieutenant reading uh he spends about 45 to 60 hours a month reporting our crime STS uh because of our Cad and the way it captures the coding from the reports it they don't always transfer over to the state system so those reports get rejected we don't have the technology to just fix them and re-upload them it takes us about a month to be able to reupload them the new system would do that automatically for us and would save us a considerable amount of time it's compatible with the state repository it requires little or no human interaction and we have such a backlog of reports that have not been accepted by the state that the state police actually assigned a trooper to come out from their unit to work with us to try to bring us up into compliance it's our our computer system just does not communicate with the state uh it would also uh replace our cop logic system which is an online report for non-emergency reports we had 289 online reports filed by the community last year these are reports like forgery or frauds that um you know a lot of credit card companies will say we you need a case number you know we'll investigate it this is a way for people to go on online complete the report get a case number uh and document their incident we right now it's about $99,000 a year that we pay for this cop logic uh system the new CAD system enforces would take care of that it has a mechanism for online reporting so we could get rid of that cop logic reporting and uh I have so much more I could stand up here for hours and talk about the police department and what a great job these guys I'd like to thank all the officers for for coming out tonight family and the community and uh if you guys have any questions I'd be happy to answer I have a list thank you Chief lungo um So currently you mentioned that we're at 60 fulltime police officers but how many are expected in 2024 so 60 police officers is what we're capped at right now for Manpower so how many would I like uh we we're at the limit 60 is the limit right now um so I you know we eventually we definitely need to add to the department um but 60 is the number that Council has has C to set ideally what would be the number I mean ideally we should probably to operate perfect world close to 80 um you know if we could get up to Mid the high 60s U you know and work our way up a lot of the administrative work um our officers sitting out here most of them have been held you know uh they they get held over their ship almost daily uh working overnight from 6: pm. to 6:00 am. and then being held until 11:00 am. the next day is brutal um these guys do it on a regular basis they smile they don't call out sick the next day they come back to work and they continue to do a great job um so thankfully for that um and what do you contribute your increased morale to um I think anytime there's a change in leadership the new leader has an opportunity to do things the way they want I think we're over the honeymoon phase now um you know the the fact that I've been chief for just about two years and we have this many officers showing up here um The Command Staff is here um we're we just have a a good environment we have good leadership we have a good Command Staff we have officers that take pride in their job and uh you know we we have we have a good thing going right now um uh being that you have such a young Force what is some additional training that you're providing to them uh since they are riding alone correct so yeah now everybody's pretty much on their own I think we have two left that are uh still in field training uh you know there there there's a time between when you come out of field training and you start riding on your own that have to gain some experience before we start sending you to training some of the training classes um are you need a little bit of experience to really grasp the meaning of the training so deescalation all the officers coming out now are trained in deescalation we just had in service training today for juvenile crimes mental health uh CPR um we got everyone in the department certified in radar uh there was a time not too long ago that we didn't have one single radar certified police officer um which you know we got that taken care of we reached out to I can tell you South bronic police department and they they offered they trained our guys for free because of the relationship that we have with them um so there's a multitude of training and approximately how many hours of dis um dis gulation training or the new officer getting so there's something called AEL and icat they get in the academy uh they're both six 16 hour courses and then we just did today two and a half three hours we do that several times a year um and then there's there's training classes the acmy hold them all the time there's different um crisis centers and and other mental health professionals uh Attorney General's office holds training so as they come up we reply send the officers to the training the escalation and not too many more sorry um what do you think are some of the hot buttons that are coming up in the community in our community uh the catalytic converter thefts the Kia thefts yeah um you know the the petty burglaries of vehicles and and stuff like that the opioid uh addiction you know we see that it's almost daily now um domestic violence is pretty constant and uh I know that the when I say shoplifting the shoplifting is a is a daily recurrence right now we're up 50 over 55% I think it was 58% we're up on shoplifting shoplifting isn't a crime where we just go take a repord to walk away uh when we have a shoplifter if they're in custody we have to transport them back to the police department we have to process them fingerprint them photograph them uh and get them where they need to go whether they're going up to the jail or they're being released a shoplifter takes anywhere from you know could take two two and a half hours that takes two officers off the other is mental health mental health um you know years ago crisis would come out and they would sign a form say person needs to go to the crisis center and if you offered them you know come on let's go if they didn't go you would put them in handcuffs and you would escort them to the hospital now with the deescalation training there's officers could be there three four five hours um with mental health workers you know two three officers off the road at a time what are the top spots that are being hit for shoplifting the Quaker Bridge Mall Mercer Mall the Nike store um uh shop right really yeah okay and uh my last question to you is three part so what type of fence are you thinking for the security so I I'd like to I'd like a 9 foot fence uh so when and the reason that I'm looking for 9 foot fence when you come over the highway on uh over 295 it's raised so you can kind of see over a little bit um but I guess we'll have to see how much money is budgeted and I'll get the highest fence that I possibly can but to be clear this is the beginning i' like to next year add on to that fence and come down two or six I'm just being honest you know give us what I I wonder this year the money is for a fence just along the back of the police department along the exit ramp of 295 I want to add on to that next year uh a little bit down 29 around down 206 here and I'd eventually like to put some type of gating system whether it just be a Tollgate or something down the road to uh stop the public from driving behind the police uh Department the guys will tell you on midnights uh during the day we have people constantly driving back there where the police cars are where the police cars are why they lost they just I guess they try to turn around they're not sure where they're going we have signs it's clearly marked police but yeah there there's uh constantly Vehicles back there we've even had someone parked back there overnight um you they they were sitting back there yeah now the things that you're talking about about is it would be like a privacy fense right yep it would be a privacy fense so you couldn't see through a solid privacy fense um and do you have any concerns as far as cyber security with the new cat System since it's in the cloud what is the backup this this CAD system I'm not an IT person but I'll do my best to answer um this CAD system has been used in a lot of other agencies for many years we spoke to the state police one of my biggest concerns is the neers reporting that the crime reporting it takes a tremendous amount of time uh it's it's very labor intensive and it's so convoluted and confusing that uh this system was the one that was recommended by the state police the Mercer County Sheriff's Office uses it uh you know hope well Township uses it there's a lot of other police departments that use it and we spoken to a lot of the other departments and forces came out and did a demo for us everybody's been using it on a cloud system and it's been F and the last thing I want to ask is have you ever partnered with women's space it's scary to see the increase of domestic violence that's happening and they're really in our backyard so if there's any you know has been ever oh yeah so we we partner with women's space women's space is in our building uh probably three times a week we we're part of the domestic violence victims Response Team Ryan Dunn Sergeant dun back there is our uh woman's face liaison uh we attend their all their functions we have a really good relationship Ryan is on the phone with them probably weekly um yeah we have a great relationship with women's space and their services we have the volunteer service for the domestic violence victims response te as well thank you so much I've taken up so much of your time that's right any other questions yeah I do mayor if I may Chief thanks for the presentation as always um I think uh commissioner Lewis be still happy to hear crashes not accidents so thank you um I just want to say thanks for the the very thorough presentation um and what what I really I wanted to start off with was I appreciate you trying to increase the morale and sort of the police the relationships of the police department both sort of working internally to external um it's great to hear that although you're challenged with sort of Manpower um number of officers that you can deploy um that you have a positive that there's a positive uh feeling in the air um so that's great even after the honey because we know how that works um and then externally I've heard nothing but good things about the work that you've been doing in sort of meeting Community groups as well as um and I also want to say you didn't mention this but I'll say it for you um having some of the uh retirees come back and meet with the new officers and having coffee with them I think that's so important when you have such a young Force um one of the things that I've always um taken pride in um is sort of the proactive sort of how the police has been Lawrence Township Police Department has been proactive in how they police this community and the care that they uh give to this community is incredible um it's one of those things that you know during uh 2020 and those challenging times um I had conversations with the police chief and he met with everyone on council at the time and a lot of the answer a lot of the questions the community was asking of council had already been answered by this police force and so I just wanted to say thank you to you and everyone on on the police force for the the really great job that you do um it's very conscientious it's very thoughtful and you know these um these uh the data that you gave shows a very changing Dynamic of policing you know it's not just sort of chasing bad guys now it's it's Reviving people who are you know um you know oding or or other things like that and so I guess my question to you is how how can you is there a way that you can either more outside of more police officers how do you how can you manage those those calls for service when you know there's a mental health case where an officer has to be there for a few hours or um a drod how do you how can you are there other ways to manage that you know more Partnerships right now right so I one thing I didn't mention is we partner with Volunteers of America Volunteers of America as a representative in our building 40 hours a week uh they provide Mental Health Services drug addiction uh services so they're there we call them they'll come out to the scene and they'll assist us we don't leave them there obviously uh by themselves so it's still we still need to have officers on scene but they've been fantastic for us um you know we've partnered with operation Helping Hands we are partnering with other organizations uh you know we we try to educate um you know we do some educ stuff on our social media we partnered with Volunteers of America Lieutenant seon is our liais on Volunteers of America they're setting up a community outreach uh for I I'm not sure where yet but they're going to do it somewhere in town uh to to assist with you they they'll assist you with your public service bill with getting housing um with drug addiction they'll help you with a multitude of things so we're going to set up a day where we'll publicize it the community will be able to come in and get any of the services that Volunteers of America offers as well thank you I also want to thank you for the work that you've done in the community has not g nous thank you and also thank you for you're also doing the you were designated for uh a pilot program that you mentioned for the arrive together arve arrive together okay so that's also very helpful thank you appreciate it so all right so now moving on we have uh did you say something [Applause] good I would like to say one thing um I have been connected in some shape or form with the police department since I believe 1996 when I was the prosecutor from being the township Attorney judge and now Municipal uh manager and I will tell you that right now in its present form with its command level staff and Patrol it is in a really good place and that's because of the leadership of all those individuals in the first row it's been a pleasure to work with them and I wanted to say that on the record and the other uh thing I wanted to bring to your attention was the last time we've had a man Staffing assessment in 2011 was called Manpower assessment a staffing assessment was in 2011 and I think it's it may be a good opportunity for us to take 2024 and start to set the parameters to do that in 2025 to see where we are technology has changed uh we have changed how we have done business in the police department using civilian employees so there's a lot of factors that are involved but also uh the police are now responding to calls that were different than they were in the past so all this has to come into the mix and I think it's GNA it would be a really good idea for us to get an outside assessment done to see where we are situated presently and where we need to be in the future to better give the police the resources that they need and the community would need to have the appropriate level of Staffing it's going to be a process over an extended period of time it's how we do things always we don't just say let's hire 10 10 new police officers um but knowing where we need to be over A Five-Year Plan is probably a good good place to start and we'll take that into consideration it's a good recommendation mayor if I could I could there's one last question I wanted to ask um we're just quickly because we Chief what do you see your your staffing needs for next year in terms of uh loss you know retirements versus um New staff new officers for the year a Personnel question I think we we touched upon it when you said your ideal number would be 80 but I would if we could get so the the issue is we're going to keep reoccurring um with retirement the the retirements and like I said we're down to 55 right off the top minus anything else we need to add four or five uh officers as soon as as soon as we can that would put us at least to give us 60 officers that are showing up to work that we're that we have fit for Duty that we can put on the road okay thank [Music] you so I understand we have um an adjustment yeah um we have an adjustment uh to the agenda with regards to Mr Oakley will not be able to um present this evening and we're going to move on to U Mr Whitehead for Public [Music] Works [Laughter] thank you to the officers in the S we here this even appreciate you being here thank thank you mayor and councel uh for having us tonight Public Works um tonight our managerial staff's in the audience i' be remissed not to focus on them for one second Ed Soden Kirk Kenny Ian son Joe seninsky and no other than Janice rovski who is is the wheels of Public Works and without her we will not be nearly as efficient or do the things we do and those are true professionals they really are and I like to thank the police and chief we work really really well together whether it's on Vehicles facilities storms barricades whatever the job is we work really well together my staff their staff and without that we'd be in trouble especially during emergencies snow ice black ice we're all on the same page so I I really wanted to mention that so I'll start with my presentation um this year 2024 we we have no new Public Works positions are being requested we are um moving along with our staffing um the way it is we have one new budget request is where we're going to increase or we're requesting increase the fire Tru repair budget for $65,000 for 2024 and I'll talk more about that as we go through the presentation why why that is a division summary I'm the director we have uh three folks in administration 13 in our street division three in our buildings and grounds 11 in Parks uh five in vehicle maintenance um our Ecological Facility at the moment is staffed by the street division it's been that way for a long time and we have summer and temporary staffing we mix in depending on on our grants and our funding our Public Works uh employee reduction efforts over the years and this year is kind of the same formula Shar Services is always at our our top of our list right now uh our new Garbage Contract we did not get a bid in on organic waste collection so we had about a 100 residents in that program and besides Princeton I believe we're the only town in New Jersey to have that program um I've reached out to a couple municipalities for a little Think Tank to see how we could start that program back up sharing the service with another town I don't know exactly how that's going to look right now that could be um we had a thought of a a Shar drop off site at Public Works we had a a thought of uh maybe sharing a truck and an employee with another town but there there definitely is a um there definitely is something out there in the community that wants this program going again so we are looking at that uh contracted Services we've been increasing grass cutting um contracts out to reduce staff all our all but one of our janitorial Staffing is now privatized and cross training is a big thing civil service does prevent a little bit of that but we have a lot of cross training going on at Public Works that means if we're short staff especially during covid we could take somebody else from streets or parks and fill the hole temporarily um until we we get everybody back to work um strategic equipment purchases that's been so critical for our operation less people we need to work smarter every day smarter and safer um everything we buy has a purpose more than that purpose so what I mean by that if I'm buying a truck it's got a plow snow um if I buy another piece of equipment we just bought a vent track machine it blows leaves it plows uh sidewalk snow it air rates everything we buy we have to be smart with the funding there's we you know funding as you know it's hard to come by everything every penny we get is really got to work for us for multiple things and and for a long time and when I mean a long time I have pickup trucks at public work we've had for over 20 years we take care of the equipment and the tax dollars we use are used wisely um computerized Public Works operation our new work order system our new complaint request automation system the supervisors have iPads they take in their truck they get their work orders that go right to the iPad they're able to complete their work quars in the field when they come back it's downloaded to our system and then Jan can see what's closed out or not closed out because quite often a resident will call us back about a sinkhole a dead tree a broken fence irrigation on on one of the ball fields uh you go down the list graffiti litter uh broken sink in the men's room at Village Park she's easily able to look that up to see if the job's closed out if a parts on order then we can close out the job and move on to something else division crossover that's been crucial in our public works department we don't have 100 employees okay so snow plowing the whole department snowplows the custodian snowplows the mechanic snow plow the parks employees snow plow for us to plow out a 22 two square mile town every single person including the folks sitting there not Jan are in a plow truck plowing we have 200 Lane miles of Roads we have to clear and we are in a different time now when I started here a long time ago um you'd get maybe one or two phone calls in a snowstorm now we're inundated with calls email EMS texts an hour after the snowstorm ends okay it takes us hours to plow out the town once the snow stops and there's no changing that unless you add it you know a double the size of the department that's that's never going to change so a crossover cross training same thing for leaf collection we have to pick up thousands of tons of leaves in eight weeks the whole department do it the the park crew is out on the road doing it plus they have all the parks to get done somehow Ian and Joe are able to craft that giving Ed employees while getting all the parks done during this time um and our Ecological Facility all just about everybody's trained to run the screener the grinder turn leaves take temperature do everything that's required in our 25 page uh D and manual that's given to us to run the facility uh main drivers this year we're going to be opening up the new hero dog park well that that takes maintenance that's that's going to take labor hours away from our total po labor hours this business Route One landscape and we've been handling that a while now it's been going very well um the snow removal is a little challenging you know taking on a two-lane Highway uh the length we have plus all our Municipal roads is is a little bit of a challenge but um uh the managerial staff here figured it out uh we haven't had I haven't had one phone call about uh snow removal problems on Route One since we took it over an emergency snow removal which I just touched on so snow is a driver for everything I do whether it's equipment or hiring people I'm always thinking snow I think snow in August uh when I retire I'll probably be thinking snow because snow is such a critical thing we do there is no room for error the storm last week even though we got 4 in the whole town has to be plowed out I can't salt way 4 in of snow on 200 lame miles of Roads as it is we you know salt is almost $60 a ton a storm like that will easily use two 300 tons of salt and the more salt I use the more phone calls I get about the environment so it's a two-way thing if I don't brine I get phone calls why didn't I brine if I do brine the dog spe just got burn I'm not kidding so all those things are kind of a mixture of what we do so I really wanted to talk there's been a lot of talk and I've had a lot of discussions with the manager the Public Works facility's been flooded out a few times since I've been here major flooding uh the last storm we had $150,000 in damage um there's a sewer issue because there's a force main on Baker's Basin that goes to the pump then it shoots across um all the way down the white Head Road well when we flood that's pouring out of there into our facility um and that's what causes a lot of the damage um it's our only fueling site so you could ask the chief uh what we need to do when we can't get fuel it becomes a big problem so we've been looking at it an alternative fueling site to have a a and b site when I first started here there was a fueling site uh up here at Town Hall was underground Tech so over over the years I've gotten rid of there's not an underground tank left in Lawrence we got rid of all of them but we we're looking to do maybe a b site just for the police and ambulances as we move forward because let's face it we're not moving the Public Works facility it's millions of dollars um and it's not going to happen so we have to do things now think outside the box of how to make this work and how to get on with life right uh some thing that really hit us this year is preparation of the facility for each storm I think three times this summer into the fall with the storms we when there's a flood warning we need to move all the vehicles out of Public Works all the lawnmowers all the trailers we got to move all the computers we got to move all the stock make sure nothing's on the floor we now have to knock windows out set up pumps get everything ready for a flood sandbags and three times we did it we didn't get flooded now I'll take it because I don't want to get flooded but that's two days of work add up the labor hours that we weren't out in the community picking up brush cutting grass trimming trees painting we're not doing that because we're getting ready for a flood that didn't happen uh vehicle parking and surplus storage um concerns with our phones electric computers vehicle maintenance equipment a lot of stuff in the shop isn't made to be put on shelves Tire Machines um hydraulic lifts you know all this stuff's on the floor it's not easily moved um we're going to continue to fortify Central Park for transferring service during flooding so we built a few years ago a maintenance building at Central Park for Parks because the athletic teams thanks Nancy moved in to um the old building and we built them storage in there and we built a small facility on the other side so we're going to continue working on that building in case we do have another flood and we have to move everything over here so we can continue Services I still have to fix flats on police cars I I still have to service fire trucks nobody wants to hear we're flooded out we have to continue uh during the emergency situation that's our main garage the last one that's it um and you can see this this isn't a carpet golet situation this is we're flooded out and it's dangerous to be in there um that's our salt Barn area it's a lake the canal is on this side so the canal spilling over coming around the back of the woods and the front and we just become part of the canal that's our that's Janice's office area and this is our back we're we're literally sandbagged in and we're pumping the water back out the windows back outside so yeah I dwelled on this a little because I just want councel I mean the manager knows we've been talking about this and Peter but I just wanted to make sure Council knew when they heard flooded you know we we just didn't have some wet carpeting in public works we're flooded out we're unable to do our job there we're we are evacuated and we're set up some somewhere else 2000 we'll move on 2023 accomplishments I just listed a few things here I wanted to talk about excuse me mayor may ask a question on the other issue yeah um this this is this phenomenon of flooding just for everyone's education is is is more recent is a more thing so that facility was was located and selected and put in place I don't know how many years ago what do you think it was 2001 I think 200 okay or 2000 no I mean uh 1990 1991 I was going to say 30 years yeah yeah sorry but there has been a change in the flow of water from north to south which is creating this newer type of phenomenon that we're dealing with yes is that is that accurate to say that's that's the feeling I don't want anybody out there thinking why the hell did we put this thing there it's different yeah it's changed on us it's changed and so now we're trying to deal with it that's correct that's correct wait one quick question when you say the flow has changed the increase or has someone done something further up that's causing us to backlog well we uh engineering has investigated that we can't get a clear answer on if some things happened Upstream so to speak but what we notice now is the canal is always high yeah the canal why is the canal always high right up to the bridge it used to be you on a summer's day it's you know maybe four foot from the bank now whatever is happening the canal is always at a high state state and that's the answer we can't really get and we're we want to meet with the water supply authority to see if the One Bank by the Elsa Pump Station could be built up I talked about it with J look we we're not sure if that's that's the spot it spills over and we we got an answer that's not a built spill over because originally I thought well maybe they built it like that so there's a spill over the answer was no it's not a spillover so if we can get them to build up that bank maybe that'll buy us some time until the flood waters reced a little thanks so a few 2023 accomplishments I'll just go down the list real quick uh new signage at the Nature Center for the andmay Nature Center uh we did a lot of Village Park restroom painting and Rehab uh we painted the exter the exterior of the Public Works facility hadn't been done in 25 years uh new fencing Central Park conversion of the Bachi Court lighting LEDs we pretty much now have all our Parks converted to LEDs except the playing fields which we've we've been looking into is very very expensive it's just something we're not going to tackle at the moment but it's on it's on our laundry list for either grants or um if if at some point it can work out for us um new heating and air conditioning units at the neighborhood Center boilers rooftop units heat pumps that was all through a public service Grant we worked with uh We've installed new water fountains we've been on a kick to install water fountains that are filtered that you can refill your water bottle we have them at some of our Parks veterans uh um a Village Park here at Town Hall we installed one at the senior center and we're going to keep install I think police is next on our our list for one of those um we did secure a new lake Fountain for Colonial Lake we wait it we're going to wait until um the clean Up's done um once that's done in the spring we'll have two workin fountains again at Colonial Lake uh security upgrades at the Department of Public Works uh we have now new some new electronic locking doors folks were just coming around the back of the building and heading right in um and that that happened a bunch of times uh right now works in progress at the police department uh break Ro rehab uh the r one tree and Landscape care uh we worked with public service on the 90 new trees they've all been planted now around Lawrence at our parks at our facil facilities all 90 trees have been planted we added two new electric vehicles to the fleet so now we have six total electric vehicles and two hybrids in the fleet and we couldn't be happier with electric vehicles now they have their purpose I don't know if I'd put one in police or fire but for the inspectors it's a win-win because they work days they rarely have emergencies they're able to charge them at night and have have at it the next day with full charges so that's been working out great for the first time we've purchased a new electric zero ter mower for Park maintenance we haven't used it yet but this year residents will see our electric mower out on the playing fields or Parks we're very eager to see how that works out for us we completed the rehab of the Central Park storage building and we rehabilitated 1.2 miles of the trolley line from Phillips Avenue to the Ying line that was a big undertaken by Ed sodin and his staff we did all that work in house and it just it came out great so there there's a the section of the trail there's the before and there's the after so they really did a great job I mean we got a lot of folks that emailed us that walked that and exercise that were very pleased with the job we did and ni this summer we're we're going to continue on and do our next section uh it's just a picture these the our new storage buildings at uh Public Works are designed to get equipment out of the rain snow and sun and basically in shade and add of the weather so we prolong the life of the equipment uh our Park Division and uh we have 11 employees we maintain a th000 Acres of parks athletic fields preserves trolley lines storage home cemeteries uh lining and prepping athletic fields which is a full-time job for a couple of workers air rating seeding grass cut and trimming we break down the staff into Cutting Crew they have routes responding to vandalism graffiti walkways edin tree pruning leaf removal maintaining Colonial Lake dam is a very uh cumbersome job and time consuming but it's something that has to be done walking pth dog run weeding beds all that's done in all our Municipal Parks um this is something here we we we have a lot of athletic fields 12 soccer fields a football field two practice fields Three softball four baseball te ball fields aot Court 11 tennis courts four basketball courts volleyball courts 24 pieces of playground equipment um and and practice and soccer fields they all have to be line they all have to be air rated they all have to be f fertilized they're all most of them are irrigated we have hundreds of irrigation heads Joe seninsky are expert in irrigation um and we get a lot of feedback from the residents on irrigation especially in the dry summer about they'd rather us not use irrigation or they have suggestions so we try to work with the residents and we try to educate them we only irrigate athletic Feld field we have a huge investment in our athletic fields in Lawrence Township and and we take care of those fields and we take a lot of pride in it and daily park maintenance never ends we have over a 100 trash cans we empty every single day all the restrooms are cleaned every day and then you know we have we have a lot of parks uh brly house Hamet bers Cemetery Twin Pines veterans Village we have a lot of Acres we take care of and the staff size we have it's a remarkable job the guys do on taking care of not only the parks but all the detail work we do if you walk around Village Park or hanet Park the trimming this time of year the snow kind of held off for a while we did a lot of trimming work and a lot of stuff in the off seon that makes a big difference in the summer in our park and the the Park employee hours you know we do everything by hours in public works how many hours do we have and how many different hours of work do we have buildings and grounds you know Joe swinsky has only two employees and they they do a great job if you just look at all the square feet of buildings we take care of it's remarkable three guys are able to take care of electrical concerns um just showing off some of Joe's work and the guys work at at Christmas but electrical drywall Plumbing floor and tile work they do the they coordinate um all the fire system testing the elevator testing and repairs uh door and hardways Joe does all the locksmith work uh light bult just replacing light bulbs in all these buildings is a full-time job so the guys do a great job our job is to stay on top of these buildings so we don't have major Capital Improvement problems which require major dollars I've never come to the manager or Council in the middle of the summer and said I need 600,000 because a roof is falling in we take care of that through proper planning of capital projects and and proper maintenance the list kind of goes on but the the guys I will mention one respond after hour emergencies I can't tell you the dedication that's sitting right there they're on call 24 hours 7 days a week we get calls constantly whether it's from the police or from fire about issues that are happening the town doesn't shut down in the afternoon we're 247 and they do a remarkable job they answer the phone every single time I don't even know how that's possible are they never in the shower they they always answer my call and I'm not even it's amazing and they're always right on top of it you know they're prepared to come in they have the tools they need they know what they're doing they're true professionals and every sense just some of our holiday pictures Joe has set up the building we we changed the building colors various different times for for different types of events and Joe has set up the building where it's very easy to do now in terms of colors move on to the street division it's it's more or less the same stuff we have 13 employees maintain 200 Lane miles of streets through Lawrence we do traffic maintenance street signs asphalt crack ceiling shoulder cutting roadside mowing litter abatement uh brush and leaf removal which is always top on our list tree removal pruning snow stream maintenance stream maintenance is one that's getting to be time consuming for us because it has to be done um and and the flooding we've had and the amount of storms it's really something we're looking at long term how do we all the streams in town that we're responsible for how do we get to those and maintain them and keep them flowing good and the the erosion it's something really I'm going to have to work with engineering for a long-term plan as we move forward uh metal collection trash you know we went to automated um trash a number of years ago and uh I gotta tell you it's it's it's a lot of work we have to fix the carts we have to deliver the carts um it's not it's it's not it's a little bit more time consuming than I I think we thought at the time it still keeps tonnage down and it's still worth it but it is a little bit um of a labor problem for for Public Works um our little wheel labor I'm not going to go through every single one but you could just see um brush and leaf collection dominate what we do okay so years ago if I was to do this chart Paving and road work for a street department would dominate this list you could see over the years that's changed residents want different types of services now you know road work could be done through contracts and Engineering they they want um they want certain Services if you ever tried to take away brush service I I think you'd be inundated in these meetings it's such a valuable service to the residents and it's the one we spend the most time on the most phone calls the most enforcement because it's so valuable to the residents in Lawrence um the ecological Center and then tree work um with the diseases that are on the trees now um and the age of some of these trees we're in a dat it with tree work so you could just see between brush trees and leaves it's almost half of our labor hours and streets taking care of that stuff so it's really remarkable over the years when I first got here we owned the paer and a roller with Princeton and I probably paved half the Township in my first 10 years here with that equipment but then layoffs came we went into the recession um Princeton us we we we uh remove some labor from our departments those programs kind of went away there wasn't money to buy new equipment so now it's kind of morphed we're in this different area now that that we're we're dealing with like I said tree removal we we have a great arborous works for us um Kevin is just loves loves what he does um he's him and whoever Ed pairs them up with have taken down 276 dead trees in lawence this year that's remarkable I mean that's remarkable we did purchase a 75 foot tree truck almost two years ago which is a great help to our operation but we do stump grinding tops soil and seating and a lot of these Street trees we have to have a flagging operation and traffic control that pulls more labor out of the Public Works pool because you can't take down a a a street tree with one guy you're going to have to have a crew out there um he's trimed 393 Park trees 165 Street trees you know that's a lot of Labor almost 4,000 hours of labor now we will contract out some trees especially trees that are near overhead wires we are we I'm not going to get anyone hurt we're not certified in that kind of work and really for $7,000 I I don't want our guys near high voltage power lines to take down a tree that's something we we should contract out that's our tree truck that's that's Kevin in action um he's also a h certified tree climber so we have a tree that you can't get the truck he climbs it J We're putting your phone up there this year uh we move on in the street division uh brush collection as you can see $94,000 worth of Labor last year performing that task that does not include benefits and any rollup that's just pure labor leaf collection you can see same thing 92,000 we collect leaves all in November and December for eight weeks the entire department does it there's no other way uh street sweeping program we try to keep the street sweeper out there as much as we can it really is a popular program and it's really a necessity with what we do um one of our operators operates the street sweeper there's guys on vacation or other projects going on we might have the pull in white goods and metal collections stay popular we had 542 appointments this year we collected 50,000 pounds of white goods and we can get paid for the metal $4,200 um in weight roadside mowing we have a lot of Roads we we have to cut all spring and summer we spent 1,200 labor hours on that uh storm drains and SS SS we have a lot we have over 2,000 storm drains in Lawrence Township the D mandates we inspect and clean and repair half of those every year and report that to them and that's what we do every year we pull everything out of we pulled the tricycle out of out of a storm drain we pulled aluminum cans we pulled people's garbage um so we do do that every year um and report that to the state um last year snow removal Miss Lawrence Township we we didn't really have any snow to to speak about but the problem with snow it doesn't go away you still have to plan for it you still have to have the equipment for it you you still have to train for it because you just don't know um what you're going to get uh Jim's going to talk more about this um when he comes up um we usually put you know the road program and what's been paid on the Public Works report as well Jim's going to cover this when he comes up uh we assist with all events we're we're we're we set them up we break them down we're hands on we're always trying to give out literature and teach the public about our programs Community Day holiday tree lighting um we we try to be um the behind the scenes on any event that's going on give assistance to whatever is needed and particip iate when appropriate our electronic uh drop off program uh is now at our ecological Center every Wednesday we've run this um since flat tvs came out and everyone is putting the 300 lb old TVs at the curb and it just never goes away we collected 25,000 pounds of electronics this year and that's a great program because that stuff isn't making it into our trash and we're not paying for that at the landf we had our mul mulch delivery program we are planning on doing that again this year and this year we're going to include Leaf compost we had a lot of calls about it and this year we're going to include it we we made 152 deliveries and we were able to get rid of 777 yards of wood chips for our compos site the state mandates I have one year from the prior year to get rid of everything at our compost site so all the leaf compost all the double ground wood chips have to leave the site within one year after we process it and we do get inspected we get inspected by the county and state very often that's our ecological Center numbers we had that doesn't count Princeton residence are we had 4100 Lawrence Township residents visit the ecological Center um 1,200 yards of brush were brought in our Municipal collection 1800 but we also have a contract with the local vendor we bring because our compost site would never be able to take the amount we we collect off the road so we use this facility and then we have a private contract and Princeton pays us 50% back for that private contract so we're using we have to use a few different means to get rid of all this brush and leaves we paid yet um the the sales are meager they go to offset we use a lot of fuel at the compost site for the equipment um it goes to really pay for parts and fuel at the site let's talk about 2024 garbage collection real quick we have entered into a new five-year contract with in Interstate waste formerly Sal Tera as you know they did not viid on the organic program uh so we we are trying to figure out how that might work in the future we had approximately a 20% increase which was a present we've seen other towns go up 50% this year with garbage contracts uh bul collection remains a small problem because we've we've changed a bulk problem to help keep a handle on the cost of rising garbage collection so uh we're doing a lot of Education it's the last couple collections really worked out well we have the information out on all our social media on our website and our calendar so that is going better um residents still have an opportunity to put 36 bulky items out each year 36 mattr mattresses 36 couches they still have a lot of of bulky items they can get rid of uh the contract still keeps all our dumpster service in place for five more years we do dumpster service at all our townhouse and Condominiums associations in lie of reimbursing them for the service we found it's cheaper to run the service through our Municipal contract than cut them a check um overall high price of trash collection services in the state of New Jersey we have I have met with the manager numerous times about looking at options so what are the options doing the service in house the problem with doing the service in house is twofold one you cannot get equipment right now it takes two years to get a garbage truck if I ordered it today garbage trucks are $250,000 a piece we're not getting into the garbage business I would need five trucks over a million dollars worth of equipment and then it would take two years to get it and I just don't I just don't see it happening anytime in the near future if we go that way if we do go that way at some point we'll have to plan it out for two or three budget years down the line and then there's the problem with u injuries workman's comp cases so a lot of towns got out of the business of garbage collection because the lawsuits and injuries so you have those two things to contend with and garbage doesn't go away if it snows we still got to pick up the garbage if we have a storm we still have to figure a way to get the garbage so those are all issues to think about as we we continue to talk about uh Municipal garbage services the recycling division has really become a full department so uh when the state mandated that that that every Township has to have a State Certified recycling coordinator we did that was right in the mix of bad budget years it was decided I would go and get the license and become the Township recycling coordinator which I did and maintain um so I basically run this Department uh the curbside recycling Pro program through the Mercer County Improvement Authority just had a big hike like everything else um so I go to their meetings I coordinate with them on a weekly basis in terms of service Mis stops Jan does a great job with logging everything and sending everything to them and keep in track of what's not picked up or what's missed um I run I am the license holder for the township for the class BC recycling facility that's what our Ecological Facility is in state D talk we're a class BC recycling facility meaning we can compost leaves and we can grind and make wood chips and all that's in a 25 page permit we have the Bui moisture levels uh lab testing uh uh wind socks uh all our data's got to be at the building down there for inspection at any time and we do all that we we take care of that uh our white good collection program or Tire drop off program for residents or Electronics drop off program uh we had stopped doing the shredding program when we hit co uh in April ail 2024 we're hoping to have our next shredding program and start that uh for the residents we've had a lot of phone calls the county does do them but the residents would like to have one in their own town in their own backyard and we're we're we're going to do that and that will be uh paid for by the grant uh that the town will not have to pay that recycling bucket delivery service um since Co we wanted resident not to come to public work so we've been delivering the buckets curbside which seems to work out pretty good instead of making all the residents come to Public Works and wait at the front door to to get a bucket uh motor oil recycling uh all the park recycling buckets we recycle in all of our parks in Lawrence Township there's service just about every day along with garbage uh or organic colle ction program uh we're looking to maybe do a shared service with that starting in 2025 if we could put the pieces together this year our vehicle battery drop off our hazardous waste drop off participation with the county um and then we do the Public Works does the enforcement and education for recycling there is no one to do the enforcement so when there is a problem I go out KK goes out Ed goes out and we try to give the information and and we fix the problem with the resident um we coordinate the recycling Grant I gave all the counsel and the mayor a copy of our our forms Jan does a great job logging that all in so we send a letter and a form to every business in Lawrence Township every year by law they have to report all their recycling efforts to us that goes into our report and that's what generates our grant so they take that tonnage and there's a formula and then they give us x amount of dollars back and that money goes to running all of this um and Municipal doc documents writing which we're hoping April or May to run one our first one since Co vehicle maintenance we talked about Clyde D'Angelo does a great job managing this division um Public Works Municipal motor pool police Senior Center emergency management fire we do some work for ala we do some work for the Lawrence Township Board of Ed they had over 928 work ERS last year obviously all their labor hours are for vehicle maintenance now they do come out and help plow snow last year we really didn't have a snow season there there's a whole Litany of things they do they do a great job they they repair you know the ecological facil is not an easy that's all out in the field so they have a shop truck with a crane all that work gets done in the field they do all the welding there all the maintenance work out in the field whether it's cold or hot out we have to go there and maintain that equipment so we can continue grinding and and taking care of our business um shuttling Fly apparatus um we have some shared services with Princeton we're a licensed diesel inspection facility um all our emergency generators are handled through Clyde they're all service and I'll touch up on the police's generator when I get to my Capital but they're all service ready to go for any event and that's very important with with the firehouses and with police and public works Town Hall and we've seen it plenty of times where we've lost power and we're on emergency power um assist equipment training and safety program they help with getting our new employees commercial driver's licenses field work getting their permits assist with snow removal e efforts and upfitting so they upfit the police cars they upfit the specialty cars um one police car could take a mechanic two and a half weeks the tear one down and build a new one so it's a lot of Labor and a lot of time but police cars aren't what they used to be just you know a radio and a light bar I they have e tickets Electronics in it that probably not going to talk about but there's a lot that goes into the police cars to make them what they are today electric vers gas like I said we're we're on our sixth electric vehicle we probably like to continue increasing that number as we go year to year um but it's definitely a savings in fuel it's a savings in maintenance uh in oil changes we're looking at Tires and Brakes there's very little maintenance on these cars they the six we have have been great um I gave you just a little thing where you know if you look at the miles we're going to save at least several hundred the way we use our vehicles each year in gas electric still costs money but it's still cheaper to run the electric car right now uh we have charging stations at Town Hall we have motor pool charging stations just for the cars we own and we have a charging station on the South Side north side of the building for the P like I had said before this is our first electric lawn mower for Public Works uh the residents will be seeing that out there and work in action this spr and as I wind down here my Capital 2024 request um a replace these are all Replacements there's nothing here that's new to our operation replacement pickup truck with diesel engine Suter and plow um our one of our big items I touched upon was the replacement of the generator for the Police Court facility very important the the generator is old and it's at what worries me the most it's at the maximum in terms of over the years we've added heating and air conditioning and different parts of the operation um at the police department which has maxed out this piece of equipment so it's old and maxed out so we're going to move to a bigger generator that gives them future use but that's something that really has to be done this year um we're doing some additional funding for our big shop truck for vehicle maintenance we've done this over the last 10 years or so where we've taken two or three years to budget money and add it up for a bigger purchase so we're not attacking the budget all at once and they've done a great job keeping this shop truck it's one of the first things I bought when I got here it doesn't owe us any anything and it needs to be replaced it's something they use every single day that we're working U our mechanical street sweeper is up for um uh replacement but we have $100,000 in grant funding sitting for this project we saved every year through clean communities 20% of that grant for the last five years to go towards a new Street we s ER because new street sweepers are $250,000 and we knew without banking that money it was going to be very difficult to purchase and our horizontal wood waste grinder which we talked about that's something we'll share with Princeton as we re we uh renewed our fiveyear agreement with them to run the Ecological Facility for the future that's the main piece of equipment that grinds all the tree and all the leaves without that uh we're not in business so that piece of equipment's over 20 years old the new one have to be built um it'll have to have an air permit through the New Jersey Department Environmental Protection and they'll have to be put in service so that's that's something that's been talked about and we've been looking at for the last three or four years to try to find the spot uh get that into the operation that's that's it um that's about 21 or 22 years old the mechanics take great care of it we've already replaced and rebuilt the main drum that spins that has the teeth on it uh two times there is not much more we could rebuild on this it's just tired look ahead um our new trash collection um our new storm water collection rules for the Ecological Facility the states imposed new storm water rules that we have to have a permit and certain things built working with engineering on that we don't know how that's going going to turn out but without that we won't be able to run the Ecological Facility so we have to try to find a happy place with what has to be built there there's also a matter of testing the water there that has to be done with this new permit so we're trying to figure this all out as we move forward um we still have supply chain problems for vehicles and parts and building maintenance equipment we have a part on order for our boiler here we've been waiting for for three months three months Joe is good enough to come up with a make shift part to get the boiler running again but for 3 months we've been waiting on a part for our main boiler for this building um all new HVAC equipment for the neighborhood center um we just finished up the partial new roof here the new shingles on the main part of this roof's all brand new and a lot of the metal work around that's all new and a couple doors up on the roof um and the new electric garbage truck grant funding which is going to take some time to get the grant funding and add to it over the next five years or so but that's that's in the works that's all I have for counil thank you for [Applause] listening certainly any questions I'd be happy to answer I'm just overwhelmed and thank you for all that you do I mean no idea I will be more conscientious of my leaf colle mayor sure thanks um I just want to say uh thanks for all that you do all the methodical way that you deal with both sort of managing your uh labor hours um managing just uh the different contract that you have to do and also the thoughtful way you tackle those really large Capital purchases um it seems like everything that you have in public works is about a quarter million dollars um which is incredible I remember the first time being on cancel and seeing that a a dump truck with a plow is a quar million dollar driving around on the street so it's pretty amazing um thanks for doing the electric vehicles I I always drive by when I'm leaving after Council and look at my my babies as I call them because I I think they're just great for the environment and great for our town um one of the questions I do have is that you know with with sort of the growing you mentioned sort of South Lawrence with um uh Brun runs of Pike and sort of taking that over on the additional work um how has sort of the new uh residential development the trails at Princeton Pike on Linux Drive how has that impacted your operations at all in terms of snow removal um you know anything like that not not too much yet okay um so um I'm not sure how it's going to impact us down the line if um right now they're going to have private garbage collection we'll have to reimburse for under the law um but right now it's not impacting our services yet now how that that'll be impacted down the road with Recycling and more residents and traffic and ecolog I I don't know but at the moment there there's really no impact to us that's great to hear all right that's all I have thanks ma thank you counil just have a brief just a brief comment um uh I asked all of our department heads to uh this was their opportunity to really yeah explain it all especially to our new council members and Greg delivered and explain you I I'm in like this is like shocking off wow yeah but it's it's it's pretty it's a pretty incredible thing that our Public Works do and Greg's been with us for 25 years you cele celebrated this year correct yeah um as our Public Works director and our community there is no doubt from where I sit benefit from his 25 years of experience from his professionalism from his knowledge and his approach to how he manages the public works because he cares about what he does he cares about the community he worries about budgeting uh the the taxpayers the cost of the taxpayers all of that is wrapped up into what he does and his his Command Staff over here you see their dedication all the time especially at community events that's when you really see it but it's every day and um I just wanted to publicly thank you and you guys for all that you do because they are unsung heroes and they are at times uh there are negative comments directed to them by residents I believe unfairly yeah um almost all the time and um I want them to know publicly they are appreciated by a great majority of our residents for sure mayor may your snow removal for the last couple were excellent whoever had to complain let me tell you I couldn't we couldn't believe it I had phone calls from members of the town from different areas snow was gone just like this and it wasn't the sun it was you guys thank you very much I I can Echo those sentiments also I heard from the community um what standing work was done with removal I mean I've only been mared for a short time but I didn't receive any complaints and um you know I had no idea all that you do you know I take a look now at the Town differently and seeing your handprint on so much of what is beautiful about our town what um operates so smoothly um the planting of trees I mean you cover so much um for our residents U we owe you a tremendous amount of gratitude very thank you for that and like the manager said you're very conscientious of you know expenditures um your wish list to us you know is reasonably thought out um and so we thank you we thank you for that and you're very appreciated thank you have new eyes on what you all do I thought it was just a a lot more than trusts and leaves Trust thank you so much thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] coun next we'll have Miss Hari and the municipal engineer report hello how are you it's G be a challenge to follow the chief and Greg my okay so engineering so we fall into the Department of Community Development there's actually three divisions to make up Comm Development Department division of planning and Redevelopment engineering and code enforcement and I I'll go through each one of those I'll start with the staff we all work under the director of Community Development which is Kev winsky myself I have several positions the mpal engineer learning officer plan board engineer plan board secretary Brenda Kramer who's with us tonight the audience she serves as assistant mpal engineer zoning board engineer and also zoning board secretary and Thomas who is the account and provide support to all the divisions so we go through the specifics um start with the division of planning and Redevelopment in our positions as board secretaries uh we do cus reviews for development applications scheduling distribution materials agendas legal notices correspondence with called the boards professionals and applicants yeah this is really all the management of the land use boards under the division of Code Enforcement I serve as the zoning officer you know providing general assistance and interpreting zoning requirements reviewing all the residential and Commercial zoning permit applications and providing for the enforcement of the landour engineering uh this the development implementation of the capital Improvement program major part of the the division this is everything from planning and budgeting through construction management right now we're currently managing over 20 ongoing travel projects all in various stages of development including you know roads intersection side walks the safety Trail connections M Parks facilities some recent projects notable ones coo Road recently completed the colonial Lake Park Trail extension business route one streetcap hero dog park which is still under construction the maiden head Meadows Trail which is just about ready to start that's a elevated Boardwalk through the uh through M head Meadows and the CR Lan to and safety improvements which were also recently completed we also serve as the board Engineers this plan review and Report preparation attending the meetings providing us for testimony on estimation and ensuring resolution compliance we also manage the inspection of all the public and private improvements associated with Land Development applications this includes the so erosion inspections we do also prepare reports for Bond reductions and requests we also maintained compliance and certification with a number of different agencies um I have them listed there most of them are some of them are statutory like the D St order permit others give us the ability to apply for Grants others we just maintain the certification such as the Tre City USA oh we we maintain all the mapping and Records the tax maps facility mapping uh respond to open requests grants grants have been a major Focus for the Department back in 2018 the municipal manager expanded the assistant engineering position to managed grants on a Twi basis and this includes searching for New Opportunities evaluating pens funding sources advising other Departments of potential funding opportunities and maintaining and distributing summary of all the grant work I've included the summary in everybody's package it's hard to read here but the summary is about four pages long and it includes all the different agencies we apply for Grants to uh projects how much we requested each year the ones we P Deni for who's responsible to's responsible for the grant deadlines you know great to to manage the the gr eff in addition to that you know we have to prepare Grant applications uh coordinate the projects with all the various agencies this involves regular progress reports expenditure reports and close that documentation you all the grants are reimbursement so we have to ensure compliance to then be reimbursed in 2023 uh the division applied for 13 grants or funding opportunities toing over $6 million to dat we've received 10 separate grants toing more than three a half million Brenda's really done a great job in searching for these grants and we've had a lot of success you see they range anywhere from $132,000 for C cleaners all way up to 1.2 million for a trail along bar Station Road on to the budget so the operating budget generally our operating budget is consistent with the funding levels in 2023 the only difference that you'll note is that there is money that was added to 2023 and 24 to the ongoing Master Plan update budg plan Fort also in our budget submission we do for for the planning board the zoning board planning and Redevelopment uh the shade tree committee rent stabilization growth Redevelopment and the environmental resource committee and all of them again are all consistent with the 23 levels the capital budget so again the capital budget is also consistent with funding levels in 2023 the only difference you'll see in 2024 there much larger number just because of all the grants uh our CFO could probably explain it better but he does have to budget all that money prior to us being able to spend that those funds and then ultimately be reimbursed so as part of the capital budget we s the threeyear capital Improvement program this is something that's updated every year again we try to maintain consistent funding levels and distribute the improvements throughout the Town Projects are selected based on you know a number of factors including the visual inspection liability assessments recommendations for Public Works requests from Property Owners development associations and sometimes even the availability of Grants so you know this is an examp Tiffany Woods is kind of a good example of that Tiffany Woods development for repaving was further out in the program but we had an opportunity to get funding under the infrastructure fund from D be were looking for a project with pedestrian safety challenges within it this project fit that description so we were able to secure funds not only to fix the safety improvements but also to repay the entire development that's 100% funded so this is our threeyear Capital program uh broken up by year you know year one for 2024 year three for 26 for 2024 we're proposing work on Princeton Pike this is a grant we reive $830,000 Grant from uh the C GR fed and this is for improvements along Princeton Pike includes a signal back road and improvements to the intersection and Signal line also repaving of Clint Court we have Gainesboro gney and fieldboro now this is a 2023 state aid project we received 414,000 for that one Tiffy wood which I just talked about that's a $655,000 grant Glen soner this is the engineering only because we have that's our 2024 State a project we about $48,000 with the state for that one but that'll be budgeted in 2025 we're also Paving for on West away Lane Bry Avenue Drexel Avenue Firwood Lane and re this is kind of the summary sheet but one thing I wanted to point out were the U the guide Rail and traffic improve signal improvements and the concrete program so in guide rail every year we have to bid guy rail it's just involved in that vehicle accidents traffic signals we maintain a variety of signals throughout the town some are full traffic signals other are pedestrian beacons and this used to be done by the county but the county kind of moved away from that several years ago so now we had that responsibility to maintain the traffic the concrete program and this is offered to the residents they can have the township complete sidewalk repairs and then they reimburse the toship for the work that's completed through a tax assessment there's actually I think even ordance on tonight as part of that reimbursement program from 202 uh timing just a general uh on timing typical roadway roadway res suring project typically completed in the same budget year that we put them in the budget the ones that are Grant funded tend to have a longer approval process so they're typically B at the end of the year for spring of the next year for construction sometimes we have delays usually there those Outside Agency approvals or utility work that's delayed or unanticipated just two examples of that last year we had money for three roads in colonal Lake but Elsa has a sorate extension coming through there so we delayed work on those roads and West Long Drive development there's a water main replacement project for that's aood fing but that was the lady year so we're not able to pay that until probably late next year so I have all the budget seets in here as well I won't go through them unless you have questions on them that's pretty much my presentation if you have any questions that be Happ to answer just a comment excellent um with regards to the grants that you're able to secure and the work that had a lot of success May sure thanks thank you as always um I think Mary you'll you'll you'll discover that um the conscientious Paving program that this Township has will will serve you well when you have resident calls about a pothole or anything else already heard complimentary things reach out to the manager he'll get the information and then you can get back and call him he'll be paid this year or next and usually makes for a great thing um I just want to say thanks for all the hard work on the the grant writing um I know that's been a just an amazing success especially if we're gonna finally get a light at fa and Princeton Pike I think so many in this area would be very happy um and uh one thing I just wanted to ask my question that I have is that I know with storm water Rags you made me think are there other things other regulations either federal or state that are impacting sort of your workload increasing it decreasing it is it you know just trying to think you know longterm there about sort of you know staffing issues and things like that that we might see yeah I mean B has the new storm regulations is a lot a lot more we have to do we did include some additional money in the budget for stor management I don't think it's beyond what we can handle with the but definitely a lot more that needs to be done to to keep up keep Pace with regulations thank you can you just tell me a little bit about what the Tiffany Woods project what that looks like those improvements for safety and you mention the paving so Tiffany Woods it's an old development and um there's a lot of missing sidewalk links handicap brands that are non compliant so that's they're really the safety improvements that went along with the road restoration that made that Grant work for D that it's a secluded area from town it sits back it is off of Street okay could you just clarify for me item 255 where um there's a significant drop in the contractual Services what is that change I'm sorry say it again on underneath the engineering number 255 there's a significant drop expenses so um that's why I mentioned before that the difference between 2023 and 24 uh from prior budgets we had additional money put in for the master plan so the master plan budget I wrote that just down below here in 2023 we put $60,000 yeah $60,000 in the operating budget for the master plan and then in 2024 to $25,000 so if you took those two out it would almost be the same each year so we really haven't changed our you know outside the master plan we haven't really changed that number over the years it's really just reflecting the master plan work so that work was completed last year for the anticipation of the well it was it was budgeted last year it's still ongoing really really just getting into the start of the mive grand process the planner has done some preliminary work we really haven't had any meetings at the board level to talk about the master plan was all of that money used no absolutely not it's carrying over carrying over yeah it's all carrying over and I would expect the majority maybe the 60,000 would be used prior to June or July of uh4 of 24 okay that's what I have thank you have a quick I I really wanted Jim to do a presentation to you because what Jim and Bron do in the zoning office and as Municipal Engineers is really really expansive stuff like more than I think people realize um and they do a great job and now they're assisted with by Jen Thomas as well so they're a really well functioning Department that that gets their hands into a lot of different things and you know I know there's a lot of um we we espouse the the U the positiveness of the grants it's it's one thing to get a grant it's the next thing to execute upon the Grant and that's really when all the work really starts so you know you get yourself into the game by getting awarded that Grant but the hard work really flows once that Grant is um uh in place and secured we have to we have to execute upon and we've got a good reputation by the state of from uh from our efforts by the state of New Jersey and it could be one of the reasons why I think we get some grants that we may have missed out on on the past is because they know Lawrence is putting in for it they have the ability and will execute upon there's there's no return of money there's no waste of money and so that reputation is earning us uh the ability to to be in the game for other Grand opportunities and that's reflected through the hard work of of Brenda in general thank you yeah it's creating a track record for us which is awesome thank you thank [Applause] you if I just make one last comment I just want to acknowledge the existence of our health officer and our Recreation of superintendent uh superintendent of recreation who are here today in support of their other uh fellow department heads I think it's awesome you know to take the time out the hours out to to be supportive of each other I think that's shows the teamwork that's involved Absol absolutely we appreciate that and and the officer staying on right how's everybody doing good okay um we will now have our first opportunity for public comment um we ask that you come to the podium state your name and just write your address on a sheet of paper [Music] necessary have a [Music] [Music] yes somebody got a call thank you Mr okay while we're waiting I just wanted to make the public aware that at our next meeting Mr Oakley uh Emergency Management coordinator will be making a presentation he was unable to do it today but he will be at our next meeting so March 5 I'm Jim CLE uh I just wanted to compliment everybody that made presentations tonight like uh a lot of you have said I had not the vest idea of all the things that Public Works did you know you have some idea of the better idea of the police but good grief you know I think that all you do see snow plows and and garbage and that that's about it you know you have no concept of the and and um and like other like some of you have mentioned usually the only time you hear any of you guys hear from us is when we something's wrong you know and and I I haven't had anything occasion to say anything about anything being wrong but I've also never called up and complimented and so I'm going to make up for lost time now because really they you the I know I know it's farmed out but the garbage and the recycling are wonderful and when you're retired you you see them you know they and they're they're they're all Pleasant and you know they if you're running out there at the last minute they wait and uh and the uh certain things that I wanted sure about like the sidewalks they're the they're the owner's responsibility and if I guess i' I've been understanding that if they get really bad then you will get after them to repair them am I right maybe I shouldn't be asking you these questions but the you're you're you're on the right because right in front of Ben Franklin School you think there You' be we walk every morning and that's a death drop and you think there I mean that would be the word of Ed but you think of all plac that that would be kind of a place that would be taken care of uh I'm breaking rules about not complaining here but also I'm probably minutes into my uh the uh and and on somewhere on Princeton Pike and I can't think of where which well I don't think it's El but whenever we walk every morning and there's one street there and you I'm sure you're aware of it that at that cross street it's really in bad shape now I don't know whe that's the kind of thing that you can patch or whether it's the kind of thing that really has to be to be graded but that's something to put on the the think tank maybe but uh now moving on to the police department that I wondered about I know you cited how many PE how much overtime there has to be and all but that's uh and of course we know that that's not free either because that runs a cost too and I'm kind of guessing that that it takes you you wonder whether at what point the cost of that justifies another couple of policeman you know what I I think you know what I mean but I guess that the the what is is if you add another policeman instead of X number of hours of overtime you also have all the benefits and retirement and all so I imagine that that's just stream of Consciousness I imagine that's something that you you kind of have to keep track of all the time that and now the last thing one you know the fact that you've got had so many so much more problems now and you've been able to to cope with them um the I wondered is is whether that's I I know the last couple of censuses the ethnicity of the community has changed quite a bit and I didn't know whether that dealt with it like English is a second language or things like that uh okay cope with it or not and one of the things um that we did um mention was about doing potentially an assessment an assessment um or a study when we look at those types of things as we are dealing with the police department right so that's something to keep in consideration thank you okay thank you very much you thank you all know other um public participation um can we ask since there's no more public participation any coun employee Department here thank very much for being here and being supportive and being ready to answer any questions yeah so we we want to thank our um our police and our staff for their presentations this evening this evening um they were all outstanding I think they get better and better and um with that I also will'll close public participation at this time so you're more than welcome to stay or understand to Mayor I don't pick him up again I for about one thing what you talked about the extension of you have to come up otherwise it's not a public record you have to be brief again there was a mention about the uh business r one and the additional cost connected with that and plowing and other things and all and I remember when when that was first taken over by the Township in previous Town manager and there was great happiness about it and I never quite understood why because it seems to like it's a lot of expense involved in it and I wondered what was the advantage to us to put the township to being you know taking over that I can answer sorry okay thank you for your comment answer sure so the U Mr C um the the township just recently took that over several years ago not not not it was negotiated with the state years and years ago as part of The Pedestrian Improv plan for Brunswick Street skate and and the the roundabout and all the improvements that are going along that State Road an agreement I think was reached where that the state would receive from U being involved in the maintenance of that stretch of roadway so we could take the steps necessary to better enhance it for making it pedestrian friendly and we just started the work to to do that as you can see the island with trees and all that there's more phases to come but I think that's where it came from that's because it was languishing under State uh control and maintenance and we decided that was an area of our town that when I say we just the government I wasn't involved at the time you decided that was an area of town where we wanted to do improvements and the only way you could do improvements on state roads at times if they're not inclined to do so is to take it over ourselves so I think it was a fair trade and in a couple years we'll be able to better determine whether or not was the right thing to do thank you okay and with that um again I will close public comment at this time um review and revision of the agenda we did want to change to um include an executive session just a brief one to discuss um the municipal judgeship and also um a couple of um boards and committees that we still need to finalize a couple of things on so we will have a brief executive session this evening um next for the adoption of minutes of the previous minutes if we could have a motion well first we have to you want to add the executive session oh I'm sorry you need to vote on that correct yeah and then also it's just a um was the correction to 18 B3 that I put before you right it's just that the uh what you received had a dollar amount and this just changed to zero because this was a a bond that was denied okay so we need uh two motions one uh first is for the um acceptance of the executive session which is a change to our current agenda do I have a motion I make a motion to change the agenda I make a motion to change the agenda for session ex add the close session I'll second with a motion and second Madam cler you could call the RO Please Mr bobit yes Mr Kaki yes M Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor farmer yes do to say the amount of time or the CL session for the executive session do need to give it a time no Madam mayor I would like to make a motion to um adopt the revision of 183 B3 B3 excuse me all right with the motion do I have a second I'll second Madam clerk if you could call the V please Mr Bobby yes Mr Kaki yes M Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor Ryan I mean mayor far yes I guess this brings us to H which is adoption of minutes of the previous meeting do I have a motion everyone jump I'll make a motion to uh I make a motion to um uh for 8A regular meeting uh November 9th 2023 do I have a second with a motion in second Madam clerk if you could call the RO Please Mr Bob yes Mr Kaki yes M Perry I abstain Mr Ryan Yes mayor farmer I also St now next on the agenda is the awarding and or rejection of bids we have a number 97 authorizing a contract for the rehabilitation of 123 Glenville drive I'll make a motion move 9 a number 97 authorizing a contract for the rehabilitation of 123 Glenville Drive I second with a motion in second Madam clerk if you could please call the RO discussion I'm sorry this is just to approve um work to be done under our affordable housing trust fund program Rehabilitation work in the amount of $24,900 Mr Bob yes Mr Kaki yes Mr Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor mayor Farm yes along for the introduction of ordinances I'll move 10A ordinance number 2463 d24 ordinance amending ordinance number 2375 D20 providing certain job classifications and providing compensation for the Municipal Employees of the township of Lawrence County erser state of New Jersey Chief of Police salary for 2024 2027 Madam mayor may I ask that the manager give a little clarification yes absolutely I can have a second please second um discussion any questions yeah so I can I can provide an explanation this is this is addressing and creating a differential of pay between our chief of police and our captain um four years ago in a negotiated bargaining agreement um we created the differential in Pay between Patrol officers and sergeants and sergeants and lieutenants to provide incentives for uh the police officers to seek advancement and be compensated for that advancement there was a time when a patrol officer had the ability to earn more money remaining as a patrol officer working overtime as us as being promoted and uh becoming a sergeant or a lieutenant we addressed that issue through negotiations four years ago and we created this differential to provide an incentive for qualified people to seek leadership roles and be compensated for that and it's worked um when we did it four years ago there was no Captain in place there was there was a a position within our salary uh guidelines but it was never filled it has since been filled a couple years ago by um Captain Le and with that came a circumstance where the captain was making is now making a little bit more than the chief of police which is not an appropriate uh uh situation to have in terms of chain of command uh acknowledgement of responsibilities and so we wanted to create a differential um to the chief police and the captain and it works out to be a 2% a little little bit more than 2% differ IAL or $5,000 separation in between the two and that's what I'm trying to do is to address that situation that was not addressed previously because a captain did not really exist for for quite a while we' now have one in place and I think it's a dynamic that we need to address to have better operations Mr manager I have one quick question does does this um because we are at the 2% so this will affect the pay for other employees as well no this is this is adjusting adjusting a salary guide and I assess the percentage just to give you a basis of what's what that $5,000 represents so it's just uh creating uh that separation in pay and it only affects the uh uh the chief of police so no other um contracts would be affected um no contracts are affected Chief is under a salary guy that's not affected by by perfect thank you for the clarification sure thank you for the clarification so we have a motion and a second on the table are there any other um for discussion or if we could call Mr bobit yes Mr Kaki yes M Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor yes and again thank you for the clarification um number 11 adoption of ordinance we have may I'd like to make a motion for 10B ordinance number 2464 20-24 ordinance amending ordinance number 2456-20 salary ordinance of the tachp of Lawrence unclassified Andor exempt seasonal emergency Gres non-union employees for 2023 2025 adding Grant coordinator stien for 2024 and 2025 I second is there any discussion you know for the record I I can just say something this and I think we should um this is this is for Brenda Kramer this is for the work she does in our grant program um this is however we are a civil service community and we have when we hire people we hire people under specific titles as described through civil service and when we hire somebody under civil service for a specific title I'm sorry one moment if we if we could have excuse me if we could just have the conversation in the audience kind so when we hire uh somebody under a specific title their expectation is to do the work under that title and we are required to uh have them do the work as they are hired to do in in Brenda's case we changed her from a part-time Municipal engineer to a fulltime but we added uh a certain more and different um responsibilities that Blended towards the grant so uh the grant program she's done a wonderful job and this stipend creates this ability for us to provide compensation to her under uh a separate thing other than her title to acknowledge the work that she's doing under the grant program and that and we do that at times when we have one employee uh doing uh work and having responsibilities they're other than what their title and what they were hired to do an adjustment right we have a motion in a second Mr Bob yes Mr Kaki yes M Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor Farm yes uh next we have the adoption of ordinances ordinance number 34 62-24 mayor I'd like to make a motion and move 118 ordinance number 24622 ordinance providing for sidewalk improvements in and by the township of Lawrence in the county of Mercer New Jersey appropriating $3,095 therefore and directing the special assessment of the cost thereof I second the motion for just for clarification sidewalks the conversation came up about improving sidewalks is this something that would cover well this is actually a program that we've had in place for years where the township is the person that secures the concrete which allows and we offer this program to Residents to repair their sidewalks at a much lesser amount because we're buying more concrete um and it allows them also to pay over time through their property tax collection and assessments so over I think a fiveyear period um so it's a good deal and it's a good incentive to have property owners who have sidewalks and disrepair to take advant anage of this and partner with the township get the work done for a lot less and pay it over time and that's what this reflects this year thank you one thing this thank you manager for this program because it has helped the community that I live in greatly because many people were falling over some sidewalks that were in very bad repair yeah this is something that we're going to work with our community Aid to get get the word out more like I think it there there could be more participation people knew about it so uh we're going to try and get the word out so next year we have more participants invol okay is there any comments or questions from the public n Mr B yes Mr kak yes M Harry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor fmer yes this brings us now this brings us now to the manager's report I have to yeah thank you that that is the reflection of your thank you so much okay um the attorney report yes uh briefly uh I've had up I followed up pursuant to the to the council's request with the attorney for uh Elsa Mr Barry rank spoke to him last week he indicated as I someone anticipated a very slow process with the D to get a meeting uh he was hoping to have a meeting within the next two weeks meaning probably early March to try to get a uh some type of conditional consent order to uh hopefully put the breakes on the uh uh actions of DP involving the Asen pink and as we discussed that length at the last meeting the resolution of Elsa that that no more Connections in essence uh can be made in Lawrence uh ying and hope hope well uh um for new new construction um Mr rank was is going to get back to me when the date is of that meeting uh and hopefully we will uh we'll have more uh on that uh I don't know if any of the members of Elsa here have any additional [Music] information March 22nd oh date was set March 22nd 10 o' set 10 o' it's only a month [Laughter] away so uh hopefully that will be uh helpful um there's been no no other no other activity that I'm aware of of involving that uh much concern from the other municipalities rightly so um I I there's some minor items involving uh litigation that I'm putting together a report uh it'll be a written report for one of the next meetings so I I I don't want to start tonight going into that anyway we'd had probably to go in a close session so I'll have a written report on most of our litigation within the next one or two meetings depending on the scheduling with our budget presentations too so that's all I have Mr s we had talked about potentially having someone come in and talking to us about the Elsa situation do you uh recommend that we could wait till after the March 22nd meeting probably I I would think hopefully he's come there front you at the next meeting oh he's going to come at the next meeting March 5th the the executive director B Philip okay I mean it would be helpful if Elsa would have a a quicker timetable but excuse me if D would have a quicker timetable but having dealt with them many times I guess March 22nd is lightning speed but we'll have so it it sounds like we will have um a represent the executive director from Elsa come and address the council at our next meeting on March 5th thank you yeah he will be here with the environmental attorney okay great all right so we'll have the executive director and the environmental attorney for Elsa at our next meeting on March March 5th to give us some additional information thank you you're welcome okay this bring us to the clerk's report is there anything to report that was all I was going to report he'll be here the next meeting yes thank you okay do we have any unfinished business okay and then new business appointments to the boards and committees we're going to table that to our um we we still have some discussion to have regarding that at our executive session you're moving that to your executive session you're not tabling it we're moving to our executive session our appointments to the boards and committees for discussion right this brings us to our next next opportunity for public par ipation with a 3 minute limit seeing none um moving on to our [Music] resolutions mayor if it's all right with Council I'd like to move uh 18 A1 through H9 and a block1 no hold on one minute I'm sorry if you get just okay I I I figured I one question I have a motion to to uh consol to table or to Executive session to discuss the consolidation of the two um Boards of Housing and excuse me housing and Rental what will help which number which number is that um Council that's not that's not on the agenda not on the agenda yeah ask that was just something that was sent all right I excuse me we'll discuss okay so let's R the motion is for 18 May yeah the May motion the May the mo mayor the motion I made was for all of the resolutions in a block um I'd hope that everyone had seen them the weekend um so if there are any questions let me know I have one question for for the manager please uh we have H let me see right here H7 it's the uh on that um I believe no you want go ahead I'm sorry there there is a motion and now is there a question has there been a second can we have a second need a second I second okay now you can now you can discuss now we can discuss councilman May um did we put uh I last year we were going to look into uh you were going to look into it as maybe replacing because we had some problems with the with the contract last year was over well over a million on that and then you were going to look into whether we would do employees again because I know we talked to uh mayor Mark and Princeton they also got rid of or they got rid ofp they put out advertisement they got 7 70 applications for their dispatch do we do anything we did we did we absolutely explored the issue of going inhouse it doesn't make sense for us at this point in time we also explored the issue to combine a shared services with Princeton um during that during the early parts of last year um Princeton was not interested in collaborating with us with regard to that so we are in the middle of a contract term and this was um it's up in April and we are seeking to renew it for the and we'll continue it's going to be continuing on our radar uh when it becomes to make sense to us to go inhouse uh we are at the point now I think financially where um we're not quite there yet but we may be sometime in the future and we I'm working with the chief with regard to ensuring um um the quality of the services provided by that vendor and um that's why we're seeking for it to be renewed at this time are we negotiating I know that they're the only one by contract it's already been approved of in the last for the last contct good thank you there questions Madame mayor may I may I have uh a clarification on 18g 2 which is in reference to the employee Group Health Plan I know I had sent you out a question about that what's the question I don't know that's the right which one is it I think that's the right number G G1 no this is the employee program that's what you in the email not g is G G1 is the grli no G2 I'm looking at Mr this is um so this is um a part of our budget process where we are required to make payments to our health insurance uh to the state and this is a pay uh this allows us to make that timely payment just for U if we could just call call for one moment um because 11 a is not listed in our agenda so I just want to get some clarification Madam I don't I don't have a G2 so for clarification what I was discussing was 18 H1 18 temporary budget a temporary budget oh okay thank you you did you did get my email providing you with the the reason behind right correct I just wanted it on the record y thank you so during 1881 to authorizing amending the 2024 temporary budget and we've gotten some clarification on that is it to your satisfaction yes thank you thank you so with our motion and our second are ready to call the all okay Mr bobin yes Mr Kaki yes Miss Perry yes Mr Ryan Yes mayor far yes and thank you for the clarification and the good questions okay um now we have the council initiatives and lay on reports I don't believe there are any see none do we have any written communication no no written communication no WR all right with that um the council we are closing closing out the session a motion yes I would like to make a motion that we go into executive session second the motion second okay and with that we will adjourn for the evening thank you so much for all of the [Music] presentations good so when are we planning our next coffee with I went out to support my friends anden [Music] I I like they know the only like they know they're the only game [Music] I have a question for you you're the IT guy too right