e e e e e think you just called the police with that one oh no good evening everybody and welcome to the May 22 Long Hill Township regular session meeting would everybody please rise and join me for a pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Megan please kindly take roll in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included in the meeting that in compliance with the open public meetings Act of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting specifically the time date and public call and information were included in the meeting that was electronically sent to the echos sentinol moris Daily Record and posted on the township website the agenda and public handouts for this meeting can be viewed online at www. lill nj.gov a public commment Peri the held in the order is listed on the meeting agenda committee man dorsy yes I'm here committee Man Ray and committee man ray will have voting privileges because we need him for the Quorum committee man verza is absent Deputy Mayor Lavender is absent mayor Pia present and everybody uh you can mark it in your diary I think this is the first meeting that uh Deputy Mayor lavender has missed in three three so years I don't know Megan's shaking her head don't I I asked you don't correct me in public please I know okay I say it let's get M sorry all right so this evening on the maybe a slight pretense although not entirely uh I asked Sophia sisi to come back uh this evening because I didn't have the pleasure of being here uh at the last meeting uh when she was honored uh but tonight tonight's uh uh presentation is actually a new one and I don't know Megan should should they come up while I do it while I read I'll read it from here no I'm going to go down there get the microphone get the mic um okay you're going to come down right no I'm here not coming down no and I think uh we might have a special guest on the on take a look on [Music] Zoom me to she's not she not even the state hi congratulations sorry I was on on the phone last last meeting I was in San Francisco but sorry I checked it right everybody come up now I think and come down now this mic isn't working right now so this is going to be a real back back here so you're going to come back here and announce we're going to do it there yes all right you want everybody come up all right thank you Megan thank you Megan you gonna come down no you're not her all right so the New Jersey League of municipalities uh annually this goes back 30 years has um a contest or a competition more specifically it's called The Lewis Bay second future Municipal leaders scholarship competition and uh Sophia you submitted an essay uh unbeknownst to you uh there were about 50 or municipalities Statewide that participated in this competition and you were awarded uh one of the three uh winners of this competition so I'm going to uh read well say de I had nothing to do with it dear mayor Pia it is my pleasure to inform you that Sophia squado has been selected as one of three Statewide winners in the Lewis Bay second future Municipal leader scholarship competition nearly 50 municipalities submitted entries for this 30th annual scholarship competition and choosing finalists and winners was quite difficult it lists the judges there's uh maybe 10 or so uh respected leaders from throughout the state including the New Jersey League uh President Bill chwd also a mayor of Wharton and you have a series of Mayors uh and first second and third vice president of the league um and the senior legislative analyst so this was uh analyzed or reviewed by some Municipal leaders uh from throughout the state and you were chosen so enclosed is a check for $1,000 and a winter certificate for s Sophia squisi and they recommended and I'm pleased to see that we have a series of folks here representing I don't know if we were able to reach or E Line she is on she is so for those who don't know or Eline or I should say VI Eline and I believe Grace her daughter are on the phone they literally are calling as their boarding a plane to Portugal I probably should not have exposed where they are you can hear them Sor sorry or so or can can you hear us yes Grace and I can hear you we're right here and and hopefully you guys can hear us okay but we just wanted to say we're very very very very proud of Sophia we are very thankful that she is part of with Grace initiative and part of lill Township and the world needs more bright lights like sopia I'm gonna turn it over to Grace see if she wants to say a few words um honestly just to recap what my mom said us at with Grace would not be able to do any of the work and come as far as we could have without Sophia's help um she is an inspiration throughout the town throughout the town she is a Powerhouse and we're excited to see what does in the future yay Sophia and thank you Long Hill for honoring her thank you did they call last last last uh call for boarding yet yeah well just about we got we're about like two minutes away from that so yes we're GNA get on the plane now thank you guys so much trip so aubre and Grace safe travels enjoy yourself over there there's a certificate of participation presented to Sophia SS Long Hill Township state winner for your interest in Civic contributions to the community as evidenced by your participation in the 30th annual leis Bay etc etc award I have your essay I don't know would you please say a few words about what your essay entailed and for those who don't remember from the last meeting Gold Award winner first aid Squad I believe anything else I mean what else are you doing for this time um well I'm a girl scout so a um I don't know I just involved I do community service around here the cleanups around thead so what you wanted to do was go for run tonight and unfortunately uh we sandag you I guess a little bit could you describe briefly what the essay was yeah I wrote so many essays uh I don't know I have it I think this one was saying how this will the clean main I think you went through re why volunteer and oh okay yeah I'm sorry I wrote so many essays the past few weeks um yeah I just am really interested in just being able to help in the town as a Rec director um just because I think that's so important for one for kids to be able to stay active and the director takes charge of that with caner Park and just activities around town and then also like adults staying active too I think that's very important with health and also I think that a Rec director takes a very important role in like sure the town is clean and safe which is good for everyone to be able to enjoy like the town community um I love being from a small town I'm going to a school that's from a small town I could never go to a big state school and I never plan on living in the city and I think like a Rec director like really takes a big part of that and just making sure that everyone has that like small town community family feel I think long is a perfect example and I I think we've discussed this so you're attending Arabian yes uh in September I guess the day yep which is not too far from here but it's a small school much like you just described yes and Bethleham Community is very tight-knit um the mingan basketball team you know they do a bunch of stuff in the community which one of the things that really made me decided to go there because obviously I love being able to impact the community and impact different people and just being able to expose myself in different situations by the way that's one thing I did forget to mention and so did Sophia she plays uh on the varsity basketball team here and we'll play it in college yes so anyway uh if we could a big round of for S sorry here is the the letter from the state and the check hopefully uh it's there it's there and this is the certificate and if we could maybe you can hold it up and we'll take a a group picture uh Matt please join in the picture I'm fine I know yeah remember wrote me [Music] thank you did you want to say a few words I was actually TR to find not that anyway where are we running tonight wants to go run yeah well I just changed in the car sorry we kind of misled you to do yeah well I was all right well I did get to say congratulations onk what of I'm trying oh you're you're okay job squee all right all right that's the that's the best part of being on the township committee to be honest I know you have a bunch of them and and for those who don't remember and probably a lot do certainly the ones that attend these meetings and the one watching and the ones watching at home this is the third Statewide uh competition that LGH Hill residents have won this year the first one we had two Representatives uh was the 2023 fire prevention poster contest and Audrey Tracy and Alina Belfield uh were the winners of those competitions and if I remember correctly I think Alina goes to Central Middle Middle School and Audrey Tracy goes to uh Billington school so that was the first Statewide competition uh and that recently I think two meetings ago or so Ed zindell from Myersville I'd like to point that out uh he won the New Jersey League of municipalities photo show off your city contest uh and that was open to all 564 towns Statewide so that's certainly something to be proud of of uh that we have such incredible volunteers and such talent uh willing to uh to to share that with the community so Audrey Tracy Alina bellfield Ed zindell and of course this evening Sophia squado so congratulations to all item number four on your agenda ordinance 539-2446 20 22 that adopted a Redevelopment plan repealing uh resolution 22291 etc etc that certainly sounds like something for a trained and respected attorney you came to the right place yes this is the car wash as you know we designated it as an area in need of Redevelopment uh we approved a Redevelopment agreement can you speak up please yeah I'm sorry we we approved the Redevelopment agreement with the contract purchaser and um we also approved a pilot with the contract purchaser that that deal is no longer in place the contract purchaser is no longer purchasing the property I spoke to the attorney and they have no objection to our repealing all of those Redevelopment things so they they will no long the purpose of this ordinance is to repeal them all okay uh since it's first reading I'll just open it up to the township committee Brandon why don't we go with you your no comments from me guy we can hear you so com no comments not comment you can't comment that's right actually I think you could because this has more to do with the contract purchase was no longer in the picture but I don't care all right so you don't have any questions or comments All right so then looking for a motion to approve I'll second it Megan committe dorsy St committee Ray yes mayor Pia yes ordinance 53624 second reading so we will have a public comment area for this ordinance an ordinance concerning uniform fire code fees and amending chapter 17 of the Township Code entitled fire prevention Jack any words of wisdom here uh no this is just uh changing the the fees uh for certain inspections by the fire marshal but you skipped some ordinances Jack I did it on purpose it was planned uh I see what that's why you were a little bit confused yeah exactly all right uh the let's table that for about 2 minutes and we'll go back to page two uh ordinance 512 d23 now that's the one we just did okay 52 that approved the pilot for 1,106 1112 oh no we're on five we're in the next one 534 I apologize so okay we did the first one 539 d24 this is 5 34-24 the food everyone's favorite ordinance but then what if what's this other one on top that's being a that's being um ah uh no being repealed under 53924 oh I see what happened it's tied to that all right yeah it's all part of that all right so bada bing bada boom you're gone you're gone ordinance 534 oh my God I'm starting to have a little bit of uh Shake here 534 d24 second reading adoption an ordinance regulating temporary Mobile retail food establishments commonly known as food trucks and supplementing and amending chapter 4 of the Township Code entitled General licensing Jack we had a conversation and and maybe you can explain what we're doing here and I know we're going to make a slight tweak yeah I understand it's the intention of the township committee to put back in a restriction as to restaurants uh in the vicinity of the food truck but it's slightly different than the one that was in originally it's going to uh prohibit food trucks within 100 ft of a brick and mortar restaurant while it is open so if that's the uh intent of the township committee it should be amended by motion and then the ordinance as amended will be continued till the next meeting and Megan will just have to publish the amendment with no further publication no you'll have to publish the notice of the amendment okay so looking for a motion banded second Megan committee dorsy committee Ray yes mayor Pia yes and we're carrying it to what date Megan I have to publish it so the 26th June 26th so for those at home if they did not hear it uh ordinance 534-2450 for public comment or questions ordinance 535-2482 um since this is second R well first I'll ask uh Brendan or Matt any comments or questions no no comment I will I'm sorry Brendon go ahead no no comment okay so uh I will open up this portion of the meeting for questions or comments from the public on this ordinance only good evening Joe barino 623 Chestnut Street am I to understand that the food truck that Parks outside the liquor store will not be able to be there because he's within 100 feet of the bagel store and the Tha restaurant that more than 100t away how is it 100 ft away that's the other ordinance the the truck is parked right outside the liquor store that there's no way that's 100 ft from the truck public hearing about a food truck there's a public hearing right fire code fees oh no I thought it was special events right and since that was first reading no this is second reading no no no but I'm say excuse me uh I was uh confused well no no no he was comenting on the food truck ordinance right which was carried do on the 26th right so the public hearing will be on the 26th on the ordinance as amended and at that June 26 meeting is when uh it will be open to the public for the food truck now uh speaking of and I see Dennis and I don't think he needs any remind he knows exactly what we were talking about Dennis Sandow Millington this is a good ordinance I know because I wrote it myself back in 2007 I'm sorry for I'm not laughing at you Dennis you know that but I do have a few comments on this language I think it's minor um bear with me this is much improved from the first draft that I saw several months ago a lot of strikeouts but at the top of page 12 at 4- 6.5a 22 okay it says everybody with me yes sir yes it says the proceeds of the special event less reasonable administrative costs are donated to Long Hill Town shik Civic charitable or service organizations in at least three situations that I am aware of the donation was also made directly to the township for various purposes and so Civic charitable and service organizations doesn't quite cover a direct donation to the township yeah Dennis I this is the current language actually but I think we could add to the township or to Long Hill Township without yeah well we without continuing the public hearing I think it's in the in the cases where we donated direct to the township it was after the original language was written and probably violated the ordinance at the time we did it we did it like I said we can add it I think without continuing the public hearing not only so there should be an addition in here A minor addition that says uh to the township or to the board of AD yep and at the bottom of page 12 4- 6.6 Charlie this is rather convoluted and I would strike it out because this refers to the fact that any food truck that appears at a special event for example a street fair has to comply with the food truck ordinance except for the fact that in the food truck ordinance which we have postponed at 4- 7.6 Charlie we exempt food trucks at special events no just from some of the paragraphs say again just from some of the paragraphs from paragraph Just from some of the paragraphs at any rate I haven't dissected that but it seems to me that one ordinance referring to another ordinance which excuses the participants in the first ordinance might be simplified and clarified what bothers me about this whole idea is that the food trucks that come to the street fair are mostly from out of town they run a circuit all summer uh of of uh Street Fair events in towns all over the state they have already paid a registration fee they have already got the food and fire permits that are required under the current ordinance and now that's me I'm sorry I like the sound now by the time I figure out how to shut it off it'll be done um so the food trucks understand how to participate in this as a part of the circuit but to make each one of those food trucks separately register which I think is what this paragraph C or implies uh sounds a little bit like Overkill well I think basically it's to require the health and fire inspections yeah yeah but they already require that under the existing ordinances not the street fair ordinances they're already required under the the normal Health ordinances and I don't know what they're Exempted from as I said I haven't parsed this other paragraph in the food truck ordinance but it seems to me that we're creating a very convoluted enforcement problem here I would I would think that just leaving paragraph C out will suffice the the the the street events are what they are and and then when we get to the food truck ordinance next month uh we can we can deal with the exceptions that I mentioned in that ordinance I think I think we just well you know how I feel about food trucks I in all honesty I think it should stay in just so say again in all honesty I think it should stay in so their attention is called to the fact they have to register and get fire and health inspections but just me seems reasonable to me right it it doesn't it doesn't seem honorous unless I'm missing something I don't well it never seems honorous if two ordinances refer back and forth to each other until somebody discovers that there is a slight difference and then you've got a loophole but but that's the problem if we put those requirements in the uh special event order and the the food truck ordinance changes then they could be inconsistent that that's why I did it as a cross reference I don't think we should ever intend to regulate food trucks that participate in a in a licensed special event because they're guests in our town and we don't want to make it too damn hard for them to figure out what Hoops they have to jump through now if the food truck ordinance wants to uh refer to food trucks at a special event we can discuss that next month when that ordinance comes up but as far as the special events are concerned I wouldn't put anything special in here for food trucks because after all we've got animals we've got entertainment we got all kinds of things that we could have special loopholes set up here why pick on food trucks in special event until we have oh and by the way the biggest food vendor at a special event most popular too no don't turn your head the biggest food vendor at a special event will he be immune yes cuz he's not a food truck I'd like to see this paragraph taken out at as well as adding the the additional language for donations direct to the town and the Board of Ed I agree with first part and thanks for your help in uh vetting this ordinance Dennis thank you Dennis so are we going to remove the it's up to you all no no not yeah we're going to add to the township or the Board of Education or to a Long Hill Township Civic organization but I think we can do that as I say without carrying it to the next meeting fair enough I don't think it's a substantive change so uh any other member of the public who would like to comment on this ordinance at home anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor thank you Megan so looking for a motion to approve as amended yes per Jack's comments so Dr Megan comman dorsy yes commit man Ry yes mayor pgia yes ordinance 537-2425 of the Township Code Jack you're a very busy man this evening you skip uniform fire Cod please oh that's what okay can we do it in this well it does yeah so for those watching at home we better do it in proper order ordinance 53624 second reading adoption an ordinance concerning uniform fire code fees and amending chapter 17 of the Township Code entitled fire prevention and I Know Jack is feverously looking for down yes this goes back to food trucks as well uh and what it does is it adds an annual fee for fire inspections uh of $500 uh the current fee is $54 uh but it's up to the food truck operator as to whether or not he wants to get individual permits and pay the individual fee of $54 or pay $500 for an annual fee thank you Jack and I know uh I municipal clerk did a lot of research on this and we looked at uh fees Etc in various uh municipalities some are less some are more uh the intent here is that it would be $54 for a onetime uh uh fee or $500 correct me if I'm wrong jack for all you can eat no pun intended for the entire year that that's right and that figure was recommended by the Township Fire Marshall thank you so uh I'll open it up to the township committee Brendan Matt any comments or questions for Jack on this not here nothing for me thank you Brendan uh so now I will open uh to this portion of the meeting to the public on this ordinance and that is the fire code fee as discussed and I see Dennis making his way to the microphone I don't know if he brought his Chimes this time going get your money's from me tonight I have a question about canvases and solicitors which is beyond I apologize I'm the one that skipped ahead we're on the fire code fee so can I'm sorry are we still on fire code yes yes oh but I wouldn't go far uh because that's that's up next uh so I don't see anyone else in the uh courtroom Megan anybody at home anybody if anybody on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor seeing none uh I'm looking for a motion to approve 53624 two moves second committee man dorsy yes committee man Ry yes mayor Pia yes now it's ordinance 53724 second reading adoption ordinance concerning commercial canvases solicitors and Peddlers and amending section 4-3 of the Township Code Jack all this ordinance does is takes out the fee which was set by ordinance because it predated our doing everything by setting fees by resolution the current permit fee is $20 this changes it to established by the town committee by resolution that's the only change to this ordinance thank you questions comments Brendan Matt nothing nothing from me nothing from me Dennis batterup this question is not relevant to this particular ordinance Amendment but in general with regard to solicitors is it Our intention that every solicitor other than politicians and religious zealots uh has to have a license yes if they go door too it's the intention okay if if if I get my doorbell pushed right in the middle of making breakfast and the guy standing at and when I open the door the guy standing there says I'm doing gutter work next door and I'll be in the neighborhood for a couple of days would you like me to do any work and he's only going around don't we have a a handful of houses next to the house that he's working on I think Jack was asking do we have a no knock yeah we have a no knock ordinance we put in so you can put your name on the list and they're not supposed to come to your house so what should I do should I call the police and tell him he's violating the noock ordinance yeah are you on the noock list oh I didn't even know we had a no knock list I thought you knew everything Dennis I you do you think that the do you think that the roofer from out of town knows enough to acquire the noock list from who knows who I I bet he knows about them because a lot of towns have them so I I would I would call the police because you may save your neighbors from uh having to uh this guy is hired from out of town because he doesn't even know he needs construction permits to do this work much less acquiring the nonok list from a different building you're right I think Dennis while your heart's in the right place I think this is an example of a nuisance that's hard to really deal deal with and the best we can do is put the ordinance in place and hopefully people comply see how many people actually pay their 20 bucks even if they're only knocking on doors in the very small radius I I don't disagree the courts this this ordinance used to be very comprehensive but the courts have ordered it down over the years so it doesn't do much anymore well at any rate I have no objections to this order thank you except keep the price low enough $20 and make sure that there's an inspector driving around with a clipboard with blank forms on it so these guys can sign up on the Fly thank you Dennis anybody else in the courtroom I see no one uh Megan at home a CI would like to speak CA okay I'm sorry Charles of rtz Heritage Road Millington I agree with long time resident Dennis Sandow I am on the no lock list no knock list and I agree with all of Dennis's comments tonight thank you thank you Mr rtz anyone else Megan anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone mayor thank you Megan so I'll close this uh portion of the meeting to the public looking for a motion to approve Brendan I see you there second committee man dorsy yes committee man Ry yes mayor pgia yes all right let's see if I can get this one in order it's the last one uh what's it self depra I can't even get the word right uh ordinance 53824 second reading an ordinance abolishing the communication advisory committee and repealing section 238 of the Township Code um I guess I could speak to this uh the purpose of this was to uh dissolve the the CAC as it was currently um uh surprised and we split it out into three different areas uh yeah two different I think we well two but we took uh we took uh Mr bazinsky who is invaluable to this town and put him with wreck which is where he has been helping all along yes and we have two other sections uh with Dan Eline on one and guy rostow and L fast on the other I think uh Scott Lavin is going to cross-pollinate so to speak uh across all of them uh and each of those uh uh incredible volunteers has been um it's been discussed with them and they are very open and happy uh to have a delineation of what those responsibilities are so with that any comments or questions from brandan or Matt be sad to see the CAC go but other than that no yeah because that's kind of a cool name we kind of have to come up with some other cool acronym there um move no we got to open it up to the public so no comments from the township committee any questions or comments from the public Dennis now if you were going to come up for every ordinance I would have encouraged you to just sit right up front please state your name and your address please Dennis Sandow Millington I am speaking on this ordinance as a charter member of the communications advisory committee perhaps even the Godfather of the communications advisory committee since I wrote the charter of this Committee in 2007 unfortunately this committee has drifted a away from its original charter principally due to the extraordinary technical knowledge of the township administrator and his predecessor who were quite capable of making the technical decisions about Communications on their own and to the extent that this seems to be not working at least as far as I hear complaints from the public uh I I can't say anything other than this was not something that worked you know what they say about if it don't work fix it thank you Dennis don't go far because there's a public session coming up shortly that's not car any and no one else in the courtroom I don't see so Megan at home C I would like to speak please Grant permission mayor Charles renit M I would like to thank Dennis Sandow as a charter member of the communication advisory committee since 2007 for his excellent Services as a Bell lab's employee and his technical contributions thank you Dennis thank you Mr R anybody else at home Megan anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now don't see anyone mayor thank you I can see none I'm looking for a motion to approve 5 38-24 Second reading I think Matt dorsy approve some move and Brendon Comm dorsy yesman Ray yes mayor Pia yes uh I know Brendan's going to have to abstain across the series but I'll let him speak you have the do you have the agenda in front of you do you need me to read them don't I have it guy thanks um I'm abstaining from 24-1511 15253 and uh5 thank you Matt no it's just nice to see after 18 in the last 18 months that the police advancements are actually on the agenda on a proper time thank you Matt so uh without further Ado I'm looking uh for a motion to approve resolution numbers 24148 through 24156 M uh committee man ray is abstaining from 151 152 153 and 155 Jo moved second mman dorsy yes mman Ray yes mayor Pia yes Alon reports Brendon if I could I'll start with you hey nothing from me guy thank you thank you Brendan Matt all right let's see from the Board of Health we have a Skins cancer screening Monday July 15th 1: to 5:00 p.m. at Fellowship Village in Liberty Corner appointments required so you can register on June 3rd they are being conducted by a somebody eligible to do it um and if you want to call to make an appointment at 908 204 2520 registration opens June 3D um and they're doing this free screening for anybody that wants to sign up for it don't forget to wear your sunscreen I guess I'm delegated the rec report again ready all right we hope everyone will join us for Memorial Day Parade on Monday this Monday the 27th um believe it starts 9:30 a.m. down on Mercer Street it concludes at central school and then as every year the Sterling fire company's gracious enough to invite everybody to come back to uh for some food and Beverages and to socialize after the parade so that's 9:30 Main Avenue Monday next the much anticipated pickle ball courts are open Play has started I saw people playing there over the weekend go to community pass to reserve your time and just remember obviously obiously residents get preference so uh that's why you should Reserve uh we're still in the process of there's still available positions for the rec for the summer for updates on hiring um please check out the employment and the parks and re tab of the website applicants should make sure they frequently check their email as well and we plan to make one more round of hires after our camp registration closes on the 31st so by then we'll know how many kids we have and then our needs so please keep track of that and keep your if you're looking for a job this summer my son worked there last year he had a great time all right registration started for the summer camps in Sterling lake on April 1st remember to register by May 31st Sterling Lake opens this Saturday if you ordered badges you can pick them up at Town Hall by Friday uh 524 during the regular business hours or pick them up the first day you go to the lake during Lake hours they'll be held at the lake starting on the 25th so if you want to pick them up on Friday you can after that if you want your badges pick them up while you're at the lake learn to swim returns to Lake this summer make sure to go online to fill out your no cost survey on community pass the swim instructor Will Group everyone according to their abilities and contact everyone to schedule the lessons mark your calendars there Sterling Spring Lake dance is Friday June 7th 7:30 to 9:30 weather permitting uh Long Hill open lill students in grade 5 to 7 there's a $5 entrance fee at the gate and be sure to bring your permission slip that you can print out on the website and bring it with you to dance and hand it in when you show up uh we do need a couple more chaperon um are still needed so if you're looking for something to do that night you want to hear a DJ come on down to the link and while you have those calendars out check out the dog days of summer concert hopefully there's something for everyone uh the first concert's June 2 first uh it's with parrot Beach the Jimmy Buffett tribute band that's actually very popular it's at the lake so bring your chairs bring your food and beverage and sit back and enjoy the show 7 o'clock and as always every concert is free and finally if anybody's interested in volunteering in the community or having some fun while doing it please consider to join the recreation advisory committee and please contact the rec department interested in joining and I believe that's all I have and you ran out of slides thank you and don't forget to recycle a lot of Memorial Day uh parties coming up please recycle your cans bottles and whatever if you do have cans please bring them to the DPW because they will be donated and the money the revenue will go towards the burn unit at St Barnabas thank you Matt that was a great job and big shout out to Lisa and and and all the volunteers and and and and her staff I maybe I missed it in the past those slides were incredible a lot of work went into those slides uh so thank you for doing so and the photograph in the very beginning the over overview of uh the turf field Lisa if you if you if you have if you have uh a copy of that I'd love it that was really a great uh photograph so thank you um this week is Emergency Medical Services week uh so as always big shout out to the to our volunteers uh first aid and and our fire companies and c and etc etc uh special note for the first aid Squad this week and uh big announcement a new baby boy and Resident were born at home today transported to the hospital by our first aid Squad baby and Mom are doing fine so uh that is great news now without further ado our administrator's report thank you mayor I have a public works monthly report for May 24 um two ton they have put down two tons of asphalt uh used to fix potholes and black top curbing uh they uh process styrofoam for 4 days the veteran flags and Banners are hung up on Main Street and Town Hall the Public Works men worked uh many hours to get the lake uh in in working in ready condition for the opening uh believe this weekend if that's correct um they uh put planted all the flowers on Main Avenue with the flower baskets uh for the poles and the flower um pots that are on the street a uh repaired 25 linear feet of Belgium Block uh they're doing a lighting project at Town Hall where we're changing LED light uh floresent I'm sorry the outdoor uh lights in the parking lot to LED lights and uh we have a company um stripping all the poles and priming and painting the light poles um as they uh are were in desperate need of uh painting um they did a lot of landscaping over at the public at the police department as well as power washing the building uh today they installed uh two LED flashing stop sign signs on Northfield at Valley Road so uh we we realize that that is a difficult intersection and and taking safety measures to help the residents and people that travel that road um paired a wooden guard rail on Central Avenue completed uh roadside vegetation cutting and Lawn Maintenance and and all properties throughout the township which you know with with all the rain and then the sunshine does take a lot of time as as we all know with cutting Lo laws Lawns um today we had a preconstruction meeting for Popular Drive Road improvements that road is uh due to start work on June 10th 2024 obviously weather uh weather um permitting the contractor will uh notify all the residents and business business in that area as well as the shoppr mall one week prior to the 10th the week of the 10th they'll be doing uh concrete work the following week there'll be milling and Paving which should be a two-day process in that week uh they will notify um all the uh residents and businesses in that area uh 48 hours prior to the milling and Paving uh we'll be working specifically with shop R and coordinating deliveries and so forth so that uh we and and the other businesses so that we don't keep the disruption to a minimum uh that's all I have mayor thank you Randy that was great um so onto discussion items that's number eight if you're following at home park and regulations what are we discussing there I can I can take that all right Randy Megan and I had met with the uh two lieutenants uh regarding 2hour parking in various areas of the town uh specifically relating as it started out relating to the food truck ordinance and uh we talked about the conflict that we have with 2hour parking in front of the um Oak Oak flower Brewing uh so they're making a recommendation the 2hour parking was was put in place because of complaints of commuters parking in the on the street and taking the train so we discussed the possibility of changing the ordinance in that area to uh have the 2hour parking stop at 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. when the commuters are now on the way back and very few people are going into uh New York or or western or west on that line um so that that's what we were discussing we want we wanted to bring It Forward for discussion for the township committee to see if you want to move forward to make that Amendment thank you Randy and I'm sorry want to come back on like 6 amm or something mik oh so would be like 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. or something like that yeah yeah the 2hour parking would would stop from whatever 5:00 p.m. 6 p.m. till the next morning um I don't know if we have the current ordinance has a hour that it begins or it's just permanent it's all time we would have it come on like um probably like 9:00 a.m. after the commuters or or even or no come back in for 2hour park at about 5:00 a.m. or something like that and um you know all day it doesn't I don't think it hurts anybody to have that in place all day long but just in the evening overnight in the evening and and late night it doesn't make sense to have a 2our park yeah and by the way this this this kind of plays along with what we've tried to do and Dennis was was very helpful in this area as well the Main Avenue um business district where we waved parking on Main Avenue uh at a set time I forget the time we did that we waved the parking in the train station and this is in anticipation not just of oakflower that section of town is is starting to Bubble up a little bit with businesses and stuff so this makes perfect sense I want to be clear not just for oakflower but for that part of town with the train station there uh and in anticipation of other retail establishments that so 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. is that whatever it is in Sterling probably is fine or five 5 to 5 is fine with me I don't care yeah you guys I mean that makes sense it's easy yep I know there was a concern for um the residents that live above that area area up top that they didn't want them parking on the streets overnight there's a big parking lot there overnight right next to it I'm sure they Park they could park in the back who's they well when um Mr Kaufman came the first time around to amend the ordinance from the 30 minute parking to two hours he made comments regarding overnight guests on the street so and I don't know if you even allow overnight parking anywhere in town in the township right we don't so do we have to put some sort of time limit no no I think we need to put a time limit for 2hour parking right for 2 hour parking until 5:00 p.m. and then it's however long you want right and as long as you don't park overnight rightn there's a whole section of the code that has you know time limit parking During certain hours right so we'll just move you know that this to another section of the code okay all right this was just a discussion item Brandon I'm sorry I didn't ask you but no it makes perfect s yeah so thank you so I guess what we're asking Jack if you could prepare something we have an ordinance for the next meeting beautiful a second item on the discussion uh number eight is open permits during home sale closing Jack this is something you had kind of referenced I think previously yes I think the recommendation came from the construction official you can correct me publicly I'm realtor realtor realtor oh realtor uh that's right I forgot I thought you said buer realtor a local sorry Jack a lot of towns have this ordinance which requires when you sell your house you get a certificate that all your construction permits have been closed it sounds like an obvious well thank you to the reality that brought it to our attention but it seems self-evident now well it protects buyers because when you buy the house you know there are no open permits that they satisfied all the requirements of the construction permit I mean everyone who gets a construction permit should close it out uh but there's no real enforcement mechanism in place it's up to you all in Long Hill or in general in general like do other towns Bernardsville or anybody Bernardsville has his ordinance Bernard's Township has his ordinance I think Warren does a lot of towns do okay but I'm not recommending it it's just I understand that but if and and again if everybody is what's the old adage somebody jumps off a bridge doesn't mean you have to as well uh but it seems to me that one it makes sense in theory or in principle and a lot of other towns have it yep I I've already done it draft so we can introduce it at the next meeting if you want and then we can get public input at the public hearing Brandon you okay with that yeah absolutely uh should we do we want to make it part of the certificate of occupancy or does that don't really make a make a difference should make it a contingency no Brendan asked if they should make it a contingency of us getting a co uh I don't know well you don't need but we don't you don't need a CO on a resale right okay so so so that wouldn't solve it okay okay yeah I'm I'm no comment it Mak sense okay all right so Jack you're going to work on that for next meeting I think I already did it so we'll just put it on the agenda for next meeting beautiful all right bullet number three uh an anticipation of affordable housing and this is something this Township has done an incredibly uh good job on going back probably to when uh Co was first introduced actually met L one you know committees long before us and and of course we have continued in that uh in in in that vein uh have always anticipated the subsequent rounds that were coming round one round two round three and now round four I don't know what it's going to be called by the way uh round four is it gonna be called round four but but it's not going to be fair share so I don't know who the parent of It is Well fair share is still going to be a major player okay so it's just not called fair share as the the bus they're not going anywhere fair enough so the point of uh bullet 4 is we're going to form a uh subcommittee uh and on that subcommittee will will be Deputy Mayor Scott lavender I will be on it uh Jessica Palmer the to planner I'm sorry Jessica cwell the township planner uh Township attorney Jack uh and who would the the administrator and planning board member I think we talked oh that's right and planning board member I think Tom Jones is the one uh thaty did we did we come up American water or I think he was affordable so then you have Don on oh okay yeah so which makes more sense to be honest with you okay yeah so Tom Jones from the planning board will be on this affordable housing now Jack if you could and and and and look we've discussed this in the past the reason why you have to uh anticipate and work with fair share or whomever you're working on is so you don't end up in a situation like some of the surrounding towns you can look at their obligation relative to what long Hill's obligation was that's not luck that was staying persistent for 40 years now yep um and for those that want to know what happens on the extreme if you do not uh uh work with and uh and plan for uh you could just Google what's happening in Milburn it's not a secret um their obligation over 40 years I think was, 1300 y I misspoke in the last meeting I said they had not built any affordable units a subsequent uh article that I read this is public information I think they've built 38 so 38 of 1300 I Don't Know Jack if you can estimate and I won't put you on the spot for that how many units lill has done over the years lounsbery is an example group Holmes are an example uh we had some accessory Apartments we have six Apartments off Marist toown Road um and we've got the the various uh projects that have been approved but are are being on are on hold because of the sewer moratorium thank you and and and in anticipation I think the numbers are well the I know the numbers are out I think Long Hill is going to come in around 100 give or take something if if those numbers hold they were estimates by some attorneys who do Mount Laurel work okay actually CA has until October 20th of this year to issue new numbers uh you can then challenge those numbers by going before what they call the uh the program the housing dispute resolution program which replaces uh Coop basically U and you can fight it but you've got to have good grounds and I think that's one of the reasons we need to have a subcommittee uh so that we can be ready to challenge the number if need be so if that number holds 100 give or take let's just say it's 100 what Long Hill already has done is over the last several years uh I think we've built 12 units group homes yes um we know the Walgreens uh proposal uh for whatever the full development is will include 10 10 and and that's per bedroom which is the beauty of Assisted Living there's two bedrooms we we'll get 10 bedrooms credit 10 equivalent to 10 units and uh as well Lounsbury I think has 32 units remaining correct we don't know we estimate that they'll they'll allow 16 to 32 of those units yes and and they've increased the percentage of units that can be senior citizen uh you also get bonuses and credits for various other things so you know we have to see how it plays out and I think Jessica will be the prime so 22 32 so we're hopeful we'll probably have at a minimum 50 uh but to your to Jack's Point uh we don't know because they have not established the rules yet that's right and they won't like I said till October so you know they have five DCA has five months to come up with these numbers for every municipality in the state so I I mean the good news is this once again uh the township committee has in place um a plan as best we can for number that at this stage has not been established um and hence why we would want to form this uh subcommittee at this time with the folks that I've mentioned and I'll repeat that so Deputy Mayor Scott lavender uh Township planner Jessica calwell uh Jack pigeon Township attorney Tom Jones from the planning board and Randy uh as administrator and you and me sorry uh and May so that's uh Brendan I don't know if you have any questions or comments and and Matt um nothing for me thank you Brendan thank you Matt so now the next subcommittee is NJ American Water for those uh who remember I don't know who who does but when the sewer system was closed the sale was closed in October September 2020 uh there's a timeline there that by October I think it is 2025 that's correct 2025 all the specs in that sale and there's various specs one uh they must upgrade the system to where uh the sewer ban is lifted they must uh include in that uh an expansion of the capabilities of the plant to include the affordable units correct that are uh that we're agreed to with fair share housing that's it works if we don't have that capacity uh fair share will come after us but we have legally uh recourse to go after NJ American water and they have every intention of fulfilling that yes uh one of the other benefits is also uh the town has about 88% of the township is sewered uh and obviously by math it's 12% is not they uh NJ americ water water must uh add sewer capacity not capacity I'm sorry must sewer another 7% of town which is roughly 230 homes I believe uh that's to be determined by NJ American Water they can do that anywhere in town that they want uh but that also is based on the October 2025 timeline yes that rolls back to what the original intent here this subcommittee uh is going to work with NJ American water and make sure we keep the public uh apprised of progress because we're now in a stretch run what are we in May of 24 uh October 25 and I'm quite certain just common sense says NJ americ water is not going to wait until October 10th 2025 to Begin work I agree uh for those who have seen you've seen a lot of markouts going up around town uh their Engineers are trying to calculate where they can do what they need to do um so that subcommittee will be uh member of the planning board which will be Don Richardson Randy uh Deputy Mayor Scott lavender uh Kyle mdel from uh NJ American war to the township engineer Joe Vu and uh and I won't forget myself this time I I will be on that committee as well so Brendan I'm sorry I probably should have opened it up to you but that was pretty straightforward I suppose yep yep Matt what what okay so Matt agrees now we'll go old business new business nope I don't see any open m announcements Matt could you re announce the Memorial Day Parade Memorial Day Parade Monday morning 9:30 okay Monday morning 9:30 start at Mercer and Maine it concludes at the uh Central School with the cereem to honor the Fallen Soldiers and then following that Sterling Firehouse invites everybody back to uh the firehouse for some food drinks and socialization thank you Matt and I would strongly encourage try to get there maybe 9 9:00 because as the the the streets fill up and stuff I mean this is just a wonderful wonderful recognition uh uh for those who have given uh their lives uh for the freedoms that we enjoy in this country and and around the world um and it's always a wonderful event it's it's usually well attended let's see if I can speak I I'm not a I'm not as good as as Dennis uh well right now it's uh we'll see we'll see uh what the weather hopefully the weather holds up at this point item number 11 I'd like to open up the meeting to the public remarks and statements pertaining to any matter uh please keep comments and remarks to three minutes thank you Dennis you're getting a workout and I encourage you to sit right up front but if I were to sit in the front row I might actually hear some of the dribble coming from the back sound is so bad I don't have to listen well fortunately you were speaking as you came up I don't think anybody at home heard what you said I think you said the township committee is wonderful that's what I heard the at the last meeting mayor you announced that the high school [Music] regionalization thing whatever it is had decided to spread the wealth of of information by creating an Advisory Board MH and that you would volunteer for The Advisory Board and that was very generous of you now on Monday night two nights ago they held a sneak preview a surprise sneak preview and I say that because it was a the meeting was announced at noon for 7:00 for with 7 hours warning the citizen of four towns five school boards had an opportunity to attend a meeting where the regionalization study was introduced we heard a number of things we heard that an advisory committee had been created 24 members we saw on the screen of this online meeting that there were 25 attendees at the online meeting very few of whom were members of the 24 member Advisory Group this is true I did not attend that meeting you did not attend that meeting because they showed the names of those who did attend uh I was the only citizen not affiliated with the school board or the committee from Long Hill now the reason I'm mentioning all this is because presumably The Advisory Board will step up to its role and the regionalization study is being conducted by a university which is being paid by the state not enough money to do a proper study study because you can do the math yourself but at the Monday night meeting they kept talking about getting input from parents from students and parents and some amorphous thing called the stakeholders well I think I'm a stakeholder you are me and 80 other 80% of the taxpayers are supporting a high school that we don't have any get any benefit from because we don't have students there my last my youngest son graduated 37 years ago for 37 years I've been paying the high school what I call a charitable contribution because I get nothing back from it and yet the regionalization study refuses to talk about the taxpayers who are funding the the schools all they want to talk about is students parents and stakeholders they don't say the word taxpayer and clearly they don't say the word voter so mayor I'm looking to you to represent my interest on on this advisory panel which means you've got to find out by holding hearings in this room for Long Hill taxpayers you got to find out what positions you need to represent the first of those positions is the regionalization study team has got to stop lying we can go through the video of the Monday night meeting and I can point out to you lie at after lie after lie they've got to stop living in fantasy land one of the members of the regionalization committee said that they would predict the the school board and Township budgets for the next few years as a part of their study well I don't know how they can predict the town budget here it is the end of May and we don't even have this year budget in draft form much less predicting what next year's budget might be or the year after or the year after and yet the regionalization study thinks that it can make those budget predictions for the four towns and the five school districts and from that deduce what the correct recommendation is for regionalization this is fantasy land and somebody on The Advisory board has to bring them down to earth and mayor guy I'm looking at you as the only person I can turn to that I have faith in to represent my interests before the regionalization study gets published because once it gets published it will establish a life of its own and sooner or later the voters will reject it and like the sale of the sewer plant they'll keep bringing it up and 2 years later it'll be adopted just to get it off the agenda so so and actually thank you Dennis uh um you spoke very eloquently there and I think accurately uh just might tweak and I know it's just an oversight but it's important to recognize it's not a board that I sit on and it's not a panel because it implies something that does not is an advisory committee that but if you watch the video you will see that 50% of the slides in the presentation we're listing the names of the members of The Advisory Board it should not by town by function so by hat size I I'm going to try to be uh tful here and this is a little bit of a of of a criticism of the public attend a school board meeting I have over the years attended more than my share almost never is a member of the public in that audience and I find that perplexing considering nearly 63% of their property tax bill goes to the public schools now I would point out the most important thing a society does is educate its children nobody would dispute that certainly not may but there's no reason why why we cannot look and that's in my opinion the purpose of this study is to look at ways to provide high quality education cost efficiently two different goals and nobody has sorted out the fact that those are two distinct goals and they don't always mesh and the advisory committee needs to remind the study team and the board members mhm that they've got to get real they can't just mush all these ideas together into a slideshow and come up with an answer I agree with you 100% I know but in that vein when these meetings are held now granted I I don't think that was advertised as as maybe well as it could have been but Schoolboard meetings are you know the agendas well I should say the uh the dates of the school board uh meetings are announced the year in advance the last night Tuesday night the day after the regionalization show was put on Tuesday night the high school board met at its regular meeting MH believe it or not the agenda was not available it couldn't be found on the website there were no paper copies in the room so you know if you're going to find fault with anybody about the way school boards operate it's not the public now I have to tell you I have been in contact with members of the administration at wung Hills and members of the board and I'm sharing my complaints with them separately but you need to come on strong mayor you need to come on very strong on the advisory committee to keep this thing real don't imagine that you can predict budgets and you can predict enrollment oh by the way I don't know how you're going to predict enrollment because we can't even predict how many new housing units we're going to have much less the towns that have bigger obligations than we have and then come up with a solution which has probably already been written you've got to be strong and you got to find out what the public really needs for you to say thank you Dennis I appreciate your comments any other member of the well there's nobody in the courtroom I don't think Ally shouldn't say it that way uh but no comments no comments anyone at home Megan see I would like to speak Char Millington can you hear me yes we can actually not not that great uh Chuck if you could speak up a little bit more clearly okay several of the township committee members overstep their bounds on their responsibilities at the last Township committee meeting just so you know Randy has taken over some of those responsibilities and some of you members have not been aware of that item two I'm looking forward to repaving Northfield Road I'm also looking forward to our future budget discussions where several meetings ago we had a 5% potential increase item three when is the township committee going to address business stress for the township committee meetings I want to compliment you on your affordable housing with Lounsbury it's a great addition to our meeting our requirements and again I'm looking forward to our budget discussions when they are going to occur in public God bless long Township in America thank you so first Adam Northfield I believe is on schedule or it's on the schedule I know it was delayed for some engineering reasons etc etc but Randy I it it's scheduled for some time yeah Boswell engineering is working on the uh specifications on the bid um bid paperwork and we should have that hopefully within uh by the end of June and then PVE mil pav shortly thereafter well we have to go out the bid so it'll be probably it'll probably end up being a fall Paving Jump fair enough but certainly when the weather uh permits that was part of a grant process as well it's a DOT Grant so we have to buy at that at minimum we have to have the uh contract awarded by year end perfect and I know a couple of others easn Long Hill Road which is uh Township property is also part of a grant that's a DOT uh contract the uh I talked to Van CLE engineering about that today um you know they're getting us a quote for their engineering work uh we should uh be moving forward with those um surveying and uh specifications uh after the next meeting thank you Randy and I know Al we're in the process of the capital budget so I don't want to put you on the spot but there will be a list of Roads as part of that process that will be announced to the public uh and can be reved and I want to say you know DPW and under Al's guidance has has done a great job maintaining roads over the last number of years uh back in 2010 another thing we had gone a couple of a couple of Cycles I believe where no roads were Mill or paved uh because of budgetary uh constraints and it took several years you know if you fall behind by two or three years just to get three roads on in addition to the the regular schedule but we've been on regular schedule for some time and again please if you have a pothole I don't think Al you spend every waking minute driving around town looking for these potholes if you find a pothole please the website is very easy to use report that pothole I've done it myself and the DPW Crews have been out there uh quickly and they address the situation don't go to Facebook to complain about it please uh doesn't help as far as the budget is concerned we are in process uh I want to remind everybody when uh our CFO and our administrator announced that at that stage we were looking at a 5.6 whatever it was 5.6% uh budget increase the comment I made is we have work to do and we have done work behind the scenes as we do every budget season and uh I'm confident that what I said then I will repeat tonight the budget uh will come in under 2% what it comes in under and Randy's probably given me the the the side eye well how am I going to do that well we're going to do it that's what we're going to do we're going to come in under 2% again and uh we will not use uh my least favorite uh words uh a penny from the cap bank it's misleadingly uh titled so the cap bank is off the table and I'm committing uh to the residents of this town the budget increase will come in under 2% motion J okay well no any other member of the public anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment please raise your hand now I don't see anyone May Matt what did you just say mo J Brandon oh I sorry you say that all in favor all in favor all all right Scott always yells at me for not using this meeting adjourned e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for