e of close come back to open second second okay all in favor I all right ordinances introduction of first reading ordinance number 202 24-8 an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in the county of Burlington New Jersey repealing ordinance 2023-24 regarding the Township Fire Department can I get a motion for introduction move second any comment roll call please Ty Mr Coffman yes Miss Nunes yes Mrs Wy yes Mr whiz approved mayor Schmid approved publication date on that will be April 3 2024 with a public hearing on April 25 of 2024 ordinance is second reading and public hearing ordinance number 202 24-02 an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in the county of Burlington New Jersey amend excuse me amending chapter 194 of the Township Code excuse me entitled vehicles and traffic at sub chapter 19423 to identify a new turn prohibition this is an open public hearing is there anyone from the audience that would like to speak and reference the ordinance 02 seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion so me second any comments All favor I I uh can I get a motion to adopt ordinance number 02 so move second any comments roll call please Ty Mr Kaufman yes Miss noones yes Mrs Wy yes Mr Weed approve mayor Smith approved ordinance number 202 24- 03 an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade County of Burlington New Jersey to amend the Maple Shade Township Code at chapter 36 police to create new art arle 3 extra Duty Police Services once again this is an open public hearing is there anyone in the audience with something to say in reference to ordinance number 03 hearing none can I get a motion to close the public portion so moved second any comments all in favor I I can I get a motion to adopt ordinance number 20 uh 2024 d03 so me second any comments Terry Roll call again please Mr Kaufman yes Miss NES yes Mrs Wy yes Mr whis approved mayor Schmid approved ordinance number 20 24-4 an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in the county of brington New Jersey amending chapter 95 of the Township Code entitled fire prevention this is an open public hearing does anyone from the audience have anything to say or ask in reference to ordinance number 04 here seeing none can I get a motion to close so made comments all in favor I can I get a motion to adopt so made second any comments Terry roll call please Mr Kaufman yes Miss NES yes Mrs FY yes Mr West approved mement approved two more folks ordinance number 202 24-5 ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in the county of brington New Jersey amending chapter 88 section 6 of the township code entitled fees and escros once again this is a public meeting is there anyone from the public with questions or comments in reference the ordinance 05 seeing none can I get a motion to close so moved second comments all in favor I can I get a motion to adopt so moved second comments Terry roll call please Mr cman yes Miss noon yes Mrs Wy yes Mr West approved approved ordinance number 20246 an ordinance of the township of Maple Shade in the county of brington New Jersey amending the township code to add chapter 126 murals and public art once again this is a public meeting does anyone from the public have anything to ask in reference to ordinance number 06 seeing none can I get a motion to close so M second comments just one I'm not sure if this is where it should be de saw some correspondence with regard to the type of paint is that included in this uh no so that was different the type of paint was for the storm drain murals that's we okay this is the wall okay this is yeah these are the the walls okay um where am I at now all in favor I I'm sorry and then can I get a motion to adopt second comments tyry roll call please Mr caufman yes M no yes Mrs Wy yes Mr whis approved mayor Smith approved this is the public portion of the meeting in reference to the consent agenda items if anyone in the public wishes to speak or address councel in reference to the consent agenda please come forward seeing none can I get a motion to close the public portion so made second all in favor I I I consent agenda resolution 2024 d-67 appointing Sarah kikki as Zoning Board member alternate number four with a term to expire December 31 2025 resolution 202468 authorized Engineering Services to Remington and Vernick for food bank Renovations cdbg funding in an amount not to exceed $23,800 resolution 2024 r69 approving the Maple Shade Youth Football Association to open the beer garden an additional night th ursday April 25th during the annual youth football Carnival resolution 2024 r-7 resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for Professional Services with Donald dockerty Esquire resolution number 2024 d-71 resolution adopting the Maple Shade fire department standard operating procedures 100 through 116 can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moveed comments roll call please T Mr Coffman yes M NES yes Mrs WBY yes Mr whis approved mayor Schmid approved approval of expenditure list Susan thank you current fund Bill list 1 million 262,144 Utility Fund bill is $826,000 Bill list is $ 43,372 and our grant fund Bill list is $1,572 5 I have reviewed the above Bill list as submitted and do recommend payment when funds are available make a motion to approve second second comments roll call please Ty Mr kman yes Miss n yes Mrs WBY yes Mr W approved SMI approved this is the public portion of our public meeting members of the public wishing to speak speak to council may present their comments at this time anyone have anything they'd like to present good morning 274 Westwood so I'm just here to get some information on this what's going on at the end of the block as far as the rescue squad's concerned I spoke with Susan about it already I need to know uh like exactly what is it a plan is it going to be in the works is it one of your options that you're giv the engineer to to is it you know is it Avenue an option Main Street an option what what is what's the story with the end of my street as far as the the fire the rescue old rescue building first item yes correct so as I explained to you currently right now yes our equipment and apparatus is there um however we are still under negotiation and in litigation with the fire department So currently that's where we are the equipment is only you right explain at this point correct at this point so is there is there are are you guys taking any consideration of using it for a fire if need be is it one of your options on the table I mean I think the easiest thing to say on that is I understand might not like it but we' like to know the truth no no it is an option and it's something that's being that has been considered it has been on the table Yeah so with that being said like um how fast would that ball start rolling if say fall apart whatever you guys are working on and what is that your first option your second option is it do you have any other options available as far as storage or another spot to put the trucks we do have other options and again I and I wish that I could give you more and I explain that to you but yeah yeah it is yes we do have other options where does Avenue fall is it option b option C is it at this point it's just an option unfortunately we just we don't have an order for it we just have ours laid out and so we we had a meeting today with the um IFC and with their attorneys okay uh that meeting went extremely well it really was probably the most positive thing that's happened in the last four months okay so um with that being said hopefully your whole concern will not be a concern yeah yeah is all I can say to you okay so and the other thing as we talked about is the parking lot that you guys are proposing to put in across the street from my house correct so Township own property um is that a definite pretty sure you said it definite we are moving forward with that we have to get the survey of the land as as basic as possible sound like right as basic yeah we're not talking about putting maadam we're not talking about you know lights or anything we're talking about putting down some stone and a split rail fence with trees to buffer it just so we have extra trees along lywood and up the neighbor's house towards the parking lot yes so that the buffer so you're not looking into the parking lot and seeing and curb and sidewalk uh I don't know if we're there think not curb and sidewalk where if you're going to do it uh I mean that's part of the problem is when they do Park you know how people are walking down to get to the building because traffic you know becomes a problem Park 20 spots is going to help but it's still going to be a problem for parking down there I can I can guarantee because you're apparently losing spots in the hockey court right there they're proposing to put a hockey Court down there a second hoey it's the second time I've heard that but we have not been approached part of that conversation my other other question is why aren't we exploring other options like we spoke about months ago about relocating fencing down there to open up the parking lot for the hockey court for that building and so we that is all part of it as well we are looking into that as well as part of our so you need additional parking is that the parking meant for the hockey the hockey and the and the well the other that were in there cheting and wrestling yes so you're just doing that no matter what yes you're not looking at any other options as far as creating parking between wood law and behind the building around the building any other right now the only parking that we've been looking at is just in that lot because we own that lot yeah it's easy it's easy to do again it wouldn't be a heavy lift and a heavy cost then we also have been looking at is how we can move fencing in there to create secure the hockey C from bandal which is I I completely agree so do we have any drawings any plans or anything in writing about this spk that's we're just we're in this very beginning stages we have to get the survey done and that's it we just authorize the engineer to be able to go out and get the survey and then once we know it be either through this or you're going to inform the neighbors ahead of time get the information what we will send a letter out to everybody to let you know what we're what we're proposing with the map and the design and everything yeah Susan had asked me to get a survey price together and so forth for the outbounds so we make sure that we're staying on our property and a a top topographic survey so I'll have that information CH next week okay so right now do you have an idea like where you going to have the in and out of it like the like what do you does anybody have an idea so once I get the survey in the base plan then we can sit down and figure out what you what we have available what we can do with the site okay so very very beginning stages it was just to cure an issue that's down there obviously with the par yeah yeah Noe been talking about this for a year I appreciate feedback yeah but you would definitely as I promise you will deaf those your neighbors and you will all get a letter from the municipality explaining okay Mr chobe what's your what's your address 274 West L thank you thanks for your time anyone else have some comments hi hi 248 Westwood I just have a question regarding the fire department again if you do have to put the fire department down end of our street are you going to notify us about that absolutely Street no absolutely and there's a couple different ways out of that building also we're looking into you yeah it's tough having a fire engine come down your street I get it yeah but I mean it was Heavy rescue for a long time I know but they don't go out you know with their fire on well and we we would probably put some restrictions on that there's no need in your neighborhood to at two in the morning to run with no I I we understand but yeah guys make decision you're going to let us know absolutely rumors here that's why we appreciate you coming up and calling I know you know Kevin had reached out as well so we do appreciate that how do you spell your last name I'm sorry how do you spell your last name r a r o h a thank you thank you thanks for your time this evening anyone else in the public with a comment seeing none can I get a motion to close so made second all in favor right um sure I have a some comments I want to make uh they're very specific so I wrote them down so I don't miss anything and it begins as a public servant is our duty to represent all residents of the town and provide the best public safety and services possible for our present and future growth Town Council does not run the town on social media Council meets on the second and fourth Thursday and all are welcome to address their concerns to the council during the open public portion of the meeting like we just did all of us and our manager are available to the residents for questions and concerns and as Mr jacobe just said he has spoke with uh Susan several times so we are available the rest of us are available we have emails we have phone numbers you can leave messages we all get back to you maybe not that particular day unless it's an urgency but we are accessible and if you want to know something social media is not the place to find it the place to find it is from the Mals of one of us uh you can always call or email us if you're unable to make the meetings plus the meetings are carried Live on YouTube Pardon Me YouTube and they're available at any time to watch past meetings it's with great pride that we serve this town with that being said I do want to address a couple things that have been brought to my attention neither I nor any other council members are receiving so-called illegal medical benefits no one on Council is receiving medical benefits from the township number two I have not forced steinhauer school to put up an obscenely obscenely tall fence to prevent kids soccer and footballs from coming into my yard the facts are Stein steinhauer school had a 4-ft fence on their property that ran the side of their parking lot along my property line as well as a couple other properties the 4ot fence that existed was broken in two sections I reported this to the superintendent of school by email in August of last year so it could be addressed before the students returned for the new school year year the kids play ball and the balls get kicked over the fence the students climb or jump over the fence and chase after the ball with the top rail being broken a child could possibly fall and break a wrist a finger an arm or another body part when they jump the fence and land on the asphalt or land on the hard ground this absolutely has nothing to do with a just a balls in my backyard we're very happy just to throw them back over to the students it's about the safety of the children it was the school's decision as to the best remedy of the broken fence it is their fence on their property and I'm just simply the neighbor that people are falsely trying to make a negative story out of let me be perfectly clear on this as many of our residents feel they do not have a voice because of the social media attacks every one of us up here hears you and we're doing our best to bring a resolve to the situation we understand what your concerns are and we're addressing them now I would be remiss remiss if I did not also address this on Facebook Mr Simon SEC recently offered a an answer to the video involving several young men running around on the snow covered roof of the fire department this video was emailed to me in 2021 by a concerned resident now we hear these young firefighters had just gone through the trauma of returning from a fatal fire and acted out afterwards inappropriately so my question is isn't this a perfect example of why it's against state law to have a private bar in a firehouse and allowing drinking including underage members shouldn't these firefighters have been able to get the proper support this answer is also concerning as there is no fatal fires listed on that weekend in Burlington County for me this was never a personal attack on any one person this morning I reviews the reviewed the August 26 21 council meeting where I was asked if Andrew Simon said step aside would this all go away not being given the opportunity to make a statement as the audience started to demand a yes or no answer I answered yes yes because he was the one that was not handling the issues at hand if he stepped aside another person would handle them this matter is not a personal one for me it's about our residents our businesses their Public Safety and address the growing needs of Maple Shade Township that's my statement thank you for listening thank you Deputy Mayor while we're on it Mr caufman do you have anything you'd like to say I just want to say that we've had an awful lot of rain this uh month and a half I guess um and we've had a lot of flooding around please let the uh Township know if there's any extreme flooding I will recommend however that you check to make sure if you have a sum pump that it's not being pumped into the sewer system it's illegal and it also raises our uh sewer and we're at and our engineer can tell you right now we're we're at a limited amount of space in our sewer system and if you keep putting storm water in there uh it will it will cause us to have a problem so if you have a sun pump please make sure it does not go into the sewer system put it into the street and uh hopefully that will take care of our issue that we have there and the other thing I want to say this is a holiday weekend uh please have a good holiday be careful and uh we'll see you all next meeting thank you mayor thank you sir Council uh I also want to add uh Chuck is talking about the water problems Maple Shade is basically when it's been U described to me we're like an island there's streams running around our whole Township pens haen Creek and and and the fact that we've had I guess 3 to four inches come down in 16 hours was just unbelievable uh you know i' I've gotten water also along with members here and I'm sure all of you have had problems that you've never had before possibly uh with the amount of water that came came in but I was uh riding around town and uh I want to make sure that if you see a sewer you know on your block that uh looks like it's not working please let someone know because you know there's a lot happening at that time and when the rain starts it would be nice to find out exactly which short lines are storm drains I'm from North Jersey cor Source uh storm drains are uh not working it would really be helpful it would be helpful to you and to us to make sure that that's gets taken care of uh and hopefully uh it stops raining I know it's April Showers but uh let's hope it's not a deluge so and I just want to say Happy Easter to all it's coming up this weekend so hopefully the kids will have a great time they already had their Easter egg hunts and the rotary breakfast was fantastic so uh just have a happy happy Easter and support our local businesses here everybody has a lot to offer and you don't have to go for so support each other and and we're here thank you got some I'd just like to start off by saying just remember Maple Shade is just full of clay we do not percolate very well so that's also a problem with the water in our basements and uh I know before there's any big heavy storm the road department always goes out and checks these storm drains if they need to be clean they do the best that they can and there are certain areas in town that are lower I know Fellowship Road that that flooded terribly but that's done that and I don't know if it's if there's a need to be the store clean the storm dorm cleaned out or if it's just a problem with the pipe size or something that will hopefully will be addressed when that is repaved um but I know that the road department does work very hard to try and keep that in good working condition um the pancake breakfast Sunday was a big success if you were there you got a chance to see the 109 baskets that you got to win win a chance buy a chance and win and uh we had a lot of winners that won multiple baskets and it caused a lot of confusion with our telephone call calls so hopefully we'll get a better system for next year um but uh just come out and remember that rotary does that and all the money that's raised goes to high school scholarships as Chuck does say many many times but I thought it was worth repeating and also like to wish everyone a Happy Easter that's it thank you thank you Deputy Mayor Reis do you have anything else You' like I do last Sunday morning the r had their pancake breakfast and I'm going to look to Chuck can ask him how it turned out excellent was the best one we've had in use wow that's great to hear um I know I was there early with my wife uh it was pretty well attended at that point food was good as it always is uh we left there and went to our church service we left there and went to the VFW who also had a pancake breakfast uh we had a lot of discussion with some of the people at VFW they didn't understand why you folks moved into their territory for time um and we told them it probably be easier to move theirs then you you move yours but anyway they uh they gave a stab at it uh and did pardon me did okay uh next was the Easter egg egg hunt that was moved from Aces field to the municipal building um never again my wife and I stopped stopped up I I went home to continued sucking the water out of my basement but uh my wife stayed for a little bit and said it was um a mid house chaotic chaotic chaotic okay house is put it nicely um and the the last I have um tomorrow's Good Friday many people are off half a day some all day Sunday's Easter Sunday so uh Happy Easter to everyone that's all I have there thank you sir I won't beat on the same topics that everyone else did that's what was on my list so please shop local uh support our businesses here in town and everyone please have a happy Easter moving on Old business uh Susan operations sure thank you so um as as many people might know as obviously Council we were here earlier tonight just a recap from earlier this evening for those that weren't in attendance at our budget Workshop meeting uh our CFO Adrien McKenry helped us to uh present the 2024 budget proposal that does provide for increases to a handful of our Municipal departments uh which sanitation which as we discussed are seeing double- digit increases this year um it also provides for hiring of replacement employees in police and DPW which have experienced multiple retirements and resignations additionally includes the reassuming of the Fire Marshal's office and the service improvements within our fire department we did make budget cuts after comparing last year's amended budget to the requested budget this year however they're not going to have a negative impact on uh any of our operations in the end because this is all that everybody really wants to hear um our proposed budget is a 1.3 C increase to the local Municipal tax rate but what that means to the average assessed home of $161,000 they would have a $21 increase or just a little over $5 a quarter and then if a home is assessed at 200,000 then the increase would be approximately $26 for the year and then those with the $250,000 assess home would see their annual taxes go up approximately $32 or $8 a quarter um so again you know we'll be introducing the budget on April 11th I thank Andy and the finance office and all of our department heads they've really done a great job and it just goes to show you know over the year over the last several years what we've been doing just with our policies and procedures that we've put in place so um that's good news there considering you know what inflation is again this year and just all the other uh increases that that everybody's seeing whether it be in their own personal home budgets or Corporation budget so we're in a good position as some of you have already discussed over the weekend we received a record amount of rainfall at just under 4 and a half inches in a 16h hour period the rainfall maxed our systems and then coupled with high tide which came on Saturday afternoon at 2:18 um many of our streets wound up seeing storm drains that simply were not able to you know to catch up and and to keep up with all the excess water both Pat Lions our DPW director and our myself were throughout town that day we were driving around making sure that we were were taking notes you know with any areas that were experiencing flooding and almost in every case that we saw within an hour as after the rain the real heavy rains came everything was able to go down the drain so you know the system is working it just took on so much so quickly and no 18 hours 16 hours isn't quick but it was just that heavy you know that amount heavy of heavy rain um so DPW cruise this week we I did speak with Pat and we started to address different areas this week where we noticed that the flooding had occurred um we are going to be addressing several of several of the issues over the next couple weeks I'm sure that Dennis is going to speak about the more about this and how we experienced a force main break on Route 73 later Saturday evening which posed a lot of challenges um we also experienced overflow at our plant that I know you know councilman cofman you had discussed about and just you know for approximately 12 hours it was flowing at 200 gallons per minute that's a lot 200,000 200,000 right is it 200,000 200,000 yeah sorry I didn't put the K in there so like that's not right 200 Gall is that different so yeah it was a definitely it was a storm that's not that was not normal going into our sewer the sewer yes yeah it was H it was crazy seeing it was it was nuts but um so again as councilman we said because of the rain we had to remove our Recreation egg hunt indoors we had uh we had um close to 300 kids over 2 wage brackets that we had done it was insane um it was not the ideal situation but of course the field was underwater and we didn't want to cut next weekend or Saturday into um you know into the sports that are using it so we did it up here we had just about 3,000 eggs and if you arrived five minutes after the time you didn't get anything it was over done like finished people were already walking out the door um but Lauren spent weeks stuffing Easter Bunny eggs and like and we laugh because literally in 5 minutes it was done but we do want to thank Homan Automotive who was one of our sponsors uh for the event they had contributed to it uh the event also had vendors that came out and provided games and and chances to win prizes so we really appreciate all their help Saturday in the in the pouring rain we held our annual free rabies clinic but we had a hundred dogs that came and cats that we were able to issue shots to of our fur babies uh just as a reminder all dogs must be licensed under state law and under Municipal law Li Es are due for Renewal April 1st but this year April 1st is a municipal holiday being that it's Easter Monday so we've extended that deadline to April 5th so everybody will have till April 5th before there's a late charge to get your license um also just so people know we currently have an opening in our police records department he was asking if my dog was register oh yeah I was also asking if he was he was register temp I tried to get my diser shot they didn't have um but we do have an opening in our police records department for a clerk one title uh the employment ad is both on the league web page as well as our own uh Township web page so if any interested applicants please get your rumes in and we will review them as they go that's it happy Easter everybody have a nice weekend the municipality is closed adver yeah what was I supposed to say hold on okay yeah what do you have the ordinance that we introduced tonight um the public hearing date had to be changed because we had a problem with the carrier post so it was actually published today the 28th still still in time for a um April oh I'm sorry the canab yes yes the Canabis I'm sorry canis ordinance did not make the paper we didn't write this down so I we should have written it down we didn't see each other today how so that'll be what what meeting then it'll still mix time but the we okay we're still looking for it for the 11th but if they're looking for it it didn't hit the paper today but we had to note that the publication changed sure okay no problem thank you we normally are on the same we are we are sorry so that's all I got right thank you our Engineers report Dennis uh good evening um I'm going to start with uh with the sanitary sewer uh things are happening here we talked about the the high flows of the plan uh four years ago we had like 72 Ines of rain for that year and it's normally like 45 Ines around here and because of that the plant flows exceeded 95% of the capacity and we got put on to a sewer moratorium EPA came down and they put us on administrative order that they want us to deal with extraneous flows so we've been done doing certain programs we've T televised a lot of sewer Ms we've been doing flow monitoring we're trying to identify where these extraneous flows are coming but there's a large volume coming from some pumps and you can tell that because if it's direct inflow when you have a storm event and it's raining your flow is go up when it stops training your flows go down what we're experiencing is flows go up and they stay up for 3 days so that means we're getting a lot of sum pump uh input into our our system uh EPA is going to probably require us to come up with a program for inspection uh we can talk about things when we do Road programs in the future if there are storm drains there whether we run a separate little surface line for people to tie into but then how do you enforce people tying in so there's a lot of things we can do and we have to but we're going to have to come up with a program because they're going to be start putting some kind of a teeth to these administrative orders that the Township's currently facing um we also had what happens with the what happens when uh you get a lot of rain uh Main Street Pump Station uh sees over half to flow from the town and it pumps across town to the Wastewater Plant from the water plant a location there used to be a Wastewater Plant at that site before they were combined into one unfortunately when that was put in 1989 the pipe that was put in is not getting its useful life uh I don't know if it has to do with elect taluses from the railroads or what but we're getting all these U quarter size holes in the bottom of this pipe and what happens when we get these large rain events and you have two pumps kicking on and you're over pressurizing lines any of those weak spots are blowing out we had our second blowout along Route 73 uh Saturday evening and we're able to stabilize that and then move in on Monday and do the do the repair now fortunately we have a design and we actually have permit for replacing that first section of Maine from the uh the plant down to U we P yeah so it it normally goes down to lwood but we're looking to to save about a million off the project by getting some easements which would done legal disruptions we're in the process of trying to uh obtain those easements but we're going to do that first phase and we're going to put that out to bid this next month because these repairs when you're dealing with Route 73 with the traffic control and the police and the different uh measures you have to put in place with the uh crash trucks and so forth are are pretty expensive so uh we're looking forward to get that first phase done and then uh we're looking at funding opportunities for uh future phases so that's something we we're able to get a $900,000 grant a congressional Grant this last year but that's going towards the water system uh as far as the water system our Main Street water plant is our our workor we have to obviously uh put the Kings Highway plant back in line at some point in the future the challenge is uh New Jersey is one of the few States that had uh posos regulations in the past and it's 11 parts per trillion and we're well under that but the new regs are coming out in in 2027 that it's going to be four parts per trillion so we're going to have to add some treatment to our plant in order to do that now we've already had some designs done for uh for that we just haven't moved forward there's a lot of funding there's a number of lawsuits that we're just going to create a lot a lot of money for this so we do have applications in so we're in line for of that funding but it's a project that we're going to have to move forward uh otherwise they're going to be forcing you to buy water rather than using our own water source which would obviously increase our our cost of Water Production Dennis if I could just um last week I was at our GIF Mel our state Jeff mail meeting and they are encouraging all the municipalities to jump on board with the the litigation they said that that is going to go through there's tremendous amount of money that if we at least we register so I have them sending me all the information so that we can if we have it then we're g to so the good thing is we have a design in place that could easily be retrofitted uh but we'll look at that and obviously that's a discussion we're have to have for this for this year and obviously we're funding following the funding sources and there is a lot of grant money out there for this um they do look at your your ratio of your income and if you're under 80% of the state average you're you almost get 100% funding so I'll have to look and see where we qualify we're gon to be close okay on that yeah I'll get you the information too both about the litigation part of it yeah uh on the water end also um just give a heads up for County Avenue we've had a lot of water main brakes there and we'll probably be out to bid next month for a replacement two sections of that and doing a street repairs in that section so we're making that a priority also because of uh the number of breaks we've had out there uh from the township end uh iOS su's in a number of proposals we've been meeting we're talking about some of the projects that uh uh are still on the books from some of the the state funding uh that we've got for the road programs the one for last year we had asked for more money and we end up getting 190,000 uh so but the total project cost is more around 500,000 so I don't know if it's something I got to meet to find out if we're going going to do it all do a a partial uh project or not and I think that was for uh um that was North Kohl's and Roland that was uh part of that Grant we have to stick pretty much with what was put in for the uh the application um other than that we got turned on we have a Community Development grant for doing some things down here with the food bank and so that's something we're going to get started with after tonight so any questions uh was m now I think I don't all right thanks El Dennis as always thank you apprciate it um site plan site plan will be Tuesday night we have three applications pending to come to it at the present time that could increase um and I'm not sure what they are um so I'll be able to report next meeting nice all right with that uh new business sustainable Maple Shades Community Gard uh yes so as you know we approved the community garden over at 41 Collins Lane we were notified that there could be um just some potential some of the pesticides that were used there in the um in the past when it used to be an apple orchard so we were notified but because we were notified obviously we need that the surrounding area has it there probably should be some sort of um testing that that's done there just to just to make sure that everybody's safe I had reached out to Dennis and and his team uh to ask them what they thought they agreed I did get a quote in that came back in a proposal and the cost it is for the testing is I guess it's a phase one with a F I think it was a phase was it a phase one yes it's a phase it's a initial soil sampling based on U how many different samples you had to do based on your square footage and so forth okay and so there a lot of laboratory cost in that not I think it was came at 7,000 it was 7,000 um so I'd be looking to council to obviously we we should go forward with that um I would like to ask sustainable for their help for their assistance I know that they did have some grant money that would be able to cover it but I do think that that's the best option that we have um for that before we get too deep to digging and and find out again most likely it was it was an orchard I'm I'm sure that it's was you know it's we're going to find it's it's agricultural pesticides is what depending on the limits or remedial steps you can take but until we know what the actual test results are you can't can't really state so that's why so just so everybody knows that yes there will we will be reaching out to sustainable to tell they do know sustainable knows I had spoken with them earlier in the week when everything had first come up out um got to come up name your name and address 25 West LA so when we spoke it was AAL wasn't pesticide aric I think it's arsic I was try I was trying not to get anybody nervous about saying yes it is arsic yes which is also found in in the ground naturally yes um so I didn't know like again because we also found we were trying to get a quote from our side too we but we weren't given parameters for testing so I did say I did send that over to you and I said that we would be looking for a historical u a phase one and a historical pesticide uh okay is what it was yeah so that is included in that is like everything you want us to test for even though the only thing that was found from this other thing was yeah it'll be everything that gets tested for I mean it's a it's a full phase one that's being done while you're doing the testing you check for everything instead of hey we found our St well that's what I was asking before I you know messaged the the other gentleman that we found that's NJ Department of Environmental Protection certified so he's like a legit person F to come out to get quot that's like you see another quote or you certainly can yeah it's not a problem I just I I know that there was a timeline I mean obviously when we were discussing there was time frames here and everybody was thinking we're in a rush we got to get this done so obviously I was waiting for us to get our quote too which I received the other day and you know it reached out so um but yeah if you have another quote listen it's whoever can get it done and we can get it make sure it's the same thing um but yeah you haven't got back to me yet okay so I can call okay we would we would need that in writing on on the letterhead of whoever you're dealing with so we needed it's more important to be able to get going with it I wanted to get going so we're not delaying any any timeline our quote came back with a five-day turnaround okay for testing results so yeah there we go that's okay no when we spoke it seemed like it was just the one thing so that's why I wasn't sure oh yeah but a phase one will do all it will do all of the testing so and they'll they'll look for ground soils and they'll tell us what it was all right um the other thing is too is uh as you know we receiv received that Congressional award from uh Congressman norcross's office they've reached out they would like Wednesday April 3rd at 3 p.m. if everyone is available they will be coming here um to present the municipality with their check so if everybody is available I will 3 p.m. 3 p.m. 3 P.M sir you're not you're all right okay okay Dennis are you available I'll make myself available okay I just need to get back to them is the rest of council available able I am yes okay then I will let them know that Wednesday April which is this Wednesday coming up at 3 p.m. it'll be here at the municipal building um and they will present us with their uh the check and we'll ask for next year's and we're going to ask for next year at the same time thank you but can we have more please yeah that's all I have for new business dress up like Oliver yeah please all right um councelor we have any reason to go back into closed I don't believe right I thank you may no problem so with that made I'd like to look for a motion to adjourn into the next Township council meeting which is scheduled for April 11 2024 at 6:30 p.m. so move second all in favor I thank you everyone for attend --------- now I call to order the Maple Shade Township Council regular session meeting March 28th 2024 we could all please start with this Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under invisible liy and justice for all can you just stay standing for a moment please for the uh victims uh down in Baltimore thank you public notice that this meeting pursuant to the open public meetings acts has been given by the township Council in the following manner notifying the Township Clerk December 22nd of 23 mailing notice to the carrier post the central record in Burlington County Times on December 22nd of 23 and posting notice on the official Municipal bulletin board on December 22nd of 23 U everyone please make sure your phones are on mute especially Steve uh have all call please di Mr Kaufman here M NES here Mrs V here Mr W present mayor schi present we're going to start with a special budget meeting uh y start we'll start and we'll hand it over to Andy um as you know we we are in budget season and we have been working hard on on our budget this year got a little bit of communication about it we were able to make some Cuts we were able to put some things in there keeping all services as um as they've been maintaining everything and also adding some new ones so Andy if you want to go ahead in and um just kind of give your overview and we will chime in and different different points so in front of you the the smallest font is the summary I apologize I will fix that next year um and actually I'll fix it um if you want for introduction I'll give you a summary again um bigger um then the larger one is a detail of each of the Departments so it's U just the detail of the legal size and then the last legal size is the water sewer budget so um the carent fund budget I I'll mostly be dealing with the summary so if I um that's the size second the tiny fun okay I didn't see this paper hanging like you oh I have other things behind it um the current fund budget as it stands has a 1.3 C increase on the local Municipal tax rate there is an increase of just over a million dollar in expenditures over the 2023 amended budget but that is covering uh increases in the departmental budgets for police fire sanitation landfill Solid Waste pension and insurances this budget allows for the hiring of replacement employees in the police and Public Works departments which have experienced retirement and or designations it also allows for hirings in the Fire Marshall and fire department budgets as we continue moving forward on improving services to our residents some budget cuts were made to help lessen the impact to the taxpayer some departments had overall budget reductions when compared to last year's amended budget but they are not expected to negatively impact the operations of those departments also to lessen the impact to the taxpayer we used an additional 20 50,000 in Surplus over the 2023 amount and we added some reserves as revenues that we determined would not be needed for use in the next few years the revenues used to fund this budget are on page seven of your teeny tiny summary page seven yeah the very last page sorry no worries that's tiny too but um sorry I'll give you a better one next next time two weeks um so in this uh current form we're looking at a 1.3 C increase to the local Municipal tax rate which should equate to approximately $21 additionally for the year for the average assessed home of 161,000 if your assessment is 200,000 the increase is expected to be approximately 26 additional dollars $250,000 assessment should be approximately $32 um the last oh because I usually uh forget about the utility budget by the time I'm done the utility budget is this last uh small vle size sheet and that is uh resulting an $146,000 increase in the total expenditures due to an increase in The Debt Service payments due so it's pretty much the same as last year's except unfortunately our uh debt Services increased so that's why that bu it has gone up a little bit um I think that was pretty much all I had if you guys had wanted to know if you have any questions on the summary sheet or even uh the larger sheet that you can read the detail so with a 250,000 home value it would be 30 about $32 is that per year yeah that's just that's for the year entire year okay just making sure and remember this is our our local Municipal tax it doesn't include what the school's doing the Count's doing so right they are completely on their own right school and County and plus they have increases or decreases we have nothing to do with this right right Andy what did you say the increase would be on the average it's um $21 on the average home and the average home is 161,000 it's 21 21 so roughly roughly $5 a quarter you will get um Todd sheet when we do the introduction and that is always the the final numbers minor estimates you're always I'm close you're very close I'm close but he's precise yeah so I think that you know the biggest thing too is that we have not cut any Services um Everybody maintains the same we've actually added Services you have to consider that there is a very large increase in sanitation and landfill uh I will tell you today ironically a lot of towns are going out they went out to bid I guess for their landfill and I know you're not going to like this but they are one town got a 70% increase on solid waste so thankfully we are in a 5year agreement we don't have to so we'll be through it you hope that you come out of it uh another town reported today that they're about 55% so and these are like huge mid Jersey too so PSC and G obviously had their had another increase this year last year they were just at about 19% this year they're at 16% is what everybody saw um you know the one of the savings that we had was back in 2023 as you know we switched to the State Health Benefit Plan and while everybody else had that huge 23% increase we saw a decrease by switching from a private vendor to the State Health Benefit program so a lot of it was able to be absorbed um and again it not only did it save our res our residents money call their General would save our employees as well what their contributions were um you know which big um again but it this this budget allows for everybody that we need to hire it gets our Police Department up to where they need to be um which is just 3940 is by the time they're all said and done and we we roll out everything there'll be about 40 officers um it still allows for their needs it allows for reassuming the fire uh Marshall's office which is huge um and then the programs that that we've already put in place and we want to improve upon um it allows for DP as Andy said it allows for DPW hires um so all in all considering where we are and what kind of increases everybody is seeing you know the biggest thing nobody wants to raise taxes but if our own personal um expenses are going up so is everything here um and again like we have no control over our insurance there there's another one our GIF Insurance the GIF Mel went up what I think that was about 12% it went up this year 12 13% um so we're balancing all of that um still being able to and you know be able to come in at $5 a quarter on the average assessed home um we don't control values of the homes I mean if people are doing you know people are doing renovations to their homes and we just talked about it there's a home in Maple Shade that just sold for 599,000 um know it's a yeah so it's it's um but again you know we're coming in with a budget again you know let's not look at the 161,000 that is the average home most homes probably assess a little bit more than that so your average is probably somewhere between the 200 and 250 so you know at top at the top one you're looking at $32 $8 a quarter again nobody likes to have a an increase um we've we've kept things pretty stable as you can see too there's a chart in front of you you'll see what we did the last couple years that's the increase um in the local Municipal tax rate by year um again 2024 is estimated but you'll see you know we had three years that were almost at zero um not something that typically we would do but we did you know we were able to come in at zero last year there was a slight increase and then you know this year we evaluating all of it the same thing it's it's a slight increase but I I think it's doable considering the services that are still being given and provided we're not making any cuts no layoffs um it's you know we're providing for everything that we need covers all the costs for contracts with the employees everything yep yep and we did set all the um the teamsters is all done and was been signed and and so everything is in there what I what people have to understand is as little as this increase is um everybody is complaining about the price of everything food uh on and on and on and a lot of people are getting um some increases and our people here are paying the same as everyone else and the cost of living uh has jumped but the our tax increas is just a little over a penny that's something to be proud of I believe it's definitely a concerted effort amongst you know everybody here in town hall um you know in all of our departments and of course to the finance office um but it is it's about you know we put the right policies and procedure I've said this before you know we put the right policies and procedures in place we're making sure we're being you know we're being mindful about what we're spending um you the other thing is too there there's Surplus I mean it's very fortunate that we're in a position where there's Surplus and you can't you can't sit on millions and millions and millions of dollars of surplus that's not what it's there for I mean it's yes it's there for a rainy day fund but it's also there to be able to offset situations like this where you know you do have inflation that is Skyhigh um but again you know we're we're hitting gasoline psng um you know our utilities in general and you know we're hoping we will We we'll there's revenues that we're going to be able to bring in and and we'll be able to you can't not fund you have to fund you have to fund you know we have Debt Service that we have to fund we have programs we have infrastructure that we have to repair those things have to be allotted for so again you know coming in with a you know an average $5 a quarter increase you know $21 to the to the average household um I think that that's palatable um you the one thing that we always worry about when we start this the first thing I say it's like oh my gosh like give me like the worst case scenario there's towns I've been speaking you know some of the people that you know some of my colleagues that I work with you know they're they're doing 12 and 13 cent increases I'm like how do you go back to your taxpayers with that kind of thing you have to make cuts at that point um but no we we've been very fortunate here in Maple shight that we have not had to do that um and again that's that's a tribute to everybody here the department heads and just everybody knowing what's important and how know how we need to get through look at Indies she sa paper doing my part yes you are yes you are great job he but if you change it it wouldn't be like we always get them like this we just have to bring it better than the binders we used to do sorry I'll cut yours out and this one I don't remember getting something this big no we started that last year last year well that's a little more readable yeah it's readable yeah yeah it's the same getting old what's that just means everyone up here is getting old it is it is now that you say that I guess it is kind of tin I resemble that sorry never mind no I just got to say that uh you to Echo everyone else that you know for for the Departments to step up and um you make deal with what they got instead of looking for more is you be able to still give us the same or better Services is pretty impressive so anyway too it's been very helpful too is that as we've been budgeting you know it's been teaching and training that you know we're going to take things from the actual line item that it's supposed to go so we've been able to look and say okay listen you know that's not really what we've been spending there and I think over years you know previous is just that it was just we didn't know what exactly we were spending we knew that we were spending it but we didn't have it detailed down to okay so we don't need that that extra money and you know in that line item and that's where fortunate we were able to cut some and and really say okay listen looking at it again you know I like looking at the seven-year you know look back okay if we haven't spent it in seven years the chances are we're not going to spend it we're able to to make those GS right yeah I get anything so yeah that's it that's simple jumps out that's crazy simple um again it's everything's in there we've really had to attribute for the increase to our statutory things insurances utilities contracts um but again realizing you know they contracts alone you know they're realizing that you have to have contracts in order to keep your employees I mean that's you know that's it you want we want the topnotch employees and um but I think everybody I think they're fair I I don't think that we're you know that we're doing anything that's above and beyond um we're fair and I think both you know the police department and then of course you know our DPW they came in they negotiated fairly and you know they got them to where everybody is uh you know comfortable least and also the contracts with our supplies or our services I mean like you just said with the the trash pick up to have a 5year contract and not get beat up this year as bad as everyone else yeah and that was negotiated we did that last year knowing that we were coming through this when we started hearing we went back we had originally had had a three-year contract with them um and then you know with a sanitation contract you can opt for one or two oneyear contracts which is what we did um so when we went back to them they obviously you know we say oh you have to honor what you did three years ago but everything had changed since the markets had changed so much um they turned around we were able to negotiate instead with them instead of a 15 or 16% increase from them each year we W up NE go what was six last year and I think s and a half this year is what it was so you know again it's it's having those relationships with your vendors it's being able to go back to them and talk to them it's it's key and critical um and that's what we do and you know in the finance office Jess darus Andy they we question every purchase if we think it's too high you go and you go get another quote um it's just what we have to do just to make sure sometimes it's not the vendor that we've used for 15 20 years it's not that we don't want to do business with them it's because every dollar count it's all about the dollar it's all about the dollar well when it comes to the the trash The Tipping uh costs are so volatile today very volatile and I have a couple friends that are Tree Experts and they used to um different companies would take the wood at no charge right because they would grind it up and sell it as molds today they're charging and charging heavy yeah so it's made a big change yeah well I just went to the recycling I'm the recycling coordinator so I had to go to the meeting last week and I went there and they were saying you know three four years ago Co year 2020 and then into 2021 paper they were paying to get rid of paper and they were paying to almost a tune of like it was like $53 uh a ton is what they were paying now today now they're getting paid 80 we're getting paid $85 a ton um you know to recycle paper so that's why there's always a push too so those things will help but like you said it's just it's very volatile you know and it's um but it all goes into to what we're budgeting for so can't think one thing I say I can't think of one thing question wow Street lighting went up a lot P yeah yeah we all got increase everything I see looks in order so I think uh as usual our finance department does a fantastic job breaking it down and doing their job so that do we have a crazy amount of uncollected taxes like that's not a no I think yeah I think our tax we were 98 I say we were 9 8.64 and last year was 99 yeah that's honestly that that's unheard of to be that CL and consistently that that collection right now good and I don't even think she goes and teachs anybody else I know yeah there's no I mean no pressure no pressure whatsoever so that's one thing you know um yeah maybe because they're all so nice at the window people don't that could be it yep I think they give chocolate out too at the window somay so that could be it so it looks like we're we're good on the dog license we don't have any we're getting there those were up but no so there there's there's an example dog licenses when I first came here dog license we were we were in the red every year I mean um just we were in the red and it was costing the municipality for for everything you know and that includ that's the way it had been done forever yeah and you know that was including what we did for animal control and it was just like so that animal control was falling on the backs of everybody you know that that doesn't have a pet and it's something that you have to you have to supply um but we made those small changes where we said okay you know we're going to make sure that we do the mailing we're going to make sure that you know we have everything in order and we keep the same timeline and it work last year I think we were up last year we W up being up just a little under additional 300 dogs last year we're going to do the same thing this year we'll make sure we send out of notice uh we hit all the apartment complexes that said hey just because you're an apartment complex doesn't mean that you don't have this obligation they still do um and and it helped so but again like then it offset that line item where we weren't paying and we weren't in the whole $30,000 we're now you know we're able to cover all the costs even in the rabies clinic we had 86 rabies clinic and like half of them took an application for license yeah so I mean it's yeah 99 before you left 99 dogs is what we had on uh that's awesome on Saturday so and again they did they took oh this is great you know we're able to do it one shot so it's just about the communication and just being able to get that message out to everybody any else have any questions or comments don't watch up at once I think it looks good still keeps in there the recreation for all of our Recreation sports teams um you know getting their allotments too um that's all in there again it fully funds every Department that's needed to be get this to be able to um you know restart our uh our Fire Marshal's Office like I said so it's it's in there everything's in there water and silver changing a lot or jum ahead no no no I used the same amount of surplus revenues were up a little so I just uh anticipated more revenues to offset because they have to have a balanc budget yeah that one that's the one wherever whatever you're saying you're spending we have to be able to prove that we're bringing that into so so it has to be balanced okay goodh and that you know having that that that rate increase that we had um definitely helped you know being able to readjust that um again it it got us back into a position where we were whole in there as opposed to Drowning yeah no pun intend no pun intended but um you know but there's something to you know as we talk about Capital money and capital needs there I mean obviously Dennis will be here tonight you'll hear I mean there's been infrastructure issues we've had them they've been here long before long before me long before you know most of you um we're addressing those so braks lately have been nuts yeah seems like every day Saturdays was pretty big it was not pretty big it was very big was before s 73 I know 73 I know the one we're supposed to regroup yeah it's in process yeah that's in process it just it the flow just couldn't handle it when you're pumping 200 gallons of you know 200,000 gallons a minute and you're not used to doing that well because it some pumps pumping it was some pumps and just the flow I mean the rain you have 4 and a half inches of rain in you know a 16h hour period um it's it's just too much there there's no everybody had the same problem it wasn't just Maple Shade but because we know you know we've had that issue right there with the force man just you know I sent you the video Break was right next to last year's break yeah it was crazy it was crazy wow so so that's where we are folks I think over overall in a very good position again it still leaves Surplus for us in the bank I mean so we're it's not like we're we're not depleting s Surplus at all um you know we're using consistently what we've used the last several years um and you're coming in with with a budget again that's $5 a quarter to the average household or you know $8 to one that's 200 and let we say 250 250 excuse me is there a maximum amount of surplus we allowed to by it's it's maximum allowed to have is I allow we have we have a policy we have a policy but yeah there's no maximum amount within uh fund balance is supposed to be between 15 and 50% of our prior year operating expenditures so I do this calculation because this is I inherited this policy so I'm always like what are we doing here but um yeah we we once again are within our our limits but the they do if you have too much Surplus they do come down down and say like you have to spend some you can't just have it sitting in that's what happened with the school right because they figure if you don't need it never mind we were waiting to do a new roof you know well sorry you got to put that in your budget can't use that for your new roof so are we going over the water and sewer or no is anything to go over I don't know this is this is all have so yeah it it's it like I said it's pretty much the same um except for there's an increase in in The Debt Service the salaries went up a little bit the regular operating expenses are down a little bit the main increase in it is the um Debt Service see the bond the same and then it went up yeahok dokie two years yeah just you know that those capital projects they're just they're expensive you know all the water on the water side and the sewer side and you have to keep maintaining them so there's always going to be Debt Service we do have another discretionary uh grant that we're going to go after for utility that's what you're like go for both okay so um you know we did get that $850,000 that will be used towards the plant uh there's another discretionary funding that's being offered from the federal government so we're going to apply again and I just it just came this afternoon we were talking about it so and I said let's do the Force main with it it'll help depending on how quickly it's uh it takes it takes to get to get it and whatnot um right but so it's either that or the plant so it'll go either way either way but there there's always a use for it there there's always a use in uh in utilities always yeah so and we've been very aggressive the last couple years um you know we've kept not letting it go to where you're right well yeah we used all the federal arpa money went to utility infrastructure improvements that was what that was a couple million right 1.9 1.9 yeah so that we did that we were able to go towards infrastructure and there's still more that need yeah you'd like to have five times that right oh yeah well maybe somebody hits a lottery if they somebody has to know somebody that went up in Neptune right come on somebody's got to be related somewhere along the line long lost distant cousin I guess I'm G to have to go and go into ancestry and that's it that's it was Jersey what's it at least it was Jersey yes yes yeah since we're on utilities I know we're mandated to replace all the lead Ser Water Service things is that money coming from the feds or is that our money that we have a um I call it NJ NJIT it's now nji Bank we're using uh those monies and that usually will have a principal forgiveness we're in the process with that so we don't know yet if they'll forgive any of the principal or not but it's a lower interest program so it's a good one to use it's with the D we've identified the properties and what we felt at the time and I you know I remember having this ation was that we really didn't want to pass that on some towns are giving that they're passing that right on to the homeowner and the homeowner has to pay for that connection and that repair we said we didn't want to do that so we were able to get into this bank this I bank and start that process so the municipality will take care of all of that has it has it been happening so as we have breaks we are doing that's how we're doing once we have the I bank money then we will do you'll go to we'll go do the whole project and there's constantly uh new grants coming up for that I believe [Music] so him so I think maybe it is I I thought it was like 77 but it could be 100 we can ask Dennis tonight I'll know a better idea how many that's fine do we go public with this is it something they have questions we can um they can they can ask questions yeah the documents aren't those are working drafts right now okay yeah but if anybody has questions no questions no okay good all right thank you all right with that being said should we move into our we can adjourn for a little bit and then we can go we can I know everybody hasn't eaten so we can adjourn if you want for a couple minutes and you can go eat and then uh we can come back go into Clos at 6:30 perfect and then we can start the regular portion of the meeting so right you're so I guess basically you're okay with us moving forward with this and then absolutely do you need a roll call on that or no not on this no just no we're going to direct Andy will go and we'll get a hold of Todd and we'll move forward with the budget as it's been presented if there's any major changes we'll let you know but then there will be a full budget presentation on April 11th we'll do the introduction where we'll have the the PowerPoint and all that kind of stuff all right okay motion to so we need a motion to adjourn I need a motion to adjourn so there you go all favor adjourn yeah this one yeah we're going toj