you good ready mayor you're good draging okay is great good evening everybody we're on just so you know um pursuant to section five chapter 231 1975 this is to State for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building by mailing the annual ual notice of regular meetings for 2024 to the news record and the Star Ledger in December 2023 and by filing said notice in the office of the Township Clerk M K here Mr daffis here Mr DeLuca here M angle here mayor Adams here please rise for a salute to the FL CH sorry first yep I'm just where chapter 231 public calls 1975 calling knows the open public meetings act require as well meetings of public audience public and whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to permit prohibit regulate the active participation in the public at any meeting and whereas desire the governing body to comply with the provision this act same ton conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner now therefore be resolved by the township committee Township mwood County vesic state of New Jersey does hereby prohibit except to set forth an formal agenda Act of participation and deliberations as a governing body by the public and except as otherwise described by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussion the governing body at all its regular and special meetings so moved second scrip yes Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes Miss angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you now that stand for the salute to the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay life all right so I am welcoming everybody here for our first budget Workshop um for the 2024 Municipal budget um um tonight we will Workshop the budgets of the Department of Community Services which includes Recreation cultural Affairs in the pool then we'll move into engineering Public Works followed by Administration and clerk briefly I'll just let you know that the hard decisions we made during the pandemic are starting to reap dividends in 2024 according to our CFO a majority of our miscellaneous revenues have rebounded to their pre-pandemic levels our debt service has been increased but that is in large part for our library renovation and when we receive our grant payments we will also see significant relief in that obligation so we still have much work ahead of us and our discussions regarding capital projects will be a driving factor in the 2024 budget we won't be discussing salaries in Open Session nor will we discuss revenues tonight um they will be discussed at a later Workshop and uh CFO Joe reports that we are in the best shape financially that we have been since he started here in 2018 is that right course 2018 yes there you go so with that um I won't waste any more time and we'll kick it off with our Department of Community Services director Melissa manuso thank you thank you mayor and Township committee I was going to just go over the over view of the department um we have several divisions and I was going to start with our mission statement which is to provide entertaining safe and varied recreational programs and services to the Township's diverse population in a cost-effective and Progressive manner we constantly strive to review improve and expand our programs and services to keep Pace with the changes and needs of the entire Community We Stand by our model all for fun and fun for all and our focus is programming that's affordable and accessible for all residents um our department Staffing which is really where all the magic happens um from our full-time staff to our seasonal Camp counselors making all of our programs possible and a great experience um it is administered by myself the director of community services we have full-time staff of a program supervisor for Senior Services a manager of recreation we now have two program supervisors of recreation here in town hall a manager of arts and culture art director arts and culture event coordinator a facilities manager pool maintenance foreman and um we're looking to add to our team for some custodial staff in the rec division our department also employs a lot of part-time staff through the year including program progr instructors Fitness instructors art instructors coaches building attendance site supervisors and then seasonally we have lifeguards uh front desk staff patio staff a lot of Camp staff directors counselors craft Camp staff uh tennis team of about 14 basketball staff and then seasonal Park attendance so um we have a great team making all these programs possible and the fac fa ities include we have our town hall office the dart Community Center the Maplewood pool the Woodland 1978 the Bergdorf Center for Performing Arts the Maplewood Senior Center um that's everything and then the parks and Fields that are under our purview are bordon Park toart Park Maple Crest Memorial Park Orchard Park and Walter Park so I tried to uh briefly cover some highlights because we have of course yearlong programming um and I just wanted to go over some highlights from the different divisions in the rec division a a few highlights are are free for all community events um we offered the winter wonderland this was in 23 um we've already done another one since then we had our free movies in the park where we've been going to different Parks um in different neighborhoods in the summertime and the end of winter ice skating event we started last year and we will be doing that again on Saturday at to heart because it was a great success we executed a Fourth of July event with fireworks and fun which turned into a dance party um you may recall at Memorial Park and we have added pickle ball programming since our courts were complete over at to heart we have um senior pickle ball lessons and then active adults as well so those are some new things our camp accomplishments for last year um kids camp had 914 um in attendance including full day before and after care funky fun art had 455 summer tennis was 197 Ultimate Frisbee about 89 drill skills and thrills basketball camp was expanded to four weeks um based on demand and we had 160 slots for that sold out May craft was 74 our mermaid Camp had 38 and dive Camp was um 22 in attendance so that's about 1,949 Camp spots throughout the different divisions in the um mostly summertime so our goals for 2024 are to offer more workshops like we had last weekend um of puppy yoga where a charity benefited um as well and hopefully puppies were adopted and it was heart warming fund for us and it was also a give back um to the to the community and the charity we plan on offering new camps for different Specialties for a broader range of summertime fun um in some different disciplines and expanding and evaluating our current programming with the lens of inclusion um for opportunities for all and then there's just a little picture of reptile day at camp okay um the senior division some accomplishments are expanding Fitness class we added some half hour classes for on the-go um registrants and we have new offerings like bands only not like a rock band like the resistance bands and our happy dance class which is um really popular too some new programming was a book swap and soup luncheon we had the Quattro Deo Fitness Expo as part of the mayor's Wellness campaign we have a bridge club additional art offerings uh We've add a drawing and some watercolor classes and some extended uh lunch and learn offerings so we took a lot of trips last year with the seniors but some new ones to touch on were the drier Farms trip they went holiday shopping in Red Bank this year and the seniors uh really wanted Michelle to take him to the American Mall so they went on that trip and they had a great time there and then we took a Jitney to Columbia High School something rotten in the spring which was a favorite and they get to do their dress rehearsal in front of a live audience of our seniors so um that's a good partnership too we also began emailing the spotlight instead of all the um paper mailing so there's some bumps in the road there and there's some people that still want it in the mail but it is available now electronically also some goals for the upcoming year are a monthly book club for our Avid readers and um making the senior center a meeting spot for that and using our little Library we have there I would like to add nutrition classes in the spring we have a new instructor to start with some Hands-On cooking um as well new art offerings expanded Fitness classes and hanging some of our senior art in the senior center and kind of changing it by monthly um because we have a lot of art programming right now and a lot of work is coming out of that and some generational activities we're working towards is a hike um on probably a weekend some Fitness classes um using the Scout Troops that used to heart for their meeting place so we have Girl Scout and Boy Scout Troops using that and hopefully we can do some intergenerational and this is just one of my favorite pictures of a senior Fitness class in the summer yeah that was a good picture day Som Two Towns for all ages has has been working very hard um Amy Stewart has developed a lot of programming and added on so um some accomplishments there are the 2023 Senior Resource guide the 2023 volunteer Fair uh she helped create Fort which is a new group figuring out retirement together for New retirees and it's a younger subset of active adults which we've been trying to get that demographic involved in our programming as well maintaining the so two Town's website and engaging the Maplewood senior apartments offering support to those residents and making sure they're included in a lot of programming and also she called me after I produced this because we started the shoveling volunteer program too that Amy work towards so matching families with people that needed um shoveling so that worked out in our first storm so that's another accomplishment in 2024 we hope to provide transportation assistance to older adults and disabled residents doctor's appointments um outside of Essex County and maybe rides on nights and weekends work on the Township's affordable housing committee to help with Home Sharing as an option to help older adults AG in place a bigger and better volunteer Fair growing forts participation in programming um of course new programming that will reach a broader audience and we're looking to add to Maplewood senior apartment a drawing art class in this coming spring the arts and culture division had many accomplishments including the redesign of the Maplewood arts and culture website launching Studio Bergdorf with film making Middle School Fine Arts and print making workshops among others the introduction of mapso Foles which uh was in November and over 400 people attended for a great show hosted seven successful exhibitions at the 1978 Art Center including the end ofe Winter Market with over 18 artists participating to buy holiday goods for our residents and worked with the strollers interact and theater project to support a robust theater schedule at the Bergdorf some 2024 goals continuing long- range planning of art spaces including the Bergdorf theater steadily increasing foot traffic to the 1978 and engaging um with shows and programming and supporting events and programs of local community and arts groups to reach CommunityWide goals help support them and there's a fun F's photo at the pool some accomplishments were appointing a new Foreman who has had great success as an operator of the pool so um a really big accomplishment is passing all bi-weekly water test from the state without one closure or any fails at all um the pool staff successfully handling Heatwave openings where we had increased attendance at the pool successful lifeguard certification course which brought us 11 new lifeguards accommodated 366 kids for swim lessons offered a new sold out novice swim for firsttime swimmers um adult swimmers the recreation swim team boasted 75 makos members we had dog day of summer again with 196 dogs we executed the pool accessibility memberships to expand our membership hosted 7,542 members for the season among guests also of course and conducted inservice trainings for staff along with two Employee Appreciation events a tie D night and ice cream party to make the workplace is fun because they're working a lot of extensive hours and we know you know we couldn't do it without our staff some 2024 goals are to expand and enhance operations for a larger outgo larger bther load and have more people at the pool the completion of the Pool Resurfacing project hiring a full-time pool maintenance worker to assist the foreman recruiting and onboarding new seasonal staff cross trining existing staff to understand our whole operation retaining strong staff members and promoting internally to give you know people to work through get some leadership roles and stay with us at the pool and to transform the locker rooms to a cleaner more inviting space including the addition of a family changing room which engineering will be speaking on and here's just a fun photo um from some time so we will continue to work with and take into advisement suggestions from the rec advisory committee pool advisory committee health and Community Services subcommittee senior advisory committee and the Maplewood Arts Council and our residents and we're grateful for the support and confidence of the administration and the governing body and our engaged mayor Deputy Mayor Township committee members and we plan on increasing Services some staffing and smiles as we continue the motto of all for fun and fun for all thank you very much we have or administrator we do you have anything to add or clarify anything you want to say okay I'll open it up to my colleagues for questions we're gonna do the over the lines oh yeah that's what we do okay yeah do we have any questions about the narrative though no no I have one question about the narrative um thank you for awesome narrative uh my favorite picture is the one of whoever that is from the diving board it's me what's that's you no I don't think that's you look hard the summer highlights you wish you look like that about 20 years ago yeah um that's an awesome picture that should go on our website yes okay so I have one question I love what you said about the 2024 goals your first bullet there is and I'm quoting continue long range planning of our art spaces including the Bergdorf theater end quote um can you tell us a little bit about that is there certainly are you engaged currently in a long range facilities plan currently um no I know that we have notes from the master plan meetings and then we've had conversations about the Berg dwarf being converted to an in the round you know space so that was some of the future planning ideas enhancing the lighting grid and things like that probably 2025 budget requests but those are some of the conversations um that have come in the different sub meetings yeah I mean one of the things that we've talked about in budget after budget is um a facility utilization plan right um as we fill some of these positions and we have arts and culture happening and and we want to meet some of the other goals that you stated here in your overview um we have to take another look at how we utilize our our spaces that we have right so if we're going to do more arts and culture in the Bergdorf we can't use summer camp for everything uh if we want to do 1978 More arts exhibits and stuff like that throughout the year not just uh we we can't take up the whole summer with summer camp in 1978 by way of examples right so these are the kinds of things that we've talked about and uh I don't know about the rest of my colleagues but I'd like to see us you know focus on that and as you stated very eloquently it is indeed part of the master plan recommendations to have a utilization plan for our spaces that's all well I'll just say that um Mr weary and miss manuso and I had a meeting the other day to talk about um uh they're going to work together on developing basically so we can see the year-long events which ones we co-sponsor which ones we don't and try to get sort of a handle on that so that we know when and what and if there's time and if there's bandwidth to do certain things at certain times we have a better idea if we can do a a planning calendar so that might help you know feed the the information for the use of the facilities too yeah I mean an events calendar is great we should have that too but but my what I'm talking about is bigger than that my H mine has to do with our vision and forward planning of how we utilize our spaces that's all which is what I mean so that we know what's going on and what gets what's scheduled and what if somebody requests something sorry we have that facility is used up we need just so we have a clear picture of that some of the a little bit less spur the moments so we can not overburden our staff overwhelm everybody we'll get that you guys are going to work on that together does anybody have any more questions I just want to um add to what um Mr dafa said um I know that we've talked about how some of our facilities aren't necessarily advantageous for Camp programming because of the art and change over and whatnot but I do want to call attention to the fact that we do need more affordable Camp options I think with funky fun art leaving and becoming way more expensive and it's a conversation in the community right now there are not affordable Camp options so I like the goal of expanding camp and making it inclusive so I just want to make sure we're keeping that part of the conversation as we're looking at the facilities to know that we do need to use some of our facilities to provide Camp which is child care for working parents over the summertime and the way it's structured I mean the idea around a lot of the exhibits most of them happen after like four o'clock so you could use these spaces in two different ways just by how you structure how they put their and put things down the kids things can be put aside so an event or an activity could happen in the very same space that some other the camp is meeting sometimes well sometimes I mean I hear the concern about an art studio you can't it's really hard to have a camp with art on the walls because no matter how careful you are things are get messy so I do understand that concern that it it limits what we can do at the art gallery if we're holding Camp there I'm just saying that we do need affordable Camp so we need to balance everything to figure out what is going to be the best for our community community and the W the most amount of people in our community when we're looking at this yes and we don't plan on using um the 1978 for camp we did do it last summer for the half day and the Half Day Option isn't as attractive and the half day was because there was really no outside space to bring the kids so we went half day for that reason but if we utilize other buildings where we can walk to a park and have some outside space and like lawn and things like that so the 1978 isn't being planned for a camp but we have other buildings that have some outdoor options too hi any Mr D yeah I have three questions um the uh in line 37104 which is the program Personnel it says replace funky fart funky fun art that's tough to say um so and then it says increase programming so the number goes down we spent 352,000 last year spending 310 this year how are we increasing programming and reducing staff well the programming is going to be um these other camps that I mentioned so it's going to be a maple craft Camp we're going to expand that to be the full day get it out of 1978 and then we're trying to add some other camps also like some sewing robotics stem things like that so it wasn't so it's it's not going to take the whole amount that we expended last year because I think fun got up to like 35 part- timers so it's not it's going to be like somewhere in the middle for the new camps to start um and they're not going to be that large of an outo probably like groups of 30 so we're still going to be on boarding new Personnel while some are leaving and then just a similar question the 370 206 Recreation program supplies you talk about more programming but you're proposing to go down from 132,000 that we actually spent to1 125 ,000 is that also because of the art yeah that's what I'm thinking so it won't be like the abundance of that um Long Camp that but we're going to still need some new supplies for the other camps but so and then um the custodian could you talk a little bit in your in your narrative you talked about having a full-time custodian yeah so and it says here remove from py budget is that supposed to be Public Works budget I what prior year oh prior year budget Joe you have to give us the glossery you could tell Joe wrote that because I didn't know what that prior so what does that mean who do we cut that from you're on you're on um yeah go Maybe not maybe you're on that other phone the 2022 budget we had put it in in the 2023 budget Mr Schuster uh removed it okay so we're uh I'm guessing Miss manuso is looking to put it back in in the 2024 budget so so um did you talk I say okay did you talk about what what will be different with this as opposed to you mentioned about out not doing the Outsourcing what what is the diff why why would we want to bring in somebody as opposed to continue to use the Outsourcing well we were trying to um add somebody to work alongside the DPW because they um you know have great custodians but in the summertime we are adding on in the camps to like three visits oh week just to keep everything clean because everybody's eating lunch in there too so I mean there's like big messes um and then the park rest rooms are another challenge that we're having so the outside cleaning companies have come for those three a weeks in the case of Dart to keep everything sanitized and the windows um and everything like that and the park restrooms which were're getting a lot of revisits so we had it set up originally for like once a week then that was in clean enough we were doing twice a week we went to three times and then sometimes a resident will call and say I'm at the park you can't even walk in the bathroom messes like that so we're calling out to get these cleaned so um we used to have years ago a seasonal Park attendant and that job became impossible to fill so it was vacant for a long time couldn't find anybody to do it so um the effort was to try to make a full-time position which would be attractive with benefits and and cover the bathrooms and our wreck buildings in the busy season and you know year rounds in the offseason too so if we were to hire an additional full-time custodian why would we not keep that person in public works where the other custodians are and then just assign that person to the parks during the summer as opposed to hiring another person in Recreation and then having one custodian here and one custodian here and who's doing what and what if somebody's out can you move people I think u m manuso has a need at least in the summer for a full-time person they for for cleaning of bathrooms and camp areas they could certainly work underneath tpw but I don't it would be the same budget impact as a total it would be or would not be would be no no I understand that I'm just looking at if we're going to we're going to add person I just think having two custodial operations doesn't make sense right and I did check with Mr kitner to make sure the salary was in line with his custodians just so there was no so it should it should match up with with the pay so then are we in agreement that they should be under public works well if we decide to do that yeah if we decide to do that I think I think you know a full-time person as opposed to a full-time summer person might be different I don't know I think we have to have that conversation and and just I'm sorry want let's last I was a little confused that 375 203 cultural programming um says cover apothecarium donation what does that me I was gonna ask that to so that I think the column is different because the two what uh the actual spent happen to answer okay yeah oh go ahead uh you worked on getting a uh donation from the aparium to handle the black history month right programming yeah uh the previous uh d uh manager uh spent that money on us spent that money what spent the money on programming in 2023 instead of uh what it was earmarked for which was 2024 so we're now I thought it was earmarked for the ACLU thing yes some was used for that too it's just actual act the actual number at the end of the year was over 35 the actual was so I was trying to explain what like the increase because this actual says 34 but it was actually expended I forget the number money transferred into this account expended okay but I don't think that I mean this makes it sound like someone spent money in 2023 That was supposed to spent be spent in 2024 but I believe it was spent in 2023 for 2023 I mean it was given in 2023 for the black for thought it was $8,300 and it was split some of it was being spent in 23 and then the balance of it was right we'll have to check that out yeah it's for um the portrait show also anything else Mr D no no okay anyone else have questions on the line items no okay you have Capital requests oh no no she was the pool yeah I know I yeah so favorite subject yes our municipal pool you want to kick it off I'm just trying to find the right tab there it is okay go ahead okay so the notes um we're in the increase line items which mostly are minimum wage increased is is the note um for 102 which is is the maintenance staff and Patio staff and then in the 106 line item is front Des staff um these are all hourly workers so minimum wage has gone across the board for everybody and then same for 107 which is the lifeguards line item I'm sorry I didn't hear the last thing you said the life guards line item uh 107 was also increased based on you know minimum wage increasing okay and then printing in 203 went up a little bit so we can print some calendars and Rule signs that we hang around on the upper deck and we try to have programming um calendars in various locations and Furnishings in 218 has increased because we are planning on adding some awnings um off of the snack bar front where we had the temporary tenting up last year to try to offer some shade when you're in the line for the snack bar so that's going to be a retractable off of the front fasia of the building to cover that um same size area and where is the um I know you mentioned it somewhere because I remember reviewing it the other day drives me nuts when you need to look at it again you can't find it right but you remember seeing it um you had made you have accommodated the uh request that we received from residents to add a family changing room yes yes that is in Paul's um engineering oh that's not here it's in uh engineering right we love I think I put it in things we're looking forward to next year is um okay a family that's why changing room yeah it's next all right thank you welcome anyone else have any questions yeah the uh the totals for salary have gone up $100,000 from the actual in 2023 511 to 6117 are you saying all of that is because of the increase in the minimum wage is that up at the top 103 line 13 line 13 oh spent it was appropriated at 552 511 was spent and 617 is requested yeah yeah those are all SE that's all for the seasonal staff yeah I think we when we talked about it was the Merit increases for folks that have been employed for S amount of time the increase to keep keep them interested in coming back what what do we pay the lifeguards per hour they will start next year new hires at 16 but they range on their year in and if their certain certifications so we do have headu guards making some of them 23 an hour they've been with us for a while and how many lifeguards are we looking at for the for this season coming up roughly usually we get between 85 and 90 just because they come and go you know they'll the college kids will leave early some high schoolers will get certified midseason um and then hopefully we'll move up the ranks headguards so every shift we do have two headguards and one manager so there's three rotating managers um throughout also one part of that under salary and wages last year we had uh staffed a four person mid year so there wasn't a full year impact well we expect a full year impact this year so that has some of the reason why this year spend will be higher than ex actually right but the the um minimum wage did not go up 30% correct it increases 80 cents a year yes I no it's over $15 15 and change right this is the last step right so we spent you know if you if you we spent 293 and now we're spending 330 that's 10% increase in lifeguards yeah now if you attribute that just to the rise in the minimum wage it doesn't doesn't make it same thing in in man in the maintenance we spent um just lost it maintenance um we spent in the maintenance 90 90 and they want to spend 90 and 90 but we only spent like 125 last year 125 of 64 that was doing those together oh yeah yeah so I just think that I think this needs to be looked at a little bit particularly when we get to the to the tab with Revenue yeah it shows we got a $500,000 deficit already that we got to take a look at the expenses right because all of our plans for reducing the fee are on top of the deficits so if we wanted to put the 100,000 in like we said that would be a 600,000 coverage of a deficit In fairness though on the revenue we did not plug in um unbalance or Surplus which we used last year and we did not plug in American Rescue plan money either because those are two policy decisions until we do we have either of those do we have do we have Revenue uh Reserve revenue balance we would be using more than 50% of fund balance if we used the same 100,000 that we did did last year and we have $1.8 Million worth of and money that we need to either encumber or spend by the end of the yeah but we have we have we probably have about five department heads who are going to come here and tell us how they're spending that $1.85 million oh for sure yeah so Mr can I ask a question about Staffing I asked this at our committee meeting but I didn't really know if I got an answer if we're opening the pool later this year wouldn't that also decrease staff salary because we're not scheduling to open till mid June this year I don't know how you I would think you would still have to hire them early on before they get jobs somewhere else yeah so and maybe they can work on other things until the pool opens I think the goal is to open it on time am I right I I see an engineer said possibility where if we're able to open on time we certainly want to have the budget to do so we certainly want to have the staff to you know what we are able to commit to the public is opening that Father's Day weekend in June yeah and that was what you reported at the budget shown includes what would be a full year of salary and wage for two reasons seon we want to be able to open on time if the opportunity presents itself and two we do expect to hire guards um at the same time we normally would out of fear that if we don't they'll take jobs elsewhere yeah and we won't have enough staff when we do open yeah use that human power to help us get the property up and get the locker rooms looking great and utilizing them so they would still be um on board as employees because they're used to returning at a certain time and making their summer you know jobs here in Maplewood and we want to keep them okay that okay or you have more questions follow okay Miss CRA nope you walk through this already oh you walked through are we going over the revenue on this pool or not I don't think so we didn't plan to discuss revenue for any Department today but if you have specific questions we certainly can discuss it yeah well I'm just this is I think a particular situation because this is a different than the revenue in the General Revenue this is is a is a utility right so right now just on the numbers without any alteration we you know we're talking five over 500,000 dap right so Mr clog says that you know we might have some Surplus we used 100,000 last year right so we might be able to do something like that again although it does cut it pretty tight so that helps but still a pretty significant Gap even after that and even if we did take a little bit from the other people who want to spend the one point .8 and put it in here that's only a one shot deal because it creates the problem again next year because it's so we don't have that money so somehow we've got to tighten this pool budget up and I will say it again I don't think that we've ever audited the Staffing whether it's appropriate U I go there sometimes I see a lot of people there um I think you know we've asked a question we've been told that we sometimes we over staff so that there's not a line to get in is that correct well the door there moving through yeah yeah and you know I think when people are being told that their taxes are going up maybe waiting in a line for a couple minutes to get in it would not be the worst thing I have to wait in line to go to the movies I have to wait in line to go to a sporting event it just happens so I I don't want to overexp money in this pool because we're making a major policy shift of moving taxpayer dollars in here and we've got to look not just at the revenue side but the expense side we don't do that very well on the pool I agree and we also talked about um looking at our technology to how to make check in and check out easier so that we can and I like seeing that your goal was to see how lower how lower the rates is going to affect operations kind of make them more swiftly because I think that's what you were alluding to with that goal um to help with that staff too and we talked about that in our committee meeting as well so yes and then in the line of front desk um we're looking to scale back definitely on the weekends you know so we were looking at the different attendance numbers and then Staffing that we have on site the guards is pretty much a static number um and you know going to the pool we usually have guards in all the chairs and Rovers and uh The Rovers you know walk around and they had four saves last year so I really do value um the Rover role you know at one time I was kind of looking at it is it necessary is it not and upon evaluation um they do make saves the robers and so the desk and um patio staff is I think where we can scale back and especially during the weekday you know look at coverage so we have employees on they're typically on shift and then we have to look the hours of the youth employees so they can only work a certain number of hours so even if we onboard the same amount of people and they might not get the exact amount of hours because we're shifting out and reducing staff um we're very open to that and changing the operation a little bit especially during the the week days when it's quieter there and then Mr kog I have a question for you so if we if we do reduce membership fees or fee we're not calling membership call fees now we're no we're call user fees user fees we if we if we um reduce user fees then our estimate for us user fees even though we have a record in 2023 of $850,000 would we budget less this year because we're reducing our user fees we were going to be fiscally responsible yes but the state would not require us right just to to anticipate the full amount that we collected the year right okay we might want to we might want to adjust that because we might have more members but I would caution us to not build the situation where we take this leap of of saying we're going to you know on this track of reducing fees and set us up for 20125 where we have a major uh shortfall in this I I would agree with that assessment because one of the large drivers for the pool's deficit is The Debt Service uh we had a $1.9 million bond to replace the filtration system another $1 million bond to resurface the entire pool and our debt service is going up about1 $75,000 from last year so that is a big chunk of that half million dollar hold and that's something that is beyond our control and that is in this pool budget correct sir and the interest rates on those bonds are firm they're not um flexing right they're not going up with the inflation the pickup debt as a note that's basically one year and we're at the mercy of the market but once we strike a bond those become firm numbers so it's not going up because of interest rates going up because of payments Stu not going up Finance yep and just just a sort of a budget question um do these uh Bond payments and interest on the bond payments do these have to be in the pool budget because it's a separate utility or can it be put into the regular budget no it goes into the separate utility because of utility so it shows up on on these These Sheets as opposed to another department administration well that statement last uh last week and the pool is self liquidating okay gives us the ability to borrow 100% right of any debt that we want to take on but that's part of the reason why it it's now paid for out of the utility but there's nothing to stop the the municipality from subsidizing it and sending money over to the utility right okay D that's one of the Mr clo had said one of big drivers and if you look on the expense side under Debt Service you'll see that last year our actual for Debt Service was 264,000 this year it'll be 439,000 can you tell me the line you're on yep the total there is line 49 on the expense worksheets but even with that we're still talking 500,000 so there's a lot of other there's a lot of other lot of other multi-year budgeting approach uh we looked the one category down on uh emergency authorizations that defer charges we are in year three of paying off five years worth of debt so uh we will have another $124,500 payment in 25 and again in 26 but starting in 27 that will no longer be on the books nice don't worry something else will be yeah something else will take it place it always does um so does anybody else have more questions of this but so I'm hearing the uh direcor from the township committee is to focus in on the pool expenses and anticipated revenue and especially um the salaries and what can be done with Staffing so maybe an internal audit of the Staffing how it's figured out and if there's a way to reduce it or you know reduce the expense of it at any rate that all you can breathe and go eat now miss thank you so much thank you okay does anybody need a minute no okay no let's keep it moving I think uh the clerk has a form for us to sign oh yeah I got a couple on my own Mr DeLuca you have a form press this is uh you know that you SE in the audit which you're take texting your next with your pencil initials I'll start do you pass most certainly okay I'd like to call up as the next witness gentleman from the Department of Public Works and your uh your DPW where I tell the whole truth not yeah so you want your gpw up first engineering's next so this one the narrative we got these in well in advance ex thank you okay go through I have a p i hate p and thank you sir you're the important guy here no pictures got no pictures no pictures denied he engineer doesn't look at pictures they do actually those guys are right that's right numbers and roads all they do is make drawings all day Engineers well schema did you get a look at any that um rust color like in in the insection thing or i't had a chance Mar I will get my cough drop already I'm a little under right now but uh and did you talk to Mr Sher it's on my list I promise now on to-do list there's a few of them on there but I I'll get to it all okay all right everybody ready for engineering and the grilling to begining now this is public works first public works yeah thank you uh you have BPW accomplishment and goals just handed out to us for speed reading purposes public works well is the accomplishments longer than the yes very good I like we ask for maybe the top three of each sure yeah of the goals you mean or both the accomplishments and the goals yeah we can read this on our own that yeah otherwise we're gonna be losing time Mr kitner if you could just give um kind of an overview of your accomplishments for 2023 because the public needs to hear how hard you work yeah but also you know and you're hearing a time so give him some time we work hard you do work hard give him some time and he's here in a tie thank you sir it's my pleasure um mayor committee good evening Paul kitner Township engineer and director of Public Works I'm accompanied by my esteemed colleagues here Mike heran superintendent of DPW and Dave Barry assistant Township engineer it's our pleasure to be here tonight this is like the bride and the groom here you on opposite what's going on well I may lose my voice so I have a cough drop and I have them as back up um looking at our accomplishments first of all I have a tremendous staff to work under me that are dedicated every day and I mean this With all sincerity that work very hard for this Township and they are TR truly overachievers I think in many respects um I couldn't be prouder of them and and it's a pleasure to to manage them uh I would say if I had to categorize the important items here uh first of all I would start by saying that we revamped the recycling this year we went to dual stream and that was a big change not just for us I think it was a big change for the whole Township and really the whole Township should get a a hand and you know trying to make this work it's it's uh it's not just one person and and the effort so and thank you for working with me and others from South Orange and on that committee to that was my pleasure I enjoyed it and I I'm just happy that it was successful you know we managed to uh I think increase the Quality quality of the of the recycle stream reduce the cost by about a third and um you know I I I think I think it really made it a significant difference in terms of our ability to get money back we're now getting money back from mixed paper number 54 that was that was a really good win for us um you know we've made a number of changes in building improvements and grounds I would say that um this year a lot of systems went down at systems heating cooling electric systems and my team worked really hard to try to get those back up in order to try to keep people working in the buildings when it's cold out getting heat restarted you know when they you lose electric trying to get electric back on so my team really worked very hard at trying to get them back on roof repairs you know working with engineering hand inand on these things so that's that's another accomplishment we're very proud of um you know tree maintenance I would say uh this is the first year that we bid out trees as a public bid it was kind of like a pilot for us and I think it was successful I think we planted in total with this uh 2023 we planted 350 trees that includes Park trees and Street trees and we used a a company for some of that and DPW did some of that in-house uh you know and I think it was a successful program we're looking to implement that going forward and just carry on our success there so if you had to ask me three projects that come to mind those are those are three that certainly come to mind re really I mean I know you're appealing to the mayor in particular with those three but I think our taxpayers need to know about the significant amount of traffic calming projects that we pursued in 2023 I wish you had how many of those we've done that was a big big deal to Residents the residents also need to know that their tax dollars filled over 2,000 potholes and swept over 2,000 miles of Road resulting in over 300 tons of Road material picked up this includes laying over 800 tons of asphalt that's tax dollar money to use that matters to most taxpayers anything you want to add to that uh well I I only was supposed to name three but if that that would be a fourth for sure I I would list that and uh you know this year in addition to laying down and this is kind of related to engineering as well laying down over six miles of roadway uh we also did overlays as well at DPW so we put down almost a thousand tons of asphalt with Road overlays uh Kendall vanes Court you know come to mind Alberta Pro curving too yeah exactly so um you know we we uh we worked hard at that I think it was that was also successful program and and we're proud of that thank you yeah and a lot of it was also covered in the state of the township address too so you're not being overlooked okay at all thank you we know very much how we know from every monthly two two to thre hour meeting we have how much work there is well I you know I think the interface between the committee and and between our groups is very close you know we have our monthly meetings and we have individual meetings as well so we're in constant contact and I think we're you know we feel the pulse of the township we're out there every day and I think that's important uh you know if you're trying to deliver a good product so yeah and I would ask um Miss angle for the uh Communications committee to think about how to get this information out to the public for those who are interested in reading it I me we hire a public information officer but that will come in a little while it's on the budget that's a different it's on the list yay just thrown it in there so anyway Mr kitner Department goals for 2024 well I think you listed a bunch of our accomplishments we want to carry over a lot of those and move forward and keep going with that momentum I think uh certainly streamlining recycling even more is important important to us electrifying our vehicles right now we have various cars and and smaller trucks that are electric we're actually looking into larger construction equipment that can be used as well and I think Miss kpe and some others uh you know sent us some information on that we're going to look closely at that ask for some demos right so we're we're going to go through that process and try to and try to implement that and I I just want to commend you for that because I was just last night at another Township I won't mention uh a meeting with their Public Works and transitioning to Electric is nowhere on their radar and um I think between all of us kind of putting that on as a priority over the last several years and and you picking it up and doing it is much appreciated because if you weren't we'd just be fighting it's much nicer to have you understand the need and the future savings and the need for investment and where to where to attrition out of gas as much as possible you know it's a lot easier when the technology advances and it has I think it's getting there and it's if it's not there already and I think it's a lot easier to transition it um you know but I think it's important that it's always front of mine when looking at replacing you know equipment yeah absolutely so um you know part of that process is also electrifying our Jitney buses we did receive a grant that we applied for it's almost it's over $900,000 for three electric Jitney buses we've actually submitted paperwork to D it's in their Court we're waiting for them to come back to us but um you know that's going to be an interesting um you know Progressive step forward in terms of electrifying our Fleet um you know increasing efforts to fill potholes innovative ways to do that becoming more efficient working on our athletic fields continuing to go work hand inand with engineering uh you know to try to improve them as much as possible whatever course of action the town ends up taking um you know uh restriping crosswalks center line striping for roads stop bars things that people you know don't May Overlook on a day-to-day basis but it makes a big difference in terms of safety and and uh you know your overall feel on the road so uh and of course implementing Street Aries we're we're going to uh look into that as well we have a mockup right now for a platform for the stery and uh you know we're looking at different options for that to make it more aesthetically appealing for people okay does anyone have I actually go ahead oh I was just gonna ask um you know we've been talking a lot about the greenway and I know we're trying to get approval so would that be in this budget somewhere I know it's not listed as a department goal or anything so just curious well I I could talk briefly about that and Mr we if you want to just add to that uh I know that there's several sketches right now with Pathways and you know showing the greenway uh you know between Jefferson and West Parker the latest sketch I've seen isn't I would say overly uh encompassing in terms of cost so I think the developer a particular developer is supposed to share a portion of that cost in the township that our portion would be fairly minimal so so I think that's something that we we could fit into our budget don't specifically have a separate Greenway task or budget for that though and that's something that we've discussed his budget is able to absorb what we expect the cost for that to be and we by Design kept the cost low so that it's we want to get this done right and at a lower cost we have a greater chance of it getting complete and so instead of things like poor in place curves we have Curb stops that would go between the cars and the walk instead of a full pour of like an asphalt walkway we will improve the surface that's there to make sure that it is at least in our portion the parking lot improve the surface that's there make sure that it's suitable for walking and bike we're not talking you know Mill and repay we we want to get this done in future years as we start to see the use of that area and understand the need maybe for additional investment then I think you know we we have bigger goals and we come back with bigger asks but certainly what we need to get this done is in this budget and it is as uh low a cost as we can responsibly great yeah we did talk about keeping it low so I just wanted to make sure it was in one of these um line items because as we talk about moving to Electric the other way to um remove gas powered vehicles from the roads is to promote walking and biking to schools to get your kids to schools to the train and the greenway is going to be able to help change user patterns and to keep those gas powered Vehicles off the roads so thank you yeah increasing pedestrian connectivity is always a an important thing that we look at both in engineering DPW so so I have a sort of a global question um you're here representing both DPW and Engineering yes and you know we made that change four years ago or so 2020 okay yeah so what do you still think it's working do you still think the synergy between the two departments makes sense you know I I do believe that there is very good Synergy um Mr ran you what do you think of the combined departments if you don't mind me asking um I think the working down is great great working with relationship with two departments combin you know benefit okay all right where it helps is not re being redundant in cost we're talking about cost savings not being redundant and pole filling when we're going to repay a street you know uh the communication is key here because so much of our work overlaps so communicating not being redundant in the cost that's where the savings is and and it's been good good have a real question another question not a real question I meant like a real specific question I do have a real specific question on the um your your line items okay so this is 29124 uh it's line 36 in the uh our sheets here this is the $100,000 for sidewalk repairs for the streetery yes um yeah could you describe what what is that so the Streeter are uh you know we we've handled this since covid and and it's a program where people can dine outside along Ong Maplewood a for example um you know they can they can actually dine in portions of the street that are really typically reserved for parking right so so by putting up you know certain structures certain barricades you know we allow the the uh Merchants to expand their their uh the offering to the residents you know by allowing outdoor dining and um you know I think the town is trying to accommodate the merchants and give our residents a different you know feel and user experience by being able to dine outside and right but we have that now so what's the difference between what we've done and what we're proposing here so so this year we're looking at two things three things we're looking at the implementation of platforms that DPW would provide and build so we have some mockups that we've that we've circulated some pictures on and we're also looking at a combination of uh suitable Planters Andor barricades that would be implemented strategically that would be aesthetically pleasing where you could have plants for example and you could have you know outdoor dining it's nicer aesthetically more pleasing and still have protection from Vehicles so uh so I I so it's a lot of money $100,000 in our operating budget much so I guess Mr weo and and Mr kog some of this is going to have a life expectancy of at least five years right so is are we able to capitalize any of this the there are proposed concrete barriers and I expected the concrete barrier portions we could um capitalize given the overall cost I I would have to talk further with Mr clog but I wouldn't think we could capitalize on the platforms platforms that just their one life expectancy no no yeah that I can understand but certainly any of the planters were're talking about these the ones we saw in the engineering public works you know these are going to last for a while I at least five years so if we could capitalize any of this I think it would be useful to do that I like the idea of the platforms because of the accessibility Factor yeah um people who have strollers or people who are you know of canes or wheelchairs they're able to walk right off the curb onto the into that eating space which I always I think is good thing and eliminate that step down and Step Up it also makes it a level my response though I had asked for this to be put in the operating budget because there is a need for this to be done in the spring if we put it in a capital budget between first and second reading 20-day stopple then purchasing them likely wouldn't receive them until maybe you know that's a good point I and we don't we can't use uh capital reserve for that we could we could consider fully funding it would even fully funding would require two reading ings and a still in a stop we would uh I fully fund still stop no right but still two readings whereas if it's in the budget now and as long as there's a general consensus you have enough have enough ability to buy this now for final approval of the how exact are the numbers uh that estimate of 100,000 I'm sorry how exact is the estimate of 100,000 how many Street Aries are we talking about because when we've met on this it was uh well the so let me stop let me start start over the the platform part that that we you did the mockup of yes um you envisioned that costing how much for like a certain length section so that we could figure out you know how many of those sections we would need and how much they would cost and then the concrete the combination of the platform and the barriers we were looking at a cost of around $133,000 per location for each outdoor dining area so if there's but so conceivably there'd be and we were also talking about charging a user fee sort of for this but we have to also think about whether we're mandating it be used right um and I think we should because it just it'll uniform the big complaint last year was it looked like the whole downtown was under construction for months um so yeah if we can get more exact on that there might be an opportunity to reduce that number that's my point can I ask a question how what's your life expectancy of the platforms because I know that they tried that in South Orange and they didn't last very long I think they had a replaced every year so I'm just curious about that and also the expense I mean there's a lot of creative ways to make prettier barriers than we have lots of towns have done it for Less cost and I know the MBA has been talking about this a lot as well and had I know had some suggestions previous years so I'm just curious $100,000 on Street Aries from our budget to me seems like a lot of money so I would I would question this whole um that this is the first one so yeah SEC that's a argument that we've been having there's a certain um discussion about the level of heaviness or safety or of the planter barricades as a which are more expensive than if we were to use other kinds the platforms not the high cost it's the the barricades and how many of them we need for streetery so that's a been an internal back and forth discussion so the bigger cost is for the actual barricades right platform right because we have to strike a balance between ification no I get it I mean we did it I mean there's lots of way this was all 2020 to 2022 in Sid life so there's lots of stuff out there so I hear what everyone's saying I'm just cautioning against platforms and the life expectancy so if it's a low cost it's just something that might have to be replaced every year every two years yeah or or staining it like you would a deck or so uh committee woman angle we're actually looking at the use of pressure treated Lumbers that we should extend life we're looking at probably anywhere from three to five years in that range is my guess if I had it if I have if I had to estimate that's what I would say the Planters and the barricades you're looking at probably 10 years or even more soon so I think um if there's a way I mean we've had been having this discussion many times and if there's a way to balance the need for certain types of planters that are heavier and more to your liking but also um where they're located um and we've already talked about it so I'm not going to go into detail because it's it's long discussion usually so but we don't want to over engineer it we want to make it efficient and we but you know it's got to achieve the goal of being aesthetic while also being safe so but and also not being trying to bring it down from 100 I think that's I don't know that we would have the support to support that amount of money on this particular thing but wait you're saying not bringing it down or bringing it down by bring it down looking at bringing it down yeah we would have support or not have support I'm confused too I'm sorry I'm saying try to bring down the 100,000 and looking at the uh planters that might serve your purpose and other people's aesthetic purpose while Bringing Down the cost if possible from a 100 well that DPW was building uh platforms themselves and make every effort to reduce the cost and whatever budget this committee decides on will'll make it the very best we possibly can I I mean we've discussed this so much in different committees and I don't think it's going to get cheaper than a 100,000 for what we want to do doing all the labor the cost is actually the labor it's not really the parts really the cost is the the the concrete some of it is not it's a lot we oh yeah no we had discussions about emulating what other towns have done and the the push back was well some of those things that were done were not as safe as they could be for the public right so there's we have to balance the public safety against being more aesthetic and I just don't think it's going to get cheaper than 100 I mean you showed us some designs and stuff and it was uh 300 and $400,000 250 um I I don't see how we're going to get cheaper than a 100,000 well that's what I'm asking you to look at to see how to get it cheaper than 100 because I think there's ways with the number of the concrete planters that are used and then in between would be railings that kind of thing we talked about might bring down some of that cost we're happy to look at it again mayor and I'm sure we're gonna have more discussions on this yes I'm sure we will okay anybody else you don't just uh um I noticed that there's a couple of increases for sewer maintenance and I know in the capital there's some things for sewer um so I want to go back to the separation of the storm sore from the sanitary sore because the sanitary sore we have a user fee we have a assort fee and I think that um we need to keep keep that up to date as far as real costs because I know you have a significant Capital cost for the sanitary sore in Maplewood Village and we should look at increasing the sewer fee to cover some of these sanitary sewer costs that can be identified so you mention like for example here you talk about uh in in line 55 which is 295 202 repairs to equipment increase for repairs to aging sewer equipment so I don't know what if that's sanitary or storm but those are the kinds of things that I would hope you would look at to see are there things that we can clearly identify that are sanitary sore related that we can think about folding into an increase in the sewer user fee as opposed to the general tax fee I'm happy to work with the administration on trying to identify those in in our finance group okay anyone else K Ango any line item ones no Mr daffis nope okay here's run it tight I love it that's yeah DPW do we want to go to capital for DP W you want to skip to engineering and then go to capital for Combined probably makes sense to finish oh engineer okay yeah okay okay so you going engineering sure okay are we going through goals and accomplishments there may yes but you know quickly briefly but thoroughly get nitty-gritty I think this committee already touched on a bunch of our top accomplishments over six miles of Road paved major traffic coming projects that we took on and and accomplished um building improvements that that we've also performed which range from Ro roof Replacements to HVAC upgrades structural repairs made to buildings such as our town hall right here installation of fire uh sprinkler systems at buildings like the bird dwarf and uh you know completing the uninterrupted power supply at the our police building that that that's where that's some of the larger projects we worked on working on our municipal pool in terms of uh replastering our our uh our our various pools three of the pools um performing a townwide study for our sanitary sewer system actually jetting and cleaning sections one two and three in our Township roughly roughly half the township and and uh you know getting video of that and calculating capacities um you know working with utility companies such as New Jersey American water when they performed the major uh main upgrade uh along Baker Street um you know implementing Grant programs that we received applied for received uh such as cdbg do Municipal Aid uh and also installing five different EV chargers throughout our Township at dual Port ports we also by the way talking about sustainability we took second place in a uh design competition for the rain Garden on the 44th Street right and received an award for that and uh you know we just continue to look at trying Progressive approaches and and implementing Solutions in this Township to deal with you know a lot of challenges so any questions on the accomplishments or by any of my colleagues okay goals to reduce your Capital costs reduce Capital costs uh that's always at the top of the list when we can um implementing the road program okay which is pretty robust this year um you know inte continuing to integrate our departments uh the DPW soil batement project you know we want to implement that we just opened bids today and got preferred pricing so we're we're excited to be able to hopefully award that and kick that off and and get that going um you know coordinate repairs to the Civic house which are much needed okay that's part of my funding request for engineering of course uh you know working on major infrastructure projects saner sore projects throughout the township using ARP funding which we have uh we're interested in in trying to maximize that for the township that's a use it or lose it uh approach and we want to we want to use it I don't think we're going to have a problem using it yeah that's a good thing approp I'll be competing for it though um and you know we also want to take a different approach with the sanary sewer and trying to reduce elicit connections so that's going to be part of our focal as well um and last but not least going after grant funding you know we want to free money or available money is preferred reducing the burden on our taxpayers and that's what we always try to accomplish Wow you went put up really backsides got back on backside you know yeah yeah oh it's okay okay any questions on the goals for this year for engineering none so operating yep so engineering has a very straightforward operating budget it's short I do want to make one correction okay I hope it's for the better it is uh Mr kek is going to like me now uh 165 165 209 a new equipment it there was apparently an error in the digit it's not 25,000 it's 2500 oh he already made that in oh that's good so uh that's a that's in the right direction yeah that would have been an expensive computer super computer and I I just want to note under Professional Services last year we had that it it was helpful to have that for a particular drainage project we wanted to make this a little more generic in terms of professional consulting services and part of that part of that I expect is going to go towards traffic coming projects right off the bat so is that um the actual of 281 was for for last year was that um it's 40 is that year asking for now right yes it was 40 last year too but it was just for a drainage project so this year we're maintaining it as 40 um and I think we're just asking for 40 was appropriated only 28 was spent that's what I'm asking we haven't uh charged all the bills yeah it's not complete that work okay okay colleagues any questions on the line items for Mr kitner wow we're saving it all for the capital I'm sure I'm expecting that you want to go back to Capital at DPW okay hold on I gotta find it on my try to sh can't take anyway so we're going to Capital y okay I'm just trying to find it I shared one extel sheet printed are we doing DPW all the capital items yeah I love that spreadsheet for that well done oh I see it okay very easy thank thank you thank you next year cross everything off so 2401 vehicles and Equipment uh first of all I want to thank this committee for over the past three years improving our Fleet prior to that time we had trucks that were 25 years old they were considered Classics okay well there's a market for those and we kept them on the street and that's that's a kudos to our Automotive Group for doing that okay uh using bubble gum and uh tape okay but we managed to keep it running but over the past years attorney is not here but I think that's probably a joke right uh mostly um I I will say that our Fleet is now in good form okay I think the equipment is really uh much needed and it was much needed and it's so appreciated you're giving us the tools that we need to do our job so I just want to thank you so you don't need anymore now well we still have to complete it always going through the list we the first thing off at the time top is a street sweeper okay and they're expensive uh the particular model we're looking at is uh we're asking for $350,000 we sweep anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 miles a road in our Township and it picks up trash picks up debris it also is required by the state for us to do this to keep our storm water catch basins and inets clean and to keep keep our waterways clean so we're asking for that do we have one now we have we actually have three but the one that we're replacing is from 2008 wow and they're they're really your typ typical lifespans on these on these vehicles are eight years eight to 10 years and you know 2008's a old older vehicle uh we're asking for a small bucket truck we use bucket trucks for putting up banners and signs and different things and cars is getting older so it requires more maintenance and it's not as safe a sewer jetpack truck again we've taken very good care of our our jetpack truck but it's older and you know when you're dealing with 40,000 PSI it's a good idea to replace the equipment and keep it in good working order so no one gets hurt um I did have a leaf uh piece of equipment as a high priority I think that could honestly be shifted if if budget demands it to medium priority uh we're also looking for a vehicle called a Ventra it's a very useful piece of equipment we use it all year long we have one we'd like two and it trust me it'll it'll pay for itself no it won't light Tower okay we have a lot of events here and there's a lot of call lighting a lot of these events are at night so I think that would be used also we're asking for another vehicle preferably an SUV we always shoot for electric or hybrid uh if it's available we'll certainly purchase that but that's mainly for our custodial staff right now the vehicles are using are well past their life I listed one is high priority one's a medium priority then the others are just medium priorities law mowers Etc electronic messaging board we have two of them the third one wouldn't hurt for various projects um you know but but but on the high side we're looking at $1 million if you combine it all uh high priority projects were I'm sorry high priority projects we're looking at a million and total it's a little over a million 1.08 million and if you had to in that category of equipment requests if you had to uh say that we could wait until next year for any of those items which ones would those be Comm andais I would say the leaf act uh we could defer that uh we could defer the Light Tower if we needed to uh but I would say we probably need the the other equipment listed what about the one SUV medium priority uh one SUV is medium priority we actually need two vehicles but we really need one because the vehicle that our staff is currently using is in really bad shape right the one could taken away thank you how did the uh leaf pickup go this past year with the um battery blowers rakes and rooms and trucks we we certainly accomplished that Mr her you know you can go up to that mic that way you're heard you just got to turn it on oh okay you KCK Mr clog up either way a leaf season went well we were well equipped we had um you know multiple battery blowers and a lot of backup batteries and um they actually sell quad Chargers so you're able to charge multiple batteries at one time great know leaving less downtime so we uh we managed better than I expected you managed better what I think we did better than we expected to do good good I think it was that's what I was hoping okay so that mean that is that one of the reasons the leaf vacuum is probably not that important this year if they're handling it well that's one of them and and the it has limited uh use it's used you know during one time of the year primarily and yeah you know it's not as critical right so if that and did you notice or do you have any numbers on the amount of leaves that were taken this year I don't have firm numbers it's it's over 12,000 yards but it's you know it's it's less I believe than last year yeah that's I just don't have firm numbers we're still we're still processing the final payments from when they collected it okay you only had to pick up once from my house but okay that's good to hear and so yeah I would say no to the leaf vacuum for sure zero I had no pickups for myself oh you had zero I thought you said zero no trucks you said no pickups no got it okay never mind um okay any questions on these anybody so your number one is the leaf back no the leaf back is gone yeah the leaf backs out yeah sewer jet truck is something I think you really wanted right absolutely uh I think one through three is certainly the highest priority the vent track is also very high because it's just so useful it really gets its use it's got multiple attachments it it works all year long it salts are are walkways it plows snow uh it has various attachments it cuts grass air rates air rates are are uh Fields you're talking about the street sweeper no the vent TR GNA say that no the vent TR I'm sorry um so that that that's a fantastic machine okay anybody have any thoughts Capital request no we only got one definitely out of there that's not good I got a you got more okay maybe we could could just explain what your role is going to be question coming back to us sure recommendations the we first starting with a goal in mind and the the CFO and I have discussed this at length in terms of what is a responsible amount to B for this year we our goal at least to present to you was $6.5 Million we we have been a little over that in the last two years I think we've been about $8 million last two years we're starting to see the increased cost of debt service from that and if we add on to that you know usually we go out to permanent financing every three years been three years we we um permanently Finance another $24,000 in improvements we will really see another large spike in debt service annually and so we think responsibly 6 and a half million is our goal so after the presentations we'll we'll take some feedback from the township committee we know you know we have some I have some ideas on what we can cut and I'll present back to you $6 and a half million dollar and if you want to go over that a priority uh in order of anything additional at least in my mind that I think you can is that a fair does that meet your expectations it's very helpful know yeah so that one we not we've been rless for the last years yes I will give you $65 million where the capital projects that I think are a priority and then everything else after ranked okay so we should continue to express our interest in some of these you'll come back to us with what yeah but I want to hear your your your interest is I'm sorry my my recommendation will be based off of your interest my bosses and but also you know I have some interest and where I think we may very smart move and he's not even a politician very smart my interest is your [Laughter] interest okay all right you had um buildings and grounds on here as capital request thank you mayor uh buildings and grounds we broke it up into high priority versus medium priority uh you know starting off with our fire Department this is our fire department number two on boen Avenue the building's furnace needs to be replaced and you know we've made a I think we're we I don't want to say policy I I want to say we're trying to go with green alternatives for our buildings and rather than use a a a furnace even if it's a high efficiency furnace that produces Hydro you know combustion and uh hydrocarbons Etc uh we're really looking at options such as heat pumps and it's a little more costly but over time it uses less energy it's more efficient and certainly more grain so for the fire department you know we're asking for I have down 400,000 we we probably could get it cheaper maybe 350 if if if we shop around but that's that's a number that we're trying to secure and we the work needs to be done for that building it says electrical and roof as well there is also o an electric upgrade that's happening at that building and and there's also uh some roof repairs that we're looking at as well so combined that's why I have 400 but combined we could probably do this for 350 if if we tighten tighten up things I think we could probably do 350 what's your next next item is deart uh air conditioning there's an upgrade that's required right now it's malfunctioning uh that's a $440,000 Improvement 106 Bernett Senior Center uh we have condenser coils and roof again uh you know the HVAC system and doing the second half of the roof which was never completed uh we're looking at $60,000 we're also looking to improve the mini split systems in our police building this is for the UPS system which we recently upgraded as well as dispatch rooms obviously those two uses are super critical and important um and we're also looking for uh our town hall it room the mini split air conditioning upgrade as well at 175 we have some other medium priority projects um you know if funding does not permit you know we could get by if these were not funded on the high side we're looking at a million dollar and uh 1 million 72,000 but in the lowside high priority projects we're looking at5 152,000 any questions from anybody or thoughts comments what is a heat pump oh it's a alternative to furnaces and things but it's a whole sis I'll let you explain because I'm stupid about these things uh in simpl simplistic terms it's just a more efficient way of you know heating the building using electric electric power as opposed to burning combustion fuels so and it's more efficient but it's also more expensive at the beginning but then it saves money in the long run less operating cost and much much cleaner and Greener okay so as between o201 and 02.06 which one is a priority it was the first by w v don't know the fire department yes I I would say the fire department uh the deart air conditioning is important uh the PD min mini splits are certainly important um and then it it is important as well those four projects I think are are pretty critical that's 552 th000 you just was say right I do think I would submit that the Memorial Park Amphitheater electrical box replacement is a priority as well because we have so many events there right we do have a lot of events that use it we have received some complaints about that through various users uh it is an older older box and it's corroded inside so yeah what inside it's corroded inside when you open it so I would I would make that a priority uh but you know as between the two locations the two firehouses if you think that um the second one on this list here could wait until next year is that is that your assessment that's the assessment I yeah we spoke internally and we think that the smaller Firehouse I'm boarding that actually that that is in worse shape okay yeah so there you go we save 500 there yeah not save but you know we have to prioritize we're not spending it yeah okay for engineering okay always we have our seat bels on yeah this is the list okay um mayor we'll start with 241 my first request which is you know the road program right and every year it's every year you ask for around two million and every year you get about 1.1 that's that's the process um we're at 1 point9 million with what we consider our higher priority roads I just want to make it clear whatever the committee decides on in terms of a budget whatever is available we're happy to work with it and we'll make it the very best we can did you um submit a road list is is this it and this is it too you want to see the map this is it got it yeah the map is great we we want and and I I gotta thank Mr Barry here he put that together he did an excellent job and what we wanted to show was really you know we wanted to show the public the equity in terms of considering our roads because I know there were comments in the past thank you this this graphically shows the distribution of Roads these are the the higher priority Roads live on each side of town are considered yes yeah did you prioritize these are that is this the order no that's 2023 that's the uh we we have the priority here mayor and I could I could go through it quickly if you want um yeah because I'd like to know which ones are what you think are in the worst shape okay on Court Avenue we only have one got we got it on here oh by the time just go through it for the public too because by the time I find the right spreadsheet correct me too Concord a between Lexington and the town border it's a flat road with drainage improvements that are needed it's in bad shape which one I'm sorry Concord AV okay okay Porter between schaer and the town border another road that's in bad shape and in need of work Oak viiew wait hang on Porter's not even on here Porter's not on here Porter's not on here bro I don't think you did quarter I don't know if we have that one Porter's on your list in your narrative in your um Porter we did last year no no porter porter porter I know the echo in here good let's let's let's use the graphic because if there is a difference I I want to use the graphic here so Dave we we thanked you too soon messed up we'll start with Maplewood AV Maplewood AV between Walton and Jefferson uh there was a traffic coming request there we also have a design that we uh developed which would improve circulation and safety at the intersection by realigning things and uh you know the roads in very bad shape so that road is for consideration uh Beach place from Academy Street to Prospect Street that's the limit and that's also not in great shape Page Road from Irvington AV to Parker AV that's for consideration Garfield Place from coolage road to bav yes please we hear about Garfield Place every year yes please Alberta Road from bav to War Road uh Oak viiew AV from Oakland Road to Ivy Terrace parting place from bav to jacobe Concord AV from Lexington to the town border Inwood place from Maplewood AV to Woodland this is also medium priority or this is just high priority is medium okay that's the high priority so that's and then I'm sorry Washington Park the full length you know I'm told that that road hasn't been done in Forever right and and we hear from those residents every year as well um and where's what about porter porter between what and what Schaefer and the town border you g tell me it's on the spreadsheet it's on the it's on there oh yeah I didn't know that was even up there sorry we also have medium priority roads uh Harding a between boin and jacobe this is above the 1.9 million that we're proposing Beret Terrace and Ivy and Ivy uh that requires extensive drainage and also Inwood Road that's obviously in our downtown and in the heart of our Township but you know that's in poor shape and we actually contemplated a restriping uh plan for that as well so improve parking so Inwood is listed on the map right in Wood Place from mport Avenue to Woodland yeah yeah so I'm trying to get a sense of how many roads are on there high priority nine roads okay total of 12 and and this map represents your top priority or what 11 this is 11 and that's because Porter that's C Porter oh okay this is everything too Bernett and Bernett and Ivy are not on this yeah so it was a good try it's good try well tell us what you intended please not ready for prime time on this one well tell us what you intended please the intention in this graphic was to relay the distribution roads across the township uh because we've heard that uh from residents there's been an unfair unfair distribution of attention in this matter um this is our attempt to illustrate that Equity yeah your attt to illustrate Equity but let's let's let's get rid of this map because it summer number seven which is a high priority is not on this map either okay so let's get rid of the map because we don't want this to get out because what your your I think your goal is your goal is correct but this is not doing ready to go yeah the intention was to show equity and and and the honestly the the it'd be nice to see what the past years were on a map because I I don't think there's ever been intention for pull that together it's always it's always traffic volume condition of the road drainage things like that that go into it so um but it'd be nice to see how widespread I mean that's a back burner thing you know not you have got plenty to do before then may we're happy to put that together yeah just so I can see sure there's perception and okay moving on if there's no questions 2402 environmental abatement so I'm happy to say that I'm recommending deferring this to 2025 based on our bid opening today there's basically two parts of tpw that need a batement and uh you know the first part the large part is hopefully going to get awarded based on our results today the second part is is the lower section and that I think could be deferred to 2025 so that's my recommendation okay 2403 building improvements this is always a tough one to get through yes we start off with miscellaneous building improvements 150,000 this account catcha this is a catchall and it's used in almost every year the uh Hilton roof we listed this as phase two for the slate roof Improvement but the fact is we awarded phase one this year and uh that includes the parit wall and the flat roofs we were told by several roofing contractors that the Slate is in good shape and we should be able to get a few years out of it so we're recommending we defer that cost good until next year well let's just make sure that we are prepared to bring the Slate guy back if we have problems because absolutely we had problems this year and this this whole roof has been a fiasco because we put money in we took it out to do this building here and we have severe leaks over there so if we're going to push it off let's just make sure that we're repairing the Slate understood okay Library can stay open while that work's being done yes yes the third item uh Civic house we uh mentioned before we're looking for funding to actually launch that project we have fully approved plans from HPC and uh shipo and we'd like to to make those improvements they're much needed 60 Woodland uh the doors now we put a price in at 35,000 a piece there's eight doors we're asking for that's $280,000 yikes where where are we with that project so uh February 6 the bids are coming in February 6th the bids are coming in we rebid the project the first time we bid this out we did I remember that so we rebid and we reached out to people yes we did to bid big package to approximately a half dozen contractors today and these were contractors that work with on historic projects they're qualified to work on the project and and we got that list from HPC from their list so okay but I just caution to not be too optimistic because we did some work to shop it around last time as well but there's this is very intricate work that not a lot of people are qualified to do and they're taking apart individual doors replacing individual pieces there hasn't been much interest with contractors so we're hopeful and I think it'll inform any future decision that we make I just don't want the town to be too optimistic and is 35,000 per door what we were looking at before to with the first bid no the first bid received how much on the first qu is 50 50,000 but included in allowance the first door so and 50,000 for each door thereafter so you're such a party pooper we can't be optimistic no bo manage your expectations oh man right because of historic historic doors restoration Yeah well yeah it's a little bit ridiculous yeah think $50,000 a door yeah I know yeah yeah so um if feel only have a few vendors we do have if this does not work out we do have an alternative plan to reduce the cost so we could entertain that if if we don't get preferred what's the alternative plan not ready for prime time though right yeah I don't know if it's ready fore time okay yeah I'll I'll listen at the next engineering Public Works committee then okay okay thank you moving on uh 60 Woodland siding replacement we have an allowance of $250,000 that's based on the recommendation uh from USA Architects are architect and that's essentially stripping the aluminum aluminum clad siding from the building which is dented in many areas it's perforated in many areas and you'd be stripping that and res and at least restoring and replacing where necessary damaged uh siding at the at the building I think that's kind of high but might come in with just restoring the cedar shingles basically you're is that the whole building no just the back part by the door that's that's just the rear portion you are correct it probably is High may but you know in terms of budgeting and planning we always hope for the best but assume the worst yeah I think we're optimistic yes very optimistic more so than the doors uh moving on we're looking at some money 150,000 for waterproofing and repairing the Bergdorf building they have some water infiltration problems there that have to get resolved see this is th this drives me in particular crazy right we're going to spend all this money on the Woodland which is great we should spend money on the Woodland it's one of our awesome facilities I'm not fighting that but then you go at the Bergdorf and the Bergdorf gets an alarm panel replacement and some basement renovations to aliviate flooding nothing about lighting nothing about stage nothing nothing about new seats nothing about the roof nothing about making the Bergdorf function in the manner that we want it to function committee mfus I could comment on a few of those things the stage itself we've talked with Recreation and there's a plan to actually have the stage replaced if the stage remains you know DPW in 2023 made significant structural repairs to it and if it remains in place we would have to sprinkler it so we're working hand inand with Recreation on that and you know my expectation is it will be upgraded at some point yeah um in terms of the roof the leaking that's occurring in the bathroom we believe is associated with other things that possibly are not related directly to the roof so we're trying to get that resolved there have been numerous roof repairs in the past uh through various contractors and chimney repairs as well masonry repairs to that building um so you know and the lighting itself self DPW did uh install some upgrades in terms of the lighting near the uh handicap ramp uh if additional lighting is required we can accommodate that through building improvements so that would be part of that 150,000 building improvements account any questions on that no okay moving on um the alarm panel I think you mentioned this Mr dfus uh you know we've had a lot of issues with the alarm panel there going off during events and uh we want to bring in a nonproprietary panel that any company can work on which would be more reliable so we're going to start there and there's other buildings that we're going to probably implement this in as well 75k for that again we're we're including enough I anticipate it's going to be less than that but I want to be able to I want to ensure that we can get the project done and that includes also any engineering could be devices as well it could be devices as well it could be it could be you know Co monitors smoke monitors you know sometimes when you replace the panel you also have to replace the other fixtures so we're we're again we're planning for the worst case scenario uh we're also including the greenhouse heat pump that needs a furnace right now it's an oil-fed furnace very inefficient very dirty so we're calling for a heat pump here it's it's a greenhous and we're looking for a sustainable approach there so we're asking for approximately $240,000 for that like originally you were talking about a gas line to the greenhouse there was there was talk at one point uh if we were going to use a high efficiency boiler to run a an updated gas line from from town hall across the park and lot up through the greenhouse but with the use of the heat pump requiring just electric we wouldn't have to upgrade that that gas main so that's a savings right there we getting any uh contribution from the Garden Club on this you know checked out I think they were they did they had raised some money for this so yeah just check with it I will thank you last but not least I think uh Miss manuso mentioned this earlier the uh pool building there's a family changing room that is being planned this year as well as painting the exterior of the building and you know replacing some fasal boards that are rotten and and gutter upgrades that type of thing um you know giving the building a little a stupid question to ask what is a family changing room it's a gender neutral room where people can change thank you more intimate okay yeah which is something that people have asked for so factoring in all these costs it's a 1.68 five million as it's stated that's but you stopped yeah that's his building improvements only that's his building improv that's his building impr now he gets into the real yeah the real money roads and drainage yes I thought maybe you just forgot to delete that whole bottom [Laughter] no wishful thinking I try okay if we have no questions there we will move on 2404 so this is a drainage project we've been involved in for quite some time Maple Terrace drainage yeah have there yeah Maple Terrace not Maple a yes Maple Terrace yes that's my mistake I'm sorry oh um so where the Project's at now is it's with d and our Consulting engineer working with my group our group uh recommended Detention of water within the street itself to increase the capacity of the system we have a serious flooding condition out there that's existed for many years and uh you know this project uh we've learned a lot going to D back and forth and and working out things uh but to make this work we think that this detention is warranted and we agree with the Consulting engineer on this um detention would be where and it' be in the street underground but I mean like on Maple Terrace or along Maple Terrace yes we'd have big pipes in the ground that would hold some of that water it's very dense the uh neighborhood there's a lot of you know houses there and there's not a lot of places to put this so we would be placing this in the street uh you know but unfortunately we know that there was a tragedy there during in Ida and uh to respond to this you know we're looking for some additional funding uh there's also a mitigation component with Wetlands that we would have to deal with so that in total we're asking for an additional $380,000 for this drainage approvement there's already money budgeted for Maple Terrace improvements right there is money and I detailed that in my uh form here I listed the accounts good luck finding that what's addition the whole thing is about $800,000 about 900,000 900,000 $900,000 almost a million doll that includes the drainage in the road extra capacity correct thank you it's expensive project uh moving on 2305 utility repairs so obviously we're in the process of looking at sanitary and storm water infrastructure I'm sorry I just want to interrupt for a question that's on my head about the Maple Terrace thing for the retention will that also um improve anything down hill from Maple Terrace absolutely so uh locally there would be improvements because there's more storage volume and downstream there would also be improvements because the water's getting metered out slower right as a result of the storage volume well that not going to solve every problem right but it it will improve the situation that like help does it help all the way down to like Baker Street and that far down or just more like no it it's the Terminus is uh you know in Milburn it goes on like to Ridgewood and right because it gets diverted on Ridgewood into Milbourne right it it goes into Milburn yeah the down stre milb gets the benefit we don't get the benefit Mone that was my question have we hit Milbourne for any money this pipe discharges the ultimate discharge point is Glenn have in Milburn oh all right I was picturing it the complete reverse all right my bad yeah it makes a right sorry go ahead okay 2305 utility repairs uh again we're dealing with San har sewer and storm we're asking for $150,000 this would be various locations uh last year we had an issue on Tiffany place with a particular pipe that we discovered and uh you know I think this money be put to good use if we could get it 2406 Springfield Avenue Phase 2 this is a do grant that we applied for and received we received a total of $398,000 of funding from do the project this is phase two so this is you know Ruckers to Milburn Avenue um the project itself is a million doll project but if anyone driving Springfield Avenue realizes that it's getting old and it needs it needs upgrading it does yeah and and the uh what did we get for the phase one from the state about the same amount we got more actually for phase one I I don't hold me to this I want to say it was around $450,000 give or take so out of the 2 million project 800 we're going to get close to 750 uh more than that 800 yeah it's it's going to be like around 875 I believe this is almost four we got four and this is a reimbursement thing right this is a reimbursement so we have to front the money and the state will pay us back you know once the Project's awarded they'll give us a voucher for 75% of the of the grant amount uh it's a good program and allows us to do a lot of Roads 247 cdbg we've done this before these are just ramp upgrades uh we're continuing this uh various locations in the township uh we as we're asking for 225,000 cdbg normally gives us anywhere from 190 to 200 in that range are we going to spend more than cdbg gives us we always put in a little more and spend a little more because a we want to maximize the grant funding and B it's better for us in future funding if we utilize the full Grant amount so we've always we always ensure that we use all of it that we can 2408 traffic cing various locations so last year I want to say I put in 200 or 200 I think $200,000 uh is is what I was received I'm looking for a little more we have many different traffic coming projects and big ones that are coming up so we're going to need some extra money for this and funding you know we talked about Irvington ad we talked about Parker in the past so these are all projects that we want to look to fund and yeah that treatment to the intersection I sent you um I was envisioning Parker as that being a good way to alert people that there's an intersection coming up in front of them because it works really really well I'd urge you to take a drive on Park in Summit okay off Springfield Avenue and dumps back out on to Broad Street I was curious I think in your email you said that the pavement changes though I was curious for bikers if that would be if how the no it doesn't really change it's just kind of it's just a little bumpy it's not like a it's not like a a strip you know the rumble strips it's not that it's really just like an overlay on top of the existing as in the middle that that just makes the intersection more visible and then the crosswalks are on the outer side oh when I call Aaron I'll I'll talk to him about this I know I told you to come okay um moving on 2409 we're looking to finalize the EV charger project here at Town Hall that includes a series of level one charges for our fleet vehicles it also includes uh five level two chargers for for future Vehicles all you know also for you know uh the residents to use so we're looking for a little additional funding we haven't we've actually advertised this project twice in the past and weren't able to fund it based on funding so we're just asking for a little more with that I'm confident we could get this awarded um 2410 in-house Engineering Services this is uh you know typical every year we ask for this it's an allowance for us to charge capital projects for in-house engineering costs 2411 deart field reconstruction uh we're looking for an additional $50,000 that's on top of the 102,000 I have in an account already which I've listed here that would be how much that you already had 102 102,000 that's what I thought he said but I thought it was weird that it be and what we're looking for I didn't echo in here what we're looking for is money to get a consultant all right to move forward with possibilities for us to upgrade this yeah this field we've done soil testing and I'm not going to I don't think this is the form to get it too much into the detail but you know the field has some concerns and issues we're going for we're going for a state grant for this right yeah $100,000 I think yes for the design yes so then the 50 is on top of the 100 or design only the 50,000 would on top of what we have in the capital account already for which is 100,000 left so if we got the 100,000 from the state it would just Subs substitute for this we could keep this for future work absolutely okay yeah section uh request 2412 sanary sewer improvements various locations um you know we're looking to work on sections four five and six and get that designed so far we have one two and three done we want to finish the to and so this is just the the televising this is this is the design fees and the work that's needed to get to get this on the street for sections four five and six there's survey work that's needed there's GIS work that's needed so this is to get that package on the street awarded the actual the actual work itself may be upwards of five to six 00,000 to to you know televise the rest of the township based on the original funding the pricing that we got moving on 2413 the police building we talked briefly about this the uh the heat pump we're looking to you know install this total cost we're looking at is $650,000 we have 298 right now in capital accounts so I'd be requesting three 352,000 what's the submit the grant to sustainable Jersey how much of a grant 500 500,000 we are applying for a grant which yields up to 500,000 through Sustainable New Jersey so if we can get that money that would be fantastic and they'll only fund it if it's a heat pump and not the high efficiency boiler that we met about they're looking for green projects and not just green projects they want to see projects that are already designed that are you know people have committed to municipalities have committed to and and we have that we actually have this underway right now in design so that would be one that we'd have to pay for and then get reimbursed with the grant it's a reimbursement Grant yes moving on 2414 environmental improvements various locations we always put this in every year it's for asbest or unknown environmental hazards that we may encounter um 2415 safe roots to schools we did win a safe roots to schools Grant uh I want to note that Mr Pama was tremendous and essentially wrote the wrote wrote this and got this funding um you know but we're looking we're looking to implement this there's a long process the state will actually pay for the design fees all right through the grant program but the process is long it takes a while so it probably won't get constructed until 20 late 2025 maybe 2026 but the funding of the of the design fees that's actually paid for by this by the state so I'm deferring we I think we have enough now to get us to next year I I'm proposing to defer this 2416 sanitary sewers um this is specifically the siphon at Maplewood AB this is where the Crooked Burke is you know we've had reports of algae Looms in the uh in the Crooked Brook and you know we're thinking it could be from from uh this siphon so we're looking to actually get this on the street this year get this repaired there's a number of ways to do this and uh we're looking for just some design fees as an initial startup for this repair where would the money come to repair if these are just the design fees this we were considering using ARP funding to this would be a good project for that we're expecting depending on what it is it could be up to maybe $500,000 so the 50,000 could come from the sore fee the user fee sry it's underlining twice on much she as is 20 board- well sary sewer improvements so 2416 is your interest is not included in 2412 um it's separate from sanitary sewer Improvement yeah 2412 is is more of a um like a catchall for multiple areas whereas correct 2416 is specific to that Maplewood AV yeah that's well said okay moving on 2417 air conditioning for this very room that we're in it's a large volume it's historic and it's it would be expensive to install but we are this would be this would be a low priority for yeah low priority I think really just and you're never and you're never going to get it past historic preservation yeah I mean we have 500,000 I would rather the Woodland because yes we're hardly ever in here agree well we tried to do air conditioning the Woodland again we were opposed it was too much expensive do it the historic way even though air conditioning is not historic anyway move on yeah but the building is let's moving on 24 interior not exterior yeah go ahead no that air conditioning hbac equipment would be exterior so okay that's one way to look at it well it is the 248 I'm sorry 2418 map this is the Maple Crest park playground this is an inclusive playground that we're applying for grant funding for right now I know Dave and and Mr weary are are spare heading this and Miss man so um right so doesn't there need to be money in that one or is it missing in mind it's a it has a potential to be a large Grant award from the state right right make Awards between 500 and 750,000 so that plus plus we've already have through open space for improvements that may oh okay right right right I think we could do we might be able to do it without plus money yep 2419 dredging the east branch of the raway that's limited dredging and um this is something that we've talked to the residents about I know Mr DeLuca you're aware of this too and this is money basically to do that work um does it did we decide that that would help so because I feel we didn't our Consulting engineer downloaded the data from FEMA and ran their models and they concluded that dredging this area is actually is actually more effective than removing the dam so this is going to help a number of houses on denell road Who currently experience flooding it would help them gon is it gonna help during an Ida no no and then it's there are also wall repairs that are needed in there right there are and we have a plan to meet with each of the residents and and go over options think there's going to be an open discussion on you know how to address this and how to move forward with that as well okay we'll talk more at engineering sure I look forward to that okay that's that's the end of the capital I do have o OST TF and I and I have some personal requests I don't know if you review that here no we won't no yeah not tonight okay OST I don't know that you've got the OST yet yeah it's here it's here yeah no your your requests are here but I we only have the osdf that the the town form heads would like to right I know but that should go to OT o OST first doesn't have to come here first it's usually later and they have to review them anyway so I'd rather get their recommendations have them present we already know what you've got I'm happy to return and go over any of it yeah I don't know that you'll need to but okay okay is that all Mr kitner I think that's all I have and the play and the playground is not in there in the OST what no we haven't put the play but we have funding from previous year yeah it's from before like around four or something like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay any other questions for yeah enger yeah I gotta get a new water bottle I need a break uh does anybody need the our engineer to stay here during our break no no but thank you we want to thank him and his team more than that don't let him treat you like that we want to thank him and the superintendent and Dave Barry and everyone else thank you guys are awesome thank you committee thank you mayor need some air conditioning after that I am freezing I'm actually to go get my my request I'm I'm also gonna go test for Co when I get home oh no think so your thing is my come help me hand you sh I'm going over there I know I I I got the signatures already that's good hey Liz if I get the ad to you by tomorrow you'll be able to get it in next week's paper Bo they why you at I want to make sure still aw oh everybody gets one they're taking it home then nobody has to deliver these are good for you I don't use these okay you use them right yeah R just D on you yeah all the time Miss Roger Miss Roger ready I talk to Roger twice today he miss start putting in a good word for me Roger tell him that you got to take the CFO golfing does I need an iPad what's that did you put my iPad request in the um yes about right I can do my work on my feet I don't have to sit behind a barrier oh that'd be nice wouldn't it huh that'd be nice wouldn't it right I am not into long breaks I want to go break the harder it is to come back how you been I've been good Dean how about yourself all right it's good to hear oh the audit okay yep yay that Joe husband says that it seems like a lot of money for the street sweeper so he actually has to well one truck or two he's had a little bit of experience there yeah yeah some other we'll let DPW know I can let PA know but [Music] still I mean I look problem with equipment these days Le time what' you say problem with a lot of the capital requests for equipment Vehicles long oh why not they're not going to get them we're just getting we're just getting in our 2 I know I know like the police vehicles I didn't battery pack home you need a battery pack I do I got one girl my iPhone right I'm on the last 10% of my phone I purposely did not bring my laptop because I have to carry the heavy bag got you you have the cord too because I can give my cord if you need yeah yeah because I have an iPhone 12 I'm not planing for anything more until they give me a free phone because that's how I am fiscally conservative there you go okay ready awesome thank you so much let's do this I know it's tough where's the fruit fruit what's that what fruit that look like blueberry blueberri on meat is you decorate with you you cook the meat in Fruit a little bit what right here we go okay all right let's do this let's go so oh you got a handout too I'm G to pass it along okay we're behind schedule go oh okay what did you hand out your clerk Municipal budget wait you both gave us clerk stuff from opposite ends what what is this is that pile supposed to be passed down we back live no it's only one thing oh we're back live just FYI oh good thank you I have this I don't know what I got this one okay more General code what's the other one besides General thank you I don't think 360 360 yeah yeah it's all General code they're cornering the market of Municipal yeah clearly okay we went to her party ones and we and we weren't impressed no we weren't contracted with them and they were upset that we were there okay why is this what is going so miss Ritson hello there welcome to the meeting you're always at um would you like to go into a description of the needs of the clerk's office well first I'm going to give you the uh highlights the achievements sounds good so um I'm proud to say that on the achievement side uh I mean the number one achievement was the hybrid meetings in this Township committee room yep and utilizing the equipment that had been purchased by previous administration and we saved the township thousands of dollars by reconfiguring hearing the system and allowing for both in-person meetings and the option of participation via Zoom which you all requested and I'm not going to take total credit for it at all it was Amari Mr daap well uh and we luckily found a contact from Mr weary who was instrumental in coming here uh from hob was great was great so you know what it was a real team effort to make this happen and be what it is now and um of course Amari had a lot of you know technical expert um input as well as Mr weary I found out he was no slouch in the it field okay your second favorite uh okay well I'm going to give more than two I really feel like oh that's fine online forms uh the department has pretty much in 2023 transformed all the options for residents to uh apply for so many uh forms um so many of our yeah our permits and parking online is a reality parking for merchants commuter even our Lots even our overnight uh lot options and on street for those 20 homes or so that qualify everything is now online uh document scanning we've done a lot of that we still um have a lot more um to go but we started actually um scanning resolutions ordinance is and um you'll see later on I'm looking for a little bit of money to um pursue that further and the reason why I said I wanted to have four five or six um achievements is in the back corner I want to give Ed recognition he became the uh Township regist and I'm very very proud of him and you know we were able to get uh cut ties with South Orange who for almost a year helped us uh with filling in and um again Ed congratulations he's doing a super job there's uh a lot of availability we don't have appointment only anymore and people just walk in and or uh service that way so as you can see I have a ton more achievements but I'll just stop there um how many Oprah requests did you get and cont distribute over ,00 okay so then uh as far as our goals go we want to uh continue providing more online forms and applications and uh we're F working on final touches for renewing ABC licenses and only discussed uh just this morning was Cannabis licenses um Mr weary myself and the township attorney discussed that and we're looking forward to other documents that pass through the office people really um seem happy that they can do things online now and uh I'm proud that we've been able to achieve that as well as um our bingos and raffle licenses simple things like that but you know what we get a lot of them um so again the document scanning storage program uh I'm looking to definitely advance that further so you have my narrative and you can see that we I want to touch on one more thing okay and that's the continued education of the department very very important to me and to you as well I know it is yeah and uh you know we had Mr shinski become the uh regist this year he's also going to begin the registered municipal clerk certification classes and um I I spoke to the township committee a couple of years ago you all remember and I said the only way to get this department up moving and on its feet was for you to start to you know recognize that we were going to bring people in that had some knowledge and also those that are interested in getting more knowledge so that you know there could be a succession plan yeah possibly right so again uh we have had um I am a registered municipal clerk a certified M municipal clerk and a certified Municipal registar now we have the deputy who is also a registered municipal clerk and a certified uh Municipal regist and the assistant to the Township Clerk is also a regist I'm really proud about that and um I'll stop there okay you said now you handed out this code yeah we need to update our code you want to see my budget and your budget uh if you have any questions of course but I did give out the code because we need to move forward on this I think the township committee snw is missing a one before the 24,000 yeah I'm sure that where is it Mr D is trying to get joking joking he's only kidding proposing a $20,000 raise per I am proposing I just ask question okay so the code can you go back all right so yes some uh members of the township committee were here when we made uh the proposal to uh upgrade or code and what I'm Pres presenting to you tonight is um we really haven't done anything in about three years okay and we need to um invest a little bit of money $1,380 to have General code go over the 59 updates we've provided since we became cified in 1995 so what it is is 59 and that's a lot 59 times because we do about four per year so figure out how many years that's been that we need to have our legislation looked at make sure it's correct these are the laws of the township of map extremely important and we're posting them we're giving them out to you know residents contractors and they need to be accurate so we need General codes help and they will go over all of our legislation which is I don't even know how long it would take for one two or three people to do it on our end um but 59 updates is a lot since 1995 we need to move forward so that's in your budget on line that's correct 120 218 yes 21 it was 10 so now it's all right um any questions that you might have do I have a question on uh 110 203 special events I knew you would so we're going from 19,000 we spent about 11,000 I guess Mr Mr clog these 2023 actuals they're not like final actuals right they're up at some point or they close to final no they're pretty close to final okay just the Tails bills coming in okay December so we budgeted 19 we spent 11 and now you're asking for 45 yes and I believe there's also something in the administrator's budget about special events too correct so what what are we doing here well Administration pays for Fourth of July and this pays for juneth I don't know why they're separate but that's how they had been set up so that's why so there was 19 last year she only spent 10 but be at least 30 fireworks on fireworks on their own if they're theze we host but we split the cost that's split though with South Orange right yeah is split with South Orange and I also had a question why Fourth of July wouldn't be on this list if um all these other ones are too that was my question your question because they have Memorial Day juneth it feels like Veterans Day it feels like herit celebrations the 4th of July maybe should be falling under this if the other ones are I don't know why can't they be why can't they be your one line they could they this is how they were in prev I understand that maintain some continuity but as long as everyone's okay with it we can move into yeah let's do it all one which one putting them in Clerk or putting them in administration okay she does I get it the permitting yeah no so so the the listing here of Memorial Day and employee picnic and volunteer dinner what what is that about what do you mean what is that those are covered under in those those those are what we've been covering in the past okay yes and any incidentals we get uh incidental popup celebrations that we must cover as well okay may or you know yeah and the Heritage celebrations we also get contribution from Community Services arts and culture budget right or the they don't have a budget for this not all July 4th no Heritage celebration no that was in her budget yes that's in my budget too because yeah um it depends on you know what are we going to provide uh during that celebration I usually cover the food no I'm just talking about the Heritage celebrations so right in the park in the park and stuff yeah those are different those are different yeah we'll make sure that it's only in one place okay Mr R you can also why don't you include that in what we talked about with Miss manuso wait just about the calendar about making sure we know what everything is so we know how to budget it but I feel like there are some Heritage months that you're talking about that Community Services sponsors with in kind stuff but then there's also Heritage Month stuff that we do he like with the flag raisins when there's food is that what you're talking about you spend money on I think it's separate I think it's for events that we're co-sponsoring prod producing with in kind versus stuff that we're doing that we have amenities as well like the like the lunches or the food that we have after flag raisings or here when we have events or whatnot like we've done stuff where there's that's what I call like the the popup celebrations where we have them on the front of town hall on the Plaza and uh we have to provide everything for that particular day right so so those things have come out of your budget traditionally and not Community Services I think you're no I think like the like the pride stuff and all that's what I was just thinking about that's Community Services when we did like the Haitian flag raising and we did the lunch and after we ain't doing thatg we ain't doing all that food again and better great yeah but that's that's kind of what it is it's there's a difference between when Community Services is doing in or or programming an event or running an event it's different than when the clerk's office is providing I agree that maybe it should be all tightened up but I think they're two different things that you're talking about yeah that's why I want it all one sometimes on demand spreadsheet needs to happen okay go ahead move on anything else that you want to highlight or is it all or any questions for my colleagues for any of the line items that spritzen has no okay uh I do have a question yes back to codification 120- 218 is listed as 21,000 but I thought it's only 10,000 that's that's what this is 21,000 which includes a 10 Mr D and also what we normally spend the year just ination updates got it I I have a question I'm sorry what's the green fair is that the thing that the the Green Team used to put on or yes so that hasn't happened in the past couple years and I don't think there's the the green team is as active so I'm not sure if we need well so there may still be AG green so we're talking about it's possible sustainable Maplewood will become the official Green Team for purposes of sustainable Jersey and for the points we might have to do something like that that's a great idea by the way to have I think to have the but money there in case we do something I have a lot of ideas for that if you'd like to hear them not now not now I'm like in an off conversation and then um uh Mr warry or Miss fritson um 120221 so . is that what that is so Som com is Som TV and that's something I'd like to discuss okay so just please please there's been a a change in Staffing at the well let me back Som TV is one it's shared between Maplewood and South Aron and uh we split the cost of the manager of the station and then the school had partnered with us one on provid in space but also on providing a staff member who helped with the taping helped with the editing helped get it up online last year that staff person changed roles at the school and they're no longer available to help with Som TV so since sometime maybe late summer early fall last year Som TV hasn't put up uh any new content and I spoke with the district they they don't have a uh any intention on replacing that person in the same support role that we had before so if we want Som TV to continue we would have to uh have to appropriate more money to hire to replace that role and it would be rather involved and not just that you know replacing the role but the person who left said you know it it requires more work than even he was able to put in so it's you know a not a small Financial commitment it would be shared between Maplewood and South Orange which is helpful but I think now is a good time to consider um the benefit of s TV uh and and weigh it against what would require an additional appropriation to keep it so who would do that work that we'd have to expend more money for for the work that the guy went to the other place we we would have to contract we'd have to contract yeah so is there I think the discussion here then you want is is it worth doing or not I well I was going to start having losing control the $7,200 would only continue to pay the the manager executive director that we have in place now on top of that we would require additional funding does anybody watch anymore they do I mean they do or they don't I mean what but I'll say two the school school district wants to keep a TV studio they should fund it right correct they may have an interest in keeping a TV Studio they don't have an interest in supporting the cable channel okay got it that's and as far as who watches it you know I think that you know there are some people who enjoy it but I'll say that it there hasn't been new content there since fall and I haven't received a complaint and then at least in South Orange um their Channel had mistakenly been turned off for almost a year and they hadn't received a complaint okay so I plus we also our YouTube channel where we put we could start putting more content we could possibly but we also have you know I think we'd be um wiser to spend less money and start like a Tik Tock Channel and reach more residents or something then fund the TV network if the school district not supporting it anymore right one last question did you uh reach out to South Orange about their willingness to co-fund this I did and I don't want to speak for South Orange but I I don't think that they would was okay let me rephrase the question they don't your impression that they would be um interested my impression is that if May that they're having the same conversation that we're having that that's my understanding is that they're weighing the benefits versus the cost and they would be my understanding again um is that you know there is would be serious consideration on continuing with this yeah I mean my feeling is no also and uh you know I got to interact with the person who runs Som TV uh the past couple of years and it was always frustrating to her that the school district didn't prioritize her segments her studio time um and that someone wasn't available to help her edit content when she did create content so if the school district's not going to be behind this why are we paying for it I think we have I think we have agreement now we have it so that would be zero now uh we may have some lingering cost from this year but it would be substantially 7200 okay anything else wanted to highlight Miss fritson no I'm good no more questions right we were there a minute ago about five minut 10 minutes ago when we got to another thing so we're done with the clerk's office you may go over to that seat now thank you very much Oh no you're right thank you right I have Administration sorry Mr weary [Music] Jones where yours was of course's appreciated oh just noticed that this is even printed out thank you sir he Patrick remember my goal of time nine yeah that'll only be a 15h hour list yourself on the critical Prof okay this year ready when you are Mr here okay 23 accomplishments these are just a real high level one so uh transitioned our healthcare plans from the state health benefits plan to a municipal which is this year uh resulting in over $100,000 of savings just in one year we went from what would have been over a 7% increase if we had stayed in the state health benefits plan to a little over a 4% increase by moving to the hiff and there's an expectation that as healthy municipalities leave state plan it will just become more and more expensive for those who have no other option but to stay in so we're fortunate that we had an opportunity to move out also give credit to our employees because it was really a very very smooth process and this has a big impact on employees you know this is their healthc care and their their the network that they have their doctors with and so we did a good job of matching the healthcare Network and you know providing equal to or better than benefits but you know they did a lot in understanding why we were making this move they also since they pay chapter 78 they have a stake in this as well so they have some incentives move so we're really uh you know that was a big accomplishment this year we implemented the salary study of non-union employees which one ensures equity for the employees that we do have but also it helps us main attain competitiveness as we compete from surrounding municipalities as the clerk indicated earlier we moved to hybrid Township committee meetings U increasing access and participation and lastly we we had a good number of uh of appointments or hires last year that were very critical to the operation of our government so we have a a new Township attorney after our 30-year um attorney uh employee left we hired a new DPW superintendent a new construction official and our new business administrator shebra M CH with us tonight so those were all very crucial hires and will certainly set us up for a successful 2024 our goals for this year uh continue to work work with the township committee and department heads to support their initiatives that's the biggest um the biggest task of administration is really to carry out the work that you give us and to support department heads um in carrying out the work that you give to them as well communication is top of our list uh we have a lot of good things that we're doing here in Maplewood and we have good outflow um though not coordinated and maybe not as kind of concise and as productive as we want it to be so certainly our goal for 2024 one of the things that we've included in this budget to help us achieve that goal is to fund a full-time public information officer for the township and you'll see that as we through um the budget we want to uh increase our one-on-one interaction or personal interaction with our staff Community Partners and public outside of town hall so we had a lot of work um last year and me starting this role new and Miss Jones started starting at the end of the year this year I think it's important that we get out and speak with the Department of Public Works employees speak with the police department employees make sure we're going to events at the libraries and engaging in things that are going on in town because I think that'll help us you know make those relationships hear directly from people about what their concerns are and how we can do better um so that's a goal of the department for next year employee morale and maintaining a high level of morale is an interest of ours cyber security and evaluating our technology needs is something that uh M Jones has an interest in personally and and is looking forward to um taking on this year we're negotiating all of our collective bargaining agreements and I'll just I'll stop with the last thing securing leadership roles with partner organizations to advocate for Maplewood so we were fortunate in that the GIF that we just became a member of was setting up their executive board and I had expressed interest so I am on the executive board for the hif and I am starting uh some participation with our JF as well start with our Safety Committee but I think the more we can get involved um with those organizations the more we can Advocate not just for Maplewood but for the ideals that we set for ourselves you know we can start to see those out and advocate for those IDE as well in the groups that we're a part so those are things we're looking forward to for 202 okay and you want to run through highlights of your line items jit and I can just highlight some of the uh the larger changes so under the salaries line we are we have included in that line the increase of a full-time public information officer the line 100-25 we had gone well over that last year part of the reason was this line paid for the mailer that was sent out early in the year for recycling and I think I think there were some other leaflet stuffed inside there that was about $8,000 that we paid for that and we also had a new phone contract that went into that the Professional Services line 100211 changed it actually went down from last year that line last year had paid for the compensation study which was just over $20,000 I need to look we may have a little bit more room in that line as well to go a little further down we'd also PID for Brown and Brown out of that line for the work that they were doing as we ramped up to go over to the hiff and I think that oh okay some of that will be reflected in our in our insurance lines so I'm gonna we'll take a look and see if I can go down anything okay you'll hear from the Community Coalition on Race Springfield out partnership Village Alliance youth at at another event the the last line in that section 10229 i' asked the the CFO and I spoke about this you know we we have claims or losses where we need a place to charge them for an example we have computers that are stolen we need to buy computers we get reimbursed in the G sometimes it's difficult to track where those expenses are so that we get reimbursement we can apply it correctly we'll have this line kind of as a way to do that the charg will go to this line some place for it to live right great okay we also include it in my department so that's down on one the the 140 lines we there's not much change uh that is here from last year but we are you know we do need to get a more specific budget with our it vendor and that's something that we're working on now and I don't think it'll change the numbers much but I do want to get a better understanding of where we are with it the next lines we're covered under are for legal that's 155 and the changes there the township attorney had been paid with salary and wage because they were an employee now it'll go to another expense line and we increased it sum from what we were paying Mr desario I think the township tremendously from his dedication to map wood and I have some expectation not that our new Township attorney is any less dedicated but I have some expectation that the cost will increase some that Township attorney line things that Mr Des Dario were doing that'll be split across the township attorney line in the defense of no there's here um miscellaneous legal expenses line as so wh while you're talking about that I think we should all remember that every time we contact um our new attorney it's uh an hourly it's based on an hourly basis right so before there's some portions of that yet when they're preparing for attending meetings right all wrapped up in one cl but be on that right so we just got to remember that it's a little different than when we have Mr desiderio that he was is available 247 pretty much um I mean they're still available to us but I think we have to work through you before we correct um contact them for anything and at least in the month now that um Miss cdio has been working with us she's cognizant of that as well and so we're working pretty well together on making sure she's only addressing things that require her exception so do you want to than about that or do you have an an Ask Of Us now should we just go through you directly completely on all legal questions and have you contact her or do you well case sensitive so if you had a conversation with her that required followup I think it's appropriate you know I I should be on anything you're talking to always but but as far as whether you can contact them and keep me up to speed know if it's something you're working on with them that requires specific followup I think that's appropriate okay but at the same time if you have new issues absolutely I want to take the first cracket trying to handle it inh housee okay and so or ordinances is that wrapped up in the meeting cost okay so any ordinance that comes as a result of our discussion or our desire to have an ordinance draft that's right Drafting and reviewing ordinances and resolutions is a FL okay what about attendance at subcommittee meetings because in code committee we have a ton of new ordinances that we're looking at yeah which would be great to have uh feedback while we're having a discussion during code code committee meetings will be outside of the flat fee put first on the agenda M CIA would attend and leave her might it be might be better to like give her the information background anytime there's charges because she's gonna review it right correct no I know but you know how meetings can go a little longer than somebody reviewing actual information yeah that's fa yeah I'm just saying like if she has the backup information first then she can be at the top of of your agenda Mr Deus and then you know beot a little more succinct the next line I'm sorry I just want to stay with um you zeroed out the affordable housing attorney and we need to have something in there we had 3,000 we only use $71 but we do we do contact them to get um when we're doing deals or any kind of um analysis they what's your recommendation I would just put the 3,000 back I had that there was no appropriation in that line last year I'll take a look at that if it was 3,000 we find yeah especially in light of the new bill yeah the new we're gonna want them to give us the analysis of the new bill and um yeah like many units okay right and then the last piece under Administration is insurance so going down to the uh 23 Follow by all zeros and get there wait where's in all right so you skipped over um seed Community Development I had a question about the SE Consultants the foodie Town thing is that still the communications person because wouldn't that lump into the public information officer scope is that what that is it's a lot I'm still I'm still against hiring that I'm not I know I don't go to the scene meetings because I'm not on that committee but I do not support hiring a consultant to pitch that one angle the direction that was given to Administration from this subcommittee was to hire a consultant to do Foody toown marketing and so that would be supported by that line I still believe that that should be part of the public information officer um position and I would we it was i' had raised it and you were going to check who is out there that might be able to work and better understand what kind what services they can provide it may be different than communication it may be sort of a strategic type thing which is different different than communication so we don't know yet because we haven't gotten any of the information so we didn't say to go out and hire anybody we said get the information on who might be hired and it could very well be that when we see what's coming in we say that if we have a Communications person that we can handle it through our Communications person right I still think this should be brought to the communications committee which it has not been brought to because it is a marketing Communications thing to do that kind of I'm not sure if that it's a Communications committee I mean happy to bring it to the communications committee but I'm not sure it's a Communications thing but again happy to bring it there I'll be on the I'm on Communications with you so have discuss it there um but I just think if you're talking about branding the town as a foodie town and you're trying to do Market I mean this is my background right as a marketing professional and it all is combined and if you're going to have a Communications that's how they're going to think about it how are we talking about our town what are the storylines we want to be doing what is so that may be true but it still may be a an expenditure above the public information person right so we can determine who's going to Shepherd this along once we find out what we're even thinking about yeah I mean yeah a pio's responsibility is not branding usually um and I've talked to pios in other towns well I think we need to think about what it is they actually need in Maplewood then as far as a public information officer because we have a very engaged community and we have trouble talking to our community which is more consumer P PR than a public information officer we're not the state right we're looking at we have things come in do we need to do a a press release who's writing the press release who's doing the social media content who's creating the graphic who's writing the copy who's coordinating with community services and health and making sure who's making that page where we have one who's updating our website right it's it's we need a more of a consumer PR person than a than a thought leader I mean we need a thought leader but it's all wrapped in that's what we need that that may be true but what we're looking at is for other towns that have marketed themselves as food towns what have they done and who have they used to do it and that's what that's the information that we're looking yeah yeah Monclair for instance used a consultant to Market themselves as a foodie Town above and beyond and outside of their budget and within the pio's resp responsibility right so that's another example and I think we decided that we wanted to Market ourselves as a foodie town as a loow hanging fruit as a start into other branding and marketing right but again this is not comes to the communications committee and I am a big no on spending $20,000 on hiring a consultant for a marketing Camp I'm out this is not but this is not that so every year we put $25,000 in seed yeah Consultants because this is where we hire uh we H Paul GLE firm planner the movie theater stuff so we just put 20,000 so that's not 20,000 for food that's 20,000 in general right it says AI NR in there comma foodie guess I'm just reacting to the foodie town so I'm just saying for the record for the third time that I disagree with that we put 25,000 in seed just to give us the ability to do studies to do to bring in people to help us think through like our planner and things like that that's what this is just that foodie was one thing that we talked about is getting some information about we're not talking about paying $20,000 to anybody to Market okay thank you for clarifying and I'm on I understand the obviously should we move forward with any Consulting we'll come back before depending on the price come back before the TC for award or or at least come back before subcommittee for review corre still very early on but I I want to make in the budget I want to make clear two things one that line under seed we it had been budgeted last year for $2,000 we spent less than five so I put Foody toown in that line so there was an understanding that there may be an additional need this year beyond what we SP additional expenses right yeah look for places keep that in mind when you going down to the general insurance lines so the there's some change here in The The J lines which are under liability insurance workers comp lines we obviously had some relief in that the fire department is now no longer in these lines especially for workers comp where there maybe a high rate of claims with that line of work unfortunately at the same time the gif's overall increase this year was 12% and so where we you know would have liked to otherwise see some Savings in that line they were all but erased um from um from that increase and in addition we'll see an increase in the fire line because the fire department other expense is now paying part of this uh insurance that scft pays for and it's no longer captured in this line so there there's kind of a lot moving here at least to keep um keep in your mind and employee Group Health you see there towards the bottom and what we had a better more favorable increase going to the hip still over 4% of an increase so that's what's striving questions no not for me that would be the same thing with Group insurance premiums and all that we've taken out the firefighters right but we haven't seen anything really going down no and workers as from a fire department workers comps where going to see a lot of claims you know that LE so they may be less uh that might be less true for the liability reduction with scft going off in other lines like um like the uh what it yeah like the liability okay what's the c c efd quarterly assessment at 7 million3 what line are you on uh 265 d224 oh to pay their bill yeah that's the annual Bill though that's not a quarterly Bill well we pay them quarterly B right yeah is a quarterly assessment yeah the number reflected there is the annual that's why I asked I was like that can't includes the our estimate of EMS correct yes okay any other questions Miss Jones did you have anything you want to add um in terms of the cyber security I just want to share that um as Mr weary mentioned um we are in the process of preparing the cyber security training for our staff so that information will be shared with all staff so that they can um complete the training um to better protectors moving forward so and we should attend those things too right absolutely y so I can learn how to use Barracuda yes oh I know right is or just deliver all let me delete you need a car J foldo go there from then all right I think we're done with Administration right we are seems to be do we have any public comment there's no one online Mr warry still there's no public online man' so that means you can't have YouTube people raise their hands so I move we adjourn I was just right I can't finish my sentence all right yes this yes M angle yes mayor Adams yes thank you all good night good night right