good evening uh this is a meeting of the township committee April 22nd 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly given by transmission to the Asbury Park Press and the two of her times and by posting at the Middletown Township Municipal Building and filing with the Township Clerk all on January 11th 2024 committee man Clark here committee woman Katz committee man s brino here Deputy Mayor hiel here mayor Perry here at this time I'd like to invite the um Elks youth activity group to please come forward to the middle of the room and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance uh AJ mik Sean pin Fort hooker Ava G and Ella Fitzgerald r right let's give a big round of applause uh real real quick before before uh before these uh young men and women sit down uh I just want to thank uh the Middletown Elks um for everything that they do you know um honestly the small things that that happen in town that you don't really you don't hear about and the the the greatness that the middle Town Elks uh do on a consistent basis is one of those things that they Pride themselves on not taking a Victory lap not doing those things but the money that they rais for for uh their child ambassadors right Mike dicki is here um has led that many times um what they do for for kids that are just in need of of Walkers uh we we were at the the Elks what was that last year guys um and a woman mother posted on Facebook saying that her daughter um didn't have the ability to was not adapting well wasn't walking and through Facebook the elves not only got all the money together bought the Walker but was able to provide it just this past March when they had their U their Gala over at the grammar seat um not only walking but running around and that was uh that is a direct result of the those small acts of kindness that the Middletown El 2179 does each and every day very grateful not only to uh be a member of the El Lodge but to have you as a part of so I want to thank all of you and I want to thank all of our Elks here in the audience okay sure at this time I'd like to ask for a moment of silence to honor the troops serving worldwide defending our constitutions freedoms and way of life thank you before before we move on with our next presentation I I just want to ask everyone if they could please just stand for a moment of silence last week um Middletown lost a a a a big personality and and a great man in our prosecutor John Lane who uh died tragically um after battling for a few weeks um and he lost that battle last Friday and it was um very sad uh to find out because John was was a great man and um and and had a huge heart um and uh so we extend our heart heartfelt sorrow to his his wife his children Mary Fran I mean everybody in our hearts John was was uh an unbelievable human and I'm I'm glad to have known him so if you all just join me briefly in a moment of silence thank you for our next presentation we have a presentation recognizing Middletown South B8 G9 and B10 travel basketball teams for winning winter 2024 mid mommoth championships I'd like to invite the B8 G9 and B10 players and their coaches to please join mayor Perry at the front of the room all right here right all right are we able to squeeze down a little bit are you all right and let's uh make this work let them KNE down yeah yeah okay been here all right KNE down guys come on right here happy let us go um well first of all let's give it up for some Champions this morning I was uh getting my kids ready and uh I'm I'm Alana's taken all three kids and I was acting like you know I had you know I actually had a meeting to go to so Alana is loading all three of kids into my and know all the kids are walking to Village school and they're like yep you're going to see the mayor later tonight you know you're you're going to do this and I'm thinking to myself wait I got I got to get no like what's going on here and uh and then I look down and I see all these Champions names on on certificates that that I was able to sign today for all of you um and you know what looking looking around you know you guys have been here before because this is back to back right um but I I I really believe and it it's been amazing since uh it feels like since we moved into this building we have had champion after champion after Champion come into this building and get recognized right here and to see all of you to see to see you guys back right and to see the champions in each of you in the girls team and the boys team um it it speaks to the heart and the character of each and every one of you but I also want you to do one thing for me I now take my daughter to swim practice dance if you can call it dancing practice but look at your parents out there and say thank you yeah Dad's back there like yeah I'm over here to all of your coaches big so why don't you give a big round of applause for your parent and your coaches so ladies first here third and fourth grade girls team coach Carly um so we we got coach Carly coach Greg up here um let's talk about this a 13 in one season right what's that yeah well next year what what's going to happen 14 and0 right all right our third uh third grade BA boys team uh coach Mark uh coach Sean coach Nick coach Brian 14 and0 right and then our fifth grade uh what's it B10 B10 right back to back co uh head coach John coach Mike Coach Jeff 14 in one how we feeling what's going to happen next year all right like inspir me to say like but backto back champions right let's give it up for our now I I I like I mentioned we've had a lot a lot of sports teams that have that have come through here and I talked about your parents I talked about your coaches but I I just real quick about all of you um you're you're you're all part of a team you've realized that no one person is going to win or lose right no one person is going to carry a team um and if you can if you commit yourselves to the strength and the character and the sportsmanship but of that Championship caliber all of you are going to be back in in this town hall next year again but that's what we got to strive for um you guys have have shown that but but for our younger teams we got to keep it going you've made Middletown proud you'll continue to make Middletown proud I'm proud of you the township committee's proud of you and we're so grateful that you're representing Middletown everywhere that you go as Champions so congratulations yeah gave me this haircut I promised them back in December that if they won the championship they could shave my head and they uh they got well I'll tell you unlicensed Barbers they have so here could be more proud all right awesome uh coach Mark of course thank you one for having us the committee mayor thank you again to the parents and uh really proud of all these boys for the for the work they put in all year so congrats guys your hair looks good um and Coach John I don't know if you want to say anything I just say one thing um in our post game after we won I said one of the reasons why we won and beat some of the other towns was because our kids were all friends there's no egos the parents don't have egos there's none of that in our team and you know you hear what's going on in other town and it doesn't happen here so I think that's one of the reasons why we're so successful excellent all right one more time let's give it real quick we'll we'll do ladies first and we'll take a picture we'll do each of you so uh gentlemen if you want to scoop that way real quick we'll do ladies first take a quick picture and we'll switch thank you I'll take a picture congratulations however you want winners two everybody good it all right boys wow look at that remember somebody else come behind CH you want say one two three nice any pars want yeah got e e we're going to do a two-minute recess to allow the families to leave if you want before we continue with the agenda e e e I'll continue on tonight's agenda with the proclamations for the record we have recognizing April 2024 as Donate Life month in the township of Middletown we have a proclamation recognizing April 2024 as National volunteer month in the township of Middletown we have a proclamation recognizing April 2024 as Child Abuse Prevention month in the township of Middletown we also have a proclamation recognizing April 2024 as a Autism Awareness Month in the township of Middletown we have a proclamation recognizing April 22nd 2024 as Earth Day in the township of Middletown and a proclamation recognizing April 28th through May 4th 2024 as National Small Business Week in the township of Middletown at this time we have the approval of minutes for a uh for approval we have March 18th 2024 regular meeting and March 8th 2024 Workshop meeting motion to approve second sorry I guess I'll just keep going roll roll call vote yeah okay um committee man Clark yes uh committee man s brino yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to approve minutes at this time we have a u budget resolution 24141 a resolution to read the budget by title motion second committee Clark yes committee sedo yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt resolution 24141 at this time we have our budget presentation uh given by Colleen lap our CFO right Colleen how you doing today John you're getting right all right I want to welcome everyone to the 2024 Township of Middle Town budget introduction um I will go through a few slides just to highlight um some of the budget on the first slide is one that I typically do it's just the major cost centers in our budget and how they break down I do this so that everybody you know has idea of where all the municipal dollars uh go obviously the largest portions of the budget you can see are salary and wages insurances and then our regular day-to-day operating expenditures that's you know probably 60% of our budget then the rest of it works its way in um the next slide is our 2024 breakdown of the tax levies this is estimated based on um prior years this really doesn't change too much what this is telling us is that for every dollar of taxes collected here um this is the breakdown of where they go 62 cents goes to the board of ed 23 cents stays here 10 cents goes to the county and and a couple of other things library in the open space taxes uh but that's how our the dollars get spent that get collected here on the next slide is changes from 23 to to 24 in property tax so our Municipal Levy has increased by a little over 2.4 million however our proposed tax rate is going from 0 403 to 382 that has to do with our increasing um assessed values the average residential assessment has increased from 5927 to 653 929 in 2024 uh I went back to look at that because our our assessments increase pretty significantly each year so as a reference I went back to 2019 and our average residential assessment then was $444,000 in change in the five years since 2019 till now the average assessed value of a home has in increased 45 47% in these past five years so if you were able to invest in real estate you have a pretty good return on your investment um the other thing I wanted to just touch on a little bit was inflation at Across the Nation in our town everybody has experienced inflation in the past few years on the average our national inflation rate from 2020 to 2024 totals 20.4% it's a little over 20% inflation increases in the past few years for us here in Middletown we know that these years have been hard on everybody and we've tried very uh all the time we look at our costs we look at our funding and we try and keep the levy increases to a minimum so in the same four years where inflation has increased by 20.4% our levies have increase a total of 12.81% and that's nearly 8% less than the national average and the reason I point that out is because it's not always easy and we've we really experienced that in this year's budget um our costs have increased on our day-to-day items on other resources including labor specialized items anything that we need to buy that are specific for law enforcement firefighting DPW a lot of that kind of equipment has increased exponentially 100% increases on some some items so we try to look at every way that we can to save money but yet still provide everything that we need to give the services that everybody here in this great town have come to expect from us so this budget that we're presenting tonight and that we're hoping to introduce and get approved um you know we we've really put a lot of effort in and and we've tried our best to keep things as economically um less impactful I don't know how else to say we we're trying to really keep in mind that everybody's experiencing increases everywhere and we try and keep our increases as low as we possibly can as yes as we can responsibly them so some of the cost drivers that's what I wanted to go through this year they change from year to year some some are consistent I don't have them on here because some of them it's year-over-year but some of the newer ones or the the ones that were unique to this year I wanted to point out so in our planning department we had to add $200,000 to this line for what's called Builders remedy lawsuits which has to do with affordable housing um that's something that you know it's just as some properties come open we have to be aware we have to listen to the residents and then take our cue from there as to how to handle that but some of those things can be costly there can be larger cost down the road if you don't you know do the things up front so sometimes you have to make that initial investment to make sure that we're doing the right things for everybody so Colleen just a a quick question sure so the $200,000 is for us to prevent the the high density housing that we've been discussing for you know many many many many months years now this is to so that we have an an appropriation that allows us to continue to fight uh against that high density housing exactly okay thank you you're welcome next is health insurance I don't think anybody will be surprised to find out that we have a large increase in our health insurance this year that seems to be another Trend that's Nationwide um Although our increase is large uh one of the things that we look at is we look at we go out the market and we make sure that we're getting the best uh prices that we can insurance is one of those things it's a very large cost in our budget and so therefore we look at that and although it's a big increase it's not as big as it could be if we were out in the market you know paying fully insured premiums Coleen sorry no you're fine comparatively to the state health benefits plan obviously the township has been self-insured for some time now to try and mitigate the rising costes of cost of the state health benefits plan as it relates to the state health benefits plan how does this compare in terms of increases year-over-year Are we more are we less than what the state health benefits plan offers we we are less and I will tell you the state health benefits they strike their rates sometime in July of each year it's after the state budgets done but ahead of the state budget um being done there's already notices that have gone out that they are bracing for a significant I'm hearing around 20% increase on their rates this year and that's after um they had recently a 24% increase in their rates okay all right thank you uh fire hydrants I I had to put this in we had to increase this line $100,000 this year um we pay over a million dollars a year for fire hydrants those rates are set by BPU and the rates were increased again so therefore that's why we had to increase this line by $100,000 storm water management we have new requirements in storm water management that are Statewide and we had to add a new line to this budget of $225,000 and that's just to begin um some of the permitting and things that are going to be needed for the overall storm water management requirements that have recently been um presented by the state so Cen sorry so $225,000 this is a question I guess for Tony for Ted this is a new budget line I'm not going to go on you've all heard me talk about unfunded mandates from the state of New Jersey is this even close to what what do we expect this budget line to be next year I don't have the exact amount but it's going to be significantly higher next year this is a an escalating uh regul regulatory uh requirement from the state so we've looked into it over the next few years it's going to keep going higher unfortunately and this this is the new D provision that requires us to permit the locations like canes Lane um the the airport and um the fire academy compost site so that we can test the the storm water runoff that occurs on the leaves and branches that we pick up from the residential households that's right and and we have to test those the run off pretty much every significant rain which is by definition almost every rain rain event we have so every time it rains we have to test the water that that accumulates in and near leaves for for what purpose to well the the intent seems to be to make sure the the quality of the water isn't detrimental to the environment but you know it's we have to send somebody there literally every time it rains collect the sample drive it to a lab pay the lab to have it tested look at the results results are going to be pretty much the same every time and and usually aren't detrimental but again that's a requirement they're making us uh adhere to and let me ask this final question on this um ridiculous mandate um I'm going to assume that this $225,000 is in part for permitting through the Department of Environmental Protection that's correct okay so so this is so this is just a line item to pay the state of New Jersey so that we have to test storm water after a rainstorm there there are a lot of significant uh changes some of which are particularly hard on larger municipalities one of the changes uh coming in one of the next next year or two is a mandate to um Street sweep every single Street in the town three times a year um which in Middletown is Like A Thousand Miles Lane miles of road which you know is almost impossible to really do without buying a lot of street sweepers or Contracting it out um well you have to hire you we have to hire more people that are going to be fully dedicated we we'd have to hire people or or or contract out but it'll cost us a fortune either way from what I understand though that rule also applies to after what is it 48 hours after a snowstorm too right yes that so 48 hours after a snowstorm we have to Street sweep so that the salt does not go into the storm water management even though there still could be snow in things piled up on the sides of the of the roadways that have yet to melt almost certainly there will be okay one of the things that was difficult about this this one of the reasons that such a difficult one for towns to comply with is that they staggered the implementation of various stages over the years so you know that the the cost is going to increase every single year for probably the next four four or five years well and and it's also been delayed several times has it not there were some things that were supposed to have gone into effect already that they put off and we can hope that they put it off again but it really is only putting off the inevitable but the municipality still has to dedicate hard dollars in order to do that yeah and the state really legally should be providing us with the um funds to do these State mandate programs but they never do not colen knew that she was putting a increase in my blood pressure into a PowerPoint presentation go ahead colen I'd like to point out one more thing on that that hasn't been mentioned and actually Tony you're better at this than I am Tony merant tante um there's also a portion of this where there's a tree portion and we're going to have to have some kind of expert on that as well yeah one of the things that the New Jersey has now required yeah an arborist no no it's different than an arborist right oh it's actually some explain to me what the difference is well there isn't a difference really but New Jersey has its own created its own title Co called certified tree expert oh a CTE um and it already has an acronym it already has an acronym and um okay beautiful yeah I'm waiting to see what people do with CTE by the way time me too but uh one of the requirements is that is that at some point everyone is going to need a permit to take down a tree on their property over a certain size now the size there's a little bit of wiggle room in what size tree we start to regulate but I I just think it's absurd to to for the government to be getting it to people's backyards and telling them what they can do with the trees and and then if you do uh have to take down a tree you have to mitigate it by planting another tree or paying into a fund that's supposed to go towards planting trees and other places and again it's key there things sounds like a really cute idea but until a town the size of Middletown tries to implement that I mean who could possibly keep up with every tree that gets removed that we have what four or five tree services around here they must remove several hundred trees a year for each of them so well if they know about this they're about to get a lot busier they are going to get a lot busier and and and so it's it's it's again it's a real problem you know we we have to put these ordinances into place and people are going to get mad at us for implementing these rules but they state required rules and um it's just unrealistic and the the potential expense I mean if someone needs to take down a tree in the yard and you're certified tree expert happens to be on vacation for two weeks what do you do uh so p in another CTE the reality is you need more than one that's exactly the point you can't just hire one you need more than one to to Really implement this so you becoming a CT okay I'm thinking about it all right all right go ahead Colleen um Al righty um and then the last on here again no surprise everybody's experiencing this but it's fuel um and fuel what's what's weird about fuel this year is that um we're increasing in cost as we're going into the budget we're in the past we've kind of seen it decrease a little bit so we had to increase that line as well just to make sure that hopefully we're good for the rest of the year I yeah I saw the estimates today said that they expect a 30 C increase over the course of May on gasoline so I I I know okay um okay all right and then my final slide it's always my favorite slide is our energy receipts tax um once again the state took over in 2001 collecting this tax that we used to collect locally it was merely supposed to be a pass through they were going to collect it and turn it over to us but lo and behold somewhere around 2004 2005 as our collection should have increased statutorily um they stayed steady and then they took a drop in 2010 and currently if we had gotten what we statutorily should have gotten this year it would have been another approximately um 6 .2 million which would have negated our increase altogether and actually made a decrease in our tax levy over all the years where we should have collected a certain amount and we're only paid the amount the state gave to us um we are short $82 million almost $83 million and that's much larger than our entire tax levy now Colleen I remember I don't know if it was last year's budget or the the state budget or the Budget prior to that there was a big announcement that we were supposed to be receiving an increase um I think what was it they they were claiming that up to half of what we were supposed to be receiving on top of what we currently receive so call it you know $9 million rather than the Six Million how much uh money did we actually receive from the state of New Jersey in terms of an increase because on here your your budget line for s steady around $6 million so I'm just curious what was the increase 2022 to 20 on my line it's so hard to see the increase but there was an increase from 22 to 23 of what $42,000 so the three million that we were supposed to get instead turned to 42,000 right somebody just checked my math on that all right that's left right that is okay okay slide doesn't have an alternate name to it all right uh any questions for Colleen from the township committee okay um I do just want to say um thank you to Colleen um uh we spent a lot of time together um but I want to thank Colleen I want to thank Tony um I want to thank the department heads um for working hard and and collaborating together to to put together a budget that was responsible and uh greatly appreciative of that um there's a lot of cost drivers that are out of our control but we do everything we can to mitigate that so okay um all right Heidi motion second yes Comm sen brino yes Deputy Mayor hial yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to uh introduce the 2024 Municipal operating budget resolution 24-42 with a public hearing tentatively scheduled for May 6 2024 Colleen is that right May 6th or do have to be the 20th the 6th the 6th no the 20th the 20th okay that's it I just want to make make sure okay um so the public hearing will be held tentatively for May 20th 2024 than you okay all right all right we have public hearings on proposed ordinances our first ordinance we have 20124 d3410 an ordinance establishing additional authorized street names any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2024 3410 okay seen I looked at Kevin SE no other member of the public Mo stepping forward move to close the public portion and approve second committee man Clark yes committee man srino yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt this ordinance on second reading and um and uh next ordinance we have is 202 24- 3411 and ordinance amending uh permitting and like recing standards for itinerant retail food handling establishments any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2024 3411 seeing no member of the public stepping forward move to close the public portion and approve second committment Clark yes committment s brino yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries pass this ordinance on second and final reading at this time we have introduction of proposed ordinances 2024 3412 an ordinance delegating authority to the township of Middletown sewage Authority relating to the inspection and enforcement of regulations governing grease traps and interceptors motion to introduce second minman Clark yes minman srino yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held May 6 2024 at this time we have introduction of proposed ordinance 2024-25 3 an ordinance amending chapter 24020 of the code of the township of Middletown reducing New Jersey Transit commuter parking lot fees to mitigate extraordinary New Jersey Transit Fair increases motion to introduce second mman Clark yesman s bro yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion car has pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held May 6 2024 at this time I'd like to ask the township committee to adopt a consent agenda which would include resolutions 24143 through 24153 and a firefighter application and removing resolution 24-44 and 24-1 145 for a separate vote motion to approve the consent agenda second minan Clark yes Comm sen brino yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion motion carries to adopt consent agenda at this time we have resolution 24-44 a resolution authorizing firework display for Beacon Hill Country Club on July 3rd 2024 motion to introduce uh motion to approve sorry second commit Clark yes commit srino yes Deputy Mayor hell recuse mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt resolution 24-44 with recusal noted this time we have resolution 24145 a resolution authorizing fireworks display for Riverview Foundation fundraiser on July 3rd 2024 to approve second okay committe man Clark Yes committe Man sen bro yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry recuse okay motion carries to adopt resolution 2020 24-1 145 with recusal noted at this time we have the township committee acting as the ABC issuing authority we have resolution ution 24154 a resolution authorizing personto person transfer of liquor license from sna Route 35 Inc to Middletown beverage LLC motion to approve second committee M Clark Yes committe Man SBO yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt resolution 24- 154 at this time we have Township committee comments all right committee mclark uh fa like to congratulate all three teams that were in here uh there's having been in this room for a handful of meetings now uh through my first term and into this one anytime we have uh kids in here especially that many the energy in here is totally different it's uh it's really it's exciting and it's it's cool to see so congratulations to all of them um to our CFO and our business administrator and everybody else who contributed to our budget um I know how difficult it is and you guys did an amazing job getting us getting us somewhere where we can talk responsibly to the public about how we're spending our money and be able to defend it really really easily so I really do appreciate that very much that's all I got all right thank you Comm sen bino thank you mayor just couple of items I want to congratulate the travel basketball teams all three and uh the the job that the coaches did is amazing and I have uh two 12 going on 27 seven-year-old kids and they don't get along for nothing and I can't get get move in the same direction for anything so if we these coaches and the parents to uh get these eight and nine and 10 year old kids to uh focus on something both mentally and physically is is fantastic and it's great for the town as well so congratulations to them and Colleen to your team and uh to uh Tony thank you very much for the bud budget presentation it puts Middletown again uh first and foremost in the county um as a leader thank you so much that's all I have for to mayor thank you all right thank you Deputy Mayor I got to thank the kids in the crowd here and everyone else that was the by far the best Pledge of Allegiance I have uh ever seen here so uh pretty excited about that congratulations to the team you know Middletown does have the best sports teams out there time and time again they always uh seem to pull it off as a big win here but um Colleen uh always thank you wonderful job all our department heads uh the mayor uh for uh being in uh for 22 meetings trying to save some foney for everyone and um thank you Tony I know you worked a lot too on this that's all I have mayor okay um just wanted to note a couple things again my thanks to everybody that was a part of that um uh I want to thank uh all the teams uh that were here today it's always just brings a great energy to to the room and to celebrate those kids successes um I want to thank the township committee um I want to thank Brian I want to thank Tony um Heidi Colleen for introducing the ordinance today with regard to NJ Transit um I think putting money back in into our commuter's pockets is a good thing especially when you see this 15% increase in uh fees that are occurring uh at NJ Transit plus 3% every year after that um which I I don't think most people know so getting it on the agenda uh and getting it done again my heart goes out to John Lane and his family to Mary Fran um uh I I I just saw John um just a few weeks earlier and he was on the mend and you could you could feel it that he was getting better um but a gentleman that was lost too early in life um most certainly so uh again my heart goes out to to him and his family so um okay with that being said um um uh one more thing I want to thank our fire department that's here today we had a little bit of an incident that occurred out there on fallinks road but thanks to your Swift efforts got it cleaned up and fixed up very quickly which could have been a very difficult situation because you acted so quickly a truck that had spilled some diesel fuel onto fallinks road on the bridge um did not end up flowing into the the water reservoir where all of our drinking water comes from from um so thanks to your Swift action it proves once again how grateful we are to have a great fire department so thank you guys uh all right with that being said I'll open up for public comment any member of the public wishing to make a public comment may do so we just ask that you state your name and your address for the record we ask that you keep your comments to five minutes at four minutes I'll let you know that you have one minute remaining with that being said any member of the public wishing to make a public com Bruce come on down name's Bruce Stafford 39 brain art for Mammoth uh first question I have that $225,000 that was budgeted for storm water management does that have anything to do with curb boxes does it have anything to do with whoers curb boxes Ted Ted not that the it it has no this is a permitting for for Kane's Lane uh the old airport where we store the leaves and we we cut and churn the leaves right okay and then uh the fire academy where we temporarily store leaves in in transport right so this is a like I mentioned an unfunded mandate that is occurring so that we can test the storm water runoff of where we store these leaves because I guess the notion is that the water that runs off them they have certain contaminants in them for whatever reason and now we are obligated with that cost and like I mentioned that that's why I asked the question 225,000 is a lot of money today it makes me nervous for what's going to happen next year makes me nervous what's going to happen the year after that because I am beyond tired of these ridiculous unfunded mandates that we're constantly jammed with because it takes away from doing other other important projects throughout the town so this the 225,000 doesn't even scratch the surface when it comes to the the engineering the permitting that is going to have to take place uh in town to handle this new unfunded mandate now was any money Ted do you know budgeted for the curve boxes so that that won't go in our operating budget that that will go in a a capital budget plan this has nothing to do with capital this has nothing to do with streets this this is purely an operational budget for that specific location that 225,000 this 225,000 is for that that's not a capital expense right um it's not a capital eligible expense so when when you're talking about infrastructure changes and things like that that all goes in a capital budget which now Colleen has to shift her attention from now that this is introduced to a capital budget I'll see you there um so uh that that would happen at that meeting Bruce so that's not we have to do our operating budget first okay so we didn't get that far yet no sir okay all right uh Ted any update with pumping services for that valve yeah they they sent us a proposal but they wanted to add some more changes to it they saw some wiring that had to be redone in the gate um in the in the controls so they're going to send us a newer um proposal and get that done in the meantime we're still opening it you know manually as needed or closing it did he say how long about no I didn't I didn't I got to check with Bobby Kimble this week actually I didn't talk to him today yet but I'll find out tomorrow give me a or I'll give you a call when I find out okay all right um just to mention something quick about the gas increase part of that reason is because they tell us that we're going from Winter grade now to Summer grade so there's an increase in price because you're going to get they're going to tell they're going to tell us that at the end of May too yeah oh yeah well we're switching yeah we're switching work cars yeah my my my car does not care if it's winter grade or no summer but that's what they're saying anyway yeah okay uh something else real quick I'm sure you're all aware of our sewer bills how they've increased okay I mean I've been here for over 35 years and it went from 70 to $80 okay over pretty good stretch period of time this last one went from 880 to $106 so you're talking about a two $104 increase for the year that's a lot when you're talking about you know it went from 80 to 106 per quarter you know we're all in the same boat I know but that's a pretty huge increase like I said I've been here for over 35 years and it went from 70 let's say over a 10-year period to 80 and it went from 80 to six that's a pretty big increase for every resident I might add uh four-way stop sign Wilson and Maine for starters what was the reason for it um well group of residents had actually come to our Township committee meeting and they had com concerns and chief is here concerns about speeding on that roadway so uh study was done by our traffic department um we evaluated several different uh options that we had uh the four-way stop was uh agreed that could benefit the traffic pattern there obviously that's a unique intersection it's not really a four-way stop it's kind of a jumble of where Wilson and Maine all come together right um with a with um with Port moham Fire Company right there um as well um so it's uh it was a mechanism that was put into place to try and slow down the traffic that was going there and in fact I have the traffic study that we did after um those four-way stop signs the the the new traffic pattern went in which we evaluated over the course of a 4-day period um morning noon and night in which 12,39 cars were counted and 92.4 7% of them were going the speed limit or below um which is a pretty good margin I would say so um it seems like the new traffic pattern there is working to try and mitigate that that speeding that was of concern to some of the residents there that's what I kind of thought because a handful of meetings back there was people in here that were complaining about the people at speed on Maine mhm but let it be known they go faster on rainard than they do on Maine and it's 25 miles hour on my street but outside of that uh I think there's going to be more accidents at that four-way stop now than ever I was out there the other day and I checked each and every corner there's no trace of glass out there from accidents for starters but there's going to be there's skid marks out there like crazy now all over the place because people are not sure whether or not they should stop whether they should go I took a couple pictures out there the other day and while I was out there for the signs are pretty Universal standard stop means stop oh yeah but I got stop signs near me and you and I have discussed this before about putting the red lights around the stop signs with the solar panel on it okay and I think when I finish here I'll explain something to you about the one stop sign that's at the four-way stop it doesn't matter the end result is it really doesn't matter to me but I see accidents are going to happen there okay because currently there's more accidents on brain art than there is at that four-way stop as of now okay but one of my concerns at the four-way stop is they installed one of the stop signs just temporary because it's in the street though yes because we're building that where those two come together a new curbing system is going to be going in so that's just temporary stop sign for the time being CU one of my main concerns is seriously on the Main Street to Wilson where you make your right hand turn MH that's where the stop sign has actually been installed in the street MH there's nothing that's reflective at all on the back side of the sign so when you're coming up Maine to make a left onto Wilson mhm you don't even see the sign at night because it's nothing but the aluminum that's back there you know what I mean there's nothing reflective on it somebody's either going to make a right-hand turn from Maine onto Wilson and take to sign out or somebody's going to be coming up Maine to make a left on to Wilson they're going to take that sign down you can't see it there's reflective on the front side of it you know plus you got the red sign but on the back I took some pictures if you want to see them after the meeting true you can't there's no way you can see that sign coming from the back side of the sign I'll take a look okay all right uh I think that's all I have all right thank you Bruce thank you for your time any other member of the public wish to make a public comment hello how are you good thank you my name is Michelle Car Palace I live at 57 Fairview um I don't know if I'm at at order or not um I'm new to the neighborhood and recently we just saw some um some action happening at Crestview Pharmacy on Crestview and 35 so do you you know can you tell what tell us what's going to go there what's going to be there utility or inside the building inside there's there's work going on which I've been here maybe eight months and I haven't I'm not aware any we can check tomorrow okay I just wanted I'm not aware of any bcos that have been applied for I don't know if they're just doing work um inside the building I know that um the owner of the building did say that they wanted to do some interior um Renovations but I'm not aware of any bcos that were uh uh applied for okay it's just been vacon just to see some action which is nice if sure yeah and another question on 35 but it's a coffee shop me I would love for it to be a drive their coffee shop because the Dunkin Donuts on 35 North yes they have cones there yeah like I said I'm new to Jersey and since I've been here things usually happen quickly but for some reason those cones are blocking off the Dunkin Donuts that you cannot get in yes you can't make a left our Police Department sto that work from occur ing um they it was an incredibly dangerous situation um you can't just start hacking away at concrete on the side of Route 35 when people are going 50 miles an hour it's really bad mix um so we immediately sto that work so that's why it has sat there um because you have to have lane closures and things of that nature it's it's a it was an incredibly dangerous situation that they just decided let's start hacking away at an asphalt and that just that doesn't Jud jive with our Police Department so um so that has what uh that's why that has stopped and I would assume because it's a state highway that they would have to get some type of uh Street you know lane closures at least at minimum from the New Jersey Department of Transportation okay okay so at this point in time it's only southbound coffee from there correct or Starbucks yeah not that we have a shortage of Dunkin Donuts no no any other member of the public wishing to make a public comment all right seeing no other member of the public stepping forward move the close the public portion and adjourn second Clark yesman s bro yes Deputy Mayor hell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adjourn have a great night everybody thank you all so much