what's what yeah from the high school okay I just we already did the motion is I did the motion to come yep give them a minute to get seated cuz the high school's still coming in right environmental school high school environmental CL all right get this started we start with an open Board of Health meeting Susan we'll start with the open Board of Health meeting oh thank you uh so the open Board of Health meeting for this month we had uh one animal abandoned that has unfortunately that dog was left in an apartment tenant left vacated and uh so that was it everything else were just outstanding issues there was a sanitary condition issue there was a mold issue standing water and a miscellaneous issue which uh wasn't for odor but everything was mitigated so that's the end of the Board of Health Report awesome and the public portion is for the open is for the board Heth is for this yep it's for the board this is the public portion of the Board of Health meeting uh if anyone has something in reference to the Board of Health discussion we just report she just gave you sir all right seeing none motion to close move second comments all in favor I um motion to adjourn for to health meeting second all in favor I all right now we're going to have a presentation the Maple Shade High School environmental science class is going to bring up their unless project to problem hello um we're the map shade um unless um Club from the map shade high school and today we're going to tell you a little bit about our project and some of our ideas for this year's project so our project we've been um an active participant in the um contest for a few years now we have won or placed in the competition from 2018 to 2023 um every year we are given a few focused animals that are endangered and we choose one um for the center of our project to help reduce the endangerment of and then all efforts are made for keeping sustainability and eego Consciousness in mind all right so our Focus animal is the Indian white eye uh it is a hyperactive little yellow bird known for the yellow rings around its eyes it is native to Mainland Asia and is under the status of critically endangered and vulnerable the Indian white eyes are facing threats such as habitat loss as well as illegal pet trate to keep to help these little birds and other pollinators that face the same challenges we have focused on a few sustainable projects in our community these projects will help create Awareness on endangered species as well as providing Sustainable Solutions to environmental issues the next few slides will show you some of the ongoing aspects to our project as well as the plans for this year so one of the things that we do every single year is we do fundraisers so every year we design our own shirt and um sweatshirts to raise funds for our program we have done bake sales in the past and we're also planning on designing some stickers this year um we plan on building nesting boxes and selling them to our community and all profits goes to our upkeep of the greenhouse and our project components and something that we started last year was our greenhouse and we built one at our school and we have since planted a a variety of plants in it uh We've grown lettuce and origa to donate to our cafeteria and we also purchase some rain barrel barrels to collect the water ourselves um which we use to water the plants we also have uh vertical grow Towers in the school as well as an outdoor garden and all the products we uh maintain are used in some way for our community and we are the students to actually run and maintain our Greenhouse so uh this year we are enlisting help from the community to build benches out of donated wood pallets um and these are going to be a combined effort to provide uh sustainable reuse seating for the school and the community as well one of our other ideas that um we were thinking about was creating pollinator corridors so these would be placed around the community and it would include various um plants that help various pollinators or maybe like some flowers some um just bushes and whatnot but they will be around to help the endangered species that don't have a lot of um plants or anything around that they can feed off of or take a little bit of a rest on um throughout their Journey so that's one of the big ideas that we wanted to present to you guys tonight we're also planning on selling bird houses for people to purchase to give birds and bats in the area a place to stop and eat while they rest they are some of the pollinators that we want to help for this project so for our project we have gotten numerous um different types of Outreach so one of ours is the Billboards and we have designed and displayed a billboard for our project for The Last 5 Years in this project and they have been displayed over major roadways in New Jersey and Pennsylvania um we've also reached we've also received shout outs we have C we've reached out to celebrities radio stations news stations and many social media accounts and we have gotten shout outs on our football games um by Preston and Steve from wmr in the morning and on our um School news the Wildcat news and we also have made commercials for the Wildcat news slideshows for lunch and learns and have been to different events including this one to talk about our project if you have any questions or thoughts or ideas about our project we are open to hearing about it hi just have one question if I may sure um the focus animal the Indian white eye that's just something that the organization is sponsoring and then how do you help with that um so the Philadelphia Zoo chooses a variety of focus animals that are either critically endangered or just starting out to be endangered um so the Indian White eyye is one of the animals on that list so we chose that animal this year to be the Center focus animal for our project so that's what our um service projects and all of our fundraising is going towards Bird that's what I thought but I wanted to make sure thank you of course all right are you going to be applying to the kopia zoo project I mean I know in past years you've won several times yes we going to do again this year yes so to participate in the um project you have to apply to do it um so we are already in the running for it um our first trip to the zoo to talk about it with the zoo staff is um the 29th of February usually what happens is we draft a report of everything that we've done in the past year and some things that we plan to do and we send it to the zoo and that's how they pick the finalist and then that's fantastic with regard to the building of the benches is that something that you are going to do are you going to reach out to the community to see if they'd like to help because I know you always see them out for the trash yes so we put post or Flyers up around our school asking to for donations of wood pallets and we will be building the benches but we also would highly appreciate donations from the community as well and we're going to reach out to like home and um Lowe's and Home Depot because we know a lot of their products come in like the pallets and they throw it out into the recycling so we're going to out to them they can donate anything to us and then we are going to hand make them ourselves and possibly paint um like little murals on them for the and hopefully place them around so if you have any um flyers or anything that you want to do to get those pallets send them to us and we'll make sure they can get into our newsletter we'll put it up on our LED screen and then at least we'll give a contact information do you have any idea how many pallets you're looking for be careful what you and the bird houses and bat houses how will they be available to purchase yes so we're going to make those out of the wood pallets as well so we're going to deconstruct the wood pallets and we're going to build those individually ourselves we have um blueprints that we're looking into to see what kind of scale we want to do but we're going to U make those ourselves and we're going to sell them as like a fundraiser to people around they I think I saw our director of business and economic development here Jen she's somewhere in here she's putting together some sort of like a like a maker Mark kind of thing where we're looking for all of um new uh just basically homemade items and crafted items so that would again that helped the environment so that would be definitely something I know I called her Al but are you ready to get pallets now or where would they be delivered I know to the school andain for us and then help us with the breakdown and construction do do they have a forklift over there I think Mr winter that's great anyone else I have a feeling you're going to have some pallets well thank you very much for coming here this evening explain [Applause] than all right ordinances introductions and first readings ordinance number 20 24-1 an ordinance establishing salaries and wages of certain officers and employees at attwn of Maple Shade County of brington state of New Jersey eff of January 1 2024 all right so I'm GNA need a motion for introduction on that so move okay I can repeat that for you ordinance number 20 24-1 an ordinance establishing salaries and wag of certain officers and employees of the township of Maple Shade County of Burlington state of New Jersey effective January 1 2024 motion for introduction so moved second any comments roll call please Darry Mr Coffman yes Miss NES yes Mrs vby yes Mr whis approved mayor SMI approved publication date will be February 15 2024 public hearing is March 14 2024 uh this is the public portion for the consent agenda if anyone has anything in reference to the consent agenda they'd like to ask please step forward right seeing none oh oh sorry Barbara rthb 200 East M Road um I would like for explanation on 2024 R40 and 24 are 41 absolutely like me if you want yeah I'm just going to look at but if you got it that's 20 24- R40 is authorizing the transfer of property no longer needed for public use to the Westampton Township Police Department the police department our Police Department had some magnets that went for their body cams uh their body worn cameras that were no longer needed so under the law we're able to transfer it to another municip IP ality so they came and that's we still have to do it by resolution so it's Sur property yeah we have to say proper no it was body camera magnets and then 4041 or 2024 d-41 authorizing the opt in an examination exemption to Civil Service hiring procedures I'm C certainly youve heard several times that we're everybody is having difficulty finding police officers so civil service has created a new rule where you can do an up into this program um and it's a 9mon program we can actually go beyond the Civil Service list and we can find people that want to be police officers and they don't have to go through the whole testing process and and whatnot we can kind of usurp that process and then um put them through still put them through training and whatnot they just don't have to sit for that test and is it just for police officers just for police officers okay I appreciate that thank who were the officers and uh employees getting a raise there get your name and address I'm sorry Michael Stevens 47 Cherry Avenue Maple state New Jersey 08052 thank you Sor man' basically it's all accordance to contracts correct into contracts right I mean the list like we can get you the list it's pretty uh yeah the it's pretty in depth if You' like the ordinance will be posted tomorrow are the yard people getting I'm sorry are the yard people getting rais the yard people are still in negotiations we've been negotiating their contracts since August so hopefully we'll have an agreement sometime very soon soon I'm waiting to hear from them but yes all right I don't know this a form I made a mistake the last meeting what I was at I said that um front and maple was bad I meant to say and I'm old I'm AO so I meant to say from styles to Fort Landing so that road is under our NJ do grant that Grant's already done and we did go out and look at that intersection they F some fill some stuff but that is part of the NJ do Grant and that should be done this year sometime J Lucas 39 Orchard Avenue I just want to know the temporary Appropriations the r45 authorizing the emergency temporary Appropriations every year we have to adopt a temporary budget at reward when we see that that's basically what it is so as we start going through a little bit into the year there's some things that we move around never heard the terminology before or maybe I did and I'm just out know where she is anyone else all right seeing none motion to approve the consent agenda so didn't list them yet I'm sorry you didn't list them yet did you want to go good you stuff getting all technical on me I apologize let me read the resolutions I I'm sorry for the he was closing the public portion you were closing the public portion that correct a second there you go all right um please something suar 132 South Maple Avenue Maple Shade New Jersey 08052 um let me find it for a second my eyes aren't as good as it used to be authorizing police off duty employment rate what does that mean so we have an off-duty employment rate that basically it's what the officers and what we charge for someone that is for a contractor that comes into town and needs our off duty there's a rate that we have to make sure that we cover the salaries of the emplo of our Police Department so what this is doing is just basically it's accounting for that additional a little bit additional money that the contractors will need to pay so that we make sure that we get enough from the contractors in order to pay the off duty rate like when they're out the highway when they do a road job we need to have it by resolution so that we can actually charge those contractors that because the contractor pays for the use of the vehicle pays for the officer pays for all that all right all right anyone else all right send agenda resolution number I do apolog I thought we did that I'm sorry motion to close the public portion all in favor I now you're good all right let's try this for the third time consent agenna resolution number 2024 r-38 authorizing the use of Municipal lot gazebo Park and temporary street closure for the 2024 food truck festival hosted by m Maple Shade excuse me main straight Maple Shade Incorporated resolution 2024 - r-39 authorizing the approval of annual fireworks display on June 29th 2024 with a rain date of June 30th resolution 2024 d-40 authorizing the transfer of property no longer needed for the public use to the West Hampton Township Police Department resolution 2024 d-41 authorizing the opin examination exemption to Civil Service hiring procedures resolution 20 24- r- 42 authorizing the repairs to the water treatment plant number two plate collector and award contract to Booth mechanical resolution 2024 d-43 authorizing police off-duty employment rate resolution 2024 44 authorizing police off-duty employment rate for Township and School District sponsored events resolution 2024 d-45 authorized emergency temporary Appropriations can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move check it any comments all in favor hi I'm sorry I need a roll that sorry Mr cofman yes M no yes Mrs VY yes Mr wh approved mayor done medical lead yet approved we should play that back please don't all right all right approval of expenditure list thank you current fund bill is 2,926 24746 Utility Fund bill is $399,700 capital fund bill is $4,284 76 utility Capital Bill list $16,493 trust fund bill is $7,750 45 and our grant fund Bill list is $ 1,959 53 I have reviewed the above Bill list as submitted and recommend payment when funds are available thank you motion to approve second any comments who said it first roll call please Mr Coffman yes M NES yes Mrs VY yes Mr whis approved mayor Schmidt approved uh this is the public portion members wishing to speak to uh councel please come up now see okay here we go my name is raakesh but I'm from 16 isain Street New jerse 8 I have just can you just move just a little closer to the to the mic please they can't hear you um I'm sorry I'm first time speaking that's okay and my this is poor I have a small problem is parking and especially Friday Saturday Sunday it's a parking lot is packed and my business is open longer hours and customer come 5 minutes trly in and out okay and that's the your the liquor store right yeah and I already talk manager and I have few people here their know also and so if you I explain her how if they if they make some things and if they need to explain more I can much happy to talk with her again yeah it is I did have the opportunity to speak with Rocky this please uh note these things we depend on a paring I need only five minutes baring okay it's part of my new business tonight too I as I promised I was going to bring it up to you all this evening too so we will have a little bit further discussion but um what Rocky was suggesting and and some of his issues with the parking there um is that you know people are parking on Main Street in front of the buildings and like his business primarily is you know someone runs in 10 15 minutes and there's no parking so he said it's now it's affecting his business and there are other I know that our business and economic de development director had a call today from somebody um so it is becoming an issue up there and I think that Rocky had some good some good suggestions it's something that Council were going to need to discuss also two like people work like hours and hours sure okay all right thank you for your time tonight and look said we'll discuss that in new business thank thank you anyone else de end on C give me your name 378 Cutler Avenue 08052 first name Ed Ed yes see a while ago the street was done on the dead end you know where I live yeah but well it wasn't graded property I came up here and I was directed to go to the township building I went to the township building and nothing happened now the water it just sits in front of my house it's like there's a high point on both sides and I'd like for somebody to be able to do something about that they got to be great better I mean any professional that goes down there it's going to look there and say not not great it problem where the W lies in front of my house what was your address again would address what's your house number is 378 378 I will get a hold of our engineer and I'll ask him to come out and look at it thank you y um and to prove that it's not graded properly I have a s pump that goes from the yard to the street they buried it so we just came back from a trip and thank God I saw it because it would the water would go nowhere and it would blow the Sun but I got it I to cut my own curb oh they they actually your C hole into the pipe so there was like so can release I don't mean you said you just came back from your trip and noticed that it was buried or they just buried it because that road was done wasn't that road done I didn't notice it at all till we got back and I'm like like where's the discharge there's no discharge cuz that road was done over a year ago you were in a half ago right yeah but I I start this I just wanted to make sure there it wasn't something like if PSG was out there something we wer notified so okay no problem yep I will have um I'll have our engineer go out and take yep thank you ad anyone else I seeing none make a motion to close second all in favor I stay from professional comments start to my right just because just because because I again well I just uh Valentine's week is coming up this week and uh I know we all support our local businesses so I'm sure they would all appreciate it if you went out and took your loved one to maybe dinner stop up in zigfield or Bakery chocolate place any any place out up there that you can support because they would really appreciate it and we like to keep our business local so just just to reach out so everyone have a happy Valentine's Day okay thank you I have thank you nice Chuck I'll go to you sir okay thank you man just one quick thing um if anybody will take notice that the uh flag pole at the veterans uh um memorial memorial there felt excuse me fell in main is brand new uh it was done because the FL pole that was there uh was a bit of a of a a danger so we've installed a new flag pole there and with the help of Maple Shade rotary U some funds towards that so we get a chance to go out and see the new flag bow up there that's all May thank you sir Deputy Mayor W sure Monday evening January 22nd the maple shet Police Department had an open house inviting those interested to be coming to Maple Shay police officer to come out meet and hear from current officers about the process process I don't know how they did with securing those that came out but I understand it was a good turnout it was a good turn out um we're running a second event uh information's being posted on that um by uh Community Affairs officer corpal we and uh then we'll be scheduling up a fitness exam for the people who came to session one and session two and we'll use that kind of as the entry point into the system and what Sue was asking about this is part of you know where we're going with that type of program nice good nice to know it was a nice turnout um on January 23rd there was a meeting um our Police Department was awarded an accreditation C certification by Harry Delgado on behalf of the njsop accreditation commission if anybody wants to know what that stands for the chief is right here uh because I don't followed by that uh the chief Fletcher offered a department uh overview explaining the importance of the oath that officers take followed by administering that as the office for seven uh yeah followed by administering seven officers and six promotions um for a new officer Zack Shepard the chief ended with talking on the future of the police department then there were closing marks by council members January 31st uh Dave KS the DPW director retired congratulations to Pat Lions he has stepped into the position and we wish him well and the best of luck February 24 mayor Smith represented I say that right not February 24th February 4th yeah that's good February 20 February 2nd mayor Smith represented Maple Shade at the Weston and Mount Laurel at the regional economic perspective for Burlington County and also attend in attendance where Mount Laurel Del Ran Marlton and Willingboro and uh our mayor did an outstanding job um reminder of Valentine's Day if you don't want to get in trouble and Super Bowl is this weekend so whoever you're hoping for I hope they get it that's all I have there thank you sir um I'm going to did a couple things um congratulations to our Police Department on the accreditation I know that was hu excuse me that was huge um again congratulations to Dave KS on his retirement Pat Lions on his new position um and of course uh to double what Sandy said uh by local happy valentine State everybody all right old business than so I just have a couple things uh most of it was discussed already but uh one that I wanted to bring up was the gun range if you remember we were receiving several complaints um I did reach out to the members of the gun range specifically to the president um walkthrough was done and we are working together to figure out a way of how we can reduce some of that sound so they were very receptive um I know it's not going fast enough for those that are hearing the noise I think a lot has to do with the fact that you know when they did the cck and everything they cleared that out they cleared out a lot of the brush so that made it that there wasn't as much of a natural sound barrier plus then to say that we're also in the Deb of winter so all those leaves don't have you know their normal growth on it um but the gun range has been very receptive uh they're willing they want to come up with something again that gun range has been here for long before all of us they've been here forever um but we do understand you know the need to be good neighbors as as they do as well and and do something about the sound I know a couple weekends ago even people in the center of town were saying how they could hear it so that's what I heard so uh yeah but again they are working on something yeah you do hear it and it's again I know it's not going fast enough for those that are complaining I don't want to say being complainers but they're complaining about it or hearing the noise uh but we are working on it and the gun range has been has been willing to yeah the club has been willing to work with us um the other thing too was a couple months ago we had discussed about the site plan review Advisory Board um and about possibly with fees to applicants um our new we have a new engineer that's in and you know our engineer comes on a regular basis to to review and it's important that they're there it is an informal review um but the question has come up again about who pays for those professionals from the people that are coming before the board um and it's something that I think Council should look at perhaps for maybe the um the commercial applicants that we have not our residents not our you know homes and whatnot uh but the the the commercial applicants that maybe they should pay some sort of flat rate for professionals if they if they choose to come in remember they don't have to come in um but some of the reviews that are being done are very lengthy before they even get there so um you know if Eileen if you would help me kind of look up some of the I've tried to look up the laws to see if we can even do that um but if they're willing to come and there's some just a nominal fee that we can cover some of it that shouldn't fall on the backs of all of the taxpayers for for some of them so um those were uh oh yeah that was it cu the other one was the flag pole but you got that that's all thanks awesome thank you very much Chief Fletcher you're up thank you mayor uh 2023 the map shave Police Department finished the year with 2,913 calls for service um that's approximately about 18 to 19900 less than we did the year before uh 2022 we did 26882 calls for service uh part of that is because of the service Partnerships that we've established um so kind of speak a little bit about that and then break it down some more but our Partnerships with Volunteers of America uh straight to treatment and operation helping hand our partnership with the Maple Shade Food Bank our grab and go food box in the lobby uh our work with Legacy treatment services and our partnership with the prosecutor's office on arrive and the work of our part-time officer Joe Shaw who spefic specifically does some Motel enforcement uh and also our community fairs officer Misty Weiss and some of the uh stop Gap measures that she's been able to put in place and I think that's helped uh obviously we still handle a lot of serious stuff in the calls that we're handling but some of the things that we're able to filter out has been helpful in order to address some of those things uh to kind of expand on this a little bit we were down to one employee with the Volunteers of America they've since hired a second person uh Morgan started with us uh a few weeks ago she's kind of fitting in really nice with Jamie who's our existing VA team member and they've done a great job of dis directing resources and navigating people where they need to be um they also reached out to me they're going to be going before the school board do a presentation with NEC Mech which is the national Center for missioning and exploiting children um and they're going to be doing a presentation on human trafficking with uh our youth and they're looking to partner with the school district to provide some specialized training to the staff there on how to recognize it and what to do if they see it um in addition and just talking about Joe a little bit more in his work out in the hotel motel District when Joe started with us we were almost 700 calls for service in the second half of 20120 during co uh if you remember like you weren't supposed to be traveling around and doing this and doing that well people were doing that full fully and freely out in the motel District that's for sure so because of Joe's work his work with the owners of the hotels and obviously some of the folks have' been patronizing those businesses the call volumes Dro down over 50% out there fantastic so he's got that down to about 309 calls for service for the second half of 2023 which is good uh so Joe just stays engaged with the hotel owners and obviously he's working with the township manager and our solicitor to address some things in the ordinance we make changes as we need to but I think that's been a good partnership with Joe bringing him on board to address that uh in 2023 uh the police department deployed Nar cam 43 times uh and a lot of that has been along the highway and the transi areas in town um obviously with the deployment at Aran we're bringing people back uh essentially from a fentanyl overdose in most cases uh part of the program that the state had pushed out was the lead behind program so now if we go and we deploy Narcan we're leaving a dose of Narcan behind if we bring somebody back back and they refuse to go to the hospital we will offer to leave a dose of Naran with them um that Naran is only going to last for so long so it is possible to relapse under fentanyl depending on the strength that you have so we encourage everybody to go but we can't force them to go under current laws um if they do go to the emergency room then generally we won't leave one behind unless there's family members there that we're engaging with then we will um as part of that if we know we're deploying Naran one of the things that we have our straight to treatment resource person doing is when they come in Monday nights to work with us is do followup with those folks and reach back out to them and their family members to find out is there anything that we can do to help the situation and the circumstances to get somebody into treatment so that's been a good initiative and in expansion of that we've also continued our partnership with the prosecutor's office on the gap program which is our outreach program that we're doing out in these areas uh where we're going out and we might be at the WWA at 73 and waver ly interacting with folks coming in and out offering treatment resources some people they don't have a lot of food we'll provide them food we'll provide them um sanitary kits uh the clean up uh themselves and uh the vaa is helpful in providing us with a lot of those resources as well so it's a good partnership and we're out here doing a lot and I think that's helped kind of reduce some of the recidivism that we were seeing with some of the folks we were dealing with uh recently I was uh selected and Ed to the position of second vice president for the Bron County Chiefs Association uh we had her installation dinner in January prosecutor Leia Bradshaw was there and swore us all in so I'm looking forward to working with the executive board and working with her office to build a stronger relationship with the Chiefs and the prosecutor of BR County and lastly uh in our partnership with uh the PD and PBA local 267 our beards for the year program was once again a huge success we brought in almost $10,000 from that fundraiser wow um so we put $5,700 in the account that we use here to do giveaway items for the children in the community uh we're going to pull 2,000 aside for the food bank when we do our food drive uh in the fall and then we'll make another donation to them and then we're also going to do a $1,000 donation to Toys for Tots uh because I know Gina was hurting this year for for toys and for funding so we're going to continue to support uh that and then the remaining money we have left over we're going to utilize that uh partnership with the PBA to fund things like we did with pizza patrols at a lunchtime up at crust and fire where we had a lot of senior citizens stop up and some kids and provide a free lunch but just a chance to get together with the community and talk with them and that's my report awesome thank you sir you're doing a damn good job thank you Mike did we have site plan now we did we had a uh pretty extensive site plan um the PS was in they bought the property where um Roy Rogers was and they want to expand their towers um he said they're getting a little short for Maple Shade with regard to power outages uh the Pres presentation they made was to come out within 50 foot of Route 73 he louder sure thank I didn't notice that um psng wants to expand their power system uh at the Roy Rogers property where they purchased a while back and they want to bring their H beams out within 50t of Route 73 which will bring them out further than any of the existing buildings or businesses that are on 73 and um we told them that they needed to go back and try to redesign because that it would just be a eyesore with people coming north or south on 73 to see that so uh they understood and they said they would be back in a month or so um residential property on West Park Avenue wants to put a little addition on in the front of her house um she's going to go into Zoning for that uh it certainly looked like it was appropriate 301 East Main Street um is on the corner of Fellowship Road and Main Street uh new it just sold and a new person bought it and wants to put an additional uh partment in um the the presentation by the attorney was not real good so we gave him some uh requirements to come back with for the next month um there's there's literally no parking for that property uh it's yellow curb uh on Main Street and it's yellow curb on Fellowship Road because you have steinhauer school there so the only parking they have is off street or in the garage uh which they have parking for three cars and with the tenants and The Business uh they need parking for six cars so um we're going to try to be creative with them but I I don't know what they're coming back with 29 Willow Road is Flanigan's towing center um they bought some properties that were uh residential and they're converting them to um business properties and we're just asking for some Shrubbery and some beautification uh because all they have have his trucks and cars parked there and they've got just about everything paved uh so they said they would do that and they'd be back 2910 Route 73 which is Deerfield Associates Fox Meadow they're putting in new um areas to put multiple dumpsters because they've had a trash problem uh every time you go by there they have a container there but there's more crash trash on the ground than there is in the container so they're going to do uh multiple three and four container setups uh which is taking some parking away so they're coming back with a parking count uh as to what they're losing and what they might gain uh they said they really they've done uh Night videos and there are numerous parking places available and they propose that it is for those people that work nighttime so there are parking spaces available uh we just asked them to prove that they said they'd be back with that uh 105 West Main Street was the Old Baron building and they did not come they said they would be back next month that's it awesome thank you sir next site plan is uh March 5th per thank you all right next on our list is our Canabis ordinance um I at this point in the game it's going to come down to we're going to do we're going to do the whole councel we're going to do a small group what was our consensus that's what we're here to discuss tonight so as you know everybody do want to move forward where we originally opted out of the Cannabis ordinance because we weren't quite sure of what the rules and regulations were all going to be how those ordinances were going to have to be placed now that we have clear Direction and we've brought um Mr mandelo who basically is the guru on cannabis and state of New Jersey on board with us um we need to talk to council needs to decide what type where how um there's going to be things that we need to talk with the police department over about security again you know if you recall Mr mandelo had said with those ordinances Council can desde you have complete control over that ordinance correct um you decide what wants to what you want to be or and what you want it to be for our community um you know mayor you were there uh the other day at the uh at the burington county meeting and there were six towns there and Maple Shade was the only one that didn't offer it exactly um they all had highly uh High remarks of how these how these companies have come in and what they've done um I there actually has a drive-thru dispensary right right um you know they just they also discussed about um you know just where where the market is going on it basically is what it is so um Maple stade still has a lot of interest I can tell you that once a week I at least I get a new call about it somebody wants to come in um they're patient they know but we definitely need to put together so that's what tonight is about you all need to decide what where you were looking at I know that we had discussed that you know it's not going on Main Street it's not going in a residential district we're looking more at a route 73 38 um you know possibly even Old Kings Highway if they can find something um and then I you know there was also somebody had approached me about possibility of a cultivating business do we have any warehouse space we do have a warehouse that's available um so that is something that's there but you all need to decide what it is that you want what you're comfortable with so that we can go back to the um to Ron mandelo who's going to design the ordinance and draft an ordinance and you know this way I can speak with the police chief and and his team as well because I know that there's security issues um but those are things we have to get the ball rolling we can't just continue to have Ron come in and say what you want to do right yeah I I believe what do you all want to do I think a retail would be the most effective because it's difficult we don't have the warehouse base or the room uh and also uh probably the delivery services from other towns that are offered so that's a possibility so delivery right now from another town coming in we can't deny that at all but we can have a delivery business we can have a delivery business that's what I'm saying so you know that's another means but uh yeah the the retail and and if we can do something cation yeah I mean that that one there's only one Warehouse in town that will work they they'll grow up instead of out so what's that they'll grow up in the within the building instead of out you know oh I get it yeah so right now we have retail delivery um like I said there Warehouse industrial warehouse space is limited here in Maple Shade but if there was um you know are you against some sort of cultivation or and talk talking to the other towns um that that is really the um the tax break for the residents that's really the money makers the cultivation so if that was a plausible option for us I think we should definitely look in if we have a place to put it yeah if you're allil and then there's a place that we'll come correct worst case we we'll allow and then if that building is not available then it just it's not have be Nam and it would be well you wouldn't grow it outside anyway no it's it's got no it's got to be inside it's got to be 40,000 square ft it's got there's a lot of stipulation Stu grower processor wholesaler distributor retailer or delivery service are the are the category so right now we have retail delivery cultivator is the is is the grower so um I would think those three would be our Market okay and obviously I'd want to have a conversation with you and see get some opinions from you and and of course I can see I can see this he's not gonna want it but it's the security they need to have very good security so I know the New Jersey municipal Managers Association did a survey amongst their managers and asked all the towns that currently have it and what has been the um what's been the take what's been their take from it and they have also Revenue was obviously number one like Revenue has been generated greatly um so the question was back okay you're bringing in this money but what are you doing with uh like what's security and they have and I can you with those two I mean the security has they've been very detailed about what they want in their security what they need to make sure they said anybody that has come in retail wise um the security was already part of their plan so it wasn't anything and only one town had an issue and it was because the representative of the the company was just he kind of skirted through the through the process and they didn't do a full vetting of him and that's where they wound up having the trouble so those things will have to be in two you know how does this how does this grow or this this applicant get vetted um as you know this is not a one Monon process this is a long process I mean here alone it would be on our side it would be an 8 to 10 month process but for them to get licenses it's anywhere from a year to two years um so unless you know unless somebody already has a license in hand which they won't because Maple Shade has already opted out they don't have a license to be able to come here you're still looking at a two-year process for for what we're going to do here um you're in agreement with Route 73 and Route 38 obviously you don't want it anywhere near we don't want it anywhere near a residence right um so that will be you know are we talking 50 ft are we talking 100t at least from a resident you know you again and one of our biggest um I guess I'll say an issue is most of our commercial backs right up against Residential if you look on 38 there's you know the retail store and there's apartments or there's homes directly behind it so so we're definitely going to have a little bit of a you know something to really take into consideration have to look the industry standard also right you know to see what which I don't believe other townships is I don't think there's a an industry standard I mean we spent a I've spent a lot of time on this with down at the league and all that and I didn't hear of anyone saying hey you know States tless it has to be whatever a foot a mile whatever there was none of that so it's really a matter looking around and seeing who's doing what right what what what works what building if we have you know building X that they want to do and it's 3T from somebody house obviously it's problem so so so that's all the stuff we're definitely going to have to look into um be I think you know so the residents understand um most of the other mayors that I've spoken to and the other towns that I've spoken to um you know they're they're paying three or four sometimes five um big salaries with that you know high-end police uh some of the upper echelon uh payments to the police with it uh they're bringing in three four $500,000 a year um from from these uh businesses right to your taxes so it really helps keep our you know our numbers in line try to keep our taxes down is what we're going to try for so so speaking about taxes obviously the max that you can go to is 2% on Gross receipt sales I'm assuming that's where we want to be we want to be at a 2% absolutely yes everyone else is absolutely yeah and I think we should have probably thought we have to decide how many licenses because you have three different uh I was thinking three because I don't think we have five locations well you have three different uh options of well no I'm talking retail I'm thinking three retail well I mean in total I mean total you have I think you have still have to break it down you have to save three retail one cultivation one right but five all together I'm saying that way it gives them some leeway and there there's a lot of money that goes out there and you know some people don't finish the process because they run out of money before they get to that point sure so that's why I'm afraid if we don't give enough uh applications are what's the word I'm looking for licenses licenses then uh then we may lose on that so how many retail are you comfortable with three M I was going to say my number was three yeah three but I mean one cultivator and possibly one delivery so that way it spreads it out a little bit Yeah the retail and the delivery are two different licenses two different LIC okay just want make sure all right yeah we've done a lot of reading on this through the years and that's why we opted out in the beginning yeah we didn't know what what we would be stuck with have any didn't have any Guin so I will get with um Mr mandelo and I will ask him to at least put a draft together something that we can look at um so that you have it in front of you and then we'll go from there I'll get police chief and his team um you know get their input and then we'll present you with something in the next next couple weeks Susan if it's possible can you give us some some numbers in terms of what we might gross what we might so that from that yeah so that was part of his presentation too any let me just go back to I just had that page open sorry let me just um so you're looking at a retail um which is typically you know 1,500 to 3,000 square ft and those retail establishments are bringing in anywhere from $180,000 to $240,000 a year cultivation or the growing uh there is about there and it takes about 16 to 25 months for them to do anything there again is anywhere but their gross in RV seats would be anywhere from like $250 to $350,000 a year um that's huge those are big numbers for for a municipality like us of course you know you go into manufacturing and they blow those numbers you're up in the millions there but you know at those and and that's per that's per site so you know 180 to you know 240 for a retail site you get if you wind up with two it's not bad I mean so what do a delivery what's a delivery revenue is that a delivery Revenue would be considered they have to have a separate license but it would be a retail okay and to give you an idea I found some some information um through one of the websites that I use for this um total cannabis sales in the third quarter of 2023 in the state of New Jersey were 206 157 695 so $26 million so it it is Absol quter in the third quarter that is the third quarter of 23 correct um so so it's huge if we can make some money and and try to to keep our uh our taxes reasonable I think that's an awesome thought okay I'll work on that all right um new business we do have some new business to go over um the first one we'll we'll talk a little bit it'll go into two it is about parking of course you know Rocky had come up and discussed about the parking on Main Street what his concerns were uh specifically for businesses such as his that where the customer is just running in getting something and then and then running out so you're looking maybe a total of 15 minutes um you know the problem is is that people are parking in front of these storefronts you have your upstairs apartment complexes that are parking there all night um so they're there hours and hours and I know the chief and I have talked about parking up there and we were coming up with different designs you know we wanted to see if we could put lines on the street to kind of alleviate some of the issues but this is more about a timeliness and and times you know a time issue um some of the things that we had discussed with rock were that you know maybe we put somewhere in front of those retail stores that there's a limit a 15-minute parking and we we have signs on Main Street um that say 2hour limit parking but maybe we need to put again we need to really look at the the parking situation and where the parking is in front of the stores and what is being done so my suggestion would be is let's reach out to our planner um and let's talk with them and see hey like this is what we have what are your suggestions what are you seeing in other towns um and how are these towns dealing with it and we've talked for years about um about not wanting to do any sort of meter parking um you know but as we grow and as Main Street begins to grow and we get new businesses maybe that is something down the road that we do look at uh for there problem is with the meter parking is that there needs to be some sort of enforcement to it um and again until you've built a full Main Street that has shopping and and has that you know that people are going shop to shop to shop it's not something that I'm completely in favor of but that again that would be down the road but I think for now what we need to look at on Main Street is let's get a planner in place let's have them help us designed it there has to be obviously discussions with the county as well um because it is the county roadway but I think that would definitely help our businesses on um on the street of course at the end of the day too we got to discuss parking I mean we need other places then for this long-term parking to to take place uh but then the other thing that I wanted to bring about parking was um we are having problems on lywood and those problems s are related to the recreation areas that we have there um and having just no parking again there and Misty Our Community Affairs officer has been part of um the discussions I met with her the other day we had sat down and and discussed what the issues are when the hockey tournament or when the hockey program has their large tournament there really is no um no parking so what you're being handed here is just one of the maps of um of of of the area what I've done is I've highlighted you have a on yours it's blue it's blue um that's a Township owned parcel there and I'm going to scroll over so you can see it by um by the map up here so this was a drone that the police officers were so kind and they went out and did for me um these are the properties there it's two properties that are on um West Park and they back up to this area and my suggestion is because we own that parcel right there in blue which is just about 2 Acres that perhaps what we can do is create a parking lot out of there uh a gravel lot put a um split rail fence up there it will alleviate some of the on street parking there's been some discussions about maybe making part of the area no parking down closer to the um down to the area here you can see a little and the area that I'm talking about would be right here um it is on a triangle area is what we have I'll send this picture around I've kind of that's two acres or two acres is what that's our parcel that's on Park Avenue no that's on that's un Linwood but the property is there back up right they go almost to the entire area there um so it would be this area right here that is already Township owned again I'm not looking I wouldn't look to put Asphalt in there it would just be more of a of a gravel parking lot um if that's something that you're interested in I can again I can get with the engineers we can sit and we can come up it shouldn't be a huge lift but it will alleviate some of that parking issu look into I've had some phone calls from residents on that street saying you know when they have a tournament or whatever it's just chaos the way they have to exit too correct right so that's that's the other thing too and you know when you come through the hockey rink there you know it is just one way so they come out from they come from Park and turn on there and then they're supposed to come out through Lynwood it doesn't always happen our issues are is that for First Responders getting down when they're parked on all sides there you're not getting you're not getting an ambulance you're not getting a fir truck you're not getting it's difficult for the police cars to come down um so if that is something that you are okay with uh you know perhaps that's what we look at first is that parcel that is owned by the township right there um again it's on a diagonal it's really odd how it's um how it's it's blocked off and how it's cut off there but it is we wouldn't have to acquire any land and again an easy could we have some buffer trees for the resident it would still be we would still yeah we it's not taking out it literally is right here s if you look at the picture right here it literally is like if if you see my I don't know if you can see my arrow my PO so it's on a diagonal there I'm talking about just this portion in the front that's almost right there in the right of way okay um that we're already we're already maintaining anyway um but so it would leave all of these trees for now I will tell you so the they not on our property ah so the right all those trees aren't on our property some of those trees are on that property so I thought that was Township proper it's coming off a park no my son doesn't own that so the diagonal there's a we have we own a triangular if you look at the map that I gave you we own that triangular portion that's about 2.2 Acres right there that would be big enough to put some I see I see it the 2.2 acres does not go directly up you we wouldn't go into their that lot is a weird shape in the back very weird oh I see yeah now ironically the the resident that lives here in this house right here at 428 West Park she saw us poking around and came out and said oh I'll saw in my entire back lot but we don't want the whole back but okay she was always under the assumption that it was all um that it was all Township owned from the trees it's not Township she owns that that they own that one and then the one next door owns um um to the tree line too so again it would just be that par so it's 18.01 D4 um it's about 2.2 Acres um you just make it even and again you know put a gravel lot in why we Square Off The Triangle Well I'd love to but then we have to purchas part of that property right right right so listen that my first one my first diagram that I had has us doing that taking a a square of it is what just making the lot line all the way the same all the way but then you got to subdivide and you know you got to make subdivisions and yep yeah for the immediate fix I mean a very quick easy because it's not like it's an everyday thing not an everyday thing but it would all if resents had parties over there right but but if a resident has a party over there too their guest can sit in there um we know with proper signage that there can't be you know tractor trailer parking and you know overnight parking there unless maybe unless they do it by permit those are things we can discuss but again to help this parking issue here okay um with with the uh with the hockey rank and then just with Lynwood itself it would take those off and then again speaking with the police department and and some of their members it's if we can make one side no parking at all they're going to have no other choice but to park in that parking lot so if you're okay with that I will continue I will move yeah forward get some information okay so that's the parking issue the next is we also had let's let me Mark these off just so I know on next is we have a citizen leadership form that came in uh so that is here let see for the planning those are all those for the planning board is what they're looking for um so I'd ask that you review that form and we can discuss or we can get back we can get back to me and if you are okay then at the next meeting we could appoint to the planning board it is a gentleman that uh here from Maple Shade uh been in here for 55 years was self-employed as a contractor in Maple Shade for many years and has some experience with Planning and Zoning site plan meeting getting approval for various projects so if you would just make sure that you take a look at that and if that is something that you're willing to move forward with we do have a need on planning board um we could do that at our yeah we could do that at our next meeting okay great that's the citizen leadership next issue that came I was actually I probably should have put it under old business but it was something that came back up if you recall several uh several months ago I had brought to council um about lighting at the baseball fields um they have come back and said that they do have a need for as their program grows their games go a little later they're looking for temporary lightings that obviously would just be the temporary standards the generator light standards that it would be um they had gotten a quote for how many they need they would need eight standards and it was about $6,700 um is what they were looking at uh I would definitely I I think that quotes a little high but if council is okay with them doing that we could definitely put some sort of parameters in place as far as how long and how late those lights were lit for this is woodon woodlon and for Fellowship for both um you know it's right now it is a more you know efficient and economical way of doing it than as opposed to putting in the big tall musco lighting um it would give them the need that they have to be able to keep their games going and to keep the season going a little bit later um what would to fall out from the fing Bay so well we would make sure that it has to be directed know that it's directed in the right direction that we're not directing it at you know at Fellowship I don't think it's going to be as much of an issue because right there you're really you're looking at Public Storage you do have some of the homes that are right there but the lights aren't you know we'd make sure that they were directed in such a way that it's giving the ambient light on the field where it needs to be and not directed out at the street and whatnot so are they think that we're going to go up yeah so well the lights would be construction lighting construction that's exactly what it is it's no different than what we've used you know at our National Night Out events and those sorts of things um but if council is okay with that then I will speak with baseball and let them know that you know that we can explore it a little bit more um come up with some sort of agreement you know is that pric for ryal or is so it was for Ren it's $6,700 a month they did go to Sunbelt and I would definitely reach out to say Hey listen like this is a Township this is Township have thinking that maybe they didn't realize that it was how many how many months will it be up uh I think I saw Chuck Mar here how many did you need it the last time we didn't know how many five months five months total five months total yep it would be March to July okay so and then really what it would be is your is your your earlier months and then your later months are where you'd have the longer uses because the light so absolutely so in all you'd probably do it three and a half months is really where part of whether it's June or July tournament the tournament so and if that's something I mean would you be willing to you know if it's going to be a tournament they're going to go a little bit later obviously give us those times that they need to be and then make notification to the residents and so those are things that we can work out we have to be good neighbors they're going to be freaking out well and that's it listen I you know it you don't want them on till 11 12:00 at night but if game is going till 9:30 on you know I person I understand because I've been in so that's why I'm saying that maybe being good neighbors you know being good neighbors would defit the intent is absolutely kind of follow what football's doing right now at Aces during the week the time limit there I think everything's off at 9 or 9:30 9:30 yeah it would you know obviously we don't want to upset the neighbors and then we're just looking to expand one our capability of holding more games more tournaments helps with our budgeting helps so if we did the 9:30 What fields would that be utilized Oni I didn't hear what you said wood field three field and then field so just one field on on H woodl yes just one just one there's two baseball fields there we're just looking for one that would be the old c yeah field with the blue the first one and then fellow the park sure so if we put something in place with a time limit and on those fields and of course if there's a tournament and it needs to go later then we get those approvals as well is Council okay with us at least exploring it yeah because we got to figure out so that $6,000 is for both fields to be eight a month it's a monthly rental $6,700 but again I did you identify yourself as not I uh I had helped been part of this I work for some oh that's right um we actually gave tremendous discount on it okay for other school districts it's almost double that price okay there we go right from sunbell heard heard it firsthand you know I'm sure somebody could go back and hey so now what can you do to make it happen um really the big the big issue is though is councel are you okay with permitting allowing this to happen I got we'll work on some parameters you tell me this is so the end result is who's actually paying for it well that's going to have to be part of the discussion too is how we're going to pay for this and what we're going to do do and if it's going to be all the time and those would be discussions I and I have not had the full discussions with baseball to this is something I know Lauren's been discussing with them um she brought it to me after she got me all the information and I said I would definitely bring it first we had to see if you were open to it that's the first hurle because I would think if it works you're going to want to do it again next year and the year after I'm just concerned about the spillage and again we could have listen we could bring our you know the township engineer out there's they'll look at it and know there there are lightings I mean there's things that for baseball there the field has to to be lit certain ways anyway um but if you're talking 9:30 and the lights are off you know what especially late till 8:30 yeah right it's that's what I'm just I'm just concerned about I the room will be full with uh woodon Avenue then again so maybe I think if we reach out to the residents they can explain the needs maybe they they hold a meeting or something with them we get it and just let them know what it's going to be um but again you know we're talking about you know our youth baseball this isn't something that other communities don't do they all do it um I just think we just need to be good neighbors and I'm sure that they just need to be you know good users of it so as long as you're okay with it then I will continue conversations yes I'm fine as long as we have open communication with everybody there very good and the last thing is our chickens chickens chickens so yep so we've had several requests I'm sure that you've probably seen it on Facebook uh lot of residents want to know what council's thoughts are on allowing chickens um so what we did is we went ahead you're laughing about Jen so so what we did is I thought we settled this we did it's it was brought up again I was asked to bring it up again you can acquire the zoning board that's what we continue right so which is good but again so what we did is we came up with towns that were similar to Maple Shade uh as far as their demographics as far as how their houses are clo how close their houses are and what towns offer what so um again I know that years ago it was shot down but I did say that I would bring it to council again and if you're okay with that then it will go to zoning and it can then because it would have to be going by an ordinance to allow no no no I said when we had this discussion before it was I've never had the discussion previous that it was we did not permit it but if they wanted to they could apply to zoning to get a variance to have chickens so they're looking to allow it that these are just the state these are just straight rules flat out this is what you have now again you can put those things you still get licenses to have them there are regulations for them um that's that's we've done the research so if it's something that council is willing to reconsider can listen and listen then um what we would do is we would put together uh you know some ideas of what we're thinking would work here and then we can present it back to you um but again it's it's about whether you're willing to even look at it there already chickens in town we know that there chickens in towns and you know it's and yeah rabbits so um no I me if everyone's willing to hear it again we'll we'll hear it again okay okay then we will put some things together of what we think may work here in town just to start and then if that's something that's interesting then we can go to zoning and um we do have residents that have told us what they have and are now getting rid of because of course when as soon as they told us and we told them that it was against the code they couldn't have them I don't want to go in front of zoning so we have a pretty good idea of what is being looked for and what is being sought out after um you know it again it's it's changing with the times is really what it is and what and what residents are doing so um but I just wanted to give you something in your hands just to kind of show you what our neighboring communities have and and what they've done and what they've allowed so that's the end of the new business thank you awesome thank you very much um we have no reason to go back into close correct no sir um no one else has any other comments make a motion to adjourn so move second second all in favor next council meeting schedule for February 22nd 2024 it's and